Pay just £480 for British Airways World Traveller Plus from Scandinavia to the US

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• Kev says:

  9 Feb9 February 10:25

  Can I UUA and then use my GUF2 to go from WT+ -> CW -> F?

• Tom says:

  9 Feb9 February 10:30

  Why shouldn’t I book through a travel agent? If I choose to drop the last keg that’s my business. And I’ll book through a travel agent. Let the agent and BA deal with it. This whole nonsense needs to come to a head one way or the other.

  • Denis says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:01

    I also don’t get why an agent should be deemed responsible here. It’s my violation per se and there is nothing wrong what an agent did. It’s like if I become disruptive and cause a diversion will BA also bill an agent who sold me a ticket?

    • Rob says:

      9 Feb9 February 11:34

      Your contract is with the agent. The agent has the contract with BA.

      • RussellH says:

        9 Feb9 February 11:55

        Sorry, Rob, but I do not think that is correct. An agent simply facilitates the contract between you and the airline. The agent will have a contract with BA, though, agreeing to do its best to sell BA’s products, in return for, if they are lucky, a few pence of commission or some other arrangement. (Most airlines cut the commission on ticket sales to 0% years ago, and most now charge extra fees on top of the fares when booked through a GDS.) Of course, the financially powerful agents like Expedia will, no doubt, have some sort of special arrangement with airlines. But even when you book with them, your credit card bill normally shows that you paid the airline directly, so that your contract is with the airline.

      • Nick says:

        9 Feb9 February 21:13

        On this, I think you’ll find that Rob is correct. There may be no known case of BA going after individuals, but they can and do bill agents… do you not remember Propellor? Who essentially had to close as a result?

        Your contract is with your agent. That’s also why the 24-hr cooling off period doesn’t exist either, unless the agent chooses to offer it too!

• Simon Cross says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:10

  OT – the long arm of EU road fines. Just had a penaltry ticket for non payment of a motorway toll on a hire car in Portugal in June 2015!!! Beingcollectedby a UK company called Euro Parking Collection Ltd.

  I wonder if the UK is as diligent in collecting parking fines from our EU offender cousins?

  Anyone know?

  • Chris says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:27

    At least they don’t bother with speeding or parking fines on UK registered cars! Never had a single ticket come through – and I’ve been flashed since 1997!!! One of the huge benefits to driving to europe 😉

  • Chris says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:38

    I imagine the hire car company foots the bill, like a speeding fine and has a vested interest in passing this along…

  • Will says:

    9 Feb9 February 20:44

    Unless the fine is substantial, they would be insane to take it further than letters.
    That said if you did incur the fine legitimately then there’s something to be said for paying it.

    I’m not going to stand up either way on that as I’ve been scammed twice in Italy on fines. In one instance the toll road never issued a ticket on entry but barrier went up, got fined on exit and in the other instance I apparently parked on a closed road even though I paid the meter and almost all bays on the road were occupied with no obvious closure.

  • Mr Dee says:

    9 Feb9 February 20:48

    They probably take these cases on with a no win no fee basis and hope for some people to pay up.

• BlueHorizonUK says:

  9 Feb9 February 11:49

  O/T – Is it worthwhile getting the 120,000 avios Marriott travel package over the 50,000 one? Need to buy SPG points to get it up so I think I have worked it out to be costing me about 0.0055 per avios.

  Thanks

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 11:54

    In general you should always take 120,000 Avios because you are effectively adding 1 Marriott point to get 1 Avios which is an exceptionally good rate. If you are buying the SPG points the maths is a bit different but, still, I think 90% of HFP readers would jump at the chance to pick up Avios at 0.55p, especially when you don’t even need to leave your desk.

    • BlueHorizonUK says:

      9 Feb9 February 12:20

      Thanks

    • JamesB says:

      9 Feb9 February 18:35

      Where does the 0.55pp come from?

• Mikeact says:

  9 Feb9 February 12:05

  RussellH (Contract with airline not travel agent)
  But if you are correct, and there was a problem or change required along the way, then I guess BA,or whoever, would tell you to go back to the agent who sold you the ticket and get them to sort the problem out, not them ?

  • RussellH says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:35

    Airlines ask for your contact details, so that they can update you in the event of changes, hopefully. Equally, a good agent will go out of their way to help, but that is a matter of good business practice, not contractual obligation.

    NB. I am talking about an ‘agent’ as someone who has an agency agreement. A business will normally be dealing with a ‘Travel Management Company (TMC)’, who will usually have special price agreements with with both airlines and hotels. They may, or may not, legally, be an agent..

    This can be crucial when it comes to holiday packages. If you buy a holiday package from a tour operator, your contact is indeed with the TO, and the TO must have financial protection arrangements in place (if there is air travel involved, then that protection must be an ATOL, if the TO is UK based). If, though, the firm you are buying from is an agent for the travel provider and for the hotel(s), then, provided that the agent is careful, no package is created, your contracts are with the individual providers, and no financial protection is required. Equally, there is no VAT liability under the Tour Operators Margin Scheme.
    When the likes of easyJet and Ryanair started up, and had links to hotel providers on their websites, they were able to maintain that they were only agents for the hotels and the (in their opinion) separate bookings did not constitue a package, and the airlines had no responsibility for any problems with the hotel.
    Things have been tightened up in recent legal changes. You may recall that a firm called LowCostHolidays collapsed in 2016. While they did accept that they were supplying packages, they moved their legal base to Spain so that they could take advantage of a cheap financial protection scheme. The CAA advised against using the company, but many ignored the advice.
    It is very easy to get confused in this area, and I think I am correct, but Rob will be far more knowledgeable than I about airlines in general.
    My knowledge comes from my time in tour operation, and still reading Travel Trade Gazette, and the distinction between agent and principal is still live.

    • Mikeact says:

      9 Feb9 February 17:25

      Confusing indeed, to a mere traveller like me. However, thanks for your input, which,to be frank i still don’t fully understand….it’s just I was always under the impression that if, for example, I called in to a high street travel agent for an airline ticket …..albeit highly unlikely…….any changes would have to be managed by the TA, not the airline who would probably give short shrift. That’s why I was interested when you say my contract would be with the airline, and not for example, Thomas Cook in my high street.

      • Leo says:

        9 Feb9 February 18:04

        Not sure how long you have been reading HfP but there was an issue with a travel agent a while back who was recommended by this site and who got into professional difficulties with BA as a consequence of people missing the last leg of ex-EU flights. In essence BA went after him rather than the individual traveller if memory serves. That’s probably where Rob is coming from.

        • Rob says:

          9 Feb9 February 21:22

          See https://headforpoints.com/2015/07/20/british-airways-clamping-down-on-dropped-final-legs-on-ex-eu-tickets/ and https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1731641-our-ex-eu-horror-story.html?highlight=propeller

• PaulC says:

  9 Feb9 February 13:21

  For my return leg, if my flight lands at LHR for 10pm and the flight to Oslo isn’t until 8am the following day, will they tag my bags to LHR only, or at least let me have them back in LHR when I get there if requested?

  Any idea why the blackout for mid june – Aug? They are off peak dates for BA, and when I’ve been trying to get DUB-LHR-LAS rtn the cheap dates start near the end of June…

  Thanks

  • Polly says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:11

    They won’t tag them unless you ask them. But at checkin, ensure they are tagged to LHR, and make up any reason why you need to collect your bags. Gifts for people etc etc???

  • Anna says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:57

    Probably because it’s school and university holidays – BA peak is July and August so not that different.

• comeflywithv says:

  9 Feb9 February 14:18

  I booked two of these seperately and upgraded. I was charged 14,000 Avios each way for the upgrades(off peak days). Not sure if this is a mistake that coincidentally happened twice or a new upgrade pricing

  • James says:

    11 Feb11 February 06:41

    Hi, which route was this on ?
    The fact it happened on two separate bookings is encouraging and wasn’t a one-off error.
    More info would be great 🙂
    Cheers.

    • Comeflywithv says:

      11 Feb11 February 07:41

      The routes were LHR-PHL/ORD-LHR and LHR-JFK-LHR

      • James says:

        15 Feb15 February 09:33

        Cheers 🙂

• Dave r says:

  9 Feb9 February 15:30

  OT. A few weeks ago, my wife applied (via referral from me) for an Amex Gold MR card – this was 6 months + 4 days after cancelling her previous gold card. Until today, no bonus target was showing in her online account and today, after putting some spend through the card, the only bonus target showing in her online account is 10k MR points for spending £15k in the first year.

  Does this mean that she will not be given the 20k MR point signup bonus? If so, does anyone know how accommodating amex usually are in applying it manually?

  • Dave r says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:33

    Just to add.. She was told proactively by the agent when cancelling the last card that she could re-apply after 6 months to receive another sign-up bonus.

    • Anna says:

      9 Feb9 February 15:59

      I’ve never seen a reference to the 20/22k bonus points, they just seem to appear when you’ve spent the £2000.

      • Chris Palmer says:

        9 Feb9 February 17:13

        I have seen a spend target for the £2k.

      • Anna says:

        9 Feb9 February 17:46

        Are the T & Cs still saying that you’ll get the bonus? If so, get a screenshot in case you have to quibble it with Amex.

  • barry cutters says:

    9 Feb9 February 19:01

    6 months works on specific day ,
    eg. 20th jan you get the points as long as you apply after 20th July .

    Call, They have on record and if it didnt trigger and should have they send to another department . ‘promotions’ i think its called. 5 days later it posts.

  • Polly says:

    10 Feb10 February 03:05

    She should have got the 22k bonus after the 2k spend. You do need to phone amex about that, and they will be very accommodating. As long as you are sure the card was actually cancelled on that day. And you kept the cancellation letter you received with the date clearly outlined on it! Most people chuck them, but very useful in cases like this.

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