[dannyhk]

SamG wrote:

A seatspy premium subscription may be worthwhile for you as it promises realtime updates

Be careful about this. What Seatspy mean by real-time updates is that they’ll update you as soon as they find out about the new seats. That’s not the same as updating you as soon as those seats are actually released.

I’m a Seatspy Premium subscriber and have noticed delays of several hours between when I cancelled a seat which (when I checked on BA) went straight back into availability and when my Seatspy alert for this date (which I‘d forgotten to cancel) notified me of this availability which had been added several hours earlier.

[dannyhk]

danimal wrote:

It’s very clunky. Much prefer Seat Spy. Some of the buttons are barely visible on Android. You can’t set an alert if there is a flight on the same day with availability and you want a different flight.

Entirely agree, and its a very painful process replicating multi-day/multi-cabin alterts from Seatspy day-by-day and cabine-by-cabin in the Avois app.

But it will be more than worth the extrq hassle if the Avios app turns out to be faster than Seatspy in alerting you when a seat becomes available? Does anyone have any data points on this yet?

[dannyhk]

Maples wrote:

This is great, thanks!

One gripe (looking at flights to Tokyo) is that there’s no business class seats left. I cannot set an alert because I cannot even pick the business class seat option to start with.

Choose the option to view availabilty for a whole month, you should then be able to create alerts for individual dates within that month even if there are no seats left for your preferred date (at least that’s what I did)

[dannyhk]

executiveclubber wrote:

If it’s not there, you might need to double check you’ve got the latest app version.

Many thanks, it was indeed a case of needing to update the app. Have now replicated my SeatSpy alerts in the app, so will be interested to see which one is faster in alerting me to any available seats.

[dannyhk]

executiveclubber wrote:

dannyhk wrote:

I can’t find this? Is it in the Avios app? Or the BA app? And where?

Avios app, tap Spend, tap the notification icon in the top right. Not massively intuitive but it’s there!

Sorry. I must be dense. But I still can’t find this anywhere in the Avios app? I presume the notification icon is the little bell icon in the top right? The one inbetween the heart and the 3 horizontal lines that bring up a menu? (wish there was some way to upload a screenshot).

When I click on the bell icon I just get a list of Latest Notifications with no way to add any kind of availability alert.

What am I doing wrong?

[dannyhk]

I can’t find this? Is it in the Avios app? Or the BA app? And where?

[dannyhk]

If you’re having problems changing your FF number to RJ via the RAM site for a particular Avios booking, check whether or not that particular booking already has a BA FF number attached. What I found while changing the FF number on a dozen or so Avios bookings is that (somewhat perversely) if the booking already had a BA FF number, then it was no problem changing this to a RJ FF number via the RAM site. But I got stuck for a long time unsuccessfully trying to add a RJ FF number to 2 Avios bookings which somehow didn’t have any FF number attached to them (in one case, I think because I accidentally wiped the BA FF number by mistakenly inputting a non-existent FF number via the RAM site). Finally I went back to the BA site, where I was able to successfully add (back) in my BA FF number for both bookings. Then back to RAM site again, which now allowed me to change the FF number from BA to RJ for those bookings where I’d prevously been unable to do so.

[dannyhk]

Seems there is currently a 10% Asiamiles transfer bonus as well, although I can’t see any official confirmation of this anywhere. Just transferred enough points for 5,000 Asiamiles and got an extra 500 Asiamiles with the message “HSBC Premier – 10% bonus”. Unlike those 20% or even 25% transfer bonuses for Avios, 10% for Asiamiles is about as good as it ever gets–so if you’re going to stock up on Asiamiles now might be a good time (with the normal YMMV caveat).

[dannyhk]

Just to report back as promised (with many thanks once again for all the helpful advice). On arrival at T3, transit passengers (even to domestic flights) go straight to the airside bus stops (one for T5, the other for T2 and T4) without any need to clear immigration or security in T3 (which all takes place in your onward terminal). And the inter-terminal transfers can be pretty fast. Even though she was travelling in economy, she made it to T5 within 30 minutes or so of touching down in T3, with plenty of time to satisfy conformance. So I guess BA Flyer hit the nail on the head, and the 90 minute MCT only represents the minimum time airlines feel comfortable selling a connection which in reality can usually be done much more quickly than this.

BTW: Tracking my wife’s flights, I noticed again that both the Heathrow app and Flightaware treat the runway touchdown time as the arrival time. Fair enough I suppose. But since you can’t exactly disembark on the runway (and there can sometimes be delays on the way to the gate) its the arrival time at the gate which is far more useful (and what the Cathay, and I think also BA, apps show). This also means, especially if you’re on a tight connection, that historical data on Fightaware about flight arrival times has to be treated with some caution since it doesn’t reflect the time passengers were actually able to disembark.

[dannyhk]

Wonderful advice, many thanks all. And yes, Frogee, I will definitely report back after she (hopefully) makes her connection.

[dannyhk]

JDB wrote:

On the app BA usually posts the arrival time (at the gate) rather than the landing time and similarly on departure BA records the time the aircraft left the gate rather than the takeoff/airborne time. Heathrow records all the different times.

That explains the discrepancy, thanks. Although I can only see one time on the Heathrow app, which must be the landing time. Can’t understand why Heathrow don’t post the gate time as well (which would be far more useful to most people).

[dannyhk]

Many thanks to everyone who offered advice and helped contribute to such a successful outcome as my daughter just messaged me from the boarding gate for her Newcastle flight. Will save your advice for the next time she has another tight connection and only wish BA wouldn’t keep cancelling so many of the Newcastle flights.

[dannyhk]

Thank you again for the very helpful advice and will post here again on Saturday if there are any difficulties at Heathrow

[dannyhk]

SamG wrote:

Otherwise shouldn’t be a big challenge to get F&B vouchers – if the flight is late enough it’s definitely a misconnect there will likely be someone meeting the flight with them otherwise she can ask at flight connections or the airside customer service desk

Many thanks, very helpful advice everyone. Does anyone have experience of being met at the gate in the event of a misconduct? Where would that be in the event of bussed in arrivals? Presumably somewhere just after they get off the bus? Is it worth looking around for someone in a BA uniform before dashing off to Flight Connections? Or will it be immediately obvious if they’re waiting for you? (E.g. because they have signs with the names of the misconnecting passengers.)

[dannyhk]

Thanks for the quick replies, and will proceed down the household account route. The flight’s in late April and yes, I’ve already signed up for a SeatSpy alert.

[dannyhk]

JenT wrote:

Have needed a few rentals from Heathrow and Southampton Airport in January and February – have discovered that the one-way fee with Avis from Heathrow to Southampton is currently £1.20. Seems that Southampton is short of cars! Hopefully this might prove useful for some others heading to the south coast from Heathrow.

I think I can beat that. Just dropped off a car at Heathrow which I rented at Southampton Airport and, to my surprise, there was no one way rental fee at all!

[dannyhk]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like Accor it is. Thanks for the suggestion about day rooms but pretty sure I won’t be able to get one for anything like the £30 early check in supplement.

[dannyhk]

Yes, have been doing this for several years. One of your accounts will have a UK sort code and you can use that to set up the autopay.

[dannyhk]

The real Swiss Tony wrote:

Just another thought – have you tried booking for 7 days (note you’ll probably need to keep the car for 6 days and 1hr). And are you spending 5 days ambling over from Manchester to Durham, or is it feasible to hire in Manchester, drop back in Manchester 4 days later – possibly from another provider – then pick up another car for Enterprise to make the journey over?

If you’re not aware we also have three bank holiday Mondays this May, so that’s going to skew demand on the 1st, 8th & 29th.

Good luck.

Yes, those are all great ideas many thanks. Will definitely look into switching providers part way through which could cut the cost a lot. Also now discovered Hertz have a depot on the southern outskirts of Newcastle which is only 14 miles from Durham so that might be another option. Thanks also for the tip-off about bank holidays. Since I live overseas, didn’t realise May 29 is a holiday.

[dannyhk]

I feel your pain. Enterprise is the only national operator within 20 miles of me and their prices are now stupid. £150 a day for a Qashqai etc.

I managed to get 10% off using some football code a while back. They obviously do a lot of work with insurers too, but no idea how you would try to get in on that rate. I have seen them cheaper on one-ways using sites like kayak which then scan the consolidators.

Many thanks for the tip about consolidators. Unfortunately Kayak is currently showing the same (ridiculously high) price as booking direct with Enterprise. But I’ll try some other consolidators as well. You never know I might strike lucky eventually!

[dannyhk]

Has anyone managed to get a discounted rental with Enterprise? Have to rent from Enterprise for the first time as only Enterprise have a depot in Durham (where I’ll be returning the car) and struggling to find any way of discounting the £559 rate which the Enterprise web site is quoting for a 5 day one way rental from Manchester airport to Durham in May. Unable to find any discount/promotional codes for Enterprise? Unlike Hertz, changing the country website doesn’t seem to reduce the rate. And clicking through from Enterprise’s frequent flyer partners produces the same rate (or even higher). What (if anything) am I missing?

[dannyhk]

bobthebuilder wrote:

Has anybody been able to see when their points are coming up for expiry? This used to be shown on the card statement each month, but now doesn’t seem to be included. And clicking through to the Rewards portal only shows my total points, points earned (various) and points spent (none). Nothing about points which are due to expire.

Did anyone ever figure out how to see when your points expire? There’s no longer any indication on the statement and neither the app nor online banking give any indication either.