News in brief:
BA’s fourth A350 badly damaged by the painters!
In one of the more bizarre stories we’ve covered this year, the delivery date for the fourth British Airways A350 aircraft has been delayed due to a painting accident.
This has practical implications for many HFP readers. If you had been booked on an A350 service in December or January, especially if you were booked into Club Suite, you should keep an eye on your booking. Dubai is believed to be the main casualty. As BA is now an aircraft down, it will have no choice but to substitute a non-A350 and non-Club Suite aircraft on some services.
FlightGlobal first ran the story. This would have taken place at the Airbus factory in Toulouse. To quote:
Airbus is undertaking repairs to a British Airways Airbus A350-1000 after the twinjet was damaged during the final stages of the production process.
The aircraft suffered an “incident”, the airframer confirms, although it has not disclosed the nature of the event or the location of the damage.
Airbus says it is “working with the customer” with the aim of delivering the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered aircraft in December.
FlightGlobal understands, from a source familiar with the situation, that the A350-1000 was parked in a paint shop and sustained surface damage from one of the many pieces of equipment that surround the aircraft in such facilities.
“Airbus has assured us that the aircraft will be fully repaired and delivered shortly,” says British Airways, without elaborating on the circumstances.
Buy cheap Avios via Groupon Spain (again) from 1.06p
The Groupon ‘cheap Avios’ promotion in Spain, with Iberia Plus, is back again. Click here for details.
Of course, all of the information is in Spanish but Chrome can translate the page for you.
The Avios are not a steal at these prices. There is no longer a ‘super cheap’ teaser package of 2,000 Avios and the prices for the other packages are higher than they were a year ago. On the upside, Sterling is currently stronger against the Euro than it has been for a while.
This is the deal:
- 1,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €19 (1.63p)
- 2,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €29 (1.25p)
- 4,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €59 (1.27p)
- 8,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €109 (1.17p)
- 15,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €199 (1.14p)
- 20,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €259 (1.11p)
- 34,000 Iberia Plus Avios for €429 (1.06p)
You will need an Iberia Plus account to redeem your Groupon voucher, and you can then use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move them across to British Airways Executive Club. Please remember that Iberia Plus accounts must be 90 days old before you can use ‘Combine My Avios’, so don’t open a new one specifically to take advantage of this deal.
The page to buy if interested is here.
About Head for Points
OT: when will my hilton gold status expire? Can’t seem to find it anywhere. New to status with hotels as only acquired it through amex plat this year.
End March 2021 if you got it this year
Got it late april of this year i believe