A Lurker,
Hope the wine was good.
Flying from the UK to mainland Europe is now solely about low cost carriers and minimal service. That is fact - "Premium" travel on carriers such as BA is financially suicidal - thats why I can see BA shorthaul evolving into a low-cost, not no-frills, but low-frills carrier - oh hold on a mo - they have just done that haven't they?
Ironically BA SH costs are amalgamated into the highest cost ticket anyway. Thus a passenger connecting to a LH flight in Heathrow from a BA SH connecting flight has his SH ticket revenue allocated to the LH profit. Whilst SH figures don't show the revenue from connecting passengers SH has still managed to make a profit in the past.
Where does SH differ? Primarily in the point to point operating to major hub airports around Europe unlike certain Low Cost alternatives where, if you're lucky, you might end up in the same country.
Having a LH executive club, premium airline is no good unless you have the feeder routes to supply it and, preferably, on the same ticket stub to allow for easy connection.
I think we will see SH here for some time to come.
As to the Iberia 'deal' where are the facts? Why does it not being on ESS make it so sensational? What were the IB crew threatening IA over?
Once again CFC, rhetoric and one liners without fact. As always BASSA pick and choose the cherries without bothering to see what is killing the tree. Shall we take all the IB agreements? Pilots at IB are paid better than BA for example and CC wouldn't want to see the introduction of Iberia staff travel regs!