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Bits: last chance for great Qatar Airways deals, BA cuts some Gatwick flights

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News in brief:

Last chance to book Qatar Airways at an amazing price

Today is your last full day to take advantage of the Qatar Travel Festival – the deals end at 9pm UK time on Sunday.  Some of the business class prices are simply astounding – Oslo to Bangkok for £772, Oslo to Cape Town for £914, Copenhagen to Sydney for £1550 etc.

All Qatar Airways flights earn British Airways Avios and tier points.   You can book until 16th December at these prices so you have no excuse.

The home page for the Qatar Travel Festival is here.   My full article from earlier in the week is here.

Qatar A350

British Airways cancels Gatwick services for Winter 2016

British Airways announced a raft of cancellations for next Winter yesterday.  They will not have told customers yet so check if you are impacted.  If you call BA now you will have a better chance of getting first choice of alternative flights.

Tampa – reduced to six flights per week with the Wednesday flight cancelled

Barbados – reduced to 11 flights per week with one Monday and one Wednesday flight cancelled during December, January and February

Kingston – reduced to three flights per week with the Saturday flight cancelled during December, January and February

Orlando – reduced to seven flights per week with one Monday, Wednesday and Saturday flight cancelled in November and March

Remember that using the My Flights app would have alerted you to these changes to your flight automatically.

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How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2024)

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Category

British Airways and Avios, oneworld alliance partners

Comments (59)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Brian says:
    16 Jan16 January 11:25

    OT – sorry, but hopefully somebody can advise: I’m flying CW from Bangkok and have Silver status. Am I allowed to use any OneWorld lounge (except First ones) and if so, which one do people recommend? It’s a late morning flight. Thanks a lot in advance.

    • Rob says:
      16 Jan16 January 11:37

      Yes – although not sure what the options are

    • Andy says:
      16 Jan16 January 11:50

      BA has their own lounge in BKK, other oneworld options are JAL lounge and CX Lounge which I love, newly renovated and deco is akin to The Pier in HKG

      • Lady London says:
        17 Jan17 January 00:18

        Where there’s a CX Lounge I generally assume it will be the Oneworld lounge that is superior to all others. For *A I rate SQ lounges similar. Not always reliable, but has been a good rule of thumb for me when I’ve really not had any info beforehand about lounges that are available at a particular location.

        CX is good for noodles and a short order cooked to order, if you specifically want a Continental breakfast I don’t recall them being much stronger than anyone else. Naturally their forte is Asian catering.

    • Brian says:
      17 Jan17 January 02:36

      Thanks all.

  • Brian says:
    16 Jan16 January 11:44

    Thanks – I suppose if I have time, I can just do a bit of lounge-hopping, rather like you did at Terminal 3 recently. I guess I just want one that has a decent continental-style breakfast and isn’t too crowded.

  • Gordon says:
    16 Jan16 January 11:46

    Article in todays Times about Qatar threatening to split the one world alliance, or leave it, due to attempts by American airlines to prevent it expanding its US route network.

    • Rob says:
      16 Jan16 January 14:05

      Yes, onto this. I was going to run it today actually – it stems from a Bloomberg article on Tuesday – but I am in two minds as it is the sort of tittle tattle I try to avoid 🙂

      • Lady London says:
        17 Jan17 January 00:29

        I saw it on Bloomberg and thought
        (1) do we need to hear about this [No] and
        (2) if QR do leave Oneworld as a way of signalling their annoyance, then as I think they own part of IAG I guess BA might stick with them. Meaningless sabre-rattling.

        The wider theme of the major alliances potentially being weakened by growing mini-alliances such as is being built by Etihad, and other non-cooperative intra-alliance behaviour such as LH and SQ allowing only their own First Class passengers to access a lounge which normally should be accessible by top tier members of other airlines within the same alliance, etc., another example being QF’s hot new lounge in LAX apparently operating a policy of denying entry to OneWorld top tier members who were not QF members etc…) might one day be more interesting -but can we be bothered?

  • Jens says:
    16 Jan16 January 12:04

    I’m trying to find some business flights going from anywhere in Europe to Africa at these prices around august. Are they all gone?

    • Rob says:
      16 Jan16 January 14:03

      There are minimum stay requirements for some destinations, up to 7 days. That could be why – see the terms and conditions.

    • Lady London says:
      17 Jan17 January 00:31

      I did see some from Portugal or Spain 2 days ago

  • Fadi says:
    16 Jan16 January 13:28

    I’m on a mobile with a seriously smashed screen. Can anyone tell me what the cancellation policy is like? One word answers fine!

  • Tilly71 says:
    16 Jan16 January 17:04

    Needs some advise, is LON – BGI a really popular route for F or CW redemptions, the earliest date in 2016 I can find is September, do you need to be booking 355 days before?

    • Rob says:
      16 Jan16 January 18:39

      Sounds a bit odd, Barbados is dead in the UK Summer – long way to fly for 27 degrees (although I do recommend it then as the hotels are cheap).

      • Tilly71 says:
        17 Jan17 January 11:52

        That’s probably why there is availability as that’s was the earliest month in 2016 I could find any decent redemptions on avios.

  • AndyR says:
    16 Jan16 January 18:12

    I was wondering if anyone who booked a QR sale fare with gotogate.co.uk could tell me if it is says it’s possible to cancel their booking for a fee under manage my booking on Qatar? I believe it should be around $300USD?

    • Lady London says:
      17 Jan17 January 00:36

      be careful I think £200 / $300 is the CHANGE fee (and might attract a difference in fare charge as well if the class you are booked into is no longer available at the time you need to change for the date you need to change to). I think all but one of the QR sales have been non-refundable, only changeable as above.

      For each ticket you should check the fare rules carefully as they can change according to all sorts of factors.

      • AndyR says:
        17 Jan17 January 01:06

        Hi Lady London, on the Qatar website it shows $300USD for cancellation, but I am just not sure if it applies if you purchase via an OTA. Gotogate.co.uk and the like don’t show the fare rules when you book which is annoying. Was hoping someone who has booked could let me know once they can see fare rules via manage my booking.

        • Lady London says:
          17 Jan17 January 16:54

          Lucky you then if that applies to your ticket. That would make 2 of the recent Qatar sales providing refundable tickets. Bit frustrating for me as I booked on the one where tickets were not refundable!

          You could take the general publicity for the sale made by QR as a guideline and I’m guessing you ought to be OK. However you are right that OTA’s tend to add their own charges and conditions (and sometimes get the fare rules wrong for a ticket they sell).

          If you can get the fare code off any documentation you have been given, or on the various online systems showing your ticket (myflights as covered on HfP recently is showing fare codes on my ticket) and then track the fare code back to find its fare conditions you will get the definitive answer that applies to your exact ticket.

    • Tobi says:
      17 Jan17 January 10:45

      Hi! I’ve booked via gotogate QR economy flights. On both trips I bought, I can’t change nor cancel the trip in the “Qatar Airways – Manage my Booking” tab. Being it Economy tickets, I’m not 100% sure it applies to C class booked via Gotogate. Hope this helps!

  • Rob says:
    16 Jan16 January 18:38

    I imagine they mean the mobile version of the website, yes – rather odd rule though.

    • Liz says:
      16 Jan16 January 20:39

      It worked and has tracked ok at 12% – hotel cost £113.18 less £96.45 hotels.com redemption less 12% cash back = £5.03 for the room! I like this hobby!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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