Does HfP have an ‘anti-BA’ bias?

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• steveh says:

  10 Jun10 June 07:08

  Another plus for BA is that they fly direct to places like Tokyo, where I travel regularly for work reasons. Yes I know JAL are great, and fly at better hours, but their WTP or Bus Class prices are much higher! And I can’t use an Amex 241 with JAL.

• H says:

  10 Jun10 June 11:23

  Hi, I would like to ask some BA advice. I recently held a hold fare for ba where one pays 5 pounds to hold the seat but I realized that I had put the basic fare on hold (the hand baggage) fare rather than the plus which is just 20 pounds more per sector. Ticket was held but not issued. I called them and ask them to change it to a plus fare and then could issue it but they refused to help me do that, even though the ticket was not issued. (fares had gone up so could not just get another seat) Only way now if for me to purchase an extra bag each way at the cost of 40 pounds per sector rather than 40 in total. I am a ba silver card holder but had no joy when speaking to them over the phone. Any tips for how to be able to get the bags for cheaper?

• AB says:

  10 Jun10 June 13:27

  There used to be a time when BA was indeed my preferred airline, that is no longer the case, in my book they are getting worse by the day, they are mimicking the likes of ryanair and easyjet when it comes to services offered and when it comes to prices they are far worse. I lost count how many times I tried to book a flight with BA and the difference to other airlines was so grand that I lost interest and moved on.
  Another issue with most airlines these days is the extortionate charges when you try to pay with a credit card, BA currently charges £10 for making a credit card payment, seriously? they claim is admin costs, no payment provider charges that much for a credit card transaction, in reality it costs pennies, and they want us to believe they are not using it as just another cash cow, what next? charge for oxygen in the cabin?
  BA is far less attractive that it once was, I have lost the love for them a very long time ago, and that is no other reason but they own fault.

  • Krisz says:

    12 Jun12 June 13:47

    I’m not going to debate with you over BA, but I would share my knowledge on credit card fees.
    1. Each business have specific deals with banks who provide the facility to the business to use a credit card so it is not easy to compare large companies.
    2. Debit card fees are set fees. i.e. each transaction is let say 10p, 20p, 50p, etc. each different debit card will be different fee i.e. visa debit, mc debit, visa business debit, foreign issues debit, etc. The only common will be that it’s a set fee.
    3. Credit card fees are always % of the transaction value. Ie Visa Credit card will be 2% MC credit card will be 2.1% Amex will be 3.4%. (these are just examples in reality they can be anything but usually around 2-3% Amex can be higher but nowadays you can make a deal with them as well)

    So based on this you can see that BA will prefer a debit card over a credit card as it would cost more. (and that is why a small local store on a 5 pounds transaction would prefer a credit card then a debit card and that is why they sometime set a minimum spend.) If you think that customers should be always charged by the actual cost I think it would be a nightmare as you wold never buy anything on credit card and you would never use AMEX 241 vouchers. A typical long haul business seat will cost let say 2000 pounds will have a 40 pounds credit card fee if we use a 2% example.

    I think what we have at the moment to pay 5-10 pounds for a credit card transaction fee and nothing to pay for a debit card is much better than paying actual costs.

• Adam W says:

  13 Jun13 June 12:34

  It’s far more the pro-QR bias that concerns me.

  • Rob says:

    13 Jun13 June 12:45

    If you can find someone who has flown the A380, A350 or B787 in Business and didn’t like it, I will reconsider. The fact that you can get it for £800 to Asia is laughable, especially as you get BA Silver afterwards. What’s not to like? (Apart from the 20 meter high giant teddy bear at Hamad …..!)

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