Mini tier point run advice

[kevind]

I have booked a Club Europe flight from Dublin to London City on Tuesday, just to get a few cheap tier points to bring me up to Silver. I arrive in LCY at 5.30pm and depart LCY at 8.30pm. I don’t think it is the same aircraft for the both legs though.

I know I’m taking a bit of a gamble with delays and cancellations etc. but I was wondering what happens if my outbound leg is delayed and I miss the “return”. Do I have to make my own way back to Dublin or is there any obligation on BA? Again, what happens if my outbound leg from Dublin is delayed several hours, meaning that I would be leaving Dublin KNOWING I will miss my return flight?

All advice welcome guys as I’m relatively new to the game.

Thanks

[Richie]

If the flights are on the same ticket, then you may be ok.

[Matt]

If they are booked separately then you are probably on your own for the return. It would be worth asking BA to help, but they are under no obligation to. You would have got to LCY on ticket one, so the end of their contract with you, and you would have failed to turn up for ticket 2.

If you know you’ll miss your flight back before you leave (and it’s separate bookings) then you need to check your options for getting back. If there’s a cheap way back you could catch then go for it. If there isn’t then abandon the trip and don’t get on the plane. You would need to decide what’s cheap in that situation.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

The fact that @kevind used “return” within quotes indicates to me that these are two separate bookings.

Perhaps he can confirm what the actual booking / bookings are.

In which case BA don’t have to do anything if he does miss the LCY-DUB flight,

If it happens then all he can do is ask at the BA service desk and perhaps be willing to pay fare difference on the rebooked flight but BA won’t be on the hook for a hotel or compo etc.

The problem he has is that the later in the day he arrives the fewer BA departures there are and fewer BA staff around to be able to assist.

Thing is for BA neither DUB or LCY are good for back to backs. DUB because the turnaround time is so tight it’s almost impossible to deboard, clear passports and security and get back to the gate by doors closed.

And LCY because it’s a BA base so they can and do switch planes and crews around. Plus there isn’t a transit route at LCY – you need to clear security again even if there is no passport control.

[kevind]

Thanks for your input guys.

Apologies. It is 1 booking. Outbound on BA4467 DUB-LCY dep. 1555 arr. 1730. Inbound on BA4470 dep. 2030 arr. 2150.

[kevind]

Not sure why I put return in “return”. I suspect if I miss the return flight to Dublin because of a late arrival to LCY from DUB and it is BA’s fault, then surely they would have honour the flight I missed, even though its only a short 3 hour trip to wonderful London City Airport! Which given its the last flight back, it would be a very hurried dash to LHR or an overnight stay and reroute on LCY-DUB the next day.

Of course this is all “IF”. Will probably be ok. 3 hour window should be fine. Need the 80 TPs though!!!

[Luca M]

kevind wrote:

Not sure why I put return in “return”. I suspect if I miss the return flight to Dublin because of a late arrival to LCY from DUB and it is BA’s fault, then surely they would have honour the flight I missed, even though its only a short 3 hour trip to wonderful London City Airport! Which given its the last flight back, it would be a very hurried dash to LHR or an overnight stay and reroute on LCY-DUB the next day.

Of course this is all “IF”. Will probably be ok. 3 hour window should be fine. Need the 80 TPs though!!!

It could well be a short business meeting to meet someone in LcY for 30 minutes and then flying back. This perfectly reasonable based on timetable. As it is all in one booking/ticket, any delays that will impact you catching your return flight (and miss that important business meeting, are BA fault to fix)

[ChrisC]

kevind wrote:

Thanks for your input guys.

Apologies. It is 1 booking. Outbound on BA4467 DUB-LCY dep. 1555 arr. 1730. Inbound on BA4470 dep. 2030 arr. 2150.

Yes you would be covered.

If you’d said that in your first post it would have saved a lot of confusion!

[Matt]

As long as you don’t have anything too important to be back for the next day then it’s all good!

[kevind]

Thanks everyone. Advice much appreciated.
Yes Matt, I can be flexible with work commitments on Wednesday. Interestingly, a check of BA4467 on Flightradar24 shows no flight duration/arrival data for the past few weeks. Although for the prior 6 months or so this flight seems quite punctual. Will feed back if anything untoward happens.
K

[Tracey]

kevind wrote:

Thanks for your input guys.

Apologies. It is 1 booking. Outbound on BA4467 DUB-LCY dep. 1555 arr. 1730. Inbound on BA4470 dep. 2030 arr. 2150.

Then BA are obliged to look after you. Also if you are more than 3 hours late you would be entitled to compensation in most cases.

[kevind]

Thanks for the advice everyone. No such problems arose. Both flights were a little delayed but not by much. It was an extremely pleasant experience.

So, from my Car to the Business Lounge in Dublin T1 took me about 7 minutes. The Club Europe ticket allowed me to use the Fast Track security lane. This was practically empty with only 2 or 3 people in front of me. They have stopped selling Fast Track for cash.

I’ve looked back at the Dublin T1 Departures for mid-afternoon 2pm to 5pm and it seems there were only a handful of flights which could theoretically include business class and therefore a Fast Track ticket. I have excluded the low cost carriers here, because although Ryanair and Vueling do offer Fast Track, I don’t think there’s much uptake of that fare. A few dummy bookings show Ryanair charge nearly 3 times the price for a Flexiplus ticket and Vueling appear to charge an extra 40 Euros or so.Generally they are more price sensitive so it would be silly to pay over 100 Euros for a 1 way flight including a checked bag when the same flight sells for say around 50 Euros, again, including a checked bag.

After landing, doors opening and leaving the aircraft I was on the pavement outside LCY in 2 minutes. DLR ride 1 stop to meet a friend for coffee and returned about an hour later. Stepping off the DLR and walking to the Duty Free store airside took 3 minutes and 42 seconds!! It is a world away from arriving in LHR, or Gatwick/Stansted/Luton as I have done recently.

Apologies for the long post, but I was so impressed that I had to tell this. I told my wife when I got home but she wasn’t that interested!

Does anyone know if there are other methods of going through DUB T1 Fast track if one doesn’t have a J class ticket? Amex Centurian? BA Gold status? I know Aer Club Silver upwards grants access but they mainly fly from T2.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[ChrisC]

BA silver and gold (and OW equivalents) would also get it if you were in economy.

DUB used to sell access but like other airports has suspended that but I’m sure it will return when they get fully staffed.

When I passed through DUB on Sunday lunchtime airport staff manning the entry to security advised me to use the normal lanes as there was a queue for priority!