Virgin Atlantic launches a codeshare deal with Aeromexico

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• RussellH says:

  20 Dec20 December 10:37

  Andrew says:
  > Fortunately, as we’ve seen recently with the “Stansted Fifteen”, the courts are taking
  > interfering with the operations of an airport or aircraft very seriously indeed.

  That is, to my mind, a thoroughly unworthy observation.
  The Stansted incident involved one chartered aircraft which was being used to deport vulnerable people – in some cases these were almost certainly illegal deportations. There was no threat to the general public, no attempt to hinder any other flights.
  The fifteen protestors were charged, quite inappropriately, under anti-terrorist legislation for what were public order offences. This treatment of the protestors has been utterly shameful.

  [To be clear, I do not know any of the protestors personally, but one is a member of a charity that I, and the rest of my family, have been members of for most of our lives. So I assume that there are people that I do know who also know said protestor.]

  • the_real_a says:

    20 Dec20 December 12:49

    A bunch of moralists break into an airport, enter the tarmac in an unauthorized manor and chain themselves to an aircraft – closing the airport, diverting emergency services and risk getting themselves shot at the same time as interfering with due process of deportation of illegal immigrants. Long prison sentences are highly appropriate in my opinion, if only to make sure the next bunch of virtue signalers think twice about storming an airport or laying down on motorways causing huge disruption for everyone else.

    • Matt says:

      20 Dec20 December 13:43

      Agree entirely

    • RussellH says:

      20 Dec20 December 14:00

      But they were not all illegal immigrants. The Home Office wanted to deport people before their appeals had been heard. I would regard that in itself as a criminal offence.

      Eleven of the sixty people on the aircraft now live quite legally in the UK, and overall, around 50% of all appeals against Home Office immigration decisions are successful. Which is presumably why they try to deport people before their appeals are heard as one can only appeal while living in the UK.

      Sometimes, when governments are behaving appallingly, direct action may be the only way forward. Yes, innocent people do get inconvenienced, but compared with the risks of death faced by some of those being deported, that inconvenience is trivial.

    • Callum says:

      20 Dec20 December 18:32

      Crazy I know, but some people value human life above disruption.

      There also wasn’t much chance of them being shot – UK police are professionals.

      Though the fact you use having strong beliefs in the sanctity of human life as an insult probably says all I need to know about your attitude!

      • the_real_a says:

        20 Dec20 December 18:56

        Thankfully the law of the land will take care of all that needs to be done in this case, despite the pithy virtue signalling of some.

      • Callum says:

        21 Dec21 December 01:04

        Remove the “probably” from my previous statement. Disagreeing with people standing up for the rights of others is one thing (and somewhat understandable), this unwarranted aggression however is disgusting in my view.

        Still, I’m glad it came up – things like this really clarify which posters on here I should respect…

      • Erico1875 says:

        21 Dec21 December 06:15

        And then they cane for you “the_real_a”

  • Memesweeper says:

    20 Dec20 December 12:59

    +1

    Other campaigners at UK airports have managed to close operations at great personal risk to themselves but zero risk to passengers or crew. Pretty much the exact opposite of what those drone pilots are doing. I’d be delighted if LGW could be allowed to sue them into bankruptcy in addition to them getting the maximum penalties for endangering aircraft.

  • Brian W says:

    20 Dec20 December 19:08

    They aren’t protestors though, they are criminals that caused criminal damage and disruption. They deserve to be jailed full stop.

    We need to start making examples of these idiots that think it’s acceptable to pull theses stunts and throw the book at them.

    If you want to protest, get the authorities to provide you an agreed space and you can shout your messages and wave your flags till your hearts content for all I care. Break the law, shut bridges or airports etc and you should be dealt with appropriately, quickly and jailed wherever possible.

    • Shoestring says:

      20 Dec20 December 19:09

      +1

    • the_real_a says:

      20 Dec20 December 19:12

      +2

    • Victor says:

      20 Dec20 December 21:09

      Yes they broke a lot of laws and should be punished. But should they be charged with terrorism offences?
      Is it actually terrorism?

      It’s not.

      • the_real_a says:

        20 Dec20 December 21:44

        I would have a lot of sympathy on that point, however they were not charged under the terrorism act… They were found guilty of endangering the safety of an airport which considering the facts is wholly appropriate. The sentencing rules are also quite clear that life imprisonment is total fantasy for the facts of this case and merely used for yet more virtue signalling / publicity.

• Vasco says:

  20 Dec20 December 10:46

  OT, and yes, I asked this yesterday, but it got a bit burried and I only got one reply, for which I’m grateful, but would like more datapoints if possible:

  Will be starting a new job in the new year where I’ll be doing a significantly larger amount of work travel. While I have checked that I would be allowed to book a hotel directly and then expense it, the preferred method is to use the work travel agent (Key Travel in this case) to book.

  Does anyone have any datapoints regarding using this or any other corporate travel agents to book hotels, in terms of elite credits, benefits, and points?

  • Stu N says:

    20 Dec20 December 11:06

    Always had status recognised and points/ nights credit from our corporate travel agent. They use a booking system (GDS or something like that) that permits this. Have experience of Hilton, Sheraton (Starwood), Melia and Novotel. Only exception I can think of is for conferences/ events where the organisers have cut a deal to take most or all of the hotel.

    The corporate travel world is a different model to online travel agents like Booking.com and Lastminute.com.

  • Rob says:

    20 Dec20 December 11:38

    In general, corporate TA’s are OK. Obviously, or the whole ‘miles and points’ thing would collapse.

    HOWEVER …. Egencia, owned by Expedia, can be a problem because some hotels see it as an Expedia booking and therefore disqualify them. In general, though, unless Key Travel is secretly buying rooms from the bedbanks and marking them up massively (instead of booking them direct for the usual 8-10% commission) you’ll be fine.

  • Genghis says:

    20 Dec20 December 11:44

    In my working life I’ve come across a few different corporate travel agents (not Key Travel, however) and all have been able to get points etc for stays.

    In my current role, however, I’ve basically got free rein to do whatever I want. I’ve proven that I can get stuff cheaper than the corporate travel agent (there’s no rebate arrangement in place – they were done away with years ago for us – a “small IB”). This of course means more benefit for me (cc spend, CB, points / hotels.com credits etc).

  • Vasco says:

    20 Dec20 December 12:04

    Thank you all for your replies. Indeed I initially had assumed that corporate TAs were treated same as OTAs, but then saw a few things that made me think otherwise, so I thought I’d ask here.

    @Genghis: KeyTravel works mostly (only?) with non-profits and the education sector (universities in my case). That may be why you never encountered them.

    • Lady London says:

      21 Dec21 December 00:42

      Airlines are not going to shoot themselves in the foot by denying points and privileges to flyers booking via their most lucrative booking channel (for repeat business) which is corporate travel agents.

      • S says:

        21 Dec21 December 03:29

        I’ve had Marriott bookings made via concur that have been booking.com reservations somehow and did not get points for that.

      • Rob says:

        21 Dec21 December 08:06

        They aren’t. What is happening is that corporate TAs are, quietly, sourcing your rooms and flights on the grey market, adding fat mark ups and then selling them back to you at RRP.

• 1nfrequent says:

  20 Dec20 December 11:10

  O/T Does anyone know how long it takes for the Miles and MOre Diners Club Card to be sent through? I applied at the beginning of the month but still haven’t received anything.

  • 1nfrequent says:

    20 Dec20 December 14:50

    To answer my own question apparently there’s a backlog of applications apparently and they’re processing them manually so it’s taking longer than anticipated. Apparently they’ve therefore extended the 10000 points promotion so provided you have *applied* before 31st December, then you will get the points on spend up until 28th February.

    Hope that’s of use to someone.

    1F

    • Rob says:

      20 Dec20 December 15:16

      Thanks. I will do another article on this before Christmas as the offer is ending.

      • 1nfrequent says:

        21 Dec21 December 11:42

        No problem – happy to be giving something back for a change!

        1F

• Shoestring says:

  20 Dec20 December 11:20

  O/T I’ve just saved nearly £250 on train tickets 🙂

  It’s my son’s season ticket to school & back. He turns 16 in January – as long as you buy the ticket to start at least the day before the birthday, you can add up to 4 months’ child fare when he would otherwise be seen as an adult – half price vs adult fare. Plus I split it into 2 legs to save more money vs the 1-leg journey. I did it online as in person you can only buy season tickets to start the next day.

  • Rhys says:

    20 Dec20 December 13:36

    Fantastic result!

• Roger says:

  20 Dec20 December 11:43

  OT- Can I use two different FF number (two different airlines) for a RT airline booking?
  Assume I can change FF number after taking outbound flight (which will use one airline) and before/at check-in for inbound flight (for a different/second airline).

  • pablo says:

    20 Dec20 December 12:49

    Best to retroclaim after the flight has been flown as these frequent flyer numbers sometimes stick and cannot be amended and miles end up posting where you didn’t want them to go.

    • Lady London says:

      21 Dec21 December 00:14

      +1/ What @pablo said.
      The trick is to make sure you keep any FF number at all, off your booking if you are going to retro-claim. It seems impossible to get the miles back off an airline if they;ve already been credited to an airline you didn’t want to credit them to. This means making sure the FF number is not automatically added when you make the booking, not when you check in, not when you go to the lounge, not at the gate etc.

      I once lost a very nice chunk of Lufthansa Business Class miles by trying to get too clever flipping numbers at checkin, at the gate etc. In the end I got nothing credited anywhere as both programs could point to the other program’s number being on that ticket at some time!. I learned you have to keep all FF numbers off the booking until you are ready to claim them to the programme you want..

  • AndyGWP says:

    20 Dec20 December 12:53

    I’ve done it before without issue (BA FF used outbound, AA FF used return)… they made a mess of it but corrected it (and then I learnt the mess they made was actually a loophole some people had used for years!… missed that trick!)

    • AndyGWP says:

      20 Dec20 December 12:54

      Just realised I said I’d “done it without issue”, and then said “they made a mess of it” haha – you get the picture though!

• BlueHorizonuk says:

  20 Dec20 December 12:21

  OT – The recent ex-LON Swiss/Lufthansa companion sale. Was booked into First on Swiss from Shanghai back to London and was told this morning that Swiss have closed the F cabin and had converted it to a staff rest area.

  Was offered rebooking into First on Lufthansa where there was no A availability anymore so was rebooked into F (although not sure if this makes any difference as all the programs treat A and F the same for earnings).

  • Rob says:

    20 Dec20 December 12:54

    That’s a decent result, I actually prefer LH F because of the food, although overnight perhaps less in it.

    • BlueHorizonuk says:

      20 Dec20 December 13:28

      Its the daytime flight from Shanghai so hopefully not too bad.

      • Lady London says:

        21 Dec21 December 00:16

        Nice one BlueHorizonuk. I’d regard that as a win. Assuming Lufty have finally got rid of the old slopey seats (or that they never appeared in Lufty First Class!)

• TripRep says:

  20 Dec20 December 12:37

  The DoubleTree North Queensferry is another Hilton choice for the airport.

  You can leave your car for free and get a bus directly from there to the Airport.I

  Had a suite with views of the bridges, really nice place with helpful staff.

  • John says:

    20 Dec20 December 14:04

    Yes it’s a nice hotel although the bus is something like £7 each and you have to climb down and up to cross the bridge…

• pablo says:

  20 Dec20 December 12:47

  BA, Lufthansa and perhaps other airlines apply GDS surcharge on tickets sold through travel agents. http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/311220/ba-iberia-raise-gds-charge

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