Bits: 7,200 Avios with any Dyson product, random thoughts on BA cabin crew

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More news in brief:

7,200 Avios with any Dyson product

Due to a glitch, Tesco Direct is accidentally giving away 3,000 Clubcard points on Dyson products until tomorrow (Wednesday). It will drop down to 2,000 Clubcard points after that.

If you are interested in getting 7,200 Avios from a £199 Dyson vacuum cleaner, check out this Shopper Points article today.

A few thoughts on BA cabin crew

We flew back from Dubai in First Class on a BA 777 yesterday. I won’t be reviewing that flight although I will be covering the new Dubai lounge and Concorde Room bar later in the week.

I don’t normally write about cabin crew when I review flights, because it is easy to get a disproportionately good or bad one. You can review a seat based on one flight but I don’t believe that you can fairly critique cabin crew on the same basis.

What I did realise yesterday, however, is that the Britishness of the BA crew is a key part of the appeal of the airline. I have done a lot of flying on Qatar, Etihad, Turkish and Emirates over the past year and the multinational crews have generally been very good – although you are never 100% confident that you will receive what you request.

However, yesterday my 4-year old and I had a woman called Georgia looking after us. She was mid-20’s, Home Counties accent but with the additional ‘yeah’ and ‘gonna’s of her generation, and genuinely good at her job. There was a marked difference between her and the average Middle Eastern airline cabin crew member – mainly because she was able to be herself.

I would never choose an airline primarily on the basis of its crew, but I did realise yesterday that BA and Virgin do still have the ability to gain a competitive advantage if they recruit the right people and train them well.

Category

British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard

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

John says:

5 Apr5 April 16:29

Raffles, surprised you’ve not mentioned the free 1st class upgrade on BA…

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/business-travel/offers/upgrade-to-first
- harry says:
  
  5 Apr5 April 17:15
  
  it re-appears…:)
  
  been around the block
  
  good offer
- Rob says:
  
  5 Apr5 April 20:31
  
  Only got the release today.
george says:

5 Apr5 April 17:55

A bit off topic…I flew from JFK to LHR in CW on BA metal (but ticket issued by AA).
Do I get avios based on the BA flight or AA flight? The avios calculator implies a substantial difference: 12,103 vs 7,767 avios (for golds, one way). Same tier points.
- Yan says:
  
  5 Apr5 April 19:43
  
  earn as per an AA flight
- Leo says:
  
  5 Apr5 April 19:44
  
  I flew AA J back to LHR on a BA booked ticket and got the lower avios sum – I presumed because of the lighter cabin bonus. I never thought any further about it at the time. On the outbound BA flight I got the higher sum. So to answer your question I presumed you got paid out on whichever airline you actually flew (metal).
  - george says:
    
    5 Apr5 April 23:08
    
    hmm….so which one is it? Raffles? anyone else can chime in?
    - Alan says:
      
      6 Apr6 April 01:10
      
      You earn based on the flight number (ie whether it is vowed under the BA or AA code) It doesn’t matter who issued the ticket or which metal you’re on (unlike on Star Alliance). This is particularly important on long flights in the US as using the AA flight number on two class flights will book into F and earn lots more TP than the same flight on the BA flight number which will book into business.
      - george says:
        
        6 Apr6 April 11:05
        
        thanks, alan. this now makes sense.
        Given the intercontinental agreement between BA and AA I am surprised there is so much difference in avios between an AA flight number and BA flight number on the same plane (metal)! Quite ridiculous!
      - Alan says:
        
        6 Apr6 April 13:33
        
        Sorry ‘vowed’ should of course have been ‘booked’ 🙂
        Yes, it can be a bit of a difference although, the TP earning can also be far more lucrative with AA than BA code!
      - Leo says:
        
        6 Apr6 April 14:19
        
        I agree it does make sense – I’m at a bit of a loss as to what happened to me. Although if my foggy memory serves – I did have an AA flight number although the flight was a BA codeshare. How does this happen when booking both flights on BA? I’d like to avoid that in the future.
      - Alan says:
        
        6 Apr6 April 20:41
        
        By default BA would book you onto BA flight numbers but they can definitely book AA ones too (as I say handy for TP purposes). I suppose their search may occasionally through up AA numbers too, I’m not sure.
Chris Jones says:

5 Apr5 April 19:09

I think the BA crew really make a different when flying with children.

Unfortunate my 3 year old now complains to crew if his traveling coach. Asking for his BA bag and juice!!
Alex W says:

5 Apr5 April 21:43

One thing that annoys me about BA is that flaming “flying start” advert that kicks in and usually means you miss the end if the film you were watching. The day they get rid of that advert I might actually make a donation to the charity.
- Sussex bantam says:
  
  5 Apr5 April 22:41
  
  +1 to that …
  - DW201 says:
    
    6 Apr6 April 08:05
    
    My fav bit is when you have your own ear buds in watching said film and they put the volume to 5000% when this or an announcement comes on. Great way to end a flight – burst ear drum
Amtexfly says:

5 Apr5 April 22:02

The closest I’ve come to rude cabin crew was on an AA flight from LAX-LHR when I didn’t understand what was meant when told that beer and wine was free but we would have to pay for ‘cocktails’, he spoke to me like an idiot because I was trying to determine if he meant spirits or spirits with a mixer. I guess he was having a bad day or something because be gave me a couple of bottles of bourbon later in the flight.