[S879]

Thanks all, will keep an eye on seats.

[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.

[S879]

Also, two days ago my husband changed his BA email to another email address and I was shocked at how it just allowed it in 2 seconds, no verification etc. I know we don’t login with our email but once the email changes all activity, bookings etc. will go to that new email and you wouldn’t even know.

[S879]

A member of my family has also got 60k of their Avios stolen. She’s fed up of dealing with call centre staff in SE Asia and after 9 months, BA have closed her case! She had a baby 10 months ago and hasn’t travelled anywhere. It’s ridiculous how they are behaving.

[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?

[S879]

Anyone stayed at the SLH properties via Hilton? How did you find them? I am HH Gold and have previously stayed at Conrad Bali. We are thinking of flying in from Sydney as that’s where we are first headed. Return is from Japan so quite a lot of planning to do in terms of minimising cost of flights as the distances are huge. Some SLH properties look small but lovely. We are a family of 4 though with 2 teenage kids so the cost does add up. Quite tempted by the pool rooms. If anyone’s stayed, please do share how you found it.

[S879]

Thanks, that makes sense re BA showing lowest level of reward. While booking flight to Australia I wanted a longer transit in Doha so I called BA and they had other QR flights showing on their system (that were not showing on BA). They had to send them off for pricing to QR and not surprisingly, they came back much more expensive. So I think it may work for Avios rich people who wouldn’t mind paying a bit extra for a more convenient flight. I wasn’t sure if Qantas and AA followed the same rule or not.

[S879]

Thanks all, good to know! Hope it lasts till next year. I am HH Gold so is it a standard offering or do I need to register to get the 25% discount?

[S879]

Thanks both. @Adder, I will also be doing Sydney but the other way round. Will go for Row 30 but prefer a window seat so 30A.

[S879]

meta wrote:

I take a screen grab or video of the whole process of me clicking after having issues with TCB and estore 7-8 years ago. I even sent a letter before action to Collinson once after getting nowhere with CS and the credited Avios soon after. Now, if it happens (rarely even for Hilton), I just send them the video grab.

Could you please share an email or how you contact Collinson? I also take screenshots so can provide evidence.

[S879]

@Michael C, we have no issues with any airlines; it’s just HSBC to Avios. It used to be fine till about 2-3 years ago and we used to avail 25% bonus transfer etc., but no success at all in the last couple of years. I just thought someone might have a contact or way to get around it as we can’t be the only ones with the issue.

[S879]

The RJ status match is only available to certain countries. Out of interest, how do they ‘verify’ your country if all you are giving is your, say, Hilton Gold number? Do they ask you to upload some evidence later on?

[S879]

For the last few years my partner has not been able to transfer his HSBC premier points to Avios as he has a hyphen in his name. We’ve tried and tried and spoken to people and they always shift the blame to the other. Has there been a workaround for this? If yes, please advise the procedure.

[S879]

100% agree with what you have written. Ofcourse, we will get 2x promo offers etc. with hotels AFTER the booking was made and we will register for them. The fact that no OTA or cash back site was used or any promo code should entitle use to what the cash back promises. I really wish this can be taken further and escalated since there are so many of us.

davefl wrote:

JDB wrote:

Whenever this topic comes up, there are a number people who say the BA eStore is a useful source of Avios and, at the other extreme, those who claim it’s a ‘scam’. I don’t know what makes the difference save that maybe I keep things simple – no ad blockers, VPNs etc.

No add blocker, no VPN, I’ve been in IT for 37 years, I know what I’m doing and I know what it takes to get a cookie to track.

I have admittedly never used the eStore to book a hotel as doesn’t seem like a good route, but we use it with a big variety of retailers and it seems to work reliably if you follow the rules. I don’t bother challenging small clawbacks but haven’t failed to get a bigger one restored after sending the evidence.

When you’re told you didn’t stay at the property in question (Hilton San Fran) and you provide the paid folio to the estore plus a screenshot of your Hilton account and then are still told you didn’t stay there, it’s fraud to not pay the several thousand Avios that were due.

[S879]

What email to you send the evidence etc once it has been declined? I have noticed the CS email I reply to just generates another case number!

JDB wrote:

Whenever this topic comes up, there are a number people who say the BA eStore is a useful source of Avios and, at the other extreme, those who claim it’s a ‘scam’. I don’t know what makes the difference save that maybe I keep things simple – no ad blockers, VPNs etc.

I have admittedly never used the eStore to book a hotel as doesn’t seem like a good route, but we use it with a big variety of retailers and it seems to work reliably if you follow the rules. I don’t bother challenging small clawbacks but haven’t failed to get a bigger one restored after sending the evidence. For us, it’s a fairly minimal effort to earn around 30k Avios p.a.

The scheme hasn’t got anything to do with any alleged ‘race to the bottom’!

[S879]

Exact same response from Hilton today too for two separate hotel transactions! I’m sure others will chime in with similar experiences. Rob and team, can we escalate this to someone at BA? I have seen this reported before here and it’s a matter of principle. It’s very unfair and if they are doing it for most transactions for same hotels, like Hilton, then it’s a scam.

davefl wrote:

I gave them one more chance in May, (4 years since my last estore transaction) and just got a cancalled notification this morning for Hilton.

This purchase no longer qualifies for one of the following reasons:
There has been a part or a full return all of your order.
An invalid voucher code was used on your purchase (only the ones displayed on Shopping.ba.com are valid).
The last click from your browser did not come from the Shopping.ba.com
Your purchase does not meet the merchant’s purchase conditions or Shopping.ba.com’s terms and conditions.
The item you purchased has a different Avios collection rate.

All reasons absolute bull. All I did was click through to Hilton and book a non-ref Hampton which I stayed at 3 weeks later

[S879]

Are you able to select exit/bulkhead seats for free on QR reward flights (booked via BA) if you have RJ Gold?

[S879]

Thanks Alan, very informative. Not sure if anyone noticed, but I was having issues with seeing prices for HKG to LON this morning but other routes were fine. Now I see for the exact same date in Aug 2025 that I looked at yesterday, taxes have gone up by £9 per person. I know it for sure as I took a screenshot yesterday.

[S879]

NorthernLass wrote:

Have you looked at the articles and threads on using Avios on Qatar? There are few worked examples re travelling to OZ, it’s often better value than BA, as well as a better flying experience!

Thanks, do people book on BA site for QR as I am in a household account so I am not sure if I can transfer them easily to QR. Also, the QR ones I looked on BA website were somehow more expensive or often giving error as in not showing Avios pricing.

[S879]

Thank you to everyone who helped. We had a wonderful trip to KL, KKB and Sandakan.

To update on Rasa Ria, I would agree that Garden Wing is no not worth travelling so far for. It’s got nice views but requires a lot of maintenance. We moved to Ocean Wing and that’s still nice although I’d agree that that too is showing it’s age a bit. Nevertheless, it was very clean. We did the fireflies trip but the person booking never told us that it was a full moon so we only saw about 10 fireflies and we paid for 4 people! It’s the jellyfish season so having a few watersports perks etc. in our package were useless as we are not very strong swimmers so gave kayaking a miss. Food was enjoyable and affordable given we earn in GBP, but expensive for locals perhaps.

[S879]

Can you use your discovery dollars for spa or food if not staying at the hotel? I have a small $75 which will expire in a few months but don’t intend to stay at a hotel.

[S879]

I’d give this to Plaza Premium at T5, Heathrow. What an underwhelming experience and so out of touch with food requirements. In the morning there were two bacon dishes, scrambled egg and baked beans. Nothing else. Many people don’t have pork and a lot of people can’t face eggs first thing in the morning. At least put hash browns or something more neutral. Then, there was no concept of a toaster and all you had was sliced bread which no one could toast. This is so dated and many people were looking at each other quite unhappy. My child has gluten and dairy intolerance (no allergy) and there was NOTHING for him other than baked beans as even egg had milk. No gluten free bread or cake/cereal and no alternate milk. Fruit offering was so poor, hardly anything and the portions were so small. Shocking as there are so many celiacs and people with intolerances and for a place like London totally inexcusable not to have anything handy on request. We used our Amex Platinum but I can just imagine the horror of someone who pays and gets this.

[S879]

Thanks for your account. I’m just a bit apprehensive and unsure about the stay and feel maybe I should request Shangri-La to transfer us to Tanjung Aru. I know they won’t refund. Not happy with the manager not even responding with a brief email. I am not looking for a free upgrade, but some reassurance that it wouldn’t be a down point of our trip with really tired rooms. It’s also quite far from the airport. Anyway, will have a rethink.

[S879]

Thanks LD27, just read your reply. This is all very useful. We will be in Sandakan for 2 days, but not going to Sarawak.

I posted the below in the daily chat, but got no reply. I should have posted here as many here mentioned going to Rasa Ria. Reposting:

I booked the Shangr-La Rasa Ria in KK for 5 days about 6 months ago. Since we have 2 teenage kids, we booked two Garden Wing rooms at a considerable cost. However, worryingly, every third/fourth review in the last few months mentions how poor and dated the Garden Wing is. Service reviews are hit and miss, but I know that varies from review to review. However, the photos of GW rooms don’t look great and in the main, only Ocean Wing rooms get good reviews. Even the AI summary on Trip Advisor mentions this theme. Since we have a 2.5 weeks trip over multiple countries, I am not in a position to pay more for the OW as the price difference per room per night is quite a lot and we have two rooms. I wrote a polite email to the GM whose email was easily available on the Internet, but there has been no response. Disappointingly, on Trip Advisor, she responds to positive reviews only and the negative ones are just ignored! Perhaps Shangr-La Tanjung Aru would have been a better choice.

Has anyone been there recently? Also, experienced travellers, please suggest what I should do. Should I write to the main Shangr-La customer service email. It’s a very special 18th birthday trip so don’t want to end up in a 3 star room when I have paid peak season prices. I don’t mind less facilities, but shabby, mouldy places are a no-no.

[S879]

JDB wrote:

@S879 – unfortunately repellents bought locally are often more effective because they use formulations/ingredients not allowed in Europe which may or may not be a good thing. Also, you need to be sure they will be available locally – I doubt there’s a problem in Malaysia but for instance last year in South America there was a major local supply shortage owing to a surge of Dengue cases.

The reality is that none of these repellents are so effective – some mosquitoes seem to find them quite tasty so, as you say, long sleeves and trousers are a big plus to reduce available biting area and you mention spraying clothes so it’s worth considering insect repellent clothing and hats/caps. I don’t get bitten a lot, but family and friends who do swear by Rohan clothes for hiking but also for more static activities like fishing and golf.

Thank you all for the helpful comments.