Bits: BA closing Toronto lounge, new SPG Moments concerts, new Amex offer at Thistle

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• Stevie G says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:33

  Hall and OatEs 😉

• TripRep says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:39

  Anika – I notice some of those listed are now sold out, which ones did you book? 🙂

• James says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:47

  OT: I booked an Avios reception through BA’s website for a Qatar Airways flight between Oslo and Doha. The flight is for me, my wife and my baby son (4 months). I checked the travel itineraries on both BA and Qatar’s website and my baby son’s name has been spelt different on Qatar’s website “mstr” instead of ““. I called up BA yesterday and they are saying that they have to cancel the ticket because my baby’s name will now not match his passport. They cannot rebook me on the same plane as it is now full. What are my rights here? Thanks in advance, I’m so upset as I have done nothing wrong.

  • Paul says:

    14 Oct14 October 07:51

    Give QR a call directly

  • AS1 says:

    14 Oct14 October 07:53

    I think it is wrong advice from BA. Most airlines add ‘Mstr’ before the name for an infant. We are travelling today from Heathrow with a 4 month old that has ‘Mstr’ added. Not envisaging any problems. Incidentally NHS does that too. Nearly had a ‘Mstr’ added to his name on the birth certificate! 🙂 So I think you should James. Run it by the Qatar team

    • Concerto says:

      14 Oct14 October 09:20

      Yes, it stands for Master, I believe

    • Rob says:

      14 Oct14 October 09:21

      ‘Master’ is the normal title for a male child. Looking at my BA booking for next week, it shows Mr Robert, Miss Molly and Master Max as ticket names.

      It is also normal for Qatar Airways to add the title to the end of the surname, so it reads ‘Burgessmr/Robert’.

      • Nick says:

        14 Oct14 October 09:35

        BA does this too, it’s a GDS/Amadeus thing. Title gets put on the end of the surname field. Nothing to worry about.

  • John says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:08

    Do nothing and 99% chance of no problem at all.

    Move to Malaysia and buy a fake Malaysian passport, male children are titled MSTR there

    • Callum says:

      15 Oct15 October 03:09

      They’re titled Master in the UK too – where the Malaysian custom no doubt came from.

      Granted you won’t hear it often, but I’d say thats largely because people don’t refer to each other using titles very often – doubly so with children.

      • Alan says:

        15 Oct15 October 03:27

        Indeed, as a child I always had Master on my bank account.

• Paul says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:48

  BA clearly have no strategic direction beyond cut cut cut and slash. I can’t understand why anyone chooses the over any other carrier now on direct point to point services from London. They are only good for cheap ex EU and ideally when you can fly AA across the pond. Air canada must be a better option to Toronto.
  First we had the Ryanairisation of short haul. Now the norwegianisation of long haul

  • John says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:10

    AC is worse than BA at the moment, but they are both racing towards the bottom. Have you ever been into an MLL? No BA lounge may push a minority of people towards AC, until AC takes something away, then they will come back to BA, repeat.

  • mark2 says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:21

    ‘ Air Canada must be a better option to Toronto’
    unless you have got loads of Avios and a 241!

  • Rob says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:25

    I have some sympathy for BA on this one. You have a lounge which is used for 4-5 hours per day. Why not maximise revenue by opening it up to other airlines? The issue, presumably, is there are no other oneworld flights that could use it so it needs to become a proper third party lounge for the rest of the day. The downside is when you take all the BA staff out of it and, presumably, remove the British touches such as specific food items, magazines etc.

    • Doug M says:

      14 Oct14 October 10:01

      Do you think 3rd party lounges at out stations are the way to go? I have limited experience of lounge available flying, and it’s really only the last couple of years where I’ve had access. Tampa for example seems a waste of space as a lounge, very limited food, OK space, and drink, but I’m fairly easy going about things. I think well I only bought a really cheap Ex-EU business ticket so suck it up, but those on more expensive versions, and 1st class must be quite disappointed at poor facilities. Toronto always seems expensive too, so compared to say JFK you’re getting a poor offering, and on-board service too until the new business product is rolled out beyond JFK. Much of what I read indicates this is BAs main problem, inconsistency of service. UD 747 seats, especially 62AK and 64AK compared to dorm ones, that sort of thing.

    • HAM76 says:

      15 Oct15 October 07:07

      How would that be different from SEA where BA managed to maintain a proper BA lounge while earlier that day the lounge became a decent LH lounge? After Lufthansa moved, they simply open the lounge later now.

  • Callum says:

    15 Oct15 October 03:12

    People have been saying the exact same thing for what feels like 10 years now. When is it finally going to sink in for all of you that their “cut cut cut and slash” policy works!?

• James says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:49

  OT: I booked an Avios reception through BA’s website for a Qatar Airways flight between Oslo and Doha. The flight is for me, my wife and my baby son (4 months). I checked the travel itineraries on both BA and Qatar’s website and my baby son’s name has been spelt different on Qatar’s website (they gassed the salutation “mstr” to the end of his name). I called up BA yesterday and they are saying that they have to cancel the ticket because my baby’s name will now not match his passport. They cannot rebook me on the same plane as it is now full. What are my rights here? Thanks in advance, I’m so upset as I have done nothing wrong.

  • the real harry1 says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:15

    try another BA agent first? then a Qatar agent if that fails

    or reverse order might be more logical, Qatar could be easier to ask as they made the mistake

    • Nick says:

      14 Oct14 October 09:38

      See above in the answers to where you posted the first time, it’s not a mistake!

• AS1 says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:58

  By the way, just to warn you Thistle prepaid does not trigger the offer (Anika, may be consider changing your advice). I got burned last time this offer was on.
  Still considering if I should try the Melia offer which expires on the 26th Oct for a prepaid stay. Anyone has experience of that if it triggers with a prepaid stay?

  • Brighton Belle says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:35

    Odd, worked ok for me

  • Brighton Belle says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:40

    I have had things fail because I forgot to activate the offer at Amex….. OT Amex pushed out a new Apple app and it’s a dogs breakfast. Doesn’t work on ios9 now. Looks more like an A Level project. Does it look any better if you a using a rather more recent iPad?

    • Pid says:

      14 Oct14 October 08:51

      the additional card I hold on BAPP no longer shows on the new style website. I spoke to Amex and I hope it will get sorted soon as it means I can not load any offers to the card.

      I could also not find a way of saving the link to the offer so the trick of moving offers to different cards may now be gone.

      • Talay says:

        14 Oct14 October 15:17

        Same here. AC cards not showing.

  • David says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:13

    Worked for me as pre-paid in the past. And T&C says it should work – so if pre-paid I’d have no hesitation in contacting Amex to get it applied manually.

    • Rob says:

      14 Oct14 October 09:14

      Agreed – the rules clearly say prepaid counts.

• Harry Hv says:

  14 Oct14 October 08:17

  THE pre flight dining at Toronto was excellent, shame to see it go in a way – but for those of us who aren’t flying BA any more it doesn’t really matter

  • mark2 says:

    14 Oct14 October 09:23

    I am always heartened to hear that all these people will not fly BA again as it makes it easier for me to get a redemption.

    • the real harry1 says:

      14 Oct14 October 09:42

      Unfortunately, whilst I don’t doubt Harry Hv’s sincerity, comments like that are meaningless in gauging wider public opinion. BA’s financial contribution to IAG goes from strength to strength. I’m pretty happy with European fares getting cheaper and cheaper.

      Same as the Ryanair story – the most hated airline in Europe was disparaged widely and criticised in the pre-let’s-be-nicer days for its charges and general behaviour – all whilst passenger numbers have gone from 60 million pa 8 years ago to 130 million this year.

• Nick says:

  14 Oct14 October 09:32

  The current lounge is NOT staffed by BA employees either. They may work in a BA-owned lounge but they are third-party staff.

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