British Airways drops the Financial Times from its lounges

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British Airways has pulled the Financial Times from its flights, lounges and boarding gates.

The Sun, apparently, will continue to be available …..

This was clearly not a decision taken by the FT, since it has published the following advertisement encouraging people to fly with other airlines if they want to get their hands on a copy!

It would be interesting to see what was behind this. Historically, publishers paid to have their magazines put into airport lounges – I’m not sure about newspapers.

BA, to be fair, always seems to have imposed a quality threshold as well, something which many other airlines would do well to learn from.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Nick M says:

17 Apr17 April 13:25

I used a couple of £18 off £24 offers to get 3 boxes for £6 each (first one was the trial – just pay p&p).

I now have a couple of £10 off £20 offers – and bought the MSE box last night, email from Amex received instantly
mart says:

17 Apr17 April 13:41

OT
does anyone know that if converted tesco points to uber ,the credit will work in the USA?
- Genghis says:
  
  17 Apr17 April 13:43
  
  No. Credit is GBP only.
- xcalx says:
  
  17 Apr17 April 15:25
  
  Can’t get mine to work in UK.
- Alan says:
  
  17 Apr17 April 22:02
  
  No, only works in the UK.
TripRep says:

17 Apr17 April 14:00

Elegant trolling by Virgin

https://loyaltylobby.com/2019/04/17/british-airways-ends-partnership-with-the-financial-times-virgin-atlantic-reacts-promptly/
- Lady London says:
  
  17 Apr17 April 16:49
  
  A bit like that unfortunate adventure when British Airways changed their tailfins to weird irrelevant and exotic and Virgin Atlantic immediately changed their own tailfins to more ‘British’ traditional than British Airways’s own tailfins now were…!!!
  
  I’m glad this is looking bad for British Airways. It was a stupid decision.
  - Lady London says:
    
    17 Apr17 April 16:51
    
    If you were in any doubt about British Airways enacting true “British” whilst owned by the Spanish corporate group IAG, and if anyone still thinks of them as a flag carrier for wellknown high quality British things, well, now you know.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      17 Apr17 April 17:48
      
      But the shareholders ie owners are still nearly 100% British…
      - Rob says:
        
        17 Apr17 April 17:57
        
        The biggest shareholder is Qatari!
    - Shoestring says:
      
      17 Apr17 April 18:04
      
      Apart from Qatar, obvs 🙂
    - Lady London says:
      
      17 Apr17 April 19:59
      
      They might as well decorate a plane in Harrods colours then to make the point.
    - Doug M says:
      
      17 Apr17 April 20:11
      
      The ownership of BA via IAG is 21.5% Qatar Airways, and then a series of funds. I think assuming it’s British owned in any meaningful sense is quite a stretch.
    - Marcw says:
      
      17 Apr17 April 21:13
      
      45 (or 49)% is owned by shareholders from outside the EU (so hardly 100% British). It’s funny how BA and Virgin are not British ay all! (49% Delta and X% Air France KLM.). So funny
    - Doug M says:
      
      17 Apr17 April 23:29
      
      What’s funny? It’s a normal for a publicly quoted company to have broad ownership. Having shares quoted on a London based market doesn’t make you British. I’ve no idea but I’m sure someone will know roughly what proportion of the FTSE 100 is owned by non-UK.
      - Rob says:
        
        18 Apr18 April 08:41
        
        IAG has its head office in Madrid and is registered in Spain.
- Alan says:
  
  17 Apr17 April 22:03
  
  Haha love it 😀 my next long haul is with them so looking forward to it.
Journeying John says:

17 Apr17 April 15:02

Not sure about BA’s “quality threshold” given they used to always have the Mail and are still circulating the Sun… A little like their catering and cleaning there’s a significant gap between the marketing and the reality.
Anon says:

17 Apr17 April 15:16

I have been chasing Virgin for months as I haven’t received any miles due from from train tickets and partner airline trips (I’ve checked and all claims were eligible according to their terms and conditions). The response times have been awful.

Any recourse aside from continually emailing the addresses on this page? https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/miles/missing-miles.html
nickj says:

17 Apr17 April 16:16

anyone know if Virgin Atlantic gift vouchers and gift cards can be used to pay for taxes and fees on a redemption booking?
Alan says:

17 Apr17 April 17:55

Yes, credited fine although only got 16 rather than 18 beers and no snack so have gone back to beer52 to request the missing items!
berneslai says:

17 Apr17 April 18:47

OT: Plaza Premium Lounge T5. Does Amex platinum only allow the main cardholder to enter the lounge? Are supplementary card holders also given access? I’m travelling to LAX (2 adults, 2 children) and trying to work out most cost effective way of using a T5 lounge.
- Lady London says:
  
  17 Apr17 April 20:06
  
  Amex Plat has lounge entries for 2 people, per card and for each supp. so 2 parents each with a card could also get 2 kids in.
  
  If you don’t have access to BA lounges then IMV there is most definitely no other lounge worth accessing in T5. Spend your money in one of the restaurants like Gordon Ramsay’s instead.
  - Lady London says:
    
    17 Apr17 April 20:17
    
    *that’s “except Plaza Premium lounge”, other than the BA lounges, there’s no other lounge worth accessing – it;s either PP or BA. otherwise restaurants..
    - berneslai says:
      
      17 Apr17 April 20:55
      
      Thanks for your help!
- Rob says:
  
  17 Apr17 April 21:32
  
  Supp can go in with their Plat, plus a guest each.