Markrl's post certainly stirs a chord with me: having "flown the flag" as SLF since the days when the branding was BEA or BOAC, I well remember that settling down in my seat in some far flung (or near flung) place made me feel that I was already back in England.
Maybe the analogy to BL is pushing it a bit far - BL had, as I recall, a far more militant labour force - whereas BA suffers more from problems at the other end - management which is totally and utterly out of touch with the realities of the coal face.
I sense that there are people within BA who are still, despite everything, doing their utmost to make it happen. But above them are layers of management who simply don't have the competence to support the people who make it actually happen. And there is a layer of people right down at the coalface, where the airline meets the customer, who haven't got the training, the competence, or the experience and maturity to make the difference.
What needs to happen is that top management needs move on, to make way for some new top management who have the guts and vision to do what is necessary to make middle management shape up or ship out.
The people at the coal face need the support and encouragement of the people above them - they need to led by example, they need to be trained to be better than the competition.
And the whole organisation needs to take note of what has happened to Jaguar and Land Rover ... Not saying that that's a good thing or a bad thing - but I'm not sure that's what BA needs ...