British Airways extends cheaper, hand-luggage-only fares

Motoring and Travel

Updated on 13 September 2013 | 5 Comments

BA takes on budget airlines by extending its discount on hand-luggage fares to flights from Heathrow and London City airport.

British Airways has rolled out cheaper fares for passengers willing to travel light on selected flights from Heathrow and London City airport.

The new hand-luggage-only fares will be available on nine key domestic and European short-haul routes.

Both airports will offer cheaper tickets for travellers skimping on luggage when heading to Amsterdam, Stockholm, Edinburgh or Glasgow.

And hand-luggage-only passengers travelling from Heathrow will also be able to get discounts on flights to Barcelona, Paris (Charles de Gaulle and Orly), Rome and Rotterdam.

BA says the new hand-luggage-only tickets will be £10 cheaper each way compared to flights booked online with checked-in bags and are available to book for travel from 24th September.

Battling the budget airlines

Introducing hand-luggage-only fares at Heathrow and London City airport follows a successful trial of the same ‘no-frills’ scheme at Gatwick earlier this year, where BA faced stiff competition from budget airline easyJet.

Hand-luggage-only flights come as standard on budget airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet, with customers paying extra fees for checked baggage.

In February BA tested the water with five hand-luggage-only flights running from Gatwick.

Going budget proved such a success that by March all 32 short-haul routes operating out of Gatwick airport were brought under the scheme.

Now BA wants to see how the cheaper fares do at its main bases, where there are no big budget rivals.

Robin Glover-Faure, BA’s head of short-haul, said if the latest move proves as successful as it did in Gatwick then BA will roll out the cheaper alternative across the whole of its short-haul network at Heathrow and London City airport in the coming months.

How much can you save?

BA says travellers willing to fly light can save £10 each way on the selected Heathrow and London City airport routes.

Hand-luggage-only return fares from Heathrow start at £88 to Rotterdam, £91 to Edinburgh, £91 to Glasgow and £96 to Amsterdam. These are £20 cheaper than usual.

Hand-luggage-only fares from London City airport are similar and start at £98 to Edinburgh or Glasgow, £137 to Amsterdam and £144 to Stockholm.

But if you book a hand-luggage-only ticket and realise you need to check a bag in, you will need to pay £10 each way if you do it online or £20 each way if you have to do it at the airport.

BA’s online charge for check-in luggage is around the same as easyJet’s fee for a 20kg case, but less than the £15 per 15kg bag Ryanair charges.

BA luggage rules

Travellers that select a hand-luggage-only fare can carry a case sized 56cm x 45cm x 25cm which can weigh up to 23kg.

But unlike other budget airlines you can also carry a handbag or a laptop bag with you. Acceptable dimensions on these items are 45cm x 36cm x 20cm.

Semi-flex tickets

In addition to the extension of the hand-luggage-only fares, BA is also launching a trial of ‘semi-flex’ tickets.

The new option for travellers provides the middle ground between a standard ticket and a fully flexible one.

With a semi-flex ticket, travellers can make changes to their booking (as long as travel is to and from the same airport) for free on the day of departure without having to pay the difference in fare. If the change is made the day before it is also free, but with the fare difference to pay. The semi-flex ticket also offers the chance to select a seat two days before travel rather than 24 hours before with a standard fare.

Will BA’s changes stop you from going for budget airlines like easyJet? Or are BA’s prices still too high for those wanting to travel on the cheap? Let us know what you think in the comment box below.

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