News: have breakfast with Alex Cruz, goodbye Diners Club

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• Rob says:

  6 Apr6 April 14:49

  He was in Israel recently so he will probably recycle some of that along with general comments on how great things are.

  • UK Israel Business says:

    9 Apr9 April 16:54

    Rob’s correct – there will be talk about Innovation (the primary purpose for his Israel trip) and a bit of general about BA and also touching on the TLV route.

    AND, as it’s a UK Israel Business event rather than BA, there will be food in the form of a light breakfast :-)!

    • Julian says:

      15 Apr15 April 10:02

      Ok but will Cruz actually be taking any questions from the floor or not? I went all the way from the Windsor area to Nottingham in February last year specially for a presentation by my then Android mobile manufacturer Huawei (Honor 4X, at the time the only Dual SIM phone specifically intended for UK import and sale) but firstly the food was utter rubbish (for a 3 hour long presentation/event in a hotel starting at 7pm) and then the hosts decided to follow the policy of their own National Government (Chinese) by refusing to take any questions at all from the floor the end of a very long and boring set of presentations (about their new Honor 5C model). It seems any questions would have had to be pre-agreed in advance…….

      Regarding UK Israel Business it does strike me that £30 is high for just breakfast (I would have expected no more than £15) and the final decider for me is probably that I would have to pay full return fare on the train travelling before 9.30am so a train cost around £15 higher than Off Peak (for only a 30 mile return journey).

      On the other hand I’m out here in Spain currently to where I travelled on my first BA Hand Baggage Only fare and there was a near riot by passengers when about 50 minutes in to the flight we were told that due to a “loading error” (there had also been a last minute equipment swap from a scheduled A320 to A321) there were no alcoholic drinks and no cold food at all available. Only tea or coffee or hot food. I have only ever previously experience nonsense like this with Easyjet announcing that no sandwiches had been loaded for that flight. So clearly Cruz is desperate to make the whole experience just like Vueling. In addition the clapped out old backup plane stock A321 we were on didn’t have any screens to show us the route or provide in flight entertainment as well of course as no wifi.

      Final straw for me was when I checked in 23 hours before departure and tried to change my free pre allocated seat from 31C (I have a set preference with BA Exec Club for a window seat that they always honour for either Avios or other cash fare bookings) I was told it was going to be £13 for the privilege yet at the same time the web page involved had a message saying there was no charge to change a seat less than 24 hours before departure. But it was quit impossible to complete the seat change without paying £13. So apparently Hand Baggage Only is a new Steerage class where you are automatically consigned to the back of the plane and your normal BA Exec Club seat preference is also specifically and deliberately ignored in order to punish you for not paying the extra (an absurd amount of money to choose a seat in short haul Economy) .

      I must say that with no food, no tv with route display, no wifi and also chucked in a seat not of my choosing it now felt just like I was travelling on Easyjet out of Heathrow and I lost all the good feelings I used to have about BA in Economy when I got my free G&T and sandwich or wrap.

      So anyway I guess its kind of appropriate that UK Israel Business is charging for admission to see Cruz but only giving us a minimal food offering……………………..

    • Julian says:

      15 Apr15 April 10:05

      Just seen the price is £30 plus VAT (so actual £36) so definitely can’t justify £60 or more in total with the rail and tube fares just for the opportunity to throw verbal rotten eggs at Cruz.

      However I hope those who are at this event for other reasons will also give Cruz a hard time about there being no free food or drink in Economy flying out to Israel with BA.

    • Julian says:

      15 Apr15 April 10:07

      So Innovation is turning an airline customers are reasonably happy with out of an airport they also prefer in to just another Me Too low cost airline they have no positive feelings at all about.

      So I have a feeling that whatever Cruz has planned for our Avios points will also turn out not to be good for us either.

• Mark Smith says:

  6 Apr6 April 15:14

  O/T – does the Amex Gold to Plat upgrade take place instantly (assuming the approval is instant)? I have just triggered a 20k bonus and have £1k of spend for holidays which I would like to do this weekend and make it count towards the Plat upgrade spend target…thanks!

  • JamesB says:

    6 Apr6 April 15:43

    Yes, if approved your gold changes to platinum online and any further spend counts as platinum, even before physical card arrives. If you have companion or supps to gold best to cancel before upgrade so you can get yet more bonuses by adding them later.

    • JamesB says:

      6 Apr6 April 15:45

      Wait to you see platinum online before making your transaction just to be on safe side,

      • Mark Smith says:

        6 Apr6 April 16:03

        Thanks!

• Richard says:

  6 Apr6 April 18:00

  OT:
  with respect to the avis – virgin 5500 extra promotion that ran a month or so ago – I made a qualifying rental and the base points have been posted for about 2 weeks but the bonus hasn’t yet shown up – does anyone have experiencing with chasing this up succusfully and how they managed it?

• ZumoDeNaranja says:

  6 Apr6 April 18:25

  Richard,

  My bitter experience suggests you will have a months-long struggle, at the end of which your heart will be full of hate towards Avis customer “service” and your account NOT full of the points you are due. Add to this random availability of “guaranteed” upgrades and you may begin to see why I used to be Avis PC but am now Hertz PC (and happily so) !

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