Flexible preferences

Indeed. It is a competitive market. An Easyjet passenger paying £50 with no lounge access vs a BA passenger paying £50 and quaffing £15 worth of champagne in the lounge (well, once the LGW lounge is back up and running).

Don't forget BA aren't shy of making radical changes regarding lounge access - it was only a few years ago they barred lounge access if you weren't flying BA.

henkybaby

Inspired by another thread I wonder how this affects us silly foreigners... If the 'middle fare' become much more expensive, flying via LHR becomes very unattractive for us. HBO is only offered on direct routes.

headingwest

Yes, that has been argued here before...but lounge access is by virtue of status (i.e. previous spending) not of the ticket that you hold.

IAMORGAN

I do normally check in a bag, but not always. I like being able to choose my seat and for the sake of a small premium the ability to check in 64kg of luggage is helpful!

Flexible preferences

Tell that to all the status holders who had earned their status through previous spend and then couldn't use the lounges any more when they flew Easyjet.

FrancisA

Open Doors was a Gold benefit and was never intended for the situation that transpired at LGW. In the main it allowed a GCH to use the BA lounge when flying (perhaps domestically in a foreign land) to somewhere BA didn't even serve.

However, when EasyJet purchased GB, they had a large number of flights in the North Terminal at LGW. The significance of the problem was so great that there used to be signs on the walls at the top of the stairs in front of the lounge entrances reminding passenger that Open Doors was for the GCH only - No Guests and offered access to the Terraces lounge only, not the F lounge.

Taking away this benefit was hardly surprising (and the main airlines in the other alliances had done similar things).

Removing lounge access on HBO fares would be harsh (when you are actually spending with BA) and if with-luggage economy fares were to start a B fare basis, there would be little benefit - a CE ticket with lounge access would be cheaper!

Flexible preferences

All fair points and thanks for the historical context - very interesting.

Actually I would be surprised if (at this stage) BA took away lounge access for HBO fares because they have given no notice - I seem to remember there was notice with Open Doors.

That said, you can't ignore the fact that BA are competing with LCCs who don't have to fund lounges. I don't know how much it costs BA per person to use the lounge, but that is straight off the bottom line for these often inexpensive fares.

And, BA made this big change with Open Doors just a few years ago - it cause uproar on here, but it showed that they are not afraid of making radical changes to the benefits of status membership when they want to.

orbitmic

What a weird statement. If the interpretation of many of us is correct, "people like you" without status would end up paying £15 more and losing such things a their right to choose their seat at check in if they want to travel with a suitcase. There may be cases when indeed your route is served by an LCC and their fare will be good, there will be other cases where such option won't exist. The bottom line is that if our interpretation is correct, while people with status will lose "even more" (in the form of the extra status bag), people without any status will end up paying significantly more to have a less good product whenever they need to check in a bag.

EsherFlyer

I thought private fares didn't appear on those agencies. Was it a one off glitch?

I think there is clue in there to what the pricing outcome will be. If private fares don't show then BA will presumably want a half sensible fare to appear in ITA, corporate TA, Expedia, etc. That would presumably be something less than the current semi-flex fares, but I'm not sure what.

orbitmic

We know that it would make at least one regular FT contributor extatic!

HIDDY

Are you interpreting the cost of a HBO fare plus 1 checked bag is going to work out more expensive than what the cheapest standard fare is now?

orbitmic

Yes, exactly. Right now, the luggage inclusive fare is typically £15 above the HBO fare. That gets you a piece of checked luggage and free seat selection at OLCI.

As this option will disappear, the cheapest way to get a flight with a checked suitcase will become HBO + checked luggage fee (cost varies but is an average of £30 if booked in advance). So that will be on average £15 more than the current version (and you won't be able to choose your seats at OLCI any more).

AMBurns1512

I really hope the prices don't increase by too much as I like to take hold luggage when I travel. I know it is possible to buy HBO and add a bag, but it's cheaper to buy a "WCB" just now as it is. I suppose I've only just started the FFP game and so I'm not in it as deep as some, and since KLM is similarly priced on the routes I go I suppose I do have another option if the increase is too high (for me).

Ldnn1

HBO fares actually appear on most of the aggregators and OTAs such as Skyscanner, Expedia etc; just not on ITA Matrix!

FlyingScientist

Is the routing of the ticket actually to LHR or to LON?

If I remember correctly, I have at least once changed flight date/time on the BA webpage including switching from one London airport to another.