Difference between Economy HBO and Economy+

[George K]

Hey folks – has anyone noticed a jump in prices between HBO fares and Economy Plus recently in short-haul fares? It used to be a £20-25 difference, but now see at least £40 in some routes…

[Richie]

What is the difference in TPs, how many more are you getting for Y+?

[George K]

Depends on fare buckets. You could be on Eco+ and still come into the lower Economy bucket which would get you a total of 10 TPs – the same as HBO. That hasn’t changed.

[Froggee]

I hadn’t noticed but given that EasyJet have just charged me £30 each way for a short haul flight (less than 2 hours) for the privilege of taking a large carry on case with me, I guess that is the pricing point. Whilst BA are pretty awful at most things, Rob has always said they are pretty on-the-ball at revenue management.

The difference with Easyjet at least is they let you add one bag onto a booking whereas BA make you split the booking into separate PNRs, should for instance a family of four wish to take one bag and therefore want one plus fare and three HBO fares. I’m sure BA know this and consider it a feature rather than a bug of how they price these.

[yonasl]

Froggee wrote:

I hadn’t noticed but given that EasyJet have just charged me £30 each way for a short haul flight (less than 2 hours) for the privilege of taking a large carry on case with me, I guess that is the pricing point. Whilst BA are pretty awful at most things, Rob has always said they are pretty on-the-ball at revenue management.

The difference with Easyjet at least is they let you add one bag onto a booking whereas BA make you split the booking into separate PNRs, should for instance a family of four wish to take one bag and therefore want one plus fare and three HBO fares. I’m sure BA know this and consider it a feature rather than a bug of how they price these.

You can buy 4 HBO tickets and then add a single suitcase from MMB.

[Froggee]

Thanks @yonasl – I did not know this. I’m guessing it is more expensive than booking a normal economy fare but allows one PNR which I much prefer if I can. Obviously if I was taking using status to take two bags, the price still doubles doing it that way!

[yonasl]

Froggee wrote:

Thanks @yonasl – I did not know this. I’m guessing it is more expensive than booking a normal economy fare but allows one PNR which I much prefer if I can. Obviously if I was taking using status to take two bags, the price still doubles doing it that way!

Status would not help with HBO fare as BA would not let you add the extra piece of luggage in that case (if you fly with Iberia or AA you can book an HBO fare and bring a piece of luggage if you are silver or gold).

What I do not know is if doing HBO + buying space separately give you a second piece of luggage if you are silver or gold (one could argue it should as you are supposed to have +1 piece but BA says that is not possible when booking their cheapest fare so don’t know what takes priority).

I just checked and indeed you can add luggage per person on MMB. Price are here: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/checked-baggage-allowances?topic=extraheavybags

[pablo]

If you’re HBO and buy one extra bag, unfortunately silver or gold won’t get you another bag on top.