Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
Short.
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British Airways
- Thread starter Scotrail12
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RailUK Forums
Hideous outbound flight time. Easyjet much more civilised.
TravelDream
Member
- Joined
- 7 Aug 2016
- Messages
- 1,158
Short-haul service on an A320. It's almost six hours coming back so take some food with you unless you want to buy onboard.
Long gone are the days when BMED operated routes like these with full onboard service and proper business seats.
Pretty standard for European airlines to depart Europe late at night and Tbilisi early in the morning. It means the plane is flying when it would usually be sat on the ground which makes the route for financially viable/ profitable.
Some people look at it like this - they can work all day, grab their stuff, head to the airport, and arrive for a full day at the destination. Perfect for squezing a long weekend away with only 1-2 days annual leave. Other people wouldn't like it at all.
I have done it, but am more on your side that it's not great for me.
It’s worth pointing out that whilst it is a short haul route, you do get better service compared to your average European short haul on BA, with Economy customers getting a blanket, snack box (half a sandwich + salad pot + dessert) and a drink including alcohol.
Blankets and pillows (similar as what you get in premium economy on longhaul) are also available in Business.
TravelDream
Member
- Joined
- 7 Aug 2016
- Messages
- 1,158
Didn't realise this. Nice as it is a long flight for a small bottle of water and mini bag of crisps.
gabrielhj07
Established Member
I didn’t try any films but it seemed to work fine.
RailWonderer
Established Member
I always like widebodies on short haul for the extra legroom in economy as well. London to Stockholm also has had 787-9s recently but these don't seem to be booked, just random substitutions.
No they don’t. The seats are either used as overspill for Club or extra economy space.
eoff
Member
I was taken down a peg as well (in part due to abandoning them during the year to ensure status elsewhere).
At least it was not two pegs.
These days they do pay for the licencing for the IFE.
LancasterRed
Member
- Joined
- 21 May 2018
- Messages
- 332
I've done one BA flight recently, JFK-LHR, and the legroom and IFE was a joke. I'm 5'6" and felt cramped, bought WiFi in the end.
Edit: (JFK to Heathrow)
Edit: (JFK to Heathrow)
BA does "soft landings" so you only ever drop by one level, unless you were gifted a status for free.
eoff
Member
This was/is not written in the BAEC/BAC terms and conditions and despite online assurances many of us were waiting to see if this would still happen.
Yes I was expecting to go straight back to Blue as I had only taken one revenue flight in the last year. No chance of me keeping Bronze next year as I'm just burning through my Avios balance and there is little value in that tier to make it worth aiming for.
I flew to Tenerife a couple of weeks ago and on both flights I was moved from my pre-selected aisle seat despite still being Silver. Onboard service in Economy was worse than recent flights Jet2 or EasyJet. Priority was also a mess for each flight. The lounge access was nice (I will especially miss the one at Gatwick) but not worth the thousands you would have to spend with BA to qualify. Under the old scheme, maintaining Silver was fairly easy (maybe too easy) once you understood how Tier Points worked.
cactustwirly
Established Member
In what way was the service worse than Jet2?
I've always found BA to be better than easyJet, the operations are sloppier but the aircraft interior and service always makes up for that, as well as the easier boarding and lack of baggage drama at the gate etc
Reliablebeam
Member
- Joined
- 14 Jun 2017
- Messages
- 272
@camflyer above is spot on about how poor the Euro Traveller product is.
I had an interesting one today with BA. I travel a reasonable amount with work but don't get away often on actual, proper holiday i.e. not days snatched around work trips. This year I thought to use BA flight + hotel to visit Jersey (I also have a points/status strategy in mind). I was booked both legs to go through Gatwick which I don't use very often, on Euroflyer, on a flight this morning. I was in the lounge when I get a notification that my flight had been cancelled - Jersey was fogged in (and in no small way by the met report I could see). We were told to go to the gate where people would 'help' us. No such joy - they told us to follow the instructions by email or app. Eventually this did update and I am now rebooked to go this weekend, cutting our holiday in half. I was contacted by BA holidays to the effect that they have modified the hotel booking and we will be refunded the 'lost' days.
I know the Euroflyer operation is a small outfit and operationally run on thin margins, but Easyjet and BA mainline ex LHR kept their flights live and ran them later that morning. I thought this was a bit of a poor show - we were told in no uncertain terms that rebooking with Easy or Aurigny off our own bat would neutralise any other assistance from BA. I'm also pretty sure they could have found us a closer replacement flight as well - maybe since I'm not silver they're not bothered!!
Then there was the saga of getting the bags back. We waited ages to be escorted to the Domestic luggage collection (belt 11?). We then waited ages there... Then the Captain of the flight joined us and told us that our bags had been sent to the International area of South terminal and we would have to be taken back outside to check in, and be escorted through the Crew security area, collect bags, and be escorted through customs. This was done in groups of 5 - when we got to the crew security search - this was as you might expect very basic and didn't have the 'new' scanner type - causing much kerfuffle about liquids.
I had an interesting one today with BA. I travel a reasonable amount with work but don't get away often on actual, proper holiday i.e. not days snatched around work trips. This year I thought to use BA flight + hotel to visit Jersey (I also have a points/status strategy in mind). I was booked both legs to go through Gatwick which I don't use very often, on Euroflyer, on a flight this morning. I was in the lounge when I get a notification that my flight had been cancelled - Jersey was fogged in (and in no small way by the met report I could see). We were told to go to the gate where people would 'help' us. No such joy - they told us to follow the instructions by email or app. Eventually this did update and I am now rebooked to go this weekend, cutting our holiday in half. I was contacted by BA holidays to the effect that they have modified the hotel booking and we will be refunded the 'lost' days.
I know the Euroflyer operation is a small outfit and operationally run on thin margins, but Easyjet and BA mainline ex LHR kept their flights live and ran them later that morning. I thought this was a bit of a poor show - we were told in no uncertain terms that rebooking with Easy or Aurigny off our own bat would neutralise any other assistance from BA. I'm also pretty sure they could have found us a closer replacement flight as well - maybe since I'm not silver they're not bothered!!
Then there was the saga of getting the bags back. We waited ages to be escorted to the Domestic luggage collection (belt 11?). We then waited ages there... Then the Captain of the flight joined us and told us that our bags had been sent to the International area of South terminal and we would have to be taken back outside to check in, and be escorted through the Crew security area, collect bags, and be escorted through customs. This was done in groups of 5 - when we got to the crew security search - this was as you might expect very basic and didn't have the 'new' scanner type - causing much kerfuffle about liquids.
BA really are poor at offering customers their legal rights - even though many of BA’s obligations are stated quite clearly on their own website. I have had refusals in the past year for rebooking outside of a 14 day window for a cancelled flight (flight was cancelled, alternative options would have meant too short of a trip so I’d asked to move the trip several months), and also been refused a rebooking on a different airline following a cancellation. In both cases I was able to resolve by asking to speak to a manager and being persistent, but it really is quite poor. I don’t think status has anything to do with it other than getting your call answered quicker - my examples are from the Gold line.
Does anyone find the website/app absolutely infuriating (could just stop there) when dealing with a time change, I was travelling from North America back to UK and my American leg had it's timings changed so it became an invalid connection.
Nowhere on the app or web did it tell me this, all I had on email and app was a notification saying that there had been a change in my booking.
I had no option to rebook there and have found their phone number difficult previously, in the end I sorted it at Heathrow on my flight out, they attempted to send me indirect again however with a bit of persistence I was put onto the direct.
Nowhere on the app or web did it tell me this, all I had on email and app was a notification saying that there had been a change in my booking.
I had no option to rebook there and have found their phone number difficult previously, in the end I sorted it at Heathrow on my flight out, they attempted to send me indirect again however with a bit of persistence I was put onto the direct.
Attachments
eoff
Member
They are supposed to get you there are the earliest opportunity, there are diffferent rules than normal for package holidays.
By the way I have never heard of Euroflyer, is it another attempt at Go?
Euroflyer is the operating subsidiary with super low cost contracts, not a new brand.
cactustwirly
Established Member
It's a low cost airline that operates short haul routes from Gatwick.
Service and branding is the same as BA mainline but a different AOC allows cost savings to better compete with easyJet
Reliablebeam
Member
- Joined
- 14 Jun 2017
- Messages
- 272
Euroflyer is BA branded subsidiary that operates short haul out of Gatwick (I think a lot of people don't realise this) - they have separate crew, separate callsign, although the pilots at least can apparently move into mainline BA and they follow BA SOP. It seems to have most of the older A32x series aircraft in the BA inventory and was put in place to run on the cheap.
Indeed, I've had better experiences with Vueling than BA when it comes to disruption. I think we were almost too dejected and shocked to fight with them this time, although I had some doubts they were acting correctly. Think it's too late to do anything now as we agreed to the reschedule..
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gabrielhj07
Established Member
EF & Mainline are both on the Master Seniority List, but they are separate AOCs & contracts. They have all of the remaining A321ceos, the G-GATx reg A320s, and whatever other A320ceos are displaced from LHR. For reasons unknown to me they run much closer to 'vanilla' Airbus SOPs than Mainline BA do.
Butts
Veteran Member
If you book a BA Holiday they normally give you a number to ring in the event of any problems.
From my experiences when things have gone wrong they have been good at rebooking flights and arranging hotel accommodation.
I was once stuck in Jersey overnight and they put me up in the Pomme d 'Or in St Helier and on a flight back the next morning.
From my experiences when things have gone wrong they have been good at rebooking flights and arranging hotel accommodation.
I was once stuck in Jersey overnight and they put me up in the Pomme d 'Or in St Helier and on a flight back the next morning.
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The irony is, if you're flying to somewhere at the extreme of short haul (Greece, Cyprus etc) you'd much rather have a EuroFlyer A321 than a Heathrow one as they aren't fitted with such awful seats!
This is an understatement! We got bumped following a tech issue resulting in a smaller aircraft...
1. Told we couldn't check in
2. Told this wasn't denied boarding
3. Told to go away and phone BA
4. BA's system hung up on me. Had to call the sales line
5. Customer services had "no record" of the issue, told me he'll change our flights but only as a one-time "favour"
6. Re-approached check-in desk to see if they had any no-shows: told as we had rebooked, they wouldn't let us on even if they had the space now.
7. Claiming EU261 via their ticketing system involved them just closing the ticket multiple times saying they've emailed an update and never did
8. Currently on month 6 of a small claims court claim and their pathetic defence was just a lie that we voluntarily changed our flights
9. Their offer at mediation was "we'll pay your costs, that's it, no compensation"
Waiting on a court date...
Ridiculous waste of court time. I have a recording of the call, a witness, a taxi receipt showing we arrived in good time etc and they still are proceeding with wasting the court's time
Did you consider CEDR out of interest? There's no obligation to use them, but it is a free, zero-risk option and they do seem to be at least somewhat willing to challenge and overrule BA. Moreover, whilst not a quick process, it's still quicker than a contested court case. I've won a couple of cases through them, along with one in court when BA failed to comply with the judge's directions...