British Airways offering ‘overnight bag drop’ at Heathrow Airport

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• Phill Ramsay says:

  10 Feb10 February 13:02

  If you were flying into T5 with a flight the next day could you bag drop 2 bags after arrival and then just take a 3rd suitcase with you and check in at the 1st wing on the day of the flight with the 3rd bag? Or am I looking at problems doing that!

• BlueHorizonuk says:

  10 Feb10 February 13:20

  OT – But does anyone know of a good insurer for pre-exisiting conditions as I don’t believe the Amex insurance covers for that.

  Thanks

  • BJ says:

    10 Feb10 February 13:57

    Try LV and Direct Travel Insurance. In the first instance I suggest you do a dummy quote for a hypothetical person with a situation similar to yours to get an idea.

    • BlueHorizonuk says:

      10 Feb10 February 14:17

      Thank you

      • Peter K says:

        10 Feb10 February 14:46

        Direct Line used to (3/4 years ago, not sure if still do) provide cover despite conditions under investigation. Most companies do not provide cover something until something is diagnosed.

  • mark2 says:

    10 Feb10 February 15:21

    Lloyds Platinum account includes travel ins which does cover many pre-existing conditions as well as breakdown; it costs £21 per month.
    Other banks do similar schemes.

• Don says:

  10 Feb10 February 13:51

  OT – Amsterdam to NZ for only £1300, really good price though 2 stops needed

  • BJ says:

    10 Feb10 February 14:00

    I think readers will be looking for something a little more specific than that 🙂

    • Rob says:

      10 Feb10 February 14:02

      Article on the way!

    • BlueHorizonuk says:

      10 Feb10 February 14:07

      Assume its the Swiss/Lufthansa companion sale

      • BJ says:

        10 Feb10 February 14:25

        Yes, Rob has article posted already.

• Scott says:

  10 Feb10 February 15:11

  OT: has anyone recently used curve to pay into NS&I? Have they started applying the 1.5% fee? Also is the transaction still treated as financial services?

  • memesweeper says:

    10 Feb10 February 15:28

    – yes, and I’ve not seen a fee yet
    – the categorisation is unclear to me

    • BJ says:

      10 Feb10 February 16:01

      +1, as of last week and no unheated shock on formal statement either.

      • Scott says:

        10 Feb10 February 16:26

        Thank you both.

  • kevbar says:

    10 Feb10 February 17:19

    Yes I can curve to nsi with no fee.

    Can someone please confirm, can I pay into nsi with Monese as it is a debit card?

    • BJ says:

      10 Feb10 February 18:13

      You should be able to but in my exoerience I never know from one day to the next what is possible and what is not with Monese. First I couldn’t top up, now I can top up but cannot withdraw cash.

• U old git says:

  10 Feb10 February 15:33

  Guys, re Amex 2 for 1 voucher. I have just booked my second (thanks for all the advice her on how to make it work). The first time it worked beautifully first out and back to Barbados. This time I have booked first out, and chose seat, but when I booked club back but I cannot look at the seat map and get the message that I can only reserve a seat at check in (I am bronze but will be silver in a few weeks). Any idea why this has happened please? I booked the out leg on line and the return by ringing BA.

  • Rob says:

    10 Feb10 February 15:41

    You can’t book seats for free as a Bronze in Club, but you should see the option to pay for them.

    • U old git says:

      10 Feb10 February 15:57

      Hi Rob. That is what I cannot understand. I am not even able to see the seat map so even if I were prepared to pay for seats at the moment I cannot. I guess I need to ring BA to find out what they have done. Thanks anyway

      • BJ says:

        10 Feb10 February 16:08

        Are you using this path? If not then it should work…
        Go to Manage My Booking, click on flight in question…seats…select seats for this flight.

        • U old git says:

          10 Feb10 February 16:17

          HI BJ. Yes I tried that still get the same message. I will see what BA say.

        • BJ says:

          10 Feb10 February 16:27

          Sometimes you cannot select a seat because the reservation has not be ticketed (your reservation is still locked in if you have a PNR) or because of equipment issues. Possibly also just a temporary glitch. With the weather and virus, calling BA is probably not a great idea at tbe moment. I think I’d just wait and try tomorrow or after you’re silver.

        • Anna says:

          10 Feb10 February 17:33

          As per BJ, you might want to double check that the return leg has been booked properly, i.e. you have a ticket number as well as your booking reference. I have seen comments from people on here who have turned up at airports to find that a booking agent has not ticketed them properly and they have been denied boarding and forced to buy new tickets.
          And I am well jell that you are going to Barbados in F, have a fab time!

        • Lady London says:

          10 Feb10 February 17:39

          Looks like an equipment change or reschedule might be being contemplated.

        • Lady London says:

          10 Feb10 February 17:51

          Also if you can’t even see the seatmap all Club seats might currently be reserved/held back and they might be expecting to downgrade/upgrade people.

          I believe Barbados may be a route that actually sells seats in First so I’d be more worried about a downgrade. Are you by any chance on a 2_4_1? :-(. I’d call them while there are still other options of my choosing not BA’s. You may have to do a Harry T. on them after they tried to pull that on him for Tokyo.

  • Spaghetti Town says:

    10 Feb10 February 15:45

    I think bronze will make you pay until 7 days before departure – if you’re silver soon just wait until then and select your seats.

• Anna says:

  10 Feb10 February 17:01

  OT – if anyone is considering using the Farfetch Amex offer, be prepared for a lot of hassle if anything goes wrong. They sent me the wrong handbag and are now saying that they can’t replace it, only give a refund if it’s returned, and I would have to place a new order – though the correct bag is now sold out as it was in the sale. Moreover, they will only send the refund to the original payment card, which would void the Amex offer.
  To add insult to injury, I ordered two identical bags (apart from colour), and the “error” bag looks suspiciously like it’s been used and returned, as unlike its counterpart, it has been fully assembled and some of the packing is missing!

  • Shoestring says:

    10 Feb10 February 17:09

    could you get it away on Ebay/ Gumtree?

    • Anna says:

      10 Feb10 February 17:35

      Probably but it was going to be a birthday present so I now have to find something comparable!

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      10 Feb10 February 19:06

      You can sell on Gumtree? Wow, all I use to get were time wasters wanting big money off so a bit like FB marketplace.

  • VJ says:

    10 Feb10 February 17:27

    “Moreover, they will only send the refund to the original payment card, which would void the Amex offer.”

    Isn’t it with every online purchase?

    • Anna says:

      10 Feb10 February 17:34

      I’m sure there could be some sort of flexibility given the circumstances, where a manager could override the requirement.

  • Lady London says:

    10 Feb10 February 17:36

    Sounds like they knew they couldn’t fulfil the order when they realized they hadn’t your quantity of 2 left. So they took a chance on having you accept the second unwanted item as it would be too much hassle for you to return it.

    They’re wrong. You don’t have to lift a finger to return the incorrect item. It’s not what you ordered. Moreover its condition indicates it’s been used/not a new item. All you have to do is notify them provably – where they may collect the incorrect item from and give them say, 10 working days (say 2 weeks) to collect. Make it easy for whoever they arrange to pick it up, to contact you or whoever they should call on to collect. I believe after that time if they haven’t collected, the property is yours to dispose of as you see fit. This was on MSE a while back – it might be part of whatever replaced the Sale of Goods Act.

    Re Amex credit that’s a sticky one. I wouldn’t accept a refund that did not include the value lost by no longer qualifying for the offer. I think you are stuck with this if you dont want to agree with them that they will replace the unwanted item with a considerably higher value item that you can sell, keeping the originally paid order untouched as a condition. You have the leverage of them having to arrange someone to collect the unwanted item at your house/your other nominated location – you absolutely do not have to take it to the post office/collectplus location.

    Let us know how it turns out?

    • meta says:

      10 Feb10 February 17:47

      I had the similar issue with Brandalley and Amex offer couple of years ago for a Christmas present. After back and forth with useless customer service for 2 weeks, I sent an email to CEO. It was then quickly resolved and they returned the money and gave me extra compensation to cover for the lost Amex credit. If you go down the CEO route, I would make a bit of a fuss that they ruined your friend/family member birthday. I also stressed that the only reason I bought from them was because of the Amex offer.

    • Anna says:

      10 Feb10 February 17:55

      I agree 100% LL, I strongly suspect there was no “packing error” at all! If they were prepared to send me a replacement bag of a similar value and leave my order unchanged I would be happy to leave it at that, but I am roundly hacked off that their policy appears to be only return and refund, whereby I would lose 5000 bonus avios. Alternatively, I would need to place a new order (and pay their rather high P & P fees) to take the Amex spend back up to £250 before the offer expires. If the offer had expired already I would be much more than hacked off!

      • Lady London says:

        10 Feb10 February 18:52

        Your leverage is you making them collect the incorrect item. They really wont want to do that (time and cost). They really weren’t expecting you to know you can reject the item as incorrect and also used, and formally notify them to collect to a deadline without lifting a finger thus calling their bluff.

        Even if you agreed to place a further order it should be with no shipping charge as their error is the only reason you’d be doing this.

        Your minimum position is you require £50 cash compensation (not merchandise credit) for losing the Amex credit, and they must collect to time as above and refund you promptly.

        Your alternative is to request a chargeback from Amex as goods not as described. That will really h”ck them off as it seems to be a really bad thing for a merchant’s record with the card companies. Makes a mess of your £50 compo though.

        s.75 would have applied if it was a credit card- in which case you could have sourced a full price replacement and it would have been covered.

        I’d send them a formal note right now rejecting the item and why, stating the full refund amount you require (ie+£50 compo for loss of the Amex offer due to being forced to refund), and giving them 14 days to collect the item from your designated address with a phone no. they are to call to arrange a time. Give it a few days for them to propose something different. Gut feeling is do it quickly I have an odd feeling about this one.

        • Shoestring says:

          10 Feb10 February 18:56

          @Anna – was it an Amex credit card? valid point about S75 and therefore credit card co having a contract to supply you with what you actually ordered without you suffering any financial loss

        • Anna says:

          10 Feb10 February 21:06

          I’ve emailed them asking for suitable compo – there are quite a few reviews on Trust Pilot from people who have waited months for refunds from Farfetch and generally had a bad time with them, having received used (like me) or even fake goods. I may also write to Amex about the companies they do offers for, though I’m not sure they’ll take any notice!

        • Lady London says:

          10 Feb10 February 22:09

          Hum. Looks like my gut feeling about moving swiftly on this one could be a good idea.

  • Anthony says:

    10 Feb10 February 22:05

    I had the same experience with them back in the summer, bought a pair of shoes as a present and completely the wrong thing arrived. I was told to send it back and then they’d refund me. After some explaining that the only reason I ordered was because of the Amex credit they offered me a £50 discount. They didn’t tell me that it couldn’t be used on the order correcting their mistake so ended up spending hours on the phone trying to get my money refunded. Eventually gave up and returned everything for a full refund

• Harry T says:

  10 Feb10 February 17:45

  Very OT:
  Looking to fly SQ first class suites on a redemption. Are their old or new suites a better choice? Both look amazing and I know SQ service is legendary.

  • meta says:

    10 Feb10 February 17:55

    Which route? Forget getting new suites on Singapore-London route, bit better the other way round. I am really looking forward to my trip in April from Singapore on the old suites. In any case both are great. To get a better deal for my points, I did it via transfer of MR points from Amex UK to Amex IDC, so I got 30% more due to exchange rate at the time. Charges from Singapore were $25, so saved on that too. You need to book either close to departure or a year in advance to stand a chance. Also if no seats available check Paris or Zurich. Don’t forget waitlisting from London (if that’s what you want) before you book!

    • meta says:

      10 Feb10 February 17:56

      I meant to say first waitlist then book something  less acceptable.

    • Harry T says:

      11 Feb11 February 07:47

      Beijing or Shanghai to Singapore. Lots of availability when I’m looking for both.

  • BJ says:

    10 Feb10 February 18:02

    The old ones have a double bed. Not certain but I think that I read that the new ones don’t. IMO, the service on SQ is overated. Similarly ‘book the cook’, a good selection but average quality. Their punctuality in my own experience is crap, and I had two 777s to SIN and DPS go tech on me in a row. Thus, apart from a380 I lost faith in them abd made no further effort after thd demise of BMI DC.

    • meta says:

      10 Feb10 February 18:19

      New ones have double bed too, but I think only one row opposed to two rows on the old one. Can’t comment on SQ punctuality, but last year every single one of my long-haul flight on BA was late and some went tech for couple of hours. A few short-hauls too.

      • BJ says:

        10 Feb10 February 18:36

        They have a lot of new aircraft since I last flew them so hopefully punctuality and reliability have both imoroved. It looks like their regional product has improved a lot in the last five years too as a result.

        • Lady London says:

          10 Feb10 February 19:05

          I believe on SQ, J is the sweet spot rather than F. I did J, took a look in F and thought not much difference and I wouldnt pay extra for it.
          Service may be different though of course. Whereass SQ Y (you remember Y, Harry ? 🙂 ) is perfectly adequate – but SQ J a huge step up from that.

          This was the older version of J with the huge armchairs and physically it was better than current QR J on the A350.

        • Harry T says:

          11 Feb11 February 07:50

          @LL
          I actually managed to do their 2017 J when it first came out – London to Darwin. Very very impressive, especially the service. Would like to give F Suites a go, as I doubt I’ll ever be able to afford it or have the points for long haul. Would be a nice treat for my Little lady too!

    • Harry T says:

      11 Feb11 February 07:49

      Thanks, BJ. Looks like new ones have a double bed too but there have been some hiccups with the design. Having never flown F, I’m excited by the thought of getting Cathay and SQ F into the same trip, all on points (doubt is ever be able to pay for them!).

      • Simon says:

        15 Feb15 February 19:53

        @ Harry T, I have done Suites nine times now, old and new, usually en route to Oz. Worth every mile spent l, to my mind. In spite of BJ’s comments, Book The Cook has been excellent in my experience. The double beds are great in either iteration, though obviously you need to be traveling with a partner to enjoy this unless you buy two seats for yourself. 😁 The new suite has a separate rotating chair, too, unlike old suites, which allows you to look out of the window square-on, which is great for AV geeks like me. The Blue Mountain coffee also goes down a treat, as does The Private Room at Changi. (It’s unwritten rule, too, that you’ll gain access on an ARRIVING SQ F ticket, not just an outbound one, FWIW.) Having also flown the EY Apartment in October, they are both excellent products, though EY does have a shower, which was fun, though not life-changing.

• rams1981 says:

  10 Feb10 February 18:38

  OT visa offers. Used at Morrison’s to buy gift cards @10% discount on Saturday and just had email tracking the credit.

  Don’t earn Amex points but still 10% is worthwhile.

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