Originally Posted by
kdhurst380
Essentially, yes. The new fares are cheaper (granted not by much in some circumstances) whilst still giving the full BA onboard 'experience'. If you're booking yourself the cheapest possible fare you can find, then chances are you are price conscious and have other browser windows open comparing competitor airlines. If BA were to allow status holders to select these fares whilst getting all their benefits, then they lose that revenue stream that they put into place; sweep up passengers from other airlines.
I take your point about EJ+ holders, but then look at Ryanair & Jet2 who have no such schemes and the picture is the same.
I'm no expert, I'm just a veteran to flying with lots of different airlines and having no real loyalty to any particular one (see my own status - or lack of!), so maybe it's easier for me to see a different perspective and BA's point of view on this, which is that the 'old fashioned' all inclusive fare still exists in the same price bracket that it did before; so if you want the all inclusive fare with lassociated benefits, then that's the one you need to choose.
In a nutshell, I don't think status holders are who BA have in mind for targeting HBO fares towards.
Maybe I'm missing something, but you keep referring to HBO fares as if they are a new initiative from BA, at a lower price. HBO fares have been around for a couple of years, and I haven't seen anything that indicates BA are reducing the HBO fares as part of this change.
If you have evidence this is the case, then there is less reason for anyone to complain. If not, your point is theoretically correct, just a couple of years late. The issue at hand is that BA (possibly erroneously, but they were feeling less bullish then) allowed free seat selection for status pax when launching HBO, so now they find themselves in a position of removing something rather than never giving it in the first place - always a weaker position, and they have other LH business at risk, which U2/FR et al do not.
BA may not have intended to target status pax with these fares, but they were stupid to underestimate the take-up. It was always going to happen, and they should have known better. Presumably they had the data of how often pax checked in a bag pre-HBO. I can't remember the last time I checked in a bag on a SH flight on BA (apart from family holidays), long before HBO fares existed on BA. I'm not bothered by this change, for me it just means BA are less competitive vs others with seat selection included and will lose bookings accordingly, but I don't think you can talk about their target market as if this is a new product.