Has British Airways gone lacklusture?

[2003iggy]

In my personal opinion, BA has been in a bit of a rough patch. They are stuck in that horrible middle area of low cost services for high prices. Thoughts anyone?

[Mats]

Flown with them last time in late 2016. The long haul service was okay (LHR-JFK and back), the short haul service was good (HAJ-LHR and back). In 2016 they still served breakfast or a warm meal, but everything I’ve heard nowadays about them their product seems to be pretty bad in terms of service.

[The_infinite_pig29]

Their short haul especially to Scotland is horrific. They are always delays their staff are rude and their lounge is a ghost town at Edinburgh

[Gliding_Central]

I had a different experience with BA than you did, because I had experienced the complete opposite, flying form LHR to HongKong.

[Moonlit]

Some people I know who fly BA frequently said the quality has been lower ever since that computer outage. I know there isn’t a direct correlation of course, but it is quite interesting.

[OC212]

It is true they are going through a rough patch I flew monthly to Phoenix and the states and the 747-400 that they fly there is costly for both sides passenger and airline and the seats are run down and the screens struggle to work

[Adam_Williams]

Never flown with BA, but I can tell you something; if you need to fly longhaul out of the UK, This is the airline to fly with. Although almost completely bottom heavy in the sense that they nearly exclusively operate out of London, their route map is unlike anyone elses, with a vast expanse of Short, Medium, and Long Haul destinations. Take a look at other possible Long Haul carriers out of the UK, and see if you can list them and their Pro’s and Con’s:

• Virgin Atlantic - limited destinations available, however they do fly out of some smaller UK airports. Service is great, however typically much more expensive than BA. Was a great experience flying to MCO with them however!

• TUI - great for flying to holiday destinations outside of Europe with low(ish) cost flights. However these destinations are again, limited.

• Thomas Cook - essentially the same as TUI here. Not much in the sense of diversity between destinations.

• Norwegian - now this is a strong contender against BA. Low Cost Flights to many places around the world.

I feel like the competition against BA is heating up, and I feel to combat this they are slightly diversifying. Attempting to mix a bit more “low-cost” with their typical high quality of service they are renowned for. We are, of course, yet to see if this will work. However with the examples outlined above I feel like BA offers more Longhaul destinations, albeit all out of London, and are still the Airline of Choice flying LongHaul out of the UK.

As they continue to upgrade their fleet with the addition of the B787 to further routes and the A350 I’m sure they will regain their quality in time.

PS: if I’ve missed any Long Haul Operators out of the UK let me know!

[ewanfleming]

My problem with BA is that they simply cost too much for what they are. They’re priced as if they’re an exclusive flag carrier (which they were until a couple of years ago), but in my opinion their service is more like a LCC. There isn’t much between them and easyJet (for example they both charge extra for meals), and BA are often twice/triple the price of EZY. I know BA still has the upper hand over easyJet, but it’s nowhere near enough to justify paying that much more.

To use an example, I’ve been in Vancouver (& around) the past two and a bit weeks. Back in September or so, I booked my flights. BA was in excess of £1000 pp, which is rather insane for one return flight. I then looked at elsewhere, and ended up booking my flight with Air Transat for about £400pp. BA offered more stuff onboard that Air Transat, but by absolutely no means was it worth paying more than twice the price for BA.

I think they need to make their mind up. They can either go full-on flag carrier and charge a lot but include everything and deliver a premium product, or they can charge budget airline prices and deliver budget airline service. At the moment they’re kind of stuck between two niches, which I think is why they aren’t doing overly well right now.

[sk28]

They are a complete joke. Their business class is 8 across, which is what other airlines are removing. The Concorde room at JFK in nasty. First class seats on the old 747 weren’t clean. Their avios are worthless due to the rediculous “fuel surcharges”.

[The_infinite_pig29]

Also ba has a computer system that used cables and all that . They changed it and now it runs of the internet and wireless which also delays aircraft when the internet goes down

[Daniel14]

Actually, many times now BA is more expensive then Virgin Atlantic

[Chatta290]

BA is okay however it’s being very poorly managed by IAG who are making all the flag carriers within the group somewhat low cost carriers. For short haul BA seat pitch is apparently going to be less than Ryanair’s and their fares are far higher not to mention the only benefit being free food has now gone. As for long haul it’s slightly better however they still cut costs too much, they removed the second meal and replaced it with a breakfast bad when I flew them last year, that’s absurd and it meant I had to wait 5 hours till before landing to eat something, I believe they have now bought it back but the experience is certainly lie a low cost carrier for long haul if not worse, we were lucky and got the new interior B777 and B747 but I could tell how Qatar was far better, the seats were more comfortable, IFE, amenity kits, good food, pillows of good quality and the same for blankets all of which BA can’t really offer. For the most part BA long haul isn’t even cheap, we only flew them as it was a rare occasion that it was the only option for the cheapest fares due to them being cancellations. I would rather fly Aer Lingus or easy jet short haul and a middle eastern carrier long haul. Their business product is also an utter embarrassment and they are trying to make money without reinvesting, it works up until a point but that’s because people are flying with you as they have no choice but to. I wouldn’t pay more than £800 for that business as it’s trully awful for the price they want to charge.

[Hani_Freij]

I know!! I recently flew BEY-LHR son their A321 and there seats were horrible and uncomfortable. I agree with you 100%

[Swiss188]

BA are, in my opinion, pricing themselves out of the short haul markets (intentional? 🧐)

I regularly fly to Germany and i will take a Eurowings experience over BA any day of the week - never had any issues, prices are half that of BA, same aircraft and flight crew are just as friendly and helpful

I think it’s the ‘brand’ that keeps BA afloat, they are becoming a placebo

[Tom-Bonfield]

Around 2 weeks ago I took a flight with BA from London Gatwick to Las Vegas. The flights were not as expensive and managed to get premium economy. It is worth it if you get the old cabin, however it is quite dated and dirty. Seats were comfy food was amazing, but you can see that the crew is a bit tired and overworked in my opinion

[Charlie_Boothe]

I disagree with this agruement entirely. I flew British Air from San Jose International (my home) to London. The service I had on that flight was some of the best service I have ever had!