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Chat thread – Saturday 25th January
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Didn’t someone have bailiffs sent round to BA HQ a couple of years ago when they failed to refund re-routing costs?!
@martin m, I think PayPal charges you for that. If you start the transaction in PayPal it will show you any fees incurred before you complete it.Interesting story on LoyaltyLobby about a Saudia flight that had its fuel and maps confiscated and was prevented from leaving AMS because the airline had not paid 50k euro that was due to euclaim.com’s customers.
1st time I’ve seen a claims company flex its muscles in that way.
Watch out Wiz and others!
They are well incentivised to pursue this on behalf of their clients.
More likely they have already paid their clients and are now incentivised to get that money back for themselves.
@NorthernLass Not BA, but recent cases include Wizz Air, Delta airlines and TAP Portugal. Before that Ryanair, I think.
Rant mode on – How on earth can Iberia claim they serve “Homemade tocinillo de cielo” ?
Homemade!… wtf!
Rant mode off
J
Hello folks, thanks to the companion voucher and a lot of great info on HFP I’ve secured my first ever business class flight next January to Singapore and then on to Perth on my own steam. I’m hoping to use the knowledge that people here have gathered to get the maximum enjoyment out of this trip and over the next few weeks I’ll be posting questions as they come to me. Here goes. . .Our flight gets into Singapore at 9.10pm and I’m considering booking an onward flight with SIA at 12.05am. Is this overly optimistic? I’ve never flown long haul with BA before but I’ve flown to Perth maybe 10 times through Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, all with around 2hrs30 mins stop over with no hiccups at all.
Also, does anyone know which Singapore terminal BA flys into and which terminal SIA flies out of?
Also, does anyone know which Singapore terminal BA flys into and which terminal SIA flies out of?
You can always find this info on the airport website https://www.changiairport.com/en/fly/airline-information/passenger.html
J
Our flight gets into Singapore at 9.10pm and I’m considering booking an onward flight with SIA at 12.05am. Is this overly optimistic? I’ve never flown long haul with BA before but I’ve flown to Perth maybe 10 times through Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, all with around 2hrs30 mins stop over with no hiccups at all.Also, does anyone know which Singapore terminal BA flys into and which terminal SIA flies out of?
Will you have checked luggage? As the first flight is using a companion voucher I am assuming it is on BA, your flight to Perth will then be on a separate booking. In that case, you’ll need to collect baggage and go check in for the next flight. Under three hours sounds tight for that – I’m assuming there is no land-side transfer at SIN.
Also – A380s (which fly to Singapore) are having issues with reliability so any late arrival will cut down on your time even further.
Also, does anyone know which Singapore terminal BA flys into and which terminal SIA flies out of?
You can always find this info on the airport website https://www.changiairport.com/en/fly/airline-information/passenger.html
Thanks Dave.
Good Morning from the Ice Hotel, Jukkuslarvi Sweden where it’s a balmy minus 21 Degrees C. Our night in a cold room was actually very comfortable, warm and we managed to sleep despite it being minus 5 degrees C. A very surreal experience.
The Ice Hotel is magnificent and everything I was expecting it to be.
Our Artic trip has been nothing short of amazing, we’ve seen the most beautiful Northern Lights in Tromsø and Abisko, been reindeer sledding and still have Snowmobiling and Husky sledding to come.
BA flight into Tromso gave us 80 TP and Gold status!
We’ve recently returned from Tromso and had a wonderful time. We didn’t need an Ice hotel to experience -21C – that was the temperature outside the first night we were there! Didn’t get to see the Northern Lights even though we went into Finland as we then had heavy snow the following nights. Although the plane turned around in about an hour, it was snowing hard and very cold when we left so a very thorough de-icing which took just over 20 minutes. If you don’t mind the cold, definitely worth going for a short break.
@NorthernLass. Sorry to hear about your cat. Hope she’s ok.
Never been to the Canaries, but have recently booked flights with the aim of island hopping. Discovered an airline called Canaryfly. They seem like Ryanair and have some very cheap headline fares. Not sure their routes will be of any help to you.
@LD27 – sounds a great trip, although I would never be able to persuade my wife to stay in an ice room! We stayed for 5 days in Harbin, NE China for the Ice Festival and although the temperatures were similar -20C to -30C it sounds very different as there while there’s deep snow on the ground and the big river is totally frozen so you can drive on it, it’s very dry so it doesn’t snow in peak winter, no ice forms on roads/pavements and aircraft don’t need de-icing and actually it’s blue skies much of the time.
My wife declined the offer of hotpot dinner in the ice rooms which felt a good decision after seeing others experiencing it! A fully stocked ice bar at our hotel with the traditional ice glass to smash after drinking was great as was the huge igloo bar at the Festival with local blueberry wine to warm one up.
@JDB – I couldn’t persuade my husband to visit Tromso, so it was a mother and daughter weekend. We went to a short midnight recital at the Cathedral in town which was good and with the heavy snow falling outside, it seemed like a traditional Christmas card had been brought to life.
At such low temperatures overnight, where the pavements weren’t heated, it was lethal trying to walk around the town and harbour on sheet ice. Conditions improved when the heavy snow arrived.
I’ve never tried blueberry wine. Will have to look out for it. Ww will be flying Finnair soon, so looking forward to their blueberry juice. I think I’ll ask for a Kir de Myrtille and see what they offer.
@JDB – I couldn’t persuade my husband to visit Tromso, so it was a mother and daughter weekend. We went to a short midnight recital at the Cathedral in town which was good and with the heavy snow falling outside, it seemed like a traditional Christmas card had been brought to life.
At such low temperatures overnight, where the pavements weren’t heated, it was lethal trying to walk around the town and harbour on sheet ice. Conditions improved when the heavy snow arrived.
I’ve never tried blueberry wine. Will have to look out for it. Ww will be flying Finnair soon, so looking forward to their blueberry juice. I think I’ll ask for a Kir de Myrtille and see what they offer.
The church service and snow sounds lovely! Finnair offers Kultainen cloudberry wine which is worryingly moreish…
@NorthernLass I only just realised you were referring to your unwell cat. Hope she’s better soon. Must have been terrifying in the winds. Stay safe x
@NorthernLass. . . we both don’t like putting them in cat hotels.
I’m a pet sitter with Trusted Housesitters (I do dogs mostly but thousands of members prefer cats). Nearly 30 5* reviews to my name. If you (or any reader) is interested, I have a personal promo code. Not sure of rules for self-promos here so not adding it just now.
Smiles 😊
If the kids/OH are not around when away, we used to use a cat hotel locally. A friend then recommended a cat sitter, who we have used ever since and we would never go back. Would definitely recommend.
Out of interest how much does a cat sitter cost per day. A friend pays £40 a day for her dogsitting or it’s £50 if overnight! She has had the same girl for years but I do think she’s taking the p! She walks other dogs as well and lives in a council flat so must be earning a fortune as I doubt she pays taxes on it!
Out of interest how much does a cat sitter cost per day. A friend pays £40 a day for her dogsitting or it’s £50 if overnight! She has had the same girl for years but I do think she’s taking the p! She walks other dogs as well and lives in a council flat so must be earning a fortune as I doubt she pays taxes on it!
We have a pet sitter come round twice a day to feed our two cats when we’re away. Each visit is for 30 minutes and costs £7, so £14 a day for us. Works really well, she lives locally so walks round, and the cats get to stay in their own environment.
There’s a difference with Trusted Housesitters; it’s a paid annual membership site for sitters and pet owners but after that the sitters are “free”.
Don’t get excited, sitters do it because it should be a mutually beneficial exchange. The simple, basic trade is accommodation in pet owners’ homes in return for pet care. The basis was originally for holidays and that’s why I do it but there are the new generations that are digital (or maybe analogue too) nomads and want somewhere to WFH.
I have sat in homes and cared for dogs (and cats, horses, birds, chickens and fish) in Rome, Puglia, Scotland and all over the rest of the UK. I don’t get paid, although kinder owners have given me lovely gifts such as perfume and chocolates. I do it to live somewhere new for a while and because I adore dogs but can’t have one of my own.Anyway, in travel news, our MAN-MAD-ACE flight in October has been scuppered by IB moving the MAN-MAD leg back by 8 hours so the connection now doesn’t work.
The LCCs want an arm and a leg for seats and a checked bag, which we need due to OH’s dive gear. Also I would prefer to book with avios for the flexibility (BA only flies this route from LGW which does not work for us!)
There is a MAN-BCN-ACE option where the times work, but both legs are on Vueling 😩 …
Am I asking for trouble going for this option?
(As I understand it, we would get checked bags and limited seat selection, but no other OW benefits).Sorry to hear! The more painful routing could be MAN-LHR-MAD-ACE but it will cost more avios due to the extra leg.
If you are going to fly Vueling you won’t get the lounge access however these would have been the same lounges as with Priority Pass. Not sure about Manchester lounge access on PP, but you won’t have an issue getting into Aena lounge in BCN and I recall it being quite nice
Alternatively, have you looked at MAN-DUB-ACE with Aer Lingus?
@Bobri, thanks but 1 change is quite enough on a route we could actually fly direct! It’s only because of the OW status perks that we were going indirect. I’d need to remind myself what we get on EI now, but I’m pretty sure there’s no lounge access at MAN or DUB, and no free seat selection. Don’t have PP, mainly because it’s pretty much unusable at MAN!
My concern about Vueling is that I’ve never seen a good word about them on here. Also, as I subsequently discovered, their award seats are not refundable, which is another consideration.
I think it’s going to be Ryanair with 2 cabin bags, to be honest, then buy toiletries and other stuff we’ll need at destination. Their extra leg room seats are actually the best of any carrier I’ve ever flown in economy, so the actual flight isn’t really a hardship.
J
Hello folks, thanks to the companion voucher and a lot of great info on HFP I’ve secured my first ever business class flight next January to Singapore and then on to Perth on my own steam. I’m hoping to use the knowledge that people here have gathered to get the maximum enjoyment out of this trip and over the next few weeks I’ll be posting questions as they come to me. Here goes. . .Our flight gets into Singapore at 9.10pm and I’m considering booking an onward flight with SIA at 12.05am. Is this overly optimistic? I’ve never flown long haul with BA before but I’ve flown to Perth maybe 10 times through Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, all with around 2hrs30 mins stop over with no hiccups at all.
Also, does anyone know which Singapore terminal BA flys into and which terminal SIA flies out of?
At the risk of being different, I really would spend a night in Singapore… At least 1. Easy Metro into town and my go to place is the HIX on Orchard on points.
This allows for any misconnects as well. With my walking shoes on and a good pace, I’ve walked the good bits of SIN in 2-3 days…
Don’t forget to check out Scoot flights out of Singapore.
My concern about Vueling is that I’ve never seen a good word about them on here.
@NorthernLass To give a counter data point, I have flown with Vueling almost 10 times in the past 18 months, all bar one to Malaga and once to Barcelona. Don’t want to tempt fate for my next trip with them but I’ve had no problems and will quite happily keep flying them [\quote]J
Hello folks, thanks to the companion voucher and a lot of great info on HFP I’ve secured my first ever business class flight next January to Singapore and then on to Perth on my own steam. I’m hoping to use the knowledge that people here have gathered to get the maximum enjoyment out of this trip and over the next few weeks I’ll be posting questions as they come to me. Here goes. . .Our flight gets into Singapore at 9.10pm and I’m considering booking an onward flight with SIA at 12.05am. Is this overly optimistic? I’ve never flown long haul with BA before but I’ve flown to Perth maybe 10 times through Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi, all with around 2hrs30 mins stop over with no hiccups at all.
Also, does anyone know which Singapore terminal BA flys into and which terminal SIA flies out of?
At the risk of being different, I really would spend a night in Singapore… At least 1. Easy Metro into town and my go to place is the HIX on Orchard on points.
This allows for any misconnects as well. With my walking shoes on and a good pace, I’ve walked the good bits of SIN in 2-3 days…
Don’t forget to check out Scoot flights out of Singapore.
A stopover is a definite option as I’m retiring at Christmas and I’m not hurrying back.
I just hoped that perhaps someone here might have had experience good or bad of my situation.
No experience yet, but being also (mostly) retired and flexible, I would definitely want to see Singapore if I was stopping there anyway.
@tootsci, that’s good to hear, I’m still a bit reluctant though due to lack of status perks and refundability. This means Ryanair is still the frontrunner due to be a direct flight!I’ve love to hear more about your experiences with Vueling because they may well be an option for a future indirect routing. Perhaps we could organise an HFP tour of abandoned airports, hotels and leper colonies, lol!
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