Send your children on the British Airways work experience scheme

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• Russ says:

  23 Sep23 September 12:42

  OT, BA have cancelled and rebooked us on a next available flight. The time’s not suitable so prefer to cancel but BA’s website asking for £50 to do so. I thought I could just cancel and get a full refund if they’d cancelled a flight regardless if they had booked us elsewhere?

  • Shoestring says:

    23 Sep23 September 12:48

    if it’s 2hrs’ difference in timing, yes free

    • Russ says:

      23 Sep23 September 13:03

      Thank you Shoestring.

    • pauldb says:

      23 Sep23 September 13:57

      If it’s a schedule change they can apply their 2hr criteria. But if it’s a cancellation you have straightforward EU261 right to a refund with no strings attached.

      • Shoestring says:

        23 Sep23 September 14:05

        true enough, a different flight number is a cancellation

  • Lady London says:

    23 Sep23 September 13:06

    It’s your choice whether to take a refund or a reroute – not British Airways’s. You may have perfectly sound reasons why any particular other flight BA’s systems might have automatically booked you onto, is not going to work for you / make the trip no longer worth doing etc.

    Call them and tell them what you want. If it’s a refund, stick to your guns. There’s no way BA is allowed to charge you £50 to cancel a flight you didn’t book if they cancelled the flight you did book. No way at all. Just tell them you don’t accept a rereoute and you wish to exercise your right to cancel under EU261 and you want a full refund immediately (it takes 7 days – chase them if you don’t get it in that time). You don;t have to give them any reason if all you want is a refund – they cancelled your flight. If you want to dicker about which flight you might accept as an alternative, then you’d better have a good reason if what they are offering you is reasonably close to the original flight and gets you there close enough to the original landing time (there are specifics for these timelines in the EU261 regulation actual text, which is highly readable).

    IMV BA are being cheeky b****rs trying for £50 so HUACA and tell them you’re not having it and you want a refund as above.

    Shoestring can tell me if I’m wrong.

    • Russ says:

      23 Sep23 September 15:10

      Thanks everyone. Oddly enough the refund line was busy and just cut off. Emailed them with a 7 day deadline.

      • Lady London says:

        23 Sep23 September 23:58

        Suggest you call them as well. The times people have posted about their emails to British Airways having been completely ignored…

  • Lady London says:

    24 Sep24 September 00:05

    PS if they’ve told you thé flight is cancelled les than 2 weeks then you can also claim compo.

• Spaghetti Town says:

  23 Sep23 September 13:02

  The BA Airbnb offer – where you get 3 avios/£ spent. Does anyone know if this includes the experiences as well as stays? Nothing really in the T+C’s about it.

• LewisB says:

  23 Sep23 September 13:15

  OT: I cancelled a BA booking on August 24th and I’ve still yet to receive my taxes and surcharges back. I’ve managed to get through twice and I’m consistently told “we’ll escalate it”. I’ve officially filled a complaint on the BA website. I nag on social media. Any other ideas to get this through? I have no idea why it’s taking so long. It’s pretty much a month!

  • Lady London says:

    24 Sep24 September 00:02

    If they were supposed to pay you back within a certain time such as i believe payments on EU261 claims are meant to be paid to you within 7 or 14 days under thé rules, you are entitled to demand interest at the rate of 8% per annum.

• Lee says:

  23 Sep23 September 13:17

  OT – anyone had problem using Curve today? Card declined and can’t log in app

  • Gringo says:

    23 Sep23 September 13:36

    Yes – their system is down. Great product to encourage you to leave all your other cards at home…

  • tartan says:

    23 Sep23 September 13:47

    Yes – just recieved a notification in the app telling me that they are having intermittent issues processing transactions

  • Rooster says:

    23 Sep23 September 19:40

    spent a few thousand no probs, then stopped working for small amounts (within limits)

• Rui N. says:

  23 Sep23 September 13:31

  OT: comments/advice on the Amex strategy for the Mrs.? (I’m currently on the 2 year sabbatical with them; cancelled all my cards earlier in the summer to reset the clock)
  She has the Amex Gold since early January. The plan is in December to self-referal to the Nectar card (don’t want to reset the clock on BA cards) and after we get the 10k points after the new card year (on track to get the £15k spending done by then; if not we’ll buy a few gift cards to get there) close the gold card. Then come late March (when new council tax bill is due) self-referal back to the Gold to start a new year without paying the annual fee.
  (I realise that self refs might not give the points, but we’ll try nonetheless and if they work great)
  Anything wrong with the plan?

  • Shoestring says:

    23 Sep23 September 13:39

    [This is the decision tree you need to follow:

    Have you had ANY personal American Express card (excluding MBNA and Lloyds Bank cards) in the previous 24 months?

    If ‘no’:

    You can apply for any personal American Express card and receive the full advertised bonus. This article outlines my recommended application strategy to maximise your bonuses.

    If ‘yes’:

    You CANNOT get a sign-up bonus on the following cards:

    Platinum Cashyback
    Platinum Cashyback Everyday
    British Airways American Express (free card)
    Preferred Rewards Gold
    Starwood Preferred Guest
    Nectar
    American Express Rewards (all three variants)]
    https://headforpoints.com/2019/03/22/new-american-express-sign-up-bonus-rules/

    • Shoestring says:

      23 Sep23 September 13:43

      nothing to stop you applying for cards and getting referral bonus – but no sign-up bonus on the Nectar.

      some people are getting referred for Green card (ie no sign-up bonus but get referral points) – with the plan of upgrading that to Plat for 20,000 points bonus, spend £4000 (on Plat) in first 3 months though

      • Rui N. says:

        23 Sep23 September 14:21

        Thanks. 🙂 I know she won’t get any bonus – that is why I’m on sabbatical for the 2 years, I’ll get the bonus when I can. Just wanted to see if people had any specific comments on my idea to “keep” the gold card by getting the nectar for a couple of months and then geting a new Gold, thus avoiding paying the annual fee (and without losing the history with Amex as well – which probably is worth around zero).

      • Jason says:

        23 Sep23 September 14:27

        Does the green to plat work even if you have had plat in the last 24 months

        • Mark2 says:

          23 Sep23 September 22:40

          yes. Has worked for my wife and me recently.

        • Polly says:

          23 Sep23 September 23:58

          Yes, and for us.

        • Lady London says:

          24 Sep24 September 00:08

          Yes. Upgrade bonus is completely separate thing from signup abd spend x amount within y time.

          Oh, and referral bonus is separate again.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Sep24 September 12:04

    *sabbatical* 🙂 , love it.

• Ant says:

  23 Sep23 September 13:31

  OT: one for Shoestring re Glassesdirect. When i use the referral link i then get a code RAFE…
  If I use that code it will only take the two glasses down to £22.95 & i assume i get the amazon voucher.
  If i use the MSE code it comes to £16 but I assume this then won’t trigger the £15 amazon voucher.
  Am i missing something?

  • Shoestring says:

    23 Sep23 September 13:34

    just use the MSE code to pay @£16 and you get the £15 Amazon code immediately

    • Trickydic says:

      23 Sep23 September 13:57

      Hi, could you post the referral link please? I must have missed it.
      Thanks

      • Shoestring says:

        23 Sep23 September 14:03

        it’s your own referral link! (top of the page once you buy) – you first buy 2 x £49 pairs for £16 delivered on Glasses Direct using MSE16SEPT. Subsequently, you can refer friends (who can use the same deal) and you get a £15 Amazon voucher instantly when they/ you buy the next 2 pairs. £16 – £15 = £1. So 4 pairs for £17, 6 pairs for £18 etc

        • Trickydic says:

          23 Sep23 September 14:04

          Brilliant, thanks very much for the quick reply.

• Shoestring says:

  23 Sep23 September 16:03

  American Express to launch ‘Pay with bank transfer’ service for online shopping in UK
  AMERICAN Express plans to challenge rivals such as PayPal by launching a new service enabling UK consumers to pay for goods online directly from their bank account.
  The New-York based payments giant is partnering with a number of online retailers to launch its “Pay with bank transfer” service via their UK e-commerce sites later this year. Partners include online fundraising platform JustGiving, furniture retailer Oak Furnitureland and Thai Airways.
  The services are expected to launch before the end of the year and will roll out across a host of other retail sites next year.

• Shoestring says:

  23 Sep23 September 16:12

  In case you were wondering why Condor is still flying
  https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/thomas-cooks-condor-still-flying-but-seeks-bridge-l-461014/

  • Lady London says:

    24 Sep24 September 16:20

    As predicted there are some antics in Germany – the state of Hessen (IMV as a proxy for the central government) has given a bridging loan. Comments so far about jobs in that state (head of Thomas Cook operations) this subsidy by Germany/German state to seems definitely against EU rules.

    Condor is so big in Germany I can’t see anyone other than Lufthansa, or friends of Lufthansa, will end up taking their pick of what Thomas Cook has – for defensive reasons to keep others out of the German market, if nothing else.

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