Manchester: British Airways/British Airways Cityflyer Discussions

[Dobbo]

An interesting link with some of BAs old routes from MAN. Taken from dark blue dot net with thanks to TWA85. I think these largely reflect BEs current network but I'm sure someone can correct me if not.

http://web.archive.org/web/20000621.../flights/factfile/network/docs/fnum_rte.shtml

The interesting one here is Dubai, which BA apparent codeshared with EK - something I didn't know!

 

[David_itl]

The interesting one here is Dubai, which BA apparent codeshared with EK - something I didn't know!

Codeshare numbers were BA6750/6749 off the top of my head. I was led to believe that virtually all passengers on MAN-DXB booked with EK anyway which is not that surprising if they were connecting there! BA had quite an operation at both BHX and MAN but both airports were handicapped with upgrades to passengers (particularly premium ones!) from the regions if they flew ex LHR instead. Imagine the scenario now if they had maintained and developed the hubs. Would we have got such a variety of airlines feeding their own hubs? One throwaway line...BA did say that they would base a 777 to operate MAN-Islamabad rather than routing LHR/LGW-MAN-Islamabad, and would be 3 flights a week. May be they could have thrown in a 4 weekly Hong Kong route to complete a schedule!

 

[Dobbo]

All ifs buts and maybes now. Unless BA want to develop a secondary/North of England hub, I don't see how they can compete with the carriers now established on these routes. They will need to find new routes to develop wither as BA or as Level...

 

[Aceshigh]

IAG have a significant presence at Manchester albeit somewhat discreet.

Let's keep it that way. ARMS LENGTH!

 

[User001]

The inbound London City and first Ibiza start today.

 

[Aceshigh]

As a sky user that site is blocked this end.

 

[User001]

What you on about Aceshigh? What site?

 

[Aceshigh]

Any chance you might use a civil tongue User !
This isn't Coronation Street.

For the benefit of others there was a posting here on this thread that referred to a web site referencing old BA routes, it now appears deleted.

 

[User001]

I was only asking about your post Aces given there was no context as to what you were on about. I had no idea you were referencing a post that was since deleted since I viewed the page.

 

[Aceshigh]

No problem. User.
As indicated there was reference to a site on here that my provider took exception to with a page block and warning.

Given the issues with NHS I suspect others had issues and it has been deleted.

 

[Aceshigh]

PR disaster for BA on busiest day of year.
Real shame fir pax caught up in this.

Possible lasting implications?

But why on earth are passengers from up here still hiking down there.

Party from Stoke

"driven to LHR for Vegas flight having saved 4years, ruined"

FROM STOKE ! REALLY in 2017 ?

Likewise;

"Drove from Sheffield for flight to New York, all scrubbed and no flight.
Driving home again 9 hours later "

Where have these people been ?
Whoch systems are they actually using to book ?

Fair enough if you specifically want a BA holiday but seems odd as they hardly offer anything that cannot be obtained elsewhere, other than a slog to Heathrow !!!

An hour to Manchester or 3.5 to Heathrow. TO destinations that are direct and high frequency.

And as for the power outage ?

Any comments, it just doesn't seem to stack up in my book.

Unless it's a caused a infastructure burn out this doesn't make any sense. Most companies have mutiple cloud servers so if one goes you should be able to kick in a 2nd or 3rd even immediately from a mirrored back up. Such a delay suggests the data itself itself is compromised which seems odd.

 

[Land23R]

If it wasn't a BA holiday, I wonder if it was the fares from LHR that attracted those pax from Stoke and Sheffield and made the slog of driving to LHR and presumably pre-paying expensive parking charges justifiable in their minds. Or was it some lazy travel agent perhaps who couldn't be bothered looking beyond London? The Sheffield case was particularly daft given daily flights by VS, TCX, UA and AA from MAN and a choice of transport to the airport.

 

[User001]

I would say travel agents/booking systems are part of the problem.

Went into a Thomson shop to price up a NYC break once, just out of curiosity. MAN-LHR-JFK/EWR took up the first 8 options of flights. MAN-EWR was half way down the second page, and MAN-JFK further down still.

Also similar on Expedia if you don't filter for non stop flights. The direct MAN flights were on page 8, yes page bloody 8 of one search I performed!

How are you supposed to compete on that?

 

[Coathanger16]

Speaking from personal experience, my parents won't fly long haul from the UK with any airline other than BA, unless the price with other airlines is significantly cheaper - even then my parents use Avios a lot meaning BA usually works out as the cheapest.

Obviously as a Midlander, its just as easy for us to get to Manchester as it is to get to Heathrow, but I think the above reasoning still applies to people from anywhere.

As people have said though, travel agents and comparison websites will play a huge part in which airlines/routes passengers go for.

Just looked at a week long trip to Orlando in August from Manchester:

Cheapest: MAN-LHR-MIA-MCO £754 or MAN-PHL-MCO £757
Cheapest Direct: MAN-MCO £884

Both of the indirect routes would save a family of 4 around £500. As there are no flights from LHR - Orlando, any option including LHR would require 2 stops. If there were a direct flight from LHR, or if the MAN-LGW shuttle still existed, those options would probably be the cheapest.

It used to be getting the direct flight was more important, however these days people are prepared to go via somewhere if it works out cheaper.

Just be glad you've got the amount of long haul flights that you do - meanwhile down here at BHX, we only get a weekly seasonal flight to Orlando! 😉

 

[Land23R]

A fare differential for a family of 4 of £500 is a significant sum, but you have to put it in the context of the cost of a holiday to the US of 10 or even 14 days. My son (a family of 4) looked at this last year and concluded that for say 5 days in Disney and the other Theme Parks plus a week on the coast in school holidays would be circa £6,000 staying in reasonable but not 5* accommodation and not dining out in luxury. I thought that was conservative. And that was before the fall in the value of the pound. If he had been able to afford such a holiday, I think he would have considered £500 extra was worth paying to avoid the risk of missed connecting flights and the hassle of transfers.

 

[Aceshigh]

I was going to "like" your last post user and then thought it was possibly a contradiction on MY part.

Really frustrating!

 

[EGCC_MAN]

We need to be very wary of tarring all travel agents with the same brush. Travel Agent is actually a very unfortunate job title, as in the public mind it confers presumption of the same competence and professionalism upon any holder of one of a diverse range of posts. In reality, you may be served by a highly-knowledgable experienced professional who will save you both money and hassle by applying their genuine travel-expertise. Or you could be connected by phone to a halfwit who will by default stick all UK-originating passengers on BA from LHR and apply the preceding Shuttle connection from the nearest available regional airport. Unfortunately, many of this sort are so extraordinarily clueless that they will routinely book some minimum connecting-time horror at LHR taking no account of the limitations of elderly or infirm clients. This is a particular problem with some of those booking on behalf of cruise lines. I know several people who have missed LHR-MIA flights because of this including a blind lady and her elderly helper who were booked on a minimum connecting time Shuttle from MAN. The stupidity is staggering, and those call-centre types in Southampton and London don't learn. Or aren't trained.

I actually told one such 'travel agent' that a connection of this sort wouldn't work and insisted on the booking being made on the previous Shuttle. He began to argue with me and claimed that the connection was "no problem". I should trust his professional reassurances. So I asked this (East European) gentleman how many years he'd worked at LHR or MAN to know this. He hadn't worked at either, of course. I asked him how many times he'd made this connection himself. Never, of course. Then I informed him that I'd worked at and flown via BOTH airports over many years and told him to get the booking done according to my instructions. He was super-snotty about it.

Meanwhile, my cousin told me that they always book with the same "simply wonderful" travel agent. They live in Greater Manchester. But they'd been booked on Thomson from LBA to PMI. How had that happened, I enquired? Well, the MAN flight was full. So what about the Jet2, the Monarch, the Ryanair, the EasyJet - were they all full as well? "Oh do they fly to Mallorca as well? She just told us we had to fly from Leeds. Such a lovely girl. Wonderful." And by the way, this has happened to them TWICE! I told them I would do their future bookings for them if they wanted, and explained to them that they were dealing with a "holiday shop" dedicated to selling the programme of one company only.

Conversely, there are some truly outstanding travel agents out there. The trouble is that they hold the same job title as these morons. You really need to be aware of which sort of travel agent you are dealing with.

 

[Aceshigh]

I'm still astounded that BA has such high brand awareness!

Lots of "PR puff" Monday about the positives.
Full long haul schedule
"Substantial" Short haul programme

Oh but what's this?

25% Manchester flights scrubbed
25% Glasgow flights scrubbed
25% Edinburgh flights scrubbed

YET AGAIN if you live in the regions and have booked on basis of say a 3 hour window you will miss your flight. Incredibly of all the ones to cancel the first out at MAN was blighted this morning.

If we are swapping AA for BA can Manchester passengers really expect higher service levels?

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Higher service LEVELS. Is that a cryptic clue, Aceshigh? ;-)

 

[Dobbo]

They've clearly had a bad few days, and their IT systems sounds shockingly vulnerable.

This won't help them, whether their customers are based in London, the rest of the UK, Europe, USA, Asia or anywhere else.

I think Alex Cruz (CEO) is a fan of MAN, and if he goes it might cause a slow down on any plans to return.

MANs fundamentals remain strong, with BA, or any other airline that may choose to serve the market.