BA to allocate seats for Hand Luggage fares

Voyager2002

Doshwaster wrote: »

but the new policy on seat selection on HBO fares makes no sense at all.

Personally I think it makes very good commercial sense.

They want to ensure that people who fly on business, people who care about their flying experience, buy the more expensive tickets. Clearly they offer HBO fares as a way to get someone in a seat that would otherwise be empty, and are seeking to ensure that people who would travel anyway pay a little more for their journey.

MiraculousM

My gripe is that they are taking it away from EVERYONE. I couldnt care less about the business people.. which is why i posting here not on the flyertalk page.

jpsartre

It is effectively removing a perk of having status so it's understandable that frequent flyers are upset. Unlike the changes to the BAEC announced a while back, this one doesn't make much sense to me, neither from a presentational standpoint (what does checked luggage have to do with seat selection?) nor a practical standpoint (a Gold card holder on a fully flex HBO fare can't select a seat without paying but Joe Blue who bought a ticket from the cheapest booking class including luggage can). Whether it will positively affect BA's bottom line (which, in the end, is all that matters) remains to be seen.

callum9999

dickydonkin wrote: »

In respect of 'tantrums' on FT, if you don't like it, then it is very easy to unsubscribe. 'THEY' all don't complain about the hygiene wrapping on sandwiches - although there is an underlying trend of snobbery within the BA forums. That said, you and I both subscribe to FT for information and other news and views. If I believed these weren't the views of the general flying public, then I wouldn't have joined.

Like most forums -especially this one- you will get an element of complaints and opinions that are trivial to many and yes, there will be tantrums when people get responses that they do not want to see.


The 'tantrums' on Flyertalk are not just relating to the recent situation with HBO seat selection, but the the cumulative degrading of BAEC and indeed the BA product overall - which in even to those wearing red white and blue spectacles, is becoming a race to the bottom in many peoples eyes - with, I suspect, many more changes to come in the near future.

With respect to FT members reactions arguably not being representative of the 'wider flying world', maybe those who agree with that assertion should look at the respective threads and see how many posters actually agree with the changes as opposed to those who don't.

I don't know the membership numbers of Flyertalk, but it must be substantial, and they all can't be wrong.

Thank you but I'm well aware its not compulsory to stay there! Obviously there is lots of more useful information there - the majority of it is in fact.

My point about the sandwiches was that looking at the number of people there who agree/disagree is pointless. Regardless, why on earth would anyone like a product degradation? I certainly don't (and will likely fly BA and One world less because of it) but I greatly dislike the hyperbole and hissy fits people are throwing (not on this thread!). They act like BA is there to cater soley to them. If you don't like them then just don't use them. I don't launch continual rants about how awful Waitrose is for being too expensive, I just don't shop there...

callum9999

MiraculousM wrote: »

To be honest i am far more annoyed about the cut in avios.. it was the only reason i consistently used BA for long haul flights and recommended it to my friends ("They give you an excellent number of avios for flying to the east coast. You are rewarded enough to pay the extra £50 for the flight for sure").

I have had terrible service on the last couple of long haul flights and adding to that, the cut and other carriers that arent US airways finally being given clearance to fly to Philly airport which is where i fly into the most means that I can take my business elsewhere.

I am not throwing a tantrum. I dont fly enough nor have bronze or above status to care enough about this change (and most SH flights are usually only about an hour or 2). It just means I now will not go searching specifically for BA flights and look at the full range for not only my frequent short haul flights but my long hauls too.

I just think that they are doing everything to get customers, both frequent and infrequent, to give up their previous loyalty, which is highly damaging to the product, especially as airlines like virgin are usually reviewed far better

So you're not really "taking your business elsewhere", you merely value the benefits you get from flying BA a bit lower than you did before so will factor that in when choosing which airline you fly? It sounds like you weren't "exclusive" to BA before so how exactly are you describing it as loyalty?

jpsartre wrote: »

It is effectively removing a perk of having status so it's understandable that frequent flyers are upset. Unlike the changes to the BAEC announced a while back, this one doesn't make much sense to me, neither from a presentational standpoint (what does checked luggage have to do with seat selection?) nor a practical standpoint (a Gold card holder on a fully flex HBO fare can't select a seat without paying but Joe Blue who bought a ticket from the cheapest booking class including luggage can). Whether it will positively affect BA's bottom line (which, in the end, is all that matters) remains to be seen.

HBO's are discounted fares so it makes perfect sense for them to get lesser service. If that Gold card holder on a fully flex HBO fare wants to choose a seat then they can stop buying HBO fares. Just because they're currently named after their lack of baggage allowance, doesn't mean that can be the only difference.

jpsartre

callum9999 wrote: »

HBO's are discounted fares so it makes perfect sense for them to get lesser service. If that Gold card holder on a fully flex HBO fare wants to choose a seat then they can stop buying HBO fares. Just because they're currently named after their lack of baggage allowance, doesn't mean that can be the only difference.

Everything you say is correct but it doesn't change the points I made. It's still a poorly named product with some (I assume) unintended odd consequences.

callum9999

jpsartre wrote: »

Everything you say is correct but it doesn't change the points I made. It's still a poorly named product with some (I assume) unintended odd consequences.

Well it was a very apt name at the time it was introduced. Maybe they'll rename it to a "saver fare" or something.

It doesn't change any points you made, but it certainly disagrees with them. The crux of your argument was it's illogical, the crux of my argument was it's perfectly logical. We'll have to come back in a years time to see which is right!

jpsartre

If you think it makes sense to have a system that creates situations where a premium customer on a very expensive ticket gets less service than a low-profit customer on a very cheap ticket then indeed we disagree. But saying that the premium customer can just pay a bit more to avoid the situation doesn't make the system make any more or less sense.

callum9999

jpsartre wrote: »

If you think it makes sense to have a system that creates situations where a premium customer on a very expensive ticket gets less service than a low-profit customer on a very cheap ticket then indeed we disagree. But saying that the premium customer can just pay a bit more to avoid the situation doesn't make the system make any more or less sense.

Using that logic you could say exactly the same thing about HBO fares as they are now. Why should they get lesser service (i.e. no free hold baggage) than a low-profit customer on a cheaper "full service" ticket?

jpsartre

If you purchase a HBO only fare it is presumably because you don't have any bag to check so there's no impact on the service you get..But lots of people travel without checked luggage and would still like to select seat. More importantly, it's a perk of having status which is being taken away unless you pay extra.