BA & Virgin to cut surcharges

[One9iner]

But not if you're in 1st class...

BBC NEWS | Business | BA and Virgin cut fuel surcharges

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Remarkable that both decide to do this on the same day, and both only apply it to their economy and economy+. And I thought there's no price fixing these days.

[MAN777]

I dont really know the maths, but in my laymans brain isnt the fuel surcharge still too high given that oil prices have almost halved.

Does anyone remember what price oil was before surcharges started to be imposed. ?

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Someone has got to pay for the pension pot, the nice buildings and the huge number of staff, I suppose.

I flew on BA the other week. 170GBP for the fare. 254GBP for the extra charges.

[419]

I wonder if they are legally allowed to cut the surcharge for certain groups of passengers but not for others.

By lowering the surcharge they are admitting that the fuel price has dropped, but by not passing that drop onto their upper class passengers, they are in effect defrauding them. (although I'm sure that their legal teams have looked into this)

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by MAN777

I dont really know the maths, but in my laymans brain isnt the fuel surcharge still too high given that oil prices have almost halved.

I might have to put this into a signature or something: Jet airliners do not run on crude oil. They run on jet fuel.

So the first thing to do is to look at the price of jet fuel, not of crude oil ...

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by 419

I wonder if they are legally allowed to cut the surcharge for certain groups of passengers but not for others.

It takes more fuel to fly premium passengers because they account for more real estate, and thus weight, on the aircraft. Those of us who fly down the back (and are geeky enough to think about these things) have been wondering for a while WTF we have to pay the same as the premium passengers, even though they account for more fuel.

[419]

But surely first class passengers have paid for the extra "real estate" that they are occupying. After all, isn't that one of the reasons that they are paying double or treble the fare of the ecomomy passengers.

The amount of fuel to lift a cattle class pax is the same as that required for a 1st class one, (unless they are fat bastids)

[Globaliser]

Originally Posted by 419

But surely first class passengers have paid for the extra "real estate" that they are occupying. After all, isn't that one of the reasons that they are paying double or treble the fare of the ecomomy passengers.

It's only paid for at "normal" (ie pre-surcharge) cost of fuel. When the cost of fuel goes up, then the extra cost atttributable to each premium pax is a higher number because each of them has (say) 200 kg of aircraft attached to them rather than the (say) 100 kg of aircraft attached to each economy passenger. (Numbers plucked out of the air, but you get the point.)

[419]

Good point.

I'm going Virgin upper class to the USA next month. (using flying club miles).
The "taxes, fees and surcharges" are still costing me £340, but for a long haul trip It will be worth it.

[rubik101]

Shouldn't the title of this thread be
"BA follow Virgins' lead, (yet again) in cutting fuel surcharges"?

[Dairyground]

I dont really know the maths, but in my laymans brain isnt the fuel surcharge still too high given that oil prices have almost halved.

Don't forget that BA and some others bought fuel forward and so avoided paying peak prices, so the price has to drop some way before it gets to what BA etc. have been paying. Depending on the details of the contract, they could be obliged to pay more than the current spot price for some time yet.