Bits: 500 Avios with first LOVEtheatre booking, new Qatar business class seat on the way

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News in brief:

500 Avios with your first LOVEtheatre booking

On Thursday I wrote about the new avios.com partnership with LOVEtheatre.com, which allows you to earn 3 Avios points for every £1 you spend via their site. Established in 1991, LOVEtheatre is a totally reputable ticket agency with access to seats for a wide range of events.

Until 31st May, you can earn 500 bonus Avios points with your first purchase of £50 or more.

There are three hoops to jump through to get this:

You must book via the link on this page at ba.com (or similar pages at avios.com and iberia.com)

You must book by 31st May for an event before 31st December

You must spend £50 or more

New Qatar Airways ‘Super Business Class’ seat on the way

Australian Business Traveller has exclusive news on the new Qatar Airways ‘Super Business Class’ seat which is due to roll out in November 2016. It will initially debut on a Boeing 777-300ER and then new Airbus A350 deliveries, which a retrofit plan converting the existing fleet at the rate of three aircraft per month.

The new seat is meant to be a halfway house towards the sort of fully private suites now seen in First Class on many airlines (but not Qatar!) and a traditional business class seat. It will feature a closing door and, in the middle seats, will apparently have the option of being set up as a double bed.

There are no pictures yet but you can read the original article here.

In the meantime, we await the launch of the new Emirates seating at the ITB travel show in Berlin next week.

File 05-03-2016, 18 29 55

My own private first class transfer bus

Last year I wrote about the Qatar Airways First Class transfer bus – the more elegant way to be driven to or from a remote stand.

On Thursday night, I got it again. And this time, as you can see from the picture above, I had it all to myself! All of the other passengers had to use a second, standard bus. It was a little silly but I could hardly send the bus away.

More amusing was the outbound, when the ramshackle transfer bus at Ras Al Khaimah picked up me – and only me – to drive me the full 100 feet to the terminal building, before turning around and going back to pick up everyone else.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Qatar Airways and Privilege Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Luke Atkinson says:

6 Mar6 March 07:47

I always remember when Qatar used to use BMW 7 series for first class and especially memorable was when they dropped one guy onto the wrong plane. Luckily he was in my seat otherwise he would have ended up in A different country
Tom C says:

6 Mar6 March 07:48

Is the new Emirates seat reveal for a new business class seat or their new F seat that they promised they were working on, right after EY came out with the First Apartment? With SQ due to have new F seats next year on their A380 as well, things are looking good.
Alex W says:

6 Mar6 March 09:25

The separate bus thing I think accentuates the class divide in some countries and is meant to separate business class from the hoi polloi. This doesn’t bother at all, but I do get annoyed if I have to queue if I have effectively paid extra for the privilege of not queuing.
Prime example was in Colombo we waited ages at the gate (with no toilet) to board and when the bus came I was refused entry as there was a separate bus for business class.
It was a short overnight flight so all I wanted to do was get on the plane,go to the loo and go to sleep as quickly as possible. Instead we were made to wait until all the economy passengers had finished boarding. I was pretty livid. Apart from that one incident, thumbs up for Sri Lankan airways, good service and good food.
Nick Burch says:

6 Mar6 March 10:11

By my own experience, you did well to get the bus! Whenever I’ve been bussed from the airport to the plane at Doha in business, they’ve held all the business passengers back awaiting the bus (not letting us onto the economy bus even if we wanted to), then right at the end of boarding just put us on the last economy bus anyway!
- Alex W says:
  
  6 Mar6 March 10:21
  
  Exactly, why can’t you just get on the first economy bus???
Josh says:

6 Mar6 March 10:12

On the subject of Qatar any sign of a business sale / cheap Asia rates? They seem to be moving further apart.
John says:

6 Mar6 March 10:23

Be careful with the Love Theatre Avios promotion. I’ve just bought some tickets and although I’ll get a nice sum of Avios I wish I hadn’t. Love Theatre added a wapping £16 per ticket booking fee, and I found out afterwards that the show I booked for doesn’t add any booking fee when booked direct! I also found that there were better seats available booking direct.
- Johnnycl says:
  
  6 Mar6 March 10:49
  
  Thanks, I’ve just double checked for a booking I was making and fortunately it was the same price but better availability at Love Theatre. Always good to be sure it is actually a good deal with these things.
reddot says:

6 Mar6 March 10:29

Tickety-boo with the Lovetheatre, even shows a summary of the Avios you will receive at checkout. Lovetheatre doesn’t cover all the theatres we go to, but is great for the big ones.
Johnnycl says:

7 Mar7 March 18:00

Wow, Love Theatre are fast….the points from my purchase yesterday afternoon have posted already!
(Only standard points though, I guess the bonus will follow in a sweep later.)