V-Flyer

On BBC 2 at 10:00pm The Money Programme titled "The greate plane robbery"



The "Money Programme " Investigates some of the world’s biggest airlines who are accused of ripping of consumers in a massive price fixing conspiracy.
Virgin Atlantic is said to have blown the whistle on B-A and reported it to the office of fair-trading, which could qualify it for immunity in any official legal proceedings.

Full programme synopsis here BBC MONEY PROGRAMME

Happy Viewing Wayne:D

Originally posted by jerseyboy
On BBC 2 at 10:00pm The Money Program titled "The greate plane robbery"



The "Money Program " Investigates some of the worldÕs biggest airlines who are accused of ripping of consumers in a massive price fixing conspiracy.
Virgin Atlantic is said to have blown the whistle on B-A and reported it to the office of fair-trading, which could qualify it for immunity in any official legal proceedings.

Full program synopsis here BBC MONEY PROGRAM

Looks like a good watch - thanks for the heads up Wayne.

p.s. - personal bugbear of mine - Programme or Program?? Grrrr!!

Happy Viewing Wayne:D

Look forward to your reviews while sunning myself in hot Palm Springs.

BTW programme = event list, broadcast event, program = computer code, not a personal bugbear to you Mark, just one of those common English language confusions marking the joy of having the best language in the world

Mon Dieu et Zut alors!!!

No - it is one of my perosnal bugbears - honest - like writing Xmas instead of Christmas - Yuk!!!

Originally posted by slinky09
BTW programme = event list, broadcast event, program = computer code, not a personal bugbear to you Mark, just one of those common English language confusions marking the joy of having the best language in the world

Generally true - unless of course you're from the West side of the pond.

Our company provides TV scheduling software and believe me this little chestnut raises it's head with every US client.

Anyway - looks like a good watch so I'll add it to my Sky+ planner at the earliest convenience.

Phil FM

Originally posted by jerseyboy
On BBC 2 at 10:00pm The Money Program titled "The greate plane robbery"



The "Money Program " Investigates some of the worldÕs biggest airlines who are accused of ripping of consumers in a massive price fixing conspiracy.
Virgin Atlantic is said to have blown the whistle on B-A and reported it to the office of fair-trading, which could qualify it for immunity in any official legal proceedings.

Full program synopsis here BBC MONEY PROGRAM

Happy Viewing Wayne:D

Do you think that Virgin are guilty too and this is exactly why they blew the whistle on BA?

Has the screening of this program had anything to do with the timing of the resignation of the BA managers or am I being cynical? [:w]

Originally posted by Bazz
Has the screening of this program had anything to do with the timing of the resignation of the BA managers or am I being cynical? [:w]

I don't know but it does seem a little bit coincidental to not be linked in some way.[:?]

Happy Viewing
Wayne[ii]

Bump.

Just starting now.

Well VS came off rather better than BA but it still leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Some nice shots of the LHR CH and interview with SRB but as you would expect, he was tight lipped on the issue at the centre of the program.

Oh, and nice to know I wasn't being cynical

What an interesting program. Certainly leaves a few questions that will hopefully be answered in the near future.

Must commend virgin on their participation in the program .Its good to see such a good P.R machine at work.

Cheers
Wayne

I'm a little confused... I thought the whole point of investigative journalism was to bring to light new information to create an interesting report... this was just a repeat of what has already been reported elsewhere... with a bit of pr for VS added in.

Originally posted by V-Ben
I'm a little confused... I thought the whole point of investigative journalism was to bring to light new information to create an interesting report... this was just a repeat of what has already been reported elsewhere... with a bit of pr for VS added in.

Agreed. What was the point (save for a great piece of VS PR) ? They'd have been better putting the money towards buying some recent series of "The Simpsons".

In terms of messsages all I saw was VS have a CH for hip young entrepreneurs, SRB is uncannily like Tony Blair in speech and demeanour and I wouldn't trust a US Class Action lawyer as far as I could throw him (or her).
Paul

Dreadful programme. Really poor journalism: just a rehash of the old dirty tricks story, 10 year old shots of BA/VS planes, blatant PR puffery regarding the Virgin brand. Nothing much new.

BC

Agree in principle however I had not followed the story in depth as it unravelled and learnt a few things, e.g. I didn't know Lufthansa had spilled the beans on the cargo price fixing in return for freedom from prosecution; VAA are trying to avoid prosecution in the US courts where they are still believed to have been complicit in the fuel surcharge fixing, by providing eveidence in return for freedom from prosecution; didn't know that VAA had supposedly taped a phone call from BA discussing the fuel surcharge levels and then allegedly supplied this to the OFT.

There were several other snippets also which filled in the picture a bit more, albeit in a rather bias fashion.

I do agree that it appeared primarlily to be a PR exercise for SRB and VAA, which was a pity.