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
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