The wellbeing of our customers is extremely important to us. Every year, we research and listen to the views of over 600,000 customers. This year, we have also sought the advice of young travellers through our newly launched Kids Council, the first group of its kind of any airline. As a result we offer and continue to develop a range of high-quality products and services to meet the needs of all our customers.
Terminal 5
Preparing for our move to Terminal 5 has been a major focus this year. Despite the initial difficulties on opening, this state-of-the-art building will progressively offer a smoother check-in, fewer queues and less waiting around. The building boasts a huge range of options for eating, drinking and relaxing as well as the world’s largest lounge complex for premium passengers.
Club World
Club World has been redesigned from end-to-end. In 2007/08, we finished fitting the new Club World cabin to all our Boeing 747 aircraft and have been preparing to introduce it on our Boeing 777s. The new cabin combines comfort, control and privacy. It features Club Kitchen – where customers can find a wide range of hot and cold food – and a new seat, which is 25 per cent wider. A softer mattress, memory-foam headrest and cosy quilt mean that customers can comfortably stretch out on a fully flat bed and sleep in privacy behind a touch button screen.
Audio visual on demand
Our new in-flight entertainment system is now available on all our Boeing 747s and Boeing 767s, offering increased choice and control to our customers with more than 200 movies, TV shows, audio options and interactive games. We have seen marked improvements in satisfaction among passengers who have used the new system.
britishairways.com
A quarter of all bookings are now made through britishairways.com and we continue to improve our booking process. People travelling together can now easily share flight itinerary and price information prior to purchase. Customers also now have the option to offset the carbon emissions of their journey when they book their ticket on britishairways.com, with all proceeds going towards UN certified emission reduction projects.
Our award-winning online check-in system continues to improve. It now allows passengers to check-in on other carriers for connecting codeshare journeys and select how many checked bags they will be taking to the airport, highlighting important allowance information. The system is helping us with advance flight planning.
More than 70 per cent of Executive Club redemptions are made online and this year we introduced an enhanced mileage calculator helping customers work out where they can go with their miles.
Service style
We are committed to providing excellent service and this year we have updated and modernised our service style vision, driven directly by feedback from employees. We are now making sure everyone is aware of the new service style to help them offer a brilliant service whether they work in the airports, onboard, in the contact centres or in customer relations.
Baggage policy
As a result of the lifting of hand baggage restrictions by the UK Department for Transport, with the exception of Newquay airport, we were able to reintroduce our hand baggage allowance of two pieces for all passengers travelling to, from and through UK airports.
We also launched our new checked baggage policy. First and Club World passengers are now entitled to three bags. In addition, unlike many of our competitors, all of our customers are now able to carry, free of charge and in addition to their normal checked baggage allowance, one piece of sporting equipment, from our defined list of sporting items.
BA World Cargo
In September 2007, the LIFT loyalty and reward programme was launched to support key regional customers. The programme is the first of its kind in the air cargo industry and this is reflected in the high level of customer enrolment.
Premia, our new premium products facility at Heathrow, has seen its first full year of operation. Volumes of specialist and time-sensitive cargo have increased significantly as our customers have recognised the added value that our new building provides to the logistics supply chain.