Get 1,000 Avios points with your first Airbnb stay

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• Cat says:

  6 Nov6 November 16:02

  OK, emergency advice needed.
  Unfortunately my sister Maz didn’t realise that she needed an ESTA for her 10 month old, she already had her own one sorted. She has 25 minutes until check in closes, she has submitted the application an hour or two ago, but the result is pending authorisation still. They won’t let her check in and won’t take her bags until the ESTA comes through.
  Has anybody got any helpful advice going forward?
  Much appreciated.

  • Cat says:

    6 Nov6 November 16:02

    Is there anything she can do to speed things up at all?

  • Anna says:

    6 Nov6 November 16:12

    Oh no, what a nightmare! I know ESTAs can take days to be authorised and I have no idea what sort of priority they are allocated. Your sister might have to throw herself on the mercy of the airline and ask to be put on another flight. I think the US is pretty unforgiving about these things. It’s very odd that there was no alert in her booking about it though. Let us know how she gets on, fingers x’d for her!

    • Cat says:

      6 Nov6 November 16:19

      I think she’s doing that now. I have x’ed fingers too!

      • AndyGWP says:

        6 Nov6 November 18:01

        I assume she has logged back in to check status, and isn’t relying on an email appearing? 🙂

        • Cat says:

          6 Nov6 November 20:44

          No, she was refreshing every few seconds.
          ESTA came through 15 minutes after check in closed, annoyingly, but they have her on standby tomorrow morning, and she has booze now, so she’s calmed TF down, thank goodness. She was in a right old state earlier, bless her.

  • Anna says:

    6 Nov6 November 18:45

    It also says that it can take 72 hours (our last ones took a couple of days), and that if you submit any incorrect information you have to wait 10 days before you re-apply – so not worth risking under normal circumstances!

    • Lady London says:

      6 Nov6 November 20:13

      Might be a bit too late but I think the trick is to log out from the ESTA site and go back in again. Otherwise it doesn’t refresh and you may be looking at old cache thinking it’s not come when it has.

      I got caught on that the first two times I applied. The third time the delay was real… But only a couple of hours.

      • Cat says:

        6 Nov6 November 20:46

        She has the ESTA now, and is on standby for the flight tomorrow, thank goodness!
        Amazingly, the little ‘un stayed jolly and giggly throughout. She is a little bundle of delight!

  • Anna says:

    6 Nov6 November 21:19

    Hope it all goes smoothly tomorrow for them and she gets to try out all our HFP advice!

    • Cat says:

      6 Nov6 November 22:28

      Thanks Anna! TBH, I think a daytime flight is a far better option than the night flight to Chicago, I don’t know what made her think that would be a good idea!
      I won’t mention this until after tomorrow though!

• mark says:

  6 Nov6 November 16:06

  Ot does anyone know if a points transfer from HSBC to British airways exec account restarts the 36 month account period again? I have some dormant points and i think my exec account is coming to the date where BA can take my points.

  Thank you

  • Rob says:

    6 Nov6 November 16:36

    Yes it will

    • mark says:

      6 Nov6 November 17:08

      Thank you…. just transferred some do u know roughly how long it takes to hit my exec account?
      Cheers Rob

      • Genghis says:

        6 Nov6 November 17:34

        A couple of WDs

• Andy S says:

  6 Nov6 November 17:59

  Once Crossrail is fully open, there is very little point using Heathrow Express. As if you’re travelling to the West End, The City of Canary Wharf it will be just as quick to get a direct Crossrail train.

  They should get rid of the Heathrow Express and use the paths for additional GWR and Crossrail services.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:03

    If course it’s not pointless. I think you mean it’s pointless for the journeys YOU make.

• Rob says:

  6 Nov6 November 19:26

  Lewis, this is secret until tomorrow 🙂

  • Donny says:

    6 Nov6 November 19:29

    Oh, no

  • BJ says:

    6 Nov6 November 20:06

    Does tomorrow mean midnight tonight or some other time…seeing as the cat’s already out the bag! T(Thanks Lewis)

    • Rob says:

      6 Nov6 November 21:25

      Whenever they load them. Not helpful but ….

• The Original Nick says:

  6 Nov6 November 19:45

  Just done a dummy booking for 7th – 11th Febraury (off Peak) and it’s still showing as a full price 52000 Avios return LHR-JFK and no sign of the 50% off.

  • meta says:

    6 Nov6 November 20:38

    I tried Tokyo not seeing discount. It must be from tomorrow, but that might also mean midnight.

  • Rob says:

    6 Nov6 November 21:26

    Weird that, given it’s 6th ….

• Andrew M says:

  6 Nov6 November 20:16

  Any idea if a Lloyds voucher could be used to upgrade from PE with this offer?

  • meta says:

    6 Nov6 November 20:30

    Don’t think so as the T&C say no vouchers. Maybe IT won’t work so 241 will work, but Lloyds upgrades certainly won’t as you need to call to use.

    • Rob says:

      6 Nov6 November 21:24

      241 works

• Grant says:

  6 Nov6 November 20:55

  I’m guessing as it refers to WT, WT+, CW and F that it’s LH only and no discount on SH routes?

• BJ says:

  6 Nov6 November 20:58

  “Interesting…”

  Or probably not so much in most cases given the real attraction is WT and WTP. The devil is in the tax and fees as always; just priced up 2xWTP INV-TYO-EDI coming in at just under £980 + 78k avios. With a notional average value of 1ppa for most folks the real cost of those flights is therefore about €1760. Comoparing that against cheaper miles- and status-earning cash flights on the likes if LH, AF (much better PE) or even BA themselves from a more convenient airpirt then it is not looking so good despite the 50 % avios reduction, and this on a route that’s not amongst the cheapest. However, what’s £35 flexibility worth (assuming these are flexible like normal redemptions)?

  • Lady London says:

    7 Nov7 November 21:09

    Seen loads of Tokyo recently for £500 or less (albeit wasnt looking from Scotland but EDI was there) cash. And BA wants to take your Avios off you as well, for that pretty much same amount of cash, as a cash fare? Curious.

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