Aug 7, 2015, 5:53 am
Last edit by: NWIFlyer
Hand Baggage Only fares (HBO) are available on domestic and EuroTraveller routes. They are offered at a lower price to those able to travel without checked baggage on point to point journeys only - they are not offered with connections, stopovers or with Club Europe. There isn't a special fare bucket for HBO, it's just a discount to all domestic/ET fare buckets, so even expensive flexible tickets offer HBO. The discount varies depending on route. For example, going HBO on LHR-DUB gives a £10 discount; £15 on LHR-PRG; and £20 on LHR-ATH. Online Travel Agents often book into these fares (including building stopovers) and are sometimes less than transparent about the baggage restrictions during the booking process. HBO fares do not earn OnBusiness credits.
BAEC status passengers from Bronze upwards get advance seat choice with these tickets.
How to get seat allocation if HBO and without status:
- Pay up. You can pay up at OLCI if you don't like the seat. Costs vary from £7 to £21 per sector as a minimum, with differential pricing employed for better seats (e.g. an exit row on LHR-DUB was £23 in June 2017). Usually, but not always, this invalidates the cost saving of HBO. You can also pay up in Manage My Booking (MMB) before OLCI.
- Cancel OLCI at the "confirm contact details" stage. Go in again and/or later and you may be offered another seat.
- Corporate travel bookings still offer seating to HBO in some cases. Sometimes this ability is temporary and doesn't stick.
- Ask check-in or the lounge agent for a better seat, so far this seems to be possible. Lounge agents won't be able to assist where they aren't part of the ground handling for BA (e.g. LBA).
- If your airport has a Self Service Check In (SSCI) machine AND you do not print your boarding pass (see below) then you can select another seat there provided check-in is still open, typically up to 46 minutes before take off. So if you are being allocated a rotten seat and you can see better seats available, you can take a risk and complete/commence check-in later.
SSCI machines are available at: LHR, LGW, LCY, MAN, EDI (on the general purpose airport machines, but only those by the BA check-in area), NCE, BRU, OSL, BLL, AAR, MUC, AMS.
They are NOT available at: ABZ, BHD, GLA, LBA, NCL, DUB, CDG, ORY, SVG, DUS, TXL, MAH, CFU, OLB, CTA, CAG, FDH, ANE, UIP, BIO, HER, SVQ, PMI, BRI.
You can also do this operation the night before at LGW and LHR, details here.
By "printing boarding pass" we mean not selecting that option at OLCI, or saving, emailing, faxing and/or downloading the boarding pass on the App.
HBO fares - Have to pay to select seat in advance [free for GCH/SCH/BCHs @ 14 Jun 17]
Mar 2, 2015, 9:10 am
#211
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 4,477
This move is clearly to raise revenue and make people pay for exit rows and front row on domestic flights. I expect it's just a start for more revenue raising.
On a separate note (but kind of related) I was told in October at LGW that AUP are not eligible for HBO fares. Is this something that FT posters are aware of?
On a separate note (but kind of related) I was told in October at LGW that AUP are not eligible for HBO fares. Is this something that FT posters are aware of?
Mar 2, 2015, 9:11 am
#212
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,839
I've had conflicting versions of this. What I think it is, is that the process is not to allow AUP + HBO @ LGW, but the system isn't bright enough to stop it! (And doubtless you are all terribly surprised by that). So consequently if the agent forgets this rule or doesn't check, the AUP gets cheerfully done for you. Consequently I've had (I think) 2 x "we can't do AUP on this ticket" and 4 x "have you got your credit card handy Mr CWS?"
Mar 2, 2015, 9:16 am
#213
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Surrey, UK
Programs: BA Gold....er now Silver...er now Bronze....er now Blue
Posts: 3,507
I can't usually be bothered to write in and complain, but this time I have done. Not that it will do any good.
https://www.britishairways.com/trave...m/public/en_gb
https://www.britishairways.com/trave...m/public/en_gb
Mar 2, 2015, 9:21 am
#215
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: London UK
Programs: All Expired... :-(
Posts: 410
Mar 2, 2015, 9:31 am
#216
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Seat 1L these days :)
Programs: AF Platinum/AY LUMO/SK EBG/baEC S/HYATT Globalist/MR LTP/A3 *G/HH Dia/IHG plat
Posts: 7,962
From all the enhancements BA has done wll from my flying 
2015 jan-feb 26900 BIS 0 TP booked another 60000 BIS of those I will credit ZERO TPs to baec.... I know it wont make much of a difference but nickle and diming won't keep me crediting to BAEC and moves like this will move my flying from BA too....
Not a very smart move in my opinion!
2015 jan-feb 26900 BIS 0 TP booked another 60000 BIS of those I will credit ZERO TPs to baec.... I know it wont make much of a difference but nickle and diming won't keep me crediting to BAEC and moves like this will move my flying from BA too.... Not a very smart move in my opinion!
Mar 2, 2015, 9:36 am
#217
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: London
Programs: Sir Ratechaser Seigneur de la Patience d'un Saint (Mucci), BA Silver, Starbucks Gold
Posts: 2,570
it seems pretty clear that there is now a department at BA whose sole objective is to think up new ways to p**s off their most loyal customers.
This is probably one of the most vindictive 'enhancement' BA have ever dreamed up, given it demolishes one of the core benefits of elite status - namely seat selection on booking.
Shame on you BA.
This is probably one of the most vindictive 'enhancement' BA have ever dreamed up, given it demolishes one of the core benefits of elite status - namely seat selection on booking.
Shame on you BA.
Many of us, myself included, were mightily annoyed at the post-April changes being implemented, but at least there was some semblance of a counter argument for why it (maybe) was needed or justifiable. This on the other hand is just a nasty spiteful little "f you, give us more money" from BA. And ironically something this seemingly minor could influence FF perception against BA far more than the much bigger EC changes previously announced.
Or maybe we'll all just shout about it for a few days and it will either get forgotten or rationalised away as a much needed change.
Could go either way...
Mar 2, 2015, 9:38 am
#218
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: GLA
Programs: BD (in memoriam), BA
Posts: 1,359
All I can say is, it's nice to see a touch of the bmi still alive in the conquering power. For those of you not familiar with the TINY fares, here's the relevant section of the old BD forum FAQ:
Historical note: they used to be named after the Tiny fares marketed on bmi's no-frills sister airline, bmibaby. They were introduced to bmi amid a baffling, commercially-suicidal and short-lived experiment in modular pricing to and from LHR. Originally, they earned no miles and used to exclude elites from all benefits such as lounge access but after a customer backlash they then work like ordinary - but deeply restricted - fares
To those speculating that lounge access could be next against the wall, the BD precedent was that Silver card holders were barred from the lounge on TINY fares, but *G still got access.
I'm one of the people with a corp TA system that will by default book me into an HBO fare, and will require significant battling (and possibly dire warnings about out of policy) to give me a normal fare. Given that it's already a struggle to get it to give me BA over easyJet, I'm close to giving up fighting for a BA flight.
Historical note: they used to be named after the Tiny fares marketed on bmi's no-frills sister airline, bmibaby. They were introduced to bmi amid a baffling, commercially-suicidal and short-lived experiment in modular pricing to and from LHR. Originally, they earned no miles and used to exclude elites from all benefits such as lounge access but after a customer backlash they then work like ordinary - but deeply restricted - fares
To those speculating that lounge access could be next against the wall, the BD precedent was that Silver card holders were barred from the lounge on TINY fares, but *G still got access.
I'm one of the people with a corp TA system that will by default book me into an HBO fare, and will require significant battling (and possibly dire warnings about out of policy) to give me a normal fare. Given that it's already a struggle to get it to give me BA over easyJet, I'm close to giving up fighting for a BA flight.
Mar 2, 2015, 9:39 am
#219
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Buckinghamshire
Programs: BAEC Gold Guest List, Hilton Honours Diamond, Accor Gold
Posts: 2,303
I've had conflicting versions of this. What I think it is, is that the process is not to allow AUP + HBO @ LGW, but the system isn't bright enough to stop it! (And doubtless you are all terribly surprised by that). So consequently if the agent forgets this rule or doesn't check, the AUP gets cheerfully done for you. Consequently I've had (I think) 2 x "we can't do AUP on this ticket" and 4 x "have you got your credit card handy Mr CWS?"
Mar 2, 2015, 9:41 am
#220
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Buckinghamshire
Programs: BAEC Gold Guest List, Hilton Honours Diamond, Accor Gold
Posts: 2,303
I can see frequent flyers playing russian roulette with this new rule, booking HBO tickets and hoping/expecting POUG to be offered in due course. This could all go horribly wrong….
(I was offered POUG on recent flights to MUC, ARN & HAN - took them all).
(I was offered POUG on recent flights to MUC, ARN & HAN - took them all).
Mar 2, 2015, 9:42 am
#221
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
I've had conflicting versions of this. What I think it is, is that the process is not to allow AUP + HBO @ LGW, but the system isn't bright enough to stop it! (And doubtless you are all terribly surprised by that). So consequently if the agent forgets this rule or doesn't check, the AUP gets cheerfully done for you. Consequently I've had (I think) 2 x "we can't do AUP on this ticket" and 4 x "have you got your credit card handy Mr CWS?"
I cannot imagine you would be too happy to be potentially squeezed into 24A on a HBO fare?
Mar 2, 2015, 9:44 am
#222
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Leeds ,Yorks UK
Programs: KLM Flying Blue Platinum for Life.. BA Gold , oh and some other shiny bits of plastic ...
Posts: 4,238
HBO fares - Have to pay to select seat in advance [even for GCH/SCH/BCHs]
Disgusted and insulted are the first words that come to mind regarding this .. And my gut feeling is that the idiots upstairs have not finished with us regarding this !
Mar 2, 2015, 9:49 am
#224
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK and Southern France
Posts: 18,364
My main issue with this is not about losing a privilege on some flights per se. My main issue is that BA is effectively only trying to differentiate between its various fares by making its product less good than it could be even when it does not save it any money. This, to me, is very wrong, as it puts internal competition (a need to pretend to differentiate offers) above external competitions (trying to provide the best possible service for a given cost to encourage people to choose you rather than competitors).
In other words, this is a mean change because BA are simply making your travel experience worse even when making it better would cost them nothing.
In other words, this is a mean change because BA are simply making your travel experience worse even when making it better would cost them nothing.
Mar 2, 2015, 9:50 am
#225
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 2,676
Perhaps BA just need to get on with it ... draw a curtain across the back third and call it 'super economy' (I suspect 'third class' might not go down well) - hand baggage only, board after everyone else, no free food or drink, no miles or TP, reduce the seat pitch even further and no seat allocation.
Of course - if they wanted to make it tempting to buy those seats - they could put Michael O'Leary pictures on punch bags above every seat.
Then you can have op-ups out of third class into normal economy as one of your three - as well as POUG offers!
M.
Of course - if they wanted to make it tempting to buy those seats - they could put Michael O'Leary pictures on punch bags above every seat.
Then you can have op-ups out of third class into normal economy as one of your three - as well as POUG offers!
M.