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

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• Ben says:

  14 Feb14 February 08:52

  Somewhat on topic regarding Gatwick travel ‘hacks’.
  I want to buy a proper reusable clear toiletry bag with a zipper within carry-on liquids size (rather than using a disposable ziplock) but ive read several reports online thag Gatwick security will NOT allow this in hand luggage and it MUST be a ziplock – no zips allowed.
  Has anyone experienced this at LGW or other London airports?
  Im sure ive seen people in front of me get their liquids through in zippered bags ok?

  • JH says:

    14 Feb14 February 10:01

    I’ve been using a zipper bag for the last 4 years and it’s never once caused an issue anywhere in the world.

    I got mine from MUJI.

    • Leo says:

      14 Feb14 February 17:15

      I use the same one – oddly I don’t think I’ve tried it at LGW.

    • Alex W says:

      14 Feb14 February 21:52

      Another +1 for MUJI!

  • flyoff says:

    14 Feb14 February 10:27

    My wife had to empty her zipper bag’s contents into a ziplock bag at LGW. This is the only airport who have objected

    • Doreen says:

      14 Feb14 February 12:08

      Had the same problem at LGW – very grumpy chap almost threw a plastic bag at me quoting whatever subsection applied (it was 05.00, so guess that was a factor !) Ziplock bag now inside my trusty see through zipped bag.

    • Kinkell says:

      14 Feb14 February 14:01

      I had to do it at Inverness. Some officious jobsworth insisting .

• Frenske says:

  14 Feb14 February 09:22

  Last Thursday I had a sandwich, ciabatta with mozzarella, on board which suppose to cost £4-5, but they never asked for my credit card and only paid for my drink. It is still a bit chaotic.

  Anyway the sandwich was rubbish. I would be very cross if I had to pay my own money for that abomination. Maybe they were a bit ashamed.

  • the real harry1 says:

    14 Feb14 February 09:38

    a bit like buying a kilo of fillet steak at self scan but paying for a kilo of potatoes?

    • John says:

      14 Feb14 February 10:37

      no, a bit like doing that at a human cashier who is too busy chatting away to notice that she keyed in potatoes instead of steak

    • Will says:

      14 Feb14 February 20:57

      Or indeed having the cashier key in a kilo of potatoes instead of fillet steak and opening the packaging to find a kg of s… it seems 🙂

• Roger I says:

  14 Feb14 February 09:28

  QUOTE
  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.
  UNQUOTE

  Apparently not, at least not by 09:25.

  From ba.com:
  ‘We will publish our contingency plans on Tuesday 14 February to customers who have bookings on the four days of threatened industrial action.’ So the news will be ‘published’ to ticketholders, presumably indivdually.

  • Rob says:

    14 Feb14 February 09:34

    Well, you know the rough plans anyway because they are what I wrote in the article – with the possible exception of not serving F food in First Class and serving Club World meals instead so they can remove a crew member.

    • Roger I says:

      14 Feb14 February 10:12

      I’m trying to second-guess my LHR-OSL-LHR flights in March (with intervening QR flights) in case of future strikes. I was hoping to see what ‘enhancements’ have been made to earlier flights. Looks like I won’t know until just before any strike dates.

      Tempted to book Norwegian LGW-OSL-LGW just in case.

• n says:

  14 Feb14 February 09:29

  O/T Re Electricity suppliers. Now that eOn Rewards are going/gone, what’s best for ongoing points/rewards earnings, regardless of how competitive unit rates are? (I’m in a unique position where I have someone else paying bills, but bills in my name). Not keen on Sainsburys Energy/Nectar as I’ve already got too many to make decent use of.

  • John says:

    14 Feb14 February 10:39

    Probably get the most expensive tariff or see whether any suppliers take amex

    • Genghis says:

      14 Feb14 February 11:15

      British Gas can supply a Paypoint card for Amex use at Co-Op.

      • the real harry1 says:

        14 Feb14 February 21:03

        yep & leave a lot of windows & doors open (same as in N Ireland!) 🙂

        the more you burn, the more you earn

• Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

  14 Feb14 February 09:40

  OT: I am looking at the Platinum AmEx to replace my Gold AmEx (change it from being in my name to my wife’s to get the referral etc). What I noticed though is that it looks like the earning rate on the Platinum card is worse. Specifically it seems to be missing the “Two Membership Rewards points for every £1 spent directly with airlines or in a foreign currency”. I know that it doesn’t have the 10,000 points for spending £15,000 but unlikely to put that much through this card anyway. Is there something I am missing?

  • Genghis says:

    14 Feb14 February 09:47

    You’re not missing anything

    • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

      14 Feb14 February 11:42

      That’s annoying. Do the supplementary Gold cards earn at the Gold rate or the Platinum rate?

      • Genghis says:

        14 Feb14 February 11:48

        Do you mean a supplementary Gold card linked to a main Platinum card?
        I’m not 100% sure but my very best guess would be that they earn what the main Platinum account holder earns.

        • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

          14 Feb14 February 14:20

          That was my guess too. Shame… Double points for flights is really nice.

      • Alan says:

        19 Feb19 February 16:34

        All at the rubbish 1 MR per £ rate – only bonus is on Amex Travel. Really wish they’d up the earning rate – as it is I never spend anything on that card, just keep it for the benefits!

• s879 says:

  14 Feb14 February 10:39

  Thanks Rob, used The Grainstore utilising my Amex God Lounge Club passes on Sunday. I had my two kids with me but one child has allergies so he just sat there for free so they don’t charge ‘entry’. My bill was £25 so I was given the option to use one visit and pay £10 or use two visits with no change. Breakfast was delicious with large portions.

  • Peter K says:

    14 Feb14 February 19:11

    Does your child have a gluten intolerance? I have and am interested in if they cater for that?

  • Alan says:

    19 Feb19 February 16:35

    Good that they offered both payment options, I think this will be a big boost to their business! My folks have an upcoming LGW connection and have now dropped to BA Bronze so will be making use of this too and it gives me a bit more confidence if it is now working smoothly 🙂

• Nick M says:

  14 Feb14 February 10:49

  OT – Applied for the SPG Amex again last week – arrived on Thursday, activated card today and saw that the £75 fee had already hit and a statement had already been generated last Saturday! – Is this because I’ve held the account before? Or are Amex getting more efficient at applying their annual fees?

  • m says:

    14 Feb14 February 11:13

    No. It’s always the case.

    • Genghis says:

      14 Feb14 February 11:19

      It’s not always the case. We’ve had it both ways. For my last platinum I received the £450 bill before l even got the card yet for my last BAPP and SPG for example, charged at end of month 1 (this meant that for SPG for both myself and Mrs G we didn’t pay a fee as hit the £1k spend and cancelled within the month (once points had posted to SPG account of course)). I’m not sure what drives when the fee is charged.

  • Scallder says:

    14 Feb14 February 17:27

    My wife had this with her Platinum card recently – charged the £450 and had the statement generated within 5 days of the account being opened. It happened to be the same statement date as my own Platinum card (opened 3 weeks before hers), so you might have just got unlucky with the monthly cycling of statement dates

• BlueHorizonUK says:

  14 Feb14 February 12:20

  OT: Does anyone know if Amex still allow transferring of points to another cardmember when they close their account?

  Thanks

  • Rob says:

    14 Feb14 February 13:29

    It seems so, a reader emailed me about it last week. There may be an article at some point. Apparently agents have recently been retrained that this can be done but, frankly, I believe it when I hear it which (despite the rules explicitly allowing this) I don’t push it. Let me know how you get on.

    • Will says:

      14 Feb14 February 21:03

      I asked this through the message system recently and was told yes it’s possible. I’m about to cancel Dad’s plat and ask to transfer the points to me so we’ll see.

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