Bits: UK laptop ban, Hilton Flash Sale, new airberlin business class seat

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• Greg says:

  22 Mar22 March 04:54

  So you can carry such a device from Istanbul to (say) Paris with Turkish Airlines and then from Paris to London with Air France ????

  • the_real_a says:

    22 Mar22 March 05:02

    Yes, but the risk is poor security at the airports named, and suicide bombers being given compromised devices AFTER security – as happened in the recent flight out of Somalia. You would have all your hand luggage scanned again in Paris.

    • Paul says:

      22 Mar22 March 06:41

      If there is a security issue at these airports then surely you ban flights not laptops! Moreover the UK has adopted a different set of criteria to the USA so it makes absolutely no sense.
      They seem to have forgotten or have simply ignored the idea of transit passengers and / or use of third countries.

      • John says:

        22 Mar22 March 07:46

        Presumably whoever behind this, if it is based on a credible threat, has decided that transit security is sufficient in the third countries.

        If the third countries, such as France and Germany, also find this potential threat credible, then they will need to enact their own bans.

  • John says:

    22 Mar22 March 07:42

    Yes, but who is to say that the Schengen zone countries won’t ban them next?

• Genghis says:

  22 Mar22 March 05:00

  If I booked Air Berlin TXL-AUH on avios, does that include chauffeurs in Berlin and then in UAE?

  • The Original Nick. says:

    22 Mar22 March 06:14

    Genghis, yes I believe you can get both in Berlin and the UAE. I took one only in the UAE when I used them a few years ago from Berlin to AUH.. My chauffer took me from AUH to downtown Dubai.

    • Andrew* says:

      22 Mar22 March 07:54

      Would JFK-TXL on Avios qualify for any chauffeurs?

      • Rob says:

        22 Mar22 March 08:34

        No, only Etihad codeshares to AUH

  • APPL says:

    22 Mar22 March 06:22

    Yes, I have used in last month with chauffeur both in Berlin, and Abu Dhabi. Great value redemption, and very impressed with it.

    • Genghis says:

      22 Mar22 March 06:26

      Cheers guys. In the process of formulating some kind of resort holiday for Mrs G.

      • The Original Nick says:

        22 Mar22 March 06:53

        Make sure you get email confirmation for the Chauffeurs.

      • Ro says:

        22 Mar22 March 08:50

        have you decided against the trip to Chile then genghis?

        • Genghis says:

          22 Mar22 March 17:50

          Really appreciated the advice you gave me, Ro. We’re going to South Africa instead. A much easier holiday given the distances involved in travelling around South America (ie lots of flying). I’m too old to take buses now!

        • Genghis says:

          22 Mar22 March 18:13

          We took an overnight bus in Turkey last year from Denizli to Cappadoccia (only way to avoid wasting a day flying via Istanbul) and vowed never to do such a thing again.

        • Ro says:

          22 Mar22 March 21:14

          No worries… shame, i really do hope you make it out to chile one day, it really is special!
          But i hate long buses too, really are annoying.
          Cappadoccia on the other hand is also something special 😉

        • Genghis says:

          23 Mar23 March 01:25

          Chile some day I think. I did my research though to present to Mrs G and the area around San Pedro de Atacama looked the best. You mentioned IIRC you went there and it was excellent.

          Cappadoccia was fantastic. It snowed overnight the morning we arrived which then settled so our dawn balloon ride the following morning was even more spectacular. One of the best places I’ve been to. Stayed in this quality hotel (Kelebek). “Presidential suite” only €130 with open fire. I definitely want to go back (when it’s a bit warmer) and do some proper walking. Highly recommended to all HfPers.

  • blot_bang_rub says:

    22 Mar22 March 11:12

    Yes, a car at both ends is available. We even had a Mercedes people carrier offered as we were travelling with kids, prams, car seats and all manner of clutter that goes with children.

• Speedbird676 says:

  22 Mar22 March 05:17

  The current AB seat is the same as the 1st generation Etihad lie-flat seat. The new AB seat is the same as the 2nd generation Etihad seat and has commonality with Alitalia and Iberia’s new seats.

• RIcatti says:

  22 Mar22 March 05:41

  The laptop ban is no small matter. It will affect travel patterns and airline revenues, particularly as US ban includes Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports. Turkey is in the very unfortunate position.

  It is interesting to see the fight with laptops, the Western airlines’ staff put out. On a Chinese airline, out of Hong Kong or Taipei they might not disturb you/not drag the laptop out of your hands for take-off. Out of respect.

  • Nick says:

    22 Mar22 March 05:56

    Absolutely! I had a cold sweat coming on yesterday when I started to read the BBC News piece, but, thankfully for me, Kuwait is not included (yet!!) in the UK ban, as it is in the U.S. ban, as this is a regular business destination for me. There is no way I would put my laptop in the hold and it’s a necessity in my business operations.

    I would definitely change my flights to non-direct, rather than have to put my laptop in the hold!

• Paul says:

  22 Mar22 March 06:30

  until people walk BA will continue to abuse their dominance in the UK. They are protected at Heathrow, protected by revenue sharing pacts and the barriers to entry for a real competitive alternative are huge.
  There is no other equivalent frequent flyer scheme and what competition there is , is fragmented and consequently of little use to most.
  I genuinely dislike BA and my last 3 surveys have been clear I hate the firm. That’s something of a turaround after 30 years of loyalty. It’s a nasty, greedy firm now offering little and eroding that in a daily basis.
  I stopped flying paid long haul about 3 years ago and have till now maintained gold on the back of one world and 4 shorthaul flights a year. I drop to silver next month but my paid flying this year is on Cathay.
  Yesterday I was able to convince two friends that their luxury safari would start and end in style if the avoided club world and travelled with Qatar. They called to say thanks as they also saved nearly £2k.
  Move on folks There are better airlines out there.

  • Nick says:

    22 Mar22 March 06:36

    +1

  • Genghis says:

    22 Mar22 March 06:39

    Despite the weak hard and soft products, people (read company’s cash) are willing to pay a lot to fly direct

  • Leo says:

    22 Mar22 March 08:51

    I do exactly the same regarding long haul flights and maintaining OW Sapphire via BA. Paid flights last year with QR, this year with CX. Couple of short excursions on BA in Y per year.

  • Concerto says:

    22 Mar22 March 09:33

    Seems like we speak the same language, Paul, except that I never had anything like 30 years loyalty to them. I saw what they were like from the beginning. I particularly resented how they wiped the competition of Dan Air out of existence then shut down the LHR-INV route, among other shenanigans (but DA was a basket case by then, I know, and they did run the Heathrow route for a fair while).

  • Callum says:

    22 Mar22 March 10:40

    Yes I agree, please do move on. The incessant rants on this site are incredibly tedious.

    Instead of repeating the same criticisms over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, just stop flying them!

    And as an aside, if you pledged loyalty to a capitalist business then more fool you. Though using a company because they offer you the best overall deal isn’t loyalty anyway.

• zsalya says:

  22 Mar22 March 07:10

  The combined BBC map has some errors, but working from the actual lists of countries:

  The different USvUK treatments of Tunisia and Lebanon is presumably because there are no direct flights to the US.

  But why the different treatments of UAE, Qatar and Kuwait?
  Possibilities seem to be:
  1) American government being protectionist against the ME3 (with Kuwait as cover).
  2) American government regards Gulf microstates as effectively part of Saudi Arabia.
  3) British government does not want to offend major investors.
  4) British government does not want to offend British second home owners (would explain Morocco too)

  None of these are very comforting.

  • Mark says:

    22 Mar22 March 07:40

    Or:

    5) American Government (read Trump) being paranoid, and/or using his paranoia as cover for explanation 1).

    Not that I’m suggesting there isn’t anything in this, but given everything going on in the US currently it isn’t really surprising they’ve taken it a step further.

    In my experience security at UAE airports has been as tight as anywhere else – can’t really see the government standing for anything that would put their commercial aviation sector at risk.

    • AndyH says:

      22 Mar22 March 11:33

      UAE and Qatar I can understand, their airport security is credible, but the Kuwait decision seems odd.
      Only one direct KWI flight to the US to monitor, but two a day from KWI-LHR and no ban?

  • James67 says:

    22 Mar22 March 08:06

    Sorry, missed this before making a similar comment below. I believe it is mostly political, but there is also a real security dimension to it too.

• the real harry1 says:

  22 Mar22 March 07:17

  At least if you know about the laptop ban, you can plan ahead and buy protection eg a hard shell laptop case etc to go inside suitcase. I wonder what they’ll do with all the thousands of laptops hoiked out at Security in the coming days? People won’t want to hand over small bags also containing money, passports etc. And you wouldn’t want your laptop to go on its own, unprotected. So I guess it’ll be a communal suitcase of laptops only? To be retrieved after the flight.

  • RIcatti says:

    22 Mar22 March 07:30

    I will be rather more confident to check in the laptop at the gate and receive it back at the gate.

  • John says:

    22 Mar22 March 07:51

    If airlines managed to implement something like this, I wouldn’t mind so much. They would need to take full responsibility for the items though.

    It’s not just laptops though, it’s cameras and any sort of electronics. I brought a desktop computer as hand baggage last year, and I presume doing this today would send the security goons crazy…

    • the real harry1 says:

      22 Mar22 March 08:10

      Only on the newly named routes. I took a desktop out as hand luggage on BA to our place in the sun (Europe) at Xmas, no problem at all.

• Ro says:

  22 Mar22 March 07:33

  OT.
  Asked amex via their online message centre about getting an offer to upgrade my gold to amex to platinum.
  Originally said my account is not eligible for the 20k for 1k spend offer but as a gesture of goodwill they would give me 5k if i upgraded. That isnt worth the extra cost IMO so replied asking if they could increase it a bit (10k would be enough for me to bite)
  Got a reply this morning saying as a one off since im “such a valued customer”, they would give me 20k once i upgraded to platinum… without even a minimum spend target! What a win.

  • Genghis says:

    22 Mar22 March 07:44

    Score!

  • Graham Walsh says:

    22 Mar22 March 19:34

    I’m thinking of upgrading, however I have the “10k MR points will be awarded to your account up to 60 days after your Card renewal on 26 Apr 2017”.

    If I upgrade now, will I still get them, or best to wait until after 26th? I need new travel insurance.

    • Rob says:

      22 Mar22 March 20:50

      You get them within 30 days in my experience, but not much less.

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