I got an email from the British Airways Executive Club last week telling me “The Real News About Terminal 5”!
Laden with “facts” about take-off times and average times through check-in and flight arrivals, I felt the tone a bit defensive.
We all know the opening of the multi-billion pound behemoth was a monumental ***-up and sorting out the problems would have taken time, but I’m not sure telling customers that “Terminal 5 is working” is the best way to restore confidence.
Personally, unless I’m flying on the business, it’s not how long I have to stand in line, or how quickly my bags turn up on the carousel that determines my choice of airline, it’s the price of the ticket. Air travel becoming more expensive, especially out of this country. When I see prices for flights booked in the US they’re very often considerably less than if booked in the UK – anyone know why that is?
Their campaign, both print and online, simply didn’t resonate with me, especially as I’ve had so much trouble with their service – video on demand system to be exact – I’ve been to Terminal 5 and it’s OK, but as I’ve said it’s not a deal-breaker when booking my ticket.
To add to their problems it transpires in a Sunday Times article that they got some of the facts wrong in their ads!
Richard Branson is also wading in as Virgin Atlantic is “expected to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority about the campaign. Virgin claims that BA is making misleading claims about the time taken to clear security at T5 and that the period over which it measures the punctuality of flights avoids the evening peak.”
BA commented, “we are so annoyed because we knew we had to be spot-on with the wording, but someone at the agency changed it. We should have picked it up.”
No kidding!
