Double Avios on flights
BA have launched one of their regular offers for extra Avios on flights with all the usual catches! The main one is that the promotion only applies to new bookings made after you register for the promotion, not existing ones. You also only have a short time to travel as you need to have travelled by 31 December 2017.
Double Avios will be awarded before any cabin or tier bonuses on all tickets except reward flights. The offer is open to Executive Club members in all countries, except USA, Canada, Mexico and South Africa. If you are not yet a member you can join now and still participate for any new bookings.
To get the double Avios, simply register, book and travel by 31 December. You know you have registered successfully when a “thank you” message is displayed to confirm that your registration has been successful.
The good news is that it applies to American Airlines, Finnair and Iberia flights too.
You can find the promotion page here.
BA New York JFK First Wing opens
BA have opened the first stage of their JFK refurbishment with a First wing check-in area for First Class customers and BA Executive Club Gold members. The First Wing at JFK echoes the design of the First Wing at Heathrow T5, providing a private check-in area with podium style check-in desks, seating, baggage porters and access to fast-track security. The rest of the refurbishments are due to be finished by the end of 2018.
The official BA news page is here.
BA Gatwick Club Lounge trial
If you have travelled through Gatwick and used the Club Lounge recently you may have noticed that Champagne is now available to help yourself to rather than having to track down staff to ask for a glass. The Champagne is a trial to see if it improves customer satisfaction from Gatwick. Much as I like the new improved lounges, I am never a fan of travelling from Gatwick. Apart from the fact it is difficult to get to from where I live, it also does not have a Concorde Room if you are in First and the shops in the South Terminal are nowhere near the standard of Heathrow T5.
My main bugbear with Gatwick, however, is the lack of a BA First lounge before 7 am. This is because there are no long haul flights with First this early but BA Gold Cardholders also should have access. Most of the day it wouldn’t be a problem for me, but in the early morning the Club lounge is extremely busy and the standard of the breakfast is poor compared to what you get in the First Lounge. You can read my review of the new Gatwick BA Club lounge here and the First lounge here.
What do you think of BA’s operation at Gatwick? What would you like to see them do differently? Let me know in the comments below or on social media.
4 comments
Well, as a long-time LGW user for BA flights (and someone who remembers the North Terminal being built predominantly for the airline’s use, and dear CityFlyer still working out of South Terminal), things have certainly got better of late. The new lounges are a vast improvement over the temporary arrangement over in North Terminal and a lot brighter and smarter than BA’s own, tired lounges were getting.
As someone who has to go past Gatwick to reach LHR (and detests having to use Terminal 3 up there) it is always a pleasure to travel from Terminal 5 even if the thought of a possible three-hour delay on the M25 forces me to leave home at dawn.
BA crew out of Gatwick are usually excellent (if only because we can talk about things we have in common, such as living in Sussex, and because most of them are still dedicated to the BA brand), whereas out of LHR the crews can be rather [no, correction – VERY] mixed. And not just across the appropriately named Mixed Fleet, but sadly in Euro and World fleets as well.
Yes – it’s a shame that the First lounge at Gatwick is not open very early, although I believe it’s now open earlier than it was originally — but then early flights are dreadful for my constitution (not to mention that airports can be horrendously busy early in the mornings), so I try not to have to arrive before about 9.30am at the very earliest. There is a lack of a Concorde Room, or equivalent, but then BA operates just three routes now from LGW with a First cabin – so presumably it doesn’t make business sense.
When Gatwick security deem to operate their Fastrack lane as a service dedicated to premium passengers it’s a dream; all too often though it just filters into one of the normal security lanes.
Yes, I definitely agree that it has got better at Gatwick lately. Much as I try and avoid early flights from LGW they are often a necessity unless you arrive at the destination very late instead. Totally agree on the mixed service by Heathrow crew. I have flown once from Gatwick in First and was totally underwhelmed other than a slightly better seat the food was almost the same so it is rarely worth the extra from Gatwick unless you get a great deal on it.
I find that Gatwick is a much nicer airport to fly from and get through compared to Heathrow. It has a friendlier feel and for me, it is also easier to get to.
However, I do not like the fact that even with the new lounge, which is better than the Heathrow BA Club lounge (alough without a spa – which the Virgin Atlantic lounge has) I feel that the offering is second rate.
The fact there is no arrivals lounge really bothers me. They used to have an area in the now Sofitel but it closed a long time ago. It seems they just don’t seem to think Premium passengers deserve the full product service and offering.
That sums it up very well Dan. Premium passengers get a different product to Heathrow which I don’t think is right. I accept they can’t have the same at smaller bases but given it is BA’s second biggest base I think they could do more.
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