[Anonymous]

[Cwyfan]

I am a share-holder in BA, and so eligible to a share-holder discount of 10%, or so I thought.

Imagine my surprise when I priced a flight to the caribbean with and without a hotel and got exactly the same final discount on the combined price whether I used my share-holder discount or not.

When I checked the price of the flight on its own, I got the 10% discount, but when I added in the hotel, they clawed back my discount, making the savings off the discounted hotels less for share-holders .

Put simply, I can have a discount off my flight, only if I do not want a hotel too, otherwise I will pay a premium on the hotel costs exactly equal to my flight discount.

Come on BA, where are you on shareholder loyalty?

[Binman62]

It is in the T&Cs I am afraid and BA are clear that the discount applies only to BA flghts on BA metal and does not include codeshare.

Bizzarely this includes the JSA route to OZ where they share revenue and costs with Qantas.

I recently priced a flight to CGK using BA and got a fare 75% less when booked as a through fare and foregoing the discount.

Nor does it apply to BA iniquitous fuel surcharges or other fees which means if you are buying a flight LHR to GLA with reasonable notice the discount is negligble hardly worth the effort of getting to the log in page.

The discount could however be almost £700 if buying a point to point F class fare on BA.com.

[Cwyfan]

This was not a code-share, all the flights were on BA. The hotel made the difference, with the shareholder flight discount disappearing if I added a hotel

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

kmcottrell

Don’t take this as fact, it’s speculation, but I would imagine that taking a hotel transfers the contract to BA Holidays and this renders your discount null and void.

I booked flights on BA.com (from my BAEC account) and was offered a ground transfer at additional cost, which I accepted.

Without any warning, BA then regarded this as a BAH contract and I could not upgrade the flights via the MFU facility – had to have several conversations with BAH people.

Very painful.

I won’t buy anything other then flights from BA, after that experience.

[Binman62]

kmcottrell…sorry was not clear….the discount applies only to BA flights booked on ba.com. it specifically excludes hotels cars and coeshares parking and everything else on the site for the reasons given by disgustedofSwieqi. Once you take another element you tranfer the bookeing to BA holidays and you get the benefit of their deals but not the shareholder discount.
As many have noted it is often cheaper to by a package says LHR JFK LHR with 3 nights in a JFK hotel than it is to buy the airfare alone. I have myself taken advantage of this and have only once used the hotel element. The savings can be considerable and far in excess of the 10%.

Another option is to start in Europe where fares on BA can be half that of originating in the UK and the shareholder discount still applies. You can then book the hotel separately

[dutchyankee]

A bit off topic, but can anyone advise how many shares one must own to warrant the discount, and are there any nationality/residency issues (non UK)? Thanks for the advice.

[VintageKrug]

BA offered 10% discount of the fare element of any flight only online purchase to be flown on BA metal (not codeshares) to shareholders in BAY.L

You had to own 200 BA shares on the record date, usually early November, to qualify.

You earn BA Miles, but not onbusiness points, on such fares.

This scheme is still available to existing exBAY.L shareholders now in IAG, but to my knowledge the benefit has not been confirmed to be available to those who purchase IAG shares now or in the future.

Having said that, the scheme has recently been expanded to incorporate Iberia flights, and can now be used exEUR which wasn’t the case previously and the expectation is that it will be extended to IAG shareholders for flights on both BA and IB, and I would expect an announcement to that effect this summer. No details on the amount of shares required to qualify.

Nothing certain on this, though.

Chapter and verse on this thread:

http://www.businesstraveller.com/discussion/topic/BA-shareholder-discount

[Cwyfan]

VK, what does one have to do to get an exEUR price if one is going to North America, or anywhere else for that matter?

What is the most effective way of doing it?

[VintageKrug]

For a range of carriers and starting points, simply google “ITA Tool” or for BA, simply reset your country (top right) to your preferred starting country.

There’s something of an art to it, so a google for “British Airways exEUR” will reveal more than I could set out here.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

kmc

Ex EUR means exactly what it says.

You have to get to a European airport and ‘start’ your journey there.

As a European based traveller, this means I automatically get a better deal than you, as I do not have to travel abroad before starting the real journey.

In the whacky world of BA, seems that the UK is not in Europe.

When I used to live in the UK, I used Lufthansa extensively for long haul, as it seems that they like to give better deals abroad, so long as you don’t mind flying indirect (and that adds one extra flight, rather than two to go to Europe, return to UK, really start your journey), then I’d look at LH and LX next time.

[VintageKrug]

As would also be the case if I, for instance, lived in Germany and chose to start my Lufthansa longhaul flight in London.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

I think the man on the Clapham omnibus was capable of working that out for himself, Vintage Krug.

[Binman62]

KMC….The ITA tool VK has referred too is brilliant.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

He is also right that it takes some effort but once known then a single entry can reveal what the cheapest starting point is for a flight. For example if you want to fly BA and not pay the ludicrous UK fares then start in Europe ( if you have the time and inclination). AMS LHR JFK can be had for £1200 often including the LCY flight via Shannon. On ITA if you enter as the originating point:

Example

In departing from enter this string exactly.

lhr,arn,hel,cdg,ist,ath,lis,prg,fra,ams,bru,dus,txl,mxp,lin,fco

Click advance routing codes and enter

BA BA

and in the destination box your final destination.

In advance routing box again type BA BA

Select dates number travelling and then select class of travel

In city sales box change to LHR to get prices in £

Hit enter

ITA will provide the lowest fares for each of the points listed.

Have just done this for 1st June to JFK and back 15th.

EX LHR BA cheapest is £3624

ITA show ex

ATH at £1708

LIN £1793

There are over 50 options less than £2000 and over 150 less than £2500 all saving a huge amount over the LHR Fare.

Once you decide remember to factor in flight to starting point….you must originate as ticketed…… Even so the LIN fare represents a saving of almost 50%.

ITA cannot book or ticket…yet…….but this is a google company so who knows.

Booking for BA flights is done on BA.com and simply change country to that where you will originate. Fares are in Euro and charged to crdeit cards in Euro.

If you have time and want to travel comfortably for less on BA, then this is a very easy means of doing so.

good luck

The cheapest cities are normally ( but not always) IST, MXP, LIN, FCO,AMS, ARN, HEL ATH. For family holiday paid just £7000 for 4 to far east in club and same flights dates and times ex LHR were £21000 on BA.com.

[KSHaggag]

Indeed …any carrier will always be keen to lure those premium customers in foreign markets to entice them to fly via its homebase e.g. BA in Italy …LH in UK …………AF in Germany ..whereas be prepared to pay the highest fares when you start your journey in the homebase of that airline ..that s why LH fares in Germany are extremely relatively high ..BA fares in UK are also extortionate ,and so on …we are talking Premium fares here .

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