[Misc] Is this cynical or a great move by British Airways

Icy Gull · Mar 9, 2020

All change fees are being waived for bookings made between 03 March and 16 March

Travel flexibly with no change fees on new bookings
We’re removing the change fee on all new bookings made from Tuesday 3 March to Monday 16 March 2020.

So if you book knowing coronavirus is rampant they’ll let you change free of charge. If you booked months ago you will still be charged as per booking conditions.

To me this sounds like a very cynical way of getting more bookings, which will probably be non refundable whilst giving two fingers to anyone they already have money from

Thoughts?

Change at Barnham · Mar 9, 2020

Virgin Atlantic announced they are offering the same deal a few days ago.
It will reassure people who are sitting on the fence about whether to book or not.

Icy Gull · Mar 9, 2020

Change at Barnham said:
Virgin Atlantic announced they are offering the same deal a few days ago.
It will reassure people who are sitting on the fence about whether to book or not.

Just me then :smile:

Kalimantan Gull · Mar 9, 2020

It sounds like a business-saving move, to be honest. Obviously BA is a big company, but losing huge numbers of expected bookings is going to hit all airlines hard and the losses will be enormous.

Lincoln Imp · Mar 9, 2020

At a tangent perhaps but on the subject of coronavirus customer care initiatives the club could usefully allow STHs in the most-at-risk age group nominate any family member to use their tickets without additional charge, say for the rest of the season. Safeguards could be built in and the PR return would be worthwhile.

Barham's tash · Mar 9, 2020

Lincoln Imp said:
At a tangent perhaps but on the subject of coronavirus customer care initiatives the club could usefully allow STHs in the most-at-risk age group nominate any family member to use their tickets without additional charge, say for the rest of the season. Safeguards could be built in and the PR return would be worthwhile.

For a one of admin fee of only £50

Regards the original topic I expect acts like this would be the difference of being in business or not at the end of this.

We’ve already seen Lufthansa ground their entire A380 fleet, Virgin retire some long haul variants early and Emirates enforce paid leave on staff but in reality I expect around of failures and mergers as a direct result of corona.

If I’d have thought about it properly I might have been tempted to buy some CDSs for airlines at the first sign of lockdowns.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ · Mar 9, 2020

Had an email from United that said all bookings made before 31st March with travel before end of year can change dates/destinations free of charge or be fully refunded.

Giraffe · Mar 9, 2020

I will say it's a desperate decision to keep the business afloat. Who is booking a flight right now other than those who really have to travel and a few opportunists after a good deal? I imagine their bookings have completely snowdived.

casbom · Mar 9, 2020

Yes it's to help bookings but also to give those who do book a sense of confidence if where they're going ends up being riddled with coronavirus! So that they can change their mind to go elsewhere. Seems sensible to me.

Also yes all Travel companies are feeling the affect, luckily for BA they have large cash reserves to ride out what's coming, others (such as Norwegian) might not be so lucky...

Herr Tubthumper · Mar 9, 2020

BA - cynical
Virgin - kind gesture to their customers

Icy Gull · Mar 9, 2020

casbom said:
Yes it's to help bookings but also to give those who do book a sense of confidence if where they're going ends up being riddled with coronavirus! So that they can change their mind to go elsewhere. Seems sensible to me.

Also yes all Travel companies are feeling the affect, luckily for BA they have large cash reserves to ride out what's coming, others (such as Norwegian) might not be so lucky...

I get the business aspect but people who booked before this offer are completely fecked if they want to change destination or change dates, unless they pay. Seems any sympathy towards customers who have already booked is zilch.

I guess I’m not a bean counter and the world of commerce is run by them these days :shrug:

I knew there was a reason I didn’t want to be a multi millionaire in a dog eat dog world.

Icy Gull · Mar 9, 2020

Herr Tubthumper said:
BA - cynical
Virgin - kind gesture to their customers

Virgin are no better than BA in any aspect these days, unless you want to travel with a hipster airline.

Easyjet are the airline who lead the way these days. I wonder if they’ll ever stir up long haul flights.

Balders · Mar 9, 2020

I'm in the Trade, it's a bandwagon that a number of Airlines (Etihad, Emirates, Virgin, BA and others) are jumping on. Not sure about BA, but most of the others are just not charging fees, if you book onto a more expensive flight, you have to pay the difference in fare. A lot of Tour Operators are doing the same, a number who only deal with the Trade and others like Kuoni. Forgive my bias for being in the trade, but this is where booking as a package and having the flexibility to book flights (with ground arrangements) on a small deposit really come into their own, as it does lessen financial exposure and flexibility, rather than paying for flights fully up front.

PTC Gull · Mar 9, 2020

All airlines are offering to waive change/cancellation fees for new bookings. I had flight booked for an event in Paris at the end of the the month which has been postponed. Delta just gave me a credit against future purchases and waived change and cancellation fees.

Icy Gull · Mar 9, 2020

PTC Gull said:
All airlines are offering to waive change/cancellation fees for new bookings. I had flight booked for an event in Paris at the end of the the month which has been postponed. Delta just gave me a credit against future purchases and waived change and cancellation fees.

That’s my point, BA are not being even vaguely flexible to pre booked passengers unless the Foreign Office are warning against travel to the destination, so it’s not ALL airlines. BA may have a different policy for flights originating outside the UK, where they don’t almost have a monopoly and need to consider that pax have plenty of options.

Herr Tubthumper · Mar 9, 2020

Icy Gull said:
Virgin are no better than BA in any aspect these days, unless you want to travel with a hipster airline.

I’ve not flown Virgin for a couple of years now but before this I used them once a year or so for many years. I liked them and preferred them over BA. Main reason is they have good products, they are very customer focused and helped me out when I was in need due to a couple of missed flights and also when I wanted to change flights after hurricane sandy. This contrasts with my BA experience.

Why do you think Virgin are no better?

Icy Gull · Mar 9, 2020

Herr Tubthumper said:
I’ve not flown Virgin for a couple of years now but before this I used them once a year or so for many years. I liked them and preferred them over BA. Main reason is they have good products, they are very customer focused and helped me out when I was in need due to a couple of missed flights and also when I wanted to change flights after hurricane sandy. This contrasts with my BA experience.

Why do you think Virgin are no better?

No longer class leading in my experience, they have fallen into the big airline arrogance. They used to be much more flexible in customer approach than they are now as they are so big with the Delta connection. Delta now own 49% of Virgin.

Harry Wilson's tackle · Mar 9, 2020

Lincoln Imp said:
At a tangent perhaps but on the subject of coronavirus customer care initiatives the club could usefully allow STHs in the most-at-risk age group nominate any family member to use their tickets without additional charge, say for the rest of the season. Safeguards could be built in and the PR return would be worthwhile.

Or they could give their season ticket to a trusted member of the family to use? :shrug:

There is no need to inform the club or request a scheme to do this. There are probably thousands at each game who are using someone else's season ticket. A mate of mine who has a season ticket at Atsenal has people sitting near him, and who have been for years, who don't actually know ther person who pays the club for the season ticket, owing to private arrangements even more outrageous than the occasional bit of lending to a family member or trusted friend.

Issues arise when kid tickets are used by adults, or when someone lends their ticket to a nob who gets chucked out, in which case chickens come home to roost,

I may of course have all this completely wrong.

PTC Gull · Mar 9, 2020

Icy Gull said:
That’s my point, BA are not being even vaguely flexible to pre booked passengers unless the Foreign Office are warning against travel to the destination, so it’s not ALL airlines. BA may have a different policy for flights originating outside the UK, where they don’t almost have a monopoly and need to consider that pax have plenty of options.

I am in the aviation business and all global airlines that our company deal with, are offering what BA are. But, as you pointed out, the pre booked tickets typically were only getting change or cancellation fees waived if they were directly connected to the outbreak. My Paris flight had that applied, but another event I was due to be at in Miami this week (which was cancelled due to the outbreak) was not (according to Delta) directly connected to the virus. However I got my fees waived when I sent the the press release from the organizers. Last week US carriers were only giving up fees on international tickets. That is now changing to include domestic flights as well. I am not disputing that there will be some airlines somewhere that are not doing anything, but the market will eventually force them to do so. Tally Ho!

Kinky Gerbil · Mar 9, 2020

Icy Gull said:
No longer class leading in my experience, they have fallen into the big airline arrogance. They used to be much more flexible in customer approach than they are now as they are so big with the Delta connection. Delta now own 49% of Virgin.

Technically they may own more....

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[Misc] Is this cynical or a great move by British Airways

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