The new Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Heathrow Terminal 2 and T3 is open

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• Shoestring says:

  4 Jul4 July 09:12

  If you had to choose a friendly Oneworld loyalty program to credit your BA economy flight to, which one would you choose? Ie one that gives full points for miles flown in Economy, one where you can use the points to get future BA redemptions, one with friendly points expiry rules.

  • Alex W says:

    4 Jul4 July 09:16

    I think Alaska ticks your boxes. Needs activity every 2 years to prevent expiry.

    • Lyn says:

      4 Jul4 July 12:53

      Except that Alaska doesn’t give full miles for most BA economy fares. Some are only 50% or 25%.

      • Lyn says:

        4 Jul4 July 17:25

        And of course it’s not actually in One World.

        • :Lady London says:

          5 Jul5 July 23:58

          Has tie-ups though Shoestring that might match some of the ones I think you were hoping might come out of the Virgin merger.

      • Shoestring says:

        4 Jul4 July 17:36

        So what’s the best Oneworld program?

        • Lyn says:

          4 Jul4 July 20:28

          Sorry, I can’t personally recommend the best one. I am familiar with Qantas, BA, Alaska, Iberia and American frequent flyer programmes but use them for very different circumstances. I don’t think any of these really beat BA (with RFS for European redemptions) for BA economy flight credit if you are UK-based.

          Hopefully someone else has experience with the other One World airlines and can recommend one.

        • Shoestring says:

          4 Jul4 July 20:48

          I just need a non BA/ IB loyalty prog I can send my BA Avios to, then use them on BA flights later on

          obvs I want the one that is ‘friendliest’, gives most miles per mile flown, doesn’t expire too unfairly

        • Lady London says:

          5 Jul5 July 23:51

          I ws about to
          – endorse Alaskan – lots of sweet spots apparently (I personally think the current alliances – or certainly Oneworld – won’t last forever)
          – suggest AA – but if you are not yet flying in America while kids growing up, probably less useful
          – Asiana, Ethopian, TK – all of which have certain interesting features then I remembered they’re all Star Alliance not Oneworld
          – JAL. At the back of my mind I remember a particularly savvy blogger recommending this little known program – apparently it has a few sweet spots. they may not be BA sweet spots though. But I think there’s value there.
          – not QF, for sure

          sorry not to be more help

  • Alex W says:

    4 Jul4 July 09:18

    Try wheretocredit.com

• Anna says:

  4 Jul4 July 09:32

  OT, sorry! Our summer holiday includes my OH flying on a cash booking with 4 BA flights which will earn him 360 tier points in total. I am right in thinking that a) this will get him to Bronze, and b) this will last him nearly 2 years as the flights are a month after his BA membership year re-starts? (Flights are in August and membership year is July-July). Also – to take advantage of Bronze (e.g. seat selection 7 days prior to travel), should future bookings be made on his account or does it only need him to be travelling?

  • Genghis says:

    4 Jul4 July 09:35

    1) Yes – around two years
    2) No – he only needs to be travelling

    • Anna says:

      4 Jul4 July 12:45

      Thanks Genghis – I hadn’t realised that it was that easy to get status through paid bookings. Having to fly from MAN is actually a bonus in this case!

      • AJA says:

        4 Jul4 July 13:03

        Anna, your o/h will also only have to do one more paid return flight in CW before July next year to earn silver status which would also be valid until July 2021.

      • AJA says:

        4 Jul4 July 13:12

        Or a return CE booking on an 80 point route plus a CE 40 point return, e.g. MAN – HEL (160Pts) & MAN – LHR (80pts) 360 + 160 + 80 = 600 = Silver.

• RussellH says:

  4 Jul4 July 09:37

  Rob wrote:
  > I’ve never been too sure what a Hilton Garden Inn is meant to be, as opposed to a standard
  > Hilton or DoubleTree.

  I agree. We stayed at the HGI in Abingdon a couple of weeks ago. It too had only recently opened (it was a rebuild + extension of the Four Pillars Abingdon). Our room was not in the new build extension, but it was still a brand new room with a large + comfortable bed. Staff were excellent; not always on top of everything but ready to smile and be apologetic if they made a small mistake. No big mistakes.

  But yes, where did it fit in the scheme of things? It was nothing like the DTs we had stayed at the two previous nights (Milton Keynes + Newbury) and more expensive than both – it is marketed as ‘Oxford South’ so that they can charge an Oxford premium.
  My initial reaction on entering the place was HIE Superior, but the standard was definitely higher than most HIEs. Probably the closest it came to architecturally was the Moxy LHR, though that is very dark and noisy, while this HGI was very light and airy. Only real downside was that the restaurant area was too small at breakfast, but this was a Sunday morning when they probably serve more breakfasts than they do during the week.

  • Michael Jennings says:

    4 Jul4 July 12:01

    You don’t seem to find Garden Inns in city centres. The brand seems to be more “Airports, suburbs and suburban office parks”. Rather nondescript hotels in somewhat nondescript (although not always cheap) locations. “Nondescript” doesn’t mean bad, though – they are often quite pleasant places to stay.

    • Graeme Price says:

      5 Jul5 July 00:21

      There’s a Garden Inn in Aberdeen city centre – new build that opened c. 2009.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Jul5 July 23:44

      Gyms and the odd washing machine athe few HGI’s I’ve stayed at. I’d take an airport HGI over most others and prices often towards the budget range.

• Gavin says:

  4 Jul4 July 09:52

  Sadly nowhere near that price around Easter 2020

• V says:

  4 Jul4 July 09:58

  O/T: Have 2 tickets for Monday as we can no longer attend.

  • Jon Lansing says:

    4 Jul4 July 10:13

    I would be very keen for one ticket.
    @Rob, can you please help us exchange our email addresses?

    • Rhys says:

      4 Jul4 July 10:15

      Email me both rhys [at] headforpoints.co.uk and I’ll put you in touch.

      • Neil Donoghue says:

        4 Jul4 July 10:39

        I am looking for a ticket as well please

        • Rob says:

          4 Jul4 July 11:32

          Email Rhys. We may also have a few spares because we held back a block for Marriott and they may not be taking them all up.

• AJA says:

  4 Jul4 July 10:05

  O/T A couple of months ago I booked a 241 trip in CE to Madrid for later this month with the return on the BA461 which is the flight flown on the 777. It was either that or lose the 241 as I could not find any availability on any long haul route I wanted to go to.

  When I booked I thought it was a 3 class jet as i managed to reserve seats in the first row (I am Silver and that’s what came up on screen) but yesterday I noticed that on Seat Guru it lists the flight as a 4 class 777 and when I log on to BA it now shows rows 1 to 4 available F seats. I tried to reserve seats in row 2 but don’t get a confirmation so changed back to my original reserved seats.

  This is because my last experience on the flight to Tenerife ended up with me in the very last row.

  Is there a way to definitely reserve in rows 1 to 4 or do they upgrade at check in? Should I call BAEC?

  • Jonathan says:

    4 Jul4 July 15:36

    I wouldn’t risk sitting there as the First cabin won’t be used unless they need the seats for capacity reasons so you may be booted out into whatever seats are left at any point up to departure time. Best bet is to pick good seats in Club & ask at check-in if they are using F & if so can you move. Various reports of it being kept for Golds or open to all.

    • AJA says:

      4 Jul4 July 19:50

      Thanks Jonathan. I definitely do not want to get pushed further back in the cabin. I thought that might happen. I still have my reserved seats in the first row of CW. It will still be a nice experience to have a flat bed just for a 2 hour flight.

• Nick_C says:

  4 Jul4 July 10:05

  BA A350 Madrid

  According to a comment on https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2019/07/03/the-big-picture-british-airways-a350-1000-on-first-flight/

  “The dates and flights have been confirmed for the LHR-MAD familiarisation flights. For August and September, starting 6th August:

  Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri – BA464/BA465
  Thu, Sat, Sun – BA456/457 and BA464/BA465

  A couple of dates are non-operational due to training and other requirements.”

  I’ve not tried to verify this

  • Rhys says:

    4 Jul4 July 10:23

    Those dates have been on FlyerTalk this week. We have a few dummy bookings to try and get on it – but this hasn’t been confirmed by BA yet and the A350 isn’t on schedules and probably won’t be on schedules until just before the flights actually go.

  • Doreen says:

    4 Jul4 July 11:42

    Wasn’t 5th August a possible start date for the Pilots’ strike ?

• Aston100 says:

  4 Jul4 July 10:12

  I hear Qatar often swap out the Qsuite planes so there is no guarantee you’ll end up in Qsuites, despite the Qsuite flight numbers stated on their website.
  This bothers me greatly as I intend to fly from ARN with Qatar next year and not getting Qsuites is a deal breaker for me.

  • Shoestring says:

    4 Jul4 July 10:51

    got enough money for fully flex?

    • Aston100 says:

      4 Jul4 July 10:55

      Is that about double the price?
      If so, for close to that amount of money I would rather fly from LHR where I think you are almost guaranteed a Qsuite (and don’t need to reposition to ARN).

      • Shoestring says:

        4 Jul4 July 11:07

        I took you at your word – dealbreaker – in which case you need to do some contingency planning (if it came to be there were no Qsuites on the day) or decide on a different route somewhat earlier

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