MSE News: British Airways' hand luggage-only fares: Do they beat Easyjet and Ryanair?

joerugby

richardw wrote: »

So BA has no Domestic flights competing with easyJet and Ryanair?

There are a few flights still to London from Manchester, Scotland and NI but whole swathes of the country are now a BA desert. We used to use BA regularly when they offered direct flights from their own dedicated terminal in BHX to BCN, AGP, DUS, CDG, AMS etc etc etc. It's such a shame that they have focused on London and feeder flights only.

luv2laugh

As four mums going on a long weekend shopping in Barcelona we checked the hand luggage allowances on all flights there and BA allow a massive 20kg almost as much as a two week summer holiday hold allowance. We went for five days and all came back with things unworn and even room for our mad shopping spree.

jpsartre

joerugby wrote: »

There are a few flights still to London from Manchester, Scotland and NI

BA have around 70 daily flights to London from these destinations. Hardly "a few".

Louisdf

jpsartre wrote: »

BA have around 70 daily flights to London from these destinations. Hardly "a few".

Yes but if your domestic flight is delayed/cancelled then you may have to wait until the next day to get to your destination. Of course BA would usually offer accommodation in this situation but sitting in a Travelodge by the M25 does not compare to starting your holiday in Barcelona/Rome etc. Also, sometimes your luggage doesn't make the connection so you have to wait around in the baggage hall for it to arrive on the next flight. Not a great way to start a holiday/business trip!
For such short trips why anyone would choose to faff around in Heathrow (simply to get a free 20g bag of pretzels and a couple inches more legroom) over a direct flight is really beyond me.

jpsartre

Of course there are disadvantages to flying with a stop-over, that goes without saying. But it's a poor reflection of reality to say that BA have "a few" flights from the regions.

joerugby

jpsartre wrote: »

Of course there are disadvantages to flying with a stop-over, that goes without saying. But it's a poor reflection of reality to say that BA have "a few" flights from the regions.

How many direct flights does BA have to continental Europe or rest of the world destinations from UK regional airports?

manwithplan

The annoying thing with this new system is that if there are four of you flying but you only want to take one hold bag, all four tickets are charged at the higher price meaning that you unnecessarily pay for four hold bags. The way around this is to make two bookings - one booking for a person with the hold bag and another booking for 3 others with hand luggage.

On top of that, sometimes it shows that only two seats are remaining at a specific price. However, if there are three of you then by default you all pay the higher price instead of two at the lower price and then one at the next price level up.

In the end for a family of four trying to keep costs down it becomes a nightmare with multiple bookings!

opinions4u

manwithplan wrote: »

The annoying thing with this new system is that if there are four of you flying but you only want to take one hold bag, all four tickets are charged at the higher price meaning that you unnecessarily pay for four hold bags. The way around this is to make two bookings - one booking for a person with the hold bag and another booking for 3 others with hand luggage.

On top of that, sometimes it shows that only two seats are remaining at a specific price. However, if there are three of you then by default you all pay the higher price instead of two at the lower price and then one at the next price level up.

In the end for a family of four trying to keep costs down it becomes a nightmare with multiple bookings!

With a 10kg cabin baggage allowance each, surely you can overcome this?

jpsartre

joerugby wrote: »

How many direct flights does BA have to continental Europe or rest of the world destinations from UK regional airports?

Excluding codeshares and franchise partners, none that I can think of. Of course, that has nothing at all to do with your previous claim about the number of domestic flights.

joerugby

jpsartre wrote: »

Excluding codeshares and franchise partners, none that I can think of. Of course, that has nothing at all to do with your previous claim about the number of domestic flights.

My original post was intended to highlight the lack of direct flights. What I said was:

"....... whole swathes of the country are now a BA desert. We used to use BA regularly when they offered direct flights from their own dedicated terminal in BHX to BCN, AGP, DUS, CDG, AMS etc etc etc. It's such a shame that they have focused on London and feeder flights only"

Sorry if I was not clear