British Airways
Gosh, that has made me feel quite sad and humble - Best wishes in your retirement Rog747
Just tried to book some flight from/to Italy on BA - some aren't bookable in fact they say they can't be found - even though, for example, they're flying the route BOL-LHR daily this last week. There's no central list of where the hell they are flying to either - or I couldn't find it.....
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Yes - but if you type BOL, or the first few characters of any destination name, into the booking engine it will find (in this case) Bologna without any problem.
It's clever enough to understand that you don't really want to fly to Ballykelly.
It's clever enough to understand that you don't really want to fly to Ballykelly.
BA haven't routinely "done" fire arches for retirements for years - if at all in living memory at LHR,
Sept 2013 coming back from JNB (Good grief that’s 7 years ago)Only problem was I couldn’t properly make my welcome to Heathrow PA ...
It's quite common in large companies that an employee comes to work as usual one day, receives a phonecall from their manager asking them to come to a meeting room where HR are present (act as witness and ensure process is followed strictly in case employee decides to sue for unfair dismissal), pre-prepared "consultation" papers are handed over, employee is escorted to their desk to put belongings in cardboard box and then escorted off premises. Phonecall to walking out the building in 20 mins. No sympathy, no support, just HR following a process
HR cannot act as a witness, they are employed by the company and it would automatically get chucked out at an Employment Tribunal. HR are part of the process not divorced from it.
The majority of redundancies at middle / senior level are compromise agreements where employee is met, talked to by HR and Line manager, provided a statement of potential payoffs and given time to consider this as well as an opportunity to consult an external solicitor.
Employee will still be paid during this consultation period until a second meeting where they can have a witness with them if required.
Majority of people happy to sign a compromise agreement as it is generally enhanced and way better that statutory redundancy.
It's quite common in large companies that an employee comes to work as usual one day, receives a phonecall from their manager asking them to come to a meeting room where HR are present (act as witness and ensure process is followed strictly in case employee decides to sue for unfair dismissal), pre-prepared "consultation" papers are handed over, employee is escorted to their desk to put belongings in cardboard box and then escorted off premises. Phonecall to walking out the building in 20 mins. No sympathy, no support, just HR following a process
Back on topic, will BA really have to fly 80% of their intended winter slots to hang onto them at LHR in 20/21?
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Back on topic, will BA really have to fly 80% of their intended winter slots to hang onto them at LHR in 20/21?
During September, BA are operating a short haul schedule with frequencies significantly lower than 2019. From 1st October 2020, the schedule for tickets on sale seems to revert back to 2019 levels. Fare on rival reputable airlines on these routes are low which suggests demand remains weak and BA going from a 1x daily on dates up to 30-Sep to then going (for example) 5x daily beginning 01-Oct is definitely not credible. I'd like to book a ticket in October and ideally support BA but I just don't trust the schedule to be operated, and having my ticket rescheduled for a flight 6 hours different isn't what I want - and I have no desire to spend half an hour waiting on a phone arguing with someone why I should get a refund instead of a voucher if this happens
Anyone know when BA will publish accurate October schedules for short-haul ?
Anyone know when BA will publish accurate October schedules for short-haul ?
"Anyone know when BA will publish accurate October schedules for short-haul ?"
When the COVID vaccine is in place - right now we can expect on-going changes at a days notice until that turns up.
When the COVID vaccine is in place - right now we can expect on-going changes at a days notice until that turns up.
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During September, BA are operating a short haul schedule with frequencies significantly lower than 2019. From 1st October 2020, the schedule for tickets on sale seems to revert back to 2019 levels. Fare on rival reputable airlines on these routes are low which suggests demand remains weak and BA going from a 1x daily on dates up to 30-Sep to then going (for example) 5x daily beginning 01-Oct is definitely not credible. I'd like to book a ticket in October and ideally support BA but I just don't trust the schedule to be operated, and having my ticket rescheduled for a flight 6 hours different isn't what I want - and I have no desire to spend half an hour waiting on a phone arguing with someone why I should get a refund instead of a voucher if this happens
Anyone know when BA will publish accurate October schedules for short-haul ?
Anyone know when BA will publish accurate October schedules for short-haul ?
1) A rush to vaccinate as in let someone else be a guinea pig
2) IAG will run out of money long before we see a vaccine that will properly help matters
Commercially this is unknown territory. Boris today has announced "COVID wardens" and an incoherent new mish mash of conflicting policies which differ across the four home nations. The US is heading towards a race war and/or culture war, and the summer holiday season, such as it was, is almost over. With business travel quite sensibly nowhere right now, forward bookings across both long and short haul are nowhere near bouncing back, less so as winter arrives. Hence the only way to generate anything booking wise is to offer multiple daily options that suit the widest possible travel needs, knowing full well you'll operate likely only one and possibly the day before or afterwards. It's part of something vs. all of nothing. The timetable has been an aspiration only since March.
If an airline says to me "the aircraft and crew are all available; maybe we fly in the morning, or maybe we fly in the evening instead.... or perhaps we might not fly until tomorrow - we will tell you when we make up our minds", my reaction would be "OK, my time is valuable to me, my need to fly with your company is not critical and I don't have confidence that you will make a good faith attempt at what you said you would do in the marketing about a scheduled flight departure time, so I won't buy a ticket".
The last time I saw an airline giving complete fantasy flight times was in Somalia.... I don't expect a schedule 6 months away with Covid but just 3 weeks ahead of a flight date, major airlines in Europe should be able to communicate a roughly accurate plan
The last time I saw an airline giving complete fantasy flight times was in Somalia.... I don't expect a schedule 6 months away with Covid but just 3 weeks ahead of a flight date, major airlines in Europe should be able to communicate a roughly accurate plan
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If an airline says to me "the aircraft and crew are all available; maybe we fly in the morning, or maybe we fly in the evening instead.... or perhaps we might not fly until tomorrow - we will tell you when we make up our minds", my reaction would be "OK, my time is valuable to me, my need to fly with your company is not critical and I don't have confidence that you will make a good faith attempt at what you said you would do in the marketing about a scheduled flight departure time, so I won't buy a ticket".
The last time I saw an airline giving complete fantasy flight times was in Somalia.... I don't expect a schedule 6 months away with Covid but just 3 weeks ahead of a flight date, major airlines in Europe should be able to communicate a roughly accurate plan
The last time I saw an airline giving complete fantasy flight times was in Somalia.... I don't expect a schedule 6 months away with Covid but just 3 weeks ahead of a flight date, major airlines in Europe should be able to communicate a roughly accurate plan
Schedule changes are largely driven by customer booking behaviour and government restrictions. Neither of which are under the control of any airline or predictable with traditional revenue management models.
You only have to see the announcement by easyJet today that they will reduce flights to the Greek islands in the wake of UK government restrictions to see this isn’t solely a BA issue. Every airline is in the same boat. In an environment of massively reduced revenue and demand, the fastest way to lose money is to fly empty aircraft around the skies. And every airline is trying to limit losses.
Any airline schedule is no doubt published in the expectation that it will operate, they need it to do so in order to make morey. As the date approaches and it becomes apparent that it would be a massive financial loss, it’s not unreasonable to expect changes. This is unpredictable and unprecedented. All bets are off.
My argument is not that an airline should fly 5x per day when there are pax sufficient only to fill a single aircraft - I expect an airline to avoid flying fresh air around. However I don't expect an airline to claim it will fly 5x per day when it know full well there will likely be pax only for a 1x daily flight, and its rival airlines have chosen to ensure their promised schedules are credible based on current demand. Demand for flight will fall rapidly in the event of quarantine being imposed, but it very rarely quintuples overnight, even if quarantine is released
Perhaps advertising 2x daily which ends up as 1x daily 14 days ahead of schedule would be a fair compromise. Advertising fantasy schedules while rivals try to be credible leads to a distorted market
Perhaps advertising 2x daily which ends up as 1x daily 14 days ahead of schedule would be a fair compromise. Advertising fantasy schedules while rivals try to be credible leads to a distorted market
COVID 19 has distorted the market.
Current behaviour as per the above, is a genuine desperation to try and stop their businesses from failing. This is existential for much of the travel industry.
Current behaviour as per the above, is a genuine desperation to try and stop their businesses from failing. This is existential for much of the travel industry.
