British Airways has pitched a new business fare product at SMEs, giving 5% discounts on a range of flexible tariffs for customers tied into its loyalty schemes.
The new Business Bespoke programme brings the carrier into line with rivals that have successfully courted mid-sized businesses. BA’s head of UK and Ireland sales and marketing Richard Tams said: ‘We have never had this before, certainly not in the premium cabins.’
The discount applies to the current range of flexible – but not fully flexible - fare classes (A in First, C, D and R in Club World, W and E class in World Traveller Plus and Y in World Traveller).
“We have taken the whole Club World fare ladder and taken 5% off and made them fully flexible and fully refundable with no change fee,” said Tams.
The reduction applies to members of BA’s On Business or American Airlines’ Business ExtrAA SME schemes who are members of BA, American Airlines or Qantas’ frequent flier programmes and who purchase the tickets through TMCs.
The Business Bespoke service is available on a wide range of long-haul routes and selected codeshare flights operated by American Airlines, Iberia and Qantas.
“We are doing this because we want to make ourselves more relevant to the mid-market,” said Tams.
Buyers of these fares do not receive On Business points and the discount is applied only on the base fare, not on the taxes and charges.
However, the savings appear significant. For example, a customer purchasing an ‘R’ class Club World ticket from Heathrow to New York could book at short notice, change or cancel their ticket and pay £4,052 under Business Bespoke rather than the £6,366 a fully flexible fare (J class) would cost, saving 36 per cent.
Tams added: “We’ve been listening to what the mid-market customer is asking us for and we’ve built this option for them. It’s about giving them the pricing and flexibility they want and in turn building loyalty.”