Bits: Amex £15 Amazon discount still works, what happened to the British Airways LCY A318?

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• Lochlannn says:

  8 May8 May 03:53

  Wonder if BA have a deal to lease during maintenance of the remaining A318. And if the 2 year deal means LCY-JFK is shutting in medium term (whatever happened to the new entrant that was going to use the Bombardier jet?)

• lev441 says:

  8 May8 May 04:14

  It sure is a shame that BA couldn’t make use of both of the A318’s… Hopefully BA1 isn’t going anywhere for now…. I’m yet to try it out!

  • Alan says:

    8 May8 May 08:00

    Ditto, was due on it a couple of years ago but then cancelled when one of the planes kept going tech. Would like to try it sometime.

    • barry cutters says:

      8 May8 May 11:36

      Really is one of the best services across the pond.
      I used it a few times in 15/16.

      Really great, from arriving at the ‘lounge’ you feel like you are on a private jet
      The pilots will always come and speak to the passengers (probably sick of being stuck in the tiny cockpit) And the Gatwick based staff are all really good on this.

      I never used ba003 anyway as the stop in Shannon made it not worth it when you don’t have pre-clear.

• TimS says:

  8 May8 May 05:06

  BA have previously leased planes from Titan to cover maintenance etc so the irony could be that BA end up paying more to lease their own plane back.

  Titan usually hold various seating configurations for their planes to tailor to customer needs. This one will probably end up ferrying Tottenham Hotspur around their European fixtures as I think a number of other Titan planes have done in the recent past.

  • Alex W says:

    8 May8 May 10:23

    Uuurgh, yuck! As a Gooner, I’m glad I didn’t​know that before I did my 6 months in the Falklands via Titan airways.

• JamesB says:

  8 May8 May 06:57

  Once I had a BA plane to Prague go tech and fellow passengers were not too happy when a Titan BAe146 pulled up at the gate. The groans were short-lived, both the plabe and the crew were great.

  • Genghis says:

    8 May8 May 07:12

    I once had the Jota Aviation BAe146 for a BA flight LCY-EDI and it sounded like it was going to explode on take off!

    • JamesB says:

      8 May8 May 10:02

      Lol, used to fly a jetstream, or whatever those small BAe TPs were called, from SFO to SMF. I was always glad to get the 20 minute flight over, it felt like the walls were flapping in and out. That was bad enough until I discovered they were about the most common aircraft in Nepal.

• rick says:

  8 May8 May 07:10

  Does this code work for people who used as PRGC card and since then upgraded to Platinum?

  • Genghis says:

    8 May8 May 07:16

    Should do. It just links to your MR acct

    • Gavin says:

      8 May8 May 07:56

      Also works for gold credit card (the interest free 18 month card) and I’ve used it twice against the same MR card but different Amazon accounts

• Pid says:

  8 May8 May 08:00

  OT – Looking to book an avios reward flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo. At the moment the only option is the Cathy B777 regional configuration which has mixed reviews for their Business seat. However, the Cathy website is showing a long haul A333 available which has better seating and is a slightly better time. Is there a way of booking this through BA, perhaps through calling them or am I stuck with what is showing on BA.com?

  It is only a 4.5 hr flight so I am sure the B777 will be fine but getting the A333 would be an added bonus.

  • Gavin says:

    8 May8 May 08:40

    When I flew from Hong Kong to Seoul noticed that flights have regional business class, some have proper flat beds.

    From memory if the flight has premium economy, it was on a long haul plane, and hence has a flat bed. Some even have first but I think it was just business class service in the first cabin.

    I had a 777 one way, and an A330 going back and picked my flight times to ensure that pboth had flat beds. Cathay does a lot of substitutions however so perhaps i was lucky to avoid regional business class. I think it’s a great use of 20000 avios!

    • Rob says:

      8 May8 May 08:50

      There is the JAL option as well, although we got a VERY old 777-2 on that route last month.

      By comparison, Tokyo to Beijing was a brand new 787.

      • KK says:

        10 May10 May 09:24

        And jal you’d hv better food AND service!

  • Yan says:

    8 May8 May 08:51

    Snap that while you still can, CX intra Asia award availability is poor nowadays. CX/Asiamiles award pool is separate from the oneworld pool (plus CX have started blocking close-in awards released to BA)

  • CV3V says:

    8 May8 May 09:10

    I’d take whats available, you could try and go to the trouble of getting on a long haul config but CX change planes regularly and a few days before your flight you could end up with a plane with a different config and not get the flat bed.

    I wanted to book a JAL for Tokyo to KUL but couldn’t get a decent time/availability, gone with Air Asia X instead.

    • Stu N says:

      8 May8 May 09:20

      When I was booking this for next spring, JAL award seats seemed less than simple to find.

      Firstly they seem to appear a bit later than most. Think it was T+330 or 335 days instead of T+355 for other OW airlines.

      Also, JAL availability only showed up with specific airport codes; TYO didn’t seem to work but HND or NRT did show flights in the release window. A search for TYO did show flights to both airports from Hong Kong on Cathay though.

      We ended up on CX in the end, hopefully by picking a flight they sell First on we will be guaranteed to get a long haul plane and so flat bed business seats. Fingers crossed!

  • Pid says:

    9 May9 May 08:02

    Thanks for all of the advice. Tried using different airport codes but no JAL flights came up for the date I needed. Therefore booked the ones with CX. Two one way tickets for 40000 and £65 not a bad deal when CX were selling them for £1800!

• NFH says:

  8 May8 May 08:03

  This is a great shame. I was one of only 9 passengers on BA3’s maiden flight on G-EUNB in 2009.

• Grimz says:

  8 May8 May 08:39

  OT-I have £140 of Tesco clubcard vouchers expiring this month and with no bonus to BA or Virgin I was wandering if I transfer £5 out of a £50 voucher do I get the balance refunded with a later expiry date from Tesco?

  • Rob says:

    8 May8 May 08:52

    Yes you do.

    The rules say that you can be penalised if they see you doing this but I don’t know of it happening. Do the transfers separately a few days apart so it looks like you only need £2.50-worth of Avios (it isn’t your fault they sent you a £50 voucher …..)

    For total safety do other redemptions for other products, eg £2.50 from another £50 into Virgin. In reality though this isn’t necessary.

    • Grimz says:

      8 May8 May 09:15

      great thanks

      • Polly says:

        10 May10 May 05:30

        Grimz, l had the same in Nov, £150 expiring, and used About £10 from each for that promo comp then, the balance has come back this statement. Just did the same last week, with 3 X 50 again. They don’t seem to have a problem with it, as long as you are under the 30k per statement, l think! Fed up,waiting for a bonus tho…

  • thehornets says:

    8 May8 May 09:25

    Grimz – try giving them a call. I was in the same boat as you but Tesco were more than happy to rollover the vouchers for me which kept them valid for another 2 years.

    • Grimz says:

      8 May8 May 09:54

      Ok thanks I will see what they say

    • Grimz says:

      8 May8 May 10:12

      Thanks for that info – I have just called Tesco and they have added these vouchers back on as points which I will see on my account within 48 hrs.

      • Alex W says:

        8 May8 May 10:27

        Lucky you! When I did this it took me about 6 months to get the points back!

        • Grimz says:

          8 May8 May 10:39

          I will keep an eye on it to make sure points arrive in my account!

        • Alan says:

          8 May8 May 14:31

          I’m waiting for points to reappear, but for some reason the 3x£2.50 that I converted as come across as 2,063 points rather than 1,875 – not complaining at getting 687.5 per £2.50 but can’t quite understand where the extra 10% in miles came from!

      • thehornets says:

        8 May8 May 11:15

        No problem. Every little helps

        • Grimz says:

          8 May8 May 11:45

          ( :

      • Genghis says:

        8 May8 May 16:19

        @Alan 10% Virgin bonus this quarter?

        • Alan says:

          8 May8 May 16:46

          I did wonder, but still nothing announced on Clubcard Boost page. Perhaps a calculator glitch by the person doing the conversion? (they do show as manual)

    • Alan says:

      8 May8 May 11:10

      Interesting they did that. I had 2x£50 I used at the weekend to reset expiry – really hope no transfer bonuses come up soon. Sooner they move away from the voucher system the better!

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