Now that I've calmed down a bit, and pushed the "Rip-off Britain" thought in my brain to one side to allow some real thinking...

I guess what I'm remembering is the package tours I took in my teens, when surcharging was a regular occurence. You went into Thomas Cook in January, booked your two weeks in the sun for August, then got hit with a surcharge a few weeks before you travelled. The usual excuse was fuel price increase. If you didn't pay, you didn't travel. A few years later the tour operator's big selling point was "No surcharges, guarenteed!".

So what we have here today is not a surcharge, its an increased cost to BA which they have decided to reflect in thier prices. No problem with that, businesses do it all the time. Just don't call it a surcharge - its not.

As for how BA could (theoretically) collect it, what do they do for excess baggage? (I realise that its a bit more difficult when trying to collect additional payment from ALL passengers, not just the odd one!).

Now the £5 vs $4 I could still rant about...even if I'm not paying for it (this time ).