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Bits: BA using Titan planes at Gatwick, Hyde Park festivals via Starwood, Millennium Hotels sale

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News in brief:

British Airways subcontracting at Gatwick

British Airways has ‘wet leased’ an Airbus A320 and a Boeing 757 to work at Gatwick during July.  These will come from Titan Airways and, as it is a ‘wet lease’, Titan will be providing the flight crew and cabin crew as well.

If you have a Gatwick short haul flight booked in July, you can check if you are impacted by doing a dummy cash booking at ba.com and clicking on the flight number on the booking page.  It will show ‘Operated by Titan Airways’.

The food and drink offering will be the same as the normal BA offering.  In the past BA has been criticised for using Titan planes but, since leg room was reduced on short-haul aircraft, you may find a Titan plane to be more spacious.

Starwood tickets for the Hyde Park festivals going cheaply

If you have a few Starwood Preferred Guest points, you may be able to snap up some tickets to the Barclaycard BST Hyde Park concerts.

At just 5,000 points for two tickets it is a good deal.

At the time of writing, there are tickets left for June 18th (The Strokes etc), June 20th (Blur etc), June 21st (Kylie etc) and June 26th (The Who etc) as well as the family day on June 28th.  The family day is 10,000 points.

You can redeem your points via the SPG Moments website here.  The deadline to redeem for the first three concerts is tomorrow, June 15th.

Iberia A330 350

Short Iberia sale to Madrid and the Americas from London

Iberia has launched a brief sale which runs until June 15th (Monday).

It for economy class tickets only.   Long haul, there are deals to Rio de Janeiro, Guayaquil, Quito, Havana, Bogota and Sao Paulo.  UK flights to Madrid are also reduced.

You need to fly between September 1st and March 15th 2016, although Christmas and New Year is blacked out.  Full details on the Iberia website here.

Millennium Copthorne

Millennium & Copthorne summer deals

Finally, hotel group Millennium & Copthorne has launched a new Summer package for UK stays until the end of July.

The package includes a welcome drink, breakfast, strawberries and cream and a late check-out.  Participating hotels can be found here.

We reviewed the My Millennium loyalty scheme here.


Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

  • Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.

Comments (12)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Daniel says:

    Interestingly (based on the quick figures I did based on the info on the SPG website, as Points.com is down for maintenance) if you’re thinking of going to BST anyway it’s cheaper the purchase the points from SPG and then get it that way, than to buy a GA ticket direct. Crazy.

  • James67 says:

    Many years ago I had a BA flight from LGW (to PRG IIRC) that went tech. They brought in a Titan BAe146 I think it was. It was fantastic, some sort of executive jet with large roomy very comfortable leather seats with great pitch. Very pleasant and attentive flight attendant. Iremember thinking if only all BA flights could be like this.

  • Rohan says:

    Couple of months ago was flying out of MAN to faro on ryan air . Due to engine failure rather than ‘keep us waiting ‘ or so we were told they got us on a Titan aircraft with their crew . This was fantastic . The seats were spacious , the ambience was a whole heap better than the usual ryan air fare .
    They even had a business class section that looked the part with bigger leather seats which reclined quite a bit . The staff were prompt and courteous . Wish there were more flights like this from the regions that offered direct flights to main land Europe .

    • TimS says:

      Titan have a jumber of different seat configs available for their aircraft but generally their Y or J/Y configs are better than you’d find on BA short haul metal.

      Spurs always seem to use Titan for their squad flights for European matches, though Titan are also used for repatriation flights too so the configs can vary quite considerably!

      That said, at the prices they charge other carriers (even for season-long charters) are steep to say the least. Prices for emergency availability (guaranteed airborne from STN or LGW within 1 hour of deposit being paid) would make most people cry!

  • Toby says:

    Does anyone know a way of finding out when events are added to the SPG Moments London, or is it just a question of looking at the website every so often?

  • ee says:

    In the “Bits” category – there is a new Avios Suitcase badge available called “Guess the Currency – June”. It’s not at the top of the badges page – for me I had to “Load More” twice to see it. It’s worth 50 avios.

  • YKW says:

    Booked 2 adults + 2 children for under £400 in Feb Half Term to Madrid from London City Airport on a British Airways codeshare (on BA site was £780). Chuffed with that.

    As ever .. thank you Raffles. I wouldn’t be going on half the trips I do without this site – that being said it’s probably bad for my bank balance !!

  • AndyGWP says:

    From memory, transfers out from Amex to SPG are quite quick / immediate aren’t they?

    • Rob says:

      Not immediate. Only Emirates, Virgin and Delta are instant in my experience and even then accounts must be linked already.

      • AndyGWP says:

        hmmm – thanks, tried it but reckon I will miss the boat 🙁 gutted

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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