JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saltire74

Will this apply to all tickets from 8th March or tickets bought from 8th March?

Reason I ask is I am returning late March from AMS-LHR-GLA...

Have looked online about changing the flight and it's £100 + any fare difference. What should I expect if I asked at the desk on the day?

Fare rule changes don't apply retroactively - your ticket will still have the rules associated with it when you bought it.

Also, the initial rollout of these new fares is for A-B or A-B-A journeys, not connecting ones such as yours, going A-B-C.

Now BA could potentially give staff an overall policy starting 08Mar that says something like 'for shorthaul pax booked in * waive change fee and only collect fare difference' so that the old fares are aligned with the new... but I'd guess there's a 0.01% chance of that!

You will more likely than not, for tickets already issued, be paying the same change fee you would be today.

EsherFlyer

I though the 'old' HBO+Semi-Flex was a good combination for a short business trip. Not being able to choose HBO would seem to simply be adding £25 or so to the price, but I still won't typically check a bag. Not going to break the bank, but probably a 10-20% increase on many of the SH flights I've taken recently.

EsherFlyer

I think I'm with you there. In the current model and removing Business cabin and fully-flex fares you get the 4 choices that fit into a 2x2 matrix: HBO / Economy against Standard / Semi-Flex.

• HBO+Standard is the cheapest.
• Bag+Standard (+ ~£25).
• HBO+Semi-flex (+ ~£20-£200).
• Bag+Semi-flex (+ ~£40-£250).

The middle two disappear, so if checking a bag you have a choice of the first plus ~£30 per bag (which is a similar price to the second, but doesn't get the seating benefits) or last when / if the price difference is low. But the sometimes small but often useful saving of the third one becomes inaccessible.

Jpsartre

I guess one reason for thinking the price difference between HBO and standard fares won't increase too dramatically is that HBO fares won't be available on flights involving transfers.

crazy8534

Yup, looking at it again- that's the direction for sure.
A true BA 'enhancement' it seems!

EDI_Martin

Anyone going to London from the regions for a week and needing checked luggage may see a large price hike, the train might become the better option for many now given their option is HBO or Semi Flex ticket. From memory a semi flex return was around £100 more expensive than a checked luggage fare prior to this enhancement.

Tiffywren

Nearly all my flights are domestic commute HBO fares and I don't mind not being able to choose a seat but I really do like being allowed in the lounge. If they take that away on HBO fares I'll just have to go back to Aspire...

radui

If the price hike for the middle tier is indeed significant this would be very bad for me (Silver card holder) as the two bag allowance would obviously NOT apply to HBO + 1 bag.

radui

Pricing up a random Europe one-way shorthaul from LHR currently:

- Checked baggage standard GBP146
- Semi-Flex: GBP266

Unless BA has just become overly generous with their semi-flex fares we are in for a nasty surprise - especially for status holders from a seat selection perspective and baggage allowance. I don't see this affecting non-status holders too much.

Saltire74

Thanks JAXBA

What I thought but I'll ask anyway.

A bit crap though anyone flying from the regions and wanting to fly BA on S/H may not be able to take advantage of this new enhancement if I'm deciphering correctly what you say.

Airline ticketing - Dark Art. Hurting my head

Safe & Happy Travels

S

orbitmic

I am not sure it is as straightforward at that. There is nothing to suggest that the connecting flights will benefit from the same day flight change plus those are separate fares entirely in any case (in the sense that people won't compare a TXL-FCO (via HR) to LHR-FCO anyway. Plus BA already tends to be quite expensive on connecting itineraries anyway, much more so than AFKL and LHLXOSSN.

JAXBA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saltire74

A bit crap though anyone flying from the regions and wanting to fly BA on S/H may not be able to take advantage of this new enhancement if I'm deciphering correctly what you say.

Airline ticketing - Dark Art. Hurting my head

YW I am a master of that Dark Art!

I'm sure the regions will be included soon enough. When HBO started it was initially on select ex-LHR routes only, then more destinations, then ex-EU, etc. Probably takes a lot of time to update each fare for each market, even if the rules are just 'copied and pasted' in ATPCo, the new fare still has to be determined by a RevMan Dark Art which I don't know the secret handshake to yet... I believe our friend Sixth Freedom is initiated to that level..

highpeaklad

There aren't going to be just 3 fares though. Just as at the moment I'm sure there'll be several fare buckets for each type of fare so there's no reason to think the cheapest new semi flex with luggage will be much dearer than the cheapest with luggage at present.
We will have to see how it pans out.

orbitmic

Indeed, there will be multiple fare buckets. However, on the contrary, there is a very specific reason to think that this will make the new cheapest luggage inclusive fare much more expensive than currently.

I'm not saying I am correct in my guess but the argument is that at the moment every single fare bucket can be bought as HBO or luggage included. With the new structure, it seems that lowest buckets will only be available as HBO, then the next set of buckets as semi-flex luggage inclusive, and the final range will be available as luggage inclusive fully flex.

What this suggests to me is that

- currently, the cheapest luggage and seat inclusive fare is O+ about £15 (it can be a bit less or a bit more but £15 is typical of most LHR flights in bands 2/3 like BCN, GVA, NCE, etc). By contrast, the cheapest semi-flex fare is typically about £100 more;

- with the change, I am guessing that all the fares that are not semi-flex will become HBO only, meaning that either you'll stick to them as they are if you are happy with the "bare product", or if you want a piece of checked luggage it will now cost you £30 (extra bag instead) for one bag only (not two if you have status as you would have had for a luggage inclusive fee) and without seat selection (again, included for status pax if you bought luggage inclusive);

- OR if you want to retain the advantages of the two bags and free seat selection, you'd now need to upgrade to a semi-flex ticket for about £100 (instead of £15 for those advantages previously) even if you are not interested in the added flexibility.

So while I agree with you that we will ultimately have to wait for the details, the concept that getting a luggage inclusive fare will now be both far more expensive and coming with fewer perks is not just a random grumpy guess but something which I think some of us have very good reason to expect. It does not make us necessarily right (needless to say I'd love to be wrong) but the expectation is based on a specific reading of the logic of the change.

PS: note that nobody is saying that semi-flex fares will increase, just that the cost to have a luggage inclusive fare will increase

Virazuno

Currently it is cheaper to buy a 'normal' fare, than to buy HBO and add a bag.

With the addition of the semi-flexibility of the normal fare, this is surely now likely to be corrected (i.e. the with-bag fare will now be more expensive than it currently is, and HBO+added bag being cheaper overall), bringing the HBO pricing structure in line with LCCs.

As long as they add free seat selection for status passengers/at 24 hours (unlikely, but one can hope), I do not see this as a bad thing.