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

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• Marc Bertrand says:

  18 Nov18 November 05:41

  Pathetic from BA, but then it’s a race to the bottom of the barrel for Senõr Cruz, et al.

  • Nick says:

    18 Nov18 November 07:10

    I’ll second that. Cruz is a sinister looking individual – a modern day Blackbeard – pirate of the skies. His strategy appears to be that cutting cost whilst charging extra by way of credit card fees, charging for M&S sandwiches and squeezing more passengers into smaller seats with less legroom will drive shareholder value. That may work in the short term but eventually the customer realises they are being raped and pillaged. Michael O’Leary ran into this trap at Ryanair which became increasingly unpopular compared to rival easyJet – however O’Leary was smart enough to realise he had pushed the cost cutting too far and reversed his policy with the airline starting to offer more to its customers. Cruz is playing with fire at BA as he treats his customers with contempt and risks alienating his premium passengers who over time will switch to other carriers that offer more comfort and better service in premium long haul cabins whilst using low cost carriers who offer no less than BA – but charge less – for domestic and European routes.

    • Richard says:

      18 Nov18 November 08:41

      Well said! I agree totally and try my best to not fly BA, but sometimes to the USA it’s the only choice. The unfortunate thing is that once one airline dares to bring in a new extra cost or cut in service rule the other tend to follow.

      • Billy Buzzjet says:

        18 Nov18 November 12:36

        Not long before they ditch the hot towel service in Club. Surely there’s a few quid to be saved in that !?
        Have that suggestion on me Captain Cruz.

• Genghis says:

  18 Nov18 November 05:43

  “nightmare for anyone paying for a number of premium tickets”
  I’m sure I’ll still sleep at night. I live in Ukraine.

• James67 says:

  18 Nov18 November 05:48

  It is unfair in the sense that the BA statement on tbe issue claims that they are only passing on the fee that they are charged by the card providers which is clearly not the case.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    18 Nov18 November 06:46

    I believe that the applicable law – Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) – can be tested and enforced in court. I suppose a MCOL could make sense for a large booking on a consumer credit card. Perhaps a lawyer can step in and advise!

• RIccati says:

  18 Nov18 November 06:21

  Percentage charge is a progressive tax.

  The cost of processing payment is the same whether it is £30 or £3000. I think airlines look at it different ways: “losing £3000” due an ineligible transaction is more noticeable than doing so on £30.

  In effect, if you want to purchase an expensive ticket, the airline charges you for “counterparty risk” that “you” create!

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    18 Nov18 November 06:41

    When the law (Consumer Rights (Payment surcharges)) came in, BIS guidance explicitly rejected counterparty risk as a cost that could be passed on through card acceptance fees. I assume current interpretation is the same.

    • RIccati says:

      18 Nov18 November 07:11

      Interpretation or not, if you are paying/owe large amount to the company, the counterparty/bad debt risk is created.

• Ian says:

  18 Nov18 November 06:27

  With bank interchange rates capped at an all time low, NO company should be able to make a profit from processing a credit card.

  BA would never get away with this in the USA.

  Over here we simply accept it.

  • Lady London says:

    18 Nov18 November 13:45

    I thought the law is actually, that merchants are not allowed to charge more to use credit cards, than the actual to them of the customer using the credit card instead of cash?

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  18 Nov18 November 06:28

  Perhaps payment processing is the one area of the business that has escaped cost cutting! In fairness perhaps they are taking a lot of payments from commercial plastic, but then seems bizarre that they would cross-subsidise accepting commercial cards from price-insensitive businesses by ‘overcharging’ price-sensitive consumers.

• Concerto says:

  18 Nov18 November 06:29

  Yet another reason to completely boycott BA, really.

• Gavin says:

  18 Nov18 November 06:31

  At the moment there’s no credit card fee for redemptions, or for seat reservations. Will be interesting to see if that changes.

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