Tag Archives for british airways.
British Airways elite members whose “Tier Point collection” (12 month member year) end date is between January – March 2022 will have their status extended for another year. Elites will have access to ‘pre-flight dining’ in lounges where this is offered regardless of class of service.. And Gold Guest List members will have access to British Airways Concorde Rooms.
It almost always seems better to solve the structural problems of the mainline carrier than to start a new airline. That seems harder ex ante but given the track record of ‘creating new airlines’ and walking away from economies of scale in the process the airline within an airline model hardly seems the uniquely better option.
Indeed, British Airways has already altered its short haul product to be more like a low cost leisure carrier, with less seat pitch than Ryanair (even in business class). They’ve reduced their labor costs through a series of contracts, B scales, and labor actions over the past dozen years – a process which accelerated during the pandemic.
While BA isn’t going to be mistaken for Qatar Airways business class, ANA’s new business class, or EVA Airways, it’s much improved. Whereas a couple of years ago it made sense to avoid British Airways even in favor of its joint venture partner American Airlines (for better seats and semi-functional internet on long haul) that’s no longer the case on many routes. British Airways is becoming flyable again.
Right now American Airlines doesn’t appear to have access to all of the British Airways award inventory that BA is offering – and that is bookable by other airline partners.
Capital One is building out a lounge network. The first lounge will be at Dallas – Fort Worth opening this year. Washington Dulles has been announced for 2022. And now they’ve announced plans for a Denver lounge, as well as two mileage transfer bonus promotions.
Club Europe isn’t very good on British Airways, it’s generally a coach seat without extra legroom and just a blocked middle seat, plus food. There’s less seat pitch than on Ryanair. Since the spoon is really the main differentiator between the classes on this class-conscious airline, ‘cutlery is for club class.
A dozen years ago Chase came out with a 100,000 point offer for their British Airways credit card. (The British Airways currency wasn’t called Avios then.) It was revolutionary and frequent flyers rushed to become British Airways Executive Club members and cardholders.
In recent years Chase has requested hefty spending to earn 100,000 Avios on the card, such as $20,000 in spend. Some members wanted to do this, since they were going to keep spending to earn a ‘Travel Together’ ticket that let them get a second award ticket on the same itinerary without spending additional miles. But it was a lot of spend. Now that’s changed.
BA announced that they are doubling their committed minimum award seat availability for coach and business class, and introducing minimum availability for premium economy. This is effective immediately for travel July 28, 2021 onward.
British Airways has a new nap lounge called Forty Winks” which opened on Monday in the First Class lounge at London Heathrow airport, which is currently open to business class passengers as well, and will also be a feature in London’s Concorde Room and at New York JFK.
Their sleep pod with Restworks (so there’s a revenue stream) feature “the world’s first chair designed exclusively for power napping.”
Three passengers on the February 7, 2021 British Airways Miami – London Heathrow flight have been fined for their behavior on board – and the court ruled they must even compensate the flight attendants they abused.
Enroute back from Turks & Caicos where they had been filming the Netflix reality show “Too Hot To Handle,” the group was tossing back margaritas in the airport. Then on board two members of the group were “kissing and behaving intimately.” And since face masks would get in the way, they wouldn’t wear those either. Things went downhill from there.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
