My Recent BA World Traveller Plus Experience

[straitman]

"From Worst to First" by Gordon Bethune about Continental Airlines going from worst big airline to best in 1 year. Good book, recomend it, a bit repetative but shows how any airline can get it's act together, even Tiger.

A great book that I highly recommend.

 

[BAM1748]

Another great airline book "Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the destruction of Eastern Airlines". (or how to take a top 3 airline and make it worst in the country)

Which gives a taste of the lead up to how Continental got into problems through poor micro management and tried to cost cut its way to profitability. (which guess what, doesn't work if the product is lousy)

You'd think the board of an airline would have realised that when railroad workers went out on strike in a secondary boycott because your CEO (Frank Lorenzo) was treating the workers so bad they would have done something. But no, they left it until a Judge in the bankruptcy court ordered a change.

Another great read on airline management style.

 

[albatross710]

Another great airline book "Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the destruction of Eastern Airlines". (or how to take a top 3 airline and make it worst in the country)

Which gives a taste of the lead up to how Continental got into problems through poor micro management and tried to cost cut its way to profitability. (which guess what, doesn't work if the product is lousy)

You'd think the board of an airline would have realised that when railroad workers went out on strike in a secondary boycott because your CEO (Frank Lorenzo) was treating the workers so bad they would have done something. But no, they left it until a Judge in the bankruptcy court ordered a change.

Another great read on airline management style.

Never underestimate bad management.

 

[mikeyjames]

I would also humbly suggest that a thankyou note to said CEO and his staff may be in order.

I'm working on it now

Cheers

Mick

 

[Stealth]

Mikeyjame's experience mirrors mine on a World Traveller Plus flight from SIN-LHR-SIN in Aug/Sept this year. The aeroplanes were tatty (747-400), the seats needed new foam, and no matter how I sat I could not get comfortable. Food was absolutely appalling, even for economy. I returned the meal out of LHR and told the hostie that it was unacceptable. When the same hostie served breakfast she asked if I would like to try it, I said "they couldn't mess up breakfast surely", her reply was "oh yes, they have the ability to mess up any meal".

Other major issues were:

. An eight + hour delay on departure from SIN due to crew hours. This was because the inbound flight had to return to LHR due tech problems and the same crew took the second departure. So BA knew as soon as it departed the crew would not be able to crew an on time dep from SIN.
. We were put in a good hotel, but had to wait at the transfer desk for more than 45 minutes to have boarding passes reassigned. Then we had the longest coach ride I've had in Singapore to get to the hotel. To cut a long story short, I had about 4 hours sleep after spending 10 hours in Singapore.
. We arrived at Terminal 4. What is a supposed 'flag carrier' doing using T4 in its current state?
. On checking in at LHR for the return flight, they were unable to check my baggage through to Perth because of a computer 'problem'. So on-line check-in saved nothing, as I then had to queue at the QF desk to give them my baggage tag numbers.
. T4 was crowded with long queues for any refreshments.
. At the gate my seat was changed, supposedly because of a failure of the entertainment system. I suspect that was untrue and they were accommodating a staff member or similar by giving them my preferred seat.
. Food was lousy, aeroplane again very tatty.
. Cabin crew were pleasant, but obviously embarrassed by the state of things. No bottled water, just plastic cups on an infrequent basis. One of the crew did find me some snacks from Business Class to replace the lousy food.
.Complete three questionnaires, including one on-line, about the flight. No response received so far. Registered a complaint about not receiving any response after a month, no response so far.

Having flown various classes throughout the US, Europe and Australia, this was the worst deal I have ever encountered. Its sad because I have fond memories of the BA (and BOAC) of old.

My Biz class flight on QF from SIN to PER was such a welcome relief!

 

[Dalescott]

Why would anybody fly with BA or for that matter Qantas. I have started to fly SAS or Qatar. If I fly in Asia, I fly SIA or Thai. I had the misfortune to fly BA world traveller plus only once. It was dirty, entertainment system didn't work, FA,s were at best disinterested, with one down right rude.
I sometimes wonder if the Airlines monitor this and other internet sites for comments, as I have found that they don't know what customer relations is ( Emirates please take note).

 

[Dave Noble]

Why would anybody fly with BA or for that matter Qantas. I have started to fly SAS or Qatar. If I fly in Asia, I fly SIA or Thai. I had the misfortune to fly BA world traveller plus only once. It was dirty, entertainment system didn't work, FA,s were at best disinterested, with one down right rude.
I sometimes wonder if the Airlines monitor this and other internet sites for comments, as I have found that they don't know what customer relations is ( Emirates please take note).

A good reason for flying an airline is the conveniance. From Australia, to travel on SQ, the only non-stop destination is Singapore, whilst QF has more options ex Australia. When travelling within Asia, I take the best fare option for business travel, so have happily used AF,LH, MH and CX depending on the journey

My personal experiences of BA WT+ have been v favourable; much more comfortable than economy class but significantly cheaper than busines class plus had laptop power.

Dave

 

[Commuter]

Very interesting to read some poor experiences on WT+. I haven't had any cause to complain about WT+ services or the state of the aircraft yet. Maybe I have been lucky every time. But basically on BA WT+, what you get is economy class service with a bit better seat. That's all they are offering. My expectations are low, and I show no interest in IFE, so I wouldn't even know if it's working or not. As long as the seat works, that's all I want.

As for T4 - it's a rubbish terminal but that's not BA or QF's fault. Even the lounge has been rather poor since they closed the F lounge. They are moving to T3 on 29 Oct anyway, so T4 issues are nearly over.

As for the food and seat, I had a similar incident on QF PE, despite the seat being not so aged. Unbeknown to me, I believe it was a bit broken. The food was genuinely inedible.

I nowadays take the view that "bad things happen when travelling" and have started to become more pragmatic about everything. With the amount of travelling I've been doing, if I let every slip-up bother me, I'd have gone mad by now.

 

[Jonobigblind]

My last WT+ experience from LHR to SFO in Feb was pretty good (on the whole). Got a decent priced advance fare and had attentive service all the way (cabin 75% full). A problem with AVOD meant that films were interrupted but Macbook with Premier Manager more than passed the time. In seat power worked fine so was able to carry on for hours.

I sympathise with the lack of cleanliness and issues with facilities on the OP's flight but I think it's a bit quick to judge the whole experience based on one flight.

The issue with the AVOD was passed on via a comments card and complaint made post landing (just to be sure). Got two prompt responses and a more than generous miles compensation bonus.

All this prompted me to make my next US trip in WT+, flying to LAS for NYE.

Things do go wrong but they were minor in my experience and they were corrected quick smart. Until this changes I'm happy to stick there and earn miles to do my SYD trip in J (hopefully F) in 2011.

 

[Stealth]

As for T4 - it's a rubbish terminal but that's not BA or QF's fault. Even the lounge has been rather poor since they closed the F lounge. They are moving to T3 on 29 Oct anyway, so T4 issues are nearly over.

You are presumably a very tolerant flyer. The terminal is the airline's fault, they choose to put those flights through it, not BAA. I do not dispute the claim that the WT+ is economy plus more leg room. The issue I have is that its a very poor airline, regardless of the travel class.

 

[Stealth]

I sympathise with the lack of cleanliness and issues with facilities on the OP's flight but I think it's a bit quick to judge the whole experience based on one flight.

The issue with the AVOD was passed on via a comments card and complaint made post landing (just to be sure). Got two prompt responses and a more than generous miles compensation bonus.

Comparing like with like is an issue here. There is evidently more competition on the routes to the US than the Kangaroo route. Please explain why anyone should 'sympathise' with scruffy aeroplanes and poor food? Neither complaint could be levied against many of the airlines that I have flown, both in Asia and beyond.

So far, no response from the AVODs on the flights (both ways were just as bad) or the post flight complaint to the BA web site. Poor management does not attract my sympathy.

 

[Jonobigblind]

I meant sympathy for you having to sit in a sub par environment for the money spent.