British Airways

[Jamiescott1]

I'm sure you would have heard of the infamous packet of crisps worth 10,000 Avios...

Snap. 5000 for me and 5000 for my partner

 

[317 forever]

I'm flying on the last flight from London Heathrow to Manchester (20.15) later this month.

At the risk of getting Avanti phobia, I hope it isn't cancelled. It was only around £10 more expensive than an Avanti train from London Euston with comparable timings. Admittedly I shall have no luggage as such.

 

[185143]

I'm flying on the last flight from London Heathrow to Manchester (20.15) later this month.

At the risk of getting Avanti phobia, I hope it isn't cancelled. It was only around £10 more expensive than an Avanti train from London Euston with comparable timings. Admittedly I shall have no luggage as such.

I took that flight last month. Worked very well.

 

[AlastairFraser]

I'm flying on the last flight from London Heathrow to Manchester (20.15) later this month.

At the risk of getting Avanti phobia, I hope it isn't cancelled. It was only around £10 more expensive than an Avanti train from London Euston with comparable timings. Admittedly I shall have no luggage as such.

That direction is OK, but the other way requires interaction with Manchester T3!
Not a pleasant experience, and an Off Peak return on LNWR Crewe to London and a separate return Manchester to Crewe is nearly always cheaper.

 

[317 forever]

I took that flight last month. Worked very well.

While any day can be different, I welcome this feeling of assurance that it should work out.

That direction is OK, but the other way requires interaction with Manchester T3!
Not a pleasant experience, and an Off Peak return on LNWR Crewe to London and a separate return Manchester to Crewe is nearly always cheaper.

For such a return, yes. Mind you, as my venue is effectively between central London and Heathrow Airport, the BA flight felt logical and a more interesting contrast to using trains yet again.

 

[185143]

While any day can be different, I welcome this feeling of assurance that it should work out.

For such a return, yes. Mind you, as my venue is effectively between central London and Heathrow Airport, the BA flight felt logical and a more interesting contrast to using trains yet again.

Certainly wasn't perfect!

Couldn't land first time and a go around was necessary.

The cabin crew were exemplary. Gave the impression that nothing was too much trouble, and the captain gave a clear, calm and concise explanation as to what had happened when we couldn't land.

All in, from Farringdon it would have been a lot quicker to get the train, although I did leave a bit earlier than I could have done in order to have a meal and a couple of pints in the airside 'Spoons.

I doubt I'd do it again, and judging by the amount of passports at the gate and people waiting for checked bags, the vast majority of passengers are connecting. But it was a change, and certainly an interesting experience. It was the first time I'd flown BA, and I'd have no hesitations in using them again.

 

[AlastairFraser]

For such a return, yes. Mind you, as my venue is effectively between central London and Heathrow Airport, the BA flight felt logical and a more interesting contrast to using trains yet again.

I guess it's nice to have something with a proper process to be followed and decent compensation scheme.

 

[MalaiseForever]

First experience with BA flying to Hamburg for a weekend.

Found Heathrow a pretty miserable experience. Seats quite poor and legroom dire on BA - I am 6 foot 4 and am more comfortable on Ryanair or EasyJet. 10g bag of “Graze” corn is just embarrassing. I’d rather have nothing. And on the return leg, they were repeatedly announcing people had to put carry-on bags in the hold, because it was a full flight. But it was only about 80% full in the end. Very strange.

All in all, fairly disappointing and certainly not worth any premium over the low cost carriers.

Would be interested in trying a flight from City airport for the nolvelty factor once, but aside from that, and maybe an absurdly cheap BA long haul flight, I see no reason to use them again. Especially as Manchester is my local airport.

 

[Bungle158]

I was a frequent flyer with BA some years ago and only ever used their long haul services, mostly to South Africa. Back then, the service was acceptable and the crews courteous and professional. The decline in standards since, means that l now only use BA when there is no alternative.

On my 4x per year trips to India, l now choose Etihad or Emirates, despite the inconvenience of the stopover. The alternative Air India flights are even worse than BA.

 

[DustyBin]

I’ve started using BA between Newcastle and London quite a lot recently. It’s no quicker door to door, but I’m fed up with the disruption on the trains so I thought I’d give it a go, and I actually find it quite enjoyable. There’s little to set BA apart from a budget airline on such a flight in all honestly, but it’s all perfectly acceptable IMO.

It seems like a busy route, with the A321s I usually fly on fully loaded (I’d echo what @MalaiseForever said about cabin bags ending up in the hold!). Given there are multiple daily flights, is there any reason a larger aircraft (787?) couldn’t be used? I presume BA know what they’re doing, and the demand is actually for little and often so to speak, but with some flights being quite closely spaced it raises the question (to me anyway!).

 

[najaB]

Given there are multiple daily flights, is there any reason a larger aircraft (787?) couldn’t be used?

BA's A321s seat up to 220 passengers, the 788s seat 214, so that would actually decrease capacity.

 

[AlterEgo]

Given there are multiple daily flights, is there any reason a larger aircraft (787?) couldn’t be used?

BA doesn’t have spare 787s to send to Newcastle, is the obvious answer to that one! And as @najaB points out, the smaller 787 variant actually seats fewer people because it is in a much less dense configuration.

I presume BA know what they’re doing, and the demand is actually for little and often so to speak, but with some flights being quite closely spaced it raises the question (to me anyway!).

Short haul thrives on service frequency - especially in a hub and spoke model where the aim for the NCL flights is principally to funnel passengers into connecting flights.

 

[Jamiescott1]

First experience with BA flying to Hamburg for a weekend.

Found Heathrow a pretty miserable experience. Seats quite poor and legroom dire on BA - I am 6 foot 4 and am more comfortable on Ryanair or EasyJet. 10g bag of “Graze” corn is just embarrassing. I’d rather have nothing. And on the return leg, they were repeatedly announcing people had to put carry-on bags in the hold, because it was a full flight. But it was only about 80% full in the end. Very strange.

All in all, fairly disappointing and certainly not worth any premium over the low cost carriers.

Would be interested in trying a flight from City airport for the nolvelty factor once, but aside from that, and maybe an absurdly cheap BA long haul flight, I see no reason to use them again. Especially as Manchester is my local airport.

I usually find BA cheaper than likes of EJ and Ryanair unless you want to fly at a ridcilous hour.
A Friday night after work departure, Sunday night return from lhr to a European city is usually about £120 with a generous carry on allowance.

 

[DustyBin]

BA's A321s seat up to 220 passengers, the 788s seat 214, so that would actually decrease capacity.

BA doesn’t have spare 787s to send to Newcastle, is the obvious answer to that one! And as @najaB points out, the smaller 787 variant actually seats fewer people because it is in a much less dense configuration.


Short haul thrives on service frequency - especially in a hub and spoke model where the aim for the NCL flights is principally to funnel passengers into connecting flights.

Thanks both, well explained!

 

[cactustwirly]

I usually find BA cheaper than likes of EJ and Ryanair unless you want to fly at a ridcilous hour.
A Friday night after work departure, Sunday night return from lhr to a European city is usually about £120 with a generous carry on allowance.

Exactly this

First experience with BA flying to Hamburg for a weekend.

Found Heathrow a pretty miserable experience. Seats quite poor and legroom dire on BA - I am 6 foot 4 and am more comfortable on Ryanair or EasyJet. 10g bag of “Graze” corn is just embarrassing. I’d rather have nothing. And on the return leg, they were repeatedly announcing people had to put carry-on bags in the hold, because it was a full flight. But it was only about 80% full in the end. Very strange.

All in all, fairly disappointing and certainly not worth any premium over the low cost carriers.

Would be interested in trying a flight from City airport for the nolvelty factor once, but aside from that, and maybe an absurdly cheap BA long haul flight, I see no reason to use them again. Especially as Manchester is my local airport.

The interior is identical to easyJet on the newer aircraft

 

[cakefiend]

Exactly this


The interior is identical to easyJet on the newer aircraft

Not quite. The front 12-16 rows have the older Pinnacle seat design with actual leather and padding, as well as marginally more leg room. Some of the older Airbuses also have a table fixed on top of the middle seat in business.

 

[cactustwirly]

Not quite. The front 12-16 rows have the older Pinnacle seat design with actual leather and padding, as well as marginally more leg room. Some of the older Airbuses also have a table fixed on top of the middle seat in business.

I know, the rear seats are those mainly available to economy fliers and have the Recaro slimline fitted, the same as easyJet aircraft, so there is either an upgrade in comfort or it's the same

I really like the Pinnacle seats, if you fly from Gatwick you are guaranteed to have them because they don't have any A320Neos.

All of the older A320s have a big table in the middle of business seats, it's the 3 pin plugs fitted to the Neos which prevents the middle table

 

[Mojo]

You’ll be pleased to hear then that BA announced at a press event last night that the remaining deliveries of the 320Neo and 321Neo will be fitted with a “new” (to BA) type of seat which will allow for the return of the middle table in Club Europe.

 

[YorkRailFan]

British Airways will reintroduce Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to its network.
The Malaysian capital returns to London Heathrow, while Bangkok moves to Gatwick.
The airport swap makes sense, as Bangkok is a very popular but low-yielding leisure market.
British Airways is finally returning to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok after last flying to them regularly in 2020. As of March 5, the oneworld carrier plans to serve 15 Asia-Pacific destinations this winter (excluding the Middle East). BA adds Gatwick to Bangkok
The winter seasonal route will begin on October 28 with three weekly flights. BA previously served Bangkok daily from Heathrow. The Boeing 747-400 was used until late 2013, after which the 777-200ER was deployed until COVID-19 stopped it.Scoot, the Singapore Airlines budget operator, last served Gatwick from Bangkok on a fifth freedom basis to/from Singapore in late 2021 and 2022.The Thai capital is a low-yielding, very popular, and competitive leisure market. Non-stop flights are provided from Heathrow by Thai Airways (double daily) and EVA Air (daily on a fifth freedom basis to/from Taipei).

More importantly, numerous one-stop options exist, mainly via the Middle East. In 2019, the London-Bangkok point-to-point market had about 2,400 daily roundtrip passengers, with almost half of people connecting en route.It makes sense to switch to Gatwick, with lower fees and charges and more slot availability. This is supported by BA's much higher-capacity 'Gatwick' 777-200ERs, which have a lower cost per available seat mile. It can then continue to use the Heathrow slots for more premium and higher-yielding markets.It is unclear what is changing at Gatwick to free up the 777. Yes, BA's Gatwick-Doha service, in support of partner Qatar Airways, stops at the end of March, with BA increasing Heathrow-Doha to double daily. As the aircraft will remain at Gatwick, the cut was announced months ago, and the northern summer summer season starts soon, the aircraft must have already been reallocated.

A possible explanation is that Mauritius, which has similar times to Bangkok and runs on the same days, will shift to Heathrow. This would also distinguish it from Air Mauritius, which recently moved to Gatwick. This is just speculation for now.How is it timed?
It is scheduled as follows, with all times local. When Bangkok was served from Heathrow, it had the flight number BA9. It arrived in Thailand shortly before 10:00 local time, with BA10 operating on a daytime basis back in the UK. Now, it will operate overnight in both directions. This should help with slightly higher fares than if it was during the day.Gatwick to Bangkok: BA2231, 21:00-15:55+1
Bangkok to Gatwick: BA2230, 22:55-05:30+1 Kuala Lumpur returns
BA flew between Heathrow and the Malaysian capital from 2015 to 2020, although a few flights appear to have operated in 2021/2022. It will be served daily from November 10 using the four-class, 215-seat 787-9.

Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur: BA33, 20:45-17:30+1
Kuala Lumpur to Heathrow: BA34, 23:20-05:35+1 The times are similar to one of BA's daily Hong Kong services, also on the 787-9. Is it being removed or at least reduced, whether seasonally or not? This is uncertain.

British Airways Reveals Plans To Return To Bangkok & Kuala Lumpur

While Kuala Lumpur will be served like before, the same cannot be said for Bangkok.

simpleflying.com

I'm surprised it took so long for Kuala Lumpur to resume, as Middle Eastern carriers like Emirates have been shuttling loads of passengers between Europe and Malaysia via Dubai.

 

[nlogax]

For those of you who've not already seen this, BA IG vid of the new short-haul cabin. Couple of screenshots too.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/british_airways/3316915403524956161

 

[YorkRailFan]

• British Airways is set to fully refurbish all of its London Heathrow Airport lounges in the next five years, starting with the Terminal 5 Arrivals Lounge.
• The planned refurbishment will focus on quality over quantity, with larger and improved washing facilities at the expense of shower capacity.
• The layout of certain lounges in Terminal 5, including the Concorde Room, First Class, and Galleries Club South, will be completely reworked to offer better access.

This week has been a big one for British Airways, with the UK flag carrier sharing exciting announcements regarding subjects such as its short-haul cabin and long-haul route network. However, its upgrade plans for the coming years also concern the airport experience, including the refurbishment of all of its Heathrow lounges.

A full-scale refresh​

As exclusively revealed yesterday by Head For Points, British Airways is set to fully refurbish all of its lounges at its London Heathrow Airport (LHR) hub in the coming five years. Work on the project is set to start in late 2024, with the Terminal 5 Arrivals Lounge being the first in line to receive a makeover as part of the program. According to Head For Points, this decision is strategically advantageous due to the facility being situated landside. Additionally, the British Airways website notes that it has relatively limited opening hours, running from 05:00 to 14:00 to target earlier long-haul arrivals. As such, this leaves plenty of time later in the day for the refresh of the lounge, which will include a new barista coffee facility, to take place. It seems that British Airways is focusing on quality over quantity with the Arrivals Lounge refurbishment, with Head For Points noting that the carrier is reducing shower capacity in favor of bigger and better washing facilities. The order of lounges being refreshed after the arrivals facility remains unknown at this moment in time, but Simple Flying has reached out to British Airways for further information.

Some facilities will be totally reworked​

Given that any airline's lounges tend to attract its most frequent flyers, many of the users of British Airways' lounges at London Heathrow Airport will be regular visitors who are familiar with their makeup. However, they should be prepared for large-scale changes in some instances, with the planned refurbishment program set to alter not just the facilities of certain lounges, but also their respective layouts. Most notably, the southern end of Terminal 5, which features a three-lounge complex consisting of the Concorde Room, First Class, and Galleries Club South lounges, will see a full reworking of its layout. Head For Points notes that this is to create more direct access to the Concorde Room for First Class passengers.
As linked above, lounge refresh projects are far from an alien concept to BA. Indeed, with the UK flag carrier having completed the refurbishment of its Terminal 5B lounge at London Heathrow Airport as recently as October 2023, Head For Points notes that this will likely be among the last facilities to be worked on. With the program working on one lounge at a time, it will be interesting to watch it develop.

A week of big news​

As mentioned earlier, this week has been a big one when it comes to news involving British Airways. Most notably, the oneworld founding member has revealed the new seats that it will use on its Airbus A320neo family narrowbodies going forward, as part of a £7 billion passenger experience investment scheme. Additionally, plans to resume flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur have also been announced.

British Airways Set To Refurbish All Heathrow Airport Lounges Within 5 Years

The process will begin at the end of 2024.

simpleflying.com

Good news for Oneworld travelers traveling through Heathrow. 5 years seems to be doable.

 

[DanNCL]

New short haul cabin. Lounge refurbishments. New website. A plan to sort out the reliability issues at Heathrow. New ‘First Suite’.

Sounds like BA might finally be getting their act together.

 

[Watershed]

New short haul cabin. Lounge refurbishments. New website. A plan to sort out the reliability issues at Heathrow. New ‘First Suite’.

Sounds like BA might finally be getting their act together.

The only one of these developments that has the potential to set BA apart from the competition is the new "First Suite" - but that's an irrelevance to 99% of passengers as it will only be fitted to the handful of A380s and most people are travelling in lower cabins anyway!

Similarly, the new short haul cabin is only going to be fitted on the A32Xneo orders that are still outstanding. There's been nothing to suggest it will be retrofitted to the much larger number of existing aircraft, which means there will continue to be inconsistency; there are no proposals to address the lack of middle table in Club Europe on the older A32Xneo's for example.

Perhaps more importantly, most people in groups 4-9 will continue to be forced to gate-check their second item of hand luggage on most flights, because overhead lockers on existing aircraft aren't being upgraded to the larger version. Rather than doing this upgrade to make the problem largely disappear (as many other airlines have done with their fleets), the proposal is to charge for a second item like the low-cost airlines. Progress...

In terms of sorting out Heathrow, I'll believe it when I see it. At the moment everything to do with boarding and turnaround there tends to be slapdash, late and understaffed. Boarding almost never starts or finishes when it's supposed to. Group numbers are called inconsistently. Tensa-barriered queueing areas are mismanaged, with low group numbers often sent to the snaking high-numbered queue.

Again, foreign or even low-cost airlines and airports show how it's done properly - I've never had the "waiting for stand guidance" nonsense abroad, let alone "we've arrived early so we're waiting for the ground crew to arrive".

As for IT, I can't think of any other airline that has made the headlines so many times for system failures and issues. That's aside from the small-scale outages that seem to happen on a near-daily basis - "site too busy", online check-in not working, app logging you out and so forth.

So really, most of this is just addressing stuff that's currently sub-par. It's good to see that BA management are aware of what needs doing - but to a large extent it's "too little, too late". I was expecting more from this kind of event.

 

[YorkRailFan]

As for IT, I can't think of any other airline that has made the headlines so many times for system failures and issues.

Southwest Airlines in the US comes to mind.

 

[RailWonderer]

Willie Walsh and Alex Cruz were instrumental to sending BA into the dumps just to keep shareholders happy. Looks like Sean Doyle is serious about bringing back the 'glory days' of the 80s and 90s people talk about when mentioning BA. Some A320 neos (G-TTNA for example) has a different type of seating to the rest of the dark blue ones, it has a grey type of seat with more legroom which I think was the old economy seating and was better but unfortuntely this new seating doesn't look like a return to that seat type but just a refurb of the current seating.

 

[Bungle965]

I had a fantastic example of the IT issues that the BA had the other day, I attempted to get my mobile boarding pass for my flight back from Gibraltar and instead of the flight to Heathrow I got given the one from 2 days previous from Heathrow to Madrid on Iberia!
Something which I ended up giving up getting through the app in the first place because of issues.

Luckily it allowed me to get the same boarding pass on my Ipad which did give me the correct one in the end.

 

[superalbs]

Willie Walsh and Alex Cruz were instrumental to sending BA into the dumps just to keep shareholders happy. Looks like Sean Doyle is serious about bringing back the 'glory days' of the 80s and 90s people talk about when mentioning BA. Some A320 neos (G-TTNA for example) has a different type of seating to the rest of the dark blue ones, it has a grey type of seat with more legroom which I think was the old economy seating and was better but unfortuntely this new seating doesn't look like a return to that seat type but just a refurb of the current seating.

I've flown G-TTNA, and it has a standard interior.

 

[Mag_seven]

I had a fantastic example of the IT issues that the BA had the other day, I attempted to get my mobile boarding pass for my flight back from Gibraltar and instead of the flight to Heathrow I got given the one from 2 days previous from Heathrow to Madrid on Iberia!
Something which I ended up giving up getting through the app in the first place because of issues.

Luckily it allowed me to get the same boarding pass on my Ipad which did give me the correct one in the end.

There is a known issue with this on the app. Appears to affect the return boarding pass on an out and back booking. I had it myself the other day when my return boarding pass from Zagreb had the same details (flight no, seat no etc) as my outward flight to Venice! The way round it is to access the boarding pass via the "My bookings" section of the app rather than the "My boarding passes" section.

 

[DanNCL]

Just to comment on the IT issues, the IT department was significantly cut down in size under Cruz and it’s a move that BA are sorely regretting. A lot of their most experienced IT staff were made redundant.

The only one of these developments that has the potential to set BA apart from the competition is the new "First Suite" - but that's an irrelevance to 99% of passengers as it will only be fitted to the handful of A380s and most people are travelling in lower cabins anyway!

Similarly, the new short haul cabin is only going to be fitted on the A32Xneo orders that are still outstanding. There's been nothing to suggest it will be retrofitted to the much larger number of existing aircraft, which means there will continue to be inconsistency; there are no proposals to addresses the lack of middle table in Club Europe on the older A32Xneo's for example.

Perhaps more importantly, most people in groups 4-9 will continue to be forced to gate-check their second item of hand luggage on most flights, because overhead lockers on existing aircraft aren't being upgraded to the larger version. Rather than solving this problem in a pragmatic way, as American Airlines are doing for example, the proposal is to charge for a second item like the low-cost airlines. Progress...

In terms of sorting out Heathrow, I'll believe it when I see it. At the moment everything to do with boarding and turnaround there tends to be slapdash, late and understaffed. Boarding almost never starts or finishes when it's supposed to. Group numbers are called inconsistently. Tensa-barriered queueing areas are mismanaged, with low group numbers often sent to the snaking high-numbered queue.

Again, foreign airlines and airports show how it's done properly - I've never had the "waiting for stand guidance" nonsense abroad, let alone "we've arrived early so we're waiting for the ground crew to arrive".

As for IT, I can't think of any other airline that has made the headlines so many times for system failures and issues. That's aside from the small-scale outages that seem to happen on a near-daily basis - "site too busy", online check-in not working, app logging you out and so forth.

So really, most of this is just addressing stuff that's currently sub-par. It's good to see that BA management are aware of what needs doing - but to a large extent it's "too little, too late". I was expecting more from this kind of event.

Yes so by replacing the website entirely, making an effort to resolve the Heathrow issues, providing an up to date first product and a new better quality short haul cabin, they’re getting their act together or at least trying to. They’re not about to become “the world’s favourite airline” again by any means but it’s urgently needed progress.

For the short haul cabins, correct initially only the next deliveries. Not mentioned there is that longer term aircraft that are being retained long term should eventually be refitted.

Willie Walsh and Alex Cruz were instrumental to sending BA into the dumps just to keep shareholders happy. Looks like Sean Doyle is serious about bringing back the 'glory days' of the 80s and 90s people talk about when mentioning BA. Some A320 neos (G-TTNA for example) has a different type of seating to the rest of the dark blue ones, it has a grey type of seat with more legroom which I think was the old economy seating and was better but unfortuntely this new seating doesn't look like a return to that seat type but just a refurb of the current seating.

Cruz in particular, he tried to run it like Vueling and implemented policies that were straight out of the LCC rulebook.

All currently delivered NEOs have the same cabin, Grey leather Pinnacle seats at the front and grey leather recaro seats at the back.
In contrast most of the older A320s have the grey leather Pinnacle seats throughout.
Not sure exactly what type the new seats are but they’re different from anything on any of BA’s existing aircraft.

The current direction looks promising. Not a return to “the world’s favourite airline” but it’ll be a significant improvement once it all takes place.

 

[route101]

I see BA still has A319s in the fleet, what are the plans for those? They must be getting on a bit.