News: Gatwick strikes and a ban on agency workers, save £10 at World Duty Free at Heathrow

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• MK says:

  15 Jul15 July 09:43

  We leave on BA flight on 6th August to Orlando, how likely is it that it will be cancelled? Any idea with 2 little ones in tow who are really excited dear I may have to reroute via New York via LHR to make it work.

  • Rob says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:49

    Cancellation not hugely likely but there is a decent chance that your luggage isn’t loaded. I’d take 2-3 days of clothes as hand baggage.

    • MK says:

      15 Jul15 July 10:18

      Thanks Rob my wife’s worst nightmare her bags not getting loaded and no bags when we are there for 3 weeks.

      • Rob says:

        15 Jul15 July 10:24

        You get them after a couple of days max! You just need to be prepared for short term disruption.

        We saw multiple cases during the Heathrow baggage issues this year where pilots deliberately take off without luggage and without informing passengers because its the only way to make the take off slot and keep the crew ‘in hours’.

        • ADS says:

          15 Jul15 July 11:41

          Also worth considering putting an AirTag or some other tracker in each of your suitcases to aid their collection – sometimes they get dropped off in odd places !

        • MK says:

          15 Jul15 July 12:05

          Thanks will get some AirTags and bigger hand luggage bags for the girls to mitigate for a few days delay.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:34

    What you might want to spend some time doing is to look at other routings so you are prepared in case BA does decide to cancel. Though with flights being busy it may be hard.

    Don’t BA fly to MCO from LHR?

    Then there are routes such as LHR-NYC-MCO. Or other US entry points, Look at the MCO wiki post and work back from where AA flies there from then see what ex LHR lights might connect.

    Are other airports in Florida alternatives you could countenance.

    Could you tolerate being split up do you and one child travel on one set of flights and your partner travels with the other one?

    Then once BA tells you what is happening you’re ahead of the crowd when it comes to rebooking.

    • Gordon says:

      15 Jul15 July 10:46

      No direct flights from LHR to MCO! I looked for our booking for November. Only one from LHR is Iberia via MAD & DFW 33 hours! AA is an option to look at. As you say A lot of people fly via a New York airport.

    • MK says:

      15 Jul15 July 12:13

      Yep definitely will look at the first NYC and possible onward AA flights in case of cancellation. Maybe the Miami flight as well the day of or before which is from LHR, and drive up as the girls like me being a baggage carrier and chauffeur on holiday 😀

      • Nick says:

        15 Jul15 July 12:15

        They won’t cancel MCO in August. Just about anything else will be canned first to protect it, they really don’t want headlines like “300 disappointed children can’t see Mickey Mouse because of BA”. Even BA isn’t that stupid.

      • dougzz99 says:

        15 Jul15 July 14:01

        NYC I’d a bad place to change for AA. They’ve screwed themselves in terms of JFK slots. For MCO look at Miami, Charlotte and Philadelphia, they’re better connecting airports for AA.

• captaindave says:

  15 Jul15 July 09:47

  Maybe the Jet2 model of taking the “handling” work in-house is the way to go ?

  • Matarredonda says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:05

    As did Ryanair approximately 5 years ago.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    15 Jul15 July 11:23

    Only if you treat them well enough…

    At least this way there is presumably recourse for airlines to recover losses from the contracted party

• Alastair says:

  15 Jul15 July 10:12

  Is it just me or do others have a hard time getting the duty free people to scan their Heathrow rewards cards?
  I can’t remember how many times the system has been mysteriously broken, or the self service machine won’t take it, or the staff seem to ignore the card on the phone until payment completes.
  It’s almost as if they’re being incentivised to not scan them…

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    15 Jul15 July 12:49

    I can only suggest not giving them payment until they’ve scanned it and walking away if they don’t

    • Chabuddy Geezy says:

      15 Jul15 July 12:51

      I find Duty Free transactions tend to track, Boots never tracks even though even if you HR number is on the receipt.

  • Catalan says:

    15 Jul15 July 13:11

    I find they usually key it in manually if it does scan. I’ve also found Boot will ask you for their reward scheme card in preference to HR

    • Alex Sm says:

      15 Jul15 July 15:27

      You can use both!

  • SBIre says:

    15 Jul15 July 13:49

    I find that they try to get through the transaction asap, but my assumption is that the majority of passengers do not have HR cards so they just don’t expect them. I always scan my Dufry and HR cards, and they always seems surprised to see both. They never have an issue when I do ask for them to be scanned though, even if they have whizzed to the payment section. Of course – it’s less of an issue now with the awful self check out machines (I don’t have an issue with self check out, but the machines they use at LHR are useless)

    • Alex Sm says:

      15 Jul15 July 15:28

      I am asked on 90% of occasions when I produce HR card: “Do you work at Heathrow?”

      • Rob says:

        15 Jul15 July 16:45

        It’s because they think its the staff discount card. Worth saying ‘yes’ 🙂

        • Charlie T. says:

          16 Jul16 July 20:24

          Call me paranoid (you wouldn’t be the first) but I can imagine this somehow resulting in a very small bit also non-zero chance of being frogmarched out of the airport by cops with MP5s.

  • Track says:

    15 Jul15 July 14:32

    the answer is in the language, “scan their cards…” maybe they scan their own, or send receipts somehow too.

    Also surprised that even after duty free scan Heathrow Rewards, the purchases don’t track!

    Landside shops have separate tablets to scan rewards card AFTER transaction. Those points post right away.

    • Alex Sm says:

      15 Jul15 July 15:30

      You can always email your receipts afterwards to customer service and they will scan. Another question is why you need HR points after all as they are quite useless

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        15 Jul15 July 17:05

        Well they’re not useless are they, they’re airline miles when you convert them

    • johnny_c-l says:

      15 Jul15 July 20:20

      Very often I find that purchases don’t appear despite giving my Rewards number via my phone /app to the cashier/water.

      They have also clamped down on retroactively crediting points – need to claim after 2 months but before a time limit, and a max of 5/6 a year.

      Also withdrawn points for non-prebooked short stay and drop-off.

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