When we flew out to Dubai last Wednesday we departed from Terminal 5C, the newest satellite terminal.
If you flight leaves from 5C, as I have mentioned before, you can claim one of the odder British Airways frequent flyer benefits.
British Airways status card holders and Club World / First passengers still get £15 each of free goodies from Starbucks.
Unlike the 5B satellite terminal – which has a BA lounge which is generally empty – there is no lounge in T5C. Most people, of course, will use the lounges in the main terminal and then take the train over to T5C when boarding starts.
However – whether or not you have already used the lounges in the main terminal – passengers who could use the T5C lounge if there was one (First, Club World, Club Europe and BAEC Gold and Silver cardholders – but not other OneWorld elites, it seems) can instead claim £15 of free goodies from the Starbucks in T5C by showing their boarding card.
The bad news is that they don’t sell gift cards! They DO sell mugs and bagged ground coffee which you could take home. The most tempting item is mini-bottles of champagne for, I think, £14.99. This is probably only of use if you are travelling in World Traveller or World Traveller Plus whilst having BA status as champagne is freely available in Club World and First. I didn’t fancy my chances of getting them into Dubai given that your baggage is x-rayed on arrival although I may well have been OK.
If you are booked on an A380, you will know with 100% certainty that you will be flying from T5C and can plan accordingly, leaving space in your hand baggage!
About Head for Points
No reason you can’t bring the champagne home if you have checked luggage! It makes a nice aperitif for two!
Reminds me of flying back to UK from Bordeaux after visiting my then French girlfriend – I stuck 4 bottles of red wine in my somewhat rubbish suitcase.
All I got the other end was broken glass and ruined clothes 😉
I was there in August and they would only allow one bag of coffee or one box of tea if you use your boarding pass.
I seem to recall that Champers is excluded, but not sure on that
Champers is not excluded
CAA regulations prohibit drinking alcoholic on board an aircraft that isn’t served by the cabin crew. And the mini Moët bottles actually have propper popping corks (the only house to do this – all others have screw caps that look like a propper cork) so you might be heard!
Might want to inform Royal Brunei about this then. They don’t mind you cracking open your duty free onboard the dry airline, and will give you ice and mixers.
I feel like an alcoholic for just knowing that.
Where do the CAA say that? You’re talking nonsense.
Its FAA regulations.
However even if flying a N-reg there is nothing to stop you having one of the crew open the bottle for you…
and rather bizarrely i have no connection with my namesake who posted the original comment!
Dubai does allow 2L of alcohol to be taken in…. well i assume it does, as Abu Dhabi did when i was working there.
But it’s prohibited on the Dubai Metro (doesn’t specify in the rules whether that means carrying it in an obvious way)!
We managed to make sufficient space in our carry on luggage to ‘sneak’ it to our hotel…
We had 3 bottles of the wine each which were a perfect size for chilling in the mini bar at our hotel….
Excellent, I’m flying out of T5 on Wednesday morning, might grab a couple of bottles!
😀
You’re limited to buying one “retail product” (coffee beans, mugs etc) per person – I went up to the counter loaded with beans and teabags but had to put them back and stock up on chocolate and bottles of water. The assistant did encourage me to spend up to my £15 and even let me go over by 50p or so.
I stocked up on 2 peroni beers, a egg mayo sandwich, a chicken tortilla wrap and a fruit and nut bar for £15.38 earlier this month. Wasn’t asked to pay extra. I did contemplate champagne but £14.99 for 200ml is too much for me even if it’s free. I think it’s Piper Heidsieck.
I picked up a mini-bottle in August …
Also works if you have a Oneworld Sapphire or Emerald card – such as a Cathay Gold card from the Amex promotion.
They do a very nice coffee press for £14.99. got one on my last trip, strangely the assistant insisted I have 1 consumable item to go with it so he chucked a small packet of cookies in as well.
Rather have an extra 10 mins in the CCR than going to T5C and back. In that time I could have an extra glass of champagne. And it would be of a higher quality.
You woildnt be coming back. Surely you can only get this if your plane is actually departing from c
You can claim the £15 and walk back to B or A gates should you really be that desperate for a free bag of coffee.
The staff at Starbucks have no way to know if your flight is actually from the C gates.
Apparently they enter your details in a log which eventually gets back to BA…
Just arrive at the airport 10 minutes earlier and do both….
I flew out this week to Saudi Arabia departing from C so visited Starbucks to pick up some freebies but as you said the selection is not great… importing alcohol into Saudi is not allowed so the champagne while clearly the best option was a clear no go, carrying a mug not very tempting so I thought to pick up some chocolates bars (1£each). But 2 days later I now find my bag full of melted chocolates….
I’m guessing you can’t ‘guest’ someone into £15 of free credit at starbucks like you can guest them into the lounge?
I have guested someone before in precisely this way!
A little harsh Jon, as I am sure that Starbucks are reimbursed for whatever they distribute.
BA have only recently stopped Starbucks giving more than one non-food item, and Starbucks certainly encourage you to buy to the maximum or beyond from them.
Made me chuckle 😉
Strange idea of what makes for ‘immoral’ lol