Chat thread – Wednesday 2nd October

[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.

[Froggee]

Oh dear. Granny Froggee’s inbound Qatar Air flight left Doha 4-5 hours late so she is going to have a rubbish time flying DPS-DOH-EDI tonight.

Qatar is still showing her departure as being on time which is a bit naughty so she basically has to go to the airport and will be getting very familiar with the lounge at Denpasar.

Meanwhile I had to tell her that she will be missing her connection home which may see me written out of her will.

[Rui N.]

Are there any articles about T5’s lounges accessible with Sapphire status? How do you deal with not knowing your gate ahead of time?

[executiveclubber]

Rui N. wrote:

Are there any articles about T5’s lounges accessible with Sapphire status? How do you deal with not knowing your gate ahead of time?

Ask at the customer service desk, they usually have a good idea. You can access all the BA club lounges in T5

[Seagull]

Froggee wrote:

Oh dear. Granny Froggee’s inbound Qatar Air flight left Doha 4-5 hours late so she is going to have a rubbish time flying DPS-DOH-EDI tonight.

Qatar is still showing her departure as being on time which is a bit naughty so she basically has to go to the airport and will be getting very familiar with the lounge at Denpasar.

Meanwhile I had to tell her that she will be missing her connection home which may see me written out of her will.

Fingers crossed for Granny Froggee and her journey. Having connected through Doha last night and I can confirm it is rather chaotic there. Luckily the delay to my LHR-DOH flight didn’t cause me any issues with my DOH-HND but they clearly had many, many missed connections and delays. I’ve never seen that airport so busy, with huge long lines for the customer service desks down the spine of C gates.

[Michael C]

Froggee wrote:

Oh dear. Granny Froggee’s inbound Qatar Air flight left Doha 4-5 hours late so she is going to have a rubbish time flying DPS-DOH-EDI tonight.

Qatar is still showing her departure as being on time which is a bit naughty so she basically has to go to the airport and will be getting very familiar with the lounge at Denpasar.

Meanwhile I had to tell her that she will be missing her connection home which may see me written out of her will.

DPS Concordia lounge food is quite tasty! No alcohol, though, in case Granny fancies a tipple…

[Froggee]

Granny Froggee will need a strong whisky! She’s flying J so should be okay.

My former best friend Mr McToadrick had a shocker last night. He was flying somewhere in Asia via Doha and the plane had to stop and refuel in Medina before aiming for Doha.

He is mucho delayed and much regretting going the scenic route in his quest for GGL.

I approve though as it is my best shot at getting BA silver back.

Smiley face.

[louie]

No doubt a rookie question, but I’m not a chain hotel regular (or any hotel, come to that!). I’ve got one of the Amex spend £200, get £50 back offers for Hilton. Hotel I am looking at is £180 for the night. I’m gold through Amex Platinum so I think I get breakfast included. Could I buy a £20 gift voucher at the hotel and add it to my bill to get to £200?

[Seagull]

Froggee wrote:

Granny Froggee will need a strong whisky! She’s flying J so should be okay.

My former best friend Mr McToadrick had a shocker last night. He was flying somewhere in Asia via Doha and the plane had to stop and refuel in Medina before aiming for Doha.

He is mucho delayed and much regretting going the scenic route in his quest for GGL.

I approve though as it is my best shot at getting BA silver back.

Smiley face.

I can sympathise with Mr McToadrick as have done many such journeys in the last 12 months resulting last Thursday in a successful GGL quest.

[executiveclubber]

louie wrote:

No doubt a rookie question, but I’m not a chain hotel regular (or any hotel, come to that!). I’ve got one of the Amex spend £200, get £50 back offers for Hilton. Hotel I am looking at is £180 for the night. I’m gold through Amex Platinum so I think I get breakfast included. Could I buy a £20 gift voucher at the hotel and add it to my bill to get to £200?

Gift voucher could be a bit risky. The safest bet is to book a slightly nicer room category, it’s cleaner that way and guarantees the points

[JDB]

louie wrote:

No doubt a rookie question, but I’m not a chain hotel regular (or any hotel, come to that!). I’ve got one of the Amex spend £200, get £50 back offers for Hilton. Hotel I am looking at is £180 for the night. I’m gold through Amex Platinum so I think I get breakfast included. Could I buy a £20 gift voucher at the hotel and add it to my bill to get to £200?

You may be able to buy something, eg a bottle or boxed lunch to take you over £200. Gift cards are generally administered by the group (or its points fulfilment agent) not the hotel owner that bills you and triggers the credit.

[NorthernLass]

@louie, don’t know if you’re planning stays at any other qualifying Hiltons, but the offer is cumulative so if you spend £180 at one hotel, then the next spend you have of £20 or more at another one will trigger the £50 back.

I often use the offer to book 2 future nights in airport hotels when my plans are fixed and rooms are reasonably priced.

[Andrew.]

New York Post reporting a clear view of last night’s rocket show from a BA flight heading to Dubai yesterday.

https://nypost.com/2024/10/01/world-news/alarming-british-airways-cockpit-footage-shows-iranian-rockets-arcing-near-flight-over-middle-east/

[redlilly]

Andrew. wrote:

New York Post reporting a clear view of last night’s rocket show from a BA flight heading to Dubai yesterday.

https://nypost.com/2024/10/01/world-news/alarming-british-airways-cockpit-footage-shows-iranian-rockets-arcing-near-flight-over-middle-east/

Crikey! Saw that this morning. Really hope for friends all across the region that this calms down very, very soon.

Next week, OH is going back to his hedonistic days of living in NYC 10 years ago, and doing a lads trip there. So I am doing a more luxurious, but cheaper, girls trip to Oman. Tracked the flight to Muscat last night, and it’s on a 1 hour diversion over Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

[S879]

My RJ Gold Sparrow expires on 11th August. If I book a flight for say 12th August, will the airline let me choose seats beforehand or do they always check status expiry first? The online system might not allow but I call BA/QR or go via their X account will that be okay?

[NorthernLass]

You can normally select free seats until your status actually expires, even if the travel date is after this.

[JDB]

S879 wrote:

My RJ Gold Sparrow expires on 11th August. If I book a flight for say 12th August, will the airline let me choose seats beforehand or do they always check status expiry first? The online system might not allow but I call BA/QR or go via their X account will that be okay?

The status expiry won’t affect your ability to select a seat prior to the expiry date but in the time gap between your status expiry and the flight, if there is an aircraft change or some manual seat reassignment, you may lose your pre-allocated seat because the system (or a human) will detect that you have a pre-assigned seat without payment, status or other reason. Not for sure, the allocation might stick, but it’s at risk. Even if you booked while having status, any associated airport, luggage benefits etc require the status to be valid on the day of the flight for you to use them.

[S879]

Thanks.

JDB wrote:

S879 wrote:

My RJ Gold Sparrow expires on 11th August. If I book a flight for say 12th August, will the airline let me choose seats beforehand or do they always check status expiry first? The online system might not allow but I call BA/QR or go via their X account will that be okay?

The status expiry won’t affect your ability to select a seat prior to the expiry date but in the time gap between your status expiry and the flight, if there is an aircraft change or some manual seat reassignment, you may lose your pre-allocated seat because the system (or a human) will detect that you have a pre-assigned seat without payment, status or other reason. Not for sure, the allocation might stick, but it’s at risk. Even if you booked while having status, any associated airport, luggage benefits etc require the status to be valid on the day of the flight for you to use them.

[ed_fly]

S879 wrote:

Thanks.

JDB wrote:

S879 wrote:

My RJ Gold Sparrow expires on 11th August. If I book a flight for say 12th August, will the airline let me choose seats beforehand or do they always check status expiry first? The online system might not allow but I call BA/QR or go via their X account will that be okay?

The status expiry won’t affect your ability to select a seat prior to the expiry date but in the time gap between your status expiry and the flight, if there is an aircraft change or some manual seat reassignment, you may lose your pre-allocated seat because the system (or a human) will detect that you have a pre-assigned seat without payment, status or other reason. Not for sure, the allocation might stick, but it’s at risk. Even if you booked while having status, any associated airport, luggage benefits etc require the status to be valid on the day of the flight for you to use them.

the advice would be book the seats using RH status and then keep a periodic eye on the seat assignment after status has lapsed.

[S879]

Thanks all, will keep an eye on seats.

[BBbetter]

Starling fined £28m for lax controls and onboarding high risk clients. Looks like you cannot grow quickly without cutting corners.

[AnotherUser]

louie wrote:

No doubt a rookie question, but I’m not a chain hotel regular (or any hotel, come to that!). I’ve got one of the Amex spend £200, get £50 back offers for Hilton. Hotel I am looking at is £180 for the night. I’m gold through Amex Platinum so I think I get breakfast included. Could I buy a £20 gift voucher at the hotel and add it to my bill to get to £200?

You can ask for any food and drink to be added to your room tab (taking it over £200). If there’s nothing you want, some places let you add a tip at breakfast to your room tab, and some would let you buy a coffee or beer and round it up to £20 including tip…

[Junior]

What happened to the HfP Summer Party this year?

[Nico]

JDB wrote:

S879 wrote:

My RJ Gold Sparrow expires on 11th August. If I book a flight for say 12th August, will the airline let me choose seats beforehand or do they always check status expiry first? The online system might not allow but I call BA/QR or go via their X account will that be okay?

The status expiry won’t affect your ability to select a seat prior to the expiry date but in the time gap between your status expiry and the flight, if there is an aircraft change or some manual seat reassignment, you may lose your pre-allocated seat because the system (or a human) will detect that you have a pre-assigned seat without payment, status or other reason. Not for sure, the allocation might stick, but it’s at risk. Even if you booked while having status, any associated airport, luggage benefits etc require the status to be valid on the day of the flight for you to use them.

Luggage benefit depends on airline, AA honours it if you had status when you booked for example.

[LittleNick]

Junior wrote:

What happened to the HfP Summer Party this year?

Sadly there wasn’t one due to various clashes with Euros and other things HfP had on as far I remember reading before