Doc Savage

"Fuel surcharges" have nothing to do with the cost of fuel.

callum9999

Is there a particular reason why you've cut off the line of text directly underneath the price quotes that clearly explains there is a carrier surcharge? Or refuse to accept that the blue i icon gives a clear breakdown of charges and specifies which go to BA - claiming I'm making it up? Hardly the act of someone "going out of their way to hide it"... Particularly as virtually none of their customers care what it's called anyway.

lhrsfo

I generally don't as there's competition on the routes I fly. BA gets away with YQ on redemptions as it operates as an effective monopoly out of LHR.

muscat

??? Every time I fly out of LHR there seem to be planes from every operator in the world sitting at terminals.

shorthauldad

BA say this:

Apart from the fact the the phrase "European carrier imposed charge" doesn't belong there (more misdirection - this is a CX flight I'm pricing up at BA.com ), the bit about flight duration is nonsense.

LHR-HKG takes about 10h30, JFK-LHR about 5h45; check the YQ on those two routes )

Despite BA's claims, YQ has got very little to do with flight duration and certainly nothing to do with fuel.

BA obviously picks the carrier surcharge based almost entirely on what the market will bear. This is supposed to be what the fare is for!

Blueboys999

This often heard line really is neither a solution nor simple for many and isn't made any more so by the use of capital letters in the post.

kingcole974

With a barrel of oil falling to $82 ($85 Brent ) the business section of the times today seems to be joining the band wagon.

They quote the 4 rises in 2011 when the oil price climbed from $90 to $110 and also the recent action in the states highlighting the extra burden this puts on redemption bookings.

I know many on here will argue BA's corner that YQ is now part of the ticket price but this charge was born out of high oil prices and we all stumped up.

Surely now we should see this fee declining and therefore bringing down the cash element on reward flights? I'm sure the market will always dictate the full revenue price anyhow, no matter what elements make up the final figure.

revan

No - as innumerable other threads have said, YQ is no longer a fuel surcharge, but a "carrier surcharge"

kingcole974

Which just highlights the dishonesty of the whole situation.

If BA had said 4 years ago that the current model does not work for us and we now need to make a carrier surcharge on redemptions, it would have been clear. Customers would have made a choice.

But it was sold to us as a fuel surcharge. The economy was bad, there were wars and we all saw the price of oil hitting new highs on the news. I, and others understood and me paid the fuel surcharge.

Now the oil price is below the trigger point, it's suddenly renamed or re classified.

C'mon. That's not cricket!

IAN-UK

Absolutely right. The link to fuel price was smart when oil prices were the drama of the day. Equally smart was ditching that link after the surcharge concept became an entrenched component of ticket price (AKA fare), legal rumblings began in the US, and oil prices fell.

We are left with a fare comprising two components, one sort of fixed, the other variable. It's an odd pricing mechanism: a neutral artefact for many passengers, but clearly a burden for others.

More importantly, and equally clearly, it represents lucre to the airline.

It is this financial benefit it carries for the airline that's the key to YQ continuing application under its new definition. The xxx-surcharge will be with us until a regulator gets to grips with it (i.e. probably forever).

Mattyb44

+1

kazdave

+1+1

hyho61

Now that oil prices are plunging, is it possible that BA might cut the avios fuel surcharge. What is their basis for the surcharge anyway $20/barrel ??

If they continue to charge fuel surcharges then for sure avios travel is just another low fare revenue ticket

hugolover

It doesn't work like that. Oil price falls profits rise, reduce government taxes, profits rise... in theory anyway .

bafan

And, of course, the shareholder discount doesn't apply to the surcharge...