See Queen’s Club tennis with your Emirates Skywards miles

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• Matthew says:

  2 Jun2 June 08:09

  OT. Anyone know how long it normally takes for the 20,000MR points to post after doing the £1k spend upgrade to platinum? Im hoping it’s a manual process as they haven’t appeared yet but terms so say up to 60 days. Thanks 👍

  • Amit says:

    2 Jun2 June 08:25

    Do you have a link for this upgrade please?

    • Matthew says:

      2 Jun2 June 09:29

      https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/upgrade/platinum-charge/

  • Anne says:

    2 Jun2 June 08:40

    Mine posted with the base MR from the transaction that took me over £1k spend – so probably 2 or 3 days after the relevant transaction. Which was a relief to be honest as I did have my doubts about green to plat upgrade route.

  • Steve says:

    2 Jun2 June 08:52

    Normally added to the same line (on your MR account statement page) as the spend that took you to £1k spend. For me it was about a day after that spend was no longer pending but under recent transactions.

  • Mark2 says:

    2 Jun2 June 09:03

    Have you spent £1,000 since the upgrade? not sure if green expenditure counts.

    • Grant says:

      2 Jun2 June 09:24

      It doesn’t and neither does the annual fee

    • Matthew says:

      2 Jun2 June 09:28

      Ahh that’s a good point, think I had spent about £100 on the green before upgrading so that maybe why! Thanks everyone 👍

      • Memesweeper says:

        2 Jun2 June 11:23

        I’m hoping that spend on the physical Green plastic while waiting for the Plat to arrive in my hand *will* count … I can see the upgrade in the app but no card or welcome pack yet.

        Does the green actually stop working after the Plat is activated I wonder…

  • Harry T says:

    2 Jun2 June 12:17

    My 20,000 bonus MR landed about 2 days after I hit the 1000£ spend on the Platinum. I did not spend on the Green card before upgrading. The bonus points are added to the same line in your points statement as the purchase that took you over 1000£.

• John says:

  2 Jun2 June 08:19

  None of these flights are showing on BA website

  • Rob says:

    2 Jun2 June 08:46

    In what sense? These are standard scheduled services which run every day. On 25th August the aircraft should show a 747.

  • ChrisC says:

    2 Jun2 June 10:13

    If they are sold out and BA has already sold its over booking margin then they tend to get taken out of the search results in the booking engine.

• Jtz says:

  2 Jun2 June 08:29

  OT
  How long does it take to hear back from virgin if you send them a letter. Do they usually write back or email?

  • TripRep says:

    2 Jun2 June 09:30

    Why don’t you just phone and ask their CS team to ask if they have received the letter?

    I usually find email more useful as it has an audit trail, unless it’s a recorded delivery letter for notice of legal action regarding a EU261 claim?

• Anna says:

  2 Jun2 June 11:19

  OT but BA 747! Karma kicked in last night when our return flight from JFK was delayed due to the onboard and ground cooling systems being broken and they couldn’t start boarding until the cabin temp had dropped to 30C! With our missed connection we’ll arrive at our final destination (MAN) over 4 hours late. IIRC, technical faults do qualify for EU261 compo unless anyone knows otherwise?

  • meta says:

    2 Jun2 June 11:50

    Yes, if on one ticket.

  • Lady London says:

    2 Jun2 June 11:52

    Yes. E261 applies here it’s an open and shut case. Bear in mind that the amount if hours you have to be late to your final destination to qualify for the delay compo part, is higher than for short haul. For sure though they owe you duty of care things like the overnight hotel even if this was a case that did not qualify for compo/ not the airline’s fault. Tech is squarely the airline’s fault so it’s just the number if hours late that’s to be sorted regarding compo qualification.

    I can’t tell you how “sorry” I am for the three of you, Anna, if the number of hours turns out to qualify…

    • Anna says:

      2 Jun2 June 12:04

      Lol, thank you! It’s only 2 of us this time (thanks to grandparents), but it would still pay for our hotel! If our new connection lands on time, we’ll be 4 hours 15 minutes late – a quick scan on line says that the 3 hour rule applies to missed connections so fingers x’d.

      It was very interesting that once the delay got past 2 hours, they gave up to fix the air con and started hustling everyone onto the plane, saying that they would have to rely on the engines to cool the cabin down. Almost as if they were desperate to avoid the entire 747 full claiming compo…!

      • marcw says:

        2 Jun2 June 12:44

        This happened to me last year with American Airlines, on a B777 an JFK. some issues with the ground air con, so cabin was too hot to start engines. All had to deboard, crew opened all doors, cabin temp went down, then we had to quickly board, sit down and eventually the first engine was on. After that, the cabin temp went down slowly… when the second engine decided to turn on (after a few attempts) (our plane just landed a couple of hours late though).

        I´m not sure whether this falls within EC261 since it´s an issue with ground AC, which is an airport issue. Planes don´t have AC on ground when enginges are not working.

        Anyway, it would be nice to share the outcome please.

        • Anna says:

          2 Jun2 June 14:36

          They were very clear that the on board air con system was broken and that the ground system was a backup (but which also wasn’t working). The flight from LHR to JFK which this plane should have been used for was cancelled outright so there is clearly a maintenance issue that they don’t have a clear time scale for fixing. I will definitely share the outcome though!

          I have zero sympathy for BA, though – they slashed the LHR to MAN Sunday services which would have got us back with less than 3 hours’ delay!

        • Lady London says:

          2 Jun2 June 16:20

          🙂

        • Mark says:

          2 Jun2 June 18:46

          Planes do have air conditioning on the ground. This is most often supplied from the APU (auxiliary power unit). It also provides electrical power when the aircraft’s engines are shutdown, unless ground power has been connected (which is almost always).

          The APU provides pressurised air, known as “bleed air”, which is used to provide air conditioning but also to start the engines. When the APU is not working, unless the airport can connect a ground air source (a yellow and black striped tube that comes out of the ground or from the bottom of the airbridge) then there is limited ventilation on the aircraft, other than recirculated air.

          Lots of airports have ground conditioned air but many don’t – Gatwick for instance has none that I am aware of (probably because the general climate in the UK doesn’t warrant the investment and they have no limitations on using the APU). Go to hot or cold places and you are more likely to find it at most gates. Many airports have strict policies regarding running APUs as they are essentially mini jet engines in the tailcone of the plane and cause a fair bit of noise so they have to be off from just after arrival until just before departure. The problem is, even with moderate temperatures outside, get a few hundred people inside a metal tube and it gets warm PDQ!

          The only way to get air conditioning into the cabin without an APU or ground source air is from the engines once they are started. Unfortunately you can’t start the engines without pressurised air, which you need the APU for, or another piece of external equipment called a “air starter unit”. In the BA case here, they would have had to start one engine at the gate with the air starter, then push back and start the others.

          These situations are always very hard to manage for the crew. Do you board everyone knowing that is will get uncomfortably hot but hope that you can get everyone on, doors closed etc. and start an engine before everyone starts moaning or perhaps fainting, or delay boarding to try and get the cabin as cool as you can, the APU fixed or some ground air connected. Even with all the doors open, if it’s even slightly warm outside, it will have limited effect in cooling the cabin.

          It is a very tricky situation to handle and most passengers don’t give two hoots about the whys and wherefores, which I can understand. -they just want to get to where they are going.

          Glad you got back in the end though and I hope it wasn’t too hot before they could get and engine going!

        • Anna says:

          2 Jun2 June 19:31

          Marc – thanks for the explanation! Of course I have every sympathy with the captain and crew who were doing a great job in difficult circumstances, it’s BA the company whose policies can make things very exasperating for travellers! At the end of the flight the captain lamented at length about the flight being jinxed (his words) – not really what you want to hear from the person flying the plane 😂 (at least he left it till we were safely landed to make his observations lol).

• Symo says:

  2 Jun2 June 11:31

  O/T Anyone else get a postcode specific Shop Local offer from Amex?

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    2 Jun2 June 11:41

    Shop small offers for several London postcodes…..and I live north of Inverness. ! One wonders if Amex deliberately target offers that are highly likely to be of no use whatsoever, but still allows them to make claims of offering Mega opportunities and choice

    • Mark says:

      2 Jun2 June 11:50

      The postcodes seem to cover Wimbledon and Stamford Bridge so i wonder if they will dress it up as some kind of enjoy the summer /sports thing

  • LeeR says:

    2 Jun2 June 13:33

    Yes. Same as the above for London post codes – some posh parts nowhere near me. Agree with Jill, I think they do things like this knowing very well only a small percentage will/can use the offer.

• David S says:

  2 Jun2 June 11:39

  Yes, it is nice to fly a wide body domestically but definitely not worth paying a premium to fly for 40 mins!! In the old days, when BA flew LGW to MAN, my flight went tech last minute (think it was 737), so they put a 772 instead. It was nice having a whole row of 3 seats to myself in world traveller since WT+ and Club world were blocked off.

  • Russ says:

    2 Jun2 June 13:17

    On this occasion I’d have to agree with you but short hops on long haul aircraft can be useful for trying new airlines before committing points/cash on a long haul trip. Emirates are putting an A380 on it’s DXB-MCT flight which is also 40 mins. Lot cheaper than paying cash fares out of the UK if you want to try before you buy and you’re in the area. Sichuan Airlines also run an A330 from PRG-ZRH for around £200 one way. Much cheaper than paying full price to China only to find you don’t like the metal or service 5 mins after boarding.

    • Russ says:

      2 Jun2 June 13:21

      Sorry, the Sichuan £200 fare is in business class. Economy is around £47.

  • Oh Matron! says:

    2 Jun2 June 15:00

    Picture this: you’ve always wanted to sit on the top deck of a 747 but have never been able to afford a business class seat. This is like the last flight of concord. The last Vulcan flight. It will give people who don’t often travel the opportunity to do something historic. Whilst that’s not really the demographic of this readership. It’s no different from many of us wanting to be on the inaugural flight to somewhere (I’m personally thinking VS to Sau Paulo, personally).

    I think this is, once again, quite clever of BA

    • Rob says:

      2 Jun2 June 22:26

      You’re not getting on the Upper Deck.

• Nick says:

  2 Jun2 June 11:48

  I actively avoid flying on the BA 747-400! No idea why BA thinks this is special.

  • Lady London says:

    2 Jun2 June 16:21

    Isn’t this the one with the rattly old engines?

  • BJ says:

    2 Jun2 June 17:47

    It’s absolutely awesome, looks fabulous and the landing is amazing … hope I can fly it at least once more 🙂

    • John says:

      3 Jun3 June 00:27

      Seems to be a divide, perhaps generational – I hate the 747 and have hated it for the past 30 years (well actually 27 as I don’t remember the flights I took before I turned 3), and all of my friends around my age also hate it. We love the A380 though, which 747 aficionados seem to hate.

• Tilly71 says:

  2 Jun2 June 12:05

  OT:
  Used Expertflyer to view seats in F for availability. The seat map shows 3 x seats available but when searching reward availability is zero & searching cash paid tickets in F – no availability?
  Is it possible that these seats are sold but 3 x passengers have not confirmed their seats when booked?

  • Lady London says:

    2 Jun2 June 16:22

    They;ve probably closed off the Upper Deck maybe? and closed off F and maybe even J?

    alternatively they’ve filled the plane with “invitees”… but perhaps not, on the Saturday of the August Bank Holiday!

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