New British Airways Manchester flights now bookable – and new Stansted routes too

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• John says:

  1 Feb1 February 04:46

  OT: Hilton enhancements (full details TBC later today)

  – points and cash scrapped, replaced by inferior version of discounts off cash rates for points (sort of like BA’s part pay with Avios but at a poor rate of less than USD 0.005 per point)
  – categories scrapped – no outright devaluation for full redemptions, but surely coming in the future
  – redeem for amazon (probably at poor rates)
  – genuine enhancement: household accounts / transfer for free between accounts
  – genuine enhancement: extend diamond for a year if you have 250 nights + 3 years of diamond (like the virgin m/paternity leave status extension)

• Anna says:

  1 Feb1 February 07:36

  I hope the new routes do well enough to make this permanent, they have left it a bit late to release them IMO, all my summer travel is arranged for this year, as will be that of most working parents!

  It’s not worth the Club Europe upgrade at this time – the Manchester lounge has limited food offerings, and the BA booking system says ET passengers will get free drinks and snack anyway – presumably because they haven’t got BOB in place for Manchester, though I suppose that could always change! Leg room is the same in both classes unless you get seats in the front rows of CE.

  I did a dummy booking for Ibiza in May and ET was £96 with CE £250, including checked luggage, very reasonable, however I have not yet had chance to look at prices for the school holiday periods!

  • Kip says:

    1 Feb1 February 09:30

    The BoB was working from MAN last week. In fact, the crew rattled through the entire cabin remarkably quickly and efficiently – presumably because not many are buying.

    The good thing about the MAN BA lounge is the relative size given the number who use it. I can live without a baked potato before I fly if a get a comfy seat with a beer, a sandwich and a great view of the runway.

    It will be interesting if BA can pull this timetable off with a single plane. The average turnaround at MAN looks about 35 mins which leaves no room for error. The final flight of the schedule is back down to LCY – doesn’t that airport shut at a certain time? – and it wouldn’t be much fun to roll up on a Sunday night then find out you have to take the train anyway because the flight is cancelled.

    • Anna says:

      1 Feb1 February 10:04

      Were you flying to Heathrow though? Presumably they load up the BOB there. The BA website definitely said free drinks and snacks for ET and CE on the Man-Ibiza flight.

      • Kip says:

        1 Feb1 February 10:29

        Thinking about it… this plane comes from LCY and I don’t think the BoB is operational there – only LHR/LGW IIRC – so that might explain it.

        • Andrew says:

          1 Feb1 February 15:17

          Exactly – that’s my reason of it. LCY (and so therefore BA Cityflyer) flights may have different contracts in place etc. I think LCY was joining BOB from “the summer” – not are quite when though. I’d imagine these MAN and STN flights are cityflyer operated and so no BOB

• mark2 says:

  1 Feb1 February 07:47

  I have enjoyed flying on Embraer and Bombardier jets on Air Canada Express where Business is 2+1 with leather seats. They are quieter than 787 in my view.

• Michael says:

  1 Feb1 February 08:26

  I’d love to fly to Ibiza on a Viscount!

  • mark2 says:

    1 Feb1 February 10:27

    In 1979 I flew from Tangier to Gibraltar in a Viscount. It was very noisy and was very close to the sea on such a short journey. It was like going forward several hundred years!

  • James says:

    1 Feb1 February 22:38

    a minty biscuit?

    • Anna says:

      2 Feb2 February 08:12

      I vant, I vant…a Viscount! (You have to be a child of the 70s for this to make sense)

• Ian says:

  1 Feb1 February 09:11

  Hi, may I ask a off topic question. I am very new to this and not sure what to do. I took advantage of Expedia hotel deal with Malaysian Airlines deal with a flight from LHR – BKK return on business.

  I did receive a Malaysian Airlines Booking Code. But when I try to go Manage on the airline website it says my booking cannot be processed online and to phone the airline.

  I phoned the airlines to see if they can add in my BAEC number so I can benefit from the their points. The customer services says they can’t do this. I’m not sure what to do now.

  Am I able to dd the BAEC number at check in desk on the day? I am afraid of losing the tier points.

  any help would be appreciated
  Ian

  • Marc says:

    1 Feb1 February 10:05

    You would be fine giving your number on the day for getting the Avios and Tier Points. In the meantime though try going into your expedia booking (log in and go to ‘Itineraies’) – you should be able to add your BAEC number there

    • Ian says:

      1 Feb1 February 10:17

      thanks for your help Mark. I have tried to add it in the itinaries section and will see what happens. fingers crossed

      • Alan says:

        1 Feb1 February 18:12

        i’d suggest using CheckMyTrip.com to make sure you have the right PNR for your booking, then try on the Finnair website instead – it seems a bit more reliable on dealing with Oneworld bookings than some of the others.

  • Anna says:

    1 Feb1 February 10:09

    If your flight qualifies, you can add your BAEC points after you return.

  • Rob says:

    1 Feb1 February 10:45

    You’re fine. The very worse case scenario is that your number doesn’t get added and you ask BA to retrospectively add the points, which can be done online.

    • Ian says:

      1 Feb1 February 16:48

      thanks Rob.

  • Evan says:

    1 Feb1 February 10:50

    I’ve had this issue with tickets booked with Expedia before with both Qatar and now Cathay. Currently my code doesn’t get me access into the Cathay website – I phoned expedia who were very helpful and actually put me through to someone at Cathay. The Cathay employee couldn’t explain why the code didn’t work either but he did move my seats which is what I wanted and confirmed that the flights were ticketed – MyFlights is showing the seat change so something has been done !I will check-in at the airport anyway because I have luggage.There should be no problem with you giving your BAEC number to the check in staff at the airport – you should also be able to add it in your expedia booking ( I did that with Qatar last time). Finally yes you can claim for the flights after you have flown but IME it’s easier not to have to do this.

    • Rob says:

      1 Feb1 February 11:10

      Sometimes you get two booking codes – My Flights will show the actual code recognised by the airline as well as the one you were shown on booking, and the former is the one you need to use.

      • Evan says:

        1 Feb1 February 11:20

        I asked the CX employee whether I was using the correct number and he said yes! He had no idea why it wasn’t working. Anyway seems to be okay – famous last words.

  • CV3V says:

    1 Feb1 February 22:35

    To add to comments, send an email to MAS Customer Services and ask them to add your BA number to the booking, I have done it before with no issue, and all done in a few hours. The MAS website often gives problems, a quick email with request usually works.

    Just to add to the confusion, Malaysian don’t use the Amadeus booking system (6 digit PNR which BA and some one world airlines use) and their system will give a 5 digit PNR which i don’t think the Finnair website recognises (may be wrong, been a few years).

  • Crafty says:

    2 Feb2 February 02:45

    I’ve had the same problem with Malaysian, I’m sure there’s a function on the BA website to “claim missing points” though. Shouldn’t be a problem.

• James67 says:

  1 Feb1 February 10:03

  OT BA; looks like no cc conversion bonus again. A trip to Madrid prize this time.

• Anna says:

  1 Feb1 February 10:30

  Man – Malaga ET just over £300 in August with a bag and BOB. Not sure how competitive this is going to be with Ryanair and Easyjet doing the route from Man and Liverpool.

• Nick Haley says:

  1 Feb1 February 11:02

  O/T and apols if covered elsewhere… anyone received a letter from Amex saying their BA Exec Club is no longer registered inside the UK – and until they change it no points will be transferred to their account?

  Amex knew little about it, so I called BA and it turns out it’s been a computer fault. If you get this letter all you need do is call Amex to tell them so, and that you’re still registered in the UK. If however, we don’t see our points going over at the next statement date, perhaps there will be some more noise and heat applied to this one!!

  • Rob says:

    1 Feb1 February 11:06

    I got this letter once years ago, but that is because I genuinely had moved my BA account out of the UK to take advantage of the lower 800 tier point threshold for Gold!

    • Nick Haley says:

      1 Feb1 February 20:03

      Looks like it’s just me…for now. But they said they’d had a couple of calls about it.

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