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I was looking at the BA holiday sale today, but when I went to book, the price was just over £400 more as I’d be travelling alone. (I won’t start a rant on the rip off of solo travellers here). But £400 surcharge seems exorbitant, so I wonder if anyone else has any tips to reduce that, should I maybe call BA holiday and try my luck? I suppose I could try to book flight and hotel separately, but I’m really after the double tier points…
Isn’t this just a function of the fact that you’re paying the whole hotel cost yourself, rather than sharing it with another traveller.
The numbers suggest that the hotel cost is ~£800 in total – would this sound right for the location/duration?
Yes, it’s not a surcharge at all. You’re not splitting the hotel cost with someone else so you pay it all. I’d guess 95% of hotels charge by the room, not occupancy, these days – unless it’s half board / all inclusive where there may be a saving to reflect lower F&B consumption.
unless you can find a hotel with single rooms, you’re going to be paying for double occupancy.
There’s nothing to stop you booking flight plus car then sorting out accommodation separately if you can get a better deal, or only book a few nights through BA. What’s your trip duration? If you’re doing 5 nights for the double TPs and don’t need a car, you’re stuck with BA’s hotel offerings.
You should get a list of options at different prices as well, so might find something more reasonable if you browse the other hotels.
OR – do you have a potential travel companion who could split the hotel cost with you? I’m doing a few BA hols this summer and my OH is coming with me with flights booked either with avios or with cash if they’re very cheap (like £40 each way to OPO!). But a friend you’re happy to share a room with would do just as well!
Best option would be to price up the holiday if flight and hotel were purchased individually direct or from a travel agent and take advantage of other offers eg corporate discount schemes.
As already mentioned a BA holiday splits the cost of the room across 2 individuals at headline prices. If you’d been travelling with a partner and a child, the hotel element would have been a lower cost again per person.
Cruise ships are notorious for making singles pay more than two people for the full cost of a cabin. There are examples where someone on their own is quoted literally double the total cost of a couple booking the same cabin.
Surely that depends on the destination.
I’ve been looking at a trio to Berlin. Price for 2 is £ 918 (£ 459 pp) For solo it’s £664.
I always price up flights and direct booking separate. In my case the Holiday price is £100 lower doing separate bookings.
That’s just the way it is.
Shouting about ‘solo surcharges’ is ridiculous.
Isn’t Germany a bit of an outlier here in that it is not unusual to find single rooms, and some hotels do charge more for a double room when occupied by two.
Sometimes yes.
The IC does but not the CP or the Riu Olaza (am actually pricing these up at the moment for my trip)
OP wants double TPs though, so pricing up separately won’t work.
Some companies have switched on to the fact that there’s a rise in solo travel, others are yet to do so. There are some river cruise companies who offer the same price to singles as couples on certain routes, which is great because it must cost them money if the ship is full. And easyJet/Jet2 holidays as well as others do single parent discounts.
Problem is that BA don’t so if double tier points are the most important, unfortunately the price is the price.
OP wants double TPs though, so pricing up separately won’t work.
Exactly. It’s a trade off.
Do I want double TPs or do I want the flexibility of booking flights and hotels separately.
Book flights separately then I can do a same day change should I change my mind about flight times when I wake up in the morning?
Book a flexible hotel room then I can cancel if the rate goes down or even change hotels completel.
Sometimes I’ll trade that in for booking it as cheaper holiday and being able to pay a deposit and sometimes I won’t.
Surely that depends on the destination.
I’ve been looking at a trio to Berlin. Price for 2 is £ 918 (£ 459 pp) For solo it’s £664.
I always price up flights and direct booking separate. In my case the Holiday price is £100 lower doing separate bookings.
That’s just the way it is.
Shouting about ‘solo surcharges’ is ridiculous.
BA holidays are a strange one. Sometimes they manage to price anyone else out the market(flight and hotel coming under the price I can get net B2B), and other times are hundreds or even over a thousand pounds more than booking the holiday separately. It’s definitely worth checking.
Another thing I do for myself is book the BA Holiday flight and car option, then sort the hotel myself (which is where the profit/reduction is)
Welcome to my world @vikingvicki
I suppose we should be grateful that BA now recognises solo travellers on their companion vouchers – only a few years since they did that.As @nigelhamilton alluded to, there are now a few companies that have woken up to the fact that solo travellers are an important demographic of travellers, and growing.
Maybe one day BA will get their hotels a bit more switched on and come up with some better deals. Until then, I opt for the cheaper hotels on offer and suck it up.
But it’s not really a suck it up is it?
You’re either happy paying for the hotel room or not.
Flights in holidays are priced per person and hotels are per room (split in two) you’re just paying for 1 flight and 1 room as a solo traveller vs 2 flights and 1 room. It’s not paying more per se or a surcharge.
Only £400 extra? Seen generally far worse. This means book accomm seoarately and consider the car option.
Though depending on the timing and location Avis’s rates can still be very considerably more than the market at the time,as well. And strangely in a lot of cases the better rate you’d think BA Holidays must be getting as a bulk holiday provider, does not seem to translate into the price for the Avis car component quoted to you either.
If you really only want the TPs, use the low fare finder to put something together. I’ve got MAN-LHR-LYS-LHR-MAN LGW-OPO-LGW-GLA-LHR in CE with 10 days’ car hire for £1200 this summer. OPO was deliberate but the rest is mini breaks to BA’s cheapest destinations! I’ve booked accommodation separately, e.g, Hotel Dieu in Lyon, rented apartment in Vigo for the OPO trip.
But low fare finder only works on 2 people travelling! Absolutely no help to solo travellers.
I don’t think this is correct. I’m talking about flight-only pricing which tends to correlate to the cheapest BA holidays. Certainly what I saw for me travelling in CE and my OH in ET on separate bookings corresponded to the LFF page.
But low fare finder only works on 2 people travelling! Absolutely no help to solo travellers.
That’s rubbish. Low fare finder is per person on the flight.
Holiday deal finder (or whatever its actual name is) is for two people. Of course this will be more for a single person on most holidays!
If the price per person on flights is less than half the hotel room cost, you’ll pay more. There are no surcharges
Is no one going to point out the obvious solution here? HfP Dating; a spin-off site. No more single occupancy required when you’re not single.
If you really only want the TPs, use the low fare finder to put something together. I’ve got MAN-LHR-LYS-LHR-MAN LGW-OPO-LGW-GLA-LHR in CE with 10 days’ car hire for £1200 this summer. OPO was deliberate but the rest is mini breaks to BA’s cheapest destinations! I’ve booked accommodation separately, e.g, Hotel Dieu in Lyon, rented apartment in Vigo for the OPO trip.
Is that part of the Double tier points promotion? That’s not a bad deal as it gets you Silver status And is that one booking or two trips as I thought BA amended tge terms to only allow you yo leave the UK once? Also where are you hiring the car?
It was booked before the rule change so all sectors should qualify for double TPs. I have 2 more trips this autumn to get me to Gold. The car hire is from OPO.
Surely the problem here isn’t that it costs “more” (the hotel room alone will cost “double” per person if you don’t share it with someone paying the other half).
The problem is the advertising of pricing “per person” with “based on two people sharing” in small print. In effect this is “tied pricing” in that it obliges you to book a second flight to obtain the advertised package price
For solo travellers it would be really helpful for HfP to list any headline bargains for solo travellers, rather than assuming that all the readership travels as a couple or is prepared to share a room with a friend.
You could always ask BA to honour the advertised price and then ask who you’ll be sharing with! 😉
You could always ask BA to honour the advertised price and then ask who you’ll be sharing with! 😉
Thinking aloud, and running with the HfP Dating idea, we could run a thread here for travel companions wanted. I’m relationshipped up, but often can’t travel with my +1, and I dislike entirely solo travel.
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