British Airways - Eliminating Recline!

British Airways is eliminating recline on seats behind row 12 in their A320 aircraft and being row 14 on their A321 aircraft, with 29 inches of pitch. (On the A321 there are at least 120 seats behind row 14.)

Additionally, there will be no trash storage at the rear of the plane, only at the front, and potable water will only be available in the front of the aircraft, as the galleys are getting smaller.

It seems as if BA is following Iberia (also apart of IAG) in their practices of degrading the customer experience.

What do you think about these new changes? I think that this will further damage the legacy that BA had, as BA’s service has deteriorated in recent years. (ex. eliminating the second meal on shorter TATL flights.)

4 Likes

I think being honest BA are going downhill. They are the UK’s flag carrier yet on short haul are becoming more like a low cost airline. They are clearly doing this all for cost cutting which is never a good sign either.

They are getting too much negative press recently which is damaging their reputation. I hope they can pull out of these recent times as they reflect badly on the UK and aviation being our flag carrier.

11 Likes

I think BA has lost its flare! It’s no longer a status like thing of “I’m flying BA” like it used to be way back. It’s a shame, they are following all the budget airlines in cramming people in and cutting service to a bare minimum. Shame 😐 They are no longer luxurious to fly.

4 Likes

the trouble being they have to compete with the LoCos for passengers to a lot of destinations. The general public as a whole are looking for cheapest prices rather than service and so the business have to meet their customers expentations and cut costs where they can in order to do so.

BA should stop becoming the new ryanair and remember their roots!

They are a flag carrier and should stay that way. People will soon start realising that despite BA being more expensive (therefore you should expect a higher quality of service) than low cost alternatives; the service is only slightly better resulting them to look elsewhere for true low cost alternatives.

3 Likes

@MishaCamp And you asked why I didn’t wanna fly BA earlier

3 Likes

This sounds like they are turning into Spirit Airlines.

2 Likes

I totally agree! They still charge high prices and for what
A huge reduction in quality!

1 Like

BA is shocking, they have strikes, negative press and they are actually more so like a 3 star airline according to reports. The CEO of the airline Alex Cruz and Willie Walsh of IAG are not fit to run an airline or a group of them and BA will continue going downhill unless they change their management style and business model. They offer nothing better than Ryanair and EasyJet on Short haul now they don’t offer free food and now that they offer less room than Ryanair. Long haul they had to bring back the second meal due to them only offfering a breakfast bar which was appealing, but still their service isn’t very good and there is much to be massively improved on. During strikes people actually loved flying with BA, why? Because they got to experience Qatar airways who. Have a much better product with an attained 5 star experience onboard. I will always strive to avoid BA because it’s usually cheaper to do so and you will be much better off.

2 Likes

Ah, all of this militant rhetoric against BA but no one is willing to pay more to fly BA. As yield decline continues in Europe, most “flag carriers” will keep slashing service until they’re cost-competitive with their low-cost peers. Just because the name of the country is on the plane doesn’t mean the company doesn’t have to make money.

2 Likes

Not a great move at all

I’ll fly it if it’s the cheapest flight. It’s how the economy works unfortunately, if outselling your opponent means making uncomfortable seats then that’s what they’ll do to to make more money. Plus, on long flights that’s what premium economy is for, a bit more money for just above average seats.

I have noticed service with BA short haul flights change massively in recent times. Due to the A320 family being the workhorse of their short haul flights, they are are modifying them to maximise profitability and efficiency on each short haul flight. Essentially, they are adopting tactics of low cost airlines. Ryanair do not have reclining seats, this is in oder to save time preparing the aircraft the gate, this reducing cost of labour and increasing airtime of an aircraft. adopting these tactics is essential for airlines like BA, or Air France, Delta or United running short haul flights in order to have a chance of competing against the low-cost carriers like easyJet, Ryanair, WIZZ and JetBlue.

This is a good thing imo. You can actually go do one if you think you’re going to need to recline into my personal space for a 2h flight? Half the time people are trying to do work, eat or watch something on a laptop and it is enormously annoying.

6 Likes

Don’t feel to bad. Welcome to the quality of service you’d find in American carriers. You brits are lucky you had such a good Airline for so long. All good things come to an end. Fact of life.

2 Likes

Wow, that is pretty sad. They are basically making it more worse for passengers.

At the end of the day, a business is a business. They have to make money to function, and sadly, much is the way with any airline or business, customer satisfaction is not their biggest priority. Better to have low costs and 6 annoyed passengers than higher costs and a smiley plane. That’s just the stone cold realist way of putting it

However, BAVA still strives onwards as a top VA, so it’s not too much of a worry that the spirit will die

5 Likes

U.S. Legacies have 31 inches + if I’m not mistaken (except for AA on their new 737MAX). And they have trash cans in the back 😏.

1 Like

British Airways is slowly becoming a low cost carrier, which I think is the result of consumers choosing low cost carriers increasingly because of a healthy price difference.

Im just shocked that it has a 4 star SkyTrax rating which is the same as Turkish Airlines whose service and product as a whole is far superior!

4 Likes

Well, yes, BA is slashing satisfaction and fares. To face a low cost carrier one must become a low cost carrier. Anyone here working in retail or a business will know how this works.
At least BA hasn’t become PAN AM
Yet…

1 Like