Bits: British Airways launching buy-on-board?, Etihad 30% discount code

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• Jon says:

  17 Sep17 September 10:42

  Concorde toilet seat anyone?

  • anon says:

    17 Sep17 September 11:31

    Hey Harry. I understand that the door-to-door journey can be long, but I would ask why it is the airline that has to pick up the tab for feeding you!? The flight is only one component of your end-to-end journey, yet there is no expectation for the car drivers, airport waiting area, car parks to feed you for free 🙂 Its quite interesting when we stop to actually think about it! #firstworldproblems

    • harry says:

      17 Sep17 September 11:37

      if the trade off is £45 HBO fares in Europe (which it is, currently), I think I can deal with no airline food/ booze

  • anon says:

    17 Sep17 September 11:32

    If it speeds up the time we spend on the loo and delivers a supersonic experience, then i’m game!! 🙂

• Andrew H says:

  17 Sep17 September 11:42

  O/T, an urgent update for everyone who went for the MTX Connect/6000 Lufthansa Miles & More deal…

  A few days ago this offer was discussed in the comments on the HFP article at https://headforpoints.com/2016/09/14/10000-avios-points-or-e200-for-4-x-2-night-accor-stays-however-cheap/.

  I ordered my SIM card on 14th and it arrived this morning (17th) in the post. I’ve activated the card and added 20 euros to the balance. One important thing worth noting – on the ‘How It Works’ page, you’ll notice this:

  “This marketing offer valid for the first 1000 ordered SIM-cards. Miles will be accrued according to marketing offer conditions.”

  This was rather cunningly buried away. No one will see it at first. I suspect there are going to be a lot of angry people when they find out they weren’t quick enough. I hope we were all quick enough to qualify for the first 1000!

  • Peter Taysum says:

    17 Sep17 September 12:07

    O/T ish for those in the regions.

    Ryanair is reported to start running NCL to MAD (in Newcastle Chronicle).

    Would allow us to access Iberia more easily.

    My “hubs” were LHR, AMS, PAR, I will now add MAD

    I’m BA Gold dropping to Silver in Nov, and won’t get it back ’till prob July next year. *cries*

    I’ve got 14 flights from NCL to/from LHR over the next year to feed into mostly CE/CW/First. I have my own IFE, noise cancelling headphones, so if I have to buy food too, and an M&S mini bottle of Champers so be it.

    Iberia is pretty dreadful short haul economy, so I guess they’ll make it all the same under IAG’s umbrella.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      17 Sep17 September 12:16

      not like I’m one for following all the rules but technically drinking alcohol you haven’t bought/got from the airline is illegal, in the UK/from the UK/to? the UK

      • @mkcol says:

        17 Sep17 September 12:39

        Nope – it’s an airline policy rather than a law about whether you can drink your own alcohol.

    • Rob says:

      17 Sep17 September 12:45

      They will. All short haul layouts on new IAG planes are identical, bar the seats, so planes can move around the fleets.

  • Brian says:

    17 Sep17 September 14:19

    Well spotted, Andrew – thanks for sharing that.

• Doug says:

  17 Sep17 September 11:43

  With the possibility of retaining some free option for status or connecting passengers wouldn’t that just be very complex for the CC, or doesn’t that matter? Family of 4 get one meal to share because one parent has status. Colleagues travel and only one offered free drink because others have no status. All or nothing seems a better option to me.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    17 Sep17 September 12:07

    If you have the option to pay for 3 members of your family and get one free because of status why would you complain? and the colleagues can pay for their own drinks?

    Not like I have gold and probably never will but I wouldn’t begrudge anyone with Gold getting complimentary f&b, they already get plenty other benefits non status don’t.

• Kelly says:

  17 Sep17 September 12:06

  The food charge isn’t a surprise; someone on twitter complained yesterday to regards the food onboard their flight and it was suggested via the BA twitter account that they could always bring their own on board!

• Leo says:

  17 Sep17 September 13:39

  I don’t much care about the free F & B on BA sort haul myself. I tend to get Silver annually from a long haul flight or maybe 2 in J usually with another OW carrier. I do then use BA in Europe to get the 4 eligible flights needed. I like the lounge access, priority boarding and ability to book a seat in advance which comes with status. The loss of short haul booze in Y which I do fly, wouldn’t bother me as long as I pay a reasonable price and get my status benefits. But I think some of the folks I holiday with would not see any difference between BA and EZ/Monarch were the “free” snack and booze to go. I don’t think I know anyone who would willingly fly Ryanair. Call it snob factor if you like but there it is.

  • harry says:

    17 Sep17 September 21:16

    Well you sort of know me – I would very happily fly Ryanair & I don’t understand the objection. Very new aircraft, never crashed into the ground = safe. Cheap/ competitive fares = value for money. Always on time = punctual.

    A massive success story. Just 6 years ago they were on 80 million passengers a year, now they are on 110 million – Europeans love Ryanair.

    I don’t see it as snob, I see it as blind.

• Andy says:

  17 Sep17 September 14:16

  Keep the free bar service but introduce pre bookable pay for meals. If BA get rid of the free bar there will be no difference to easyjet.

• James67 says:

  17 Sep17 September 14:25

  OT avios&money: if I cancel an avios&money redemption do I still get back all the avios and cash (- £35 fee) paid or has rules changed? Thanks.

  • James67 says:

    17 Sep17 September 14:53

    Sorry, forget that, it was working out at close to 2p/avios.

  • LondonFoodie says:

    17 Sep17 September 15:24

    Just for the record you don’t get the cash back on such bookings. They often work out great value (.066p/Avios on my last booking)but the money spent on Avios isn’t refundable.

    • James67 says:

      17 Sep17 September 16:27

      Thanks, yes, that was what I thought but I asked the question just to double-check because I had reread the old avios university post in which it says both the cash and avios were refunded. I’m sure Rob will get round to updating that and giving it another run at some point. I was looking at 2x ow z7 redemptions where a saving of just 45k avios on the usual 150k was costing about £900 more. I was surprised as I was expecting something closer to the 0.66p you suggest. Would even be much cheaper buying the avios in current sale.

• Amit says:

  17 Sep17 September 14:33

  The Etihad 30% code is a decent offer if you can be flexible, booked MAN-PER, MEL-LON in J for around £2150. Think chauffeur service is included

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