[FatherOfFour]

Flew Aegean biz today- what a delight! The beef was lovely and the service genuinely delivered. Heraklion airport however….it’s like they built an airport but forgot people would wait in it so seats were an after thought. Must be hell at peak times.

@SamG Was there a lounge at Heraklion for Aegean bus passengers? I’ve had an experience there with a delayed flight- perhaps 5 hours late leaving and remember it being pretty bad. This was back in 2011 and either EC261 didn’t exist, and/or I was completely naiive to it.

Anyway- probably back with the fam there next year and considering options.

[FatherOfFour]

I’m not AS certain of the answer to this one. I am guessing adding the extra leg might push you back to the bottom of the ticket queue, which may or may not cause further issues with the 14day CVV retention period that @JDB refers to. If you are already at 14 days or close, might be best to get it added now and ask the agent to reinput / revalidate your card details to avoid further calls.

[FatherOfFour]

tpb_2024 wrote:

Called up yesterday to add on the return leg to my existing booking. Avios have been debited, and the flight shows in my itinerary. However, manage my booking does not let me perform seat selection on this flight? It states that I need to do this with the airline directly… It’s BA operated?

I also notice that my card has not been charged the taxes yet, even though I confirmed my security code to the agent on the phone. Is this normal?

This is normal. Takes a few days for the re-ticketing to be done after adding the return leg. Once this is done, seating options will appear in MMB again.
I expect seeing the card charge on your statement would be a good prompt that ticket numbers are available and you can choose seats.

[FatherOfFour]

Had put the wife’s BAPP on ice with a view to triggering in Jan, but have now deliberately triggered it to book 6 of us with 2 x 241s next October.

The next challenge is to get 3 more vouchers by spring ’27. I’ve mapped this out and it is contingent on me being accepted for a new BAPP next winter.

However, the increased spend target certainly makes the overall target more challenging. 45k total spend vs 30k plus the fee increase too.

[FatherOfFour]

Assume it’s just the loyalty brand being updated and the stores will remain as Dufry?
New name has certainly killed the link

[FatherOfFour]

Thanks. It actually prompted me to go into the app and remind me it had given me a comp Dragonpass account. We have no useful status with BA, and changed our gold amex card out for blue (alongside BAPP) to focus on 241s.

It seems OK to be able to buy in to Plaza Premium at £22 each via dragon? Booking directly is double.

[FatherOfFour]

It helps if I download and read the accepted locations, since my hotel isn’t listed.
However, I will see if they will switch the card on file. I don’t want to meddle too much as I booked this via the eStore and therefore I don’t want to end up with 0 Amex cash back AND 0 Avios back.

[FatherOfFour]

The real Swiss Tony wrote:

FatherOfFour wrote:

Appeared 2 weeks after £350 Intercontinental booking which I THOUGHT had been paid upfront in full.

It Appears I can cancel and lose deposit- which isnt specified in my booking email, and Credit card statement isn’t showing any payments taken…

Would you cancel and rebook?

It’s not clear if you have been charged already. If not, just sit tight and the deal will credit when the charge hits.

Offer is on a different card to the one I booked with.
No charges applied to card yet.
Same rate appears available.
It was a “book early and save, with breakfast” rate.

I think I’ll need to prompt them to take payment as the stay is in Jan.

[FatherOfFour]

Appeared 2 weeks after £350 Intercontinental booking which I THOUGHT had been paid upfront in full.

It Appears I can cancel and lose deposit- which isnt specified in my booking email, and Credit card statement isn’t showing any payments taken…

Would you cancel and rebook?

[FatherOfFour]

Is this a sweet spot for SQ miles too? We have about 15,000 each (6 of us) and even if I could easily pool them, I can’t find anything useful. I kind of regret not crediting our *A flights to UA programme now to redeem for internal US flights, but chose SQ on the basis we could top up with Amex MR.

[FatherOfFour]

If you like statistics to help evaluate the risk of a late incoming. In the period 29th July to 26th September.
BA11 operated 89 flights- details below.

89 operates, 26 early, 57 delayed, 6 ontime.
Average 25.6mins late
Delayed hours totals 41.4hours and an average of 43.5mins

Whilst the mean average delay is “only” 43.5 minutes, at least 10 flights operated at least 1.5hrs late, (5 were 2hrs +)

All data taken from speedbird.online

[FatherOfFour]

TH wrote:

Update: I changed the booking online (non-peak date to non-peak date). Very straightforward indeed.

I assume you were charged a change fee of £35/ person?

[FatherOfFour]

Well done @emilyspc glad to hear it worked out. I must say I think you were lucky to call back and get through so quick. My experience in the past has been wait times of 30mins plus, making it so hard to time the call right.

My next booking involves a half-term date when I would imagine every man and their dog will be trying to get through. Fortunately I have enough avios to book both legs online, but may go for a two-pronged attack. I’ve seen the flights I want snapped up very quickly after midnight at the recent end of summer hols booking period.

[FatherOfFour]

Hmm, I didn’t put two and two together when the Hilton rumours surfaced and also Currensea did the big seedrs campaign a few weeks back. I asked on here about the Currensea / Seedrs and what they could be up to, but stony silence! Wish I’d taken a punt now, as I presume this will bring a lot of people to Currensea.

[FatherOfFour]

Rob Burgess wrote:

I am at Raffles in a couple of weeks and will do a review at some point.

Saw Raffles in my search – it looks opulent, and a bit out of our league, especially as I dropped a text to the wife on Monday- “do you fancy a cheap getaway to Warsaw in January?”

I will enjoy your write up anyway

[FatherOfFour]

Thanks @Supergers49 for the detailed reply and suggestions. Sounds encouraging and if the Christmas markets are still running, then that’s a bonus.
I’ve seen the Palace View rooms and High Floor Palace View rooms offered, at £1 or £2 more per night. I think it is also visible from the gym and pool?

I’ve seen a booking direct offer in the IHG app cash only, which includes breakfast for £14 per night – not bad when it’s supposedly about £23 each if adding it on at the hotel, so I’m leaning towards this option.

[FatherOfFour]

Sorry, IHG points. I topped up during the last 100% bonus period. Paid about 0.4p per point and could redeem at ABOUT that. I know that in theory I can get better value out of them (I have in Brisbane) but hard to see when that’s going to be so tempted to cut my losses!

[FatherOfFour]

I see the term “scam” used too liberally these days. The BA eStore is not going out of it’s way to defraud you of your money.

I went through a phase of many transactions not working. I then worked out what I was doing wrong and how to mitigate it in future.

Halfords used to be a problem, because they would “upsell” in store, which then led to the original transaction being voided and a new invoice generated. However, this I’m sure is shop staff being incentivised to upsell, rather than Halfords trying to “scam” people of points.

Halfords are no longer on the store.

[FatherOfFour]

I also said we need to think about it now. We have always had AA via getting our cars serviced at the main dealer, but they are now ageing (aren’t we all) and we were considering using a local garage and using the Nationwide Flex to cover.
Another poster mentioned the price hasnt gone up for quite some time. As relatively new customers, we weren’t aware of that. Will give it some thought but will also look at the alternatives.

[FatherOfFour]

Agree regarding the rate. UA had availability at 6000 pts + $20 (or something else reasonable) whereas Kris was going to be 14,000 + 40 Euros… Cash is actually better. I DO have some KRIS which will expire, but hopefully will get Avios flights that I need.

[FatherOfFour]

Scottpat78 wrote:

Oh, and I didn’t know about the cups with the return value. Threw 8 of them away at the swimming then cottoned on at the athletics!

This was a weird greenwashing scheme. Firstly, they were pouring directly out of original plastic coke bottles into the plastic cups- doubling the amount of plastic.
Then they were closing the kiosks 30 minutes before the end of the sessions, so it wasn’t easy to return your cups. It was nigh on impossible to get out of your row during the events unless you were on a row end.

They advertised a “deliver to your seat” scheme at Stade de France, but I couldn’t get this working at either Athletics session we attended.

Took our cups to Versailles the next day and returned them there. I expect those living in mainland Europe are more used to these deposit schemes on plastic bottles etc.

We sampled a fair bit of the stadium food – reasonable choice for Veggie’s like us. Mediocre quality as you’d expect.

[FatherOfFour]

Thanks for the entertaining read. (And again for the initial tip off in the forums about the ballot)

We were at the same Athletics session.

Our paupers’ / Tinkerman version:

1) Booked kids in with grandparents so we only paid for the 2 of us.
2) Booked Avios to CDG upon release. CE out, ET return
3) Booked dodgy looking booking.com apartment in Goussainville for £180
4) Upon release of Eurostar prices, cancelled the CDG-LHR and Booked E* at £270. Flight time wasn’t ideal anyway.
5) Booked Mercure paris pont de vaillois at £220 and cancelled the booking.com (which had been delisted from site but showed on Airbnb as available for our dates)
6) Booked E* standard premium and cancelled LHR-CDG. Can’t remember price, but similar to the flight pricing and better timings.
7) Enjoyed a Pakistani curry near our hotel for about £18 via the fork. Apparently one of Paris’ better curryhouses.

[FatherOfFour]

We are planning something very similar, using 3 x 2-4-1s (from 2 holders) Obvious pitfalls to this is: a) 2 bookings – risk of separation if IRROPS b) no hope of getting 6 Business seats from MCO/TPA or MIA in the holidays. c) I don’t even have a BAPP currently, d) The increased spend requirement and timing to get 3 vouchers between us needs some strategic planning!

However, we will likely fly in AND OUT of Washington – using either cash or Avios for internal return flights OR fly back Economy direct from MCO.

We managed multiple large cases on the train at Easter on our Aus trek – it’s not ideal but depending on the age of your kids they could help? (We used both LHR and LCY and combo of Lizzie Line, Jub/DLR – I’m not sure Gatwick will be quite as straightforward for some reason)

Thanks @Andrew. for the tip on hotels- I think we’re planning a villa/condo booked direct, so this might not be a factor for us.

[FatherOfFour]

wrong thread

[FatherOfFour]

No, except last time I looked , in July, it appears they have put the standard rate back to 15.