British Airways drops plastic cards for Executive Club status members

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• Newbie A says:

  13 Mar13 March 05:37

  I was meant to travel to Japan on Sunday, have decided long ago we won’t be going. I was hoping that BA would cancel the flight or travel advice changes so I would get more back than my taxes (not an avios redemption). I wanted to see what others’ experience were? Are you just accepting the financial loss?

  • meta says:

    13 Mar13 March 06:03

    To be honest, it’s better in Japan than in the UK. Only 4 cases yesterday. Since there are less tourists, less chances to get infected.

    I’m afraid, you won’t be getting anything back as there is no FCO advice and Japan is still not imposing any restrictions for UK. You can wait, but I doubt it will change today/tomorrow.

    I’m due to fly in 13 days. I plan on going, but I am just worried that they will either cancel the flights or impose restrictions for UK. We just wait and see how it evolves. Everything is mostly cancellable (points bookings) or otherwise have refundable rates. I have a few activities and one independent ryokan I had to pay for in advance. The ryokan said they would refund me if necessary which was nice. In grand scheme, it’s not a lot of money lost and if things change regarding advice/restrictions, I will hopefully able to claim on insurance.

    • BJ says:

      13 Mar13 March 06:44

      I agree that one of the main concerns now are restrictions placed on UK travellers by other countries. Unfortunately the approach taken by our government is likely to mean more, and longer, travel restrictions for people in the UK compared to travellers from other countries where they seek to solve the problem quickly by imposing extreme measures.

      • Anna says:

        13 Mar13 March 06:58

        This is what I said yesterday and got shouted down…
        Also, if people go ahead with trips (e.g. Japan) they need to check that their insurance would still cover them if they fell ill while on holiday. A poster mentioned yesterday that his insurance wouldn’t cover pandemics.

        • Newbie A says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:07

          Thanks everyone, that’s what I thought. Unfortunately we have carer responsibilities and only have cover for the 8 days we were planning so cannot risk being stuck. All but one night of my hotels were points /certificates so they were all cancelled with no problems. Agoda managed to get me a free cancellation on that one night I paid in advance and supposed to be non refundable, which is a plus. The flexibility with points redemption has been a massive benefit of this hobby.

          I now have a bunch of hotel certificates that will expire over the next few months and unclear how I will use them :s

        • meta says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:09

          @Anna Good thing that you mentioned. Need to check our insurance policy. I guess I could always though it out in Japan (at least have friends there who could help us out in case my partner and I need to self-isolate).

          And this goes to show that everybody’s situation is different!

        • Doug M says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:28

          Perhaps the Gov had bigger concerns than holiday plans. The closing schools one will always be a judgment call, hard to say right or wrong as we’ll never be certain what the other will have led to.

        • Cat says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:38

          Well longer travel bans will affect the economy, as well as holidays, won’t it?

          I posted the comments below WRT the schools remaining open. Before anyone asks, no I’m not a medic or an epidemiologist, but I am an expert in children’s behaviour en masse, after 17 years in this job. Also @LadyLondon – I did the same thing to my sister many times, before she had kids, also housemates, before buying my flat!

          Anna’s absolutely right, for the simple reason that children are the ideal vector. They pick their nose, they bite their fingernails, they don’t wash their hands after using the loo (speaking of which, the loos are cleaned thoroughly every day, but you should see the state they’re in by the end of the day, and we sometimes catch the students eating their lunch in the loos too), they hug and hold hands with their many close friends, and no matter what they say, I just can’t get them to cough and sneeze into a tissue, or their elbows (I’m now instructing my kids to “dab” – how has it come to this?). And that’s the secondary ones – the primary kids are even more hygiene-resistant! They can catch the virus, but it doesn’t appear to affect many of them too badly, so they’re the perfect asymptomatic transmitter.

          Ask anyone who’s been a teacher (or anyone who has put their child through school) what that first couple of years is like for picking up viruses that do the rounds, until your immune system gets a bit more used to it.

      • meta says:

        13 Mar13 March 07:03

        Plus FCO is quite slow on updating advisories, so you really need to be alert if you have immediate travel plans. Best bet is to monitor immigration/health ministry/agency of the country in question. Almost all of them have updates in English now.

        • Travellingguy says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:23

          Would your travel insurance cover you for cancellation if you or a member of your travel party were sick before the date of travel so unable to fly? If so what do you need to prove you are sick? It’s not recommended to go to the doctors but has been announced that 111 will be issuing sick notes remotely.

        • Anna says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:37

          Traverlingguy, depends what they are sick with. If covered by the policy then there should be no issues if a doctor says they are not fit to travel.

          On a side note, I’ve had a sinus infection for weeks, rang my GP yesterday to ask if they would prescribe a nasal spray I’ve had previously and they insisted I come into the surgery to be assessed first!

        • Shoestring says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:53

          my surgery is excellent in that respect, ie you can phone up early 08:00, get a callback from a Dr with symptoms and in many cases they will issue a prescription ‘over the phone’

          saves keeping the kids off school for an in-person appointment, for example

    • Nick_C says:

      13 Mar13 March 07:36

      BJ and Anna. If you list your medical /scientific qualifications and experience, then perhaps you will convince a few people that you are right and the highly qualified and experienced Government Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer are wrong.

      In the meantime you sound hysterical or political. Stirring up unnecessary anxiety is not helping anyone.

      Keep Calm and Carry On.

      • Anna says:

        13 Mar13 March 07:41

        Nick I normally never criticise anyone on the site but you are bordering on being a troll to be quite frank. Neither BJ or I are claiming to be any kind of expert, we are simply drawing on what other countries are doing are pointing out that the UK position appears to diverge considerably from this. We are perfectly entitled to be concerned by this for a number of reasons. If you or anyone else views any posts on here as reliable advice, then you are worryingly unintelligent.

        • Nick_C says:

          13 Mar13 March 07:53

          Thanks Anna but I’m intelligent enough and sufficiently well educated to understand that some of the hysterical and ill informed remarks on here should be ignored. I’m more concerned for other people who may be more easily swayed into believing the ramblings of unqualified strangers on the Internet rather than the expert advice of highly qualified scientists.

        • BJ says:

          13 Mar13 March 08:43

          Nick, @Anna is just expressing her concerns, fears, frustrations and other emotions as sane, sorted people do. Some people are more emotional than others, you should not make the mistake of confusing this with hysteria.

      • BJ says:

        13 Mar13 March 08:27

        @Nick, I am not hysterical and I have not judged the advice provided to the government because like you, and almost everybody else in the country, I do not know what that advice was. My comments were simply a reflection of what is happening in front of our eyes. Countries are currently restricting entry to residents of other countries with high incidence of Covid-19 and that does currently include residents of the UK. So long as numbers here remain high such restrictions are likely to continue, and given the approach the government has taken is to ease pressure on the NHS and provide it with the opportunity to better treat those who need hospital care, numbers will likely remain relatively high over a prolonged period. Therefore travel restrictions on UK residents will very likely reflect this unless countries change the approaches they are putting into practice at this time. As for my qualifications and experience, I don’t need to answer to you.

        • Anna says:

          13 Mar13 March 08:38

          Nick’s unquestioning acceptance of the advice of our government over that of the nasty foreigners might be said to smack of white patriarchal colonialism (I can do snowflake with the best of them 😂).

      • Sapiens says:

        13 Mar13 March 08:43

        Haha. No.

        “Keep calm and carry on” is NOT a solution to major medical issues like cancer, a broken leg or a viral pandemic.

        Nice slogan, but beating a new viral pandemic needs everybody to ACT DIFFERENTLY.

        “Carrying on” is why we are in this (largely preventable) situation in the UK.

        • marcw says:

          13 Mar13 March 09:19

          Wise words.

        • Simon says:

          13 Mar13 March 09:31

          “Major medical issues like cancer, a broken leg or a viral pandemic.”

          Are these wise words, really?

      • Blue Mountains says:

        15 Mar15 March 06:48

        Keep calm and carry on is what exacebated the problem in Wuhan in the first place and that went really well. Nobody wants hysteria but everyone is entitled to doubt and question the tactics of any country/government with regards to the spread of this virus without needing to prove they are qualified experts. Your view is that UK’s response is correct and your view is also respected but not everyone has to agree with it.

• John says:

  13 Mar13 March 05:45

  Plastic cards still seem to be useful if using status benefits from one FFP but collecting miles into another. I hope this changes. Ideally there would be a way to input both FFP numbers without asking airline staff.

  • Qrfan says:

    13 Mar13 March 07:02

    Just use the virtual card in the app instead of the physical card?

    • BJ says:

      13 Mar13 March 07:18

      I think John might be referring to stuff like extra luggage allowance etc where it is not always easy to address the issue by showing somebody your phone.

      • Qrfan says:

        13 Mar13 March 08:32

        I know what he meant, but the virtual card has the same information on it as the plastic card and since most airports accept electronic boarding passes the idea that phones aren’t as official as hard copy is a bit of an antiquated notion to be honest.

  • Doug M says:

    13 Mar13 March 07:30

    But you can still order one, and most people don’t care about the physical card. It’s a sensible approach.

    • Jcp says:

      13 Mar13 March 07:44

      There’s probably some saddos who want the card to be able to show other people that they’ve got gold status etc

      • Shoestring says:

        13 Mar13 March 07:50

        Not that I’ve got a plastic card: but aren’t they useful if you want to buy on board from the M&S menu?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    13 Mar13 March 07:31

    You can still order the card and bag tags online in your accounts it’s just no longer automatically sent to you

• Bill says:

  13 Mar13 March 06:52

  Easyjet have dropped change fees

• Steven says:

  13 Mar13 March 06:56

  I’m doubting this before I have even asked but I’ll ask anyway – is there a legit marketplace for buying other people’s gifted airline status? I’m aware that some airlines allow their elite members to gift a slightly lower status. Thanks.

  • Rob says:

    13 Mar13 March 08:53

    No, because the airlines do not allow gifted status to be sold. The occasional Silver one pops up on Flyertalk for charity but generally goes for more than the equivalent Qatar flights would cost.

• Anna says:

  13 Mar13 March 07:01

  Theme parks in Florida closing now, which will hit a lot of UK travellers whose Easter holidays fall on the early side.

• BJ says:

  13 Mar13 March 07:03

  OT: New batch of amex Morrisons offers now available through 8th April.

• Johndoe says:

  13 Mar13 March 07:12

  I found the joke about trips to China very racist. Please edit.

  • Roberto says:

    13 Mar13 March 07:29

    Calm done snowflake – youre gonna give yourself a hernia..
    I appreciate you may have an issue with this but for the life of me I cant see why you are upset. I re read the article 3 times – pls advise.

    • Johndoe says:

      13 Mar13 March 10:28

      Not sure what u mean by snowflake. However snow is white, so i can only assume this is yet more racism. I am not white so also find this term offensive and racist.

      • Roberto says:

        13 Mar13 March 11:03

        Dear Troll, FWIW White is not a colour. Its the sum of all colours, infact unlike you its totally inclusive and represents all the colour spectrum equally not judging or favouring one over another. It does not differentiate its all encompassing.

      • BA-Flyer says:

        13 Mar13 March 12:29

        Not all snow is white. Yellow snow is yellow. Always be aware of yellow snow!

  • JImbob says:

    13 Mar13 March 07:32

    It’s no though, is it?
    You would say exactly the same about planned trips to Italy

  • Doug M says:

    13 Mar13 March 07:32

    Explain the racist part? I like to understand what I don’t care about.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      13 Mar13 March 07:44

      There isn’t one. Let’s all move on and stop giving silly comments air.

  • Graeme says:

    13 Mar13 March 09:23

    I can think of some things that are “very racist” and this is not one of them.

  • Aston100 says:

    13 Mar13 March 10:40

    I’m not seeing it. Has the article been edited since you wrote your comment?

    • Rob says:

      13 Mar13 March 10:42

      No!

      • mvcvz says:

        13 Mar13 March 10:49

        I love racist jokes. Especially about the Chinese. Please repost it.

        • Rob says:

          13 Mar13 March 10:54

          It hasn’t been removed. See if you can spot it. I can’t.

      • MandS says:

        13 Mar13 March 11:12

        I think the guy was probably referring to this.

        “I know that a trip to China is probably not top of your agenda at the moment”

        in fairness, I can kind of see his point in some ways, although I didn’t spot it initially.

        • Aston100 says:

          13 Mar13 March 13:32

          I must be dumb, because I am unsure where the joke (racist or otherwise) is in that quote.

        • Waddle says:

          13 Mar13 March 13:45

          I’m of Chinese ethnicity and fail to see the joke, nor anything offensive. Move along, nothing to see here.

• Shoestring says:

  13 Mar13 March 07:49

  Matt (Daily Telegraph)
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2020/03/12/1303-MATT-GALLERY-WEB-P1_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.png

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