Bits: you may get £400 from Mastercard, BA’s refusal to check through bags begins to bite

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• TOH says:

  7 Jul7 July 07:17

  Tracy – no, they probably won’t. If you’re a Gold card holder they may relent. If they’re feeling kind, they may. I am in the same situation, flying on Iberia from Madrid to Medellin (Colombia) in November. Two of us, business class, return flight booked on points through BA’s website.
  Separate flight (also booked on points) to Madrid.
  Why a separate flight? Because the extra charges if booked direct from London to Medellin via Madrid were £1,330. But the charges for Madrid-Medellin were just £150.
  Thoughtfully, I booked the London-Madrid flight the day before, to give us a decent night in a hotel and a leisurely breakfast, as the Madrid flight leaves at about noon, so I won’t be affected. But I have booked separate flights like this for years and now have to rethink all my travel arrangements.
  One massive problem, besides the delays, is if you are transiting in a country that requires a visa, you won’t be allowed landside to collect your bags. If you have a premium ticket or card, you can ask the lounge staff to sort that, though – they have for me, in the past.

  • blackberryaddict says:

    7 Jul7 July 11:03

    “Why a separate flight? Because the extra charges if booked direct from London to Medellin via Madrid were £1,330. ”

    I think this is exactly the reason why oneworld are stopping through checking of bags on separate tickets (although there is also a cost issue). But they simply do not want you to take advantage from cheaper flights elsewhere, and still rely on the through checking and protection when booking a cheap positioning flight. They may not have thought through all the consequences, but that is why they are doing this.

• Darren says:

  7 Jul7 July 07:55

  British Airways and indeed One World Alliance need to seriously consider the implications of this policy. My partner and I are both Gold BA Exec members and have been actively exploring options for changing to Star Alliance because of the poor value for money associated with the allegedly premier BA product. From the consumer perspective, being able to check through luggage on long distance multi-leg trips is very valuable. Even the opportunity to earn tier and avois points is restricted for some partners within One World. For example we recently flew BA to Sao Paolo and onwards with an itinerary around South America with LAN and TAM but got virtually no tier and avois points because LAN and TAM don’t offer points on many of their flights to One World partners, so we wondered why we bothered. We live in Leeds and so rather than fly BA to Heathrow and connect onwards with BA from there, we are considering travelling from Manchester instead and flying out with Star Alliance carriers. Of course thus assumes that Star Alliance is any better in terms of being able to check through baggage, although individual partner airlines may well provide a better quality product than BA for the price.

  • John says:

    7 Jul7 July 07:59

    Earning miles on Star Alliance is just as bad. At least on oneworld, basically all business class fares earn something. On Star the cheapest business fares generally no longer earn anything on other airlines’ programmes.

    If you book flights on the same ticket your bags will still be checked through.

  • John says:

    7 Jul7 July 13:57

    “British Airways and indeed One World Alliance need to seriously consider the implications of this policy. ”

    Maybe they have. It reminds me of where my partner worked a few jobs ago where they went through a big reorganisation. A lot of people got disgruntled by it as they got moved onto things they didn’t want to work on, and had lost autonomy and control of what they did as they changed the management structure. Obviously a lot of people didn’t like this so they left in droves. The company therefore replaced the moany disgruntled work force with new ppl who didn’t know how it was better before.

    Perhaps BA are doing the same. Have a cull of the moany disgruntled members who play the system and bring in fresh new ones who like it for how it is now, not pining for how it was before.

• mark says:

  7 Jul7 July 07:58

  MAS to QR worked fine a couple of weeks ago – so i think it’s mainly BA enforcing this :/

• harry says:

  7 Jul7 July 07:58

  People worried about missing a connection because of 2 PNRs & not enough time might consider forwarding their suitcase direct from UK to hotel.

  Not as expensive as you might think – if you shop around maybe £40-60 for a 20kg suitcase UK —> USA

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    7 Jul7 July 08:26

    Wow Harry – where do you see that price ? I was looking to do exactly that and best I can see is $149…

    • harry says:

      7 Jul7 July 08:29

      parcel2go, parcelmonkey etc

      • Sussex Bantam says:

        7 Jul7 July 08:52

        Ah I see – those are parcels though rather than luggage. Would work for small suitcases though !

        • Fraser says:

          7 Jul7 July 09:43

          I have to take product samples to a lot of trade events and have found that shipping a hard sided suitcase instead of boxes is much easier (and resealable!). Only where customs clearance is a risk, eg India or Morocco, would I actually check a bag.

          Is it possible to buy cash EDI-LHR and Avios LHR-onward as one ticket by phone with BAEC?

        • harry says:

          7 Jul7 July 09:51

          Sure (in same class only?) – not exactly what you asked but you can do a cash + Avios option on a single PNR/ booking, online if you like. I’m guessing you are short of Avios for the LHR-onward bit – so get round this with cash + Avios, currently 1p/ Avios.

          Checked EDI-LHR-BCN & works fine

        • Rob says:

          7 Jul7 July 09:52

          No

        • Alan says:

          7 Jul7 July 10:04

          No unfortunately there’s no way to combine cash and reward tickets, even via BA call centre.

        • harry says:

          7 Jul7 July 17:04

          If the LHR-onward Avios flight was long haul, the connecting flight from EDI would be free of charge (plus handling fees). And would result in a new ticket ie 1 PNR to include both flights.

          Therefore I assume the OP meant EDI->LHR->short haul destination in Europe.

        • Alan says:

          7 Jul7 July 19:25

          Not necessarily, Harry – remember that domestic Avios availability for non-Golds can be pretty atrocious, I know my parents could find multiple seats on multiple dates for their long-haul flights when booking about ten months out, but only a handful of domestic connections with rubbish times or forced overnight stays. BA’s own advice when they phoned was to book the long-haul redemption then buy a separate cash ticket (which nowadays would have been no checked-through luggage!). Given they were meant to get the connections for free anyway I got them to write to BAEC formally to raise the issue (with me booking backup redemption seats as a Gold) – thankfully BA eventually saw sense and released some seats and they got it all booked as a redemption but it was quite a fight. They really need to sort out domestic connections – we’re now stuck paying twice over for them on short-haul and then many can’t make their long-haul connection due to lack of domestics – they should automatically open them up in this situation (a bit like how when you book a WTP or higher long-haul flight your domestic connection automatically books into a higher class to avoid lack of availability there preventing you booking)

  • @mkcol says:

    7 Jul7 July 10:17

    That’s interesting as I just booked ARN-LHR-SIN-SYD routing for ~£360 return & won’t need my case til Oz. Although we’re not tight for time on either of our positioning flights to/from ARN (in fact collecting bag & checking in again would help to kill some of the time built in) it would also help to make life so much easier. I will investigate!

• terri says:

  7 Jul7 July 08:04

  The new bag policy could deter ex EU departures for UK flyers unless cabin luggage only. A same day connection will become more risky and an overnight stay increases cost. I guess BA hopes this makes fliers think twice before booking the cheaper ex EU over going straight from london to final destination.
  I am heading to Bcn to catch AA flight to Mia and i’ve learnt to travel with less so hand baggage only.

  • Alan says:

    7 Jul7 July 08:29

    Agreed it may for some although many of us already fly non-BA options for the positioning flight (eg KLM, Aer Lingus, Brussels Airlines) as going BA to position would require an LHR transit plus cost minimum 9k Avios plus £35 each way.

• Mikeact says:

  7 Jul7 July 08:11

  £400 for each Mastercard card ? Yes please !

  • mark2 says:

    7 Jul7 July 08:26

    Presumably this lawyer will expect £100 out of it!

• Alan says:

  7 Jul7 July 08:15

  On the £400, if it’s per Mastercard this could be very nice! (thanks to lots of card churning over the years!)

  • CV3V says:

    7 Jul7 July 08:50

    Good point, Head for Points readers could do well out of this if it really happens!

• JamesWag says:

  7 Jul7 July 08:19

  I completely forgot about this ridiculous baggage policy when looking to get an Avios redemption to ARN (Stockholm) on a very specific day. No direct flight was available so I booked flights LHR-TXL, TXL-ARN. I’m gunna get screwed over for sure 🙁

  • Rob says:

    7 Jul7 July 08:47

    Not if it was booked on one ticket. If you have two booking references then, yes, you’re stuck.

    It’s a good job the outlook for travel and flying is so positive at the moment so BA can afford to alienate passengers like this …….

  • Graham says:

    7 Jul7 July 10:21

    You’ll probably be fine at TXL James – it’s very small and one hour between flights will probably be sufficient for a re-check, particularly if the TXL-ARN flight departs from terminal A. If it is terminal C or D you have a 10 minute walk but provided you get your skates on it should be ok.

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