New Summer sun Avios redemption opportunities for 2015

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• Lorraine Turner says:

  19 May19 May 07:06

  Chuffed about the CAG flight, wish iit was this year.pity they can’t put it on the weekend day trips return list,

• Phillip says:

  19 May19 May 07:27

  I wonder if this means BA won’t be fully retiring the 737s at Gatwick and keeping some on for more routes next year.

  On the upmarket front, I highly recommend Elounda, in Crete – about an hour east of Heraklion. The Blue Palace Hotel is fab!

• Gordon says:

  19 May19 May 08:02

  As ba use gatwick for most of their european holiday flights this causes a couple of redemption problems if you live outside of London. Firstly, many of the return flights get in very late at night so you need a hotel. Secondly, if you live in Northern Ireland it is very frustrating that they do not offer a Gatwick connection. You have to fly to heathrow, take the bus / taxi and check your bags in again. Raffles do you hear anything re Ba starting a belfast to Gatwick? An associated problem with the stop over is they refuse you lounge access the next day even if the flight was booked as a connecting business flight. You get the business baggage allowance but not the lounge access on the grounds of it being on a different day, even though you have no choice.

  • Gordon says:

    19 May19 May 09:31

    Thanks Tangey, i didn’t realise that was possible. It certainly never offers the option online to use EI for the connection. I agree with you on the long haul via Dublin .

  • Rob says:

    19 May19 May 10:18

    APD is the key here.

    To be honest I place ZERO value on ‘protecting’ flights by putting them on the same ticket if it costs me more money (ie APD). In reality you will NOT be stuffed if a) both flights are on the same airline or b) both flights are on airlines in the same alliance. Even if neither of those are true you will usually be OK.

    Just last week I booked a Lufthansa short-haul flight which connects to a Lufthansa long-haul and those are not on the same ticket. I am not worried.

    (I have missed numerous flights in the past which were not on the same ticket and I have never been stuffed by the airline. All they want to do is get you out of their hair as quickly as possible which means putting you on the next available flight.)

    If an Aer Lingus connection is late, there is no way – no way at all – that AI is going to tell you to clear off back to London because they are not going to put you on the next flight. You might (or might not) struggle to get them to pay for an overnight hotel if they are not on the same ticket but even the hotel cost would be lower than the APD saving.

    • Gordon says:

      19 May19 May 10:36

      Rob, if BA were to offer a connecting flight with EI as described above, does that mean for European flights Reward Saver does not apply?

      Also, can you confirm what your understanding is of lounge access if you have a stop over to catch the connecting flight the next day (particularly where there is no option to take a same day connection)

      • Rob says:

        19 May19 May 12:19

        On a connection, it needs to be ‘same day’ to get lounge access if you want it based on the class on your long-haul flight. You may be able to talk the lounge staff around but theoretically they do not have to let you in.

        You can’t do RFS on an Aer Lingus flight even if its a BA codeshare route.

    • Alan says:

      19 May19 May 12:45

      An impressively strong reply, Rob! I’ve seen folk have issues before, even on BA to BA connections with separate tickets so have never risked it myself. I wish they’d publish something on it like AA do. I certainly think it’s worth playing it safe on your outbound leg though as missing your connecting flight, even if the airline does rebook you, often means losing a day of holiday due to the relative infrequency of long vs short haul schedules.

    • Jac says:

      19 May19 May 17:44

      I would be cautious making such statement. two years ago i had booked 2 F award ticket to Bangkok over Xmas with Lufthansa from Frankfurt and bought cheap Y ticket from london city to FRA (there was no availability to start in london while the savings on the taxes more than compensated the price of the paid flight). When my flight from LCY got cancelled, LH told me I could rebook my award ticket for a later date at the usual cost… But with no availabillity over the next 10 days this was of little use. Futhermore i had booked more flights (myammar, hotels,…) that all would be lost if I would miss my F flight.
      In the end I had no other option then to drive to Frankfurt to catch my flight (I had booked an early flight to allow for some delays). As there were that day several flights from city and only my flight got cancelled, I was disappointed that LH was not more cooperative and completely ignored me playing my SEN status (LH Gold) or my need to arrive on time for connecting F flight which meant i could not accept their proposal to fly the next day…

      • Alan says:

        19 May19 May 17:52

        Agree that’s a very poor attitude from LH, especially with SEN status, but it certainly shows the risk of not having a single PNR. Well done on making the flight! 🙂

  • Phillip says:

    19 May19 May 11:13

    My experience of missed connections from non-OW airlines to BA on separate tickets, have been that BA simply said “tough” because the delay is by an airline that they are not partners with and therefore the customer’s responsibility to book another flight if their original is missed. However, when connecting from a OW to OW flight on separate tickets, BA are “happy” to both throughcheck and deal with missed connection issues.

  • Peter says:

    19 May19 May 19:52

    I recomend the Premier Inn beside the airport though if you do need an overnight. Got it once at £29 a few months out and it’s very close to the airport.

• Mikeact says:

  19 May19 May 08:39

  When does BA Summer timetable finish ?

  • Rob says:

    19 May19 May 10:14

    Usually last week in October

• Jude says:

  19 May19 May 10:07

  I would love to know if this is possible, we have a timeshare in GC and would love to get free flights.

• Rob says:

  19 May19 May 10:23

  One word gets out, it will be tough. It will be OK for now. I found Bodrum seats easily enough for the first couple of flights, which was all that was bookable at the time due to the 355 day rule.

• Charlie says:

  19 May19 May 11:48

  Currently 6 seats showing for redemption to/from Heraklion in C and Y, although currently only as far as the first week of service. Will be interesting to see what happens later in the season.

• Gordon says:

  19 May19 May 12:20

  if you search from anywhere other than London to say Heraklion it is not showing the connecting flight option. It just says we don’t fly this route. Works on the existing routes

  • Rob says:

    19 May19 May 12:34

    Very odd although it is still early days for booking these so could be teething issues. You should be able to book this on the phone if you say the website is playing up, the phone booking fee should be waived.

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