British Airways - 2
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Baggage Increase
BA have today announced that their excess baggage charges are to increase in September in order to combat high fuel prices. Shorthaul charges are to increase by £5 per extra item of luggage per sector and £15 on longhaul flights!
Too mean to buy a long personal title
Even after the increase, it's going to be £90 per bag longhaul and £35 per bag shorthaul. On the basis of 23 kg per bag, that equates to £3.91 per kg longhaul and £1.52 per kg shorthaul.
In contrast (to take some random examples I know I can check easily on the Internet), QF would charge you AUD 48 = £22.47 per kg for London-Sydney; SQ would charge you USD 51 = £27.51 per kg for London-Singapore; and BD would charge you £7 per kg to Europe.
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Glasgow
Age: 66
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Is it just me or are BA at it?
As a loyal customer of the airline, I am wanting to book flights using my Executive Club points (40,000) from EDI-PFO. It is quoting me a price of £146 approx in respect of taxes and fees etc.
If I do a dummy booking for the same flights without using airmiles it is coming out at £139 plus £127.60 for fees and taxes.
I was always of the opinion that the Exec Club prices should be the £127.60 but they seem to be slipping in a "stealth" charge of approx £19 for whatever!!
Is this just another way of pi**ing off their loyal customers. Can anybody shed any light on why the difference?
P.S. The Exec Club price 2 days ago was £127.60.
To be honest, even their price for fees and taxes is not much less than competitor's fees.
As a loyal customer of the airline, I am wanting to book flights using my Executive Club points (40,000) from EDI-PFO. It is quoting me a price of £146 approx in respect of taxes and fees etc.
If I do a dummy booking for the same flights without using airmiles it is coming out at £139 plus £127.60 for fees and taxes.
I was always of the opinion that the Exec Club prices should be the £127.60 but they seem to be slipping in a "stealth" charge of approx £19 for whatever!!
Is this just another way of pi**ing off their loyal customers. Can anybody shed any light on why the difference?
P.S. The Exec Club price 2 days ago was £127.60.
To be honest, even their price for fees and taxes is not much less than competitor's fees.
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: London
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No, it's not just you.
I'm a silver card EC member.
To earn maximum air miles and tier points on my regular EDI-LGW route, I would need to buy a fare which costs around £260 return. This earns 1250 miles. So to earn 40,000 miles I need to buy 32 returns. That's £8320 to BA. If I bought them all in 1 year it would also earn me 1280 tier points, enough for a Silver EC card.
Now if I book the same flights a couple of weeks in advance, and buy more restricted tickets, I can typically get a return for around £160. 32 of those would cost £5120. This would earn considerably fewer air miles, and no tier points.
So if I (or my company) spends £3200 extra, BA in return gives me:
- more flexible tickets
- 32 visits to their lounges for 32 light refreshments of my choice
- 2 luggage tags
- 32 trips to "priority" checkin
- a "priority" helpline which doesn't solve problems any faster than the "no priority" one
- the chance to request a seat of my choice more than 24 hours in advance
and < drum roll >
- the chance to buy a flight to PFO at a discount of £120.
Is all this worth £3200 to you - or your company ?
Does it cost BA £3200 ?
I think not.
But in BA's defence, it's little different to many other FF schemes. Value for money or not, plenty of people (or their employers) are still willing to pay extra for these "privileges".
As far as your loyalty is concerned, unless you buy a lot of long haul business class returns (enough to get you close to, or over, the Gold card line) BA is basically not interested in you.
It's nothing personal, you understand, just a calculated business decision.
13Alpha
I'm a silver card EC member.
To earn maximum air miles and tier points on my regular EDI-LGW route, I would need to buy a fare which costs around £260 return. This earns 1250 miles. So to earn 40,000 miles I need to buy 32 returns. That's £8320 to BA. If I bought them all in 1 year it would also earn me 1280 tier points, enough for a Silver EC card.
Now if I book the same flights a couple of weeks in advance, and buy more restricted tickets, I can typically get a return for around £160. 32 of those would cost £5120. This would earn considerably fewer air miles, and no tier points.
So if I (or my company) spends £3200 extra, BA in return gives me:
- more flexible tickets
- 32 visits to their lounges for 32 light refreshments of my choice
- 2 luggage tags
- 32 trips to "priority" checkin
- a "priority" helpline which doesn't solve problems any faster than the "no priority" one
- the chance to request a seat of my choice more than 24 hours in advance
and < drum roll >
- the chance to buy a flight to PFO at a discount of £120.
Is all this worth £3200 to you - or your company ?
Does it cost BA £3200 ?
I think not.
But in BA's defence, it's little different to many other FF schemes. Value for money or not, plenty of people (or their employers) are still willing to pay extra for these "privileges".
As far as your loyalty is concerned, unless you buy a lot of long haul business class returns (enough to get you close to, or over, the Gold card line) BA is basically not interested in you.
It's nothing personal, you understand, just a calculated business decision.
13Alpha
Too mean to buy a long personal title
Of course, many of those companies won't be paying £100 extra because of their corporate discounts.
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Glasgow
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Yes. I agree that what you have to pay in flights to get a measly £120 discount from a FF flight is astronomical.
What I cannot understand is the FF benefit is you are only supposed to have to pay the cost of the taxes, charges, etc for the flight. But looking at the example I mentioned, the charge is about £19 greater than the cost of taxes, fees on the regular full price flight.
Having given them so much money in flight costs, they should be at least fair to their loyal customers instead of somehow slipping in extra charges sneakily.
What I cannot understand is the FF benefit is you are only supposed to have to pay the cost of the taxes, charges, etc for the flight. But looking at the example I mentioned, the charge is about £19 greater than the cost of taxes, fees on the regular full price flight.
Having given them so much money in flight costs, they should be at least fair to their loyal customers instead of somehow slipping in extra charges sneakily.
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Middlesesx
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BA not looking so good either ?
A number of meetings were held within BA yesterday at which staff were told that the company is losing about 2.6 millions sterling a day. There will be remedial actions to cut back the staffing levels by at least 20 % with immediate offers of severance and also compulsory redundancies. Time scales will see many of theses cuts completed before the end of December 2008.
Join Date: Apr 1999
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Looking a damn sight better than the others with a couple of billion pounds in the bank. The severance and redundancy is for management grades, whom we are severely overstaffed with anyway. I think we could lose 20% of them and nobody would notice the difference.
Join Date: May 2003
Location: london
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I think the problem for BA and other airlines is that although the price of oil has decreased, the revenue stream has over the last couple of weeks gone backwards, with forward bookings falling through the floor. We have all seen the offers in the papers, with many flights at 40% off, well even they are not selling.
Just checked on some staff travel flights to BGI in November and the plane is virtually empty at the moment. Good for my F class concession
bad for BA.
Not good.
Maybe this is WW 911 moment, and he can use the tough environment to get rid of the triage of wasted managment whilst at the same time gain concessions from other members of staff.
Its gonna be the survival of the fittest, and as CM says at least we have a couple of billion to play with at the mo.
Just checked on some staff travel flights to BGI in November and the plane is virtually empty at the moment. Good for my F class concession
bad for BA.Not good.
Maybe this is WW 911 moment, and he can use the tough environment to get rid of the triage of wasted managment whilst at the same time gain concessions from other members of staff.
Its gonna be the survival of the fittest, and as CM says at least we have a couple of billion to play with at the mo.
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Thinking about it, give me a minute.
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2 billion?
Reality Check!
In todays economic environment just how long will a measly 2 Billion last?
Visions of grains of sand running through fingertips!
In todays economic environment just how long will a measly 2 Billion last?
Visions of grains of sand running through fingertips!
Join Date: Apr 1999
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Reality Check!
In todays economic environment just how long will a measly 2 Billion last?
In todays economic environment just how long will a measly 2 Billion last?
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: EU
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The investors will now have to face the facts.
Money has to deal with work not with money.
Trying to make money on the workforce back is a short vision way of managing a financial profit.
One day nobody can afford anything else than food.
And all the industry falls by itself.
If you give more money to only one guy and less to the workforce, you have to build a corporate airline dedicated to this one guy and let the money loosing travel market to others...
No future for mass transportation as mass is moneyless for ever...
Money has to deal with work not with money.
Trying to make money on the workforce back is a short vision way of managing a financial profit.
One day nobody can afford anything else than food.
And all the industry falls by itself.
If you give more money to only one guy and less to the workforce, you have to build a corporate airline dedicated to this one guy and let the money loosing travel market to others...
No future for mass transportation as mass is moneyless for ever...
Join Date: Jun 2008
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Back to the Nationalised Flag Carrier days then. S'pose if the Government can do it for Northern Rock they can do it for BA.
But seriously folks 'BA not looking so good either' spurious thread or what?
But seriously folks 'BA not looking so good either' spurious thread or what?