Arrived at Heathrow’s New Terminal 5 this morning via Rome.  This is not my first time here, but this is my longest layover.  Thought I might take a photo and post something about T5 for those of you who haven’t seen it yet. My random thoughts on British Airways and T5: * Impressive facility - its huge, modern and a lot nicer than the last terminal. From what I understand the project costs were in the billions and it was years late. *Not surprised to learn that, as reported in The Financial Times yesterday, BA is in trouble financially. Why? Well, as I boarded my flight from Boston to London earlier in the week, I asked if I could pay for an upgrade and was told that business was “full” on today’s flight.  When I got on board, business was a ghost town — maybe two people.  I don’t get it, why would you turn down a loyal customer who wanted to PAY more money to upgrade.  That blew me away. *All I read in the UK news this week was how bad their economy was, but by the looks of it the airport is busier than ever….which leads me to my last comment… *Until the airline industry as a whole can adapt, modernize, lean out and provide more value to customers, they are going to be doomed like America’s big three auto-makers.  To me it seem that the airlines are stuck in a massive rut and are unable to adapt quick enough to the needs of customers.  Perfect example: wifi onboard?  why does this take so long to implement.  The argument about costs and technology are bogus and a joke, the reality is that the airlines are slow to the game and no airlines wants to go out and do something new on their own, instead they collectively wait for each other to do something. That’s why it takes so long. Disclaimer: I am a BA fan and loyal customer.  The last 5 years I have flown all my trans-america flights using them and have never had a bad experience.  I have tried on a number of occasions to upgrade to business (by paying) and it has only worked once, despite each time business being wide open. Boarding my flight back to SFO now….more posts to come this week. View high resolution

Arrived at Heathrow’s New Terminal 5 this morning via Rome.  This is not my first time here, but this is my longest layover.  Thought I might take a photo and post something about T5 for those of you who haven’t seen it yet.

My random thoughts on British Airways and T5:

* Impressive facility - its huge, modern and a lot nicer than the last terminal. From what I understand the project costs were in the billions and it was years late.

*Not surprised to learn that, as reported in The Financial Times yesterday, BA is in trouble financially. Why? Well, as I boarded my flight from Boston to London earlier in the week, I asked if I could pay for an upgrade and was told that business was “full” on today’s flight.  When I got on board, business was a ghost town — maybe two people.  I don’t get it, why would you turn down a loyal customer who wanted to PAY more money to upgrade.  That blew me away.

*All I read in the UK news this week was how bad their economy was, but by the looks of it the airport is busier than ever….which leads me to my last comment…

*Until the airline industry as a whole can adapt, modernize, lean out and provide more value to customers, they are going to be doomed like America’s big three auto-makers.  To me it seem that the airlines are stuck in a massive rut and are unable to adapt quick enough to the needs of customers.  Perfect example: wifi onboard?  why does this take so long to implement.  The argument about costs and technology are bogus and a joke, the reality is that the airlines are slow to the game and no airlines wants to go out and do something new on their own, instead they collectively wait for each other to do something. That’s why it takes so long.

Disclaimer: I am a BA fan and loyal customer.  The last 5 years I have flown all my trans-america flights using them and have never had a bad experience.  I have tried on a number of occasions to upgrade to business (by paying) and it has only worked once, despite each time business being wide open.

Boarding my flight back to SFO now….more posts to come this week.

Notes