Does HfP have an ‘anti-BA’ bias?

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I received a private message via Flyertalk yesterday from a British Airways employee who said, to paraphrase, that he was fed up with the anti-BA bias that he felt runs through the site.

In my experience most BA employees are not hugely enamoured by everything done by their employer, so I wouldn’t want to dismiss his complaint on that basis. In some ways, I am tempted to take it more seriously!

What pushed him over the edge was this line in my review of the Eurostar lounge at St Pancras yesterday:

British Airways A350

“There is also no shortage of reading material, which always wins brownie points with me, [and] which makes the weak British Airways Galleries selection look pitiful.”

Ironically, I received this message whilst sitting in a two hour meeting with a senior IAG employee who at no time expressed any issues with my content.

My response was this:

I need to use a common frame of reference for comparison purposes in reviews. The logical comparison point is with British Airways because that is an airline that most HfP readers fly. If I had compared the Eurostar magazine selection to the typical Singapore Airlines lounge magazine selection, it wouldn’t have meant much to 95% of the readers.

(I could, I admit, have pointed out that the breakfast on offer in the Eurostar lounge is far worse than the breakfast offered by British Airways – and I didn’t. Magazines in lounges are a personal bug-bear of mine, however, as long-term readers will know.)

It makes no sense for me to run down British Airways. Avios, and the fact that you can use Avios to redeem for aspirational flying experiences, is a key driver of this site. If I was permanently criticising BA it would not be great for business.

I don’t think there is a single frequent flyer in the country who genuinely believes that British Airways is offering the market leading product compared to Qatar, Etihad, Emirates etc. Even American Airlines, unbelievably (given its history), is now offering a business class product on most London flights which beats the BA seat on most criteria. I would lose all of my credibility if my writing implied that BA could do no wrong.

I have 13 BA flights in my diary between now and mid-September …..

It is also true, to be honest, that criticism is easier to write, and more interesting to read, than praise. However, for the record, here are a few things I honestly believe even though the general opinion out there is often the opposite:

Heathrow Terminal 5 is a fantastic facility

British Airways afternoon tea in Club Europe is OK and I’m not sure what would be a better option

The British Airways lounges at Heathrow are generally very good and are worth spending time in

The Club World cabin – irrespective of how you find the seats – on the new 787 aircraft is a very classy piece of work

The Avios booking system at ba.com is, in terms of ease of use and the number of partner airlines which can be booked with it, almost best in class

Reward Flight Saver – and the BA short haul reward pricing structure in general – is a good idea and puts other frequent flyer programmes short haul pricing to shame

The guaranteed ‘4 + 2’ reward availability for Avios seats on BA is a genuine improvement (although 4 + 4 would be even better)

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express ‘2 for 1’ voucher is the most attractive credit card reward in the UK

I obviously need to have a lie down now after such a rare burst of BA enthusiasm 🙂

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Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

harry says:

9 Jun9 June 08:28

OK here’s my penny-pinching BA gripe and a solution!

I really like exit row seats because I am a big tough tall guy and can’t really squeeze into the normal ET legroom without knocking knees with my neighbour.

BUT BA recently started charging £18 to get exit row seats, which I’m not paying for a 2 hour flight!

The way round it is to check in @ T-24 – BUT DON’T PRINT YOUR TICKET (or save to dpf).

Then at the airport, print off your ticket at the self-service check-in machines and you’ll be given the chance to move free of charge to an exit row seat (if there are any left).
- Ken says:
  
  9 Jun9 June 09:40
  
  Your airport still has BA self-serve check-in machines? They were removed from Glasgow a while back for some unknown reason.
  - harry says:
    
    9 Jun9 June 09:45
    
    You can always ask the check in agent to move you to exit row FOC – but you’re relying on their goodwill
Oh! Matron! says:

9 Jun9 June 08:35

Silos. Silos are the problem. I work in an IT function at a large IT company and have the luxury of working across multiple functions. I meet many people who are very siloed in their job, and don’t have the same broad visioned views.

When you work in a company who compete with others, unless you are lucky, you’ll never experience your competitor’s products, and, thus, become very narrow minded (not consciously, I may add). You may believe that you have a fantastic product, and are doing enough to stay competitive and in business.

So, when you read criticism elsewhere, it’s very easy to take this personally, and as an attack on the very company you work for.

Whilst probably not warranted, I do understand your readers email.
James Alexander says:

9 Jun9 June 08:45

Re The accusation that you dissed BA and your effusive response………Methinks you are justifying too much !!

I am BA Gold and see much (not all) of the criticism of BA as valid.

Stop apologising and over-justifying your critiques!
Lady London says:

9 Jun9 June 08:49

And the magazines are still cr*p.
Bob says:

9 Jun9 June 08:50

I’ve always had the impression that the comments on here are quite hard on BA (rather than the articles) but only because of the familiarity we have with BA – just as people can be a lot more critical of family than of strangers because their flaws come to mind more readily. If BA was based in Buenos Aires, I think we’d refer to it more in terms of how lucky those passengers are to have such a reliable and professional airline transporting them around the world. I’ve flown on five airlines in the last six months, 12 flights on BA which were not the most plush but all ran like clockwork.
krys_k says:

9 Jun9 June 08:54

If anything it’s the commenters that are at times anti-BA. I’ve read so many comments where someone is peeved that they weren’t addressed in the right way in Club Europe, or that the food wasn’t up to scratch in First, or that the seats aren’t aligned the right way in World. I for one, having discovered HFP a year-and-a-half ago, am pleased as punch that I can now travel in Buisness in Eruope and the world when previously I was using Ryanir and whatever the cheapest flight, no matter how long the layover.
- Polly says:
  
  9 Jun9 June 09:12
  
  Agree. We also flew Paddy Air back and forth to Dub like a bus route. Now we can afford to pick and chose eg Y out and CE back. Or even CE both ways if Y is n/a. Plus we usually pick up a J sale somewhere on their routing, so we now fly BA more than others. My only beef is that even as Silver, we cannot access the AerLingus biz lounge in Dub, it’s reserved for Aer Lingus flyers only. Would be a nice change from the usual DAA one they offer. So thanks HFP, we do fly BA more, QR a close second! and both QR and BA should be grateful for your publicity, and fair even comments. Term 5 helps too with its proximity.
Seb says:

9 Jun9 June 09:02

Well the cold hard truth is that BA’s product is now bang average. I mean there is literally no other way of putting it. There hard product on long haul is beaten by at least seven other airlines, while there soft product is beaten by a similar number. Euro traveller is now just a glorified Easyjet, but a lot more expensive to get a decent seat. There lounges at Gatwick are a joke. The lounges at Heathrow are decent but are either beaten by Virgin or matched by others. Their award avaibility is poor. The only thing that I think is great is T5 and even that isn’t really theirs.

Now what I said may be harsh, but I honestly think it’s the truth. BA are simply a textbook case of a company that has been squeezed from both ends (premium and budget) and doesn’t know what to do with iteself. As a result, it ends up an also ran as it doesn’t do anything badly but it doesn’t do anything great.
vindaloo says:

9 Jun9 June 09:04

I think your coverage of BA (and everyone else) is very fair and balanced. The truth is that the BA product is not the best, and CW from London (as opposed to Amsterdam, Dublin etc. via London) is not remotely competitive on price either. Some aspects of BAEC are good, but the vast majority of changes made to it, and to the BA product, in the past few years have been downgrades. A 50% hike in the Avios required for CW redemptions, for example, was a pretty major blow.

Where the changes are for the better you report them as such, for example the new semi-flexible ET fares that include a checked bag, where you were initially sceptical but then came back a couple of months later to praise what was a real enhancement.

So anyway, keep up the good work!