James Hillier is to leave British Airways Executive Club

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• Genghis says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:10

  I don’t know if I’m being stupid but looking at the timings, will this new Emirates flight sit on the tarmac at Stansted for nearly a day before going back to Dubai?

  • Steve says:

    14 Mar14 March 06:20

    Existing flight lands in STN at 13:20 so that will fly out as new flight at 15:00

    New service will arrive at 18:45 and flight out at 20:15 under exisitng service

    Overnight sitting on the tarmac will happen in DXB unless they want to put it into operation on a shorthaul ME route

    • Genghis says:

      14 Mar14 March 10:50

      Of course! 🙂

      • TimS says:

        14 Mar14 March 14:30

        Overnight on the tarmac at STN would be an expensive exercise!
        I can’t remember what the rates were but if we ever had an aircraft with excess downtime we would always position from STN to MSE to save costs…not that that is an option now, either for the airline or the airport!

• IslandDweller says:

  14 Mar14 March 06:23

  @Genghis. No, Emirates are assisting the schedule of the existing flight, so both services will only be in STN for a few hours.
  Be interesting to know what’s driven the success – is it London market or have they tapped into underserved markets such as Cambridge and East Anglia?

  • Rob says:

    14 Mar14 March 06:48

    Have to say, it was fairly full in Business when I did First (despite the rubbish business seat layout) and I was chatting to a guy by the doors who said he flew it once for a fortnight for work. There is probably enough tech- and pharma-driven business from Cambridge etc to fill the premium seats, plus the usual local leisure travellers.

  • flyforfun says:

    14 Mar14 March 06:50

    Combination of both I would say.

    I have a number of friends up there, both Town and Gown. For both it means a saving of several hours or in some cases an overnight airport stay when flying somewhere. My friends in Ely now only have to travel 45 mins to STN, instead of 3 to 5 hours to get to LHR or LGW and with less traffic risk. They have started looking at options Emirates opens up for them, like to Australia where they would have faced a few hours in a car after a 24hr+ flight going from LHR or LGW.

  • Yan says:

    14 Mar14 March 12:07

    and wealthy international students coming to Cambridge schools from Asia, as mentioned in EK press release

    • ADS says:

      14 Mar14 March 12:20

      yeah EK seem to be targeting Cambridge area students – although hard to see that sustaining the flights all year !

• Dominic says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:19

  OT received “exclusive for you” Marriott bonus points offer yesterday, stacking with the 19th March one. 18k points for three stays in 3 months

  • CV says:

    14 Mar14 March 09:10

    Yup! 22.5k points for two stays with minimum two nights before end of April. Quite generous indeed.

    • Russ says:

      14 Mar14 March 10:16

      Here, starting with second stay, 1500 extra points for 3 stays taken before end of May. Not as generous as Dominics which is brill.

    • Dominic says:

      14 Mar14 March 10:49

      I thought I was doing well.. that’s every more generous o.O

  • Dominic says:

    14 Mar14 March 10:49

    To be honest, assuming I don’t receive another in the next three months, yours would actually be of more value to me, as I stay every week on business! But yes, it is a very generous offer for a low stay allowance – although it does awkwardly help me spread my stays between Hilton and Marriott due to low requirement!

• Neil says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:42

  I took this exact flight only 3 weeks ago. Although F was empty when I upgraded using points, the return in J was near capacity. The flight attendant informed me economy only had 3 spare seats, I can only imagine they are pricing this route very competitively but personally the smart ones will pick this plane over an A380 if flying economy. After all, no one enjoys being herded around like cattle.

  • John G says:

    14 Mar14 March 08:05

    You mean prefer the A380 over the 777 right? Try flying a EK 777 then an EK A380 back to back and tell me which made you feel more like cattle! Personal space is terrible on the EK 777 at shoulder level whereas their A380 seats are quite roomy (as Y seats go!)

    • Neil says:

      14 Mar14 March 08:28

      Different strokes for different folks. You prefer the A380, I prefer the 777 purely based on the fact that there isn’t an extra 150 people on the plane. Everything from the speed of the meal service to collecting your bags is painful in Y purely because there is more people. You may also argue that this shouldn’t be true as their is more staff but again, you may have also had a different experience with a different airline.

      • BJ says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:05

        Sounds like your judgement is coloured by your specific seat location on a380. Depending on airlines, the number of pax on an a380 versus a 773ER is not hugely different, and differences in staff will compensate. As for bag collection, that will be largely airport-dependent as opposed to aircraft-dependent.

      • Alex says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:33

        I flew on 777 and 380 before, quietness and normal humidity on 380 made me choose it over 777 on my upcoming flight to Sin (in cattle class).

      • Neil says:

        14 Mar14 March 10:55

        Looks like my experience on the A380 with BA in cattle class is completely different to some. Might be time to give it a go with an ME airline.

  • Sarah says:

    14 Mar14 March 10:37

    Having done Economy on an Emirates 777 followed by an A380 I would hands down choose the A380. I thought the 777 was horrific as the seats were so narrow, and I’m not even a large person.

  • Kevin C says:

    14 Mar14 March 11:20

    I much prefer flying on a 380 in economy class, certainly on the ME airlines. Far roomier.

• Leafwarbler says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:57

  OT – BA’s tier point calculator doesn’t recognise Easter Island (IPC) as a destination even though LATAM fly there from SCL. Anyone know why? Or know what the J tier points and air miles are or this route?
  Thanks.

  • Paul says:

    14 Mar14 March 08:22

    140 tier points. 3k Avios. Both each way.

    I missed out in one direction as I had a phantom LATAM frequent flyer number on my ticket as well as my BA number so make sure you fight to have it removed. Lounge staff said they had fixed it but they didn’t took about a 45 minute before another flight I noticed it happened to remove it.

    Missing out on the Avios didn’t bother me too much as overall I was up because LATAM gave me Avios and tier point on my redemption bookings elsewhere on my trip…

    I stuck some pictures of the trip on my Instagram linked on my name

    • Kevin C says:

      14 Mar14 March 11:25

      We’re going to Easter Island this summer. I will look whenever Instagram works again.

      BA don’t recognise Easter Island for a reward search or a hotel search either. And then I found it absolutely impossible to book internal flights using LATAM’s website. Spent ages putting in all the details and then it failed just before payment. Expedia and Amex Travel worked.

      If anyone has any more tips for Easter Island, the Atacama desert or Santiago, please add them. Thanks.

    • Leafwarbler says:

      14 Mar14 March 14:17

      Thanks, Paul – looks good! Don’t have any loyalty numbers on the booking at all; will ring the Latam call centre to add BA.

      • Paul says:

        14 Mar14 March 20:55

        Also, for Chile flights, book on the LATAM Chile site using google translate if required. Much much cheaper, particularly to Easter island. It is an amazing place

        I can also second atacama and the salt flats

• Louise says:

  14 Mar14 March 07:57

  OT: looking for some advice, have two Lloyd’s Upgrade vouchers, one expires end of March, so looking to maybe redeem both together. It will be 2 Adults and toddler travelling (over 2 so have to get a seat)

  Having mainly travelled west we are considering Hong Kong, and utilising the low taxes back, and maybe using the two upgrade vouchers to upgrade two adults and child to CW for one way HKG-LHR

  We have approx 400k virgin miles and 80k Amex MR points so I was thinking of using them for getting out to Hong Kong, is there any lower tax redemptions I haven’t thought about?

  • Neil says:

    14 Mar14 March 08:32

    Hong Kong would be your best option as you can fly out with Virgin & back with BA using the vouchers.

  • BJ says:

    14 Mar14 March 08:57

    The cheap tax options exHKG I believe you are thinking of ended last November. ExUK, if you want to use your Lloyds voucher and cut taxes you are looking at departing Inverness or Jersey. Unkess either are convenient or you fancy another break then the net saving is probably not worth the hassle.

    • meta says:

      14 Mar14 March 09:39

      No, not yet for BA at least. It’s still £33ish for one-way from Hong Kong and since Louise’s voucher is expiring end of March she can still benefit from the fact that BA hasn’t changed the taxes.

      • Vivian says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:47

        yep, just booked one-way CW ex-HKG yesterday (for flight in November) and the tax was £34.20.

      • BJ says:

        14 Mar14 March 09:47

        Didn’t know that, thanks.

      • Tom1 says:

        15 Mar15 March 04:45

        Slightly related, I just cancelled a VS reward flight from HKG-LHR. taxes were less than £30 so I expected to not get a refund when I cancelled (as VS cancellation fee I thought was £30).

        Got the refund confirmation today and got the full fees/taxes back. So didn’t cost me anything.

        Is that normal?

        • Rob says:

          15 Mar15 March 08:05

          Check that the fee hasn’t been separately charged to your credit card.

• Maciek says:

  14 Mar14 March 08:00

  Shame about James leaving – I had a pleasure of meeting him last year. I hope this is not a sign of new round of “enhancements” coming to BAEC…

  • Mikeact says:

    14 Mar14 March 09:09

    I wonder what this will mean for the EC? I mean I guess that Niall will want to make his mark…….further changes on the way ?

• Anon says:

  14 Mar14 March 08:29

  What’s a good price to India (either DEL or BOM) in J. Can do KLM from LHR for about £1300 which may become closer to £1200 with the Opodo offer, or can wait for a QR sale and try and get it closer to £1000. Ex-EU is fine as well.

  • BJ says:

    14 Mar14 March 08:50

    Try Finnair, seen DEL under £1100 but that was about two years ago and I think fares have generally crept up a little.

  • Dominic says:

    14 Mar14 March 09:16

    £1300 is pretty standard pricing for DEL. Definitely not a deal, but not a bad price either.

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