[Paul]

A quick search suggests that almost 500,000 passengers per day pass through DOH DXB and AUH. EK have over 200 flights a day. QR and EY data suggest over 200 also for QR and over 100 EY. But it is not published.

By Monday in excess of 1 million passengers could have been disrupted globally.

I can’t imagine a scenario whereby this is manageable by any airline or organisation. It will take a lot of time to recover as many aircraft are not where they should be. Returning to point of origin yesterday when that was possible was a sensible operation decision and should help with operational recovery when they can.

My own flight is two weeks today!

[Paul]

The scale of the disruption is incomprehensible given that DXB AUH and DOH are closed. Qatar have posted on C that next update is Monday 9am. Their staff are seeking shelter

Duty of care applies ex UK and EU but not compensation. If rebooking yourself do not cancel QR tickets or take refund as no duty of care then applies.

[Paul]

Claire wrote:

Thank you everyone, I got the regulation the wrong way round! They are covered under my Amex platinum insurance so have £300 each for accommodation and £150 each for refreshments. They will get back to emirates asap to figure out how they will get them home. Looking at emirates website they will rebook and rebook on another airline if it is necessary, so I guess the key is for them to be proactive and take whatever they can that suits their needs. Thank you all for the advice, really appreciated!

I think you need to be very careful. The platinum insurance states under Gerald exclusions

Any claim resulting from travel restrictions imposed by Governmental Offices relating to Trips booked
after the World Health Organisation declaring a pandemic or known event.

Any fraudulent, dishonest or criminal act committed by You, or anyone with whom You are in collusion.

Confiscation or destruction of Your personal belongings by any government, customs or public authority.

Terrorist activities except while on a Public Vehicle.

Declared or undeclared war or hostilities.

I fear they are at the mercy of Emirates and re routing will be a problem due to the simply vast number of people impacted.

Think you should speak urgently to Amex as the exclusions suggest no cover.

I am due to to fly to Australia in 2 weeks via Qatar and can only hope that this stramash is over in a very short time.

[Paul]

LHR MAN DUB EDI BHX to DOH all returning to point of origin. Seems to be a sensible operation plan by QR to limit disruption. The issue is for those on flights tomorrow Monday etc. Much depends on length of conflict and crew hours but don’t imagine anyone going to DOH today

[Paul]

Air space closure and attacks on BAH DOH causing utter chaos for those on Qatar airways today! FCO DOH returning to FCO same for MXP DOH indeed almost every QR European departure in the air this morning returning to point of origin.
Turkish Airlines flight from Phuket ton Istanbul
Diverted to Damman.
If this goes on much longer it will take days to to clear up so disruption likely for many many people.
EU 261 duty of care will apply but not compensation. Bigger issue will be insurance as so many do not cover war declared or undeclared.
Safe travels.

[Paul]

I am just staggered that you can all make transfers and that your accounts are linked. My account was linked last year and transfers made to and from BA. I didn’t go near this aspect of membership again till the start of this year when I found the account was not linked and could not be linked. I tried again later over a couple of weeks and reported the issue to BA AY and Avios but despite having fault references the black hole of communication with BA is entirely one way.
My call yesterday was fruitless too, so I penned an email to Doyle. I don’t expect he’ll read it but it’s desperate now as there is no means of escalation, no one takes responsibility , ownership or communicates.

[Paul]

I am just staggered that you can all make transfers and that your accounts are linked. My account was linked last year and transfers made to and from BA. I didn’t go near this aspect of membership again till the start of this year when I found the account was not linked and could not be linked. I tried again later over a couple of weeks and reported the issue to BA AY and Avios but despite having fault references the black hole of communication with BA is entirely one way.
My call yesterday was fruitless too, so I penned an email to Doyle. I don’t expect he’ll read it but it’s desperate now as there is no means of escalation, no one takes responsibility , ownership or communicates.

[Paul]

The Glasgow lounge is pretty dire and generally packed. I go to Glasgow a lot and have to say the lounge in the CP is rarely ever a factor in which hotel I stay in

[Paul]

Just as a follow u.

A week later I had a 4 night stay in the IC Warsaw and my goodness what a difference. No Moet but a wide range of cocktails and some of the best food I have ever had in a Club lounge. The breakfast offer was exceptional and there was no drama or repeat of the Park Lane amateur hour!

I never tried afternoon tea as we were always out but when checking out mentioned that we had seen donuts at reception as it was Fat Thursday. Without missing a beat we were provided with tea/coffee and the went off and brought back a selection of pastries and donuts.

So while I enjoyed Park Lane and got good value via my lounge pass and 241, it really isn’t all that. Their Middle Eastern clientele may be happy to drop £500 plus a night for the cache of Park Lane but for me the ceiling for such average service is much lower than that.

[Paul]

Just about to leave Warsaw after 4 fantastic nights at the IC with access to one of the best club lounges anywhere.
It’s been very cold but today grey musty and damp but I really like Warsaw. Great history, much of it dark but a resilient and forward thinking nation.
Czerwony Wieprz Was fantastic and I recommend the duck and mint vodka bitters at the end of the night. It was packed so make sure you make a reservation. All around us were Germans Poles Italians and French people and all to a man conversing in the common language, English. It just reinforces the mistake this country made in leaving the EU
Did a walking tour of the old town via Guru walks and it was excellent despite the extreme cold.
Walked and walked and walked taking in the Royal park with its peacocks and red squirrels as well as the summer palace.
The Polin museum was outstanding and followed a chat GPT inspired self walking tour of the ghetto.
Definitely a city to return too

[Paul]

Yes it can be disproportionately expensive however it depends where you are going!

For example just as EX EU can save thousands on flights often on the same plane and next to someone who has paid 3 times what you did; the same thing happens across Asia.

SQ MH and to a lesser extent CX all do great deals one way at various time of the year and from a wide range of starting points, often under £1500.

I did a one way to SYD and past fly home one way first to Bali on QF then to LHR on CX for about £2k. It can be done but takes work

[Paul]

SGJNI wrote:

@Matt many thanks. I was just worried that I would find that I had bought the equivalent of a Qatar business light ticket which would relegate access to the B category lounges for those with status.
Given how difficult Iberia is customer services department can be I am already a little nervous about buying the ticket but the price is very good on the route that I want and the benefit of having an IB code on the ticket produces significant benefits in the Finnair frequent-flier program

I wouldn’t hesitate and indeed have another one coming up in a month.

[Paul]

They do come with lounge and free seat selection but the latter doesn’t always stick. In my experience they are the same price as QR P class which have neither seat selection nor lounge.

[Paul]

JDB wrote:

@runnerbean – if you have pension or other savings you will have a good % of that money invested in his businesses and others managed or controlled by all sorts of people and regimes of which you would disapprove. You similarly probably visit hotels and travel on airlines owned by such people. You can’t really avoid it so it’s not worth getting excited about.

Picasso was a thoroughly unpleasant and abusive character but that’s not what he is remembered for today any more than Churchill who also wasn’t too nice! Brunel was by all accounts a very difficult person but his great achievements are all around us today. The list is very long but perhaps what’s different today is social media and the power of their voices.

The difference being the extent of the reach this people had. I dont know if Brunel was difficult but Churchill was. But being difficult, indeed being rude is not the same as being Musk.

[Paul]

RonnieB wrote:

It’s much simpler than that – anything involving Musk should be avoided 😉

I do wonder what his long term aim here. No one gives away anything for nothing and we will only really know his motives when everyone other than Ryanair take it on.

[Paul]

I dont know enough about KLM but I do use Delta for flights on their partners and find that availability and costs are pretty good. I transfer American Express points when I need a booking and the transfer is instant. Service from Delta telephone agents is really very good in so far as they answer quickly and fix issues when the can.

[Paul]

Thanks @colinmckinnon clearly we are spoiled by EU261.

[Paul]

JDB wrote:

mickeym wrote:

JDB wrote:

The recent (now finished) enhanced Barclaycard Avios Plus offer of 35,000 Avios also includes 12 months of Apple TV. You will find the very easy sign up link to this in the app.

Any hints on where exactly? I can’t see it anywhere.
I had read you get sent a link within 90 days of opening. I’m at 40ish.

Maybe it won’t appear until they send you the link but if it has been activated, if should be under ‘more’ at the bottom right of the app home page under ‘benefits’.

Which app? Barclaycard app or Barclays app. The former doesn’t work for me and I have only access to the Barclays app!

[Paul]

strickers wrote:

As an aside, I also value to the ability to export transactions in OFX format. I run a mini PC with windows and connect by Remote Desktop, I’m still using Microsoft Money 2004 because I haven’t found anything better!

In my experience there isn’t anything better than MSMoney. I use Banktivity but it’s US based so I won’t trust it to auto connect and download transactions.

[Paul]

So these are the facts as I have experienced.

I was not able to register for the barclacrd app and had to register on the barclays app. I was only able to register after 3 calls. Until the 3rd agent and on every piece of paper or on line its states Barclaycard app. It was a mess.

Having registered on the app I find I cannot download CSV QIF or OFX files. I cannot register on the web site as it states they do not allow new registrations.

After a long call this morning I have been able to regain access as I had an old account ( 3 years ago) and they were able to reset that registration. I was warned that this site may be closed down in the future.

If you are brand new to Barclaycard the only option is the Barclays app.

Frankly it’s backward and bizarre!

[Paul]

If you are spending close to £7000 a year on BA you should look to joining the AY+ programme as that level of spending is likely to generate emerald status. I know I have for about £5500 of spend this year and not a mileage run in sight.

I like Qatar airways and if you can book them with IB flight numbers there are lots of benefits over booking direct with QR. IB BA and AA also get healthy bonuses in the AY programme and a if you get to Platinum (emerald) then there is a free Sapphire equivalent card.

[Paul]

NorthernLass wrote:

No 142/143 any more, but definitely the same attitude to boarding, i.e. just stand at the entrance to the queue avoiding eye contact and blocking it for everyone else. I’ve taken to saying loudly “Which boarding group are you?”, then (usually) “Okay, excuse me please I need to get past.” But this happens pretty much everywhere, IME, with LHR being one of the worst.

There never seems to be this issue on the LCCs, people always seem to know whether they should be in the priority queue or not!

Love it!! Though if in Club I absolutely refuse to board early now. It hasn’t happened yet but there had better be space for my bag and the crew can shift theirs. Though on my most recent s/h it was the operating crew who were the issue, it was a paxing crew in Y putting their bag above row two with the crew tag being prominently displayed while they trotted off other with their pre departure coffee in hand

Priority boarding is an absolute farce. LHR is bad but my worst experience is the utterly useless staff in DUS who really have no clue either about the process or how to manage it.

And before I get strips pulled off I have been using the route for almost 40 years and in the late 80’s and through the 90’s it was an excellent station. It was at times hectic with Sunday nights rammed with people and flights to LHR BHX MAN GLA and Berlin. The rot set in when the staff were transferred to handling agents and now it’s just one flight to London on a Saturday and Sunday has just 2 flights from this summer. Fares have increased of course!!

In December and for the second time in as many months. They had a single entrance to the 2 boarding points with one marked groups 1-3 and the other 4-9 and the free for all was chaotic.

The problem is no one is overseeing this, there are no regional customer service managers monitoring and maintaining standards as they used to have. Now they rely on feed back and given how universally bad it is probably doesn’t get commented on any more.

[Paul]

I think I have mentioned this before and it’s very niche. Holiday in express in Jakarta is just £18 a night!! Now under IHGs T&Cs that may not qualify as a stay as under $30 but if you book it, it shows the points and you can buy 3000 points a night.

I have a trip to OZ via Jakarta in March stopping in CGK in both directions. Looking at the rest of my year my stays are unlikely to see me reach 40 nights or 120,000 so I am looking carefully at a mattress run for 14 nights. Checking in the day I leave for home.

I have done long runs before, notably Hilton Garden DPS airport for 14 on 5000 points and night to get Diamond a few years back. I told the duty manager what I was doing and why and no one cared.

[Paul]

My NYE stay posted as 2 nights under the double nights promo and I netted an extraordinary 17700 points from othe promos on a £170 stay.

Still today my app says Diamond but below the date still says till Dec 25!!

[Paul]

Are you sure it’s £85 each? If that the case then it’s a firm no from me. It’s a nice space, the canapés are ok but it’s not Park Lane by a very long way. At £85 per room per night, I’d say yes you can get value.

Stayed 3 times, have been treated very very well and very very badly! It’s a nice hotel but a rather peculiar IC!