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, 1:58 pm
#361
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Glasgow / London
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 3,457
To add to the other comments about this one, I qualify for a CCR through regular long haul flights in J and F, but I also do 50+ domestic sectors every year, many of which are HBO, when a sensibly priced holiday booking (flight and car) isn't available. I suspect mand GCHs are in the same position.
Mar 2, 2015, 1:59 pm
#362
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 5,596
I have just done the qualifying flights on a cheap IB J fare AMS-MAD-PTY-MAD-AMS.The short haul A320 was rather better than the new cramped BA CE product,and the long haul MAD-PTY was light years ahead.Brand new A330,nice cabin not the BA cramped J experience,and the roast guinea fowl for lunch was delicious.Even 2 different desert wines.
IB was better than BA on the return also.2 sectors is too small a number to make a representative comparison,but it was a good reminder of how cr$p BA has become.This is from someone who regularly gives out golden tickets,so not a serial complainer.
Thankfully Tesco and Kaligo will supply me with sufficiently large quantities of Avios to use RFS for European flights where possible.I am amazed at the gargantuan amounts of Avios that Kaligo are currently giving away.^
Mar 2, 2015, 2:02 pm
#363
Join Date: Sep 2014
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 85
I always thought HBO fares were a bad idea and the thin end of a wedge - and this senseless change just reinforces my opinion.
I'm almost tempted to check extra bags from now on just to increase BA's costs, though I guess that will ultimately backfire on all of us.
I'm just wondering what will be next - though I'm not going to dare speculate in case BA gets any more ideas from here...
I'm almost tempted to check extra bags from now on just to increase BA's costs, though I guess that will ultimately backfire on all of us.
I'm just wondering what will be next - though I'm not going to dare speculate in case BA gets any more ideas from here...
1. The flights are much more often rammed full than they were.
2. There's much more hassle and malarky with people (often idiots) stuffing the overhead lockers with massive bags (often way over the size limit).
So from this point of view I'm somewhat sympathetic to anything that BA does to choke off the demand for HBO fares.
Mar 2, 2015, 2:03 pm
#364
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,541
BA is playing a risky game here. If EC BCH/SCH/GCHs, who face add-on costs for seat selection, turn their back on HBO fares, then BA will pay airport authorities higher rates of PSC. BA currently gets a discount from LGW and LHR for each HBO ticket sold which offsets the discount passed along to the customer. So with today's announcement BA seems to be engineering a disproportionate amount of bad will for very little gain.
Very poor show BA
Very poor show BA
Mar 2, 2015, 2:06 pm
#365
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
This is the ideal frequent flier fare. Even chris1979 has been weaned off the unhealthy habit of checking bags.Will we? I am not really supposed to do that ...
Yes they did, at OLCI.
There's a big difference between some choice and no choice.
Mar 2, 2015, 2:07 pm
#366
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,541
My thought is the exact opposite. If your suspicion was right, then why on earth would BA send such a further negative signal to its most loyal customers by removing an advantage which extremely few would be benefiting from anyway? Why would you bother telling your CCR/GGL/GCH customers they now won't get free seat selections on some flights if it only concerned one or two pax on each plane?
Mar 2, 2015, 2:08 pm
#367
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: MAN and LON
Programs: Mucci, BAEC LT Gold, HH Dia, MR LT Plat, IHG Diamond Amb, Amex Plat
Posts: 13,773
It is often considerably cheaper to buy U2 seats for 2, buy the middle seat as an extra, buy speedy boarding and seat selection (row 1) buy decent onboard food and drinks that you might actually like than even a direct CE (or often Y) flight from LON let alone a connection from MAN.
PP lounges are often superior to any BA outstation lounges and improving versus the BA offering heading the other way.
All in my policy recently is to look at U2 for direct flights and work out the cost relative to BA. Only if BA is significantly cheaper will I consider it.
Mar 2, 2015, 2:13 pm
#368
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17,007
To add to the other comments about this one, I qualify for a CCR through regular long haul flights in J and F, but I also do 50+ domestic sectors every year, many of which are HBO, when a sensibly priced holiday booking (flight and car) isn't available. I suspect mand GCHs are in the same position.
Mar 2, 2015, 2:13 pm
#369
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 1,335
The thing I find particularly galling about this is that HBO fares save BA money off the blocks: those booking them are less likely to use check-in and BA also saves on the cost of fuel for carrying (likely) heavier hold baggage.
Mar 2, 2015, 2:16 pm
#370
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: London Stratford, E7
Programs: BAEC Gold! Thanks to FT
Posts: 3,381
In all seriousness, I suspect a radical change of BA shorthaul flying, paid lounge access, packages, bundling of options, fast track security, in flight catering, baggage etc.
Mar 2, 2015, 2:24 pm
#371
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver Seigneur des Horaires des Mucci.
Posts: 2,047
Are not HBO fares just a huge mistake. Rammed overhead lockers etc. as others have said here, you should pay to put a small suitcase in the cabin rather than the hold ! What is being suggested is like the old BMI tiny fare or the Flybe essentials. I am sure paid catering will be the next step; though could be an improvement in SH Y catering
Mar 2, 2015, 2:28 pm
#372
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: DUB / BHD
Programs: BAEC CCR, BAEC Lifetime GGL, Hilton Hhonors Lifetime Diamond
Posts: 176
To add to the other comments about this one, I qualify for a CCR through regular long haul flights in J and F, but I also do 50+ domestic sectors every year, many of which are HBO, when a sensibly priced holiday booking (flight and car) isn't available. I suspect mand GCHs are in the same position.
I'm very dissatisfied, whilst it will not significantly impact on me, and think BA should have some reflection and rethink, certainly for GGL / CCR members. I remember when BMI did this with TINY fares but did a rapid U turn for BD*G.
I've emailed GGL with my thoughts tonight
Mar 2, 2015, 2:28 pm
#373
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 8,771
How do you read it like that? The email very clearly says you will have to pay for seat selection at T-24. If that's not the case then BA's comms department are completely incompetent, but hoorah if so!
Mar 2, 2015, 2:30 pm
#374
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,541
No, they were a great idea: transporting a bag costs money to the airline (a lot) so it could encourage people not to need that service and make ticket prices lower virtually without a cost as the discount on the price was virtually fully paid for by the reduction in costs. Enforcing cabin luggage limits etc is a matter of implementation, but the idea itself made a lot of sense.
Mar 2, 2015, 2:31 pm
#375
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: London, UK and Southern France
Posts: 18,364