Bits: bonus Heathrow Rewards points, immigration kiosks for BA at New York JFK

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• S. david says:

  30 Jun30 June 07:23

  With now kiosks in place, any risk of BA cancelling already unpopular BA 001? I heard the flight is usually half empty and if you improve JFK immigration, that flight makes little sense compared to direct LHR flights, unless you live right next to City Airport

• Simon says:

  30 Jun30 June 07:25

  The kiosks are really great. I use them in Miami when heading to South America and have used them in Las Vegas as well.

  One thing that I have noticed though, if you are hand luggage only, you will get a decline and have to go through the normal process. It happened to me once when I was hand luggage only and also to a colleague on another flight when he was hand luggage only.

  No issues the rest of the times that I checked in some luggage. I guess a man flying on his own with no luggage is a bit suspicious…

  • Leo says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:15

    Was hand luggage only to JFK no problem.

  • Gavin says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:59

    Worked fine for me HBO at ORD

  • Lumma says:

    30 Jun30 June 11:56

    No issue for me travelling HBO to Chicago. Technically, they even have a separate exit at ohare for HBO passengers, although it wasn’t open when I was there, so I can’t see that being an issue.

  • Simon says:

    30 Jun30 June 16:17

    Perhaps my colleague and I looked odd! I thought it was because of HBO, now I’m worried if I’m on a list! Who knows, worked every other time I’ve used them though 🙂

• Boi says:

  30 Jun30 June 07:28

  OT:
  Whats the best seating arrangement for family of 5 on virgin UC? Happy we got 5 reward seats to JNB!
  We have never flown virgin before….

  • Raffles says:

    30 Jun30 June 08:52

    Having done this last week on a 787, I reckon all you can do is ensure you are all on the same side of the wall which divides the cabin. That would mean 3 window seats and 2 middle seats facing each other. To be honest, the seats are not family friendly at all – you cannot see the person in the seat in front or behind. You need to trust your kids 100% as you can’t see them.

    • Kipto says:

      30 Jun30 June 20:44

      Looking forward to your review of the flight

• Tom H says:

  30 Jun30 June 07:35

  Anyone know if there is an age restriction, I e we have a 3 year old with his own passport and ESTA. Can he use it or do we still have to que?

  • Fenny says:

    30 Jun30 June 18:57

    I think you have to be over 18. Coming in through LHR last week, I’m sure I saw a sign saying over 18s only to use the electronic booths.

• terri says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:27

  Kiosks potential to cut lines is thwarted by need to get process finalised by an official. Last used this at LAX. No queue to use kiosk, then over an hour in a queue to get passport stamped by border officer. When at MCO an airport employee was not allowing families – home of Disney – to use kiosks as they would crowd machines.

  A great idea that is let down because ability to use kiosk is inconsistent and kiosk is an extra step at immigration that still relies on manned border agents to not create a queue.

• idrive says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:46

  Technically tomorrow is the last day to buy SPG points at a discount price, not today.

  • Raffles says:

    30 Jun30 June 08:49

    Er, yes, you’re right. I had 30th in my notes for some reason …..

• Physci says:

  30 Jun30 June 08:48

  I used the machines at DEN in Feb – it actually took longer to clear immigration there than it would with just CBP agents. Everyone (US citizens and visitors (other than GE card etc holders) is in a single queue which moves slowly. The only potential benefit is that there may be more machines than desks that the CBP used to have open so in theory a greater capacity, but would not hold my breath as all still need a final check by a CBP agent.

• Billy says:

  30 Jun30 June 10:14

  The whole Heathrow rewards thing is all over the place. I flew out from T5 on Saturday and only had the initial 100 points (sign up bonus) I then spent a total of £168 and now have a balance of 3104 points. Break down as follows.

  Caviar house = £10 = 1500 bonus points + 10 standard points
  Caviar house £14 = 14 standard points
  Wh smith = £8 standard points = 8 points
  World duty free 2 bottles of perfume= £136 = bonus points = 1200 points, double points 136, standard points 136

  Didn’t use any signup codes, just paid with my BA Amex card. I did have a spend £75 get £5 coupon off which I used.

  • harry says:

    30 Jun30 June 10:55

    What’s the 1500 bonus points deal @ Caviar House?

    • Billy says:

      30 Jun30 June 12:20

      No idea just found them on the statement.

    • Genghis says:

      30 Jun30 June 13:38

      That piqued my interest too (0.66ppa) but cannot find any info on it. Can anyone else?

    • Ian says:

      1 Jul1 July 08:10

      Or more importantly what did you spend £10 in there?! LOL

      I assume a drink as everything else is much dearer.

      • Billy says:

        2 Jul2 July 09:37

        They have these small tins that sell black caviar which go for £10. Good way to taste if you’ve never tried before. Was quite nice, they even threw in a free cook book. I guess your money goes quite far there.

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