Cymro

They can for anyone connecting off a QR F flight onto BA J.

Although they'd mostly be on a two-stop flight so I'm not sure how many people there would be (except TP runners and ex-EU Londoners!)

eae

Oh, didn't realize that. Thanks for clarifying jamesreid978!

msm2000uk

Having spent the past 18 hours flying, I'm glad this news has now been made public - I gave a small hint a month or so ago, but I'm glad it wasn't well picked up on.

The Agreement between the two airlines apparently took a while, as QR seemed to be the far greater beneficiary - and BA wanted some sort of comfort. I'm told the sticking point was over travel to the US, which you will note is not part of the Agreement.

As a regular champion of QR, I am delighted that more BA regulars may consider flying QR.

Sure, the layover aspect is still there, but the general public passenger is the true winner out of this.

Safe travels,

M

sxc

So any idea how this affects destinations BA already fly to? For example LHR-HKG - You'll be able to fly either direct to HKG on BA, or via DOH on QR. I can't imagine that they will have identical pricing on these routes. Would a route like this actually be excluded from the agreement?

brunos

CX flights to DOH did not have F class (nor the QR flights). Are you talking about a pax ticketed DOH-HKG-LAX with the HKG-LAX segment in F.

sam

Do you think 'enhanced frequent flier benefits ' might include AmEx 2f1 redemption?

Ldnn1

No.

GUWonder

The bunker mentality of more than one EU/EEA legacy carrier seems to have a strategy of retreating into the safety of the US-EU market, with the crutch of governmentally-backed allowances for collusion against the interests of TATL-flying consumers. For example, the approach of the carrier SAS/Scandinavian.

pacenotes

How has the European Competitions commission not had a look at this? Surly they would have something to say unless as it is a route out of the EU it does not apply?

Price fixing is illegal in the EU.

Globaliser

How is this different from all the other similar arrangements which have been in place for years? They all have to get clearance on their own terms, but the principle of such arrangements is now well-established and this one is hardly unusual.

For example, look at the much bigger one that BA is involved in across the Atlantic.

GUWonder

It's illegal unless and until the involved governmental parties decide to do a group of companies a favor and engage in a form of corporate welfare by granting them governmental waivers and favors to collude in their own interests against consumers.

Welcome to governments selling out the masses in the interests of those with more concentrated interests with money and goodies on hand to hand out to them.

Airlines in the US and EU hand out favors not only to online "opinion leaders" -- sometimes that even has included FT personalities -- but also to governmental influencers. What do you think those army of lobbyists and government relations staff are used to do? It's not just to follow laws and regulations, but also to try to game the public arena and stack the deck in their favor.

ChampagneSocialist

Hi, I'm not sure that AA, IB and JL coded flights get any tier bonus for BAEC flyers at all - regardless of JBVs, AA/IB/JL metal flights would have to be BA-coded in order to gain tier bonuses (BA's website isn't very clear on this but this is what it implies, "British Airways flights") http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/...-avios/flights

Perhaps others can correct me with more specific knowledge. Certainly last time a flew LHR-HEL-PEK return on AY-coded, AY-metal, I did not get any BA tier bonus for the LHR-HEL segment.

EDIT: D'OH! My mistake and you were quite right - the same page also says "some of our partner airlines also offer tier bonuses"... and indeed AA/IB/JL do, but AY doesn't.

irishguy28

You're wrong! Just look at the tables for each. Specifically the "Avios Tier Bonus?" column.

I expect that column to go from red cross to green tick for Qatar

ChampagneSocialist

Thanks, humbly corrected - yes, the red cross to green tick for QR would be nice!

That said, some JBVs are more joint than others - as I found out the hard way that AY was a red cross and not a green tick..

irishguy28

I guess BA just can't do business with the Finns.

(and with a hard Brexit, that may turn out to be true!!! )