Bits: beat Gatwick ‘buy on board’ with The Grain Store, new BA strike dates announced

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News in brief:

Beat ‘buy on board’ with your Priority Pass

Last week I wrote about how The Grain Store bar and cafe in Gatwick South had joined Priority Pass and Lounge Club. Flash your card and you receive £15 per person – depending on how many free guests you get with your Priority Pass – of free stuff.

One of our readers popped in last week and noted that The Grain Store does a good takeaway service. Bakery products (which they can toast for you), yoghurts, fresh fruit, decent coffee (La Marzocca machines) and soft drinks. This can all be paid for by flashing a Priority Pass.

No need to worry about British Airways ‘buy on board’ any longer! Here are a couple of pictures of what is available (click to enlarge):

and

New British Airways strike dates announced

Another British Airways cabin crew strike will take place later this week from 17th to 20th February.

This only impacts selected flights from Heathrow – all other airports are unaffected. BA is guaranteeing that everyone will fly on the day they are booked although passengers may be transferred onto a different flight. A number of charter aircraft are also being brought in.

I have a London-bound short-haul on Sunday but I am not hugely concerned, to be honest – apart from the fact that I may lose our 1A / 1C / 1D / 1F seating …..

You may even be better off thanks to the strike, as the charter aircraft are giving out free food and drink in economy! No buy on board here.

Full details of BA’s plans for the strike can be found on this page of ba.com. Contingency plans will be published on that page today, Tuesday.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Tom says:

14 Feb14 February 05:32

This is brilliant..the quality of food at the Grain Store far outweighs a bag of percy pigs too.
- Nate1309 says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:21
  
  +1
- insider says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:28
  
  do you ‘flash’ your card or do they swipe it?
  - Pascal says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 09:31
    
    They swipe it plus you need to sign.
Anon says:

14 Feb14 February 07:04

So I’m assuming the other new Lounge to avoid BoB is reviewed tomorrow, or is that something for the weekend?
- Rob says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 08:27
  
  I’m in Austria so a) when I get round to it and b) when Anika gets 30 minutes off from running the show to edit the video!
Ade says:

14 Feb14 February 07:11

I got the Cityflyer the other day from Glasgow to London City. I was surprised to find that there was no BoB just the standard free drink and snack. Any idea why this was the case?
- gumshoe says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:20
  
  CityFlyer isn’t due to introduce BoB until the summer.
Mike says:

14 Feb14 February 07:19

I hope this ongoing dispute is resolved before Easter.
- Genghis says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:21
  
  +1. I don’t fancy receiving a J meal when flying F. #firstworldproblems
  - Chris says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 07:56
    
    i find this approach weird.
    
    Imagine a strike at harrods and they took staff away from billionaire concierge to help out selling tins of coffee?
    This is what BA are doing.
    - RussellH says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 10:25
      
      Not really.
      
      BA Economy (which is Tesco, not Harrods) is where the most passengers are, and therefore the biggest risk of bad publicity in the Daily Mail / Express.
      
      The travails and disgruntlements of F and J pax do not sell papers, even though I imagine the bossses of both would not dream of sitting down the back of the plane with the great semi-washed.
  - Joe says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 11:47
    
    What is the compensation offered in such circumstance?
    
    Do all long haul F flights have J food in F on strike days? Or just MF routes?
    - Rob says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 13:30
      
      10,000 Avios
      
      Not even sure if this is still happening – it happened with the first strike but no-one mentioned having it happen to them during the 2nd strike. BA was over-cautious first time over how many staff would turn up.
- Tom says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 07:21
  
  Which one, the new catering, or the crew strike? 🙂
BA Sucks says:

14 Feb14 February 07:22

Does The Grain Store do really smelly, messy, sticky, food? That’s what I’m looking for to make my BA low cost ‘show me the ****ing money’ experience complete.
Zoe says:

14 Feb14 February 08:05

OT Virgin advertising a valentines sale, best deal seems to be Manchester to Boston £1999 for 2 in Upper Class
- Rob says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 08:25
  
  …. which is the same as the £1020 price for 1 they had last week! Great deal though.
Wally1976 says:

14 Feb14 February 08:18

Has anyone tried multiple visits to The Grain Store? Was thinking of having breakfast there, then to a lounge for a few drinks then back to The Grain Store for a few snacks to take onboard!
- Polly says:
  
  15 Feb15 February 11:08
  
  And they accept lounge key from HSBC elite too. We are on Y out of LGW in May so won’t even bother trying no 1 lounge, will go straight to grain store. Looks great.
Kevin says:

14 Feb14 February 08:30

This is a great system. I flew out of LGW this weekend and the lounge was not allowing entry. It’s an absolute dog show, and this has happened the past few times out of LGW.

Thanks to the article I read here, I head on over to The Grain Store and used my Priority Pass. The only issue was that nobody except seemed to know anything about this setup. It took an absolute age to pay through the Priority Pass terminal. Regardless, £15 per person — especially on the Amex Priority pass is a phenomenal deal.

If my partner and I use this every time we fly out of LGW, we only need to use this 15 times to completely recoup the cost of Amex Platinum.
- Kevin says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 08:31
  
  *Nobody except the manager seemed to know.
- the real harry1 says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:37
  
  yep it completely justifies the cost of PP, we travel as 4 or 5 so could get our investment back very quickly
  
  except not in T3 just yet
  
  I think PP will stop it quite soon so make hay
  - Rob says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 11:43
    
    PP is presumably ambivalent if you would use it instead of going to No 1. They may be less ambivalent if you use it AND go to No 1 as well!
- John says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:35
  
  “we only need to use this 15 times to completely recoup the cost of Amex Platinum.”
  
  Only if you would actually spend £450 on their food
  - Ro says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 15:20
    
    Well its easily the best food option in gatwick so it’s a possibility.
    - the real harry1 says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 21:15
      
      I might even justify the Amex Plat – – finally!
      
      What are the essential math computations I need to think about?
      
      I like a few drinks & snacks but won’t (on principle) buy on board @ BA. So it’s lounge or Boots/ WHS meal deals.
      
      If I had the Plat for my busiest travel outward period (I don’t drink on my return legs as I have to drive) = Easter, half term, summer hols = (say) 31 March – 21 July before I cancel.
      
      That’s going to cost me 4 months Plat subs but I get some bonus MR points & 3 lounge visits worth (call it) £45. Can I get a child in with me for £15?
      
      Probably worth crunching the math