Bits: Etihad 30% discount codes, BA stalks Norwegian, T5 Aspire lounge & Lounge Club

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

• vol says:

  9 Nov9 November 10:52

  OT – VUELING: – remember the £10 tickets a few months ago?

  I’ve just had some direct flights Luton to Zurich changed to an 8 hour journey via Barcelona.

  Nonsensical! I would like to get my money back but something tells me this is going to be a problem.

  Anyone else got the same issue today?

  🙁

  vol

  • Bluejosh says:

    9 Nov9 November 11:30

    Exactly the same issue – what a farce. Going to try and get refund.

    • JamesLHR says:

      9 Nov9 November 12:20

      Note EU 261

      If a flight is cancelled, passengers are automatically entitled to their choice of (a.) re-routing to the same destination at the earliest opportunity (under comparable conditions); (b.) later rerouting, at the passenger’s convenience, to the same destination under comparable conditions (subject to seat availability); or (c.) a refund of the ticket as well as a return flight to the point of first departure, when relevant. Any ticket refund is the price paid for the flight(s) not used, plus the cost of flights already flown in cases where the cancellation has made those flights of no purpose. Where applicable, passengers are also entitled to refreshments, communication and accommodation as described below. Where re-routing is to another airport serving the same destination, the airline must pay for onward transport to the original airport or to a close-by destination agreed with the passenger. These choices, and the entitlement to refreshments, etc., apply to all cancellations, regardless of whether the circumstances are extraordinary or not.

      It is unclear whether “the earliest opportunity” requires airlines to endorse a ticket onto another carrier.

      The airline is also required to pay cash compensation as described below, unless one of the following conditions applies:

      the airline notifies the passengers at least two weeks prior to departure
      the airline notifies the passengers between one and two weeks prior to departure, and re-routes passengers so that they can:
      depart no more than two hours earlier than scheduled, and
      arrive no more than four hours later than scheduled
      the airline notifies the passengers less than one week prior to departure, and re-routes passengers so that they can:
      depart no more than one hour earlier than scheduled, and
      arrive no more than two hours later than scheduled
      the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided by any reasonable measure.
      The airline must also provide an explanation to passengers of alternative transport.

• Scottydogg says:

  9 Nov9 November 12:34

  We flew to Florida with Norwegian a few years ago , couldn’t fault them . Great price and new dreamliners

• paul says:

  9 Nov9 November 13:25

  Can you put the Etihad code onto the app anywhere?
  Trying to find it but no joy.

  • Amit says:

    9 Nov9 November 14:31

    Is the Etihad ex uk only and is there a maximum stay?

    • Rob says:

      9 Nov9 November 15:27

      I think all travel must be completed by the last date mentioned in the article, but you can check.

      The code was given to me by the UK marketing team but no idea if it works starting elsewhere.

• Bob says:

  9 Nov9 November 14:49

  Usually yes, one transaction for Amex cash back offers.

  • Genghis says:

    9 Nov9 November 14:56

    I thought there were reports the other day about cumulative spend counting for this offer?

    • Brian W says:

      9 Nov9 November 15:13

      I remember someone reporting this as well, cumulative spend with BA was triggering the offer on BAPP.

      BA splits your payments often also, I booked 5 reward flights the other day on Air Berlin and although I made one payment on my BAPP for the taxes on BA.com it showed on my statement as 5 x £67.70.

      It also does this on normal revenue flights as well if you pay for seat selection, it splits the fare and the seat into two transactions. No idea why.

      I reckon this is why they are accepting a cummulative total to trigger the bonus, if it doesn’t I’d call Amex.

      Wish I had the offer!

      • Ant says:

        9 Nov9 November 16:14

        Brian email them and ask for the offer to be added to your account. That’s what I did

• Rhys says:

  9 Nov9 November 15:16

  Cumulative seems to be the consensus.

• Scott says:

  9 Nov9 November 16:15

  OT:

  A friend is looking to use avios to buy a pair of BOSE headphones? I have looked and can’t think of anyways of doing it. Any ideas? Gift cards etc? I know it wouldn’t be the best use but he has 95K and just wants to save cash. Many thanks

  • Alan says:

    9 Nov9 November 16:28

    You can use MR points (at a poor rate) to by products but I haven’t heard of using Avios to do so. Perhaps use for discounts on flights or pay for hotels instead?

    • the real harry says:

      9 Nov9 November 17:32

      He could sell his Avios a/c complete with the points, not my bag but I’ve seen it done

      The buyer changes password, email & address, joins up the a/cs & uses the points

      • Alan says:

        9 Nov9 November 20:53

        Could do but I wouldn’t do it either!

        • the real harry says:

          9 Nov9 November 21:08

          heh heh

          We use this card for monthly shopping and pay it each month. We have gained over 1800000 airmiles in the last year

• Marek says:

  9 Nov9 November 17:37

  It amazes me how Alex Cruz destroys BA – clearly a wrong person for the position! His mindset is to compete with Norwegian, easyJet and Ryanair, while he should be looking at what more traditional airlines are still offering. BA is no longer a premium airline.

  • the real harry says:

    9 Nov9 November 17:52

    I think you are perhaps looking at the situation very narrowly as a ‘bum on a seat’

    Cruz’s focus will be driven by shareholders and the requirements of the pension fund trustees

    so he is all about increasing contribution & of course that includes increasing turnover & reducing costs

    whether you like his methods of getting those business results & how he is structuring short term vs longer term tactics/ strategy is a matter of opinion 🙂

    • Marek says:

      9 Nov9 November 19:16

      BA wants to be a premium airline, people used to choose BA because everything was included, I did recommend BA to my friends bribing them with “and you’ll get g&t completely free”… if BA wants to stay premium, they should keep offering a premium service. If BA wants to go the LCC route then they’re on the loosing as Norwegian has better offering in Y already – newer planes, lower rates, and soon same narrow seat as BA.

      • the real harry says:

        9 Nov9 November 19:21

        Norwegian don’t fly from Heathrow – as a first objection

        ask me if I want BA HBO from Heathrow – no F&B – for the same price as LCC from Luton/ Gatwick etc – then often I would say BA – as it happens my Avios make Plus ticket the same price as LCC, so I still just about prefer BA, booze or no booze

        especially as I can get exit seats for free instead of £18 🙂

      • Will says:

        9 Nov9 November 19:40

        BA has something norweigen will never have.

        All the slots at LHR. Without them it is nothing, with them it’s a license to print money.

        • mark2 says:

          9 Nov9 November 19:42

          so all those aircraft from other airlines that we see flying in and out of Heathrow; do they not need slots?

        • Rob says:

          9 Nov9 November 21:22

          Exactly. And Heathrow landing fees are so high, BA could not compete with a Gatwick flight by Norwegian. So what happens …. will BA move long hauls to LGW?!

        • Will says:

          10 Nov10 November 00:39

          They’ll do what we’d all do. Push up prices from LHR and move the most price elastic routes to LGW if they think they have more profitable inelelastic routes from LHR.

          AA, JAL and now Qatar flights from LHR are revenue share with BA so yes I’m saying it’s absolutely shocking how many effective revenue slots IAG has.

          Any BA, IB, Aer lingus, AA, JAL or Qatar flight out of LHR is IAG group revenue.

          Someone must be able to do the maths there, what % the above airlines account for with respect to LHR slots.

• Brian W says:

  9 Nov9 November 18:43

  I’ve arrived home this evening to a letter re my BAPP – Changes to Terms and Conditions coming into effect 26th Jan 17. All boring stuff that means little except one term that worries me:

  “If you use third party services (such as Paypal), we are not able to identify where you have made the purchase, which means we are unable to provide any merchant or industry specific rewards which are linked to the underlying purchase”

  I seriously hope that doesn’t mean you won’t collect Avios on payments charged to the card via PayPal. Hopefully it just means the shopping protection etc won’t cover you if the purchase goes wrong!

  • mark2 says:

    9 Nov9 November 18:55

    I would take that to mean that you will not get a statement credit where offered if the card is used directly e.g. on £500 spent at BA at present.
    You get Avios wherever you spend so Paypal should be alright.

  • Nadir says:

    9 Nov9 November 18:55

    I think that refers to category specific bonus points, although these are more common in the US.

    E.g. if you were to pay for a BA flight using Paypal (funded with your BAPP), Amex wouldn’t know that the spend was with BA as it would appear as a payment to Paypal. So you would only get the standard 1.5 Avios per £, rather than the 3 Avios per £ that you would normally get for spend with BA.

    But your point about shopping protection is also true.

    • Nadir says:

      9 Nov9 November 18:56

      And what mark2 said!

      • Brian W says:

        9 Nov9 November 19:11

        That certainly sounds less worrying 🙂

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