To clarify, standard hotline discount is 10% on the fare component only, full taxes and charges are still payable on hotline tickets. In this way the hotline is identical to shareholder discount.
European and domestic routes are zoned up and relatively standard hotline rates are charged. This provides a disproportionately large discount on Club Europe tickets, with those booking into R class being particularly good value (the most expensive i've seen is under £300 for Band 4 flights). It's not clear to me when the cheapest hotline tickets stop being sold; they don't book into seperate fare buckets. It may be when flights shift to semi-flexible availability only, but having said that i've gotten very cheap domestics only a couple of days in advance before.
Given the recent specific addition of CE to quidco, paid upgrades from ET via MMB and other moves it appears upsell to CE is a widespread move on BA's part, so I don't see the bargain CE hotline rates as undermining or running contrary to this. Holding status myself, I would not consider travel in CE for leisure in virtually all scenarios, certainly ex-LHR, as it offers scant benefit for the price other than the extra points/miles. The hotline incentivises me to, and BA take extra revenue from this (aside from VERY occasionally when hotline CE is cheaper than commercial ET).
There used to be tactical offers published in the weekly BA News, where I recall memorable bargains years ago like out F/back J LGW-ATL for £1000, summer J returns to NY for £800 etc... Tactical hotline WT+ and Club tickets used to book into T and I, but F tickets used to book into Z (which makes sense, as BA would happily put miles redeemers in those seats they're trying to tactically fill via hotline). These were on-sale for a week or less, and had extremely restricted travel dates as they were specifically aimed at revenue boosting during slack times. This has been superceded by online tactical offers since Staff Travel and Hotlines moved online-only a while ago. These change less frequently, tend to be more general further discounting rather than for specific routes/times.
I have it on good authority that the hotline is a pretty huge revenue stream for BA, and one which has effectively zero marketing costs and very little processing cost as it's BA staff themselves making online bookings having 'marketed' the flights to their friends and family.
Originally Posted by bthequin
I just assumed I'd forgoe the outbound part of the flight and use the return bit. Had a nasty shock when BA employee told me this was a "no no"
Note this isn't specific to Hotline fares, it's the case for any ticket.
Originally Posted by Lucifer UK
Definitely not supposed to be making money from them...perhaps best we don't encourage people with the wrong idea here - this is for contacts of BA employees travelling on leisure only.
Absolutely, a policy which those I know with hotline access stick to rigidly. To apply for a raise in your annual allowance you're subject to a review of hotline usage, which if it showed up 30 bookings for 30 different sets of people would (and should) start alarm bells ringing.