BA fares leaving from Nigeria
 

Does anybody know why BA fares from Lagos to London have gone mental, just after they started the new 747. Economy return LOS-LHR-LHR is now $4,170!!!! I presume that this is some local tax/exchange rate thing as the reverse routing is more normal pricing. Anyways around this?

Capital controls on getting money out of the country. BA would much prefer selling tickets into LOS than out because the cash gets stuck there.

AF, KL and VS are offering much more reasonable fares, BA's pricing is indeed mental.

Those airlines may just be taking the loss. The cash repatriation issue is real.

Maybe we can explain the different fares exLOS by looking at the fractions of tickets that originate abroad versus at LOS for different carriers. Typically capital controls don't matter to the extent that the "local" funds can be used to pay local expenses, including salaries for local employees. If too many tickets originate at LOS, there's obviously more concern about whether the money that exceeds these local expenses can ever be exported and how much of the funds will be lost in the process.

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How does redemption availability compare on that route?

That works if your local expenses exceed the cash you would otherwise try to get out of the country.

BTW, slightly OT, but I've been told that McD buys a lot of food products in Russia for this reason. They need to use those rubles somehow.

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That media would have a field day with that one , not to mention the tax man on both sides :D

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Can we bring the focus of this discussion back on topic please.

Prospero
Moderator: BA forum

Stay on topic.
 

Folks, please resist the temptation to keep interrupting threads, particularly those from new FT members, with throwaway off-topic one-liners.

Plenty of fares are filed at lower prices, ranging from NLX0B6C0 at GBP 521 (with restrictions) to a fully flex YNN0Y6C5 at GBP2573. Looking for example at 20 Oct and 23 Oct, availability in both flights is:
LOS-LHR F9 A8 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E9 T8 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9
LHR-LOS F9 A9 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9
but for some reason BA is only offering Y booking class, rather than any lower booking class.

Expedia offers a fare NLN0B6C0 in N booking class for GBP947 total.

I suspect BA's IT is faulty again and they are not offering all the fare classes available.

If you want to book, you could phone BA and see if the more reasonable fares are available; if they are, ask for a waiver of the phone booking fee because the BA website is malfunctioning.

Point of Sale inventory control.