British Airways increases booking fee, introduces hold charges

Fees are one of those things that either seem to increase or multiply. British Airways is doing both it seems.

First up is the annoyance of the credit card surcharge, which applies to bookings paid with a UK billed:

• Visa Credit Card
• MasterCard Credit Card
• American Express Credit and Charge Card (Including BA’s own Amex Card)
• PayPal Account

The fee goes up from £4.50 per passenger to £5.00 per passenger per booking. This does not apply if you’re paying by debit card (but you loose the Section 75 Consumer Credit Card protections)

And it’s showing as your get to the payment section of the BA site:

British Airways Credit Surcharge on the payment page, showing the charges

A new feature also on the British Airways site is the option to hold prices for 72 hours.

For a reservation charge of £5/€5 per person on short haul flights, and £10/€10 per person on a long haul flight you can now hold a fare for 72 hours.

When the fare lock is paid, the fare won’t go up for 72 hours, and the price is guaranteed not to go up. Prices can go down though, and the fare will reduce. There are restrictions on the fare lock, with the following countries on both BA and Iberia flights:

For those who need extra time to book it can be useful. If you do go through with the booking, your hold fee is refunded.

Still.. more charges are never welcome. These are avoidable in some ways, but if you want to put your fare on a credit card (and be stung for a booking fee), or hold it and not take the ticket, it’s going to cost you a bit more from now onwards….

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