How many flights is British Airways operating at the moment?

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• Littlefish says:

  12 Feb12 February 05:32

  Eeeks, what’s the story on Accor? Did I miss they are not extending points expiry, like pretty much everyone else?
  I last stayed with them a year ago, before my last long-haul LHR flight.
  Everything cancelled since.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    12 Feb12 February 06:37

    On the Accor example since they’re fixed value there is literally zero value in holding onto them and only risk.

    Yes, it feels warm and fuzzy saving them for something nice occasionally. But you can save 20 of each stay and bank the £20 and that toward it instead and the bank aren’t going to go bust or devalue your money (no more than the BofE do)

    On which note a Q for the accountants – where the scheme is clearly £x value given to the person staying (clearly by way of influencing spending decisions but leaving that aside) how is this still not in scope of BIK? And doesn’t it risk becoming so and bringing the whole thing into the spotlight?

    • Ed says:

      12 Feb12 February 07:13

      Just can’t understand the Accor strategy here. Surely in most countries travel, both leisure and business, is going to restart slowly. With every other hotel chain seemingly lowering their status requirements to entice customers, Accor are going the other way and needless stuffing their loyal customers over.

      • Alan says:

        12 Feb12 February 07:31

        Agree, seems sadly par for the course for them – I’ve always found their CS poor. Shame as Accor Plat was actually quite decent (previously had it with Amex Plat).

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        12 Feb12 February 07:53

        It’s not just that but the expiry is likely to coincide with the gradual opening of travel so they’ll be expiring points and upsetting customers just immediately before they start making choices again…

    • memesweeper says:

      12 Feb12 February 07:56

      It’s not the value that brings something into the scope of BIK, it’s if it’s consequential to employment. If the kick-back is consequential to a hotel stay, not employment, it’s not in scope.

    • Dubious says:

      13 Feb13 February 01:34

      I believe Accor stays booked using points don’t count towards status.
      I think therefore it can be tricky doing 60 paid nights in a year followed by the rest on points. This way you get Status benefits during the points stay.

      I managed to scrape one year renewal of Platinum based on spend but by the time I had done this it was nearly the end of the year and only managed one further night spend, which in hindsight could have been on points.

      • Pangolin says:

        13 Feb13 February 15:39

        You need to include at least one paid night for the stay to be eligible – then the whole stay should count. From the T&Cs: When a Member completes an Eligible Stay at one of the hotels participating in this Programme and the stay includes at least one paid night that the Member actually spends at the hotel, the Member’s account is credited with Points and Status Nights corresponding to the stay. Day Use generates Points credit only, and no Eligible Status Night will be counted.

  • Alan says:

    12 Feb12 February 07:30

    Yep Accor sticking to their usual strict 12m expiry rules, apart from a slight offer last year for those that had expired where a stay would reinstate them.

  • Rob says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:43

    Correct. Everything is being expired 12 months after your last stay.

    You may be able to extend them by transferring points in from, say, Eurostar or Flying Blue which might reset the counter.

    • RussellH says:

      12 Feb12 February 11:27

      I last stayed at a Mercure in Sept 2020, so some time to go yet.
      However, the Accor website tells me to use the points before 9 Feb 2022, on account of my getting e-Rewards and Club Opinions points.
      Next to that date, though, is the ? sign which when hovered over states “To keep your points, you need to spend a night in one of our hotels participating in the programme at least once per year.”
      Are there any data points out there about this apparent contradiction?

      • ankomonkey says:

        12 Feb12 February 13:09

        I had points due to expire last December and 25 points from Club Opinions has kept them alive. I last stayed in an Accor hotel in August 2019.

        • RussellH says:

          12 Feb12 February 14:09

          Thanks.

    • kitten says:

      13 Feb13 February 02:52

      Accor Customer Service told me buying a drink or something like that in one of their hotels and putting your card number on the transaction does give points and refresh for another year even if not staying.

      Someone also said they have an Accor online shop that does the same.

      Beware if you move a stay using their current BWC it seems to stay in your account on the original date. Looks like it might shorten the year from last stay.

• Rich says:

  12 Feb12 February 06:01

  Eurostar were similarly inflexible when my points expired in August. I had travel booked in January and May, both cancelled, which would have reset the counter..

  My own fault, for not being on-the-ball, but I had hoped for some leniency. 1200 points down the drain 🙁

  • James says:

    12 Feb12 February 07:37

    All you have to is transfer a very small number of points into Eurostar to keep them from expiring. I used Amex Plat points. Sorry you missed this.

    • Rich says:

      12 Feb12 February 08:15

      Yes, kicking myself. I even track in Award Wallet. Either I missed the email, or else it was having trouble logging in at the time

• BJ says:

  12 Feb12 February 06:13

  BA PAX: would be more interesting to know who they are, expats going or coming home etc.

  Lufthansa: Anybody successfully redeemed miles for a giftcard recently?

  • insider says:

    12 Feb12 February 09:02

    I suspect a lot of the flights would be running on the basis of the cargo being enough to justify them. Then maybe 20/30 people per longhaul flight might be enough to make sense to put some crew on board. I suspect you can find that many people going to spend a decent chunk of time back in their home country or moving country for jobs etc.

  • kitten says:

    13 Feb13 February 02:55

    I did Amazon – works in UK not Germany – a while back now.

    • Alex Sm says:

      14 Feb14 February 20:38

      same here – worked perfectly last year

• Baji Nahid says:

  12 Feb12 February 06:17

  I do wonder if it will come a point where many organisations would be happy with consumer loyalty points expiring, it’ll save them a good buck in not having to provide things for free.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    12 Feb12 February 06:34

    Um…

• Matthew says:

  12 Feb12 February 06:28

  Stansted drop off is £7.

• Mark Hunter says:

  12 Feb12 February 07:00

  As LH was one of the airlines who resisted paying legally required refunds most strongly this does not come as a surprise. I think they will happily see their liability in miles for UK residents decrease and aren’t at all worried about their UK customer base (which isn’t likely to be spending much on travel for the foreseeable future). They will be happy to rely on their huge state subsidy.

  • bafan says:

    12 Feb12 February 21:22

    yeah I’m surprised about how much criticism BA gets sometimes, the EU airlines seem to have been a disaster. I’m STILL waiting for a KLM refund.

    • Rob says:

      12 Feb12 February 21:45

      I got my Lufty money this week from a flight cancelled in early October.

      • Alan says:

        13 Feb13 February 00:30

        I ended up having to do a chargeback for my one in March 2020 that LH still hadn’t paid by the summer.

• NigelthePensioner says:

  12 Feb12 February 07:21

  So LGW, on the brink of financial collapse, is going to “encourage” more passengers by charging a £5 drop off fee? Get real LGW!!
  A train journey with a change of train and with luggage vs drop off outside the doors? Think again LGW! Your “green” credentials are bunkum! This is a desperate attempt at revenue generation, nothing else.

  • LeMain says:

    12 Feb12 February 07:59

    Absolutely … baggage trolleys will be next I imagine (to ‘encourage’ passengers to bring less luggage)!

  • memesweeper says:

    12 Feb12 February 08:00

    I’m inclined to think you are right — is there any evidence that a charge levied at any other airport caused a ‘modal shift’ away from private cars? I’m sure the LGW press office can furnish HfP with the data used to inform this decision… and naturally, if this is all about pollution, EVs will be zero-rated, right? Again, the press office will be happy to confirm this.

    • Adrian says:

      12 Feb12 February 09:26

      What about disabled/limited mobility passengers? Doesn’t this fall foul of the Disability Discrimination Act?
      Presumably if other airports have got away with this money-grubbing scheme, LGW thought they could too (and subsequently LHR)?
      Haven’t used any of the other airports listed which similarly grab cash, and it’s been ages since stepped onto a plane – for obvious reasons – so am not up-to-speed with all the “improvements” being touted by the industry but when I’ve dipped into this website (which is great!) the litany of cutbacks and money grabbing do not exactly encourage me back any time soon.

  • Tom says:

    12 Feb12 February 09:16

    The idea of getting more people onto trains would be fine if matched with suitable investment in more, better trains. The pre-pandemic experience, particularly coming away from LGW, was a nightmare of packed trains, standing for half an hour, no proper luggage space for the types of large suitcase most common for what is primarily a leisure airport.

    • Rhys says:

      12 Feb12 February 09:27

      To be fair, they have started work on improvements to the train station

  • Adrian says:

    12 Feb12 February 09:41

    P.S. to my previous exasperated comment; just looked at Gatwick website (should’ve before) and they say IF an application is made in advance they may grant an exemption from the charge.
    However, not if you arrive by taxi!! Bizarre.
    Presumably, you would have to apply twice for a return flight.
    Mind you, in their printed ‘justification’ on the LGW website,they admit this is to improve their”revenue streams”, i.e., how they can extract cash from a captive audience.

    • Henk says:

      12 Feb12 February 12:42

      Pick up was never allowed on the drop off zone, you have to park and pay the short term car park charges

  • ChrisC says:

    12 Feb12 February 13:05

    There are ways to avoid the fee even if you come by car and use the 2 hours free parking in the long stay car park and shuttle bus to the terminal.

    Thousands of people do this day in day out already with out apparent complaint.

    As to the train station I’ve only ever got the train to/ from LGW and never had any problems with either the trains or the station. They are adding more lifts and escalators as well as increasing the circulation space. The big issue is the step between the trains and the platforms so if they can do something about that it would speed up getting on and off the trains.

    And trains and platforms would be better loaded if people didn’t crowd in the same spot at the bottom of the lifts / escalators. And at Victoria if people walked down the trains they would more often than not find a seat and space for luggage.

• Waribai says:

  12 Feb12 February 08:06

  Slightly OT, are BA refunding tickets on flights which have been cancelled but they have already moved you to another flight departing within 4 hours? Or do they try to argue it’s just a schedule change?

  • ChrisC says:

    12 Feb12 February 13:57

    If the flight is cancelled you can have a refund.

    Them rebooking you makes sure if you do want to travel on the same day that you have a seat

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