Sorry to be cynical bealine, but £40? Really?
I can imagine that they're expensive, but the 50p per piece you quote for boarding cards seems more reasonable. I'd thus expect a full set of ATB to be perhaps £3 or £4 at the very most.
You are in a position to know, so I suppose I should believe you, but why so much? I mean, nearly every airline ticket I bought over the last couple of years was less than £40 discounting the tax - most were BA or BMI tickets from MAN to LHR at between £10 and £32 each return before tax. I bought over 25 of these and until recently they were all ATB. Where's the profit (although I realise you could ask the same question even before the extra £40 cost was considered
)
Are you absolutley sure you haven't been fed a line by the penny-pinchers to get you to use less of them?
Apologies if I'm wrong (as usual).