Surf's Up

It seems that BA have managed to piss off the surfing community:

"Since British Airways (BA) announced a ban on surfboards on all flights (effective from 6th Nov), the surf community across the world has been reacting to the shock new position and taking decisive action to push for a reversal on the decision.

In hoards, surfers from across the globe, including the World Number One, Mick Fanning, have been signing up to a global petition created by the British Surfing Association (BSA) and international governing bodies, key surf brands and thousands of individuals have been issuing statements and joining a group on the social networking site, Facebook.

Until now BA has had a reputation for being one of the most surfer friendly airlines but last weekend their new ruling stated that surfboards, alongside other items such as hang gliders, windsurfing boards and sails, kayaks or canoes, pole vaults or javelins, will no longer be accepted as baggage on any flights on the extensive BA network.

At the same time, BA proudly announced that it would be loosening any restrictions on their carriage of skis, snowboards, cycles, diving equipment and even guns, amongst other items. At the recent Ski and Snowboard Show in London, BA was advertising its allegiance to snow sports and pushing its free carriage of snow related equipment on all flights. "

Source Golbal Surf News

Spectacular Scottish Collapse

The Scotsman puts the boot into BA's reputation wrt its worsening punctuality in Scotland, calling it a "rapid and spectacular collapse".

It goes on to say that passengers would be better off flying with BMI or Easyjet, or even using the train. Then, for good measure, it castigates BA for being bottom of the league for lost baggage:

"Already among Britain's least punctual carriers, BA is being trounced by its rivals on every single route between Scotland and London. It is significantly worse than its competitors at every airport, on every route and in each direction.

A business traveller in Scotland wanting to be in a meeting in London is much more likely to arrive on time with BMI at Heathrow, EasyJet at Gatwick or ScotAirways at London City. The most reliable option of all is travelling by train, where 87.5 per cent of GNER trains between Edinburgh and London Kings Cross were on time in the first six months of this year, with a similar number for Virgin West Coast services between Glasgow and London Euston.

And even when BA passengers eventually reach their destination, they are less likely to arrive with their baggage - BA is bottom of the European league tables for lost luggage, according to data from the Air Transport Users Council.

Remember that mountain of 20,000 bags that built up at Heathrow in July?

Some of them still haven't been delivered to their owners."

Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland, has even tabled a motion in the House of Commons calling on management to restore levels of service in Scotland.

When will BA realise that they neglect their customers at their peril.

Saatchi's Revenge

M&C Saatchi has got its own back after former client British Airways dumped it by recreating its famous BA "face" ad from the 1980s for plucky business airline Silverjet.

M&C Saatchi - whose founders Maurice and Charles lost the BA account in October 2005 after a 23-year relationship - has created the copycat advert, complete with the same director, soundtrack and location, to build the fledgling Silverjet brand by piggy-backing off the iconic campaign.

The strategy extends as far as mimicking BA's famous "the world's favourite airline" tagline; Silverjet is using "the world's most civilised airline".

"With a brand new ad you have to throw a lot of media money at it to get recognition over a period of time as people tend to switch off," said Lawrence Hunt, chief executive of Silverjet.

"People will immediately recognise this as a classic travel ad so we have won half the battle and then the focus will be on what is different about it."

M&C Saatchi has recreated the original ad - which launched in 1989 showing thousands of people coming together collectively to form the features of a happy face - with the director Hugh Hudson, the soundtrack, Delibes' Flower Duet from Lakme, and the same locations in Los Angeles and Utah.

The new Silverjet ad will be particularly irritating for Bogle Bartle Hegarty, which won the BA account from M&C Saatchi, as it comes a month after the agency launched its long-awaited debut brand ad for the airline, which was widely panned.

The key difference with the Silverjet advert, that debuts on Sunday on ITV1 before the kick-off of England's quarter-final Rugby World Cup showdown with Australia, is that it only uses four people rather than the thousands in the original advert.

"We want to show that we are an exclusive private jet service, our planes carry 100 people not 400 and we leave from private airfields," added Mr Hunt.

The cost of making the ad and buying the media space is in the "hundreds of thousands," said Mr Hunt; this compares to BA's estimated £50m global ad budget.

Source The Guardian

Watch the advert here Silverjet

BA Loses Customers

BA September passenger traffic fell by 0.7% on the same month last year, but demand for business and first class travel was strong.

First and business class traffic rose by 6.6% while non-premium traffic was down by 2%.

Source Reuters

Viva Espana

I see that BA may be bidding for Iberia (it already owns 10% of the Spanish airline).

I wonder what that will do to the price of tickets to Spain?

See my earlier articles on the subject, where I encountered an "issue" with the pricing of tickets on the BA and Iberia websites:

-The World's Costliest Airline

-The World's Costliest Airline II

Not Alone

It seems that I am not the only customer of BA to be a "tad disappointed" with their service.

How surprising!

Never Again

Complaints