favorite airline

[MSUjohn]

19 hours ago, wowzz said:

What do you mean by "mis-steps" of BA? One could argue that their current level of profitability means that in fact they took the correct steps.

if I am not mistaken, they where struggling hard a few years back.

[MSUjohn]

 

given my "euro traveler" inflight experience, why would I just not fly Ryanair, easyjet or wizz? they looked much less expensive. 

 

this is not snark or a rhetorical question. seriously, as I have never flown with the 3 dominant ULLC in Europe. 

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, MSUjohn said:

this is not snark or a rhetorical question. seriously, as I have never flown with the 3 dominant ULLC in Europe. 

A perfectly reasonable question.  No reason not to fly with any of the locos,  although personally I avoid Ryanair, as they tend to be a little cavalier with their attitude to flight cancellations,  and efforts to avoid their responsibilities under EU261.

In many cases however,  BA can actually be as  cheap as the locos,  especially if you have checked baggage. The other big advantage that BA has,  is that you can directly connect to its European network when flying into LHR from outside Europe.  You therefore avoid the  cost and inconvenience of having to transfer to SEN, LTN, STN or LGW if you want to use a loco.

 

 

 

 

[sverigecruiser]

10 hours ago, MSUjohn said:

 

given my "euro traveler" inflight experience, why would I just not fly Ryanair, easyjet or wizz? they looked much less expensive. 

 

 

One big reason to choose British Airways is that they are part of a big allience.

 

If my BA flight from Arlanda is cancelled I might be able to fly with Iberia or Finnair instead but if a flight from Skavsta with Ryanair is cancelled I have no option and I won't fly at all.

 

[sverigecruiser]

On 1/3/2020 at 8:50 PM, MSUjohn said:

 

have you flown SAS long-haul? even being an aviation geek, i never seem to hear much about SAS.

 

 

A few times but it was more than ten years ägo.

 

The last long-haul I flew with them was Chicago-Stockholm and when I asked for a second bottle of wine with dinner I sas told "no". After dinner I tried again but then I got the answer that they only served avec so I couldn't get any wine. At that time it was no problem to get all drinks I wanted on BA even on the short flights between Arlanda and Heathrow so I think that was very cheap of SAS.

[sumiandkage]

11 hours ago, MSUjohn said:

 

given my "euro traveler" inflight experience, why would I just not fly Ryanair, easyjet or wizz? they looked much less expensive. 

 

this is not snark or a rhetorical question. seriously, as I have never flown with the 3 dominant ULLC in Europe. 

 

For me, I've got about 60K Avios in a BA Household to burn, and given where my home airport is (it's an outstation and hard to find AA saver availability) and high long haul fuel surcharges on award redemptions,  it's actually best to use them for intra-Europe travel the next time I'm over there. 

 

I think Avios collection drive a lot of short haul BA ticket purchases. 

 

As to why 60K Avios, doesn't everyone have a bunch of random frequent flyer accounts where little to none of the mile or point balance came from actually flying the airline in question or have I been hanging around FT too much? 

[MSUjohn]

6 hours ago, sumiandkage said:

doesn't everyone have a bunch of random frequent flyer accounts where little to none of the mile or point balance came from actually flying the airline in question or have I been hanging around FT too much? 

 

I only have skymiles. when I fly in Europe I try to fly air france or klm to receive skymiles.

[MSUjohn]

7 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

One big reason to choose British Airways is that they are part of a big allience.

 

If my BA flight from Arlanda is cancelled I might be able to fly with Iberia or Finnair instead but if a flight from Skavsta with Ryanair is cancelled I have no option and I won't fly at all.

 

very good point. it is the same in the US with the 3 ultra low costs. a lot of the flights are from secondary (or even tertiary) air ports and oftentimes  only offer one flight a day (or in the case of allegiant 2 or 3 days per week), if your flight is canceled you are going to....miss your cruise.

7 hours ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

A few times but it was more than ten years ägo.

 

The last long-haul I flew with them was Chicago-Stockholm and when I asked for a second bottle of wine with dinner I sas told "no". After dinner I tried again but then I got the answer that they only served avec so I couldn't get any wine. At that time it was no problem to get all drinks I wanted on BA even on the short flights between Arlanda and Heathrow so I think that was very cheap of SAS.

 

that does sound very cheap, but that was like you said over ten years ago. 10 people years might as well be 5000 airline biz years !

[sumiandkage]

26 minutes ago, MSUjohn said:

 

I only have skymiles. when I fly in Europe I try to fly air france or klm to receive skymiles.

 

While I always credit butt-in-seat Skyteam miles to Delta, I've got low six figures of Flying Blue miles from e-rewards and other survey programs, shopping portals and a bunch of times when they had promotional offers for transferring in AmEx MR points at a better than 1:1 ratio. I figure I'm going to get one of their 50% off award redemption sales to align well with my travel window one of these times.  

[bennybear]

Ryanair is only doable if you pay for more leg room and luggage Well ahead.    They Have the least leg room I have seen,  there isn’t even room for the safety cards, they hand them out and collect them again.  

 

Easy jet is slightly better.  BA  is our choice for most intra European, but beware their business class has limited seat pitch and a blocked off middle seat. 

[sverigecruiser]

8 hours ago, MSUjohn said:

 

that does sound very cheap, but that was like you said over ten years ago. 10 people years might as well be 5000 airline biz years !

 

I know that's a long time ago and that minor thing is NOT my reason to prefer BA.

 

I have heared that SASs drink service on long-houl now is more limited than on BA even officially. Less drinks included and no Champagne available.

 

I also prefer to connect in Europe when flying to America and then British Airways is a much better choice than SAS. If nonstop from Arlanda is possible, for example to New York, I still prefer to fly via Heathrow because then I have more options if the flight is cancelled.

 

I do fly with SAS sometimes, for example from Stockholm to Oslo, but the last time I tried to do it my flight was cancelled because of a pilotstrike on SAS. I had to take the train instead. I know that can happen on any airline.

[wowzz]

8 hours ago, bennybear said:

there isn’t even room for the safety cards, 

Nothing to do with seat pitch. The seat backs don't have pockets because (a) it makes the seats cheaper to produce, and (b) it reduces the time it takes to clean the aircraft. 

[waterbug123]

10 hours ago, bennybear said:

BA  is our choice for most intra European, but beware their business class has limited seat pitch and a blocked off middle seat. 

 

That's common on other airlines as well, not unique to BA.

[FlyerTalker]

14 hours ago, bennybear said:

Ryanair is only doable if you pay for more leg room and luggage Well ahead.    They Have the least leg room I have seen,  there isn’t even room for the safety cards, they hand them out and collect them again.  

 

Easy jet is slightly better.  BA  is our choice for most intra European, but beware their business class has limited seat pitch and a blocked off middle seat. 

 

Let's get the factual data:

 

Seat pitch on:

 

EasyJet - 29 inches

Ryanair - 30 inches

British - 29-31 inches depending on aircraft.

 

[bennybear]

Interesting.   We flew in the last row on Ryanair and I’m average height and had to sit with my knees sideways,  maybe that row is an anomaly?   The next time we paid for the premium but it wasn’t a premium experience by any means.  Easy jet we also paid for premium.   I was surprised that BA short haul economy has the same pitch as business.  .    

[FlyerTalker]

35 minutes ago, bennybear said:

The next time we paid for the premium but it wasn’t a premium experience by any means. 

 

All of which highlights the perils of making any kind of assumption with terms like "premium" when applied to air travel.  On Ryanair, "premium" is nothing more than either a bit more legroom and/or closer to the front.  But they don't make any representation that it is anything else.

[bennybear]

True.  My real surprise was the lack of legroom in BA business in Club Europe. 

[Zach1213]

3 hours ago, bennybear said:

I was surprised that BA short haul economy has the same pitch as business.  .    

 

BA has some very tough competition from Ryanair and Easyjet. They can't charge more, because people only go based on price (well, 98% of the time). They likely have higher operating expenses, too. So the only thing they can do is stuff more seats in the aircraft and operate in the way way Ryanair and Easyjet do. 

[sverigecruiser]

1 hour ago, Zach1213 said:

 

BA has some very tough competition from Ryanair and Easyjet. They can't charge more, because people only go based on price (well, 98% of the time). They likely have higher operating expenses, too. So the only thing they can do is stuff more seats in the aircraft and operate in the way way Ryanair and Easyjet do. 

 

Isn't the biggest reason that it's then easier to be flexible with how many rows they have in business and economy?

[Zach1213]

30 minutes ago, sverigecruiser said:

 

Isn't the biggest reason that it's then easier to be flexible with how many rows they have in business and economy?

 

That's true, yeah. 

[MSUjohn]

23 hours ago, bennybear said:

BA  is our choice for most intra European, but beware their business class has limited seat pitch and a blocked off middle seat. 

that is the norm in Briton and the continent.

[MSUjohn]

other side of the Atlantic airlines I have flown on.

Icelandair: boston to Amsterdam via Reykjavik (first time overseas nearly 20 years ago). intra-Europe: BA, KLM & air france.

 

 

[Fairgarth]

On 1/6/2020 at 12:46 AM, wowzz said:

Nothing to do with seat pitch. The seat backs don't have pockets because (a) it makes the seats cheaper to produce, and (b) it reduces the time it takes to clean the aircraft. 

 

It also reduces weight and weight is the enemy.  The non-reclining seats are lighter than the reclining kind.  When the price of fuel went up a few years ago, Ryanair also removed the pull-down window shades and the headrest covers.  Way off topic, but when I flew Lufthansa on a European route they served me a beer in a glass bottle.  The weight....the weight!!

[Globaliser]

On 1/4/2020 at 2:30 PM, FlyerTalker said:

 

A former regular here, Globaliser, introduced me to this delightful video.  I'm posting the link to the version with subtitles, so you might easier understand the accent.

 

https://youtu.be/HPyl2tOaKxM

 

 

Thanks for continuing to introduce this to people!

 

Funnily enough, the girls are back. For the last few years, they've had to take a break from performing together, but they're all well and on the road again. So if you want to see them perform their best-known song live, pick a date!

[Michidoeme]

Singapore Airlines