Chat thread – Thursday 19th September

[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.

[Jill Kinkell]

Gosh, still the only one up! Delightful day on the San Juan Highway in Colorado. Wonderful scenery and amazing colours. Only a few more days left before returning from Denver .
Hoping to get a few extra IHG points for our HIE stays as per recent promotion, ( thank you HfP). Currently in a ‘ king standard room’ in Cortez . Ha ha! Huge room ( not complaining) with an extra room with 2 sets of bunk beds! A great family room for 2 old codgers! Off to embrace the pueblo culture tomorrow.

[e14]

Jill Kinkell wrote:

Gosh, still the only one up!

It’s just approaching lunchtime here in Nusa Dua.

[strickers]

Barely awake in Victoria, BC. Breakfast at the Best Western was, erm, basic. Had a great hike around the Sooke potholes, lunch at a brewery and just had an amazing dinner at Finns, the sunset this evening was glorious. Happy travelling everyone.

[yorkshireRich]

15:05 here as I leave hotel indigo and set off for Ubud. It says 1 hour 45 on Google. Even the driver laughed and said “I think more than that”.

[Mankhool]

I live on a TFL Red route and most of the parking spaces have been taken by a car trader as it’s free 24/7 parking. I have made complaints to TFL,Council and my local MP Wes Streeting (Never ever replies) and they say they could do nothing unless there is a change in regulation.Is there a way I could address the problem to achieve result?

[NorthernLass]

@Mankhool – I’m not sure the council is correct here as there are definitely regulations about where you can run a business. However, if you can get hold of your local community beat officer or PCSO (not always easy, I know), they could look into whether the vehicles are taxed/insured and have them removed if not. You can check this yourself online if you collect the registration numbers of the cars – it might give you some ammunition for raising a complaint.

[danimal]

I was at T5 on Tuesday for a 2pm to Toulouse – both South/North lounges were rammed. We got into the South lounge and miraculously secured 3 seats. I then decided to pop out to do some shopping but it was then 1 in 1 out, with a huge queue at the bottom of the escalator. I was told if I left I would not get back in!

Staff were gently attempting to coax any B/C gate passengers to the B gates lounge. They were also announcing every single flight as soon as the gate was known – clearly to get people moving out of the lounge. This was also really annoying as done over a very loud speaker.

I’ve heard stories of over-crowded lounges but BA really need to do something about this capacity problem.

[NorthernLass]

@Michael, I have now joined you as a Silver surfer 🥈. Double TPs from my recent trip have posted 4 working days from taking the last flight which is truly impressive!

[Andrew.]

danimal wrote:

I’ve heard stories of over-crowded lounges but BA really need to do something about this capacity problem.

Start operating flights on time. It’s as simple as that.

[bm_999]

got approx 9 differnet tabs open from this site, getting more and more confused
loll

[anuj]

I don’t expect much from Wes but I presume right at the top of the correspondence you state your address so they know instantly you’re a constituent. If he still doesn’t reply i’d make a complaint as that’s very poor behaviour from an MP, from a party elected on raising standards.

[Wiseoldman]

Hi

I assume it is not possible to check in luggage the night before at Gatwick for a 9am Qatar flight?

thanks

[anirishgirl2022]

Interesting what you said as I am there today for 13:10 to Rhodes – absolutely rammed the south lounge and we just luckily found a seat after doing a couple of laps! What we did notice that once the gate was announced – it was “boarding” almost straight away – we were finishing up food and drinks so didn’t arrive to the gate until at least 10/15 mins later and the hadn’t commenced boarding yet .. so this is clearly a strategy to empty the lounge quickly. Much to our annoyance

[MF176]

Any experience of how long KLM take to return points from a cancelled redemption? Thanks

[Michael C]

NorthernLass wrote:

@Michael, I have now joined you as a Silver surfer 🥈. Double TPs from my recent trip have posted 4 working days from taking the last flight which is truly impressive!

Oops, just fat-fingered reported you, sorry!!!!

Yay for silver, get reserving those seats.

I’ll post under BA, but annoyingly my BA Hols spanned either side of 1 April, and I’ve
only been given 90TP for the new Apr-Apr year, whereas the fulll BA Hols TB arriving
in Apr came to 360…en fin…will drop a line!

[Alison]

Does any-one know of any day flights operating from the States? I am a big fan of AA90 (ORD – LHR) and have taken this a few times this year but nothing is showing on next years schedules. I can’t see any day flights from ORD or NYC. Have they all been removed from the schedule?

The January flight only had 18 passengers (!) but the flight I took last week was almost full…

[AFKAE]

I’ve had a couple of goes at posting my trip report for Madagascar, but it keeps getting blocked. Not sure if anyone has any tips for overcoming this?

[Misty]

AFKAE wrote:

I’ve had a couple of goes at posting my trip report for Madagascar, but it keeps getting blocked. Not sure if anyone has any tips for overcoming this?

If it’s quite long it may have been selected for moderation, so should probably turn up later.

[NorthernLass]

@Alison, there should still be departures from BOS/JFK around 7/8 am (and possibly EWR) on BA, unless they have been pulled, which would be bad news. Also I think AA does a departure around 9 am from JFK.

[Andrew.]

Alison wrote:

Does any-one know of any day flights operating from the States? I am a big fan of AA90 (ORD – LHR) and have taken this a few times this year but nothing is showing on next years schedules. I can’t see any day flights from ORD or NYC. Have they all been removed from the schedule?

The January flight only had 18 passengers (!) but the flight I took last week was almost full…

The Daytime from Chicago seems to have dropped off the schedule at the end of October. Which month are you looking at though? In the summer…

AA, BA, Virgin, United & Jet Blue all have daytime flights from NYC.
BA, from Boston
United from Washington
Air Canada from Halifax

And my favourite “Daytime” flight is the 13:50 from Seattle, which lands at 23:10 Seattle time or 07:10 UK time.

[Rob]

AFKAE wrote:

I’ve had a couple of goes at posting my trip report for Madagascar, but it keeps getting blocked. Not sure if anyone has any tips for overcoming this?

Anything with more than 2 links will be automatically blocked.

As long as it uploaded, it will (during office hours) be released fairly quickly. Evenings and weekends can take longer.

Thanks for your understanding – these are all spam prevention measures.

(‘What spam?’ I hear you say. Exactly ….)

[Alison]

Thanks @Andrew and @NorthernLass. Main travel is from Chicago (which is why AA90 is so great and I have used it frequently).

I will look at BOS and JFK/EWR as an option for a Cleveland trip I am trying to pull together. I feel so much better on these day flights than overnight (returned last week from Chicago and was home and in my own bed by midnight and was up at a normal time and back at work the next day). Trying to stick to BA/AA for TP if possible…

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Mankhool wrote:

I live on a TFL Red route and most of the parking spaces have been taken by a car trader as it’s free 24/7 parking. I have made complaints to TFL,Council and my local MP Wes Streeting (Never ever replies) and they say they could do nothing unless there is a change in regulation.Is there a way I could address the problem to achieve result?

It would be more approatate for you to contact your GLA representative and The Mayor.

[secretsquirrel]

Has anyone recently used Tesco clubcard auto convert to VA and got the bonus points but have converted to VA in the past?
Be interested to hear if it still works 👍