News in brief:
Heathrow Terminal 1 auctions off – everything!
Last year we covered an auction where the heavy plant from Heathrow Terminal 1 was being sold off.
On 21st April, literally everything else from T1 which could be ripped off the walls or floor is being sold. Take a look at the catalogue here.
This is the time to get that ‘Central Bus Station / Underground / Lost Property / Chapel’ illuminated sign you always promised yourself …..
Etihad UK call centre to close?
The Manchester Evening News reports that Etihad is considering closing its call centre in the city.
The call centre employs 110 staff of various different nationalities, taking calls in English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese and Japanese. The full story is here.
New Radisson hotel opening in New York
If you have a pot of Radisson Rewards points from your Radisson, Park Inn and Park Plaza stays, New York is a poor place to use them.
The main option, one of just two, is the Radisson Martinique on Broadway. Unfortunately (for Radisson members) it is joining Hilton’s Curio Collection later in 2018 as you can read here.
The good news is that Radisson has signed a contract to open a brand new 320 room hotel on 8th Avenue next Spring. It will be called, simply, Radisson Hotel New York City.
There are no images at present but, as a new build, it should a good addition to Radisson’s generally weak US portfolio. What is not clear to me is why it is being branded Radisson and not Radisson Blu, as new properties are generally using the ‘Blu’ brand to differentiate themselves from the rubbish under the main brand. The same press release announces a new Radisson Blu for Anaheim for example.
Remember that, if you are doing occasional Radisson Rewards stays, you can get free Radisson Rewards Gold status by getting an American Express Platinum charge card. You can also transfer your American Express Membership Rewards points to Radisson Rewards at the generous ratio of 1:3. This means that the Platinum sign-up bonus of 30,000 points would get you 90,000 Radisson Rewards points.
10% off LATAM flights
LATAM (the merged LAN / TAM) is currently offering 10% off the base fare for flights from the UK to Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
You can find out more on their website here. The discount is applied on the payment page which is confusing as you see higher prices during the booking process.
The discount is valid on flights booked for departures by 30th June. It is not clear how long the discount will be offered.
Remember that LATAM is a member of oneworld so you can earn Avios and British Airways tier points from your flight.
(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)
About Head for Points
T1 auction: You may jest….but a fool and his money are easily parted.
I’m thinking of buying the lift that used to go from the check-in area up to Spoons for the house ????
I can see some people might be interested in some small memento of T1 if they were passing through it regularly but some of the items on there are a bit baffling. Such as the previously mentioned lift, as well as the fact I remember that lift being on its last legs last time I used it I thought these things would be custom built for the building.
Then there’s certain things like display screens that I’m surprised HAL isn’t keeping hold of as spares for the other terminals.
Did they do a similar auction for the old T2?
The UAE Etihad call centre is absolutely atrocious. God help anyone calling there…
WoW! What a great opportunity for BA to pick up something cheap and bid on some of the wooden seats to retrofit into some of their cabins. 🙂
I wouldn’t think so, BA are only into enhancements!
Have to disagree with JK re: Etihad UK Call Centre. I think they are excellent – if I call. First question is always “are you based in Manchester or Al Ain / Abu Dhabi”. If the latter, I hang up until I get someone from the UK. They are the only one who know the rules, how to book partner awards, can help with cancellations requiring insurance documents etc… if this closes, yet another reason to stop flying Etihad!
JK refers to UAE call centre, not UK. Agree with you on Manchester call centre, during the 2yr period I was flying Etihad they were great,
Spot on. I think all 3 of us are very much in agreement 🙂
However, with virtually free telephony these days across continents, why do you need multi site operations for call centres ?
The answer of course is that you do unless you invest heavily in recruiting people from the countries you serve because if you merely employ a load of immigrants into the UAE from the poorer nations then you devalue the sharply declining brand even faster.
However, on paper, it looks a financial no brainer. In practice, they will surely screw it up.
It’s a shame they’re not allowing viewing of the lots on site I would have liked to take one last look around T1 before it’s completely stripped. Does anyone know of a way to make it happen? There’s probably a demand for such things, a bit like the tours round Crossrail sites recently.
Most of the stuff in the auction has already been taken down and moved to a central location as part of the building works. Sadly the old T1 is now a shadow of its former self.
Is T1 still used to process T2 baggage or has a temporary building been made of the baggage handling so that T1 can get demolished?
O/T
When I tried checking in to our flight for tomorrow, it said ‘check in unavailable’ on ba.com
Checking on expert flyer, there was only 1 seat listed as available with a few seats listed as blocked. There’s two of us travelling. Should I be worried?
From what I’ve read on this site before then it sounds like you might have been downgraded ????
Damn.. looked at the seat map in economy and premium economy and everything is full full full!
No seats available to buy in any class either….
If we have been downgraded what are our options..?
Yes both times I saw similarity there were problems. One time they offered me downgrade from CW. As it as overnight I refused, and insisted on CW the next day. They upgraded me to First at the gate. They will pay for hotel at LHR. If due to overbooking, there is always the chance that someone does not turn up, so they will ask you to hang around until the 40 minutes before departure.
You almost certainly haven’t been downgraded. This happens a fair bit, often caused by blocks under TS needing to be removed and rearranged. It’ll be handled by the check-in staff/FMU on the day. I know it’s annoying now, but try not to worry.
And of course it could equally mean that someone needs to be UPgraded.
As Nick says, I wouldn’t be too worried about this situation, as exactly the same has happened to me several times over the past couple of years with BA bookings. All seats appear to heve been booked/blocked, including on expertflyer.
IMHO, I’ve no doubt it’ll be easily sorted at check in for you. That said, it may be worth checking in a bit earlier than normal. 🙂
Happened to me twice:
– First time UPGRADED.
– Second time very excited….. then told I had to be bumped to the next flight. Still got some compensation which for me on that particular time was a good result.
Or, possibly, you might have potentially been upgraded.
Thanks all.
Will see what happens when I get to the airport. People I know who were travelling today got bumped off as did several others so who know what’s going to happen!
There can be simple problems such as documents which need to be checked as I had this on my return from HK recently although my profile is up to date.
Happened to my brother recently and all was fine/normal when he checked in at airport. I had it also on a first trip to PHX due to SSSS on boarding pass (extra security check at gate).
Had this on Easter weekend for our return Avios redemption Club Europe AMS – LGW flight. I checked in twenty-four hours before the flight on the BA app but couldn’t check my wife in for love nor money. My wife was thinking that she would be flying in cattle while I was in business and was quite upset. I phoned BA to ask if my wife was being bumped to cattle and the lady was very helpful and quite emphatic that she wasn’t and informed me to go to the boarding pass machine at AMS and print out her boarding pass which I did and everything was fine. Not sure what that was all about.
The Latam voucher’s handy. I think it’s one of the only biz airlines I’d go out of my way to book.
O/T Has anyone had experience of their Marriott points going missing? I had built some up during the NFL tweet promos, and now when I login my points are showing as zero!
Check your history – your account might have been hacked.
OT how long does it take for the Lloyds Amex card to be notified you have earned the upgrade voucher? How do they let you know?
I rang them when I hit the spend as their system was still malfunctioning at that point. They added the voucher manually on the next statement date after the spend was hit.
Twice seen the voucher in my account 2 or 3 weeks before they’ve emailed.
Thanks guys.
Still re Lloyd’s. If statement comes and is £3k, and I pay off £3k immediately and then spend another £2k say. When direct debit is due will the £2k be taken or will that roll on to next statement?
As long as the £2k appears on your statement, it should be taken by direct debit. The statement will say how much they’re taking too.
Thanks Callum. So if the £2k spend is after the statement, the direct debit will be zero and the £2k will roll onto next statement?
@rams1981 Correct
Thanks Genghis
Do you get Heathrow reward points on the auction
I have a week to go until I can apply for Amex Gold again but was wondering if there’s a way to upgrade from my free BA Blue card or Amex Nectar card.
Many thanks in advance.
Will ask this question in the Amex thread. Thanks.
OT for those who like to try something a bit different, sea planes may start operations from July this year between Guernsey and Jersey.
Ohhhhh now that sounds like fun!
And possibly a chunk cheaper than Trans Maldivian costs to the Conrad 😮
OT
Just want to say thank you to Rob and Anika and all the comment contributors.
Having been following this website for about 18 months, today is my first proper redemption. I have seen a few grumbles in the comments about how the process is getting harder or less rewarding, but having started 18 months ago, I have lined up for this year:
Club World to the far east today
First to the USA later in the year
A marriott booking which was 30000 Marriott points instead of 350 pounds. (high demand day because of a concert)
For someone who is well north of 6 foot, I probably would pay for business class tickets, so that indeed is a real saving and results in me going on more holidays.
Plus so far I have saved over 1000 GBP in other stuff, mainly amex offers/ shop small + the odd amazon order and Uber offer. I didn’t do any of that before. (Off course add back in the cost of my cards which have totalled so far about 600 pounds,
My highlight was asking the man in Tesco if there was a limit on the number of gift cards I could buy about 18 months ago, him saying no, then returning 10 minutes later with SIXTY 50gbp john lewis gift cards (I had just moved house). He was very suspicious about a stolen credit card etc, but still put it through.
Anyway thank you again very much,
Bonglim