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Ryanair Taunts British Airways: 'We're (About To Be) #1!'

It's no secret that Ryanair has translated their "Customers Suck" philosophy into one quarter of breakout profits after another.

It's also no secret that we kind of loathe them and everything they stand for (excepting low airfare), which makes this particular story, about how the low cost carrier is poised to pass British Airways as the largest airline in the UK, as predictable as it is aggravating. Try to contain your shock when we tell you that they're being obnoxiously smug about the whole thing:

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Tags: British Airways / Business Class / All Business Class Carriers / London City Airport / Airport News / → All Tags

How Many All-Biz-Class Airlines Must Fail Before British Airways Understands?

Haven't we already worked out that All-Business-Class Flights just don't span out? Just look at the track record for these flights: Silverjet, Eos, and MaxJet all died in early 2008, ailing L'Avion was bought by British Airways shortly after that, and BA's own all-business OpenSkies took to their blog to beg passengers to book with them.

So why is British Airways making an additional attempt at the all-business, transatlantic route? Of course it's all about money, and the reasoning is that they think it'll be profitable in its first year—no word on further years. The newest route runs from London's City Airport (LCY) to JFK, but has to make a refueling pitstop in Shannon, Ireland because The Telegraph UK explains that "City Airport's runway is too short to handle an A318 with a full fuel payload." Bummer.

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Tags: Airline Fees / Airline News / Airlines / British Airways / Europe Travel / → All Tags

British Airways Introduces Shiny New Fee For Selecting Your Seat

New fees are pretty much inevitable. It's obnoxious and even six months ago it might have drawn howls of criticism, but now everyone seems to be charging extra for choosing emergency exit seats and so the next step has come: charging to select your seat at all. Congratulations airline companies, your nickle-and-dime opaque fees have finally crossed the line from outrageous to embittering. The LA Times has the deal:

We’ve seen airlines add extra charges to reserve popular exit-row seats and aisle seats. But are you ready for this one? Starting Ocober. 7, British Airways plans to charge you just to select a seat. That’s right: $30 to $90 for the right to choose a seat any time up to 24 hours before flying. After that time, you get a free pick of what’s left.

You're exempt if you're in first class or have a particularly high status with the airline, but everyone else is on the hook. It's $30 for coach and $90 for business, presumably on the assumption that there aren't really bad seats in business, so if you want to choose your seat you must really want to choose your seat.

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Tags: Prime-Plane-Spotting-Map / Plane Spotting / British Airways / Gibraltar Travel / → All Tags

Yield To Landing Planes On The Road Between Gibraltar And Spain

We love airplanes, you love airplanes, so let's go look at airplanes! In our Prime Plane Spotting series, we'll let you in on all the best spots to whip out your cameras and binoculars for a piece of the aviation action.

We may have made it 'round to most of the world's itty-bitty countries and territories, but Gibraltar still eludes us. The Rock, which is not part of Spain but sits on the Iberian peninsula, is a self-governed British territory famous for peculiarities like their wild monkeys, mishmash of language and cuisine, and crazy insane airport runway positioning.

You see, Gibraltar's tiny airport straddles the border between Spain and Gibraltar, and juts out into the ocean because of the lack of land. The single road that runs between the two countries runs right across the main runway, by necessity, and as a result, the road must be closed during plane takeoffs and landings.

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Tags: Frequent Flyer Programs / British Airways / American Express / Frequent Flyer Miles / → All Tags

Will A British Airways-AmEx Partnership Bring Mile-Chasing Back?

British Airways announced this week that it's partnering up with American Express's Membership Rewards program, so cardholders can convert their points into Executive Club miles. But in this economy, are frequent-flyer miles still a good deal?

Prior to this agreement, only British cardholders could harness the power of their green cards to buy miles in the Executive Club for British Airways and its Oneworld partners. Earn enough points and members might even be able to take advantage of BA's newest Caribbean routes bowing this fall.

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Tags: Advertising / British Airways / Travel Advertising / Ryanair / → All Tags

British Airways Breaks New Advertising Ground, Puts Ads On Boarding Passes

Not content with being cheaper than Ryanair and reducing check-in allowances like Ryanair, British Airways is now following Ryanair's lead and plastering every last empty space with ads:

British Airways is trying to come up with a way to increase profit by becoming the first major European scheduled airline to sell advertising space on its own boarding passes. British Airways, which has already posted a £106 million net loss for the three months ending June 30, said that it is now actively seeking advertisers who wish to buy space on its boarding cards, as well as on its website.

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Tags: Ryanair / Airline News / LCCs / British Airways / Airline Fees / → All Tags

Ryanair Found To Be More Expensive Than British Airways On Some Routes

What we've always suspected, and yes—even feared—has happened: Ryanair has been proven to cost more than non-LCC airlines. CheapFlights investigates:

Ryanair is now more expensive on certain routes than full-service competitors such as British Airways, according to a report in The Sunday Times. The paper identified ten routes for which the low-cost carrier charges more than BA—three of which were more expensive even before surcharges were added. Researchers found that a family of four who travel to Ibiza in mid-August would pay £1,057 with Ryanair, compared to just £913.20 when flying with BA.

Well sure they cost more. But at least they also sneeringly insult their customers, deliberately enact obnoxious fees, and have an insane no checked bags policy. At least there's that!

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Tags: Baggage Fees / Airline Fees / Airline News / British Airways / → All Tags

British Airways Reduces Bag Allowance In Economy Class

Baggage fee hikes continue as this British Airways announced that beginning October 7, international passengers flying economy will only be allowed one free checked bag. The previous, pretty standard way of international checked luggage was to allow each person two checked bags, but now that second will cost ya.

On British, economy class is called "World Traveller" and "World Traveller Plus," and these are the only classes affected. Flying Club World (business) or First Class will still yield the massive allowance of three free checked bags on international flights.

So why the change? British Airways, like many other recession-hit carriers, is smarting from heavy losses and looking for new revenue streams, or in their words: "to address the economic downtown and better reflect changing customer trends." Those changing customer trends might be all in their heads, however, as the LA Times notes that BA's major competitors of Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand are still allowing passengers two checked bags.

Related Stories:
· British Airways reducing free baggage allowance [LA Times]
· British Airways Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: caribb]

Tags: Travel Contests / British Airways / Business Travel / → All Tags

British Airways' Contest Tests Your Entrepreneurial Prowess

There’s nothing better than a free trip somewhere, especially when that somewhere is a location overseas. British Airways is running their The Face of Opportunity contest through July 31, in which they ask what you’d be able to get done with a face-to-face meeting. For a 1,000 lucky entrepreneurs, a freebie could be in their cards, but only if they have a killer business idea.

If BA selects your idea, you’ll be awarded a roundtrip ticket to anywhere the airline flies, so if London isn’t where your business plan will succeed, don’t worry. Winners will be departing in the fall from either Los Angeles, New York, or Chicago, but the return date is left wide open—if you’re busy wheeling and dealing they’ll let you stick around.

Take some time to craft a decent 500-word entry, because they are looking to see what you would take advantage of if awarded the chance to conduct meetings abroad. Writing about how their in-flight food is quite tasty isn’t probably going to help you win this thing, so make sure you really play up the importance of a handshake. Also be sure to brush up on your business etiquette because if you score the prize, you’ll want to bring your A-game when it comes to networking.

Related Stories:
·BA - The Face of Opportunity [Official Site]
·British Airways Offers 1,000 Free Business Trips [OC Register]
·British Airways coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: stuartpilbrow]

Tags: Airplane Food / British Airways / Singapore Airlines / Airline News / Cathay Pacific / Virgin Atlantic / → All Tags

Times UK Names The Top Airline Meals In The Sky

In what was probably both the best and worst assignment of a journalist's career, the Times UK looked at in-flight meal service this weekend, and aside from tasting a slew of flash-frozen meals, they actually came out of it stomachache-free and with a winner.

First, however, they discuss approaches to the cuisine for major airlines like Singapore, who still believe flying to a special occasion and thus the "economy dining experience is specifically constructed to suggest dinner in a posh restaurant," and Virgin Atlantic, who go the opposite route with comfort food, or "the sort of wholesome naughtiness you might eat curled up on the sofa with a good film."

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Tags: First Class Travel / Qantas / British Airways / → All Tags

Qantas Parks Its First Class Seats (For Now)

It's a tragedy. We've been saving all our pennies to afford to travel somewhere in first class, and now first class is disappearing. If it wasn't enough to hear that British Airways isn't building first class in to its new planes, now Aussie airline Qantas is cutting first class from existing planes.

The Qantas news comes after demand for first and business classes dropped almost 20 per cent, and the Flying Kangaroo then decided to drop first on its San Francisco-Sydney, Melbourne-London and Sydney-Buenos Aires routes. Of course, the first class cabin will still be there, and if you book business class you might end up sitting there, but you'll just be getting treated like a business class passenger.

Unlike BA, though, Qantas isn't saying first is out forever – for now, they're not selling first class tickets for those routes between July 6 and October 31. If demand increases again, first class will make a comeback. So perhaps we can keep saving after all.

Related Stories:
· Qantas Scraps First Class on Long Haul Routes [SMH]
· BA Ejects First Class From Flights [Scotland on Sunday]
· First Class Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: x_jamesmorris]

Tags: New Routes / Caribbean Travel / British Airways / LGW / Airline News / → All Tags

British Airways Likes Piña Coladas and New Tropical Routes For Fall

Is Montego Bay, Jamaica destined to be the tropical international hotspot for winter 2009? Just today, Jetblue has launched their service there with a balloon-filled extravaganza departing from JFK's Terminal 5. Coincidentally, British Airways has also chosen this day to announce that they'll be crowding the Jamaican skies beginning in October when they begin direct , twice-weekly service from London-Gatwick to Montego Bay.

Apparently Britons are craving some western hemisphere vacationing, since BA just broke the news about their London to Las Vegas flights and now we have Jamaica; but wait, there's more!

Rounding out the trio of new British Airways routes for fall is an unexpected one to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Tickets for the Jamaica and DR routes go on sale tomorrow, but they'll have some competition from Virgin Atlantic to Montego Bay; Branson' carrier has been flying this route since 2006 and keeps tickets around £600 ($933) per person, round-trip in fall. Do we smell the sweet scent of an upcoming airfare war?

Related Stories:
· @British_Airways [Twitter]
· BA To Launch Two New Caribbean Routes [FlyerTalk]
· British Airways Coverage [Jaunted]

[BA photo: griffs0000; Triple 7s via AskGamblers]