British Airways to follow KLM – Charges for Hold Luggage on Gatwick Shorthaul Routes

Following on the heels of KLM, British Airways has launched “Hand Baggage Only Fares”

Initially you’ll be able to buy these fares on the following routes from today for travel from the 26th February:

• Amsterdam
• Dubrovnik
• Jersey
• Tunis
• Turin

How do these fare stack up? I’ve done some screen grabs:

London Gatwick to Amsterdam

London Gatwick to Jersey

London Gatwick to Dubrovnik

London Gatwick to Turin

Screen Data – BritishAirways.com. Outbound date: 14th March.

As you can see, there’s a £9 to £13 difference in fare to bring a hold bag with you.

British Airways allow a 23kg hand luggage allowance with one personal item, and 1 hold item on the normal fares. What is interesting to see is that in some cases in the screen grabs, the first fare selected was one with luggage.

Also note that British Airways Executive Club Gold, Silver and oneworld equivalent members additional checked baggage allowance DO NOT apply to these fares. So even if you have shiny plastic, you’re going to have to go for a slightly higher fare.

The change fares will roll out onto the 5 London Gatwick short-haul routes initially, and after a while, it is intended that all LGW short-haul  routes will have extra fare class this applied to them.

So, we’re looking something between KLM’s “Charge everyone on short-haul”  and Air France’s HOP Fares (where you pay for a seat without miles and luggage).

Sadly, it’s still a race to the bottom.