Bits: new HMRC card fees, Hilton sale, BA long-haul ‘no suitcase’ fares inevitable

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• filipino_chino says:

  22 Dec22 December 06:23

  I followed all these blog posts about cheap tickets to North America, went to book and found out about the lack of baggage…. BA works out better 🙂

• Fiona Slessor says:

  22 Dec22 December 06:29

  I definitely have seen what I thought were good fares and then realised the luggage had to be added on. I then go back to the overall cheapest fare. Surely most folks do?

• Lady London says:

  22 Dec22 December 06:39

  Wondering why Star Alliance isn;t mentioned who overall have more airlines with more planes doing more routes carrying more people longhaul. At least Star Alliance (the bigger Alliance of the 3, presumably?) isn’t showing signs of this rubbish yet.

  Is the whole world (even bigger Alliances) now doing “Delta see, Delta do” too?
  With respect, my luggage costs don’t need this sensationalism.

  • John says:

    22 Dec22 December 06:54

    Lufty may need to follow suit too. And they are just copying LEVEL and Norwegian

    Wasn’t Delta the first of the Americans to go revenuebased?

    • Lady London says:

      22 Dec22 December 12:31

      Yup. Delta were the first to go revenue based

      And to hide their award chart without any warning/

      Er…… Oh, wait! British Airways’s award chart disappeared off their website just a few days ago !

  • Rob says:

    22 Dec22 December 08:44

    Because everything we do goes via a BA filter, basically ….

• Gavin says:

  22 Dec22 December 07:56

  Will it be transatlantic only? Can’t see it working on African / Asian routes

• Graham says:

  22 Dec22 December 08:20

  HMRC – I haven’t checked this, but presumably they still accept personal debit cards? Tesco bank pays 0.3 Avios/£1 via Clubcard points with no fee.

  • Rob says:

    22 Dec22 December 08:41

    Yes they do.

  • Tim W says:

    22 Dec22 December 09:24

    That’s why I have a shiny new Tesco current account!

    • Graham says:

      22 Dec22 December 09:33

      I already use it for £60k business rates. Will now use it for £350k annual HMRC payments too.

      • Jonathan says:

        22 Dec22 December 12:37

        Remember the quarterly limits on Clubcard points.

  • Rob says:

    27 Dec27 December 11:53

    Yes, although how long it takes Tesco to stop this I don’t know. Probably good for at least a year as they won’t wake up to the full force of it until the 31st July self-assessment bills are due.

• Andrew says:

  22 Dec22 December 08:40

  We need some legislation quickly that demands clear detailing of luggage entitlement and costs in the pricing matrix on travel agents websites.

  It’s very easy to get caught out. On a United trip (booked via Expedia) from EDI to DCA via EWR last summer, I paid attention to the hold luggage element – all fine usual 23Kg. What I didn’t check was that I wasn’t entitled to the standard carry-on – just the very small “personal item” of 22 cm x 25 cm x 43 cm max. It was only on the train to the airport when my mate pointed out my bag was too big – so that was a dash to TK Maxx at Edinburgh Park for a smaller rucsac.

  • JP says:

    22 Dec22 December 09:59

    Although I haven’t seen any main carrier enforce cabin bag size rules, just the ryanair type airlines. Sometimes people have full size suitcases!

    • Andrew says:

      22 Dec22 December 11:51

      They didn’t at Edinburgh, but when we switched at EWR, they were checking ruthlessly at boarding.

    • Liz says:

      22 Dec22 December 12:01

      Virgin weighed our cabin bag in Sept coming back from Washington DC and were strict on the 10kg limit.

    • Fenny says:

      22 Dec22 December 13:05

      It’s the lack of enforcement that’s frustrating. Someone with a rolling wardrobe as hand luggage should be sent to the back of the queue for boarding and charged double to have it put in the hold!
      Bah, humbug!!!

• Iain says:

  22 Dec22 December 08:47

  Slightly OT but any recommendations on the best Hilton Group hotel in Dubai? Need to balance quality v central location. Thinking of locking in weekend sale price. Thanks.

  • Rob says:

    22 Dec22 December 09:48

    If you want a beach resort, there is only one option – well, technically two as I think the Hilton Executive Apartments are connected by a bridge across to the road to the beach hotel.

    The Doubletree in the Marina (Doubletree Jumeirah Beach) is interesting because it has its own little private beach, is new and is mainly suites. There is long-term construction in this area though so it depends what state that is in.

    Conrad is the poshest and well situation for DIFC but if you want to be there I’d say Jumeirah Emirates Towers opposite is a better property, partly because the small mall underneath. Remember that there isn’t much public beach in Dubai so a hotel with direct access is good.

    • Sussex Bantam says:

      22 Dec22 December 10:04

      We’ve stayed at the DoubleTree and would recommend it. New hotel with rooms of a very high standard and a really nice breakfast. The gardens of the hotel lead onto the private beach (which isn’t that little) and then onto the main beach. Pool has a nice view of beach and sea and a swim up bar (which is v expensive !).

      We didn’t eat dinner in the hotel so can’t comment on that but it is easily walkable to the main Marina area which has loads of choice.

      There was construction work going on but it didn’t disturb us too much.

      • Iain says:

        24 Dec24 December 21:55

        Thanks all

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    22 Dec22 December 11:28

    I had a very pleasant stay at the Conrad and would recommend if the beach isn’t a priority. Was given a very early check in after a night flight, excellent international breakfast spread (and service until 11am from memory), good exec lounge. Pool area is fine for a lazy day, but probably not enough if you want to spend the entire trip on a sun lounger. Good location right on top of a metro station and on the main road for taxis. No teddies though 🙁

    • Richmond_Surrey says:

      22 Dec22 December 20:59

      Well, I had bad stay in Conrad Dubai, worst Conrad I visited and don’t recommend it. Read reviews on Flyertalk.

• Lumma says:

  22 Dec22 December 09:00

  There’s virtually no overhead locker space already on BA’s A380 upper deck economy. It’ll become a nightmare if they start charging for checked bags

  • Talay says:

    22 Dec22 December 09:44

    This is the foreseeable consequence of this policy, where people attempt to circumvent the rules with things stuffed into coats, spurious “duty free” purchases and all sorts of “extras” which clog up luggage space.

    Given the weight per passenger calculations must be adjusted for safety when this happens, and the fuel burn increases accordingly, the only real saving ins the on ground handling of the baggage, which you would think was pretty small compared to pissing off every economy passenger forever more ?

  • Lady London says:

    22 Dec22 December 12:38

    The overhead luggage bins on the A380 are huge.

    I always wait awhile after I toss an item into one of those.

    Usually there’s a 5 second wait till I hear the luggage hit the bottom.

    So if they’re full then they’re really full.

    • @mkcol says:

      22 Dec22 December 23:49

      On the upper deck between doors 3 & 4 they are tiny as the roofline slopes down.

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