News in brief:
British Airways launches new route to Antalya
British Airways has announced a new holiday route for Summer 2020 – Antalya in Turkey.
The route will operate from London Gatwick. There will be up to six flights per week – frequency increases as we get into the Summer – with the first flight departing on 30th April. It is scheduled to run until 29th October although there is always the possibility that it will become a year-round route if successful.
British Airways already runs a Summer-only service to Dalaman from Gatwick and, of course, there are daily flights to Istanbul from Heathrow.
Tickets are bookable now, for both cash and Avios. A standard redemption is 17,000 Avios off-peak / 20,000 peak + £35 in Euro Traveller and 34,000 Avios off-peak / 40,000 peak + £50 in Club Europe. Under the current variable pricing trial, you can choose to pay as little as £1 in tax by using more Avios, although this option is not available if using a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher.
I don’t know anything about Antalya, although British Airways says:
“Antalya is often described as the gateway to the Turquoise Coast with some of the most stunning landscapes in Turkey. The beaches and crystal-clear Mediterranean Sea are perfect for sunbathing, swimming and water sports. As well as the rolling landscapes and beaches, the region has two-thousand years of history with a range of spectacular temples and Greco-Roman ruins close by, as well as a bustling food and cultural scene.”
The hotel scene looks a bit desperate, to be honest. The best option appears to be the four star Crowne Plaza – website here and photo below – which is handy for anyone with IHG Rewards Club status or with IHG points to redeem.
PS. BA giveth and BA taketh away. This announcement came in parallel with the dropping of Summer services from Gatwick to Gibraltar and Limoges. The Heathrow service to Gibraltar will continue.
Congratulations to BA’s IT department
The British Airways IT department generally has very little to celebrate, but it has managed to hit a remarkable milestone this week.
The new British Airways iPad app has just received its 1,000th one-star review. Since virtually no-one has given it two, three, four or five stars, the overall average from ALL reviewers is just 1.1 out of 5.
It is very difficult to achieve a result like this – even with careful planning you could never be certain that everyone would hate your app so much they would give it just a single star – so the team should be proud of themselves.
Take a look (click to enlarge):
20% bonus on transfers to Etihad Guest
Etihad Guest has launched another of its occasional transfer bonuses.
Details of the transfer bonus are here. For UK residents, the key transfer partners which will trigger a 20% bonus are:
Le Club AccorHotels
IHG Rewards Club
World of Hyatt
Radisson Rewards (still called Club Carlson by Etihad!)
Marriott Bonvoy
Hilton Honors
Shangri-La Golden Circle
It is important to note who is NOT on the list – American Express Membership Rewards. You will not get a bonus if you transfer from here. Note that Etihad Guest is no longer a Heathrow Rewards partner.
It is not clear if HSBC is included. It has been included in the past and it is not on the list of exclusions. Etihad says that “Mastercard partners” ARE included …. does this include HSBC Premier Mastercard points?
Transfers must be made by 31st October. The bonus will be added in a separate transaction within 15 days of the end of the promotion.
About Head for Points
Is this an Op Up?
https://mobile.twitter.com/jonmew/status/1182267315859144709
What a hero. I have tears in my ears. Fighting the climate emergency.
I just wanted to point out this is Page 2 of the thread but that all the many interesting comments today are on Page 1 accessible via the Older Comments button.
Turns out there are actually 5 pages of comments responding to this article and the several interesting exchanges I got in to were actually on page 4 out of 5.
Its a good job I only bother looking at the articles and comments when the basic subject line interests me as otherwise posting here could become a full time occupation that gets in the way of normal life.
Number of comments on this article do seem to be remarkably high but I suppose most people who are subscribed to this site are interested in any further public demonstration of BA’s extremely shaky and extensively outsourced IT systems. However hopefully the systems that fly the planes are only under the control of Airbus, Boeing or Embraer and not BA’s very dodgy outsourced Indian IT operation.
This is all a bit unlike further review articles on the world’s most luxurious and expensive hotels, which only those with the largest stashes of Avios can hope to have enough to do a redemption for in terms of both the hotel miles cost and the more or less compulsory associated club or first class long haul redemption.
Julian! You should start your own blog with all those words! Instead of clogging up this one…
But I only have flurries of posting now and again with somewhat longish posts on topics I feel relatively strongly about (I don’t feel strongly about the same old card application bonuses or repeat discounts promotions to buy hotel rooms etc)
Certain other forum members make shorter posts but day after day in response to almost every single HfP article…………
No, he was looking for Upper Class.
Boom boom.
🙂
Love the comment that the plane should have just taken off!
Has someone gone on a keyboard rampage – 198 posts of irrelevance. Can’t talk about [email protected] but can talk drivel deary me
199 now.
And you c o u n t e d them?
ok no one apparently reading or posting further on this article now so it looks like everyone here posts on HfP during work hours on their employer’s time when the drudgery of the job seemingly means that that would much rather be thinking about their next exciting leisure escape…………….
Don’t miss this one! https://priority.o2.co.uk/offers/5d931b70d60180002f9306c1/smartdelay-flying-register-your-flight-for-lounge-access-if-delayed —> FREE LOUNGE ACCESS FOR 02 PRIORITY CUSTOMERS (IF DELAYED)
Flying? Register your flight for lounge access if delayed
Taking you and three friends from frowns to lounge
What’s Priority?
Priority is our way of saying thanks. It’s exclusive to O2 customers and brings you great offers from high street brands, tickets and experiences, as well as access to the best in entertainment.
—> credit so ANOther (John?)
—> I think it’s meant to be easy to get O2 Priority, is it enough just to get a free SIM and activate it?
Or this for those that don’t squeak oxygen bubbles:
https://flightdelaypass.mastercard.com/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
OK provided you have Mastercard Prepaid Platinum Travel
whereas getting O2 Priority is meant to be free and a doddle
Yes just get a payg sim, stick in your phone, activate it and download the priority app
Ok, thanks to both you and Harry. I need a hew backup sim anyway and Priority has some useful offers so I’ll go for it.
I suppose that we Plebeian GiffGaff customers won’t have access to this lounge access on flight delay benefit despite GiffGaff being a wholly owned subsidiary of O2, rather than just an external and separately owned MVNO that uses the O2 network.
Anyway how long does the delay have to be as I was too lazy to research this further. I presume its got to be at least an hour’s delay…………
No, because it’s not an o2 sim…
No its a GiffGaff SIM. But GiffGaff are directly owned by precisely the same Telefonica of Spain as O2 and for that reason their HQ in Slough is now largely branded as Telefonica rather than as O2 as it used to be three or four years ago.
See this thread of nine years ago on the GiffGaff forum that categorically resolved this issue at https://community.giffgaff.com/d/21662-is-giffgaff-owned-by-telefonica and see the current company information for GiffGaff at https://suite.endole.co.uk/insight/company/04196996-giffgaff-limited revealing the company is based in the same building in Bath Road Slough as O2 UK and Telefonica UK. Two of GiffGaff’s three current directors are also main board directors of O2.
So GiffGaff is just another PayAsYouGo brand of Telefonica UK in addition to O2 Pay As YouGo products but with no telephone based support (all support is only via its online community forum or online support tickets)
So on that basis I can see no reason for GiffGaff not to get the flight delay lounge benefits other than its products are slightly cheaper than equivalent O2 Pay As You Go bundled packages.
Different brand, different marketing, different customer service, different price, different target demographic (perhaps) and so different product advantages in the bundle. In short, more brands give them greater market coverage and the chance that people will switch to another telefonica brand at the end of a deal. As an ex customer of both brands the only real difference I noticed was customer services and O2 priority which I didn’t find useful.
Now I’m using ID mobile who provide such poor customer service that the GiffGaff model looks appealing!
thanks Shoestring – just registered by flights for this weekend.
word of warning – although not mentioned in the o2 T&Cs – there’s a limit of two flights that you can register – so need to choose carefully !
Rob, what do you mean by “The hotel scene looks a bit desperate” ?
There are amazing hotels near Antalya.
Seems lacking in high end beach resorts is what I mean.
Well you’re definitely mistaken, I’ve been in Antalya and Kemer area many times. There are lots 5 star of luxurious hotels. Probably best in Europe. Incredible price/performance imho.
Quick tip: you get best deals on Turkish website; https://www.etstur.com/ , no English option, you need to use Google translate.
Are Islam and high end beach resorts involving relatively scantily clad or topless western women flaunting their flesh in public (as the assiduous supporters of Islam choose to see it but I don’t) along with their male partners (which Islam would not be worried about being uncovered) actually a directly correlateable concept?
I think Rob’s comment was simply that there were no high end beach resorts rather than that there were no 5 star luxurious hotels near to beaches in Turkey. By that I’m sure he meant there are no resorts in Turkey where beach life is the main focus of the holiday
Many Turkish resorts are full of tourist, also many Turkish people in that area very open minded.
South coast of Turkey is full of high end beach resorts. It’s just incredible, the whole cost is full of 5 start hotels. Believe me, I’ve been there at least 15 times.
Given that Turkey is a secular country, you are pretty much talking out of your bum-bum.
Total nonsense. As I go twice a year these resorts offer excellent service, some with exceptionally quality food and very impressive value for money. The activities including beach life are great. The resorts I visit include beach volleyball, archery, gun rifle shooting, top golf, kids clubs, Aqua aerobics, full entertainment teams, 7-10 quality a la Carte restaurants. Is there anything you particularly like on holidays that they don’t include?
Nonsense.
Plenty of amazing resorts between fifteen minutes and an hour away from the airport.
OT:
I’ve made six referrals from my Platinum card this year but my online account is only showing four. It doesn’t seem to show any referrals since before I got my new replacement metal card (had plastic one for a couple of months before). Does anyone know if this means I’m still limited to 90,000 total MR for referrals per calendar year, or does changing card actually reset the referral clock?
I don’t think the physical card matters since the 90k cap is per MR account…
OT: SPG Amex.
Their IT has been a bit ropey the last few days. First, my monthly points subtotal disappeared from the app, then last night I made a debit card payment which showed up fine and I got the confirmation email. Today, the payment is nowhere to be seen and my balance has gone back up again. The SPG card logo has disappeared from the card selector on the website, only a grey square showing. I know everything will catch up with itself soon, but a bit irritating when stuff like this happens. I wonder if we’re finally getting a new design/rebrand soon?
Worse even than the JAL (Global) iOS app, which has a 1.4 star rating
I’ve no doubt the app was outsourced and the IT dept have nothing to do with it other than give them access to the APIs to be ably to query the data