An amazing deal when you use DragonPass at the DIH Ahlan First Class lounge in Dubai

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• Lumma says:

  2 Jul2 July 04:00

  Best thing about those new a320s with the tiny toilets and crap seats after row 12. No TV screens so no safety video

• the real harry1 says:

  2 Jul2 July 06:20

  IB 90K news – unsourced – that they really aren’t transferable to BAEC.

  • ScienceTeacher says:

    2 Jul2 July 07:21

    Has anybody received them yet? I jumped in on Thursday before it was put out on the blogs and am still at 0 avios!

    • the real harry1 says:

      2 Jul2 July 07:30

      no reliable reports yet but today WAS meant to be the first day

      none for me

      • BJ says:

        2 Jul2 July 08:38

        The rules of FF and hotel loyalty schemes allow them to suspend or close the accounts of those suspected of fraud or abusing the scheme. I am sure there has been a lot of that in this promo and Iberia are likely working through it at the moment and that this might cause a delay. I expect they will sort it and everybody else will still get the avios due to them but I also expect a sting in the tail preventing the free for all that most seemed to be hoping for. I am sure that sting will be comfortably within the rules which they are entitled to change at any time without notice.

      • Rob says:

        2 Jul2 July 08:52

        Since when was Monday 10 days after Sunday?

      • the real harry1 says:

        2 Jul2 July 09:43

        it was in one of IB’s (incredibly unreliable) tweets

      • callum says:

        2 Jul2 July 11:10

        Rob – The promo started 10 days ago so today IS the first day people should be receiving their Avios…

        • Rob says:

          2 Jul2 July 12:16

          Almost certainly meant 10 days from the closing date as I would expect one big drop. But let’s see.

      • Callum says:

        2 Jul2 July 14:07

        It may have meant that, but it specifically stated ten days after purchase…

  • the real harry1 says:

    2 Jul2 July 07:25

    …but that could just be because new IB a/cs have to wait 90 days before they can transfer out points

  • CV3V says:

    2 Jul2 July 09:19

    I wonder if we could have our own version of b@llsh!t bingo for the comments when the points do land and we found out the reality i.e. ‘I am going to sue Iberia’, ‘I am going to sue Willie Walsh’, ‘I am reporting them to FSA/CIA/BBC’, or ‘Thanks Rob, i never thought it would work’, ‘I cant find how to redeem them’, ‘How do i transfer them from my dog’s account?’

• Paul says:

  2 Jul2 July 06:22

  The safety video is not funny! It’s not even amusing. Flying BA is painful enough without this torture at the start of the flight.

  • Chabuddy says:

    2 Jul2 July 07:24

    Muppet 🙂

  • Martin Seebach says:

    2 Jul2 July 11:01

    I found it mildy amusing, but that’s unlikely to last beyond the first ~3 viewings. Happy to hear they are making it shorter.

    I am, however, baffled by how flippant they are towards the (purported) seriousness of the security briefing. EITHER it is a very important briefing that may differ from any aircraft I may have flown on previously (although clearly not enough that BA bothers to even remove the part about being seated backwards in First, on a short haul), and it’s too important to dilute with cutesy celebrity jokes and charity appeals, OR it’s redundant, and should be either removed or cut down to the absolute minimum. This weird schizophrenic mess is, well, a weird mess (they can do a charity appeal separately if they want, I’ve always found it pretty tasteless for a hard-core for-profit ruthlessly costcutting business I’ve just spend hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pounds with to beg me for spare change because poor kids).

    • callum says:

      2 Jul2 July 11:12

      Well it’s not tasteless, and if you have money to spend thousands on a flight then I’d say you’re exactly the kind of person who should be giving your spare change to poor kids…

      (Maybe you do already – it’s irrefutable however that many need to be pushed into doing so with advertising like this)

      • Martin Seebach says:

        2 Jul2 July 13:19

        The tastelessness is in the sender of the appeal. This has very, very little to do with poor children, and everything to do with with branding BA as a fluffy do-gooder (and to get a bunch of celebrities to show up to do a safety video that conveniently will serve to brand and market BA for free). Flying Start has raised “$12m since 2010”, so lets be generous and make it $2m/yr. BA revenue is $16B in 2017, so they could raise ticket prices by a whopping 0.0125% and give the money to charity if they felt it was important to give back to the communities, it feels rather hollow that it should be more effective to “pause inflight entertainment for an important message” to lecture the passengers on their charity on every single flight.

        For the record, I think the envelope for spare change is a great idea (well, was, spare change is rapidly a thing of the past), and I use it on the few occasions I happen to have some, it’s the lecturing I find tasteless.

    • RussellH says:

      2 Jul2 July 11:31

      I was puzzled by the – typically anglocentric – attitude to non-English speakers. I recall French subtitles LHR-NCE, which just translated the relevant bits, ignoring all the witty asides (all of which quickly stop being witty after a couple of viewings), but no subtitles LHR-MAD (and this on LH 777s, which, arguably, are in greater need of subtitling).

      By contrast, I recall LH always speaking both German and English during saftey demos on UK-DE flights (though German only on internal flights).

    • Rob says:

      2 Jul2 July 12:19

      You need to check out the old Virgin America one https://youtu.be/DtyfiPIHsIg which I do rate.

      Air New Zealand has a very big collecting including Hobbit-themed ones. Qatar has one done by the Barcelona squad which is good.

      • Yuff says:

        2 Jul2 July 14:18

        I love the Qatar and BA video.
        On a trip to Male on Qatar I looked forward to the video every time. I also enjoy the BA video but not as much as Qatar

      • The Jetset Boyz says:

        2 Jul2 July 18:05

        The FC Barcelona safety video is sadly no more, it was retired after Qatar Airways’ sponsorship came to an end. They now sponsor AS Roma.

  • Londonbus says:

    2 Jul2 July 17:51

    Utterly tedious. Probably ok the first time but rapidly wears thin.

    I travel quite a bit and the least worse one I’ve seen is the current Gulf Air one which has a degree of charm.

• ScienceTeacher says:

  2 Jul2 July 07:20

  You like calling people names? What are you, five?

  Frankly, you are the fraudster (Definition: ‘an act which results from the dishonest practice of one party’) and the outrageous one for setting up 10 accounts and claiming 900,000 avios.

  I genuinely hope you get nothing and Iberia throw the book at you. In fact, I hope they enact their general terms and conditions which state you can only have one account at a time; and they use your ‘childish phone calls’ against you where you would have no doubt confirmed you have more than one account.

  And yes, YOU NEED HELP.

  • Toby says:

    2 Jul2 July 08:17

    I think they were being sarcastic…

    • Toby says:

      2 Jul2 July 08:18

      Taking the mick out of the American’s who have been banging on about suing Iberia if their dog doesn’t get the points etc.

  • Alan says:

    2 Jul2 July 08:18

    I’m no expert but I believe that he/she was using irony.

• Marcw says:

  2 Jul2 July 07:31

  BTW, some interesting FlyingBlue Promo awards out there. Asia in Premium Economy about 36k each direction. Mumbai, 27k also in Premium Economy.
  Seychelles in J, some interesting values. Dubai and Abu Dhabi also included.
  Some interesting economy redemptions to North America.
  Worth having a look if you have MR banked, or some Flying Blue Miles. Remember that now you can pay only 75% of the required miles and the 25% un cash (exactly 1 Eurocent per mile).

  • marcw says:

    2 Jul2 July 09:26

    I’m sure some of you may find this interesting. Rtrn to Abu Dhabi in Business for 45k , or 18k in economy!! (sept-october) That’s a good deal I’d say.
    Some examples:
    LON//AUH rtrn in J: 45k and about 550 eur in taxes (ouch!). You save around 100-150 departing from, let’s say, DUS (if you choose AMS your mileage will increase by 10k each way).
    LON//AUH rtrn in Y: 18k + 203 eur … you save around 50-100 dep from somewhere else in europe.

    Remember, AUH it’s a short taxi ride from Dubai!

    • Rob says:

      2 Jul2 July 09:55

      Krisflyer gets you London to anywhere in the Middle East for 50k miles in business, any day you want 🙂 That is clearly a decent deal for Flying Blue though, surprised it is running over peak season.

      • Lady London says:

        2 Jul2 July 19:04

        not peak for Middle East right now though. July-August hotter than hot.

  • marcw says:

    2 Jul2 July 09:29

    Sorry, you are not able to use part pay on Promo Awards. Still a very good deal.

• Anna says:

  2 Jul2 July 08:11

  OT – BA’s IT is beyond a joke now. I’ve had some very limited success searching for long haul redemptions with all sorts of error messages getting thrown up but at least some availability showing (we’re flexible on destination). However, when we try and book using OH’s 2 4 1, we just get repeated “technical problem” messages. Not impressed.

  • BJ says:

    2 Jul2 July 08:41

    Anna, did you get your avios combined ok to use your Lloyds voucher?

    • Anna says:

      2 Jul2 July 08:52

      I haven’t tried yet – I can’t make that booking till the end of August! I’ve done so well with my collecting strategy this year i’ve got vouchers coming out of my ears!

  • Darren says:

    2 Jul2 July 12:14

    I have had a similar error message on a number of occasions, the most frustrating being the ‘stopover loop’, BA CS response is that the IT bods know about it and it should be fixed soon. 4 weeks later still the same.
    I have tried by adding the voucher to remove AA flights and starting from a regional which sometimes helps.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  2 Jul2 July 08:17

  This reminds me of a question I had: did they change the last safety video? After Warwick Davis says to Ian McKellen ‘I bet you’ll get the part’ (or words to that effect), Ian’s response used to be ‘I usually do’ but instead he replied something insipid like ‘I hope so’ on a more recent flight. Rest of the video seemed to be identical. Am I going crazy?

  • Matt says:

    2 Jul2 July 08:28

    I noticed the same thing last month!

  • Quark999 says:

    2 Jul2 July 08:38

    I thought that was long haul v short haul video…

    • Rob says:

      2 Jul2 July 08:56

      It may have been cut. As I said, crew have complained that the short haul version is far too long and is causing practical issues getting aircraft away.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      2 Jul2 July 10:41

      All on long-haul for me (and seen it both ways on a 789, so not a version control issue between IFE systems).

  • Nick says:

    2 Jul2 July 19:19

    No, it’s different, but not for the reasons anyone has described! The 787 has a different type of oxygen mask, so they had to film the sequence twice and IM had a different line in each. Next time you watch it, look out for the different mask, it’s obvious when you know what you’re looking for.

• Boi says:

  2 Jul2 July 08:28

  OT: my sister arrives in JNB @08:05 tomorrow and her connecting flight is not until 16:20! Any suggestions as to what she can do with that long layover? She has PP

  • marcw says:

    2 Jul2 July 08:39

    First, there’s no harm in asking whether she’s able to take an earlier flight, once she lands in London. Obviously, only if there are more flights – even if there’s a fee involved, it may be worth it 🙂 If T5 she will have access to the Aspire, but I’m not sure if they’ll allow her to get in with more than 3 h before flight departure.

    • Boi says:

      2 Jul2 July 09:35

      Sorry she’s going LON-JNB. Arrival is in JNB on a VS flight.

  • Oh Matron! says:

    2 Jul2 July 09:36

    Brunch in Windsor?

    • Alan says:

      2 Jul2 July 11:02

      Heck of a trip from JNB!

      • Darren says:

        2 Jul2 July 12:15

        But worth it, Windsors lovely

  • Mark says:

    2 Jul2 July 14:36

    I think there’s some confusion as to whether the layover is in London or Johannesburg. If the latter we took a train ride to Sandton on a similar length layover, after storing our bags at one of the storage facilities at JNB.

  • Kevin says:

    2 Jul2 July 14:40

    You can get to Nelson Mandela Square and the mall very easily and quickly on the Gautrain. Closer to home, the Intercontinental JNB would be nice for lunch.

    There are several lounges she can access with the Priority Pass if she wants to stay airside.

    • Boi says:

      2 Jul2 July 16:14

      Thanks all, layover is In Johannesburg.

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