Bits: British Airways credit card fee change delayed, up to 3000 Avios from Europcar

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• Jeff says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:44

  BA’s incremental service cuts combined with these price increases may look very clever to the bean counters, but in the end passengers will drift away. They must think we are either too stupid to notice / don’t care but it must damage the brand and sentiment towards the airline. That can’t be good when there are an ever growing number of flight options from the UK.

  Someone will surely start the ‘Fly ABBA’ club soon… (Fly anyone but BA)

• Sam says:

  3 Feb3 February 09:10

  This with the £68/seat booking fee in CW if you aren’t gold adds a huge amount to the ticket.

  • Anna says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:24

    Hmm I’m currently toying with the idea of paying £58 pp for extra leg room seats on a WT return leg from the Caribbean (not enough avios for CW both ways 🙁 ). This is miles better value than paying for WTP which I don’t think has any more legroom that WT, however the one issue is that our son will be 2 weeks too young to sit in an exit seat (the system won’t let you book them if they’re under 12), so he would have to sit behind us. Is this being cruel? It’s an overnight flight so hopefully he’ll sleep for most of it. I know some parents even put their kids in a different cabin but I am soft about these things!

    • the real harry1 says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:42

      @12 he can take it & night flight seals it.

      When my 3 were squabbly I used to sit them apart so the 4 of us would often have 4 window seats in a column 🙂 – admittedly on a shorter flight.

      • Anna says:

        3 Feb3 February 09:48

        This is the answer I was looking for lol! Thanks.

  • Nick_C says:

    3 Feb3 February 13:15

    I am flying to LAX on an A380 on BA in June.

    Seat reservation starts at £77 per person each way, and goes up to £95. The fee depends on the seat chosen.

    Decent airlines (American Airlines for example) provide free seat reservation at the time of booking.

    It’s a 241 Avios redemption, so no choice other than to use BA. But an extra £380 for the two of us to reserve seats is ridiculous.

    • mark2 says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:29

      I recently booked two seats on Alaska Airlines Seattle to Vancouver BC in Economy and was immediately abel to choose seats six months before take off.

    • Simon says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:32

      We have the same problem every time I lock down 4 CW redemptions for my family. Have never paid the charge. Just get online at T-24 hours and choose the seats. My view has always been that worse case and we were split up, people would move around on the day.

      • Nick_C says:

        3 Feb3 February 19:35

        Thanks.

        I usually pay for seat selection if I’m in PE, as I want to get the window and aisle pair, and the charge isn’t too bad. But charging more to reserve a J seat than a PE one is ridiculous. I thought it was meant to be an admin charge, not blatant profiteering. I certainly shan’t be paying for seat selection on this trip. I don’t mind if we are split up. I’m just shocked that BA can try to charge so much for a service that any decent airline would provide FOC, especially in business class.

        So £528 for fees and taxes, potentially £190 for seat selection, it’s not exactly a free flight!

        • Louie says:

          3 Feb3 February 21:48

          You’ll find that most of the BAEC higher tier cardholders are fully in support of these charges as it means they have a much greater selection of seats to choose from even if they book late.

          I won’t pay either though. Never had an issue getting a couple of middle seats (in Club) at T-24 until our last flight, when online check in would not work. The check in staff did their best but the flight was full. So if the chap who was happy to move (from one aisle seat to another, not to an inferior seat!) so we could sit across the aisle from each other in early Jan to SIN is reading this – thank you again!

• Anna says:

  3 Feb3 February 09:15

  OT but still on car hire, shop around! I got a quote from Avis for 17 days’ car hire in Grand Cayman in August (via Avis website and BA); they wanted £1600! This is low season in the Caribbean so I got a quote from a reliable local company we’ve used before and they quoted $800 US (including CDW) – so go figure!

• mark2 says:

  3 Feb3 February 09:34

  OT
  My wife has a letter from Amex saying that her Gold card was cancelled on 01/08/16. By my reckoning the six months ends on 31/01/17.
  Would she be safe to re-apply today or is it better to wait until Monday? We ned to make a large payment to Amex Travel by 14th Feb; is there any leeway does anyone know please?

  • Paul says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:48

    Today is 3 Feb which is more than 6 months since the 1 Aug closure date in the letter from Amex so you’re fine to apply today. Not sure what leeway you’re referring to?

    • mark2 says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:31

      Thanks; I meant leeway with the payment date to Amex Travel; do they cancel the booking at COP on that day if you have not paid or, more likely, do they hassle you?.

  • Genghis says:

    3 Feb3 February 10:08

    You’ll be fine. But I read a cancellation date of 01/08/16 and waiting 6 months as meaning you can apply on 02/02/17. Mrs G did this on Monday for BAPP and we now have the card with a sign up bonus. to hit.

• Tilly71 says:

  3 Feb3 February 09:40

  Must be a day of OT comments!
  Anyone tried to redeem clubcard to vs today? My redemption status in my cc account didn’t get through to the final confirmation page but shows the voucher amount taken and a redemption processing but no confirmation emails?

  • Anna says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:42

    What are you exchanging your Clubcard points for?

    • Genghis says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:01

      VS = Virgin Flying Club

    • Tilly71 says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:32

      Rangali

• ADS says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:24

  “This means that a family of four buying Club World tickets could be faced with an £80 fee”

  i’m struggling to have any sympathy for a family that spends £8,000 on flights !

  and to be fair to BA – it means that anybody spending under £500 per flight will be paying less.

  personally, i will save money from this change.

  • Simon says:

    3 Feb3 February 13:10

    Down with the wealthy. How vile of people to earn money then choose to spend it on flights !!!!
    You should be grateful to them for subsidising your “cheap” seats.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      3 Feb3 February 14:35

      There are cheap seats? I always wondered what happened if one turned right. How ghastly.

• rams1981 says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:27

  I hope BA does not introduce fees for those of with cards issued in Ukraine.

• Following from behind says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:35

  For those who read my note about being delayed London->Doha->Kuala Lumpur, CAA aren’t backing my corner. Response is below as I think some readers will find it interesting:

  Thank you for your complaint.

  I have had the opportunity today to review your correspondence and I am sorry to learn of the disruption you suffered with Qatar airways.

  I would like to explain that EC Regulation 261/2004 sets out the entitlements of air passengers when a flight that they intend to travel on is delayed or cancelled, or when they are denied boarding to such a flight or when the airline is unable to accommodate them in the class they had booked.

  Unfortunately however, Recital 6 of the Regulation establishes that the protection accorded to passengers departing from an airport located in a Member State should be extended to those leaving an airport located in a third country for one situated in a Member State, when a Community carrier operates the flight.

  As Qatar airways are not a Community carrier and you were departing from an airport situated outside the European Union, I regret to inform you that the above Regulation does not apply in your case. If the flight was delayed leaving London Heathrow which in turn caused you to miss your connection to your onward travel then we could have intervened. Furthermore, I am sorry to say that the Regulation does not make distinction of its application based on where the flights were bought.

  In view of any applicable legislation to support your claim, I am sorry to say that we will be unable to request Qatar airways to be more accommodating regarding your claim so I will have to close your file on this occasion.

  • Ahop says:

    3 Feb3 February 18:14

    Following from behind, I don’t recall your original post regarding this. I presume it was booked London – KL with the compulsory lay-over in Doha? This may be of no use but have you read; February 2013, Air France vs. Heinz Gerke Folkerts (Court of Justice)?

    This helped me win my case against Air Canada, not sure if it will also apply to your situation though.

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