BA domestic Club Europe – book with Avios today, check existing flights

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• Bryan says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:30

  O/T – when you downgrade from a BAPP card to the standard BA card – do they do another credit check?
  I am trying to cycle BAPP and PRGC along with my partner – so just hit the spending target with my BAPP card and will need to wait another month before referring her to BAPP card as she is/ we are using up the 2k spend to trigger the bonus on her gold card. If there is no credit check I will downgrade, if there is a credit check then i will swallow the 16 pounds or so for another month of BAPP.

  Do you think downgrading now, then cancelling I’m a month after i refer my partner is acceptable – or will i somehow annoy the Amex deity?

  Thanks

  • John says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:51

    Downgrading counts as a new application, but Amex has only ever credit checked me once – when I applied for my first ever Amex 5 years ago. I’ve since opened about 10 Amexes and never been credit checked by them again.

    • the real harry1 says:

      1 Mar1 March 19:01

      unlikely to credit check you again – but possible

      there’s no Amex deity – there are Amex employees whose KPIs include new sign-ups

• douglas says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:36

  It looks like avios economy seats have been switched to business in a big way, all the seats I can see avios availability from edi to lhr are in business (8seats on one flight) with zero in economy, whether or not this is a predictor of future availability who knows

• Kinkell says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:44

  Phoned CS to clarify all the red notices on my bookings. 1 booking using 241 CW long haul. Domestic in economy. She Stated this was the booking class made at the time. Given I had to phone up to get domestic connections added on, I was completely unaware, and given no option other than what the agent booked. I always thought that your connecting flights and benefits were equal to the highest class of cabin you travelled in..( and on through ticket) ..has always been the case on all previous 241s, and, is the case on a 241 we are booked in for next year( and the agent just did it …..I was none the wiser!).

  Our CE trip to Tallinn has suffered the same……..still in eurotraveller from Inverness.
  Oh, and the App has us in CE for all domestics, but the agent says it’s wrong!
  Not the end of the world as BAEC Silver, but a bit miffed! Rather this than be downgraded on my long haul CW trip.

• Andrew says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:48

  It’s suddenly made an Easter trip to Scotland affordable.

  Just the other day a return flight in economy was circa £600. Those £600 economy fares are still available, however, with the loading of the Club Europe fares you can choose to upgrade for £350 less.

  • Joe says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:17

    From London?

    You would contemplate £600 from London to Edinburgh?

    • Andrew says:

      2 Mar2 March 08:49

      Yes, it is not unusual for there to be £600+ BA return fares between London & Edinburgh at peak times.

      Would I contemplate it? It isn’t always my choice, work sometimes demands travel at short notice. For leisure, my diary is usually planned up to 12 months in advance to take advantage of keen fares.

• Lewis Watson says:

  1 Mar1 March 16:29

  Does this mean business UK no longer exists? Can I expect flights from Edinburgh in club to go up as first sector is now club rather than economy?

  • Joe says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:16

    Up? Up where?

    Do you mean increase in price?

    • Lewis Watson says:

      1 Mar1 March 19:19

      Yes I mean increase in price.

• Anna says:

  1 Mar1 March 16:34

  Looks like for now at least you can only book a CE, CW or F flight with a CE domestic connection. Good way for BA to force customers to part with even more avios & cash for not living near London.

  • PaulW says:

    1 Mar1 March 17:54

    Long all connections stil free surely, though probably not CE?

    • PaulW says:

      1 Mar1 March 18:05

      Or rather long haul 😉

      • Alan says:

        1 Mar1 March 18:18

        On redemptions they already charge extra taxes/fees on them, albeit no extra Avios – will be interesting to see if those go up or stay the same. For short-haul hopefully you’ll be able to mix classes as you wish to help with availability.

    • Joe says:

      1 Mar1 March 18:14

      They are very far from free (£)

      Do you mean free from ‘avios’ alone?

• Judge says:

  1 Mar1 March 18:31

  I was quite excited about Club Europe starting for domestic connections, but I’m afraid it’s turned into a nightmare.

  Cash CE tickets from the regions to the continent have become ludicrously expensive (e.g. more than double the ex-LHR fare), and 3-4 times the cash ET fare (e.g. Vienna ~£190 economy, ~£720 CE for dates later in year). I would be quite happy to revert to booking the domestics in ET and international on CE, but you can’t do mixed class cash bookings like this on the BA site (you can do it on redemptions though).

  So it looks like I’ll no longer be making cash CE bookings, which I do a lot at present. Now it will be all cash economy bookings, or reward bookings (mixed class or all CE). If my cash bookings become no-service economy flights, I may as well change to other airlines that will often be more convenient from the regions (e.g. direct instead of connecting) and cheaper.

  In effect this will be losing revenue for BA, not gaining as I presume they hope to do! Do they just want rid of us pesky regional customers altogether?

  I understand they needed to do something with connections to premium cabins as a result of the change to short haul catering, but would it not have been easier just to keep Domestic as it was with a free drink and snack?? Or to give a cash or Avios credit to all premium-connecting passengers to allow them to purchase a drink and snack?

  This whole short haul catering thing has been poorly thought through by Cheapo-Air Alex.

  • John says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:53

    You can probably do mixed class with a travel agent or on the phone with BA, though I appreciate that it probably won’t be worthwhile

  • Ian says:

    1 Mar1 March 21:01

    You forget BA have A LOT of corporate expense clients flying domestics, especially out of EDI (why do you think there are so many GGL etc based there) who pay silly £ regardless. They are the real target. Meanwhile the average Joe can do as they please, or be naive and pay up.

• Chris says:

  1 Mar1 March 18:34

  Now we’ll find out who has a generous travel policy if your employer will pay for J for a 30 min trip to MAN!

  • Rob says:

    1 Mar1 March 21:24

    I used to have ‘all J, everywhere’ in my City contract. The price is probably similar to a fully flexible Business Class rail ticket.

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