British Airways changes its baggage rules – effective today, no notice given

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• Lumma says:

  18 Oct18 October 03:43

  Any idea what happens if you upgrade to club Europe a hand baggage only fare in one direction? Stil HBO on the economy leg?

  • JAXBA says:

    18 Oct18 October 04:43

    I don’t think it’s currently possible to combine such fares, but if it is or becomes possible then yes, 2 pieces one way, zero pieces the other.

    • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

      18 Oct18 October 05:02

      You can’t book that at the moment but you can POUG a HBO fare to CE and used to get 2 bags each way by upgrading one segment.

• Sir Humph says:

  18 Oct18 October 04:10

  Yet another nail in BA’s coffin! Every decision they make these days renders it harder to support the national carrier.

  • Jim H says:

    18 Oct18 October 05:37

    Whichever bean-counter developed the case for this needs to speak to someone in marketing. There is a reason that in the real world economists and lawyers obey their political masters, even if the political masters don’t always get it right. Unfortunately BA is being run by a bean counter who fails to see the bigger picture.

    • Crafty says:

      18 Oct18 October 07:33

      Not for the first time on here, “bean counters”, by which I guess you mean accountants, are highly unlikely to have had any say in this.

    • Drav says:

      18 Oct18 October 08:52

      hm do you know how businesses are run?

  • John says:

    18 Oct18 October 07:51

    BA is not “the national carrier”.

  • GerryH says:

    18 Oct18 October 07:54

    There are now too many nail’s in BA’s coffin to me to want to fly BA any longer. This is Alex Cruz again trying to turn BA into EasyJet or the way they are going, perhaps RYANAIR !!
    I shall be using all my AVIOS points on something other than BA.
    ….and whilst I’m whingeing about BA, I’ve just booked Lon-SYD in Biz with Etihad for £3.3k; BA wanted over £5k and then I have to pay to BOOK MY SEAT !!! No thank You BA. I have had enough.

  • G Flyer says:

    18 Oct18 October 07:57

    I struggle to see how this change does anything but erode goodwill and loyalty. The vast majority of BA’s passengers probably travel with same amount of luggage outbound and return (albeit perhaps slightly heavier on return leg thanks to souvenirs). The point is, this move is never going to generate vast amounts of extra revenue for BA, it just succeeds in annoying its own passengers.

• Liams says:

  18 Oct18 October 04:22

  Wouldn’t this be in breach of IATA Resolution 302. As … “Most Significant Carrier rule (MSC) for a lot of situations . Would cover crossing iata tariff area / international border or in a mixed class?

  • JAXBA says:

    18 Oct18 October 04:51

    IR302 covers interline journeys; if it’s only BA on the itinerary, it’s not interline and MSC doesn’t apply.

    MSC still applies when through checking bags between airlines.
    MGA no longer applies to non-connecting BA flights on the same ticket.

• Rami A says:

  18 Oct18 October 05:59

  I got scared for a second, thought silver/gold no longer gets extra baggage allowance. Hope I’m not giving them ideas!

  • Stu N says:

    18 Oct18 October 08:04

    I think the enhanced baggage rules for Silver/ Gold are OneWorld rules for Sapphire and Emerald so fingers crossed are safe for the moment. Not having to worry about getting a bag under 23kg for an activity holiday and effective “bikes fly free” policy is very valuable to us.

    Regardless of whether this is a good idea or not, BA systems seem to struggle with baggage allowances at the best of times so don’t see this working too well in practice anyway.

• TripRep says:

  18 Oct18 October 06:36

  Boooo, not more than 24 hours, so an overnight stay is fine if your long haul leg takes off earlier than your connecting domestic flight did the day before?

  Is there a link to the T&C’s?

  With the direction BA beancounters are heading, I guess we have an answer for those wondering if BA would reverse their decision on refusing to interline bags on separate One World (or even BA!) bookings.

  Hmmm, this gives me a moment of pause before deciding to get another BAPP, I wonder what other “enhancements” are yet to be announced over the winter????

  • Fenny says:

    18 Oct18 October 21:59

    The “Beancounters” are most likely the ones banging their heads on the desk when some special moron on the director floor made this executive decision. It’s the people who don’t understand numbers who cause the most problems. Rather like the ones who always blame the “beancounters”!

• Paul says:

  18 Oct18 October 06:45

  As has been said by another this only applies BA 2 BA. The inter line rules have not changed. If you fly LHR JFK on AA and in J then you get the AA baggage for any connecting flight irrespective of class. Similarly us EI to connect to BA at LHR in J and the EI flight gets the J allowance.
  Like so many of BA decisions this look irrational and mean. It adds complexits with apparently little gain and simply drives those in the know to other airlines

  • Jill says:

    18 Oct18 October 09:51

    So for inbound flights from the US, the unintended consequences of this are more people are likely to try AA’s superior hardware, or at least connect in the east coast cities. Hampered only by the monopolistic harmful profit sharing practices of BA and AA.

• TripRep says:

  18 Oct18 October 07:14

  BA in the news…

  Might take my own sleeping bag liner on my next trip…
  http://metro.co.uk/2017/10/16/mother-and-daughter-7-covered-in-bed-bug-bites-after-british-airways-flight-7001891/

  • Tilly says:

    18 Oct18 October 07:21

    OMG!

• Julian says:

  18 Oct18 October 07:24

  Only four months ago I travelled Economy outbound from LHR to CDG and Club from ORY to LHR on a same day (outbound flight) Exec Club Avios redemption (not allowed by avios.com where you must book at least 24 hours ahead) yet ironically travelled hand luggage only due to going straight to and back from the Roland Garros tennis ground on my first and last of five days. Also done LHR to Helsinki and PMI on the same mixed Economy and Club basis but with only one hold bag.

  But only on a Stavanger to LHR one way Avios redemption in Club (where ironically there is no Club lounge) have I actually used the second hold bag to let me also check in my normal maximum size hand luggage roller bag and take a bag of other items I had bought during the trip plus my laptop on board as hand luggage. But still on the flights when I didn’t make use of the extra luggage allowance it was always nice to feel that I had the option.

  So with a free gin and tonic and sandwich or wrap also now gone in economy in Europe on BA why exactly does BA think we want to make the effort to collect their Avios and travel with them rather than Easyjet or especially with Norwegian????? (where on board WiFi is included and free)

  Presumably next up will be BA selling far more hand luggage only fares and cutting down the maximum size of the hand luggage bag they promise not to offload to the hold to Easyjet’s measly maximum dimensions?

  • the real harry1 says:

    18 Oct18 October 07:49

    simple: because LHR is a better airport choice (for many) and the LCCs don’t generally have any slots there

  • Genghis says:

    18 Oct18 October 08:08

    So much irony!

    Isn’t Easyjet same size hand baggage as BA: 56 x 45 x 25?

    • Genghis says:

      18 Oct18 October 08:10

      I guess not guaranteed (but not guaranteed either on BA is it?)

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