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New Heathrow half term strike
More than 500 PCS members in Border Force at Heathrow airport are to take a further three days’ strike action in a dispute over a new roster that has been imposed. I would not be bothered about it if you are traveling during the strike action, as previous strikes, including the recent one at the end of April, have had little effect. In fact, they manage to cause more chaos when they are on duty, with the e-gates regularly failing.
The latest strike action is at the back end of the half-term holidays on 31 May and 1 and 2 June. The bit I am more concerned by is the three weeks of “action short of a strike” that will include a work to rule and overtime ban running from 4 to 25 June. When there is a full-on strike, the military is normally called upon to keep things running, but I’d be surprised if they do that for a work-to-rule, which could lead to some longer than usual queues potentially.
The Home Office public statement during the strike action said they were “disappointed” in the strike action but “open to discussing a resolution.”
BA Amex/Heathrow Express offer
There is a new offer on my BA Premium Amex card for 10% statement credit when you spend any amount online at Heathrow Express. Given that it is pretty pricey unless you book a while in advance, it’s worth using. The offer has a long validity until 13 September and is valid between London & Heathrow Terminals. However, you can only use it once, so if you have a few trips planned, you would be wise to buy them all in one go to get the discount on all of them.
Hilton 25% off US sale
Hilton has a new sale for up to 25% in the US/Canada/Mexico for booking until 30 June and valid for stays until the end of 2024. You get 25% off as a Hilton Honors member and 20% as a non-member. There are, as always, a couple of catches:
- Bookings are only cancellable up to 90 days before.
- You must stay a minimum of 3 nights.
You can find the sale page here.
Kimpton Hotels social password for summer 2024
One of the reasons I like Kimpton Hotels (IHG) is the extras you get, such as the free wine in the lobby every evening. I loved the Kimpton Blythewood Square in Glasgow when I visited last year. You can get more free stuff by quoting the Kimpton Social password when you check-in. This changes a couple of times a year and can give you anything from a free welcome drink, free breakfast, free snacks, a movie, or even free parking, which can be valuable.
It is slightly cringey, but you need to say“Good for the Sol” as the password when you check-in. The summer password is now valid until 2 September 2024.
Have you ever used the password at Kimpton? Let us know what you got in the comments below.
6 comments
“They manage to cause more chaos when they are on duty, with the e-gates regularly failing.”
What a bizarre thing to say – what on earth do individual officers have to do with the egates failing?
And there is evidence that when the Army were called in basically everyone was let in, which I am not sure is a great for border security…
You do know that there are individual officers in a room checking random egate pass throughs at all times. You know that, right?
They does not refer to the officers, it refers to Border Force in general. I think you also are deliberately missing the point that having the e-gates fail on a regular basis is not acceptable.
Of course it’s not acceptable for the gates to keep failing, but that is a wider Home Office IT issue. I am sure the officers would love them not to fail, as it just generates a lot more work for them and angry travellers. I just don’t understand why you keep attacking the officers – they do a pretty unpleasant job that isn’t paid very well and they keep getting kicked by the Home Office, hence the strikes…
The Kimpton in Edinburgh have sometimes offered double drinks vouchers in the bar or some lovely locally made chocolates in a designer box. Great hotel and so dog friendly as well with a huge private fenced square across the road.
Nope, most of the checks are automated these days and a handful of officers that are left will only intervene if the system is unhappy about the match. Still irrelevant to Michelle’s comment as the egates failing is a supplier issue, not an officer issue…
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