Bits: BA selling Heathrow economy flights from £26, new Maldives hand baggage rules

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• Jack says:

  28 Oct28 October 10:58

  Hi Rob, I assume you can see my email address from this comment – would you be able to send me a referral for an AmEx Gold please?

  Much appreciated!

  • Rob says:

    28 Oct28 October 17:20

    Will sort, thanks

• Lady London says:

  28 Oct28 October 11:02

  Too late for me. Easyjet, and for a couple of flights the dreaded Ryanair, already has the big chunk of my currently foreseen business (about 80 flights) through to end of next summer. BA’s getting about 7 short haul legs and 1 or 2 longhaul trips, at best, from me each each year right now. When I know what other flights I need I will have to choose on which airline at the time. But the Easyjet model works for me. Thank you to other posters on here for helping me work that out. There is nothing more entertaining right now than watching the fiasco that is British Airways Buy on Board, compared to the slick service of well chosen items on Easyjet.

  British Airways doesn’t need to make a profit on each seat. They just need to make sure the total of all flights sold, whatever the mix, is more than the total of their costs. Each seat here is bringing in marginal revenue that can do that. Agreed if they sold every seat at these kinds of prices then with their cost base they’d be losing money.

  But theoretically they could be covering up to the value of their costs by other revenue. In which case the marginal, say £11, value of each seat sold here goes above the line and is pure profit. This theory works better if more of their costs are fixed of course, than variable according to services used by each seat. But they probably have some volume deal/lump sum cost provision for lounges and security. These seats will definitely contribute to profit I would say. It’s all just too late for me so far as my upcoming flights are concerned though – they’ve already gone elsewhere.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Oct28 October 11:06

    And getting done over by British Airways Customer (Dis-)Services in India, to the point of being reduced to tears on the phone, when I was fully in the right, has not helped my willingness to book British Airways if I can find any other flight when I need one.

    • Anna says:

      28 Oct28 October 16:16

      They are dreadful! I’ve called the UK centre the last 2 times I needed to, since I learned (on HFP) the trick of withholding my number, it’s a completely different experience. It makes you wasn’t to weep, but with relief and gratitude!

      • the real harry1 says:

        28 Oct28 October 16:41

        what trick do you use & which telephone number? the only (obvious) thing I’ve done is use the Gold or Silver BAEC numbers, which the call centre staff don’t seem to care about (I’m a Bluey)

      • Jimmy says:

        28 Oct28 October 19:41

        does everyone realise the new/current Amex ‘chat’ facility is now India, not Brighton? (regardless of the daft western names they use)

      • the real harry1 says:

        28 Oct28 October 20:00

        well, in itself not a big problem

        small one since you already OT’d – I refuse to pay for Sky Sports since I like live sport too much! sounds contradictory but basically I am forcing myself to not watch live sport on TV all the time. so my method is to wangle free NowTV Sky Sports passes to ration it a bit, I am very successful. the Chat team – all in India no doubt – are absolutely brilliant at giving away free passes, just wangled another free week just by being the nice guy & asking (ie a code not working) – the deal is to give them top feedback so everybody’s happy, I guess the variable cost for NowTV is very low as well

        anyway, India Chat team = brilliant in this instance, they don’t call themselves Tommy or Michelle, though 🙂

• Alan says:

  28 Oct28 October 11:23

  Completely OT but I promised someone I would feed back on the Accor – opinion polls thing.

  It has now been 12 months and 4 days since my last Accor stay but my points are still available. I don’t know how quickly they usually cancel the points but, assuming that they automatically cancel exactly 12 months after your last stay, then it appears that completing a survey does extend your points lifetime.

  • Jovanna says:

    28 Oct28 October 23:56

    Is that you, Prince?

    • Alan says:

      29 Oct29 October 11:29

      No

  • Alan says:

    28 Oct28 October 23:59

    Ahh, interesting – that could make the 25 pts for 15 min survey much more appealing than it is at present!

• Cate says:

  28 Oct28 October 11:54

  Some carrier’s routes only work on £1 or £2 profit per flight – not per seat. They’ve bought the routes to stop other airlines getting them.

• Ryan says:

  28 Oct28 October 12:02

  BA must be confident that they are starting to turn marginal costs into marginal revenue (such as BOB, baggage charges etc). Perhaps a real turning point for the carrier if correct, as these low fares will become the norm.

• Cc says:

  28 Oct28 October 12:18

  Re comment on revenue of 12 people on £52 fares, if you net of the tax and charges (assuming charges don’t go to ba) the base fare is £11 v maybe £600 on the £649 fare. So approx. 55

  • Cc says:

    28 Oct28 October 12:18

    55 times as many passengers needed at £52 each

• Graham Walsh says:

  28 Oct28 October 12:33

  OT – Just in case it catches anyone else out, I had a Priority Pass 10 visit pack that I got last year in a Black Friday deal. Noticed on my new cc statement this morning a charge of £159, so rang to cancel as I’ve got it with Amex plat now.

  • luke says:

    28 Oct28 October 18:40

    Yep, priority pass recently charged my credit card 4!!! weeks before renewal date..You can get 15 months unlimited membership for 219 pound, so why would I pay full price for renewal

    • Graham Walsh says:

      28 Oct28 October 20:17

      Actually mine was nearly 4 weeks too, really bad of them. I just did my house insurance, 2 days before it expires.

      • Catalan says:

        28 Oct28 October 22:33

        Like you Graham I bought PriorityPass last year in the Black Friday sale. Found yesterday they’d charged £69 to renew. I rang them this afternoon to cancel the renewal. I’ve still got a month to use anyway.

• Alex W says:

  28 Oct28 October 14:11

  At that price it’s almost worth buying a flight, getting absolutely trashed in the lounge and then just go home again!

  • the real harry1 says:

    28 Oct28 October 14:41

    My elder bro had the free Airport Angels lounge passes from Barclays a couple of years ago & being somewhat of a toper, planned to do exactly that! never actually got round to it

    I don’t think it would mess up conformance & as long as you were polite enough not to check in luggage then not make the plane – nobody is that stupid, surely? – could even now be quite a fun day if you had a decent book on the go, esp if you had the unlimited Priority Pass & several lounges available, I guess you’d just need to pick a flight leaving (say) 5-6 hrs after you arrive @ airport – brings back flash memories of the milk round/ graduate recruitment when I was at Univ… 🙂

    • CV3V says:

      28 Oct28 October 15:04

      Ah i miss the Airport Angel card, whole family had them! Related, but when you cancel the Amex Plat the Priority Pass card is also cancelled, however, 2 years later my OH received a shiny new replacement PP card, which works.

  • Dev says:

    28 Oct28 October 18:45

    It’s a cheap night out….go to T5 with a mate (or two if your GGL), and for £58 (£87), drink them dry and get a dodgy burger or two to cure the hangover!

    • the real harry1 says:

      28 Oct28 October 20:27

      T5 is a bit limited, though? OK with high status you can get by, otherwise no go, right? – but with PP, what is the best terminal?

      T3 LHR, presumably

      other airports?

      • Rob says:

        28 Oct28 October 21:35

        T5 in theory will have two PP lounges very soon.

        Club Aspire and No 1 in T3 are good (and bigger than the T5 lounges).

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