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At the end of February we found out that British Airways planned to makes some key changes to its short-haul fares, but while we knew at the time what the structural changes to the fares would be, the was no information on how this would affect the cost of short-haul fares.
Changes To British Airways Short-Haul Fares
Here’s a summary of the changes for those who didn’t see the original post:
Historically British Airways has offered two types of fare on their short-haul flights:
- Hand Baggage Only and
- With Checked Bag
Each of those fares could be purchased with three levels of flexibility:
- Standard (not very flexible at all)
- Semi-Flexible (a bit better than standard)
- Fully Flexible (exactly what is sounds like)
With the changes that have come in to effect there are now just 3 options for passengers to choose from, each with an “increasing amount of flexibility”.
1 – Hand Baggage Only:
- Standard hand baggage allowance (no Checked Baggage allowance)
- Seating allocated at check-in or paid for seat selection (OneWorld Emerald or Sapphire Status does not get you seat selection)
- Flight changes can be made for a fee plus any difference in fare
2 – With Checked Bag:
- Includes a 23kg Checked Baggage allowance, plus the standard hand baggage allowance
- Free seat selection from 48 hours prior to departure (OneWorld Emerald & Sapphire card holders can select seats at the time of booking)
- Free flight changes on the day of departure, up to one hour before scheduled flight time
- No change fees (a fare difference may apply if flight is changed before day of departure)
3 – Fully Flex:
- Fully refundable
- Includes a 23kg Checked Baggage allowance, plus the standard hand baggage allowance
- Free seat selection at time of booking
- Free flight changes on the day of departure, up to one hour before scheduled flight time
- No change fees (a fare difference may apply if flight is changed before day of departure)
While all this information was good to have and while, on the face of things, this looked like a real improvement to the fare structure, what we didn’t know was if British Airways would use this change to increase the gap in price between “Hand Baggage Only” fares and the fare one level up that gives the passenger a checked bag (and now more flexibility).
The Results Are Starting To Come In
When the changes were announced I wrote the following:
Right now there isn’t a big difference in price between “hand baggage only” and “with checked bag” fares (usually in the £10 – £15 range). If British Airways resists the temptation to increase “with checked bag fares” to account for the increased flexibility those fares will now offer, this will be a genuine improvement for passengers.
Now that British Airways has implemented the changes to their short-haul fares, and I’ve been looking at the cost of flights on various, randomly selected, intra-Europe flights.
London – Paris
As you can see from the screenshots below the outbound flights are still being offered with a £15 difference between the Hand Baggage Only (HBO) and the next fare up….
And the same holds true for the return fare as well:
Due to the nature of how British Airways shows the fare the regular economy fare and the HBO fare (for the return leg) cannot be shown on the same screen. Above is the regular economy fare and below is the hand baggage only fare:
London – Milan
In this instance the difference between the HBO fare is up to £17 for some flights and £15 for the last flight of the day…..
…..and the difference in prices on the return ranges between £25 and £29.
London – Budapest
On this route the difference in fares seemed to be back in the £15 range for one set of dates….
….but then up to £30 on others:
Note: I’m not going to publish a screenshot of each option on each route…you’ll just have to take my word for what I’m typing or check yourselves! 🙂
London – Düsseldorf
A random date selected in May shows the difference in fares to range between £15 and £22….
…while on other dates I found the difference to be a steady £15.
What Does This Mean?
I took a look at more destinations that the ones I’ve posted above and, overall, I saw similar results in each case.
Sometimes the difference between the HBO and regular Economy Class fares held firm at around £15 – which is what I’d come to expect in the past – while on other dates the difference between fares was up to £30 (double).
I’m by no means an expert on British Airways short-haul fares so I’m happy for someone to correct me here if they think I’m wrong….but I think we’re seeing a sneaky rise in prices from British Airways. I may not fly that many intra-Europe short-haul flights on BA but I don’t remember seeing the difference between a one-way HBO and one-way regular Economy fare as high as £30 before. I think this is a change.
Bottom Line
If I’m right about the fare rise (which I’m happy to concede is yet to be confirmed) then this isn’t great news for flyers.
The way the British Airways short-haul fare structure is arranged customers are forced to choose between lower price and very few benefits (no baggage allowance, no seat selection, very limited flexibility) and a higher price and all the benefits…there’s no middle ground.
That’s not a big issue while the difference in fares isn’t too bad (£10 – £15 each way as it has been in the past), but when that difference rises to £30 each way then suddenly passengers are being asked to pay quite a bit more for a round-trip ticket and, often, most of what they’re getting for that difference in price is what their status used to give them not that long ago.
A look at the Flyertalk thread on this subject will show you that jury is still out on whether British Airways is increasing fares on the quiet or not…but I think they are. As I said when closing my post on this subject last time:
It’s hard to believe that British Airways are putting through these changes just to help out their customers (for a start these changes will cost money to implement) so there must be something in it for them. Unfortunately I suspect that their motives are anything but selfless – let’s hope I’m wrong.
Well, if I’m being even-handed, I have to admit that there really isn’t enough data just yet to draw a solid conclusion but my gut tells me that we’re seeing signs that BA did not bring about this change just to be nice.
