Why are British Airways Singapore redemptions pricier via Iberia – and are there others?

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• Aliks says:

  19 Jul19 July 08:30

  Josh,

  T3 is great for lounge hopping. The Qantas lounge is excellent, and the Cathay Pacific is just downstairs. My only problem with T3 lounge hopping is that the food is so good, I want to eat 2 meals, before getting on the plane!

  I would aim for a full 3 hours . . .

  • Josh says:

    19 Jul19 July 08:51

    Thanks Aliks, definitely looking forward to sampling everything, do you know how early I could arrive?

    I have no other plans for the day so the earlier the better I think, just not sure what time they’ll let me bag drop and go through security

    • Lumma says:

      19 Jul19 July 09:55

      It would depend when Sri Lankan airlines allow you to bag drop. When flying BA you can drop off your bags from 5am and spend as long as you want in the lounges; you can go through security whenever you want if you have a boarding pass. I turned up at 1pm for an 8.30pm flight a few weeks back and had a great afternoon

  • Roger1* says:

    19 Jul19 July 10:14

    I’ve benefited from the other OW biz lounges at LHR T3, and good they are, too. What’s the score with OW F lounges at T3?

    Mrs Roger and I jumped at the recent BA LHR-CPT F promotion. Which OW F lounge is better for departure? Which OW F lounge is better for breakfast? (We’re due to arrive back at 04:45 🙁 ) I think I should be looking at AA for breakfast?

    We’re BA Silver, btw. Thanks.

    • Genghis says:

      19 Jul19 July 10:23

      Cathay F departure.
      AA is only arrivals lounge.

      • Roger1* says:

        20 Jul20 July 07:46

        Thanks, Genghis.

• Andrew says:

  19 Jul19 July 08:50

  OT-ish – Google Flightish…

  I’ve had trouble finding some economy flights that are detailed on Google Flights or the ITA Matrix at £550. I’ve now found that the flights I was looking at appear to be available at $716 (£550) if bought from the airlines US website or £740 if bought from the UK website.

  Am I missing something really important? The taxes appear to be listed ok, or should I be able to just buy with my FX free card and feel smug?

  • the real harry1 says:

    19 Jul19 July 09:04

    If it’s exactly the same fare class, I’d save the money & pat self on back

  • xcalx says:

    19 Jul19 July 09:14

    Happens 95% of the time with cruise bookings, much cheaper using a US website

  • Scallder says:

    20 Jul20 July 03:53

    Also case with Air NZ for domestic flights. Doing Queenstown to Auckland next month and they simply changed the NZ $ sign on the NZ website to a £ sign on the UK website so almost double the price!

• Andi F says:

  19 Jul19 July 09:16

  On the Singapore quirk, you are saving £0.22 for your 120,000 Avios. Good use of Avios right? 🙂

  • Peter K says:

    19 Jul19 July 11:33

    ????

• Third Passport says:

  19 Jul19 July 09:27

  O/T – Flying from LHR T3 and will need to spend a few hours on conference calls before my flight. What’s the best lounge to go into as a BA Silver card holder on a BA flight? I’m thinking in terms of noise level, internet connection (although I can tether if needed). Thanks!

  • Lumma says:

    19 Jul19 July 10:01

    American Airlines lounge is usually the quietest of the 4, should be easier to find a quiet corner. Despite the love for the Cathay and Qantas lounges, I actually like it. I just wish they’d get better beer than Carlsberg or Budweiser

  • Nick says:

    19 Jul19 July 10:07

    Personally, if I absolutely had to use a lounge (and not – say – a Regus or a hotel room or somewhere similarly private) then it would actually be the AA one. It’s large with plenty of space if you time it well around AA departures, and has the best internet speeds (and reliability) of any LHR lounge.

    • Lady London says:

      19 Jul19 July 19:18

      I found the phone signal to be really really bad in QF lounge. Staff seemed to be aware of it as a problem. This was in March.

• V says:

  19 Jul19 July 09:42

  For HKG-LHR

  Iberia charged the same amount of avios as BA but much higher tax.

  (Supposed that flights originating from HKG shall be immune from fuel surcharge as per government regulation. Somehow IB charged fuel surcharge for BA flight originating from HKG while BA doesn’t )

• RTS says:

  19 Jul19 July 09:50

  I have a 241 booked for LHR – SG – LHR. I am flying out in Econ as there was no other class redemption available and back in Biz. What are the chances that BA may release more reward seats in the upper classes closer to the flight date?

  • Rob says:

    19 Jul19 July 09:57

    Might do but Singapore is a busy route. You are also fighting people who want Avios seats to Sydney. Nothing to KL instead?

  • Paul says:

    19 Jul19 July 11:08

    What are your dates? I have recently become intimate with reward seat availability on that route (due to a combination of impatience and boredom).

    • rts says:

      19 Jul19 July 17:39

      flying out on 7th Oct.

• Suzanne says:

  19 Jul19 July 11:52

  I created a new Iberia Plus account for the 90k avios deal at the end of June and was finally awarded them yesterday after going through the back and forth email drama like many others.

  I immediately redeemed for: 42,500 + £75 Madrid to Rio and 51,000 + £85 for a return from Santiago (the same for my boyfriend). I already had cheap positioning flights from London booked as some of the 20 needed to trigger our bonuses, and was fortunate that long haul availability was still there for our required dates by the time I was able to redeem.

  The BA off peak cost for London-Rio is 75,000 + £373.41, and it’s 87,500 + £208.04 for Santiago-London. Across two people this is 187,000 + £320 with Iberia vs 325,000 + £1162.90 with BA. Insane. The value of redeeming on Iberia has been pointed out on this site multiple times, just underlining with a real life booking in case anyone is still grumpy about not being able to move their avios over to BA.

  I have two 2for1 BA vouchers to use but Iberia is potentially looking better value than bothering with them for the other trips I have planned.

• Buddy says:

  19 Jul19 July 12:53

  Beijing London.
  Was booking PEK-LHR over the summer in first. I had secured 27,000 avios in the recent Iberia promotion and was planning to supplement from my BA account for the full amount. Did a search on both BA and Iberial just to confirm they had the same availability and realised it was pricing 120,000 and Iberia and 100,000 on BA, so ended up just booking it on BA and will use the Iberia avios for something else.

  • Rob says:

    19 Jul19 July 12:58

    Thanks

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