I’ll be writing in-depth reviews of my trip to the Bahamas and the hotels I stayed in shortly. In the meantime, you can read my Forbes article about what the Bahamas has to offer here.
In this post:
Why The Bahamas May Be The Right Caribbean Vacation For You
When you think of the Caribbean, you think of white sand beaches, crystal clear calm turquoise waters, and a laid-back lifestyle. While it sounds idyllic, people can be slightly disappointed with their first visit to some Caribbean islands. Many islands can seem very expensive with old-fashioned hotels and often varied service levels compared to what you would get in other places.
Important changes to BA Holidays
Those that follow me on Twitter would have seen a Tweet just before Christmas about BA Holidays changing their cancellation period. Now other changes are coming into effect so I thought it would be worth covering both in an article.
Recently I have been booking BA Holidays rather than flight only for a number of reasons. Firstly there is the double Tier Point offer on certain BA Holidays bookings which has just been extended. Next is the fact that you don’t need to pay the full amount up front so if you cancel you only get a voucher for the deposit rather than the full amount which saves tying cash up. Finally you also get extra Avios which is also handy.
However, we will now need to weigh up these benefits against the new terms and conditions.
What’s changed?
The deposit
Up until mid-December you could pay your deposit 3 weeks prior to departure. This was actually a Covid concession, so changing it for something worse is not actually as bad as it seems as it’s still in keeping with what it used to be.
However, they have made it more complicated as there are two different timeframes for paying your final balance now. This only applies to new bookings since 15 December.
Now you must pay the remaining balance:
- 4 weeks before departure for European holidays
- 7 weeks before departure for all other holidays
Cancellation policy
One thing people may not be aware of is that BA Holidays has a different cancellation period to BA flight-only bookings. With BA flight bookings you can cancel up to an hour before departure which is very handy. With BA Holidays the minimum cancellation period has changed from 3 weeks before departure to 4 weeks before departure.
You can find all the terms and conditions here.
Win a free stay at Shangri-La The Shard, London
With travel to Hong Kong rather tricky right now, the Hong Kong Tourist Board has launched a competition to give you a taste of Asia without leaving the UK. The “Discover Your Hong Kong” quiz and prize competition is running until the 15th of Jan 2022. The quiz consists of a series of fun questions to reveal what the best Hong Kong itinerary is for you based on the type of traveller you are. I got Architectural Heritage (probably as there wasn’t one for “Drinking cocktails in fancy bars”!).
You also get a chance to win one of 4 “HK-style skyline experiences” at Shangri-La The Shard, London when you complete the quiz. You can read our review of the hotel here.
Here’s a list of the prizes:
1st Prize – Overnight stay for 2 with breakfast and a 3-course dinner with wine pairings at TING
2nd Prize – A luxury Seasonal Champagne Afternoon Tea for 2 at TĪNG Restaurant
3rd Prize – Sky Brunch for 2 at Sky Lounge
4th prize – Cocktails for 2 at GONG Bar, Western Europe’s highest hotel bar
Here is the link for the quiz and to enter the competition.
17 comments
Also BA have increased, as an example, the cost of a first class flight to Australia from £5400 to £6500.
Their product is not worth this.
If I am honest, and I’ve been a strong BA fan for 30 years, there are such better products out there than what BA offer now.
Three years ago I had input to the then chief exec at a dinner and he did not listen and was only interested in how they could upsell.
BA if the product is right the price will follow. Sadly your seats are poor and even more sadly your staff are and have been getting more and more disillusioned with the company management style.
Just my opinion. From now on we will be flying lots of other airlines as and when the Covid-19 virus has cleared.
Anyone booking with BA Holidays is very brave. Once they have your money they are impossible to contact. Having to use Twitter to beg to talk to customer service is not what I customer service! I want a company that wants to serve me.
I agree but trying to get hold of BA at all at the moment is tricky. Another thing to consider when booking. I can only hope that they sort this out in the same way they are doing for the main BA lines. Most of it is caused by not being able to book using many future travel vouchers online.
I agree 101% with Les! Atrocious leadership for far too long. CEO’s that have the wrong pedigree to run what was the “World’s favourite airline”. Their styles are of those who have barely flown long haul (as a passenger) and they have been totally out of touch with what makes a favourable, memorable experience. The cleaning of planes, the standard of meals in J (F has been OK) and the morale or frank lack of training of mixed fleet crew far too often leaves a bad experience foremost in a seasoned travellers mind. Sadly once my 800,000 and 3 BA 241 vouchers are gone, I will be chasing alternative airlines premier status. BA have for now, “lost it” with pricing and experience. I never thought that the lounge would be the best bit of travelling, but BA seem to have managed it!
Michele, your promotion of a competition has reminded me that I never see information regarding the winners of your own competitions. I am thinking most recently of the one for luggage. But also previously for amenity bags etc.m
I read your daily email without fail so perhaps you announce the winners elsewhere? Please enlighten me.
Thanks
I don’t generally announce the names of winners publicly to respect their privacy but obviously notify them privately via email. If they don’t respond the prize is redrawn as per the rules but that rarely happens. However we have featured several articles with the winners that are happy to go public such as the recent one about Hilton Geneva, the BA gold and the Fortnum and Mason champagne. The recent luggage competition we are hoping to feature when the winners receive their cases.
Dear Amanda,
I was fortunate enough to be the lucky recepient of the QF/ Brics amenity kit this year ( in a competition I’ve been chasing for years now lol)
so you can rest assured there are real ppl winning the competitions.
I’m 100% with Michele’s policy of discretion/ anonymity as a general rule but am happy in this instance to ‘reveal’ myself so as to show that they legitimately go to readers.
BA crew are the greatest, long haul business seats are improving, unfortunately their customer service is not!
I hadn’t realised until your recent email the difference between flight and holiday cancellations. It is a big difference. Recently cancelled a flight only to Cape Town online and had the voucher back in under 5 mins. With less than a week to go. In Antigua with BA Holidays, lived in fear of catching COVID pre departure and had assumed could cancel right up to the day. It might sway me back to flight only but I appreciate the double tier points promotion.
Contacting BA Holidays by phone is nigh on impossible, that again sways me back towards flight only. Even with transfers from the Gold Exec line you can be on hold for up to 45 mins.
BA J to Antigua from LHR – thought the food / service appalling. Back to LGW tonight, let’s see if any better. New Club Suite out which was good, old Club World back
Yes I’d agree it’s extremely hard to contact BA holidays at the moment. My latest BA club world experience was mixed from Heathrow in terms of food.
In the current climate, I am very reluctant to book anything with a cancellation policy of 3 weeks, let alone 4 weeks. So for me, although it may cost a little more, I’m booking flights and hotel separately so that I can cancel up until the last minute. I might be tying up cash with the flight element but at least I wont have that month of worrying between the cancellation deadline and travelling!
Yes I agree that it’s something well worth considering although some insurance policies would cover you in cases of Covid. It’s also worth noting that they do also allow cancellations and changes closer to departure if affected by “major travel restrictions” but obviously that’s a bit woolly. I’d expect if a country was closed to UK visitors you would definitely be covered.
I also can never get through to BA Holidays by phone, despite the Gold helpline being answered reasonably quickly. Unfortunately the Gold helpline team cannot help me out with my BA Holiday bookings! However recently I tried a different tactic of emailing BA Holidays with a very clear instruction about what I wanted amd they phone me back the following day and actioned it immediately. Try “[email protected]” if you have an urgent query.
For all those struggling to get hold of BAH may I suggest just calling the normal number for BA. I use the Silver Line and just select the option which says the calls about a holiday booking.
I’ve had to cancel or totally change no less than 21 trips in the last 2 years and whilst I’ve definitely been on hold for +1 hour and sometimes had the system tell me to call back I’ve invariably gotten through and had staff deal with it quickly and efficiently. I thought no the longest I’ve waited for a BAH voucher / credit is 9 days.
Maybe I’ve just been extremely lucky but using the silver line has worked well for me and may he something to consider as an approach ( for those who haven’t tried it already of course)
Just had to cancel an itinerary outbound 10Jan22, returning 30Jan22 booked with BA Holidays. This was within the 4 weeks timeframe. No problem with obtaining a refund voucher for use by 2023.
Let’s put some more testing measures and tougher travel restrictions in place. Would be terrible if someone was positive and entered the country without us knowing!!! Maybe a new variant!!! We have around 500’000 cases per day now and all the variants, 500’001 would be even worse, maybe we have to ban international travel forever!?!?!
I know it’s all pretty pointless at the moment.
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