TravelSupermarket wades in on BA-Bashing Day
British Airways will just have to take today's news - landing a £121.5 million £270 million fine for fixing fuel surcharges - on the chin.
One suspects it will be open-season for those waiting years to have a pop at the UK's main carrier. The Guardian has some analysis here.
Within an hour or so of the Office of Fair Trading's ruling, Travelsupermarket.com emailed with this, penned by their flights manager, Bob Atkinson:
“We have lived with high prices for oil for several years now, so there is no excuse for airlines struggling to incorporate fluctuations into their fares.Kevin May, editor, Travolution
"Travelsupermarket.com calls on all airlines to absorb fuel charges within their pricing to increase transparency, as some of the low cost airlines already do. This makes pricing simpler and clearer for the customer.
“Travelsupermarket.com is opposed to any airlines colluding over prices. We support the work of the Office of Fair Trading to police the industry.”
Technorati tags: british airways OFT fuel surcharge
4 comments:
I think that should read a £121.5 million fine!
Steve: Indeed. Happily corrected. Thought we'd give BA some good news. "Fine is actually one hundreth of original value". :-)
Sorry to ask a silly question, but is commission paid to agents on the net value (i.e. flight cost excluding the fuel surcharge).
Therefore of course the airlines are not going to incorporate the rate transparently as then agents wouldn't know on what they are being paid (assuming that the existing commission agreements stay in place)
Therefore EasyJet don't show fuel surcharges - as they don't need to - as they don't pay agent commission!
Alex:
Agents generally don’t get commission on flights any more, other than with some non-UK airlines.
Fuel surcharges now have to be incorporated in fares for all UK airlines and all airlines flying from the UK to European destinations. They can be shown as a component of the fare.
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