[AJA]

@yorkshireRich New York is currently experiencing terrible weather – I suggest your friends investigate flights direct to Las Vegas and ask the airline if they can reroute them. The ticket should be under control of the airline at this point.

Being reported on the BBC: “Near impossible’ travel conditions in New York as 22 inches of snow falls on US east coast More than 5,000 flights into and out of the US have been cancelled so far on Monday, and hundreds of thousands of people are without power.

[AJA]

Wow. I am pleased you did try to resolve this as having to do so at the airport today would have been very stressful. You are right to definitely double check ticket numbers especially after a change of flight schedule or any other thing that might require a ticket re-issue. It’s a shame that we have to double check things but I always get nervous if I try to check in online and it doesn’t go smoothly. I usually go for flights that depart in the middle of the day as that usually means there is a greater chance of getting through to customer services wherever you are.

[AJA]

I am not sure whether compensation is due if they did indeed inform you of the change back in November.

But it is up to Virgin to prove to you that they informed you of the flight date change last year. I would ask for evidence thry did that although it is possible any email may have gone into your spam folder.

Also as @JDB says you were entitled to be rerouted at the earliest opportunity:

Article 8 Right to reimbursement or re-routing
1(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity

Note that it is your choice of when you fly subject to availability of seats.

Did you ask to fly on another flight on 23 Feb or did you just accept the reroute as offered? If you did ask then potentially Virgin failed the all reasonable measures test. There were at least two other flights (Saudia and BA) that operated earlier today so they should have offered to put you on those flights subject to them having seats available.

Also confused by your statement about the change of departure to fly from Dubai. You should not need to pay anything to be rerouted. Was this all done on chat yesterday?

[AJA]

@Froggee That is nice of BA to recognise that your former BFF did a good thing. His actions helped the crew and the passenger. Well done to him.

I think lowly blues would get less but I hope I am wrong.

[AJA]

Glad BA has responded positively and quickly. Hope your mum’s insurer pursues this for her as she’s plainly not at fault. Good luck!

[AJA]

jintycat wrote:

as of 25th February if you are a dual national you can no longer enter the UK on a foreign passport and you have to enter on your British passport

This is because of the introduction of the ETA requirement which is going to be strictly enforced from 25 Feb.

People who are not British citizens are expected to demonstrate their permission to travel by using:

– their digital UK immigration permission (eVisa), if they are resident in the UK;
– their physical vignette sticker or digital eVisa, if they have a visitor or certain other type of visa; or
– their electronic travel authorisation (ETA), if they are visiting the UK and are from a non-visa national country (for example, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, USA or an EU country).

A British dual national travelling on a foreign passport is not supposed to use any of those. They would be ineligible for an ETA, eVisa or immigration permission due to their British citizenship.

British citizens are exempt from the permission to travel requirement. British citizens are expected to demonstrate this by using their British passport or a certificate of entitlement which is a digital certificate proving you have right of abode in the UK. It gets attached to your foreign passport but is an expensive option costing £589.

[AJA]

Simon de Scoob wrote:

Would anyone kindly have any tips for booking RTN cash flights to Australia (ADL) on any of the main carriers typically featured on HFP? Ideally, in PE or J.

So sorry to read this. I think you will find that business class is cheaper than PE to Adelaide. IF you use the explore function on Google flights https://www.google.com/travel/explore you can set your departure city and travel class and dates and it will show you where you can go for how much. Adelaide in May seems to be one of the more expensive cities. It looks much cheaper to fly to Melbourne or Sydney but then you’d have to buy internal flights.
The cheapest direct flight from LHR I could find was on China Southern departing 3 May returning 1 Jun for £2,986

[AJA]

There is this form on BA which specifically has a button for proof of flying.

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/webforms/public/en_gb/?eId=120001&wfpId=customer_receipt

[AJA]

That’s good to know. I thought transfers in from BA did not count. My Avios are all kept in BA but I last earned Avios in Qatar in June 2024.

[AJA]

How annoying! Does your mum still have her boarding pass? And does she have a stamp in her passport showing arrival in Nice? I’d say those two things combined would be sufficient evidence.

[AJA]

danimal wrote:

Does this apply to transfers to Qatar in the same way?

From the Qatar website:
Your Avios will never expire if you collect, spend, buy or gift at least one Avios every 36 months.

So more generous but technically possible after 3 years of no Qatar account activity. And transfers in do not count as activity either.

[AJA]

You cannot transfer the BAPP card to Germany – it’s only available to UK residents. If you will still have a UK permanent address you might be able to keep it but you would have to pay any balances from a UK account so perhaps keep the UK bank account open as well.

[AJA]

Lady London wrote:

So what happens if you’ve just opened a Finnair account but for whatever reason you have no earnings there yet… will Finnair expire any avios you move in there within 10 days ?

No they will only expire after your account has been open 18 months without earning activity. Obviously moving Avios within 10 days of 18 months having not earned any Avios directly within Finnair will result in risking them expiring. But you would be daft to do that unless you were going to make a redemption as soon as you transfer Avios in. And I’d argue you’d be daft to open a Finnair account and not credit any flights to the account in your first 18 months.

[AJA]

P class on BA is used for award tickets and upgrades usually meaning no Avios or TP

P Traveller Plus (Redemption – Miles, MFU & GUF2 vouchers)

You will have to contact AA and explain (and show evidence) that it was a cash upgrade. They should credit you for the discounted fare for premium economy. Good luck!

[AJA]

Saltrams wrote:

I don’t need to extend validity as I have a very active Avios life with transactions going on almost daily, certainly weekly. Does anyone understand this?

Is the almost daily Avios earning purely on your Finnair account? If not then it’s irrelevant that you have daily earning on BAC or even Qatar – you need qualifying Avios earning or spending on your Finnair account to reset the expiry counter. Transfers of Avios from another OW account into Finnair do not count as qualifying Avios earning and they will automatically expire after 18 months of your last qualifying Finnair Avios transaction.

[AJA]

I agree that Space X first stage rocket return snd land again is incredible.

[AJA]

Mark87 wrote:

customer services who advised that I take the outbound flight and then request a refund of the return flight after that.

I would be wary of doing that. I thought that it isn’t possible to get a refund after you have flown the outbound on a reward ticket? All that happens is your return sector is cancelled.

[AJA]

@Polly Sorry to read about the dog incident.Sounds like you’ve done the right thing with the rabies vaccination. Hope OH is OK and that tge rest of your trip is uneventful but enjoyable.

[AJA]

I’m with @AndrewT on this and I no longer have any status at all. But I hope you don’t try phoning the silver line as that’s a waste of their time having to tell you to call the BA blue customer service number.

[AJA]

smitrax wrote:

Have booked Tap air to Rio via Lisbon in business for a trip in April. Was having a haircut with my Brazilian barber yesterday and he mentioned that Tap air were ‘nowhere near as good as BA’ which has got me a little worried.

My experience of TAP is that you’ll be fine. But as always YMMV. Their shorthaul business class is good. It’s similar to BA with the empty middle seat. But unlike BA was spotlessly clean. Plenty of leg room too. They have a nice (windowless but that doesn’t matter at night) lounge in the non-schengen part of LIS to wait for your longhaul flight.

Longhaul it’s an A330NEO. The flat bed is good. Found the footwell a bit small. The crew just get on with things. There’s not much engagement with passengers but they are happy to top up drinks. Food was good too.

Enjoy Rio!

[AJA]

@JDB I am well aware of the costs involved in running a business in the hospitality industry having worked in airline catering which also pays minimum wages and is a very low margin business. Not sure why you keep referring to my former occupation. I am retired but that does not mean I am clueless.

Also are you seriously suggesting that the IC is breaking the law by not paying the national minimum wage as an hourly rate? If not and you’re suggesting that “chambermaids” (I prefer the more inclusive term housekeeping) are expensive then that’s market forces at work. If the annual wage is less than £25,400 (based on a 40hr week at £12.21/hour) then that suggests they are either not working full time or they are not working 40 hours a week.

I acknowledge that living in London on £25k is not easy but is that enough of a reason for customers to pay service charges on top of the room rate? There are many minimum wage jobs in central London that do not get service charges in addition to their hourly rate including cabin crew on board aircraft – are you suggesting passengers should pay a service charge to the airlines as we leave the aircraft?

If you’re saying the IC would struggle to sell hotel rooms if they included the suggested service charge within the room rate then that says that customers don’t perceive the IC is of sufficient quality to pay the rate. Not sure why that justifies IC charging a lower rate and then adding a service charge afterward. If they do as a means of attracting custom then that’s the risk IC takes when some guests choose not to pay it.

[AJA]

@JDB re the service charge are you saying that customers should pay them regardless because it helps hotels retain staff?

I don’t have a problem per se with tips in restaurants though it should be after receiving above average service but why pay a service charge on top of the room rate? I know that cleaners are the lowest paid staff and if they’re good should actually be invisible to guests but doesn’t the room rate include provision to pay wages?

And are you really saying the “relatively inexpensive” room rates at the ICPL are not sufficient for the IC to make a profit and pay staff a decent wage?

If I am going to I prefer to tip the cleaners directly rather than pay a service charge on the entire bill.

[AJA]

If you believe you have a case for compensation then make a claim. Persinally I wouldn’t bother as Funchal is a tricky airport and often has diversions ir cancellations due to bad weather.

Jet2 is liable for the extra accomodation and food costs you incurred in suffering a 24hour delay assuming you were stuck in Funchal.

[AJA]

Why did you choose seat 7K if it had the risk of being used as crew rest and you would be moved? I am surprised you haven’t experienced your seat choice being reallocated before, especially as you are a GfL and have flown a lot.

You were unlucky to have it happen on both outbound and inbound flights but that is the risk with choosing seats that are well known to be used by crew. I would have chosen another seat in the first place.

Also not sure what you want BA to do differently? Did you try moving your unwanted newly allocated seat to another one?

Be grateful you got another CW seat and weren’t downgraded.

[AJA]

@RonnieB Good luck with that. You are severely restricting your choice of airlines.

I’ve not experienced Starlink but I think it’s a good thing. All of the issues listed above already happen today. Trains already have had wifi for years and they aren’t any worse and don’t suffer from people being anti-social to other passengers because of it.