Bits: BA increasing check-in time limit, Qatar discount code, reader wins an awesome prize

News in brief:

British Airways to extend check-in cut-off

British Airways has announced that, from 30th October, check-in for long-haul flights at Heathrow will close one hour prior to departure.

At present, the cut-off point at which you will be refused is 45 minutes.

The reasoning for this is not clear – it will have a marginal improvement on punctuality although I am not sure that the inconvenience to passengers offsets the gain.  People more cynical than us may think that it is part of a deal with Heathrow to increase shopping revenue as a trade-off for letting BA build the new ‘direct to the lounge avoiding the shops’ security lane for Gold and First Class passengers, opening in April.

10% off Qatar Airways flights for mobile bookings

Qatar Airways is offering 10% off base fares, excluding the tax element, for anyone booking a flight via their mobile site.

You need to start at this link and then click through to the mobile site.  It is valid for bookings made by 24th October in all classes.

In other Qatar Airways news, I got a reminder this week that flights to Seychelles are due to start on 12th December.  This offers a good Avios option now that British Airways no longer flies the route.

HfP reader wins awesome prize for her Heathrow story

Back in July Rob wrote about a competition to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Heathrow Airport.  As there were about 7,000 prizes to be won, we knew there must have been quite a few HfP readers who won a nice (or random) prize.

I’m definitely jealous of this person’s prize:

Dear Rob

I have been a bit tardy in thanking you for the HR prize I received in their “anniversary write a story” competition.

A ginormous bar of Toblerone – weighing 4.5 kilos.

I though it was a misprint when the email came but the bar is indeed 9 ( or was it 11?) enormous triangles of Toblerone weighing in total 4.5 kilos.

Apparently it was handmade to order. The only problem is managing to break the triangles into edible size portions.

PS.  Shaun was not part of the prize, he lives here.