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]
Apr 12, 2015, 9:25 pm
#1291
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Scotland & London
Programs: BA GGL, IHG Diamond Ambassador, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Mucci des Salons Ouvrants
Posts: 3,036
Interesting. Thank you for that piece of intelligence, it would also explain why they were so keen to roll this profile feature now and get status passengers to ensure their details were updated.
It may also help HBOs with not quite the right seat: change the preference and see what happens? Then change it back again after a few days?
It may also help HBOs with not quite the right seat: change the preference and see what happens? Then change it back again after a few days?
aks120
Apr 13, 2015, 12:39 am
#1292
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Scotland
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 363
My profile
Update: Having read that 100% complete profiles are now possible without setting a meal preference, I logged in to my BAEC account only to find it still stuck at 96%. It transpired that my seating preference had been lost (since that first HBO booking where we did get seats allocated).
Within minutes of me re-setting it to 'window' preference (and attaining 100% profile complete) I received a notification from MyFlights that my booking had changed, and lo and behold, it was a seat allocation in row 14, the furthest forward available window seat other than the exit row.
So, if my experience applies across the board, and you have an HBO ticket with no seat allocated, try checking your seat preference setting in your BAEC profile and see if that does the trick....
Within minutes of me re-setting it to 'window' preference (and attaining 100% profile complete) I received a notification from MyFlights that my booking had changed, and lo and behold, it was a seat allocation in row 14, the furthest forward available window seat other than the exit row.
So, if my experience applies across the board, and you have an HBO ticket with no seat allocated, try checking your seat preference setting in your BAEC profile and see if that does the trick....
Apr 13, 2015, 2:20 am
#1293
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Toulouse
Posts: 133
Update: Having read that 100% complete profiles are now possible without setting a meal preference, I logged in to my BAEC account only to find it still stuck at 96%. It transpired that my seating preference had been lost (since that first HBO booking where we did get seats allocated).
Within minutes of me re-setting it to 'window' preference (and attaining 100% profile complete) I received a notification from MyFlights that my booking had changed, and lo and behold, it was a seat allocation in row 14, the furthest forward available window seat other than the exit row.
So, if my experience applies across the board, and you have an HBO ticket with no seat allocated, try checking your seat preference setting in your BAEC profile and see if that does the trick....
Within minutes of me re-setting it to 'window' preference (and attaining 100% profile complete) I received a notification from MyFlights that my booking had changed, and lo and behold, it was a seat allocation in row 14, the furthest forward available window seat other than the exit row.
So, if my experience applies across the board, and you have an HBO ticket with no seat allocated, try checking your seat preference setting in your BAEC profile and see if that does the trick....
Thank you!
Apr 13, 2015, 2:50 am
#1294
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Oslo, Norway
Posts: 557
Apr 13, 2015, 3:03 am
#1295
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: BA Blue, IHG Spire, Marriott Gold
Posts: 402
Me too! Booked three flights last night, no seats showing this morning...logged in and seat preferences seemed to have reset to none, changed it to Aisle and seats for all my bookings have appeared - pretty decent ones as well, certainly nothing worse than I would have chosen!
Apr 13, 2015, 3:47 am
#1296
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the air
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy LT Plat, Hilton Gold, GHA Tit, BA Gold, Turkish Elite
Posts: 8,720
Interesting - despite setting my seating preferences just last week they had been wiped from my profile. I'll see what happens next time I book BA.
My next 3-4 flights are Easyjet as after the fiasco last week with seats, a delayed flight, another remote stand and missing buses I think that I'll give BA a break until May or so.
Update: Curiosity got the better of me. I booked a BA flight for next week and found that I was indeed issued with a seat now that my seating preferences are (again) set. Great find people!
My next 3-4 flights are Easyjet as after the fiasco last week with seats, a delayed flight, another remote stand and missing buses I think that I'll give BA a break until May or so.
Update: Curiosity got the better of me. I booked a BA flight for next week and found that I was indeed issued with a seat now that my seating preferences are (again) set. Great find people!
Last edited by EuropeanPete; Apr 13, 2015 at 4:56 am
Apr 13, 2015, 4:54 am
#1298
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: London, England
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 3,772
As another data point, I booked a AMS-LHR flight last night for me (Silver) and Ms Jetstreamer (Bronze). No seats were allocated by BA. However after reading the above, I went to Ms Jetstreamer’s account and noticed that she didn't have a seating preference set. I changed this to window (the same as my preference) and we were immediately assigned 13 A & B on the A321. I think this seat is fine, just a little annoying that someone is in 13C on an otherwise pretty empty seat map. Given a free choice I’d obviously try to avoid this.
Interestingly I then logged back into my account to see that my profile, previously 100% complete was now incomplete as my seating preference had been removed!
Incidentally, 13A & B were the furthest forward available seats. A good strategy therefore might be to remove a seating preference from one’s profile, and insert it back at such a time as the furthest forward seat is a desirable one (perhaps at T-72 hours?) However I concede this is a lot of fiddling to save a few £!
Interestingly I then logged back into my account to see that my profile, previously 100% complete was now incomplete as my seating preference had been removed!
Incidentally, 13A & B were the furthest forward available seats. A good strategy therefore might be to remove a seating preference from one’s profile, and insert it back at such a time as the furthest forward seat is a desirable one (perhaps at T-72 hours?) However I concede this is a lot of fiddling to save a few £!
Apr 13, 2015, 5:19 am
#1299
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Glasgow / London
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 3,457
Thanks for that nugget of information! Just updated seating preferences for my daughters for a flight next week, immediately checked their booking and they've been assigned 1B and C on the outbound and 2D and E on the return ^
Apr 13, 2015, 5:42 am
#1300
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,480
I had to remove our seat preferences today and put them back in, but MrsNWIFlyer and I now have allocated seats for two HBO fares. This is obviously very recent - I'd done this a few days ago when the seating bit of our profiles was deleted, and at that point it had no effect.
Of course, BA still insists in putting me in a window seat and MrsNWI in an aisle, despite our preferences listing exactly the opposite ...
It doesn't much matter on an E90 when we're travelling together, of course, but it really is annoying.
Of course, BA still insists in putting me in a window seat and MrsNWI in an aisle, despite our preferences listing exactly the opposite ...
It doesn't much matter on an E90 when we're travelling together, of course, but it really is annoying.
Apr 15, 2015, 8:03 am
#1301
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 561
Just to add another data point:
LHR-CPH in June; I have silver status, my partner bronze. My pref is aisle, hers is window. We were assigned 11B/C on the way out (exit row), and 14D/E on the way back.
Overall not too shabby - although given the fare paid (>£250 each) it seems ridiculous for BA to be so penny-pinching.
LHR-CPH in June; I have silver status, my partner bronze. My pref is aisle, hers is window. We were assigned 11B/C on the way out (exit row), and 14D/E on the way back.
Overall not too shabby - although given the fare paid (>£250 each) it seems ridiculous for BA to be so penny-pinching.
Apr 15, 2015, 3:40 pm
#1302
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Scotland
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 363
Will the live tail cam make up for no window ?
Apr 15, 2015, 5:52 pm
#1303
Join Date: Jul 2009
Programs: BAEC Silver, IHG Diamond
Posts: 7,780
I've got a HBO fare later today and there's something in my bag that will require checking. Not willing to pay £40 or whatever it is for a jar so I'll just try my luck. If it doesnt, I'll ditch it as no major loss. AA did ignore the 50-60 bottles of toiletries in the same bag on a SFO-LAX flight, so who knows ?
Apr 16, 2015, 5:24 am
#1304
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Londinium
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 930
I didn't get as up in arms as some people about the Avios changes, but to me this is the ultimate slap in the face.
If Virgin had better options for earning/using on European short-haul I'd leave BA behind for good. As it is I'm looking at LH (though don't want to be stuck with horrible United when I'm in the US)
If Virgin had better options for earning/using on European short-haul I'd leave BA behind for good. As it is I'm looking at LH (though don't want to be stuck with horrible United when I'm in the US)
Apr 16, 2015, 5:31 am
#1305
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London, ARN, HEL, ..... or MAN
Programs: BA GGL / GFL, Mucci Diamond!, HH Diamond, Radisson Premium, IHG Gold, Hertz Gold
Posts: 5,907
Loyalty does take a long time to build and can take a moment to destroy. However, for some reason that I can't logically fathom, most of my flights on BA still seem to have pretty good loads. It's a paradox..