Bits: 2000 free Avios if you fly BA over Christmas, 80% bonus buying Hilton points

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• TripRep says:

  11 Dec11 December 05:10

  Is that BA offer to distract from the disruption at LHR?? Heathrow seem to be indicating some airlines hadn’t prepared to deice planes…
  https://twitter.com/HeathrowAirport/status/939923749901651974

  • TripRep says:

    11 Dec11 December 05:17

    ps. I should add it’s good to see BA working with you to up its profile on here. Grateful my recent Avios CE/CW outbound flights worked out well (apart from restrictive One world luggage rule).

    For the future I’m still undecided on BA241 vs Qatar sale fare, having seen the news from LHR, I consider myself v fortunate to have flown hours before the snow came in.

    Hence why for those in the region’s, bypassing LHR could remains attractive during the winter months…

    • Polly says:

      11 Dec11 December 09:48

      Triprep
      re your indecision between ba 241 and qr j lh ex eu sales…241 still great if you get F to Asia or beyond. Highly unlikely to get Oz via SIN tho maybe in J…but good also to have the option to cancel a 241 if a great ex eu qr J sale comes along. Which indeed we have done now twice in the last few years. Gave up 241 F to hkg for qr J to kul. As we were going to Bali so didn’t mind which onward flight we took. MAS y was around £6 plus avios.
      Know Rob has done the same with his family to dbx..
      So both have their merits but qr sales maybe better for you if avoiding lhr.

  • TripRep says:

    11 Dec11 December 05:29

    Simon Calder quoting BA…

    British Airways is telling passengers: “Heathrow has experienced unpredicted severe adverse weather conditions and that is expected to continue into Monday.”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/british-airways-50000-passengers-stranded-de-icing-meltdown-heathrow-delays-diversions-a8102761.html

    Which bit was unpredicted??? The reasonable answer for the delay in deicing is that it was still raining and that refroze??

  • Andrew says:

    11 Dec11 December 07:59

    To be frank a large issue is with Heathrow and/or the companies that provide de-icing services to airlines (I.e not Heathrow).

    I arrived into LHR at 21:00 yesterday on Finnair from Helsinki to find another 2 Finnair aircraft already there, delayed due to de-icing I presume. That did mean a 40 minute wait for a stand as icy planes = not going anywhere = no gates available.

    I get the economics of it: for the few days a year we get snow the least-costly option is to buy the level of equipment they have and when it gets bad, come to a grinding halt. Economically true possibly but cold comfort to those affected.

    I’m grateful I got off lightly, only a 100 minute delay (the BA flight diverted to NCL) and the border was empty for e-gate/EU arrivals. Others were very, very much worse off.

  • Prins Polo says:

    11 Dec11 December 08:07

    Let’s not forget 2,000 avios is worth mere £20 (even less at Raffles’ conservative valuation) so not a life-changing experience.

    • Barry cutters says:

      11 Dec11 December 09:07

      And zero avios is worth £0.
      4 of us are flying on a £200 return to Edinburgh over xmas period. That’s 10% rebate for us. Will gladly accept the 8000 avios thanks

      • TripRep says:

        11 Dec11 December 09:33

        Looking forward to finding out if its per sector, if Avios redemptions qualify and BAs definition of Christmas period.

        BC – Going for Hogmanay??? As I know you like a tipple, you might want to check out the Caley cocktail bar at the Waldorf, the Scotch bar at the Balmoral and the SMWS on Queens St, all nice classly watering holes that even seem to let types like me in. Have a good one! 🙂

    • Isa says:

      11 Dec11 December 09:28

      2000 avios are worth at least £35 to me – still far from life-changing but better than nothing so I’ll take it if I can. I’d like BA to confirm the details though as my next flight is a RFS from LCY on January 9th so that might push the definition of “Christmas period” a tad but we’ll see…

      • Lumma says:

        11 Dec11 December 09:44

        Well as they’re announcing it next week it looks like my flight to Berlin this Saturday won’t count, which is a can sight more Christmas related than the 9th of Jan

• TripRep says:

  11 Dec11 December 05:35

  For anyone considering Conrad Rangali, unless you’re desperate I’d wait for the next 100% bonus. But the great thing about a points redemption there is that you avoid 23+% resort taxes…

  • Cat says:

    11 Dec11 December 07:41

    Thanks for this, I was deliberating!

  • TripRep says:

    11 Dec11 December 08:11

    Yep, would only recommend a points booking there (unless your loaded), one thing I didn’t mention above, is that if you’re rounding up for the fifth free night then $420ish per night equivalent on points with benefits from status and potential upgrade is still worth it,. When you thinking of going?

    • Cat says:

      11 Dec11 December 08:17

      As soon as I have enough points for 10 nights!

  • Barry cutters says:

    11 Dec11 December 16:54

    TR- Cant reply to your comment above, but yes we are at a Hogmanay wedding on NYE and staying for a few days .
    Looking forward to it. will check out the bars you have mentioned
    Cheers BC

• Hingeless says:

  11 Dec11 December 06:16

  Very OT: Do Stobart Air flights with a BA flight number count as one of the 4 flights required for status renewal, (I’ll be flying over xmas to make this slightly on topic)

  • John says:

    11 Dec11 December 09:51

    Yes anything with a BA flight number should count

• Ian says:

  11 Dec11 December 06:33

  Just read some of the news stories from Heathrow, blimey, yet another PR nightmare for BA! They seem to go into complete disarray as soon as there’s a problem.

• Paul says:

  11 Dec11 December 06:35

  2000 Avios is a nice gesture but let’s not get carried away by their generosity.

  Yesterday thousands, indeed 10s of thousands of their customers were faced with chaos and mass cancellation following a snow shower. They claimed it was not forecast yet as far back as last Wednesday the BBC said snow was expected as far south as high Wycombe and that it would not take much to push it further south. Yet they and the airport ignored this.

  People sat on board aircraft for 5 hours waiting for a stand but they stuck ridgedly to their discredited buy on board policy and offered nothing for free.

  The mayhem in the terminal led to mass cancellations as the day progressed including long haul as they list control (again) and passengers were forced to queue for hours to get back through to landslide.

  So let’s put 2000 Avios in perspective. This is firm that simply had no real operational control, it is poorly led. Under resourced and doesn’t give a stiff for it passengers. It does however have an active PR department trying to deflect from its many failings.

  • the real harry1 says:

    11 Dec11 December 07:55

    BA doesn’t run Heathrow airport

    • Cat says:

      11 Dec11 December 08:13

      +1
      Some friends are trying to fly back to UK with Ryanair, who are being typically shocking. Am I right in thinking that they should be getting the EU 261 compensation?

      • TripRep says:

        11 Dec11 December 08:19

        V doubtful.

        Weather is rarely a qualifying factor for EU261/2004 claims.

      • Polly says:

        11 Dec11 December 08:23

        No, weather is one major exclusion, unfortunately!

      • TripRep says:

        11 Dec11 December 11:56

        That said, someone has posted this on BAs Twitter feed…

        https://twitter.com/Starnold44/status/940159653228445696?s=17

        Bold Lawyers may argue it’s within the Airlines power to prepare for a regular predicted weather event…

    • TripRep says:

      11 Dec11 December 08:17

      See my earlier comment, LHR are hinting airlines were not prepared.

      IMHO LHR & Airlines share the responsibility for how it was managed.

    • paul says:

      11 Dec11 December 12:23

      So that’s alright then lets blame someone else. Ridiculous statement, they are the biggest by some way and in any event it was not a LHR issues, it was a loss of control of their own operations for whom there is no one to blame but themselves. A lack of staff, a total absence of planning and no operational experience caused yesterdays, todays and tomorrows problems.

• Emma says:

  11 Dec11 December 06:36

  I was meant to be flying from Glasgow to Budapest yesterday with BA. Landed at Heathrow around 1400 and then had to sit on the plane for 5hrs while we waited for a stand. When we finally got into the airport it was a total shambles. No staff to be seen and huge queues at the desks that were open that were purely just arranging hotels. The only info BA gave was to leave the airport and ring customer services or rebook online. Both options would not work for me as the customer services line was totally jammed (and still is) and the website won’t let me rebook. I just went and got my own hotel. Just going to try and go back to the airport now and get my bags. Im not holding out much hope. Does anyone if the BA Amex lost baggage insurance covers me here?

• the real harry1 says:

  11 Dec11 December 06:44

  sounds terrible @ LHR https://twitter.com/HeathrowAirport/status/939923749901651974

  • Rob says:

    11 Dec11 December 08:32

    Was great this morning, not a single plane flying over the house and the kids, who have the top floor, didn’t wake up until forcibly evicted!

    • Stu N says:

      11 Dec11 December 18:10

      I was staying with friends in Putney last night and it was eerily quiet, usually get woken by the early Far East arrivals when we stay there.

• the real harry1 says:

  11 Dec11 December 06:48

  Like 50,000 other BA passengers, they will start Monday far from where they planned to be, after the airline’s operation juddered almost to a halt at Heathrow. More than 140 outbound short-haul flights, and 26 long-haul departures, were cancelled on Sunday. BA has cancelled a further 70 short-haul round trips on Monday, plus nine long-haul flights including departures to Rio, Tokyo and Los Angeles. An additional 15,000 people will be affected by these latest cancellations.
  http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/british-airways-50000-passengers-stranded-de-icing-meltdown-heathrow-delays-diversions-a8102761.html

  • Anna says:

    11 Dec11 December 07:09

    And this is temperate Britain’s largest airport, while the likes of Toronto aren’t so “surprised” by snow and ice in December and are fully open for business I imagine?!!

    • mark2 says:

      11 Dec11 December 07:36

      Surely Toronto would be surprised If there was no snow?

    • Andrew says:

      11 Dec11 December 09:35

      It’s not really fair to compare Heathrow with Toronto in terms of snow preparation. Heathrow might have snow two, maybe three times a year while I imagine Toronto is snow bound for months. Heathrow could invest the same in deicing and snow clearing as Toronto but it would sit idle for almost the entire winter whilst still costing a lot of money.

      Like it or not we’re never going to be as prepared for snow as Canada and disruption is inevitable. Where Heathrow and BA could improve is offering more information, refreshments and even compensation on the rare occasions when snow does cause problem.

      • Anna says:

        11 Dec11 December 15:20

        How much do hundreds of cancelled flights and loss of disgruntled customers cost?

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