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 3, 2015, 1:34 pm
#601
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: scotland/EDI
Programs: BAEC , M&M , VIRGIN FC , FLYING BLUE
Posts: 1,438
I deal with several business people men and women who would be horrified at the thought (more so the ladies I must say)
thankfully I answer to myself so don't have that problem
Mar 3, 2015, 1:39 pm
#602
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Bronze, United 1K, HH Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,477
10 minutes would be good at T5 (though not impossible), at LGW or AMS somewhat unlikely. At both airports it can easily take longer for the bag to be delivered than the actual flight time. I had the misfortune to accompany a colleague to AMS 2 weeks ago, unable to HBO on a 2 night visit (suspected shoe fetish) and we waited 45 minutes in baggage reclaim. She put the time to good use (texting, emailing, Book of Faces), I just fumed! I am nearly unable compute a really regular traveller doing anything other than HBO.
Mar 3, 2015, 1:40 pm
#603
Join Date: Jan 2011
Programs: AB Gold, LH FTL, ST ElitePlus, HH Gold, LeClub Plat, Melia Gold
Posts: 130
Exactly what I was thinking at the moment. Cause usually on the last routes I booked recently the difference was precisely 15-17£ or so per leg. It defeats the whole purpose of buying HBO fare if you hold on to your seat selection 'privilege' (which I certainly do). So de facto we'll end up paying more anyways...
Mar 3, 2015, 1:45 pm
#604
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: From ORK, live LCY
Programs: BA Silver, EI Silver, HH Gold, BW Gold, ABP, Seigneur des Horaires des Mucci
Posts: 14,214
Mar 3, 2015, 1:48 pm
#605
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: 30,528
Mar 3, 2015, 1:53 pm
#606
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: 30,528
If this is what BA are hoping for, I think they can dream on and start counting the losses instead. Certainly not going to happen in my case, in fact, while I will continue to book the now more miserable HBO fares when I need them, I have decided to stop using BA standard fares altogether unless there is no reasonable alternative.
Mar 3, 2015, 2:02 pm
#607
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Anwhere ex-MAN
Programs: A3 *G, BA Silver
Posts: 2,706
We moved from allowing Flex Y to cheapest Y for SH. Saved a fortune - people can change flights if they need to, the change fees are a fraction of full Y. It's fiscal prudence. As a shareholder I want costs to be reasonably controlled.
Mar 3, 2015, 2:20 pm
#608
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 191
Mar 3, 2015, 2:20 pm
#609
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Here, there and everywhere
Posts: 72
If BA reintroduce the LCY-ABZ flight again without the HBO option or this stupid (IMO) rule they will get my domestic business pretty much 100% again! But not likely to happen.
Mar 3, 2015, 2:22 pm
#610
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: 30,528
Of the many corporate policies I know of, I can think of none which suggests BA (or for that matter any other airline) as an exclusive choice. Almost all large companies have negotiated contracts with multiple airlines (some global, some by routes, some on all fares, some on specific fares). If BA think that corporate flyers are "stuck with them" anyway, then I think that they are being incredibly naïve and should double check their suspicions with company travel managers.
Mar 3, 2015, 2:30 pm
#612
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: scotland/EDI
Programs: BAEC , M&M , VIRGIN FC , FLYING BLUE
Posts: 1,438
Not forced to travel HBO. I can check a bag in and expense it, if I need to. The default is cheapest Y when booking.
We moved from allowing Flex Y to cheapest Y for SH. Saved a fortune - people can change flights if they need to, the change fees are a fraction of full Y. It's fiscal prudence. As a shareholder I want costs to be reasonably controlled.
We moved from allowing Flex Y to cheapest Y for SH. Saved a fortune - people can change flights if they need to, the change fees are a fraction of full Y. It's fiscal prudence. As a shareholder I want costs to be reasonably controlled.
its good you can expense your checked bag if need be
but I have heard that some people have had to pay to check baggage and some who had a choice of paying to check or losing some expensive toiletries
(these were people who don't usually fly with work)
and I should add that the company refused to allow the extra costs to be expensed
Mar 3, 2015, 2:38 pm
#613
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: not far from MUC
Posts: 6,620
Mar 3, 2015, 2:42 pm
#614
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: London
Posts: 6,265
As I said... I will keep booking HBO fares, but punish BA in other ways. Yes, I will end up costing them a lot more than the seat change fee.
Mar 3, 2015, 2:42 pm
#615
Join Date: May 2009
Location: London
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 2,741
...
Hopefully a number of us returning to paying non-HBO again will actually put their bags in the hold now anyway and this will free up cabin space too...that has to be a very good thing! I never understand this obsession with pax cramming everything into the cabin and at most airports there is rarely a wait of more than 10 minutes at the carousel. This is because at least 15-20 minutes have passed by the time you have got off the plane, walked a good few hundred metres, up and down a few escalators and queued at Immigration.
As a long suffering shareholder.....I say good move BA and lets hope it clears the cabin overheads a little bit too ^
Hopefully a number of us returning to paying non-HBO again will actually put their bags in the hold now anyway and this will free up cabin space too...that has to be a very good thing! I never understand this obsession with pax cramming everything into the cabin and at most airports there is rarely a wait of more than 10 minutes at the carousel. This is because at least 15-20 minutes have passed by the time you have got off the plane, walked a good few hundred metres, up and down a few escalators and queued at Immigration.
As a long suffering shareholder.....I say good move BA and lets hope it clears the cabin overheads a little bit too ^
And you also make the point that plenty of people won't care about this latest enhancement and will still buy HBO tickets.
Either way the overheads will still be rammed full, but now with the addition of lots of passengers annoyed at either having to pay more or else not sitting in a seat of their choosing.