[VintageKrug]

Etihad. E-T-I-H-A-D. One T. As in “G&T”.

It is unlikely you ever flew in Concorde at 72,000 feet as her service ceiling was 60,000 feet.

The correct spelling is also noteworthy; originally she was indeed dubbed “Concord” but the French were having none of it….and demanded an “e”.

Tony Benn managed the situation with typical aplomb:

“…………’Concorde’ originally had an ‘e’ on the end and then when Harold Macmillan was snubbed by de Gaulle he took the ‘e’ off and when I [became involved] without consulting the cabinet I said ‘I am putting it back!’.

E for entente cordiale, e for excellence!

Then I had a furious letter from a Scotsman saying ‘didn’t I know that part of it was built in Scotland?’ Well I said ‘e is for Ecosse!’. ………”

British Airways has not asked its shareholders for a “golden parachute” (which I assume to mean a Rights Issue) and is raising capital in other, more imaginative, ways.

BA is a full service carrier. British crew, British way of doing things. That may cost a little more, but for those with the patience to search around and book during regular sales fares often match and even undercut lesser know carriers, and sitting up front is not too hard to do if you embrace mileage collecting via BAEC..

I really cannot understand the complaints of those who demand BA offers the absolute lowest cost offering; if you want that, try Ryanair or Air Asia X.

Revenue Management sets the market rate for fares; when a certain number are sold, prices rise to what the market will stand. Quality will out, especially in the longer term.

[GuyBetsy]

Fuel surcharges on BA are generally higher than most asian/middle eastern carriers. European carriers also have high fuel surcharges and when redeeming FFPs outside North America, you will be charged these fuel surcharges.

Due to ridiculous fuel surcharges I choose which airlines I want to fly with and it hasn’t much been BA lately.

[susan3681]

Newbie–Need advice.
Had a very terse uninformed discussion with BA today and the adviser couldn’t wait to get me off the phone when it was clear I wasn’t booking anything today.
My question is this.
I have 44,000 airmiles and want to purchase 6,000 more at a cost of £111 to make the 50,000 in total.
I intend to fly from Heathrow to Miami first class. The adviser told me I had to pay £910 plus 40000 airmiles to upgrade to club class but said she couldn’t tell me the additional cost to upgrade to First class!

When I go online the website says i have insufficient airmiles as I haven’t yet bought the additional 6000 air miles so it won’t allow me to access information any further.
Can anyone enlighten me please as to the additional cost to ugrade to First class on top of 50000 air miles?

[FuninFirst]

The way BA miles upgrades work is by upgrading one class.
As a result you would need to buy a Club World fare and upgrade to First. The advance booking fares in Club World are about 2300 at the moment and a quick look through suggests good availability to upgrade to First in October and November.
You can do the whole process through the executive club website.

[susan3681]

Thanks for the information.

[rdmcall]

BA are having a laugh .. wanted ot fly [return] to Malaga from Gatwick.. Aer lingus ‘no cost flight’ extra came to c.£50 … Easyjet flight C. £70 .. now for the fun bit .. BA flight with airmiles 15,000 plus £77 ..can anybody explan this ??

I like BA .. have BA shares but they are seriously [still – after all the work by Willie Walsh] uncompetitive

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Well at least on BA, you’ll fly on a clean, modern jet, unlike EI and U2 😉

[famouschicken]

@rdmcall
But do BA mean to be competitive against the LCCs? I don’t think they do, or even care to be seen to. They charge more as a scheduled carrier with a different service platform/structure. It would be like comparing a burger at the golden arches ($2.99ish – I guess, never eaten one myself) with one from the Savoy ($20ish – ditto) . You choose the level of service you want and pay accordingly?

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

famouschicken

Of course they don’t mean to be competitive against the locos, that’s why they run campaigns like this one

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/value-calculator/public/en_gb

[famouschicken]

Hi DoS,
Yes I see, but that kind of confirms my 2nd point in a way; “you pays-yer-money and takes-yer-choice” BA = higher fare but no extras/hidden charges. Am not fighting BA’s corner by any means – just don’t think a comparison between ANY scheduled carrier and a LCC is reasonable. I could fly AIr Transat on my regular Canada run to save $hundreds but prefer a Scheduled Carrier – not always BA by the way.

[azidane]

Earlier this week I was looking to make a booking from Cairo to London return and checked out various options. For part cash part miles redemption BA wanted 26k miles and approx £400, I then checked the all cash option and the price was approx £370 ( and I remembered when I checked the price breakdown the fuel surcharge was approx £200 and a very low base fare) and when I eventually booked a couple of days later the fare had gone up about £10, but the base fare had gone up significantly and the fuel surcharge had gone down to about £35.

BA’s fares are not transparent and they obviously play with their figures and its plainly evident that they are trying to make the surcharges look higher and their fares lower when this is evidently not the case. What really annoys me, and im sure loads of other passengers is the fact that for the routes I fly BA generally are around the cheapest and most reliable option when looking at the overall price, but their shady pricing structure is leaving me with a bit of a bitter taste.

[rdmcall]

Hi,

Thanks for the comments / feedback – appreciated.

As I indicated in my point – using Aer Lingus [AE] as a bench mark – the charges were stated as c. £50 .. and if I am getting a ‘free’ flight [with airmiles] what are the additional charges that represent £77? .. for c£50 I’ll take BA every time (and use my Airmiles] ahead of any of the ‘volume / cattle class – LCC’ operators.

The bottom line is that BA needs to look after their customers .. i.e people who [usually] through business travel want to use the Airmiles they have gained without feeling the ‘free’ flight has been manipulated so as to make a ‘contribution’ for the flight.

[AlanReynolds1]

In general, my experience is that using BA Miles for Club class Long haul is better value. Though there may be £300 of so-called extras, this can compare with a chargeable fare of £2000. Coupled with an AMEX companion voucher (as I have done 6 times – and plan to do to avoid the Olympics here), the value is even better

[rdmcall]

Thanks for that … long haul probably better use of the airmiles .. but a bit of transparency would be great customer realations .. as a shareholder keen to see BA being a success ..

[LeTigre]

Since redemptions with BA always seem to come with such an incredulous fee as to make ‘free’ flights more expensive than fully paid ones, spending miles on journeys not originating in Europe is perhaps wisest. Do BA still charge taxes and fees for flights with other airlines? Which other airlines (CX?) charge absolutely nothing for oneworld flight redemptions?

[Author]

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