Title – BA: now it’s £60 to pick a seat
Source – The Sunday Times Travel
Date – 28th September 2009
I feel a rant coming on…. I will try and avoid the worst of it…
So it seems that British Airways are trying to slowly change their business model to compete with the ‘low-cost’ airlines.
The problem for me is you can’t have the best of both worlds. If you want to be a low cost airline then offer those silly low prices and charge for everything else, while providing a level of service which ‘reflects’ the price. If you want to be a scheduled (traditional) airline who can charge a ‘premium’ for flights without the mad scramble, then do that. I’m not sure a hybrid works where you pay the ‘premium rate’ and then have to pay for everything else.
The question is what is next, are they going to follow Ryanair and Easyjet and charge for every stage of the process? I’m in no doubt that other airlines will follow suit and in time we will get used to it, but I know what to expect if I am booking ‘low-cost’ and I know what I expect when I am willing to pay that little more for a carrier like BA. If the differential is no longer there, then cost alone will be the factor which decides my future airline choice… can BA really compete?
It used to be straight forward to calculate your flight costs into you overall travel budget, but independent travellers need to be careful these days not to be caught out by the many additional charges and baggage restrictions etc.
Be very careful especially with your baggage allowance, I have been with several carriers who have ignored my excess on the way out (skis, diving equipment etc) and when I have been on the other side of the world ready to return home have suddenly decided to follow the small print to the letter and charge me many hundreds of pounds in excess baggage… to date with no success, but more through luck, long arguments and stubborn persistence, then any magical formula.
So rant over… hopefully most passengers will object like I do to paying extra and leave the task of choosing their seat until the last 24 hours when it is free; that way everyone has a fair crack of the whip in getting a decent seat. Sadly it does seem the lottery of the emergency exit seat is a thing of the past; let’s just hope the people with the money to burn are also fit enough to open the emergency exit if required…
At Beyond The Blue (Safe Gap Year) our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness Workshop (GYITSA) considers issues of Transport Options alongside sessions on Travel Safety, Travel Health, Ethical and Responsible Travel, Travel Equipment, Travel Insurance, Destination Advice, Documentation, Travel Money and Insurance and more.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.
For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.
Source – The Sunday Times Travel
Date – 28th September 2009
I feel a rant coming on…. I will try and avoid the worst of it…
So it seems that British Airways are trying to slowly change their business model to compete with the ‘low-cost’ airlines.
The problem for me is you can’t have the best of both worlds. If you want to be a low cost airline then offer those silly low prices and charge for everything else, while providing a level of service which ‘reflects’ the price. If you want to be a scheduled (traditional) airline who can charge a ‘premium’ for flights without the mad scramble, then do that. I’m not sure a hybrid works where you pay the ‘premium rate’ and then have to pay for everything else.
The question is what is next, are they going to follow Ryanair and Easyjet and charge for every stage of the process? I’m in no doubt that other airlines will follow suit and in time we will get used to it, but I know what to expect if I am booking ‘low-cost’ and I know what I expect when I am willing to pay that little more for a carrier like BA. If the differential is no longer there, then cost alone will be the factor which decides my future airline choice… can BA really compete?
It used to be straight forward to calculate your flight costs into you overall travel budget, but independent travellers need to be careful these days not to be caught out by the many additional charges and baggage restrictions etc.
Be very careful especially with your baggage allowance, I have been with several carriers who have ignored my excess on the way out (skis, diving equipment etc) and when I have been on the other side of the world ready to return home have suddenly decided to follow the small print to the letter and charge me many hundreds of pounds in excess baggage… to date with no success, but more through luck, long arguments and stubborn persistence, then any magical formula.
So rant over… hopefully most passengers will object like I do to paying extra and leave the task of choosing their seat until the last 24 hours when it is free; that way everyone has a fair crack of the whip in getting a decent seat. Sadly it does seem the lottery of the emergency exit seat is a thing of the past; let’s just hope the people with the money to burn are also fit enough to open the emergency exit if required…
At Beyond The Blue (Safe Gap Year) our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness Workshop (GYITSA) considers issues of Transport Options alongside sessions on Travel Safety, Travel Health, Ethical and Responsible Travel, Travel Equipment, Travel Insurance, Destination Advice, Documentation, Travel Money and Insurance and more.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.
For more information on any of our services, please call us on 0845 602 55 95 or Contact Us.
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