Bits: new HMRC card fees, Hilton sale, BA long-haul ‘no suitcase’ fares inevitable

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• Lumma says:

  22 Dec22 December 09:19

  Also, the legacy airlines always say they need to compete with the likes of Norweigan when they come up with excuses for things like this. But the one thing that makes them stand out is no penalty for one way fares, which makes it easier to create more complex holidays, use in conjunction with redemptions, etc.

  • Anna says:

    22 Dec22 December 09:22

    Are you talking about BA? Their one way cash fares are humongous!

    • Leo says:

      22 Dec22 December 09:52

      Other way around.

  • Lady London says:

    22 Dec22 December 12:49

    BA and any other airline that thinks they ‘have to compete’ with Norwegian could also give us decent legroom, nicer seats, decent IFE, orderable decent food at a value price, and penalty for bookiing just a one way at a fair price just for the one way journey too.

    Then I’ll believe it’s really essential for them to charge for longhaul luggage. Like, how many people’s purpose for a longhaul journey across continents can be achieved without at least the without needing more luggage than they carry on Ryanair for a 2-hour flight distance?

    My first bookings with Norwegian and Level will immediately follow any announcements of longhaul luggage that is currently free being charged extra.

    • Lady London says:

      22 Dec22 December 12:53

      ,,, or will follow any announcement of “HBO longhaul” or equivalent.

    • the real harry1 says:

      22 Dec22 December 12:54

      won’t that depend on whether the headline fare goes down by (say) £80?

      • the real harry1 says:

        22 Dec22 December 13:03

        I’m just positing that in Europe, newly introduced HBO fares really were/ are £15 (now £16) cheaper than checked luggage fares OW

        the whole point being to look more competitive, esp on search engines

        therefore won’t BA primarily do this (go to HBO model & charge £80 for luggage etc) in pretty much the same way? so there’s no real loss if you need to check in a bag

        • Rob says:

          22 Dec22 December 14:45

          Prices will match what others are charging, I doubt they will be reduced by £80 across the board. In the US, the airlines have tried to price HBO at the same price as legacy fares and hope people buy up – this plan has generally failed.

      • Lady London says:

        22 Dec22 December 13:06

        Haha @Harry you jest.
        Yes of course the headline fare will go down at that by by about £80.
        For awhile.
        Watch what happened with shorthaul HBO.
        And for that matter, with Economy seating comfort and space on the plane.
        The comfort I regularly sat in on various airlines in Economy until quite recent years, is now priced at Premium Economy to get.,

      • Lady London says:

        22 Dec22 December 13:21

        newly introduced fares for HBO will of course look lower… for awhile.

        – At my current flying rate (hopefuly to slow down a bit soon) BA has lost over 70 of my flights in 2017 that would have been theirs. Particularly after one run-in by their absurd and obstructive outsourced Customer Dis-Service. After that I ‘walked’ every new flight booing first to another airline, then to a backup airline, and only to BA as third airline option.on my list.

        – I can no longer take the slop in the lounges and the decrepit embarrassing state of showers and bathrooms in the BA lounges at Heathrow. Also as Gold tried tried so many times to get a spa appointment. The spa staff weren’t booked – There was just only one spa treatment person on duty for everyone at any time I tried. Right now I’ve let Gold lapse. I’m flying enough to renew it, but I just don’t want to give the flights to BA. After that I’ve privatised my lounge access. I carry 2 lounge memberships. There is just no reason to view any BA lounge as aspirational anymore. So why fly them? (if I drank more alcohol though, I might appreciate the lounges more, however. So I understand YMMV,

        – so as soon as HBO longhaul or anything resembling it is announced by BA, yup I will make my first bookings on Norwegian and Level. Actually hoping not fo though.

      • the real harry1 says:

        22 Dec22 December 13:31

        BA HBO in Europe is still very cheap on price, at least on routes I monitor & if you can buy ahead – all-time low afaics

        no doubt driven by the extremely competitive situation

        I can’t see that transatlantic market will be very different any time soon, unless Norwegian goes bump or bought out; Delta/ Virgin/ AF + KLM stitch up a de facto duopoly with AIG; and ME3 play ball (not likely)

• Anna says:

  22 Dec22 December 09:20

  I also factor in baggage charges when pricing up flights, I think people will soon latch onto any changes. There will be a lot of disgruntled passengers who plan to go shopping in the US and may have to pay extra to bring their stuff back! I know a few people who are loyal to Virgin because of the hold baggage allowance, though I’ve never flown with Virgin so don’t know the specifics.

  • Talay says:

    22 Dec22 December 09:45

    Inertia will force people to buy when they are 75% through the purchase already and if you tag on bags after entering name information etc. on the booking screens, few will back out and go elsewhere.

    It is a done deal as they say.

• Mr Dee says:

  22 Dec22 December 09:49

  Finally a use for Curve

• Steve says:

  22 Dec22 December 10:17

  Ugh, economy transatlantic flights will become miserable like the intra-European ones are now. Ridiculously delayed, stressful and difficult boarding as everyone tries to take ridiculous amounts of luggage on board. Those that do check in bags will then be penalised again as they have to place their more modest hand baggage under the seat in front, thereby removing any legroom they would have had. That’s bad enough on a one or two hour hop, but on a longer flight to North America that would be very unpleasant. I would gladly pay a small premium to an airline that didn’t have such ridiculous policies take note Virgin – please don’t chase BA to the bottom.

• Andrew says:

  22 Dec22 December 10:35

  is the cost of transporting a suitcase to and from the US really £90? A quarter of the cost of the cheapest return fares?

  • Fraser says:

    22 Dec22 December 10:43

    Suitcases will likely weigh more than a quarter of a person! 😉

    I always found travelling to the USA on hand baggage only to be very unusual, to the extent CBP wonder why you don’t have bags. It certainly makes sense to fly out without a bag and come back with one now, especially if splitting the ticket and using a one way low tax redemption.

    • RussellH says:

      22 Dec22 December 10:56

      I remember seeing someone arriving off the boat from Rosslare with just a carrier bag being escorted away by UK customs at Fishguard in the 1960s. It was quite clear from the overheard discussions that it was the lack of baggage that arose suspicion.

      This made such an impression that when I flew from Cleveland OH to London ON without any baggage (it had got mislaid en-route to Cleveland) I explained my lack of baggage to Canadian customs before he had a chance to ask me anything! he turned out to be one of the good guys – no bus from the airport into town, so I hitched – got a lift with the same customs officer.

    • Lumma says:

      22 Dec22 December 11:47

      I’ve never had a problem travelling to the USA with just hand baggage, Chicago O’Hare even has a separate fast track immigration lane for people without checked bags.

      Although, to be fair, it was closed when I was there so perhaps it’s a trap!

    • Alex W says:

      23 Dec23 December 07:33

      I’ve flown without luggage about 6 or 7 times to IAD, JFK, LAX etc and no-one has ever batted an eyelid. Still took 2 hours to get out of HellAX though!

  • Lady London says:

    22 Dec22 December 12:55

    No but buying a really decent one from an excellent brand name in the US can easily cost less than that 🙂

• Nick G says:

  22 Dec22 December 10:41

  OT – I’m Accor silver for what it’s worth (actually free drinks vouchers are worth a few quid but hey ho)…and my end of year is 31 Dec this year. Not stayed in an Accor this year been Hilton’s/Conrad etc but staying at sofitel Heathrow in a suite and sofitel Brussels in a junior suite between 27-30 Dec. If my status points don’t credit in time but my actual stays were will I lose the silver automatically then attempt to contact CS at Accor? Or will the systems (doubt it) reflect my stays and keep my silver for another year?

  Cheers and merry Xmas everyone

  • Rob says:

    22 Dec22 December 11:08

    You will be OK, it will track back. You won’t be the only person in this boat.

• RussellH says:

  22 Dec22 December 10:46

  Why on earth does anyone bother with these business credit cards?? They rip-off the business that accepts them,who have no way of knowing in advance that they are going to be ripped off.. There are no perks, as Rob mentions, and AFAIK they are exempt from Section 75 claims too! And the ones that banks used to try to sell me all carried hefty cardholder fees too!

  I can see why they are offered, but not why anyone would accept the offer!

  • Rob says:

    22 Dec22 December 11:11

    To be fair, some personal credit card companies get a bit funny about excessive business charges going through personal credit cards. I see the odd report from readers. However, we put a substantial amount through (we can pay our office rent on a credit card, so that goes on an Amex for a start) and we’ve never had any negative feedback from MBNA, Creation or Amex.

    (Although, as you say, they are on the hook for Section 75 and I don’t know if they would try to cause trouble if you made a S75 claim on what was clearly business expenditure.)

    I HAVE had trouble with HSBC and Citi over running HFP money through personal bank accounts, so I finally got a proper business account this year.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      22 Dec22 December 11:55

      It gets a bit technical on the margin, but micro businesses are eligible for s75 protection for purchases made on consumer credit cards. There isn’t a blanket ban on business expenditure. Certainly sole traders would be fine, small partnerships as well. Limited companies not.

    • Talay says:

      22 Dec22 December 17:52

      I thrown reasonable 6 figures through Amex for business expenses which technically I could put on a corporate Amex but historically it was BAPP and currently is SPG.

      Heck, if my staff used Amex I’d try to pay their wages on the card !

      My accountants pull faces but they know they are also just commodities which can be traded and swapped so better they keep their mouths shut else their fee income would fall by the size of a reasonably aspirational car each year. I never get issues with the lawyers who rather too erringly do what I ask of them.

      On the Platinum Amex / SPG question, is the transfer still 2:1 and if so, do they ever have a 100% bonus ? I ask as I currently plough into SPG directly at £1 = 1 point but if I were to transfer spend to a rewards card, I would lose out by half wouldn’t I ?

      • Rob says:

        22 Dec22 December 19:06

        Never been a UK Amex to SPG bonus.

      • Alex W says:

        23 Dec23 December 07:39

        Yes you get half as many SPG points with platinum card spending.

  • Andrew says:

    22 Dec22 December 12:02

    For my old firm, if we didn’t take them, they would simply go to another retailer.

    It also transferred the risk from ourselves – we worked with a lot of Housing Associations and local authorities.

  • Mr Dee says:

    22 Dec22 December 21:21

    Agree the business amex is very good and can be a good way to manage cashflow especially for businesses starting up.

• Sussex Bantam says:

  22 Dec22 December 11:54

  OT – can someone let me know what the maximum number of referral points is you can earn per year on a Plat card ? Is it 90,000 like the Gold card or more ?

  2018 churn planning….

  • Rob says:

    22 Dec22 December 12:26

    90k

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