Why does BA sell seats VERY cheaply whilst blocking off Avios availability?

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• littlefish says:

  3 Jun3 June 19:27

  I too believe BA has dropped the ball over the BAEC economics, as the article points out.
  To have increased the pool of avios collectors is a good effort, but half the effort. No point if too many can’t use the damn things.
  To have reduced the flow of last 28 days, or last 4 days reward releases in the CW & F cabins is losing a lot of goodwill.
  At the present rate of easy avios collection, and reduced long-haul premium flight redemption options we’re surely heading for a major devaluation … er “re-alignment”.
  I’m all right jack, as I plan enough trips 2 years in advance to be able to get rewards seats soon after they release or use the back-up plan onto an ex-EU (or CX or QR sales, even US now).
  Bottom line: they need to get availability and avios earning rates back towards a better synch.

• TWA44 says:

  3 Jun3 June 19:33

  @Raffles and anyone else,

  I am a US citizen and live in the US. I want to join the British Airways Exec Club mostly for the great Avios award chart for short domestic US trips.

  Does anyone know if there is a promo running for new members? I am not planning any travel on BA in the near future, but figured if I am joining, I might as well take advantage of any bonus points for new members. Thanks much!

  • Alan says:

    3 Jun3 June 20:09

    I haven’t heard of a particular sign up bonus at present, but their US credit card routinely has some extremely lucrative sign-up bonuses that it would be well worth investigating!

  • idrive says:

    3 Jun3 June 23:40

    try with the Chase British Airways card. One of my US based friend got thatm i am sure that if you check flyertalk or similar blogs/forums you will easily find the answer

• Jac says:

  3 Jun3 June 19:57

  While i share the fustration on the lack of availability, I almost exclusively book BA in C on a Ex Europe ticket. Alternatively (if departing from London) I would book Swiss,.. from LCY as the price would be much better than the direct flight with BA while the time lost on the connection would be gained avoiding Heathrow. Gaining market share in for example a *A hub i think is important to fill up the planes without having to reduce the price.
  Yes you would be able to sell those 10 seats at full fare but the remaining 40 seats would also be filled and this probably is only possible by charging a lower price. So offering an attractive price ex brussels, … would encourage those passengers to choose BA over the local carrier while allowing BA to keep charging a premium to the local market

• Tim says:

  4 Jun4 June 07:28

  I have to agree with Tim. I have been booking BAEC and Avios/Airmiles redemptions for 20 years and I have never had an issue with availability. There is usually availability on every flight, every day. I would add that my biggest complaint would be that seats only become available less than a year before so all my other travel arrangements are made before the flights go on sale.

• Flieduk says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:48

  I am looking on matrix and cannot find any flights ex-EU CW to LAS for under £1k. What routing are you doing to get LON-BRU-LAS-BRU-LON to £917?

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:53

    See another comment above – it seems that this price, reported on Flyertalk, was actually an average price per person on a booking which involved some kids as well. This pulled down the average to £917.

    Cheapest I can see is €1607 which would be £1100-ish.

• wetboy1uk says:

  4 Jun4 June 21:25

  i have just submitted the following email to ba as i think it is disgusting the way the aparently ‘very british airline’ charges us significantly more in fares than our european counterparts and that is excluding any taxes – i really am beginning to think this country is a complete rip off

  hi, i would be interested in you explaioning the following. looking at flights to miami both from lhr and stockholm both on the 3 may 2015 returning on the 20 may 2015 it is clear that the fare from stockholm is significantly lower. the flights in question both include the 11.10am from lhr to mia and returning on the 17..25 from mia to lhr with onward to stockholm at 10.15 am the following day on the applicable flight. before the explanation includes anything to do with taxes i would like to point out that the fare – excluding any taxes from stockholm alll the way to miami is 15SEK which is equivalent to less than 2 pounts, YET, the fare from lhr excluding taxes is 442 pounds. of course you are a very british ariline – screwing uk citizens whilst giving almost free flights to citizens of other countries. i would appreciate an honest response to this email

• Cheshire Pete says:

  5 Jun5 June 16:21

  I think sometimes BA do make the experience very trying. I have actually STOPPED using my BAPP card to buy BA tickets, unless I’m spending on Long Haul over £500. As I realised I though I was getting Free 3 x Avios but I wasn’t really on many flights.

  As you probably know, they charge £4.50 per ticket as a Credit Card Surcharge, even with their own card. I worked out that on a short haul flight, so perhaps £100 return. I was simply paying them £4.50 to get 3 x Avios, which is this case would be 300. As this was costing me £4.50 then that’s actually 0.67p per Avios. Which I think is rather poor.

  If my flight was only £50 then it’s 1.34p per Avios. Obviously there is a point whereby I would use it as the cost of the flight goes up.

  I fundamentally disagree that BA should be surcharging using it’s own branded card LOL! Oddly I recently booked flight direct with AA, and they also state they *might* charge a £4.50 for a UK Credit Card. But when using my BAPP Amex, they did not actually add that charge!

  So, again BA what are you doing with these annoying petty charges using your own products to buy a BA product, when AA do not for instance.

  • Matt says:

    6 Jun6 June 01:26

    Or you could just use the commonly known loophole where you change your billing country ot another(denmark for example) and pay no credit card charge…

  • Rob says:

    6 Jun6 June 09:47

    Change ‘Country of Card Issuance’ to Ukraine, problem disappears ….

    • idrive says:

      6 Jun6 June 10:01

      and it does let it pay? that is strange, i thought there would be a cross check as it happens with address

  • correct says:

    10 Jun10 June 14:33

    just had a response on my query to BA re pricing which reads:

    pricing is based on competation and availability and you are correct when saying the fare from Europe is often cheaper than that from the UK. Regards

    What a load of crap. Has this person no idea that cometition shoudl be stronger in teh UK as there are more companies flying the same route. A compelte rubbish response from BA – it is a disgrace they are allowed to carry the Union flag on their planes.

    • Rob says:

      10 Jun10 June 17:45

      To be fair, Lufthansa etc play the same game. Price up Frankfurt to Bangkok and then London-Frankfurt-Bangkok and the latter will likely be cheaper.

• LondonSteve says:

  12 Jun12 June 17:36

  A lot of people seem to be accumulating huge amounts of Avios and then expect to be able to use similarly huge chunks redeeming in F or CW to a long haul destination during a busy time of year, alternatively to a destination that is perenially popular like Cape Town or Sydney. There are lots of ways to redeem Avios, some are better value than others, but I treat Avios points as a ‘freebie’, on the basis I collect them by doing something I would do anyway. For me they are a ‘lifesaver’ – I work in London and have a weekend/holiday property aboad. I usually fly with LCAs during the low season, as BA cannot come anywhere near to LCA prices at that time, although I will often choose BA during shoulder seasons, when prices tend to be closer matched and I’m incentivised by collecting Avios on top, not to mention BA being significantly more comfortable. I then burn all the Avios in the school holidays by redeeming with RFS, often at short notice, saving a fortune in cash compared to paying ££ for tickets with LCAs. It is ironic that I will fly with LCAs when BA is relatively cheap, yet fly BA when the LCAs themselves are expensive. But it works fine and I’m very happy. BA gets lots of revenue from me throughout the year and a fair wodge of loyalty, I sit in seats that they predict would otherwise go empty and they get something back for them.

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