Photos of the new British Airways Lounge in Boston Logan Airport

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• Mick says:

  28 Mar28 March 07:02

  Just came off BA32 and into Galleries South before heading to Glasgow.
  The breakfast offering is just a mass of Carbs and Cold Bacon on part baked French rolls! Such a disappointment after such a great flight.
  Crew in CW as per usual where really attentive. First time on the a380 seat 50J ! Won’t be choosing that one again.
  Cathay Pacific’s Bridge and Wing along with Qantas’ Lounge at HKG put BA Galleries to shame.

  • chris1922 says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:49

    What was wrong with 50J ?

    • Gavin says:

      28 Mar28 March 10:27

      On the a380 It’s an aisle seat by the loos I think so everyone pushes past you on their way

• Roger says:

  28 Mar28 March 07:26

  Curve – Council Tax

  Has anyone used curve to pay council tax, if so; is it treated as credit card or debit card?

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 07:29

    Each council has its own system.

  • John says:

    28 Mar28 March 07:41

    If curve is treated as debit, you may find that your regular credit card also gets ttreated as debit

    • the real harry1 says:

      28 Mar28 March 07:50

      Amex —> Paypoint still working fine in Cornwall, paid £600 towards my council tax bill just last week

      • wally1976 says:

        28 Mar28 March 08:37

        I used this too last week for Dudley council paid at a Co-op outside of the area.

    • Rob says:

      28 Mar28 March 08:12

      Odd development in my neck of the woods this year. RBKC used to just accept debit cards, but many credit cards also worked. This year they have started taking credit cards for a fee. However, if you click the debit card option most still go through without a fee.

• Moktar says:

  28 Mar28 March 08:22

  OT: Have never used priority pass before, but was wondering if I could give my priority pass to OH for her 7 hour connection in Muscat? She is travelling alone. Do they match ID with the card or just swipe the card blindly?

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 08:43

    Usually match it.

    • Alan says:

      28 Mar28 March 08:45

      Indeed, if they didn’t then PP wouldn’t get as many folk paying for membership so I’d imagine they emphasise to lounges the need to check names match.

  • Peter K says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:02

    Usually match with boarding pass or passport.

  • Axel says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:45

    I was using my OH PP card for a spell last year and it never got checked at reception.

    When you get a new Amex choose just to have your initials printed on the card without titles.

    • roberto says:

      28 Mar28 March 10:54

      I “lend” my card to my son and his wife. They have the same surname as me and have a system.. He offers my card for him plus guest and when the lounge dragon askes for his boarding pass he delves in his bag looking for it. After a few moments his wife tuts and produces hers and apologises to the dragon saying that he always loses everything and that they are on the same flight.. Its never failed..

      Not strictly within the sprit of the scheme but evens out the times i have been refused entry when BA nested in the number one lounge at gatwick last year and it was full..

• Rob says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:14

  Yes, interesting deal given LH’s Etihad deal too. Note that you will NOT be able to use Avios for the LH flights, only Asia Miles.

  • James67 says:

    28 Mar28 March 09:29

    We can convert MR into Asia Miles or is it only Marco Polo? If so, another potential route into LH F if F redemptions allowed. I have only flew LH F once but would be very happy to repeat. I cannot imagine SQ and TG being very happy about this agreement.

    • Rob says:

      28 Mar28 March 10:22

      You can get LH F now on Amex via SAS or SQ but only 2 weeks in advance. The key will be whether Cathay gets access to LH F 11 months in advance like Miles & More members.

      Alternatively, of course, you can go Amex to SPG to Miles & More which is how I part-funded by LH F trip for this June.

      • James67 says:

        28 Mar28 March 11:00

        Thanks, I’ll explore SAS and SQ routes as MR-BA no longer attractive to me. I’m applying for a PRG card after 10/4 with no current family card holders to refer me so will be happy for you to email me your link at your convenience.

• Concerto says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:31

  Looks like Cathay has decided to choose partners that provide actual service. Another step toward Avios becoming completely worthless, glad I don’t have so many!

• Colin JE says:

  28 Mar28 March 10:03

  Delighted to hear about Flybe out of Edinburgh. There were no early morning flights previously, so had to stay in hotel at Heathrow to get a Virgin flight out to Chicago. This’ll make it possible, especially as Virgin do through-ticketing now on a codeshare with Flybe, meaning if there’s a delay in the Edi flight, I don’t have to worry about missing the LHR outbound, or picking up luggage at Heathrow. Yay!
  Moving to Edinburgh has been great, generally, all except for the flights out of so-called EDI International, which don’t seem to go anywhere I want to go, so I always end up with an extra flight to Heathrow, Gatwick or Schipol.
  The Scottish Govt have been muttering about stopping/reducing the APD. Maybe that’ll do more to draw international full service airlines to operate out of EDI or GLA.

  • Alan says:

    28 Mar28 March 10:07

    They also codeshare with SQ, would be even better if this was possible on redemption tickets though!

  • James67 says:

    28 Mar28 March 10:36

    The market, especially for premium cabins, is not large enough to support direct longhaul flights except to major hubs. In this respect we now have a choice of Heathrow, Gatwick, Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Istanbul, Doha, Abu Dhabi, New York and Chicago. It beats any regional airport except Manchester which benefits from a larger catchment. In reality it’s great, going east and south east I can often get to my destinations quicker from EDI, even with one stop, than I could from LHR direct when starting my journey in Blackheatb. Great thing about EDI is that you can comfortably arrive at the airpirt no more than 75 minutes before a flight, and departing and arriving I can get to or from centrsl Edinburgh quicker than I can walk througn Heathrow. Connections via all these hubs often result in shorter overall journey times than via LHR so no complaints from me. My one wish though would be a direct flight to Asia, say Cathay to HKG three times a week or Thai or Norwegian to BKK. I doubt APD will be cut, the SNP need to keep the greens on board.

    • Alan says:

      28 Mar28 March 11:38

      Totally agree re EDI.

    • CV3V says:

      28 Mar28 March 15:39

      There was talk of the Scottish government looking to establish a direct route to China from Scotland, but its all gone quiet.

      The success at EDI shows that the BAA sell off was the the right thing for the airport. EDI can get very congested (even trying to drive out the airport grounds) and i wonder how it will cope with anymore flights whilst they wait on another terminal building. Also, one of the worst security arrangements going (i have seen the queue stretch out the security area and past the coffee shops).

      APD cut, yes will be interesting to see if that can happen given all the politics at the moment.

      • Alan says:

        28 Mar28 March 16:00

        Interesting re your security experience – I’ve found the new layout much more efficient. Even when there’s a big queue it seems to move faster – helped by the system of multiple people being able to unload their bags simultaneously.

        • CV3V says:

          28 Mar28 March 19:25

          Yes i know, I have had this happen a couple of times, but yet it only seems to happen to me! Immigration on a Sunday night also can be congested by all the budget flights arriving in at the same time.

          Security cab be a bit of a pain if your tray is at the back of the queue, the staff have to police the trays closely to stop people putting their trays on too early and not letting each batch go through.

      • James67 says:

        28 Mar28 March 17:01

        There is a large Chinese community in Edinburgh and a purely subjective assessment suggests a rapidly growing Asian tourist base too. Personally, I wish they had built a new airport someplace near Falkirk with excellent rail links and closed both Glasgow and Edinburgh. I believe that would have encouraged even greater growth and better protected Prestwicks Ryanair interests at the same time. Not sure if the drop off charge has already started and if it will make much difference, doubt it. My partner frequently had problens with BA fast track recognition but I think they have that sorted now.

        • CV3V says:

          28 Mar28 March 19:39

          Big Chinese and Malaysian populations in Edi and Glasgow, in part due to close university links. Likewise some of the most authentic malaysian and chinese food i can find in the the UK is in Glasgow.

          Australian friends can’t comprehend that i can drive between 2 cities in an hour, and likewise 2 international airports are so close to each other. (then there is trying to explain to them that we cover the roads in salt in the winter, they genuinely think i am making it up).

        • Alan says:

          28 Mar28 March 19:40

          Haha yes, or that our summer temperatures are often lower than their winter ones! (got that a lot when I was in Melbourne)

        • James67 says:

          28 Mar28 March 20:02

          My Californian uncle used to say the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in Scotland!

        • Alan says:

          28 Mar28 March 20:05

          Haha love it 😀 Melb was trending and average of about 3C warmer during winter than Edinburgh in the summer when I was there!

• Istvan says:

  28 Mar28 March 12:38

  Another Curve OT:

  Does anyone know if I link credit card A to Curve, can I pay off credit card B with Curve? And if so, will it count as a purchase or cash withdrawal?

  • roberto says:

    28 Mar28 March 13:05

    I did pay my Tesco card with my Curve/supercard (linked to virgin black) once as it allowed me to register the card as a debit card. Was nice to double dip but never worked since.

    • Istvan says:

      28 Mar28 March 13:42

      Thanks for the quick reply Roberto. Do you remember if it went through as a purchase (no fees)?

      • Roberto says:

        28 Mar28 March 15:10

        Yes, purchase and no fees….

      • rams1981 says:

        28 Mar28 March 16:32

        I’ve recently paid my council tax (Westminster) and flat service charge (worldpay) using curve as a debit card. Shame more places don’t see it similarly!

• Rob says:

  28 Mar28 March 13:11

  My wife wasn’t invited but I applied anyway as it is an Accelerate target too. Let’s see. She WAS a Barclaycard holder but we cancelled it at Christmas. The cover letter said 20k but EVERYONE is getting a cover letter saying 20k so that means nothing. Offer runs to June so we should know a lot sooner than that.

  • wally1976 says:

    29 Mar29 March 12:46

    Thanks Rob. I might just give it a try anyway fairly soon as I guess there’s nothing to lose. I haven’t had any version of IHG card before.

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