The HfP chat thread – Sunday 7th November

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• Andrew H says:

  7 Nov7 November 08:30

  Not for that short a time difference. They can even change airports. I had LCY changed to LHR last year (before that was then cancelled)

  • Chrism20 says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:39

    Didn’t think anything would be due but thought I would ask. A few rather stroppy faces at checkin when they were told they are now on the 1640 so we consider ourselves lucky.

• chris says:

  7 Nov7 November 08:32

  Found out this morning that the IHG Creation phone lines aren’t open over the weekend … My card was declined checking out of hotel; largest transaction I have made since covid about £11k so I fully expected it to trip an alert.

  No sms alert to my phone and with the uk phones shut no way to yell at them to authorise it … a travel mastercard that doesn’t understand people might not be in the uk, priceless.

  Amex sent a message to my phone and was sorted in seconds.

  I won’t miss them.

  • Ryan says:

    7 Nov7 November 08:45

    If you’ve never had that problem, then you’ve been lucky to escape it before!

    Absolute nightmare 9-5 Monday to Friday when you work the same time, means sacrificing a lunchtime on the phone

  • Harry T says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:35

    One of the reasons I always have an Amex card in my wallet is that this kind of bullsh*t doesn’t happen as often with Amex and they sort it out when it does.

  • Char Char says:

    7 Nov7 November 11:58

    Creation laugh my socks off!

• Graham Walsh says:

  7 Nov7 November 08:33

  What’s happening tomorrow I wonder. That last two names I’d thought I’d see together.

  https://twitter.com/virginatlantic/status/1457264071129112578?s=21

  • Rob says:

    7 Nov7 November 08:46

    Sean Doyle has accidentally leaked it in The Telegraph, but we have it tomorrow.

    • Andrew says:

      7 Nov7 November 09:29

      I’m sure it wasn’t an accident – the BA press team will have signed off the interview.

      • SteveJ says:

        7 Nov7 November 09:46

        Definitely not an accident given the article below.

    • John Gallagher says:

      7 Nov7 November 09:46

      Anyone on here going to be on either flight tomorrow BA1 or VS3?

      • Rob says:

        7 Nov7 November 10:07

        Mr Jones

        • John Gallagher says:

          7 Nov7 November 10:52

          BA or VS?

        • Rob says:

          7 Nov7 November 11:44

          VS. Original plan was one way on each but it got too complex, because some people insisted on extending their stay, so you are now either/or. Virgin has basically got the cool kids and BA has the Telegraph etc!

  • AJA says:

    7 Nov7 November 08:46

    Special flights to celebrate that the USA borders are reopened. It was mentioned here a couple of weeks back BA has a special BA1 numbered flight. Not sure what VS is doing. I think Rhys is covering it .

  • chris1922 says:

    7 Nov7 November 08:59

    Simultaneous take offs using both runways……?

    • Jonathan says:

      7 Nov7 November 09:03

      Who gets priority once they’re in the air – such politics? It’s a race to see who can land first after a joint takeoff surely?!

      • Gruntfuttock says:

        7 Nov7 November 20:24

        Simultaneous landings work OK at Heathrow but takeoffs? With strict noise abatement procedures and routings I hope they’re on westerlies tomorrow so the RWY27L departure turns left and the other one turns right 😂 or there’s a lot of paperwork to fill out in the Tower. I’ve no doubt a special dispensation has been made by the CAA/NATS to allow visual separation to be applied by the respective air crews if the cloud base allows . As a radar controller who was on the receiving end of a ‘misunderstanding’ in the 80s faced with 2 departing in immediate conflict, in cloud, is not something I care to see repeated. It’ll be fine I’m sure. I’ll be impressed if Kennedy Approach land them simultaneously. Righto, boring retired chap gets back in his box. 🛫🛫

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:06

    https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-10172155/amp/BA-Virgin-Atlantics-joint-opens.html

    • Blenz101 says:

      7 Nov7 November 10:00

      Inaccurately reporting the USA has been closed to British nationals. Not such ban.

      • Andrew says:

        7 Nov7 November 11:11

        I’ve even seen the words used “end of the flight ban” which was never the case either – flights continued throughout even the darkest days.

• PL says:

  7 Nov7 November 08:50

  I cannot get through to BA on the phone its hopeless. Does anyone know if they still have online chat? I cannot find a link anywhere

  • Pete M says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:51

    Make sure you’re signed in, click on ‘Help and contacts’ at the bottom of the homepage, it should then appear in the bottom-right corner.

    • PL says:

      7 Nov7 November 16:20

      Thanks

• Rosie says:

  7 Nov7 November 09:07

  Amex gold reward card , I have x amount of reward points which I want to transfer to BA Avois, can I send them to a friends avios account and just enter there number with the transfer ? Will they get them , does the system actually check the surname matches etc

  • Anna says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:35

    IME you have to register the avios account with Amex and they do check that the names match.

• Roger says:

  7 Nov7 November 09:23

  Are there any specific guidelines for airlines who can not operate flights due to country covid restrictions?
  Expecting an airline to reroute via a partner airline is a feasible demand it just rebook to future date or refund are my only options?

  • Anna says:

    7 Nov7 November 09:37

    Can you give a bit more detail here e.g. airline, destination, dates?!

    • Roger says:

      7 Nov7 November 09:42

      SAUDIA flights to India.
      Flight between UK and Saudi currently operational but onward to India is currently suspended.
      The tickets were sold few days ago and still available to buy on their website over the Christmas period.

      As per UK government website transit via Saudi is currently suspended and speaking to customer service they seem to agree and bit surprised that it was possible to book flights.

      • Anna says:

        7 Nov7 November 10:07

        You might just be reliant on Saudia’s Ts and Cs here. I’m not sure if EU 261 would cover you the outbound trip, even if it was on one booking (because Saudi to India isn’t within the UK or EU), but I may be wrong. On the return journey, you wouldn’t be covered.
        Airlines have no obligation to you if you can’t enter or transit a particular country, you would need insurance to cover this kind of eventuality.

        • meta says:

          7 Nov7 November 10:17

          It’s covered by EU261. Any flight originating in EU/UK no matter how many stops you have is covered.

        • meta says:

          7 Nov7 November 10:18

          But if the airline hasn’t cancelled the flight then you need to rely on insurance.

        • Nick says:

          7 Nov7 November 10:22

          It’s not the airline’s fault that you can’t make the journey. It is up to you to make sure you are eligible to travel. Most (all?) airlines make this clear in their T&C – BA certainly does. As others have said, it’s a matter for your insurance.

        • Roger says:

          7 Nov7 November 10:34

          Just looking at EU261 or UK261 in this specific case.
          I think airline will try to push for refund but not sure if article 261 will be strictly applicable if Government is barring to operate certain routes due to COVID restrictions.

          Sound like I will have some exciting times dealing with both airlines and OTA.

        • Anna says:

          7 Nov7 November 10:37

          @meta, I think EU261 wouldn’t apply to the Saudi-India leg unless it was on the same booking. And the return flight wouldn’t be covered at all because it’s not an EU airline.

        • Anna says:

          7 Nov7 November 10:39

          But Roger, if you are covered by EU261, the airline can’t avoid its re-routing obligations because of covid.

      • Blenz101 says:

        7 Nov7 November 10:54

        I think you are in a little bit of a unique situation here as the transit restriction and presumably the ban on flights to/from India has been imposed by KSA itself.

        If all you are being offered by the airline is a refund then I would take it and look to book ideally a direct flight or a least route via somewhere that has been operating relatively consistently during the pandemic.

        If customer service are not offering a reroute on another Skyteam member then you will likely end up purchasing new flights anyway and trying to recover costs via the courts. Given the effective ban this isn’t completely clear cut so if you can get your cash back now then I would consider it.

        • Roger says:

          7 Nov7 November 11:02

          Thanks for all replies.
          Getting a refund and trying to book another flight is plausible but flights seems to be far too expensive.

          Can curve metal travel insurance help with claiming reroute via Sky team partner in this case although I used Amex card for payment to an OTA as the Saudia website wasn’t playing nice with Google flight search at the time of booking.

        • Blenz101 says:

          7 Nov7 November 20:00

          If you booked via an OTA then you have even further complexity and I wouldn’t be 100% certain you are on one ticket. They may have packaged up an itinerary for you and sold you it as appearing as one ticket but it may well have underlying single tickets. Whatever happens you will need to be certain of your underlying ticket structure because you may potentially need the right paperwork to enter KSA.

          All your requests to try and obtain a reroute and refund are going to have to be made via the OTA. They can ask the airline for a reroute you but as others have said it is not for the airline/OTA to check if you are able to fly the route. The flights to India may well operate from KSA given the Indian diaspora. If it is only your ability to connect in the country the airline is not going to be on the hook, particularly if it didn’t sell you the ticket. They are going to blame the OTA and the OTA will say you are responsible for ensuring you can transit and enter all the countries on a given routing. I would be willing to bet if a Saudi national wanted to connect this would be allowed.

          You also won’t be able to get back via KSA they won’t allow anybody who has been in India in the previous 14 days so the return route will almost certainly be closed to you once you have entered India.

          Your curve metal isn’t going to help you here either. Your insurance will cover insured losses whilst you are traveling. It isn’t going to help with you buying a ticket you can’t travel on. If flights get cancelled you may have more of a case but will still have to approach the OTA in the first instance before they will get involved. You will also need to actually suffer a loss so that likely still means buying new tickets at some point.

    • Roger says:

      7 Nov7 November 10:44

      Anna it is all in one booking hence I say transit.
      First I thought I will not be able to take internal saudi flight but it seems like Indian and Saudi government seems to be too cautious at the moment and not operating routes at the moment between two countries.

      Sure if I turn up at LHR for my outbound flight and if flight between saudi and India is still not operational they will deny me boarding the flight.
      It will be messy, hopefully airline will inform much earlier on how they plan to handle the situation

      I would much rather they reroute me on AF or KLM direct from CDG or AMS to Delhi with of course starting from LHR but that is insisting on UK261 which may or any not be applicable due to Covid restricted travel.

      • Anna says:

        7 Nov7 November 11:16

        You can be transiting but using different tickets or airlines, that’s why I wasn’t sure. As I said, your re-routing rights under EU/UK261 stand regardless of covid, (this only applied to compensation, which was suspended), on the outbound route anyway.
        If the UK-Saudi leg isn’t cancelled though, you are bound by their Ts and Cs or your insurance provision.

        • meta says:

          7 Nov7 November 11:33

          It’s on one ticket as @Roger said, so for the UK to India EU261applies because if one leg is cancelled then it treats it as if all legs have been cancelled. He has a rerouting option, but not for return portion as you rightly state. Another layer is whether the airline will cooperate or just wabt to issue a refund. If the airline is not willing, further options are S75 if paid on a credit card, MCOL or insurance. Many non-EU airlines have no clue about EU261 and they don’t train CS agents at all on that aspect, so it can be a real struggle getting anywhere.

        • Nick says:

          7 Nov7 November 13:38

          If the flights aren’t cancelled, EU261 will NOT apply, duty of care or otherwise. It’s up to the customer to ensure they hold the correct travel documents. There is no automatic right to rerouting if you don’t, and no court will entertain the case. Even the CMA backtracked on trying to force airlines’ hand where the flights still operated and the customer didn’t travel.

        • Roger says:

          7 Nov7 November 13:58

          I will definitely travel if the flights operate.
          I might have to wait for few weeks to see if there is some positive development for international flights.

        • Blenz101 says:

          7 Nov7 November 20:07

          I’ve replied above but even if the flights operate assuming you are on a return ticket it is highly unlikely you will be getting back via KSA as they are not accepting anyone who has been in India for the previous 14 days unless they are in specific categories. i.e. Diplomats, domestic workers, healthcare etc.

          I know the argument is you are ‘just going to be in transit’ in KSA but given that option is not permitted and the level of document checks they are going to be looking for in India there is little chance of you getting a SAUDIA flight out again. You really wouldn’t have any argument here as things stand and would be on the hook for a potentially expensive one-way last minute ticket.

• Andrew says:

  7 Nov7 November 09:36

  Also in the Telegraph piece about BA today: in WT+ “new seats, with additional privacy, and more storage for personal belongings“ – was this announced before that a new seat was coming?

• aviosnewbie says:

  7 Nov7 November 09:44

  Are Dubai desert safaris suitable for older people? Have planned a trip to Dubai in Feb, with my 4-yr old and also 75y old parents. Would like a dinner or experience in the desert but without any dune bashing etc. Would love recommendations of good companies that can organise such luxury tours and even any other experiences that’ll be suitable for a group with such a wide age range. Thanks

  • Kevin C says:

    7 Nov7 November 11:56

    We did one a few years ago with no dune bashing. We had private transfers, a falconry display, some food and camel rides. I can’t remember which company it was but it was some suitable for everyone with the possible exception of the camel ride which I imagine is optional.

  • Tarmohamed says:

    7 Nov7 November 13:09

    We took our 2.5 year old in January. Absolutely fine. 75 year old, is highly dependent on their health and fitness. If they’d go on a slow roller coaster at Legoland, they should be fine. Also you can get the driver to drive slower on the dunes. I have a contact, sub 500aed for a private experience for up to 6 people in a land cruiser with pick up and drop off. You can find me on LinkedIn easily or get me email from Rob

    • Genghis says:

      7 Nov7 November 15:20

      Hi Rob. Please could you give @Tarmohamed my email address. I’d like to do such a tour next month. Thanks.

      • Tarmohamed says:

        7 Nov7 November 16:53

        Here is my desert safari contact, name is Ayaz +971 50 296 1245 – he is on WhatsApp. I will give him a heads up as well.

      • Rob says:

        7 Nov7 November 18:07

        Done

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