[ianwardz]

ed_fly wrote:

@paul sounds like a true delight. I wonder whether BA would be better off providing free seat selection to families with an under 12 on booking. They’d lose out on some seat reservation fees, but would get a number of other benefits.

I agree that allowing free seat selection for families would be a great option to potentially avoid this issue. Having said that, I am against seat reservation fees in general and feel that seats should be reserved/allocated at booking.

Regarding the OP, is sitting in a middle seat or a seat without recline such a big deal on a 1hr 40min flight?

[ianwardz]

Annie wrote:

Is there a standard time when BA open up upgrade opportunities? I’m on the dreaded BA11 to Singapore on Tuesday in old style club and would love to try first. It seems that 8 seats in first are still available.

Why ‘The Dreaded BA11’. We have a booking on this flight for January. Is it just that it is old style club or some other reason?

[ianwardz]

Myrtlepies wrote:

So sorry if I’m being a dimwit about this – first time I’ve done a status match like this.

So I’ve got my Silver Jay/ Oneworld Bronze match sorted and now want to do the seat selection for our BA flights in a week’s time. I can’t see how to manage those flights through the Jordanian Royal Club or how to apply my new status at BA.com… guidance very welcome from anyone who has the time! Thank you.

As has been previously discussed in this thread, you can change you FF number to the RJ one via the Royal Air Maroc, Manage Booking page. You dont need a RAM account to do this.

[ianwardz]

On 7th I purchased 500g of the cheapest sultanas (£1.10), 400g of fresh strawberries and 150g fresh raspberries.
I got 2 x 500 nectar points from 20 portions. According to the portion guide I would get 16 portions from the sultanas alone, so a couple of bags would give 30 portions and 1500 nectar.

[ianwardz]

We have had this type of email the last two internal connecting flights we have made from Newcastle. It seems to be happening more often, as others on here have reported the same thing.
I would have thought, as you have over 4 hours connection, that you should be ok, but as others have said assuming that the flights are on a single booking, then it is up to BA to get you to your final destination and cover any extra costs.

[ianwardz]

strickers wrote:

Does everyone not have a spreadsheet that tracks in detail flights, hotels, hire cars, excursions, transfers etc? On that spreadsheet are balances for amongst other things, Avios, Hilton, IHG, Virgin FC and each transaction is checked in detail. No, only me?

Me!
I have a spreadsheet tracking all my points.
I also have one spreadsheet for each trip detailing every aspect of the trip. It is colour coded to highlight if unpaid, part paid or paid in full.
My OH thinks I am a geek. She is correct, but it has always ensured that everything goes to plan. Hopefully this will continue.

[ianwardz]

Reading this prompted me to reapply for the Avios BC. I applied when it 1st came out, got approved but could only get £200 credit limit.
I am financially self funded these days and after many calls and sending of bank statements, BC could not accept that I had sufficient income to get an increased credit limit.
I eventually gave up and cancelled the card.
On Tuesday I reapplied and got accepted immediately with a £9k credit limit.
The card arrived this morning, Thursday. Happy Days!

[ianwardz]

As I mentioned in another thread, we found for us, that a shared starter and a shared main was more than sufficient.
We never had any issues doing this in the wide range of restaurants we used.
It seems to be standard practice for Americans to order a big meal and then take half of it home in a takeout container, even in fairly classy restaurants.
Cold Pizza for breakfast, Yum!

Regarding tips; we found that the tip always went through. Our CC would show the pre tip price as pending for about 3 days, and then the full amount would got through.
One time I gave a low tip (5%) as the service was bad. When the bill went through 3 days later, they had obviously added more on than I had signed for. As we were on a road trip and a few hundred miles down the road, plus it was only a few dollars, I didn’t do anything about it.
It is crazy that the so called leaders of the Western world have not fully adopted chip & Pin yet.

[ianwardz]

They don’t issue a card anymore, but are supposed to pay direct to your account via swift (BIC & IBAN). Mine has been showing ‘Approved, Pending Payment’ for months now.
They did respond to a couple of emails, again months back, but now they just do not respond.
It was not a large amount. I will just have to sit it out and see if it ever turns up.

[ianwardz]

We recently (May 24) drove most of Route 66, diverting to Palm Springs after Oatman as we had been to LA a couple of times before and were not bothered about going again.

Car hire was £600 for 2 weeks one way hire, we booked a Focus or quivilent but ended up with a Mondeo type saloon.
We drove 2500 miles and spent about £170 on fuel. All gas stations were chip and Pin, except for one, so I didn’t fill up there and found another down the street.

I used google maps, downloading the next days maps each evening via hotel Wi-Fi. I had an Airalo e-sim and signal very rarely dropped.

I used a Nationwide Credit card as it has zero exchange fees and had no issue paying anywhere. It find it crazy that in the US in restaurants they still take your card away and bring back a slip of appear to sign. I think only two restaurants we ate in had chip&pin.

Regarding cost of eating and portion size. We got into the habit of ordering 1 starter and 1 main between the two of us. We had no issues doing this in any of the restaurants and always had plenty to eat with no wasted food.

We were very surprised at the lack of Trump flags etc, especially as we were travelling across the fly-over states, that we expected to be massive Trump supporters. The people we did meet that started any political discussion were totally disillusioned with both choices available to them at the upcoming election.
As @davefl says, all the people we met, were very friendly and wanted to chat. In St Louis we even got taken out for a meal by two locals we met outside the baseball stadium in the fan park. They drove us to the restaurant, insisted on paying (we covered the tip), drove us back to our hotel and even gifted my wife a St Louis Cardinals handbag.

I know most people here like a chain hotel, but we try to avoid them. We target smaller family run or independent hotels as we find them more friendly and generally cheaper.

[ianwardz]

Thanks for your responses. I will look into the possibility of Singapore checking bags through, but I think we will go with the earlier flight to avoid any potential stress.
We are CW on the Heathrow flight, so can always take advantage of the lounges.

[ianwardz]

Rather than creating separate thread.
Can anyone provide some experience of time to pass through Changi when arriving and departing on different airlines/tickets.

We are flying from Siem Reap on Singapore Airlines (cash flight) and departing on BA to LHR (Avios 241 flight), next January (Sun 19th).
My understanding is that we will be unable to check bags through and go through transit channels, so will have to collect our bags go through arrivals and then check in at BA and go through departures.
Does anyone have any experience of this and how long we should allow?
We depart to London at 23:05. We haven’t booked the Singapore flights yet and have two options, one arrives at 14:15 the other at 20:05.
Trying to decide if the later flight gives us enough time.

Thanks.

[ianwardz]

RK228 wrote:

Mikeact wrote:

What eSims are you guys using for N America nowadays, I need calls as well as data ? I could recharge my T-Mobile eSim, but just interested to see what’s new.

Are you referring to the USA T-Mobile eSim? If so, I’m not aware of anything better, as you get a local US number, can readily make and receive calls, can activate it in the UK, and prices start from $10 (for 1gb, 1000 min, and 1000 texts), which is pretty reasonable for the US.

Could you post a link showing these prices. I looked last night as off to USA in May and I can only see $40 as the cheapest option.

[ianwardz]

Agree with both your comments.
I am not too bothered for such a short flight and will not ever pay for seat selection out of principle.
I just thought it was odd. I suppose I could call the YouFirst line to see if they can do it for me. Might give it a try when I have some time to spare.

[ianwardz]

Hi, It is not clear how you then travelled from Porto to Heathrow. Did BA put you on a later flight or did you make your own arrangements?

[ianwardz]

Sealink wrote:

If you book directly, with the likes of LNER and the LNER service is delayed I believe the repay happens automatically.

We were on an LNER train York-London that was delayed by over 2 hours and received an email telling me I would be refunded whilst still on the train. From what I can remember the refund was processed the next day.
I have always said that airlines would learn a lot from LNER. I shouldn’t have to claim the statutory compensation I am entitled to, it should just happen. The airline already has all my details.

[ianwardz]

I was rejected a couple of weeks ago. I also had the Gold when I applied for the BAPP (via the 60k SUB link).
I called the number on the rejection email, where I was told that if I agreed to a reduction to the credit limit on my Gold they would re-process my BAPP request.
Yesterday I received an email telling me my BAPP is in the post.
Just hoping now that they are still going to give me the 60k SUB. I asked when on the call and they assured me I would, but lets wait and see.

[ianwardz]

I get the same problem.
I called the help line and after been asked if my password was correct 😂.
Told her I didn’t need a password for shops away!
She then tried logging in to her own account and confirmed she was getting the same issue.
She assured me that it would be passed to the relevant team for investigation.

[ianwardz]

Thanks

[ianwardz]

LHR – SIN – 6745m
SIN – DXB – 3631m
DXB – LHR – 3398m

If I am reading this correctly
The geographic distance between your original landing airport and your new departure airport must be SHORTER than either of the two flights.

So, no, as the distance back from DXB is less than the distance between SIN & DXB

https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/09/20/booking-open-jaw-redemption-flight-using-avios-points/

[ianwardz]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

Depends when your voucher was issued,

There is this on that linked page

“You can request a refund if you received an eVoucher email from us after your flight was cancelled during the period of 9 March 2020 to 19 November 2020”

Had a reply telling me my claim is not valid based on the above rule.
We already have (Avios 2-4-1) flights booked for May this year and have no plans to go anywhere else before September.
Nice to know I am donating money to BA
Agree with KevMc10, I could then use the vouchers to pay for seat reservations, which I normally refuse to pay for.

[ianwardz]

ianwardz wrote:

Roberto wrote:

Ba refunding evouchers if you ask.

Is there further information on this anywhere on here. I have contacted via chat to be told that they are non-refundable.
My wife and I both have an e-voucher that we will be unable to use before September. They are together worth around £200 which I would prefer not to donate to BA’s profit.

Did a google and found the BA link to request a refund. Done this for both. Now have to wait to see what happens.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/voucher-refund

[ianwardz]

Roberto wrote:

Ba refunding evouchers if you ask.

Is there further information on this anywhere on here. I have contacted via chat to be told that they are non-refundable.
My wife and I both have an e-voucher that we will be unable to use before September. They are together worth around £200 which I would prefer not to donate to BA’s profit.

[ianwardz]

ianwardz wrote:

@Harrier25, I appreciate that he will find out which reward he will get once he hits the spend requirement, but the OP implied that he found out at application time (or that’s how I read it).
Also, they will know you are a BA member because during the application process you are asked if you are a member and if you say yes, it asks for your membership number.

My son did get the 70k offer, now showing on his dashboard. He wasn’t logged in to his BA account at registration, but did enter his BA number during the application.

[ianwardz]

@Harrier25, I appreciate that he will find out which reward he will get once he hits the spend requirement, but the OP implied that he found out at application time (or that’s how I read it).
Also, they will know you are a BA member because during the application process you are asked if you are a member and if you say yes, it asks for your membership number.