British Airways moves credit card fees to a flat 1% ….. as Virgin Atlantic scraps them

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According to reports in Business Traveller, British Airways is changing the way it calculates credit card fees on bookings from 14th December.

The current charge is a flat fee of £5 per booking, with no fee on award bookings or when debit cards are used. This is obviously unattractive on low value bookings, although in those scenarios you would presumably have no liquidity problem if you used a debit card anyway.

British Airways BA A380 flying

The new structure is a flat percentage rate of 1%. This is obviously attractive for a £39 one-way economy flight to Manchester, but a nightmare for anyone paying for a number of premium tickets.

Whilst the card fee is capped at £20, this is per ticket and not per booking, so a family of four could still be faced with an £80 bill for four Club World tickets.

It is hard to claim that the new structure is ‘unfair’. I would only point out you are more likely to put an expensive ticket on a credit card and may not have the option of using a debit card if you do not have the money immediately available.

There does not appear to be any discount for British Airways credit card holders.

It is not clear if the fee will continue to be waived for anyone who states that their credit card is registered outside the UK.

Whilst Virgin Atlantic scraps its card fee …..

It is possible that British Airways chose to do this because Virgin Atlantic has always had a similar – higher, actually, at 1.5% – card pricing structure.

However, with great timing, Virgin Atlantic dropped all credit card fees when it relaunched its website last weekend.

Whether this survives now that British Airways is charging up to £20 per ticket remains to be seen.

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British Airways BA Amex American Express card

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British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

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For a non-American Express option, we also recommend the Barclaycard Select Cashback card for sole traders and small businesses. It is FREE and you receive 1% cashback on your spending:

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Kian says:

18 Nov18 November 10:32

When you pay by Amex, if you choose the billing country to be any other country than UK, then there’s no surcharge, and the payment would go through as long as other parts of the billing address are correct. I’ve done this many times, and there wasn’t any problem for BA to refund me after I claiming the price guarantee.
- Rum says:
  
  18 Nov18 November 10:53
  
  But doesn’t that mean you get charges in a non-£ sterling currency?
  - Genghis says:
    
    18 Nov18 November 11:01
    
    No
  - the real harry says:
    
    18 Nov18 November 11:03
    
    No. You only get charged in a foreign currency when you book (say) a 1-way originating in a non-UK country. Not sure if there is a way round this.
    
    But if you live in Ukraine and book to fly out of UK, it’s in GBP
  - Kian says:
    
    18 Nov18 November 11:05
    
    No because you’re on UK site and the price was quoted in GBP already. Even you really use a card issued in America say, you’re still paying in GBP. Btw I don’t think there was any surcharge at all when I purchased a single ticket from Europe to UK which was priced in EUR.
- Alan says:
  
  19 Nov19 November 21:53
  
  Shhh 😉
Rum says:

18 Nov18 November 10:55

If you’re not claiming a 241 or similar offer, booking your flights via the Amex travel site saves the credit card fees altogether. Use an Amex Gold and you are laughing with tripple points!! 🙂
- the real harry says:
  
  18 Nov18 November 11:50
  
  drawback being it’s T-330 not T-355
- Cheshire Pete says:
  
  18 Nov18 November 12:45
  
  Not checked with a recent BA flight, but I used to also book via Amex travel for my KLM flights as they charge £5 also on KLM.com. So used to save this booking with Amex. But noticed the other month the prices via Amex travel now rolled in the £5 you used to pay on KLM.com so a loophole closed down there! Not done a dummy BA booking to check if it’s spread yet.
Adrian says:

18 Nov18 November 11:34

£195 now for the BAPP, now 1% on top, I thought BA would be looking to increase business not drive it in to the ground. I phoned BA last week and paid for our Tallinn flights and asked why BA charged their own customers, with their own credit cards a £5 per ticket fee. The guy doing the ticketing said he didn’t know, but lots of people moan/mention it, this isn’t going to help. Do other airlines do this e.g. Finnair, as in this case I could have booked through them. Should I be looking elsewhere other then BA to book (where possible)?
Lewis Watson says:

18 Nov18 November 12:23

Even Ryan air doesn’t charge when you use there own branded card
scott says:

18 Nov18 November 12:41

OT;

Just got email from The TIMES, saying there is a delay in posting avios from subs, they are ‘ working hard with our partners’ to get it sorted.

Fair play for reaching out, atlas they have not forgotten about it.
Nick says:

18 Nov18 November 14:31

I flew from LHR to AMS this morning to connect to an ex EU J class flight with Qatar. On the BA flight I overheard an interesting conversation between a BA gold card holder and a long serving stewardess. The Gold card holder was bemoaning the fall in standards and penny pinching. The stewardess was very sympathetic and saying the reductions in service are really being commented on by frequent flyers and gold card holders and as a result staff morale is low with staff viewing Cruz’s short term drive for profit as a long term disaster in the making as passengers vote with their feet.
British Airways To Introduce A 1% Credit Card Booking Fee - UK Only says:

18 Nov18 November 15:14

[…] how you feel about this change will depend on what your trips flights normally cost – HeadForPoints has reported that the £20 cap will apply per ticket and not per […]
Michael says:

18 Nov18 November 16:04

I have to agree with the negative sentiment. You can’t ignore the declining benefits. The triple issues are too obvious: Avios devaluations, Amex handling fees and annual fees, and the generally declining ambitions of BA to be a first class carrier are all gloom. On the other hand, the Middle East carriers and maybe to some extent Virgin, who cover a lot of popular routes, do a great job (most of all, try Ethiad!). It seems to me they are more conscious of travellers’ expectations. They deserve the business. I don’t feel like that about BA.
- the real harry says:
  
  18 Nov18 November 17:56
  
  apart from loss of free F&booze, the situation in Europe is pretty good for people not willing to pay CE (me!)
  
  The only other recent negative afaiac is the small loss in mileage Avios (75% devaluation ISTR) – but they were a tiny % of the Avios we earn because most of our trips are redemptions.
  
  Vs LCCs, cash tickets are amazing cheap in HBO & competitive in Standard (ie with luggage). Provided you can buy tickets ahead of time, of course.
  
  It’s easy to get the seats you want, for free, with a few tricks – and families can therefore sit together.
  
  I’m still very annoyed at the loss of free F&booze on tickets I bought ahead where free F&booze was advertised as part of the deal – still contemplating my position. But going forward (new bookings) – not a major issue.