News in brief:
New BA route to Figari, Corsica now bookable
I mentioned yesterday that Alex Cruz, BA CEO, announced a new route to Figari in Corsica (picture below) in his speech at World Travel Market on Monday.
This flight is now bookable on ba.com, either for cash or Avios.
Flights will operate once per week, on Sundays, from 25th March to 21st October.
Flights depart Heathrow at 12.05, arriving at 15.30. The return flight leaves Figari at 16.15, arriving in Heathrow at 17.40.
Access information for new Plaza Premium Terminal 5 lounge
Yesterday I wrote about the opening of the new Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 which promises to massively improve the British Airways travelling experience for anyone travelling in Economy who has no BA status.
I wasn’t sure yesterday if the lounge was accepting Priority Pass or Lounge Club. Historically there has been a lag of a few weeks between the opening of a Plaza Premium lounge and its acceptance of these cards.
Reader feedback yesterday is that neither Priority Pass or Lounge Club are accepted at the moment.
American Express Platinum IS accepted, due to the exclusive Plaza Premium deal with Amex. This includes a guest.
Dragon Pass is accepted – see their website here. You are only likely to have one of these if you are a Barclays current account holder opted into the travel pack add-on.
Lounge Key (issued with World Elite MasterCards) does not yet list it on their website. As Lounge Key is owned by Priority Pass, I am guessing it will not yet get you in.
And, of course, you can use good old money on the door.
Here are some publicity photographs for the lounge. There is an official press event at the end of the month and we will do a full review at that point.
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You can find out more, and book access, on the Plaza Premium website here.
About Head for Points
I dont know if anyone can help or has a similar problem but I am not seeing images in either posts of the email for the last week or so. Its not affecting any other websites I use and I can see ad’s on the site itself so I wondered if anyone had any tips as to what it might be? I switched ISP a couple of weeks ago so not sure if that is the issue?
Any help greatly appreciated as want to see the pics of the new PP T5.
Thanks Rob I’ll speal to my ISP.
*speak
Fixed it! Was rubbish Vodafone DNS that causes the problem if the same problem ever gets reported again. Changed to google DNS and all fixed.
Currently in the Plaza lounge – great view of end of runway, good breakfast although bread rolls a little hard as left in hot place (not stale just too hard to eat), loved the sausages which whilst cheap were very tasty. Hardly anyone in here which is great! They did take my Amex Platinum and inspect it and asked me if it was a UK issued card so I guess they would notice if you used an expired card. Will definitely be using again if not traveling business class.
Expired, yes. Cancelled, no 🙂
They dont swipe the Amex card then?
For what purpose? Eurostar doesn’t.
I suppose …. as they have a payment machine (which Eurostar lounges don’t) they could swipe them to check they were valid. If they start getting suspicious about cancelled cards it might happen. I’m sure someone who has got in via this method can enlighten us to the process, as I won’t be back at Heathrow until the New Year if I’m lucky.
they need a mechanism to evidence the visit & claim payment from Amex
Further comments
Great selection of Twinings teas – coffee allegedly good too according to husband
Cubicle seats look a little odd but are really very comfortable
Four other people in lounge – all are asleep!
Lunch buffet has just appeared and food looks really good – chicken tikka masala and rice, spaghetti and meatballs, veggie lasagne, chicken wings, Rosemary potatoes and salady stuff. All looks fresh and hot! Would eat it but too full from eating too many sausages earlier! At least I won’t need an M&S sarnie on the plane!
I just popped in to the Plaza Premium Lounge at T5 to check it out. Only had about 15 mins before my connecting flight so I literally went in just to have a look and a coffee.
The staff were very friendly and attentive. They almost seemed disappointed that I didn’t want lunch and encouraged me to sit anywhere, but I explained I was just stopping for a few minutes. They showed me the different seating areas, and with all except the “restaurant style” table area having UK and USB power (why not international sockets?) this is a massive improvement on trying to find a seat with a power socket in the BA lounges.
Nice proper bar area (again an improvement) and all looks up to their usual standard. VERY bright with the corner positioning. They don’t seem to know if/when they’ll take Priority Pass, so that’s a bonus for Amex Plat cardholders whether you have BA status (95% of T5 customers? ) or not.
Entry is just by showing your card and they fill out a paper log book (not sure that’s great for privacy tbf), and also took a photocopy of my boarding card (how does that work with a phone?).
They only had about 10 or 11 customers according to the chap helping me, which considering everyone else seemed to be staff, I assume meant SO FAR TODAY?! So do pop along when you can – they’ll be happy to see you!!
Bits OT – had an email from Small Luxury Hotels – they seem to be now processing the transition to their new programme and have put me at ‘Inspired’ level despite no previous stays (although I think I did originally sign up via Amex Plat).
“The Club of SLH has been transformed into a brand new loyalty programme, INVITED! We’ve moved you across to our new programme, which now makes you an Inspired member”
looks better than the current BA offering.