Chat thread – Friday 26th May

[Rob]

This is today’s chat thread.

If you have specific questions about Avios, hotels or credit cards, please ask them in the appropriate forum and not here. This thread is a good place to post interesting deals you have spotted or your general thoughts on travel and all things miles and points. Thank you for contributing.

[wanderer]

Has anyone else has trouble with overzealous mods on the flyertalk forum? My partner and I share a computer for personal use and we each had an account on flyertalk forum. I went to have a read of the BA forum and was presented with a message saying that my account had been suspended and my access to the forum was banned forever! Apparently users are not allowed more than one account. But they fail to realise that more than one person can use the same computer!

[BJ]

Apologies for repost from a quiet weekend. @ John/others, any very recent experience of actual situation on the ground in Hong Kong with respect to covid since the last change? I understand that vaccine certificates and pre-departure RAT are no longer required but temperature will be screened on arrival and daily RAT recommended day 0 through 5. Are they that bothered about these and are we supposed to report them if we do them and they come back positive? What happens if we have a high temperature on arrival? All sounds like recommendations and guidance now as opposed to requirements. Just want to check I’m not missing something. Thanks.

[tical]

Huge lines way beyond the immigration hall arriving into Heathrow Terminal 3 just now

[meta]

BJ wrote:

Apologies for repost from a quiet weekend. @ John/others, any very recent experience of actual situation on the ground in Hong Kong with respect to covid since the last change? I understand that vaccine certificates and pre-departure RAT are no longer required but temperature will be screened on arrival and daily RAT recommended day 0 through 5. Are they that bothered about these and are we supposed to report them if we do them and they come back positive? What happens if we have a high temperature on arrival? All sounds like recommendations and guidance now as opposed to requirements. Just want to check I’m not missing something. Thanks.

I was in Hong Kong last weekend. I didn’t see any temperature scanners (unless they were somewhere in the background) nor was I told to do daily test.

[AJA]

@wanderer can your partner access flyertalk using their profile? Or are both of you banned?

If they still have access it would confirm the one profile rule. I suggest sending an email to FT as per rule 24 explaining your situation.

“Appealing Disciplinary Action
If you receive discipline, including the limiting of access to a forum, you may appeal to the Community Director. Your appeal should specify the discipline imposed, the moderator’s or administrator’s stated reasons for it and concisely state the basis for your appeal.

Send your appeal to the Community Director via this email appeal@flyertalk.com . The Community Director’s decisions related to all appeals shall be final.”

[BJ]

Thanks @meta, I thought as much. For some time already it seems they have not been all that bothered about the guudance on paper. Japan coming up week after next 🙂 Following feedback from you and others we’re giving HI Suites Shin-Osaka a try instead of usual Hilton. So glad hotels were booked in ages ago for ‘pennies’. The main frustration continues to be MMB on BA-booked JAL flight under BA code. JAL cannot manage these, BA can but most BA agents refuse to accept they can or don’t know how. Fortunately one agent who did got us better seats in front of the wing. Now trying to gind one to select meals. Interestingly we can still select F seats on JAL 773 HND-BKK despite booking J but I’m still reluctant to do it in event it all goes messy on the day and we get poor seats as a result.

[meta]

@BJ Enjoy Japan! I came back from another trip to Japan (via Hong Kong on the way back) earlier this week. It was unbearably humid though, but missed it so much that I didn’t care.

[BJ]

Thanks @meta, glad you enjoyed your trip too despite the humidity. I note there has been a lot of rain around, June is far from ideal but we’re stuck with it and will hope for the best.

[astra19]

At the start of the month I was offered as compenation for a broken seat the choice of a large amount of Avios, or a smaller value voucher. I responded immediately requesting the Avios. Since then I haven’t heard a peep. I’ve tried calling and the live chat, but they say they can’t give me specifics about a case only that it’s in the queue. Is this normal?

[wanderer]

@AJA

Thank you for your reply. I’m not sure, I’ll have to ask them to try and log in later.

I did try and email but the email bounced. It’s probably quicker to use my IT skills and work around the IP ban. It’s a shame about losing the account though, I had been quite helpful to some other users on there! Thank you though.

[Lady London]

@wanderer you may be unlucky if they’re using Device-ID to check. I don’t know a way to mask device-id (without, say, rooting my phone), but wish I did.

As you say, if it’s just IP address they are using it’s easy to circumvent. Obviously Flyertalk has decided families that share a pc are not for them

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

tical wrote:

Huge lines way beyond the immigration hall arriving into Heathrow Terminal 3 just now

Are airline fast track cards now back to being accepted?

[zapato1060]

Booked a flight on BA, right after adding payment method got a payment error. No card verification screen either.

Moved on to buy externally. Just as I am seconds from paying, by chance I check my email and there it is, BA email drops stating successfully purchased. Very dodgy IT.

[PeteM]

tical wrote:

Huge lines way beyond the immigration hall arriving into Heathrow Terminal 3 just now

T5 immigration wasn’t ideal yesterday afternoon either, what made it more painful is that we only made it as far as the T5B lounge before the flight got cancelled and we had to land ourselves back to London!

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

zapato1060 wrote:

Booked a flight on BA, right after adding payment method got a payment error. No card verification screen either.

Moved on to buy externally. Just as I am seconds from paying, by chance I check my email and there it is, BA email drops stating successfully purchased. Very dodgy IT.

Carefully check if it’s an unticketed reservation. Sometimes airlines issue reservation emails without the underlying ticket number being in place. AA do this when booking partner award flights; you get your reservation code by email first then any time in the next 24hrs they can get in touch to require you to do something, e.g. re-enter card details.

[Lady London]

PeteM wrote:

tical wrote:

Huge lines way beyond the immigration hall arriving into Heathrow Terminal 3 just now

T5 immigration wasn’t ideal yesterday afternoon either, what made it more painful is that we only made it as far as the T5B lounge before the flight got cancelled and we had to land ourselves back to London!

What was their excuse?

[PeteM]

Lady London wrote:

PeteM wrote:

tical wrote:

Huge lines way beyond the immigration hall arriving into Heathrow Terminal 3 just now

T5 immigration wasn’t ideal yesterday afternoon either, what made it more painful is that we only made it as far as the T5B lounge before the flight got cancelled and we had to land ourselves back to London!

What was their excuse?

BA’s? The IT systems went down as usual, a good chunk of the short-haul network got canned. Continuing into today too.

[NorthernLass]

I’ve posted separately but I have family impacted by the chaos today so please post any updates on the situation in T5!

[Mr Sound]

Coming back to LHR from DUB yesterday afternoon our BA flight was cancelled when we arrived at the airport. We were quite early and I got put on an earlier flight so I ran through the security only to find the new flight was delayed. It ended up arriving at LHR over 3 hours late so can I claim any compensation even though it wasn’t my original booking? I have 2 bookings showing on my BA app, one cancelled, the other 3 hours late on arrival.

Also, I was part of a work group with 12 others. Some got onto an Aer Lingus flight but had to book it themselves as BA couldn’t move them across, others stayed overnight and are travelling back as I type. The point being, BA told us that they could only get one person back to LHR last night but when I got on the plane I saw at least 5 Club seats empty, I was the only person on Row 7!

[George K]

Barclays Premier is removing the ability to accrue Avios via its home insurance products. It was actually quite lucrative at 700 avios per month (in addition to the 1500 you’d get by being a Premier Avios customer), but it’s all coming to an end in July, apparently.

[Annie]

Do we have any idea when the BA peak dates will be announced for 2024?
Or am I just being useless at finding things again?

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

Mr Sound wrote:

Coming back to LHR from DUB yesterday afternoon our BA flight was cancelled when we arrived at the airport. We were quite early and I got put on an earlier flight so I ran through the security only to find the new flight was delayed. It ended up arriving at LHR over 3 hours late so can I claim any compensation even though it wasn’t my original booking? I have 2 bookings showing on my BA app, one cancelled, the other 3 hours late on arrival.

Also, I was part of a work group with 12 others. Some got onto an Aer Lingus flight but had to book it themselves as BA couldn’t move them across, others stayed overnight and are travelling back as I type. The point being, BA told us that they could only get one person back to LHR last night but when I got on the plane I saw at least 5 Club seats empty, I was the only person on Row 7!

Even during snow chaos last December, Aer Lingus still would not fill Aerspace seats with passengers who had not purchased that fare class. Airlines can be rigid about upgrading when rescheduling.

[Mr Sound]

Blair Waldorf Salad wrote:

Mr Sound wrote:

Coming back to LHR from DUB yesterday afternoon our BA flight was cancelled when we arrived at the airport. We were quite early and I got put on an earlier flight so I ran through the security only to find the new flight was delayed. It ended up arriving at LHR over 3 hours late so can I claim any compensation even though it wasn’t my original booking? I have 2 bookings showing on my BA app, one cancelled, the other 3 hours late on arrival.

Also, I was part of a work group with 12 others. Some got onto an Aer Lingus flight but had to book it themselves as BA couldn’t move them across, others stayed overnight and are travelling back as I type. The point being, BA told us that they could only get one person back to LHR last night but when I got on the plane I saw at least 5 Club seats empty, I was the only person on Row 7!

Even during snow chaos last December, Aer Lingus still would not fill Aerspace seats with passengers who had not purchased that fare class. Airlines can be rigid about upgrading when rescheduling.

There were four of us travelling in Club, BA check in said that Aer Lingus had blocked them from moving anyone at all on to their flights and that they only had room for one person on the earlier BA flight.

[buchanan101]

Quick FYI on Amex Platinum £200 travel bonus

Mine expires early October. I checked with Amex and you can still use it for hotel stays after the expiry date – just have to book

Have booked York for November – bonus already credited to account