British Airways trialling short-haul food pre-ordering in Europe

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• Tony says:

  28 Jan28 January 08:55

  As a regular user of Malaga to Gatwick I have always found the buy on board service well executed and decent M & S food served with a smile.
  Pre order might mean BA looking at introducing some hot food.

  • Shoestring says:

    28 Jan28 January 08:58

    top 3 things to do in Malaga? my wife & daughter are going there in a couple of weeks, my wife likes the old town/ historic stuff, obvs a favourite tapas bar recommendation would be useful!

    • Ian says:

      28 Jan28 January 09:17

      Yes the Cathedral and historic centre of Malaga are well worth spending time in. Azahar tapas bar gets mixed reviews but we’ve always enjoyed our meals there. It’s a bit of an Andalucian version of Wetherspoons: microwaved food and cheap beer but it’s a pleasant environment, quiet earlier in the evening and we’ve always had good service.

      • Ian says:

        28 Jan28 January 09:20

        … can’t seem to modify and existing post but forgot to add that a visit up to the Gibralfaro gives great views over the town and sea. You can get a bus up there which drops you off just outside the entrance then walk back down. When you get to the bottom there is a Roman theatre which they were doing up when we last saw it.

    • Colin MacKinnon says:

      28 Jan28 January 09:35

      If you’ve never been, a day trip to Gibraltar? The Lower St Michael’s Cave is one our our worldwide top tips!
      Not to be confused with the Upper one.

    • MrHandBaggageOnly says:

      28 Jan28 January 11:46

      I had a great tapas meal at Nacalu Restaurante Tapas (not as highly rated on TA as I feel it should be) in December and it is close to the cathedral if you’re already in the area. Walking up to the castle takes time, but is worth it for the views on the way up. If you want views without the walk head to the rooftop bar at the AC Hotel.

      You can also get good tapas at Tano’s opposite the Museo Automovilístico de Málaga. Far from posh, but plenty of locals happy to queue for a table on a Saturday afternoon.

    • Pangolin says:

      28 Jan28 January 12:04

      1) Take a tapas tour on the 1st/2nd day of your stay. That way you will get some good restaurant/bar recs for the remainder of your stay. This is standard practice for me when I visit somewhere in Spain for the first time.

      2) Walk up the hill to get some excellent views – or take a Segway if you feel brave!

      3) There’s a great rooftop bar in the centre of town (more suitable for evenings). I don’t remember the name but locals should know.

      4) Take a short trip to Pedrogalejo (Bus/Uber). Eat some grilled fish on the beach. Lots of bars there also, which face onto the beach. Some nice colourful houses for those Instagram-friendly pics.

    • Anna says:

      28 Jan28 January 13:30

      If you like historic sites you can’t beat Malaga castle and the Alcazaba. The Alcazaba is like a smaller version of the Alhambra without the crowds; there is a very pleasant short walk between the two sites with great views over Malaga city and the coast.

    • Shoestring says:

      30 Jan30 January 07:53

      Thanks all

• James 1 says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:02

  Totally OT but looking for family resort options (Domes of Elounda type places) this year. Kids are 7 and 5 so a good club for them would be great. I’m Hilton/Radisson gold. I thought HfP folks may know of good places to recommend?

  • ankomonkey says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:14

    Hilton Dalaman (Turkey). Been 4 times. Kids loved it each time.

• Daniel says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:07

  How does the Finnair service/product compare to BA? In Economy and in Business?
  Is Finnair BoB like BA in Economy?

  • The Original David says:

    28 Jan28 January 09:15

    Free soft drinks in Y, so better than BA. I prefer Finnair business to BA, especially long-haul. They do a great “double bilberry” cocktail!

    • Lumma says:

      28 Jan28 January 10:34

      Finnair always seem to be more expensive than BA. And forget about them if you want to book a one-way cash fare

      • Lady London says:

        28 Jan28 January 10:40

        ideal good use of avios then 🙂

• Anna says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:22

  OT – is anyone else having issues with the Bonvoy app? Although it’s not saying it needs updating, it’s not showing all my booked stays and also doesn’t show the same range of rates I get on my desktop (it shows standard and pre-paid prices, but not deals).

  • Grant says:

    28 Jan28 January 11:07

    Working fine for me. Not experiencing either of those issues

• Ey oop duck says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:23

  OT: does a BA holidays booking with the Amex Gold qualify for 2MR/£ as if it were an airline?

  • Phillip says:

    28 Jan28 January 09:53

    I haven’t tested it but given that it credits as double on the BA Amex, I’d be surprised if the Gold card didn’t do the same. The transactions show as BA.com, identical to flight only bookings.

• BlueLabel says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:26

  Blue Circle Parking meet & greet crashed our car while we were away over Xmas. Appalling customer service – we got a shoddy handwritten note admitting liability at the time, but no resolution since (we got 3 repair quotes and asked them to pay). Can’t speak to anyone by phone, and replies to emails take a week.

  Car not legally drivable so after 3 weeks we’ve had to go through our insurance co, who may or may not recover our excess. Can’t believe such cowboys are able to operate at Heathrow!

  • Lady London says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:02

    You can recover your excess and any other detriment (such as no claims bonus years lost) by suing them. Also you can expect your future insurance renewals to be higher each year for about 5 years. This you can claim off them too.

    • Lady London says:

      28 Jan28 January 10:03

      Get in quick because it looks like they might have lots of claims that will come against them if they are handling cars like this. Claim and get paid out before they (or someone) makes them go bust.

    • Anna says:

      28 Jan28 January 13:20

      +1, one of the things you pay your insurer for is so that you don’t have to chase the other party. I am assuming whoever crashed your car was properly insured though!

      • Lady London says:

        28 Jan28 January 14:11

        Insurers forget to get compensation for the things I mentioned which are real and longlasting effects. Can affect the quotes you get for other vehicles too. A lawyer should be able to advise. Access to one may be included in the policy.

      • Will says:

        28 Jan28 January 16:22

        Often an insurance company won’t chase the other party up as the cost of doing so will exceed the recovery. It’s in cases like this that you really need to do the heavy lifting in my experience.

        I reported my car broken into to the insurance company once, wasn’t worth claiming because the excess was high so I paid to have it fixed (nearly £500). Next renewal my premium doubled on the basis that is reported a break in.

        • Lady London says:

          28 Jan28 January 17:23

          Yes. Even if you have protected no claims bonus and even on an incident that is clearly caused by a third party, even just reported not claimed, you will be asked to pay more for that type of vehicle policy for the next 5 years or so.

          This is a very real cost and is claimable off the third party (where identifiable). Your insurer is quite likely not to do this for you but it’s a loss you should claim

• Stu N says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:35

  OT – we have booked a long weekend to Madrid in June in Business on the BA 777 flights (BA460/461). Our return flight is the new Club Suite layout at the moment, surprised to see that seat on the short route. If anyone is keen to try it on a short haul route might be worth a look at dates.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:00

    Very lucky, the a350 is on that route temporary for staff training again.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:05

    I am feeling very sad for you having to suffer that new plane and its amenities 🙂
    I can console you with the fact that you should not count on it as it’s not inconceivable for the aircraft allocated to your flight to change again.

  • Stu N says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:40

    I’ve worked through the days on Expertflyer – for June, looks like Club Suite on 14-20-22-24-26 at the moment.

    NB as Lady London says, there is a chance of equipment swaps between now and then – it’s always going to be a long haul aircraft BUT could swap between 777s and possibly 787/A350 as well…

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      28 Jan28 January 12:42

      787?
      Never heard of 787 on that route but good if so.

      • Rhys says:

        28 Jan28 January 12:52

        787-10, first one arrives in the next few weeks

        • Stu_N says:

          28 Jan28 January 14:43

          A 787 is rare, they are in short supply due to engine issues. It was a 787-8 when my friend flew last summer, his first trip on a Dreamliner.

        • Rhys says:

          28 Jan28 January 15:12

          Yes, but if BA is flying 787 to Madrid it’s probably the 787-10 for training reasons, just as they did the A350. Scarcity has nothing to do with it!

        • Stu_N says:

          28 Jan28 January 16:00

          Historically I expect it would have been late subs for the regular 777.

          Going forward training on the new 787-10 would make sense, though I’d have thought there would be fairly minimal differences between -8, -9 and -10 versions – just a bit more care when taxiing and try not to clonk the tail off the runway at takeoff.

          (I am not a pilot, as if it needs saying…!)

        • Rhys says:

          28 Jan28 January 16:35

          I believe the Madrid route is attractive because the short flight means you can process crew training at a faster rate.

• The Streets says:

  28 Jan28 January 09:40

  Curve with Apple Pay is here!

  • Alex Sm says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:00

    Really? Heavy OT but thanks

  • Lady London says:

    28 Jan28 January 10:06

    If Curve does Google pay I might jump…

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      28 Jan28 January 10:23

      Curve does work with Google Pay… Has for a few months!

      • ashish says:

        28 Jan28 January 12:20

        This has been kept quite, free points here?

        • Lady London says:

          28 Jan28 January 14:14

          Cheep! Cheep! Our bird in the nest is asking to be fed again!

          Sorry, having a grumpy day

        • Ash says:

          28 Jan28 January 22:13

          I take that as a yes miss lady.

    • Alex M says:

      28 Jan28 January 10:29

      Has been doing that for months. Surprised you didn’t know..

      • Lady London says:

        28 Jan28 January 10:38

        Tx. I might finally take a look at it 🙂

        At least they got their priorities right and launched the app on Android first as having more users than i-things

        • Karen Brown says:

          28 Jan28 January 11:04

          high-five, @BJ 🙂

  • Brighton Belle says:

    28 Jan28 January 12:37

    Well I just added it to Apple Pay and the install told me to verify it via the Curve App. Go there, zilch, nada, nowt to see. Maybe I am just dumb. It might help if there was some guidance what to do.

    • Grant says:

      28 Jan28 January 12:40

      Do it from within the Curve app. It popped up to prompt me as soon as I opened the app.

      • Grant says:

        28 Jan28 January 12:40

        As in start the process from the Curve app not Apple Wallet.

    • Chas says:

      28 Jan28 January 12:41

      I tried it at the weekend having heard rumours that it worked, and couldn’t progress at all (Apple Pay said card type not supported). I tried again today, and worked first time with no in-app authorisation required. It doesn’t help your situation, but would suggest that they’re still slowly rolling it out. Especially as I’ve not yet seen any official communications from Curve that they now fully support Apple Pay.

      • Michael says:

        28 Jan28 January 12:51

        That would make sense. I’ve tried a couple of times already today – each time without success. Tells me to contact the card provider.

        • Chas says:

          28 Jan28 January 13:12

          I’ve now seen a Facebook post from Curve publicising it, so maybe worth trying again or contacting them if it doesn’t work.

    • Brighton Belle says:

      28 Jan28 January 13:35

      Thanks guys. I deleted Curve from Apple Pay and reinstalled it from the Curve App using the button to add it to Apple Pay. It doesn’t install correctly if you add Curve to Apple Wallet that way round.

      But having upgraded to metal my curve limits are almost maxed out so I will treat myself to a Brazilian Mars bar and that’s me done for a month. Silly really as I’m abroad this week in Rio and Halifax Clarity is doing what Curve should be doing. They do leave money on the table.

  • Anna says:

    28 Jan28 January 13:22

    For those of us who are slow on the uptake (for HFP readers!), what does that mean? What’s the advantage to paying with Apple Pay?

    • Harry T says:

      28 Jan28 January 13:24

      It’s more secure than using contactless. Helpful for avoiding fraud, especially when abroad.

      • Lady London says:

        28 Jan28 January 14:16

        Plus refunds can apparently be diverted where you would like

    • TGLoyalty says:

      28 Jan28 January 14:42

      you don’t have a £30 limit if the card machine is set up properly too

      • memesweeper says:

        28 Jan28 January 17:25

        and no re-adding PIN *ever*

  • Liam says:

    28 Jan28 January 16:51

    I managed to add it to Apply Pay with no issues. No need to do it from the Curve app or to verify it in there. Thanks for the heads up.

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