You will soon see a ‘refresh’ of the British Airways Chicago, Berlin and Edinburgh airport lounges

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• guesswho2000 says:

  16 Jan16 January 11:30

  OT as no bits, if anyone’s been making use…of Curve Send, the latest update isn’t for you. Not sure if it still works in the old, they got a bit touchy with me over it.

• Paul says:

  16 Jan16 January 11:52

  Ive had most of my X4 post.

  However I enrolled in a double your accelerate points if you hit all you targets. I hit them got around 47k. Now IHG are wanting proof that I enrolled how ever I cannot find the email. I have sent them a photo of my offers page but still no luck!

  Feeling very annoyed to say the least!

  • Craig says:

    16 Jan16 January 13:59

    Browser history? Long shot I know but it may show the date you visited the site?

• BJ says:

  16 Jan16 January 13:08

  Not much fussed about lounge furnishings, mood lighting etc as long as they are clean and in reasonable shape.. Would much prefer to see them substantially improving the food and beverage options across all lounges, and deny lounge entry to BA and other OW status holders flying economy in an effort to resolve the overcrowding problems at some lounges at certain times. Failing that, just get larger lounges or have different lounges for those flying WTP, CW and F from those flying Y with status. Something has to give, the lounge experience has deteriorated more than any other aspect of premium flying during the last decade.

  • BJ says:

    16 Jan16 January 13:24

    And just saw this…
    https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/travel/airport/united-club-and-lounges/locations.html

    • sunguy says:

      16 Jan16 January 16:37

      Well, that settles it then……

      My company only will fly me economy – I was thinking about doing some mileage runs to gain some type of status with United (hadnt quite gotten as far as figuring which program or tier – was thinking Lufthansa – Miles & More) – but why would I now bother ?

      • Liam says:

        16 Jan16 January 18:26

        It’s not ideal but this is only restricting access to third-party lounges in airports/terminals where United doesn’t have its own lounge. It’s not restricting the ability of someone with United Gold from visiting other Star Alliance lounges.

        • Lady London says:

          16 Jan16 January 18:41

          Not yet. It will surely lead to tit for tat. Could also become infectious elsewhere which is the real worry.

    • Lady London says:

      16 Jan16 January 18:40

      This only affects only third party/contract lounges.

      Does not apply to Star Alliance actual airline lounges.

      Seems a fair indicator that payment between *A airlines, at least, for passengers across lounges is “netted” I.e.all accesses totalled up by operating airline of passenger, then hosted passengers by that airline’s lounges deducted, and only the net difference paid periodically between airlines.

      Whereas, contract /third party lounges prob require cash to be paid by operating airline.

      Thinking the above because presumably United is trying to save paying out real cash per passenger using a lounge, by this move.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    16 Jan16 January 13:24

    So deny status holders there main benefit of their status?

    • BJ says:

      16 Jan16 January 13:38

      I would say the main benefit is earning more avios. Many will have access to other lounges via other means, and given that many of these other third party lounges are often better anyway, I don’t think it would be such a big deal. I think overcrowded lounges is a problem that needs to fixed and in the absence of better solutions this is the quickest and easier fix.

      • BJ says:

        16 Jan16 January 13:45

        They could start with OW status holders, that might be enough to solve or significantly reduce the problem at T5 without impacting BA status holders. It wouldn’t be the first time a partner has ignored alliance lounge rules.

        • Rhys says:

          16 Jan16 January 14:00

          That would be short sighted since other airlines would reciprocate and all of a sudden you’d be stuck in Singapore without being able to go the Qantas lounge!

        • Riccatti says:

          17 Jan17 January 08:39

          But majority at T5 are BA/IB status holders already. Also, given limited ability for UK customers to gain miles/status with other airlines, and no RFS on their miles.

          Qatar departs from T4

          AA, CX, Qantas departs from T3.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        16 Jan16 January 15:50

        The extra Avios aren’t worth 2 people being admitted to a lounge on most return journeys.

        If BA exclude OW members then they will exclude BA members too.

        LHR overcrowding could be better managed with giving people more notice of which gate they’ll be going to and making the B lounge more known.

      • Lady London says:

        16 Jan16 January 17:40

        I couldn’t give a r*ts a$$ about earning avios. On an Economy ticket, that’s not going to happen.

        But most of my clients will only fly me Economy. Especially for short haul.
        What I am looking for, is something that will make the weekly grind in airports bearable and efficient. A non-alcoholic bev and a spot to work.

        There’s no other reason for me to have airline status. Becuase if I want to fly Business I just pay.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        16 Jan16 January 20:55

        Could always just leave the overcrowded BA longe for the better less crowded lounge you have guaranteed free access to BJ?

      • AJA says:

        16 Jan16 January 23:35

        I disagree with you BJ. Extra Avios earned from status is not a bad perk but the lounge access when travelling Y or WTP is the biggest perk of status in any airline FF program. That and also being able to access alliance partner lounges as a status FF in another airline program.

        Restricting access to only biz / 1st class passengers means the point of gaining status disappears if you only get to fly economy. Biz class pax get lounge access anyway with their ticket.

  • Riku says:

    16 Jan16 January 13:39

    I think lounges have gotten much better in recent years (i’m talking about airline lounges, not the third party ones). Hot dishes are now common – I can remember years ago the LH senator lounges in Frankfurt and Munich offered nothing more substantial than a sandwich now they have several hot dishes. And the CX and Qantas lounges are excellent – have no complaints there, neither with the JAL lounges at NRT or AY platinum lounge at HEL.

    • BJ says:

      16 Jan16 January 14:00

      I was referring in the main to BA, I think they need to improve their food offering. The main issue I see though is overcrowding and this affects others as well as BA. In some airports at some times it is so bad that the lounges have just become unpleasant.

      • Mark says:

        16 Jan16 January 14:05

        Keep out the great unwashed! 😉

        • BJ says:

          16 Jan16 January 14:37

          Now you mention it, BA need to improve their showers too. I have not used a great lot of lounge showers but BA have the worst I’ve tried.

  • Lady London says:

    16 Jan16 January 17:38

    ” Pull the ladder up, Jack ” ?

• Journeying John says:

  16 Jan16 January 16:12

  I wonder if they’ll; clean, and maintain and stock them adequately now?
  BA seem to have wholly given up on providing customers service these days, but spending on puffy PR announcements when things get so bad they’re forced to spend a little of their sector leading profits

• Mike says:

  16 Jan16 January 17:22

  If only they’d refresh the offering in STR!

• Scottydoggiom says:

  16 Jan16 January 18:32

  OT , can anyone answer me a question about the travel insurance that comes with Amex Platinum .
  I have 3 or 4 trips coming up this year so need to take out anual family travel insurance which is coming out at about £100 .
  Im planning to take out an amex platinum in the next couple of months (mainly for the lounge access)
  Will Amex insurance cover me for these trips , as they are already pre booked before i
  took the card out , sure i read somewhere that you are covered if you pay for the trips on that card ? could be wrong

  Also as a side note , 1 of them holidays is a ski holiday that im going on with friends , wondering if that will be covered too ?

  • Nick Burch says:

    16 Jan16 January 18:48

    IIRC For most of the benefits (but not all), you need to pay on a personal UK-Amex if the merchant accepts Amex. If you paid on another Amex you have, you should be fine if you took the Plat out later, if you paid with Visa/MC you may be in trouble if you booked with someone who takes Amex

    Most of the Plat insurance only covers the cardholder and their family. However, the Plat comes with 1xPlat Supp, 2xGold Supp and 2xGreen Supp for free. Supplemental cards are posted to you by default. So, I believe you can issue a supp to all your friends, and as long as the holiday all went on one of your Amex’s, I think you all ought to be covered. However, best read through the Insurance docs to check!

    Also, for skiing, I think it’s only off-piste if you have a suitable guide with you

    • Craig says:

      16 Jan16 January 20:13

      Platinum is one platinum supplementary and four gold or green, so you can have four golds.

• Sk123 says:

  16 Jan16 January 19:35

  OT: Hilton Honors is showing updated status but my points have gone down by about 8,000! Why is that? I’ve stayed at many Hiltons so it’s not a case of some expiring. Any other reason? I was of the understanding that status gets updated on 31st March. I have Diamond status now but was expecting it to expire on 31st March but has something changed?

• Harry says:

  16 Jan16 January 23:06

  OT: Do you get referral bonus for the AMEX Rewards Credit Card from platinum charge card? The rewards credit card is no fees but shows as an alternative card with referral link?

  • Rhys says:

    17 Jan17 January 09:27

    It used to be that you wouldn’t get any bonuses for referring FROM the ARCC, but that changed late last year. Logically you would expect to receive a bonus when being referred to it now, although logic doesn’t always prevail in this industry!

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