BA.COM Website - Flight Pricing

[Chrimesy]

Have been monitoring BA.Com website since early February. Thinking about booking LGW - MAH in early November for a long w/end. Beginning of month Out Nov 11 - Ret Nov 14 price options pages indicated £21 out/£20 return. Full costing page £42 plus taxes, surcharges £29. Couldn't confirm then. Looked up on several subsequent dates intending to book. Same price options for chosen dates but bookings pages totals £50 + taxes etc. How can BA get away with slyly adding over 20% to the cost of flights which many unsuspecting customers would probably not notice because they were not expecting such a thing to happen and proceed with booking? This also happens with other dates that I experimented with. £8 fare difference isn't a lot but the whole principle of the integrity of BA's pricing policy must be called into question. Predictably my email to BA.Com customer services asking for an explanation remains unanswered.

[amanoffewwords]

The extra £8 probably relates to the fuel surcharge they introduced last year:

Fuel surcharge
British Airways has introduced a fuel surcharge on all flights to reflect the continuing rise in worldwide oil prices.

The surcharge applies, as detailed below, to all tickets issued from 13 May 2004. It applies to all passengers, including children and infants, on both international and domestic flights.

Fuel surcharge rates

For tickets originating in Surcharge per BA sector per person

Europe & UK Domestic All other routes

UK £4.00 £10.00


This surcharge is only applicable on British Airways mainline operated services.


----

Under the price breakdown it tells you:

The price of your ticket includes a security, insurance and fuel surcharge per flight levied by the carrier. For details please click here.

[MarkD]

chrimsey

amanoffewwords has probably got it spot on, however my experience has been - if it's cheap snap it up or pay more later!

I have my own problems with BA relating to price differentiation between west and east bound transatlantic (more expensive if originating from this side of pond) but surcharges etc. are regrettably the way things are these days until governments grow a pair and insist on advertised pricing to include charges which in any other business would be rolled in.

[Chrimesy]

The fuel surcharge and all supplements are all lumped in to the £29 extra charge on top of the fare. What I can't understand is why at the begining of the month did the website correctly add £21 + £20 to = £41 total fare + £29 surcharge.

However now it adds £21 + £20 to be a total fare of £50 + £29 surcharge?

[Globaliser]

I agree - it does look like something odd's going on here. My guess is that the Q class fares that you're talking about haven't been loaded correctly in some way, so that the seats are confirming at different fares from the ones that the system is initially quoting by constructing them from the published fare table.

On ba.com, if you click £20 and then £21, you should get a fare of £41 with all the extras then added on - at least that has been my experience.

[manintheback]

Their pricing today is really odd.

Economy return for two in April to LHR from Atlanta £1008. WTP+ £996 eh !!!! same flights, same conditions

[bealine]

Economy return for two in April to LHR from Atlanta £1008. WTP+ £996 eh !!!! same flights, same conditions



WHOA!!! What's this!!! Is British Airways assuming it can move the Atlanta route from LGW to LHR??? Is it assuming it can ride roughshod over the Bermuda 2 agreement and pre-empt the "Open Skies" agreement with the US government???

Or is the routing ATL - Someplace Else In the USA - LHR?

[Stretchwell]

BA will increase the price of a ticket as the plane fills up. There's nothing strange about that - why do you think EasyJet and Ryanair can advertise fares as free? If all the seats were free then they'd never make a profit! Obviously your flight is proving popular and there are no more seats available at the price you originally saw. Hardly rocket science or have I misunderstood your whinge?

[manintheback]

oh yes - its got even better

£474.50 in club return (Gatwick this time)

so tempting, wot happens if I book it tho?

lets find out

------------ didnt work. shame -------------

[sixmilehighclub]

The majority of airlines have a pricing structure whch varies vastly. For example on an aircraft with 160 seats:

n seats @ cheapest unchangeable unrefundable ticket.
n seats @ 2nd cheapest unchangeable unrefundable ticket.
n seats @ 3rd cheapest unchangeable unrefundable ticket.
n seats @ 4th cheapest unrefundable fare, pay to change.
n seats @ 5th cheapest unrefundable fare, pay to change.
n seats @ 3rd most expensive changeable, partially refundable.
n seats @ 2nd most expensive changeable, partially refundable.
n seats @ most expensive changeable, fully refundable ticket.

Each price is given a 'Class' (meaning class of fare, not necessarily class of travel). This allows agents to identify if refunds or changes are allowed.

Some business class tickets can be given different rules depending on price paid.

Once the airline sells out of the cheapest (for holidaymakers and business travellers not needing flexibility), this leaves the higher priced tickets. Most fares are bookable 9 months in advance (this avoids confusion with the following year).

Mr Smith in 23E paid £49 return and Mr Jonsson sitting next to him paid £229. It depends on how soon you book. (Sorry to repeat Stretchwell).

Chrimesy - the only explaination I can give for your surcharges is either a local tax increase, fuel surcharge, or, um, or, OK, call reservations and ask for a breakdown of the surcharge (but book it online to save money!!)

(a thousand apologies to all those I have just taught how to suck eggs, hope some find it helpful)


Six
:ok:

[Irish Steve]

Whatever about LoCo prices, BA have their moments too.

The classic was about 18 months ago, I looked for flights to MCO for a party of 6 with BA from LGW. We're in DUB, so I was looking at the connect in to LGW, but the family live in Devon.

Get this, and laugh. If we'd done it, which we didn't as it was just too much hassle, it would have been considerably cheaper for my parents to fly from Exeter to Dublin to then take the flight from DUB to LGW to MCO than it would have been to travel to LGW from Exeter to join it there.

I priced it, and from memory it worked out something like

DUB-LGW-MCO Euro 475 return
LGW-MCO Stg 550 return.

This was at the time when the exchange rate would have made 550 Stg into about 700 Euro, and yet the price from DUB was only 475 ish.

The really crazy aspect of the whole thing was that the LGW-MCO sector would have been on the same aircraft. What was even more frustrating was that we couldn't book it for my parents and then let them travel by road to LGW, if they didn't show at DUB, the entire flight was cancelled.

In the end, we flew DUB-ATL-MCO with Delta, mainly because of the wonderful system that allows outbound pax to clear US immigration at DUB, thereby avoiding all the delays on the other side of the pond, but also to avoid the extra 3 to 4 hours after the overnight flight that flying over DUB to LGW and then having to wait the check in time at LGW to then fly back to DUB would have meant.

Can't say I was wild about the seats of the Delta 777, the IFE box on the bottom of the seat in front of me made for a very uncomfortable flight, as it intruded badly into the foot space. The fact that it also wasn't working correctly, and kept blasting our ears with white noise every few minutes didn't help either.

[Globaliser]

manintheback: Their pricing today is really odd.

Economy return for two in April to LHR from Atlanta £1008. WTP+ £996 eh !!!! same flights, same conditionsDunno if this is specifically a glitch or normal, but it can be normal. If all the lowest discount Y fares have sold out, you might get a quote only for a fairly high Y fare but still with some restrictions (eg B or H class) . However, there may still be T (discounted WT+) seats left so you can get quoted a lowish T class fare with the same sort of restrictions.

That says only one thing: If you need to go that day, the T fare is a good buy.

Irish Steve: The classic was about 18 months ago, I looked for flights to MCO for a party of 6 with BA from LGW. We're in DUB, so I was looking at the connect in to LGW, but the family live in Devon.

Get this, and laugh. If we'd done it, which we didn't as it was just too much hassle, it would have been considerably cheaper for my parents to fly from Exeter to Dublin to then take the flight from DUB to LGW to MCO than it would have been to travel to LGW from Exeter to join it there.

I priced it, and from memory it worked out something like

DUB-LGW-MCO Euro 475 return
LGW-MCO Stg 550 return.

This was at the time when the exchange rate would have made 550 Stg into about 700 Euro, and yet the price from DUB was only 475 ish.BA still do this sort of thing, and indeed all airlines do it. The price for connecting flights are very often cheaper than the prices for non-stops. It's not crazy; it's a phenomenon that result simply from supply and demand, and local market dynamics.

You can sometimes get some really good prices for BA long-haul flights in premium cabins if you start from points like Lisbon or Athens, and fly via London. You just have to be prepared to spend the time flying out to Lisbon or wherever to pick up the start of the ticket (as is compulsory).

The reason that people don't fall over themselves to take up these fares is equally simple: As in your case, it often ends up being just too much hassle.

[Chrimesy]

hi everyone thanks for your contributions so far. Just to clear matters up - my gripe is with the BA.Com website. Take an example - try it yourself. This is an example of a continuous visit to the site & the timescale is less than two minutes. Try book a flight from LGW to MAH - out 11 Nov return 14 Nov. Next page - Select dates. Next page offers only flight on 11th Nov - price £21 - Select. Next page offers only flight on Nov 14 - price £20 - Select. Next page calculates total cost of the fare as not £41 plus surcharges but £50 plus surcharges. I.E BA are adding over 20% to an already specifically priced itinerary. Also to be clear - the surcharges fees cover everything: airports, Govt tax, security surcharge, fuel surcharge. The fares price should match the individual leg prices - they don't - Why do we have to accept such shenanigans from BA?

[Globaliser]

Chrimesy: Just to clear matters up - my gripe is with the BA.Com website. Take an example - try it yourself. This is an example of a continuous visit to the site & the timescale is less than two minutes. Try book a flight from LGW to MAH - out 11 Nov return 14 Nov. Next page - Select dates. Next page offers only flight on 11th Nov - price £21 - Select. Next page offers only flight on Nov 14 - price £20 - Select. Next page calculates total cost of the fare as not £41 plus surcharges but £50 plus surcharges. I.E BA are adding over 20% to an already specifically priced itinerary. Also to be clear - the surcharges fees cover everything: airports, Govt tax, security surcharge, fuel surcharge. The fares price should match the individual leg prices - they don't - Why do we have to accept such shenanigans from BA?After a bit more research, I think "shenanigans" is a bit unfair because it suggests that there is something underhand going on. I don't think there is; as I say, I think there's a fare loading error.

For the dates you mention, there seem to be two valid Q class fares:- QEULGWGT for £41 return QLEUNGT for £59 returnWhat seems to be happening is that Fare Explorer is for some reason returning the QEULGWGT fare for both legs. However, that fare is only valid for the return leg from MAH-LGW and only on Fridays. (That's in the detailed fare rules, if you want to look them up.) The outbound leg has to be sold at QLEUNGT. So the combination of the two is obviously £50 return, ie what you are being firm quoted when you've picked your flights.

So the error is in the initial FX quote - which is much more a sign of a website glitch. Given the wacky fare conditions for that £41 fare, you can understand how a mistake's been made. It shouldn't happen, but, hey, stranger things have happened.

Hope this helps to answer your question as to what is going on.