BA.com £5 charge PER PASSENGER to use credit card

TrionR

BA.com charged me £5 per passenger on flights booked last week (total £15 on flights costing £392). One of the passengers is my 5-month old son who was also charged. Has anyone else come across this? It seems completely ridiculous that they can get away with this. It was my understanding that retailer credit card charges had to be in some way related to the cost to the retailer - but there is no way that BA's credit card costs can be related to the number of passengers that fly, and no way that it is £5 per passenger. To make matters worse, I was paying with my BA-branded Amex card!

I have contacted BA and Amex demanding a refund. Am I being unreasonable?

Roger1

TrionR wrote: »

Has anyone else come across this?

Yes.

Am I being unreasonable?

Possibly.

If BA charged say 2% of the value, more expensive tickets would come with huge surcharges. Virgin Atlantic do this, one reason why I don't buy Virgin Atlantic tickets.

A £5 charge on all tickets, no matter what the value, is likely to be cheaper for most passengers.

BTW, I don't like surcharges either.

TrionR

I see your broad point, but BA's policy doesn't make it "cheaper for most passengers". Most of BA's passengers will be paying considerably more than this theoretical 2% average. Essentially what you are suggesting, and I agree, is that BA's premium passengers are having their credit card costs subsidised by non-premium passengers. I cannot see why this is justified?

leylandsunaddict

Most of BAs passengers will pay less by paying £5 per person than if they were paying a 2% surcharge.

wolvoman

TrionR wrote: »

I see your broad point, but BA's policy doesn't make it "cheaper for most passengers". Most of BA's passengers will be paying considerably more than this theoretical 2% average. Essentially what you are suggesting, and I agree, is that BA's premium passengers are having their credit card costs subsidised by non-premium passengers. I cannot see why this is justified?

2 things.

1. The fee can be avoided by using a debit card.
2. BA aren't targetting non-premium passengers, so their bsuiness model is based on making premium passengers happy.


Though the fee for the infant does seem harsh as the fare was probably only £50 or so.

Heliflyguy

BA have been charging a CC fee for a while now.

AF and KLM have just started charging for using a credit card as well 1.5%, minimum £4.50 capped at £15.

Lufthansa have been charging a fee for months.

TrionR

I don't like credit card fees, but I reluctantly accept that they are becoming commonplace. My objection was more to the charging per passenger, and the fact that £5 per passenger seems very high. For the record, the infant fare, including tax & charges before the credit card fee, was £35, yet he is charged £5 for using a credit card?

I appreciate that the credit card fee can be avoided with a debit card, but you don't get Section 75 protection with a debit card, and remember that this is a BA card, which generates Avios. I would guess (and hope) that the cost to BA of me using my BA-branded credit card is (much) lower than £5 per passenger, and that in fact BA would want to incentivise me to use my BA-branded credit card over any other payment option.

Still seems really harsh to me!

Ballard

As has been pointed out already, you can avoid the fees by using a debit card but wanted to enjoy the protection that a credit card gives. It's your choice.

I spent £1,280 on BA flights last year so it was a no-brainer to use a credit card for me.

marsman802

£5 bears no relation to actual costs - it's recognised as quite a nice earner by BA themselves who have no intention to retire unless dictated to by industry.

Also I believe there is a way to avoid the charge but still pay by AMEX. Try this next time...

You can avoid the charge by selecting a country other than the UK in the drop down box in the billing address bit of the payment page. Select Germany (but leave all other address details as normal) and the charge disappears.

PeacefulWaters

With BA holidays you can pay the deposit on debit card and the balance on credit card with no fees.

HotPotato

American Express doesn't authenticate the country field. So as mentioned you can use any AmEx card, and select any country and the charge will vanish. I go with Uganda, so you can always say it was a miss click for United Kingdom