Unfortunately the British public want a first class service at low cost price. I remember being addressed at a conference by an American pilot rep soon after Southwest became first low cost carrier. He said in Europe you promise pax heaven. Fall slightly below that standard and they complain. In the states we promise them ****, give them **** and everybody is happy.
Where do we go now?? Outsourcing of IT hasn't worked for BA. How to keep costs down and have a decent product. BA management path seems to be attack the workforce. Not a good route in a service industry.
Whilst I agree that low cost carriers have shifted passengers perspective of what's low cost and affordable, I don't think all of BA's paying population want both first class service and low cost. I know lots of people who were loyal to the brand and happily paid extra for tickets for many years.
What BA did was slowly erode the standard of their service causing these passengers to question value for money for what was slowly becoming a low cost carrier service. You can't do that if you're offering First and Biz worldwide and expect pax to keep schtum.
BA also needed to accept that if it wanted to remain a premium carrier then it couldn't have 100% seat fulfilment and fly every aircraft at capacity with the routes it has at the prices it charges.
Where we seem to have ended up is somewhere in the middle. A brand which is still broadly speaking perceived as premium, staffed by crew used to giving top service, run as a low cost carrier, treating its customers with contempt like a certain low cost carrier but marketed as a premium carrier. Inevitably, its going to lead to the downfall of BA unless something radically changes.