Cheapest way from North to South?

tinandsue

To Sam Bee - Why don' t you want Easyjet or Ryanair quoted to you? They are planes that take people from one place to another, same as BA and they certainly don' t run at a loss! Why shouldn' t we expect more? After all, consumer revenge is what this site is all about and if I could get a cheaper flight, I would do!

With regards to the breakdown of a BA ticket and assuming the information given is correct - look at it this way...

The cheapest ever return ticket available, and then only if you book ages in advance is £88-00

Security Charge= £ 5-00
Air Tax = £20-00
Fuel Surcharge = £16-00

Total = £41-00 actual flight costs.

This leaves a massive £47-00 in profits per person.

I' ve had to pay as much as £400 return before now for an emergency last minute flight giving BA a massive £359-00 profit.
Added to that, there' s been numerous occasions when I' ve been seated separately from my flying partner despite having booked our seats months in advance.

Sam_Bee

tinandsue wrote:

To Sam Bee - Why don' t you want Easyjet or Ryanair quoted to you? They are planes that take people from one place to another, same as BA and they certainly don' t run at a loss! Why shouldn' t we expect more? After all, consumer revenge is what this site is all about and if I could get a cheaper flight, I would do!

With regards to the breakdown of a BA ticket and assuming the information given is correct - look at it this way...

The cheapest ever return ticket available, and then only if you book ages in advance is £88-00

Security Charge= £ 5-00
Air Tax = £20-00
Fuel Surcharge = £16-00

Total = £41-00 actual flight costs.

This leaves a massive £47-00 in profits per person.

I' ve had to pay as much as £400 return before now for an emergency last minute flight giving BA a massive £359-00 profit.
Added to that, there' s been numerous occasions when I' ve been seated separately from my flying partner despite having booked our seats months in advance.

Sorry - didn't make myself clear - I have no issue with Ryanair or Easyjet, just see them as different from the full service airlines, as they make a large amount of their profits NOT from their tickets -

i.e. food, drink, bus tickets, wheelchair surcharges, dodgy semi-compulsory travel insurance, baggaga charges, priority check-in, advertising on their site, commission from travel & non-travel services via their website & in-flight.

These are all things that full service airlines predominantly do not make money on, British Airways make money from their tickets. Indeed, Michael O'Leary has said he predicts the day when Ryanair will NOT charge for tickets, but instead make money from residual servics (also linked into his desire to have online gamblings on Ryanair Seatback TV's).

I'm all for Money Saving by NOT buying their residual services, indeed I take my own sarnies on board etc etc.

HOWEVER (!) how on earth do you calculate that as being £47 profit??

So, £23.50 each way - totals about 140 minutes of flight.
Have you forgotton to add costs??

You know, the cost of the plane you are sitting on, the staff that are flying it, the staff that gave you your free meal, the majority of the fuel the plane is using, the meal (which is obviously not 'free'), the staff that checked you, the cost of using the airports you flew from / to and back again, the engineers that made your plane safe to fly, building the website you booked on, the marketing to get you on that website, the Chairman's exorbitant salary... and I could obviously go on and on and on and on.

Do you really think that BA make profit out of that £47??

In fact, that ticket is being SUBSIDISED by those paying much higher fares in economy & business (normally paid for by their companies who need the flexibility to changes dates, or even names).

It's the done thing to knock our national airline, in many cases fair enough, but they have brought their fares down a considerable amount in the past 20 years (most thanks to pressure from low-cost carriers) and that should be applauded.

tinandsue

Ok. So now I see the difference that you meant between BA and airlines that are making their profits from other services. But I wish we had that choice to opt for cheaper airlines! BA do offer much cheaper domestic flights between other UK airports but obviously don' t need to at ABZ to LGW as there is no competition.

As for the issue of profits, you asked, "Do you really think BA make profit out of that £47??". My answer is yes. When I know that BA offer flights to places further afield such as Madrid and Amsterdam for only £30 I am sure of it. All the services that you mention that they need to fund are, in my opinion, more than covered by the £47 multiplied by goodness knows how many passengers. Oh, and as you so rightly pointed out, not forgetting that some people on that flight will have paid much more than £47 extra - maybe, as in my case, an extra £359.

I appreciate that prices have come down due to pressure from low cost airlines but there' s still more to be done by BA, especially with domestic flights from Aberdeen.