Book British Airways to North America in First Class from £1,700

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• Olly says:

  29 Mar29 March 09:30

  I am seeking advice regarding Amex referrals please folks. Can I refer my wife who has her own Gold Rewards card as well as being a supplementary card holder to my Platinum to get 18,000 points referral?

  • Olly says:

    29 Mar29 March 09:31

    ……. and then for her to churn straight away, obviously!

  • Anna says:

    29 Mar29 March 09:33

    You can certainly refer her for cards she doesn’t already have (I think you can have max 2 credit cards and 2 charge cards with Amex). Sign up bonuses will depend on whether she’s had them within the last six months.

    • Olly says:

      29 Mar29 March 12:56

      Thanks Anna

• Anna says:

  29 Mar29 March 09:35

  OT – F & F (Tesco clothing) are doing some decent discounts, e.g. £15 off £75 spend, plus 4 avios per £1 if you order via avios.com. I’ve just stocked up on cheap T-shirts and other holiday bits. Their kids’ stuff is also quite good.

  • Anna says:

    29 Mar29 March 09:36

    And of course Clubcard points as well!

• Liz says:

  29 Mar29 March 09:50

  This says only for international passengers. We will be domestic passengers – I thought T1 and T2 were close together so we could walk to T2.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    29 Mar29 March 10:33

    The terminals are all next to each other and walkable. That said, once you’re past security I don’t think you can get to it.

    T1 is Qantas, T2 is all International, T3 is Virgin Australia and I forget T4 of the top of my head. I’ll be there in the morning, but in T1, so will have to save my Amex visit for now.

    • Michael Jennings says:

      29 Mar29 March 12:46

      T4 is the discount airlines terminal – domestic only.

      Australian airports segregate international and domestic travellers in a way which is unusual. Security requirements are quite different, too. (You can bring liquids in any amount through security for domestic flights, for instance, but not for international flights). There is no way you will be able to get from one to the other post-security.

      • Alan says:

        29 Mar29 March 12:52

        Indeed, there’s exit passport controls which you need to go through at the international terminal too, so it’s not just the higher security requirements.

    • Liz says:

      29 Mar29 March 14:55

      Bummer – that means we can’t even use the $36 credit at the 2 places to eat because they are at T2 as well. We are flying domestic with Qantas. Oh well – right place, wrong Terminal!

• david says:

  29 Mar29 March 09:58

  Its just chapter XXXXXVIII of the chronicles of rip-off Britain. I am not well off and before finding this site I travelled to the USA I have had to do exactly what you said numerous times.

  • david says:

    29 Mar29 March 09:59

    Whoa where did that comment go?! I replied the above to his message about why we have to fly from Europe and not direct from London to save £££s

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      29 Mar29 March 10:51

      Was that the one with a lot of (self censored) bad language? I guess it was deleted because although it was self censored it was still unnecessary so was deleted as a pointless rant.

      I was going to say to that comment things are priced as to what the market will tolerate. Therefore BA believe they can charge these prices direct from LHR because people pay for the convenience. If you want to start from London there’s a lot of cheap options available to you, most will involve a connection (e.g. KLM via AMS, EK via DXB, etc).

      Inverness has just launched an increased schedule so presumably BA wants to promote these flights.

      If I had the time to take advantage of these flights I’d make the most of it by spending some time in Inverness. Before the trip I’d try and get a Reward Flight Saver to Inverness. On the way back I’d look at getting the Highland Chieftain (in 1st class – it’s the name of the daily Virgin Trains East Coast service from Inverness) back after a day or two in the highlands. I’ve not done this trip yet but the views are meant to be spectacular and if you book in first class you’ll get breakfast too. If you like trains you could also use the sleeper to get up to Inverness. If you don’t want to get the Highland Chieftain all the way to London you could always change at Edinburgh for a flight to add a bit of variety.

      • Alan says:

        29 Mar29 March 11:06

        Doesn’t Inverness benefit from a lack of APD too?

      • TripRep says:

        29 Mar29 March 11:09

        Yep no APD from INV

      • Alan says:

        29 Mar29 March 11:56

        Makes quite a difference when travelling in first class.

      • Doug M says:

        29 Mar29 March 21:05

        Isn’t APD just at two rates, economy and the higher rate. So I’d say it’s far less relevant at First prices. Premium Economy is where you’re hammered.

        • Rob says:

          29 Mar29 March 21:24

          Yes.

      • Alan says:

        30 Mar30 March 10:20

        Yeah, you’re right. £150 for standard rate in Band B

• Alan says:

  29 Mar29 March 11:09

  Who does the actual rating? Is it feedback from travellers or Avirate themselves?

  • Prins Polo says:

    29 Mar29 March 14:55

    and the TripRep website (blog?) has an impressive total of two trip reports, both reviews of the Conrad Maldives…

    • Nick says:

      29 Mar29 March 15:18

      Your point? He’s an established and likeable member of the community here and has contributed quite a lot over the last few years. If he’s chosen to share two reviews of his favourite hotel, then so what?

    • Anna says:

      29 Mar29 March 17:11

      We all know our rights on involuntary downgrading thanks to TripRep!

  • Tyler says:

    2 Apr2 April 09:48

    I’ve been watching AviRate for quite a while now and have figured out 2 things: 1. They do reviews themselves, which are obviously stricter than skytrax. 2. It appears to be a very young company that is slowly growing and being publicly noticed.
    What stands out the most are the differences in the results compared to skytrax. And it is well known that skytrax cuddles with the airlines rather than rating airlines from the passengers point of view.

• Richard Thomas says:

  29 Mar29 March 11:34

  I very much hope the first class carriages on the new GWR trains are as pleasant as the current Heathrow Express – having experienced other GWR first class offerings I am not so optimistic!

  • Lady London says:

    29 Mar29 March 15:37

    +1 . err should that be -1

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    29 Mar29 March 16:52

    Obviously you’re referring to GWR local trains as GWR InterCity service have lovely first class seats. HEX was unique that its first class seats would have been excellent on a long distance train too.

    Unfortunately at my guess, at best we’ll have a Thameslink situation – ironing board seats in standard class (this is what these trains have now) and slightly better, but not amazing seats in first class. Worst case we could have ironing board seats in both classes with a bit of cloth indicating first class (this is the Gatwick Express now).

• Anna says:

  29 Mar29 March 11:53

  Yes, this was first posted on the Facebook BA complaints page (started by disgruntled customers, not BA!). It’s rightly caused a lot of outrage, though it’s full of stories about passengers of all nationalities being treated badly, there is some real hostility to BA out there!

• Alan says:

  29 Mar29 March 12:01

  They made a bit of a mess up with my wife’s wheelchair when we came back from Barcelona a couple of years back. Couldn’t get it to the plane, we had to collect it at a meeting point inside the terminal building. Fortunately, my wife could walk a little so we eventually got to the meeting point. Still had a further 20 minute wait for her chair to arrive though.

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