Are British Airways Worse Than Aeroflot?

[Princess Fiona]

Interesting article from The Times on Skytrax ratings.
Taking Less Care of You

 

[dajop]

Interesting article from The Times on Skytrax ratings.
Taking Less Care of You

Uh oh, cue the Skytrax criticisms ....

But in the article they do make a good point regarding long haul business class, given many airlines do 4 across in a 777 whereas BA are still effectively 8 across (and 7 on 787):

Plaisted said BA, which pioneered the fully reclining business-class seat in the late 1990s, now has “one of the poorer business class products in the world”.

 

[RooFlyer]

Demotion to a three-star airline would put BA — which once boasted the slogan “the world’s favourite airline” — on a par with Uzbekistan Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Myanmar Airways and Ryanair.

Ouch! .....

 

[drron]

And here am I about to aim for 1500 tier points.
But then I can travel BA F to Asia for less than QF J.

 

[clazman]

love the comment ‘Smug airling caught in its own doings’

 

[clazman]

Ethiopian price to LA looks good.... anyone flown them

 

[TonyHancock]

As a regular BA frequent flyer I feel the need to step in here and share my experiences.

First up let's get a few things clear about my particular travel - it is predominantly long haul J to Blighty via Singapore or up to HKG with a code share QF/CX J flight and then on to Blighty in J with BA. I also have plenty of Club Europe runs from LHR to SVG and back. (You will need to google Ex Eu fares or read my trip reports. [Which, incidently, I will be updating if I ever actually end my current trip. ])

So let's talk about cabin crews. They come in two varieties Mixed Fleet or Worldwide. Mixed Fleet crew members are generally the less experienced and more recently employed peeps. They were taken on in order for BA to fight the unionised and higher paid Worldwide crews. Consequently Mixed Fleet service was smiley and a bit rubbish whilst Worldwide was efficient and grumpy. That has changed more recently as BA tried to reduce Mixed Fleet Crews' benefits and pay. This has led to grumpy and relatively rubbish service.

Thanks to some sort of archaic ritual Mixed Fleet crews are easy to spot in the wild because female of the species wears a hat whilst the worldwide female doesn't........although if you do get to fly on a BAA 380 then Worldwide female cabin crew members also wear hats.

Now I fly a fair bit with BA, 175k miles last year, so I am fortunate enough to be a Concorde Room Card holder. This helps me avoid the small slabs of grey tastless gristle served in Club World. I dine before and after flying when faced with Club World. Occasionally I will have the cheese and biscuits and beg for a roll given that the biscuits comprise a very small packet of two. One does get three seeded grapes though.

The BA ClubWorld seat receives quite a lot of criticism, but I actually find it very comfortable. Status and booking almost a year out allow me to select one of the handful of seats that are actually very good. (16A and 16K on the 777 for example.) The good seats for me mean I don't have to clamber over anyone after a bottle of claret. I would say a bottle of claret or two but the chances of a crew member topping one's glass up after the meal service is about the same as QF enforcing domestic priority boarding.

The rear facing bulkhead window seats are very private, in fact so private the crew will actually forget you are there, so remember to take your wine glass back to the galley when you have finished otherwise you will be nursing it for the remainder of the flight.

If one can snag a decent seat then I rate it better than any of the QF droopbeds and just marginally ahead of the new A330 suites. (The major failing with the QF A330 suite is the footwell which is way too small for me.) I do like the rear facing bulkhead window seat though and sleep better there than I have in any other J product. If one can't snag a good seat then, well, it is all a bit rubbish and cramped.

BA and customer service are not two things that really go together most of the time. The latest effort was poor but it is pretty much how BA customer service works. I am lucky, well to be fair I am lucky between the hours of 06:00 to 21:45 UK time. During those hours I have access to the incredible GGL team. Outside of those hours it is tough work getting anything sorted. The reduction in GGL access hours was a recent enhancement for BA's most frequent flyers.

The recent introduction of the First check in suite with its own security is a massive improvement, but sadly even this serves to highlight just how poor the transfer process is at LHR and how utterly dreadful Fasttrack security is. It is now better to clear immigration and customs at T5 rather than transfer on my ex EU trips. :shock:

The FF program remains the best there is for my travel patterns and the Ex EU pricing to Australia is incredibly cheap so it keeps me flying with BA. I don't mind the F product either. It is not, as is oft stated, a good J product it is much better than that. I certainly would fly BA F ahead of CX, QF, MH, UL, VA, EY and EK J. Fortunately I am getting to fly F quite a bit thanks to the FF program.

If I had to fly Y or Y+ regularly I would not touch BA with a barge pole.

 

[dairyfloss]

All very inspirational for my first long haul BA Y flight in a long, long time. .. SIN to DUB via LHR and back on the 388, in September. Looking like a rockstar coughtail of booze and meds might be the only way to enjoy it??

 

[amaroo]

But then I can travel BA F to Asia for less than QF J.

Yes, it's a pretty good deal.... you also get to fly CX / JL (J) once you get there for basically nothing.

 

[whatmeworry]

BA 747 J Review.

[video=youtube;LGCkoapvXT8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGCkoapvXT8[/video]

 

[yohy?!]

How can anyone put them down when they serve a double round with the starter in PE?!

Top notch in my book, gave me an op-up to J on the return too (hey it was a cough seat and food but still better than their PE!)