BA Connect....Maybe not so gloomy...

[CaptYanknBank]

News from ABTN (Air & Business Travel News) - 06Feb
BA CONNECT has unveiled it first aircraft in the new colour scheme, an
Embraer 145 used on routes out of Birmingham. On Tuesday (7 February)
David Evans, managing director of the British Airways subsidiary, will
confirm at a news conference a new route to Belfast City Airport,
competing directly with bmi. BA Connect also flies to Aberdeen,
Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Hamburg,
Hanover, Lyon, Madrid, Milan (Malpensa) and Paris CDG and has a
seasonal switch between Nice (summer only) and Geneva (winter only).
Mr Evans is also expected to discuss the rise of Coventry Airport in
competition with Birmingham and his expectations for BA Connect.
:ok:

[rhythm method]

Surely the only route that bmi operate from BHD is to LHR?

I couldn't see BA Connect challenging on that route (no slots into LHR to start with)

I can only assume that it is a journalistic misprint, and that it refers to direct competition with FlyBE on the BHD-BHX route.

Unless someone knows different?

[spanishflea]

Yes this report has surfaced on one of the multitude of threads about BA Connect and just looks like a Journo getting very confused between bmi Baby, FlyBe, BHD, and BFS.

[FlyZB]

Please forgive me if I'm being totally dumb here and have missed something, but I am a little confused. I thought the BA Connect service (ie - lower fares and pay as you go onboard service) started on the 1st Feb?
Well, my mum has just flown MAN - MXP this week and all the food/alcohol drinks etc were free on board. She said maybe it was something to do with her booking being made before the BA Connect service was launched. Surely this can't be the case. If it is then will this apply to my MAN - MAD flight which is in April but was booked before Christmas? Can someone please enlighten me?
Thanks.

[Pizzaro]

BA Connect tickets available from 1st Feb. Ba Connect service starts on the 26th March.

[FlyZB]

Cheers for clearing that 1 up. I probably had read that somewhere and I was just being ignorant :uhoh:. So no free drinks for me then. Booooo! I do think the system is slightly unfair. When I booked my flight, I paid for a full service fare and now I'm not getting 1. And whilst I'm not going to cry over losing out on a free bottle of wine worth about £3 and a make shift sandwich, it does annoy me that the fare has now decreased considerably and i'll be getting the same pay as you go service as those who have managed to get the BA Connect fare (some £40 cheaper than what I paid). Such is life i guess but it would have been much fairer if they used a similar system to what Monarch Scheduled used when they introduced a pay as you go service. Anyone that had booked before the date that they started charging for food/drink and hence paying a higher fare, were given a voucher to spend onboard. This is the way it should have been done. It's not the free booze i'm too bothered about, it's the principle of it. My MAN - MAD fare was far from cheap (certainly more expensive than EZY from LPL) and to get nothing out of it is rather poor in my book :mad:

[Ropey Pilot]

Why not write to their customer service department and ask for a refund of the difference in fares (with heavy use of disgruntled loyal customer - tell all my friends etc)?
Presumably they have sold you something which does not exist ie a flight with refreshments and then replaced it with an inferior product that does a similar thing but is not of the same quality. If you paid me for a leather flight bag and I sent you a vinyl one without offering any recompense presumably you would have some comeback? (but that is for legal types to argue over)
Only cost you 20 mins and the cost of a stamp - what do you have to lose?

[tallaonehotel]

Looks like this thread will end up becoming another BA bashing thread, don't think for a minute if Ryanair or easyjet were to introduce a new product they would refund you the difference after changing it-I think not, in the style of MOL...tough luck mate. Business is business.

[Pizzaro]

Flyzb

Check BA website you may be entilted to a refund. I'm sure there is something on this in the ba connect section.

[FlyZB]

Thanks, I shall have a look. I did consider getting in touch but I didn't think it would do much good. Sometimes fares do decrease on all airlines as a result of sales, special offers on internet discount and the like and this is something that you just have to accept if you paid a higher price previously. I have to be in Madrid on specific dates in April and with the exception of driving 30 miles west to LPL, I had no choice other than to pay an extremely high fare with BA. Tallaonehotel, from my point of view I wasn't slagging them off as such. I think it's excellent that you can get the same fare now for 40 quid cheaper and the only thing you forfeit with that fare is free in flight service, which is probably worth less than a tener for a return flight anyway. There are people that will benefit greatly from BA Connect and its new fare structure. Unfortunately, I am one of the people who have lost out. I am not complaining about the changes, more the way they have gone about it.

[tallaonehotel]

FlyZB

I can see your point, and apologise for my tone.
I understand that you have lost out, and I am pretty sure that you could be entitled to something.
As you could imagine, I work for the company, and all of the staff have been kept in the dark about the re-branding as much as the public. All of this has probably come to late for the 2000 odd of us working for BA Connect.

[tiggerific_69]

i believe they are offering a refund for the difference between the prices or you can cancel and have a full refund,this is what we were told on our Service Delivery Courses

[RMC]

FLYZB,
If I am i/c the Man/Mad flight and you havn't been able to get a refund let me know and I'll see you right on the flight. PM me and I'll let you know the details.:ok: