Bits: Delta launches Glasgow to New York, Amex ends Tripflex, Gatwick Express punctuality

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• Sav says:

  13 Jun13 June 05:57

  Poor punctuality is due to the service being run by Govia who in parallel run Southern and Thameslink which are never on time. They don’t have enough drivers at present. Their delay repay policy means your journey must be delayed by at least 30min to get compensation.

  • Aeronaut says:

    13 Jun13 June 12:11

    It’s not actually anuthing to do with there being not enough drivers. There is an ongoing and pretty rancorous industrial dispute between conductors and the train company, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) who now run a super-franchise that encompasses Southern, Gatwick Express, Thameslink and Great Northern. There is currently a much higher level of staff absence through ‘sickness’.

    The dispute is rooted in the company wanting to allow drivers to be able to open and close the doors, rather than the conductors (aka guards). New trains are equipped with on-board cameras which enable the driver to see all the doors and so close them by themselves – so called Driver Only Operation (DOO). The company says conductors are to remain, to check (and sell) tickets and assist passengers on board, but the conductors are not convinced they’ll still be needed. The unions also cite various safety concerns.

    As an added element, the GTR franchise is not a conventional franchise but a management contract with the Department for Transport – this is because of the upheaval to services as a result of all the rebuilding work at London Bridge station. One take on this is that GTR is actually acting as the government’s trojan horse in terms of a wider push for DOO (and so ditching the need for conductors/guards) across the whole railway network, and is basically a proxy battle with the rail unions.

    Apologies for the overly verbose comment!

    The important points for readers here trying to get to or from Gatwick is that as well as Gatwick Express being affected, so is Southern trains, and whilst they don’t have any conductors Thameslink trains can also get caught up in the mess as a result of other late running trains.

    • Lux says:

      13 Jun13 June 12:37

      For a good backgrounder on the issue, this alternative travel blog has it covered: http://www.londonreconnections.com/2016/last-stand-old-guard/

    • Yu says:

      13 Jun13 June 14:21

      Actually it is a shortage of drivers. The guards/conductors are only used on the longer routes and cross London route but they still manage to cancel the metro services and blame driver shortages. It had been going on since late 2015 and they get away with saying it takes 18months to train a driver. Pathetic planning.

      • Lux says:

        13 Jun13 June 15:05

        To be fair, a friend has been both a paramedic and a police traffic cop / fast response driver, and he says that being a train driver is a far more challenging and stressful job than the other two high speed careers. So 18 months is realistic.

        However, that’s taking the blog too far off topic!

• Matt says:

  13 Jun13 June 06:03

  O/T: I had to cancel a Hilton Barclaycard free night certificate over the weekend due to a last minute flight diversion. The hotel I booked with obliged, despite being within a coupe of hours of check-in, and told me that they would “refund the points” (I guess to them it looked like a standard redemption)…

  Has anyone done this before? Specifically, am I likely to get the equivalent points credited to my HHonors account, or alternatively, will I be able to rebook another hotel using the original certificate details? HHonors CS are pretty clueless on the matter.

  • Lee Harris says:

    13 Jun13 June 06:37

    I’ve done this- twice on the same certificate, in fact. You’ll be able to use the same certificate number when you rebook.

  • AndyR says:

    13 Jun13 June 10:17

    You won’t get the points but the certificate will go back in your account.

• Matt says:

  13 Jun13 June 06:14

  There is an ongoing dispute between the union (Aslef) and company (Govia) which I believe is part of this, in addition to strikes there seem to be more drivers working to rule and “off sick” etc. 96% of the drivers voted to non-strike action, and 84% for strikes – so its widespread.

  Last time I flew from Gatwick the next two GE trains were cancelled on me, the first the driver was sick (presume suddenly else the company would have a replacement), and the second the train had technical problems. This was later in the evening and I had to take the very slow train to Victoria, making it impossible for me to get my last Kings Cross train, I got as far as I could towards Cambridge and then had to take a taxi for £100 to get home. Luckily for me this was work travel, I’m not sure if one could claim this back from Govia if it was personal.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    13 Jun13 June 06:52

    FYI: Even if everything is running to schedule, you will find it quicker to take the Thameslink service to St Pancras next time if you have a Gatwick to KGX connection.

    • Matt says:

      13 Jun13 June 07:13

      Yep, when it works that is super quick as I can just walk 2 mins between Kings Cross and St Pacncreas.

  • Leo says:

    13 Jun13 June 10:18

    I take these trains virtually every day of my life. It is an unmitigated shambles. Currently you should always try for the Gatwick Express in my opinion. If for no other reason that there are fewer people trying to get on them and it seems to me at least that the scant human resources Southern can rustle up currently seem to be directed towards the Gatwick Express. The Thameslink trains currently can be full to bursting due to mass cancellation of Southern services and impossible with luggage. There was actually a fight/minor riot on the platform of East Croydon last week with aggrieved commuters trying to get on an already full train which had its fair share of Gatwick travellers with suitcases. Tbh I would avoid public transport to LGW for the foreseeable and definitely during peak hours.

• IslandDweller says:

  13 Jun13 June 07:01

  Much slower service to Victoria? Much slower? Some services branded “Southern” take less time than some branded “Express”, and most are only 3 to 5 minutes slower. As pointed out above, they’re all operated by the same company, but services that aren’t branded “Express” are way cheaper.

  • Matt says:

    13 Jun13 June 07:14

    This one stopped everywhere, yes I agree many non-expresses are as good. The problem is if there arent any when you need them, or they are also affected by industrial action.

  • Jovanna says:

    13 Jun13 June 08:24

    I used my Oyster on this the other week too. I think it was £8 and only 4 minutes slower than the ‘express’.

    • Genghis says:

      13 Jun13 June 08:27

      Yes. £8 off peak but £14 peak I think. Cheapest way to travel to Gatwick for an individual

      • Andrew H says:

        13 Jun13 June 09:13

        Was this to London Victoria? Cheapest price I can find is £15. I don’t have Oyster, but I do use contactless around the tube. IDoes contactless get you the £8 price, and if so, from which station (Victoria or Bridge)

        • Genghis says:

          13 Jun13 June 09:32

          From Blackfriars on Friday I paid £14.

          See this for more info:
          http://www.gatwickexpress.com/en/tickets-and-fares/buy-online-and-save/gatwick-payg#

        • YL says:

          13 Jun13 June 10:57

          I cannot remember the exactly price, but there is a peak and off peak price for using Oyster card.

        • Mike says:

          13 Jun13 June 10:00

          Cheapest way to do it is to split the journey at East Croydon. Contactless oyster works fine.
          I use two different contactless cards to make sure.
          East Croydon to Gatwick is £3.00 off peak. (I can get there for £2.50)
          I even managed to run up the ramp, touch out on BA Amex, touch in on Lloyds Avios Amex and get back on the same train!
          Have a play on the “oyster single fare finder”

    • Scallder says:

      13 Jun13 June 10:39

      You can use Oyster, however you need to have a minimum of £8 cash balance on it to have the barriers open for you. I have a 1-4 travelcard and having had £5 on it and only needing to go to East Croydon (£3 charge as mentioned above) it wouldn’t let me use it so had to use contactless as the minimum Oyster top up at Gatwick is £14…

  • Lady London says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:21

    I have never paid my own money for the Gatwick Express. The few times I’ve used it on business, it’s been stunningly late. I always use the regular trains instead.

    Most readers who are based in London will know this but when using the regular services I always make a point of choosing a train with as few stops as possible. Stops seem to be the main delay attactor and exacerbator. I’ve always found it worth letting a few slow trains go by in order to pick the faster trains with fewer stops instead. Rail is such a ripoff in the UK! Not just for price, but for the quality of almost every service which is a national embarrassment.

    • Callum says:

      13 Jun13 June 11:25

      Anything is a national embarrassment in Britain, chiefly because of a weird desire to self-deprecate.

      The British rail network is one of the best in the world, and you’re going to have a very hard time coming up with an actual reason as to how it’s not.

      • Rob says:

        13 Jun13 June 12:48

        I do generally agree with this. It certainly isn’t as bad as press coverage would have it for long distance trips.

        On the other hand, five hours to Cornwall or however far it is to, say, Bournemouth is a bit of a shocker.

• Metatone says:

  13 Jun13 June 07:21

  Thameslink is generally good, except when there is engineering work.
  Problem is, there has been a lot of engineering work over the past year.

  Can’t see Tripflex being a big loss to anyone – which is probably why they gave up on it…

• Metatone says:

  13 Jun13 June 07:22

  Worth noting that it’s not just union trouble. The operator (Govia) are intentionally running without enough drivers, calculating that the fines are costing them less than cancelling services. You can thank the current government for this mess.

  • evelyn thomas says:

    13 Jun13 June 08:01

    Southern rail confirmed to me that they are not offering advance ie much cheaper rail tix on my regular journey to Chichester at the moment, because of cancellations. So public has to pay full price for service which may anyway be cancelled. Just more profit for southern it seems to me.

    • Leo says:

      13 Jun13 June 10:21

      All actual revenue goes back to the government it is not a standard franchise but a managing contract.

• Daz says:

  13 Jun13 June 07:48

  Tripflex, has anyone used this non-benefit?

  • Genghis says:

    13 Jun13 June 08:15

    Not many I doubt. As such I wouldn’t really term it a ‘devaluation’

    • Raffles says:

      13 Jun13 June 08:54

      I did, a couple of years ago, when I decided I had more MR points than I knew what to do with.

      • Alex W says:

        13 Jun13 June 12:03

        Not usually a problem for us mere mortals!

• Genghis says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:13

  Very OT but a good FYI. I got matched to HH Diamond in Jan 16 from Accor Plat (via Amex Plat – sadly no longer available). This was valid until March 17. My Accor Plat membership expires Feb 17. However, I applied for another match to Accor Plat and I’ve been matched with HH Diamond now valid until March 18! Great as I’m currently planning a holiday for April 17.

  • Gavin says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:20

    Do you have to show proof of an upcoming stay / past stays with Accor to get the match?

    • Genghis says:

      13 Jun13 June 09:37

      Yes. My last Accor stay was in Oct 15 (I believe only need to have had one stay in past 12 months) so worked.

  • James67 says:

    13 Jun13 June 11:05

    Ghenghis, which link did you use please? I was just about to write CS to request an extension but I may as well just try a link first given your experience. Thanks

    • James67 says:

      13 Jun13 June 11:31

      I have since found the link here on HFP and submitted a further request. Thanks.

      • pazza2000 says:

        13 Jun13 June 14:50

        The Accor status match link would be helpful if you have it please (I looked)

        • Genghis says:

          13 Jun13 June 20:52

          According to Status Match, Accor do not really do status matches.

  • Boi says:

    13 Jun13 June 11:24

    How do people know/check on account how long this is valid for? I was matched to Mar 2017, but my account says “based on current stays your status will be silver in 2017”

    • Leo says:

      13 Jun13 June 12:17

      I had to ask for a new card to find out – it does say Mar 18 but agree the process is a bit “opaque”.

    • Genghis says:

      13 Jun13 June 20:53

      I emailed to ask them to confirm

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