News & offers: First look at BA Tom Kerridge menu, Qatar ex UK sale & up to 30,000 Hilton bonus

Well, today is the day we finally get to see the A350 up close with the media event planned for this afternoon. We will be publishing a second special article on the A350 later today so keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime here is something to whet your appetite from BA

 

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A post shared by British Airways PR Team (@britishairwayspr) on Jul 25, 2019 at 6:43am PDT

Don’t forget to check out the latest updates for the Heathrow and BA strikes here. 

Tom Kerridge menus for BA’s centenary

As we reported last week, Tom Kerridge has created some special menus for BA’s 100 year anniversary. These will be available in all cabins on London Heathrow & Gatwick flights departing the UK throughout August.

BA have posted a sample of what is available on Flyertalk.  Although it says they are not available for pre-order some people have reported being able to see it when requesting meals.

First
• Loch Fyne smoked salmon tartare with smoked mayonnaise, seeded cracker and quail egg
• Fillet of halibut with roasted cucumber, girolle mushrooms, salad cream, accompanied by a classic Caesar Salad with sourdough croutons and pickled anchovies
• Milk chocolate and amaretto tart with salted caramel and white chocolate sauce

Club World
• Severn and Wye smoked salmon with asparagus and gribiche dressing
• Roasted breast of corn-fed chicken with braised pearl barley risotto and wild garlic
• Chocolate and amaretto tart with salted caramel sauce

World Traveller Plus
• Salad Dorset Blue Vinny cheese, celery, grapes and sunflower seeds
• Roasted breast of corn-fed chicken with braised pearl barley risotto and wild garlic
• Chocolate and amaretto tart, coffee and mascarpone cream

World Traveller
• Gourmet smoked chicken stew with a variety of summer vegetables*

• Customers travelling in World Traveller will be offered the choice of a Tom Kerridge main meal, that will accompany the normal seasonal starter and dessert available that month.

It will be interesting to see whether the quality is any better than the usual catering. I’m pretty sure it won’t be up to the quality of Tom’s London restaurant Kerridge’s bar and grill at The Corinthia Hotel that Paul and I visited!

Qatar business class offers from the UK

Qatar have a new offer on from the UK which, whilst not exactly being earth-shattering in price, could provide a convenient way to get to Asia without the stress of an ex EU.

The best fare is to Jakarta which is probably not high on most people’s holiday list. However, it is a good gateway to plenty of other Asian holiday destinations such as Bali, Penang and Singapore. Flights are very frequent and cheap to Bali starting at around £50. Paul and I transitted through Jakarta in April and it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We flew Air Asia to Bali who were pretty good apart from the garish adverts on the overhead lockers!

If you are not local to London it is worth looking at local departure points for Qatar as the fares are often slightly cheaper outside London. Gatwick is usually cheaper than Heathrow but you don’t get the Qatar lounge, only a third party one.

The prices are:

• Jakarta from £1718
• Bangkok from £1907
• Penang from £2043
• Shanghai from £1920
• Mumbai from £1799
• Johannesburg from £2147

The rules are:

• Travel:
  • Permitted Mon through Thu
  • Outbound – travel is not permitted 15 Aug 19 through 25 Aug 19 or 31 Dec 19 through 6 Jan 20 or 27 Mar 20 through 12 Apr 20 for departure
  • inbound – travel is not permitted 29 Aug 19 through 1 Sep 19 or 17 Dec 19 through 23 Dec 19 or 1 Jan 20 through 6 Jan 20 or 9 Apr 20 through 22 Apr 20 for departure of first international sector.
• Minimum stay: 3 nights
• Maximum stay: 30 days
• Stopovers: 1 in Doha either out/in. A stopover may not exceed 96 hours.
• Refundable: For a fee
• Changeable: For a fee

You can book direct with Qatar Airways here.

Hilton offer get up to 30,000 bonus points on one stay

If you are already a Hilton Honors member then you won’t qualify for this offer and you will also need to be staying in a participating Hilton resort in the Americas before the end of January 2020. If you do qualify by joining as a new member, then it could be a very lucrative offer if you have a long stay planned. Technically it is meant to be a targetted offer, but it seems to work for all new members.

To qualify for the offer you need to join here on the special page, and then stay for two nights or more at an eligible resort. You get 5,000 bonus points per night for up to six nights which would give 30,000 points. The bonus takes 6-8 weeks maximum to credit to the account.

As you can now pool points towards stays, if you are travelling with a non-member you could get them to book the room and then share the points afterwards.

HT: Loyalty Lobby