British Airways moves credit card fees to a flat 1% …. as Virgin Atlantic scraps them

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• Amtexfly says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:17

  Sorry to jump in with an off topic comment…

  If I have a booking with a 241 voucher, can I cancel the credit card that was used to earn the voucher without affecting the booking?

  • Genghis says:

    18 Nov18 November 08:39

    yes

  • Barry cutters says:

    18 Nov18 November 11:31

    CS will tell you no, but the answer is yes

• David says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:28

  Oh dear, another backward step in customer service – especially when BA labelled cards are used.

• Genghis says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:42

  Is there some law / regulation that prevents BA from rolling the credit card charge into ticket prices and part of the general cost of doing business? Bar tiny corner shops, I wouldn`t get charged a supplement elsewhere…

  • ian says:

    18 Nov18 November 11:15

    yes, u would, actually, at most travel agents.

    ian. 🙂

• Martin says:

  18 Nov18 November 08:50

  Pay by debit card, no problem.

  • Genghis says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:27

    And lose S75 protection. I always pay by credit card now since I lost out with Malev…

    • Rum says:

      18 Nov18 November 10:49

      This is a very important point. Section 75 protection (only available on a credit card) clinches the deal for me. But I agree this is not an attractive ‘feature’, especially for those of us paying an annual fee for a BA-branded Amex. I’d expect them to make an exception for BA card holders and waive all credit card fees accordingly.

  • Genghis says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:34

    I`m not sure I follow Harry. Let`s put some numbers to the example. If I buy GBP1,000 flight and
    1) Pay by BAPP, I earn 1,500 avios (say at 1p ea = GBP15) but pay GBP10 for the privilege, but Im up net GBP5.
    2) Pay by debit card, I earn nothing extra but it costs me nothing extra, Ì^m flat.
    Where does the 2% come from?

    • the real harry says:

      18 Nov18 November 09:47

      I meant pay from your pad in Ukraine but with your Amex card, ie get the Amex points & not pay the processing fee

    • Genghis says:

      18 Nov18 November 09:58

      Natürlich

    • Lumma says:

      18 Nov18 November 10:01

      You would get 3000 avios in that situation with the double points on BA spend

• Eva says:

  18 Nov18 November 09:01

  I have always thought that charging the credit card booking fee was slightly unreasonable especially if I am paying via their own co-branded credit card. Now 1% fee is just ridiculous. I am getting more and more put off by BA tbh… Have been loyal for quite some time but now seriously considering other options.

  • Billy Buzzjet says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:30

    So just to recap……this year has seen reduced catering in club world, reduced baggage allowance in club world and now an increased credit card fee that will easily hit the majority of club passengers. Let’s add all of this to the ridiculous fee to reserve a seat (if you don’t have status) then the BA business class product truly is very hard to beat. Oh dear. What next…….

    • Frenske says:

      18 Nov18 November 09:47

      It is only increased credit card fees when spending more than £500 per ticket.

      • dps says:

        18 Nov18 November 11:13

        …which will affect anybody flying Club World (even on a redemption ticket with £500+ taxes.charges etc). Corporate accounts may not care, but I’m spending my own money..

        As for expecting them to waive the fee when using BA AmEx, they seem to have decided it’s cheaper to throw15K (devalued) Avios at those of us who.ve held the card for 15 years!

    • trickster says:

      18 Nov18 November 13:25

      I wouldn’t say it affects the majority of club passengers, as these would be on corporate bookings.

    • Anon says:

      19 Nov19 November 09:35

      And removal of service on UK connecting flights for Club World/First pax…

  • Genghis says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:57

    Eva – Ive just read some of your blog and I loved the writing style. Hope you continue to enjoy living in London…

    • Eva says:

      18 Nov18 November 13:35

      Thank you Genghis, you are very kind.

    • william says:

      18 Nov18 November 14:47

      is mrs Genghis aware of your extra curricular activities 🙂

• h1tvd says:

  18 Nov18 November 09:29

  O/T I have some Iberia miles I want to transfer to BA. I opened the account on 15th August 2016, so more than 90 days old but I am not being offered the option to transfer from Iberia to BA just the other way around on the Iberia site, any suggestions?

  • Genghis says:

    18 Nov18 November 09:36

    Login to avios.com and pull from Iberia then push to BAEC

    • h1tvd says:

      18 Nov18 November 09:42

      worked a treat, thank you Genghis

• Cheshire Pete says:

  18 Nov18 November 10:07

  Rob you say there is “currently” no fee on redemption bookings, are you implying we will now have to pay the 1% on these too?

  • Rob says:

    18 Nov18 November 10:54

    No plans, but you never know with BA! Seems a bit of an open goal unfortunately.

• Nick Anon says:

  18 Nov18 November 10:09

  The slaps in the face just keep coming!
  Ive only just got the BAPP card – it will definitely be cancelled when I get the 241.
  Ive only been into the points collecting lark for 2 or 3 years and, clearly i’ve missed the boat (or plane) but is there any point any more?
  – The US is the place to live to collect miles,
  – I don’t fly for work,
  – Avios devaluation, (a nice welcome for me!)
  – AA tier points reduction (I was planning a trip to get TPs)
  – I decided to put all eggs in the BA basket, the only choice in the UK really.
  – The huge UK air passenger duty
  – Status match offers often bar UK residents
  I might just go back to finding the cheapest option possible – the reward for loyalty is becoming a struggle!
  I could go on, but rant over for now, I need a holiday…

  • James A says:

    18 Nov18 November 12:00

    I agree, I got into it at a similar time and although I’ve done alright out of it, it has been kick after kick and I’m starting to lose the excitement. I even couldn’t be bothered to scan my clubcard (never mind the credit card) when I filled up yesterday! :/

  • RoC says:

    18 Nov18 November 13:06

    Just to clarify, whilst the USA is clearly the best place, it’s not the only place.
    I just spent a year in Australia and that is how I got into collecting miles seriously.
    In 6 months I was able to get 183k Qantas miles and 300k Virgin Australia miles… as a result I managed to use those virgin australia miles to book singapore suites from europe to seoul and return back in singapore business

    Just that reward alone has been enough for me, as all my travel is self paid in economy, to make this hobby worthwhile!

    so drop BA (always been pathetic anyway) and move to get some sunshine in australia 😉

    • Nick Anon says:

      18 Nov18 November 18:02

      Ha ha yes whilst moving to Australia would be fantastic, I couldn’t justify it on the reason of chasing points alone! Mrs Anon may disagree though…

  • Zander says:

    18 Nov18 November 13:24

    I wouldn’t say the US is the best place depending on who you fly with, if you fly with EK or EY, you can earn significant milage through debit cards issued in Dubai before you even get to credit cards and their sign up bonuses.

    Then there is Australia and Canada which follow a similar practice to the US with credit cards and bonuses.

    You putting all your eggs in BAEC is a silly move, you still had VS and EU airlines (earnings on AMEX) as well as EK and EY (both offer credit cards in UK). I fly LH and earnt miles on the German M&M card which anyone can apply for (German residency isn’t required), there are ways around all programmes and how to get what you want. BAEC is easiest but not the only option.

    • Nick Anon says:

      18 Nov18 November 18:40

      I agree that there are other options, indeed myself and Mrs Anon are flying to Vietnam in business on Etihad and the Amex Etihad card + Amex Plat signup bonuses help pay for it.
      My point relating to the above article is, everything I read says that it used to be so much better, and that it keeps getting worse – especially in the UK.
      With just one ‘big’ trip every other year and a handful of European (ish) flights every year is there actually a way of earning status? If I don’t commit to BA’s tier points surely I would have to commit to one other EU airline? I’m happy to do mileage runs, and being self employed I can sneak off anytime…!

      • Zander says:

        18 Nov18 November 19:00

        Airline programmes are getting worse but I wouldn’t say that BAEC is as bad as claim, BA itself is dreadful and I refuse to step foot on a flight but BAEC is good overall.

        I would say that the cutbacks and changes are just because of the new boss coming from a LCC.

        You can join any programme but if I were starting again I would go with BAEC, I am with M&M and if you are just starting and only do a handful of flights you’re buggered for status.

        That said if I were doing long haul and EU flights I would look at Etihad Guest and the EU partnerships as for miles and tier points earning, it is quite sustainable IMO.

      • the real harry says:

        18 Nov18 November 19:07

        I just don’t get your logic (forgive me!)

        where in the article above does it suggest that things were so much better in the past?

        • Nick Anon says:

          20 Nov20 November 23:25

          Apologies, I didn’t mean that. I meant in general things were better before, and the article is describing another bit of bad news for us points collector folks!

  • Will says:

    18 Nov18 November 17:14

    The UK has some awesome opportunities,
    – Tesco points are still an excellent way to generate avois/virgin
    – the BAPP 2-4-1 remains outstanding value for long haul first to places like HKH and SFO
    – Amex plat can generate 200,000 MR’s per year per couple through churning.
    – SPG to Marriott opportunity is new
    – arguably it’s far easier recently to status match hotel chains than ever before

    The game is always changing all the time but real opportunities definitely exist.

    • Bryan says:

      18 Nov18 November 20:13

      “Amex plat can generate 200,000 MR’s per year per couple through churning”
      This is one of the biggest benefits of the UK over USA. My understanding is that amex USA does not allow churning (correct me if I am wrong) – that is somewhat balanced by having higher signup bonuses, but still without churning things are a lot harder.

      • Rob says:

        18 Nov18 November 21:45

        Correct, no more Amex US churning

      • Ro says:

        19 Nov19 November 01:16

        How do you get 200k amex points/year?!

      • Alan says:

        19 Nov19 November 21:53

        Although per $ earnings rates tend to be higher on US cards and no forex fees – plus their paid-for cards tend to offer the likes of airline credits which markedly reduce the fees.

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