BA seat booking

[NorthEast]

Going to Japan end of month with ba travelling WT+. They have allocated seat nos for the flights for connection to & from LHR, & the rtn flight from Tokyo to LHR at the time of booking (direct with BA).
The out flight LHR-Tokyo has no seat allocation, so either pay £25 or do it free at 24hr. before flight to get seat- this is not a problem as travelling alone.

Did this flight earlier in the year and no seat no's were allocated at time of booking for the out & rtn LHR-Tokyo sections. So just wondering why they have allocated a seat on the rtn Tokyo-LHR flight this time.

[bull996]

Because BA are hopeless wkers, thats why.

[westtra]

I've just flown with BA in WT+ and was able to choose my seat months ago. the only time you can't change the seat is if all other options are un available.

[carreauchompeur]

I'm sitting on my hands waiting for the 48hr point before my flight to HKG on Wednesday to get a seat booked online!

[NorthEast]

westtra said:

I've just flown with BA in WT+ and was able to choose my seat months ago. the only time you can't change the seat is if all other options are un available.

Only option showing for the out flight is to cough up the £25 if I want to grab a seat befor the 24 hr window.

[Stedman]

I waited until 24 hours before on both outbound and inbound trips to Phoenix earlier this year...on both journeys I got the best seat! Try your luck the first time and if it doesn't work out, pay the £10 for the journey back.


EDIT: £2fking5?! bds- was £10 in March!

Edited by Stedman on Sunday 7th November 15:55

[Silver993tt]

I used to be a BA Gold executive card holder for 19 consecutive years. Due to the threat of strikes and the need to make sure I could definitely travel over the last 12 months, I've stopped using them completely back in March (though still have over 1 million BA miles). I switched to Lufthansa & Star Alliance and they are very good indeed flying to Australia with Singapore Airlines.

BA marketing are a big joke though, being a frequent flyer for 19 years and then suddenley stopping usingtheir service, it should have generated some kind of contact to find out why - but absolutely nothing, not even an offer to tempt me back. After that experience I'm glad I stopped using them.

[NorthEast]

Stedman said:

I waited until 24 hours before on both outbound and inbound trips to Phoenix earlier this year...on both journeys I got the best seat! Try your luck the first time and if it doesn't work out, pay the £10 for the journey back.


EDIT: £2fking5?! bds- was £10 in March!

Edited by Stedman on Sunday 7th November 15:55

£50 for an exit seat row, £25 for a std seat,

[StevieBee]

Silver993tt said:

I used to be a BA Gold executive card holder for 19 consecutive years. Due to the threat of strikes and the need to make sure I could definitely travel over the last 12 months, I've stopped using them completely back in March (though still have over 1 million BA miles). I switched to Lufthansa & Star Alliance and they are very good indeed flying to Australia with Singapore Airlines.

BA marketing are a big joke though, being a frequent flyer for 19 years and then suddenley stopping usingtheir service, it should have generated some kind of contact to find out why - but absolutely nothing, not even an offer to tempt me back. After that experience I'm glad I stopped using them.

As a marketeer, I've always found this approach appalling. I know they have zillions of customers but the cost per customer of doing what you expect is peanuts compared to the potential loss in revenue they'd suffer.

On the flip side of this, I flew for the first to time Saudi Arabia with Saudi Arabia Airlines two years ago. Got back to the UK and the following week got a phone call from their London office to thank me for the business and to check if everything was OK (was only flying economy!!). Flew again with them a few months later and got a letter (not email) welcoming me back. Has left a lasting good impression and how simple and cheap was that to achieve.

[Silver993tt]

StevieBee said:

Silver993tt said:

I used to be a BA Gold executive card holder for 19 consecutive years. Due to the threat of strikes and the need to make sure I could definitely travel over the last 12 months, I've stopped using them completely back in March (though still have over 1 million BA miles). I switched to Lufthansa & Star Alliance and they are very good indeed flying to Australia with Singapore Airlines.

BA marketing are a big joke though, being a frequent flyer for 19 years and then suddenley stopping usingtheir service, it should have generated some kind of contact to find out why - but absolutely nothing, not even an offer to tempt me back. After that experience I'm glad I stopped using them.

As a marketeer, I've always found this approach appalling. I know they have zillions of customers but the cost per customer of doing what you expect is peanuts compared to the potential loss in revenue they'd suffer.

On the flip side of this, I flew for the first to time Saudi Arabia with Saudi Arabia Airlines two years ago. Got back to the UK and the following week got a phone call from their London office to thank me for the business and to check if everything was OK (was only flying economy!!). Flew again with them a few months later and got a letter (not email) welcoming me back. Has left a lasting good impression and how simple and cheap was that to achieve.

I was THE classic example of customer churn. It used to be a fact that it cost 5 times more in terms of marketing costs to gain a new customer than it did to keep an existing one. How times must have changed.

[StevieBee]

Silver993tt said:

I was THE classic example of customer churn. It used to be a fact that it cost 5 times more in terms of marketing costs to gain a new customer than it did to keep an existing one. How times must have changed.

At the risk of turning this into a discussion better suited to the Business forum......

It's probably nearer 10 times that today.

The issue is that as companies grow, the "entrepreneurial" element of management is replaced with "financial control" and most accountants don't "get" marketing. They see it as a cost rather than investment and consider it a very grey area and accountants only see in black and white.

I know this as I'm currently doing a bit of work with a chap who used to work in BA marketing and left because of this very reason. He said that he constantly had to justify spend on income and sometimes in the world of marketing, that just isn't possible - even if you know that it will have a positive impact on sales.

[Silver993tt]

StevieBee said:

Silver993tt said:

I was THE classic example of customer churn. It used to be a fact that it cost 5 times more in terms of marketing costs to gain a new customer than it did to keep an existing one. How times must have changed.

At the risk of turning this into a discussion better suited to the Business forum......

It's probably nearer 10 times that today.

The issue is that as companies grow, the "entrepreneurial" element of management is replaced with "financial control" and most accountants don't "get" marketing. They see it as a cost rather than investment and consider it a very grey area and accountants only see in black and white.

I know this as I'm currently doing a bit of work with a chap who used to work in BA marketing and left because of this very reason. He said that he constantly had to justify spend on income and sometimes in the world of marketing, that just isn't possible - even if you know that it will have a positive impact on sales.

and what's the cost on top of that 10x based on the fact I'm now using one of their largest competitors, both in Europe and worldwide? Kind of a double whammy loss for BA since not only are they losing my revenue/profits but their competitors are now pocketing them.