Book it Danno! Points, Reflections and Refunds
Index:
- A Rock, A Hard Place and Tier Points
- To Birmingham Airport, Ryanair FR693 Birmingham to Dublin
- A morning around Dublin
- Dublin Airport, BA4467 Dublin Airport to London City Airport
- Travelodge, London City Airport
- A Morning at London City Airport
- British Airways BA001 London City Airport – Shannon, Shannon to New York-JFK
- Über Takes on Manhattan
- Holiday Inn Express, JFK
- JFK T8, US Airways Flight US510 New York JFK to Phoenix, Arizona
- US Airways Club/Admiral’s Club, US694 Phoenix Sky Harbour to Honolulu
- The Aston Beach Waikiki
- Travel Plus… Doing – Exploring the Diamond Head Trail
- Travel Plus… Doing – Pearl Harbour and The USS Arizona Memorial
- The joy of British Airways Rebooking
- Honolulu Airport, American Airline Lounge, US693 Honolulu International to Phoenix
- US425 Phoenix to New York-JFK, Economy Class
- JFK Omnishambles
- BA002 JFK to London City Airport
- Involuntary Downgrade Chaos
- BA4462 London City Airport to Dublin
- A Five Hour Dublin Layover
- BA0837 Dublin Airport to London Heathrow Airport in Club Europe
- Homeward bound
- Aftermath: Points and Reflections…
So my final total for the year was in – 1555 Tier Points – British Airways Gold Renewal
Although a few weeks later, British Airways devauled their programme to make it harder to earn on cheap tickets.
I give up.
There was still an outstanding mess to deal with – and that had to be dealt with customer services. The matter of a forced schedulde change, the transcontinental economy slog and the involuntary downgrade at City Airport
It took me a full two days to write the email to Customer Services – it took them 3 week to get back to me (with a lot of prodding of the Executive Club who re-instated what they could).
British Airways admitted the fault was theirs with the BA4 change, and offered EC/261 without a question. In addition, I would be refunded the segment between London City and Dublin.
They said:
In the mean time, you are entitled to compensation for cancellation of your flight BA0004 on xx January 2015. The distance of your disrupted journey, as calculated in accordance with EU legislation, was over 3500km. Based on this, you are entitled to €600 in compensation, which converts to £445.56.
And a few days later, the money hit the accounts. Was I happy? Honestly, it felt like a victory – in a battle I shouldn’t had fought. Still, the money would reduce the cost of this trip/next trip, so I wasn’t complaining about it.
I never got anything for the US Airways downgrade though, with the words “tough luck” from US/AA. Well, nothing like looking after your own elites before paying customers…
Anyway – lets wrap everything up into one nice simple package.
Ryanair: It wasn’t that bad. Yes it was yellow. Yes, scratchcards were sold, and yes – I had to play the game. But for £10.19 for a 40 minute flight… I can live with that.
Dublin: Apart from being a great place to start and end adventures (and bag the discounted fares), it’s also a wonderful city to visit. Even if it’s for 6 hours.
British Airways CityFlyer continues to prove my point that operations from to and from London City Airport are better. A much more personal and tighter service.
The Travelodge City Airport… isn’t THAT bad. Considering the location, price and that I needed just a crashpad for the night, it did the job very nicely.
British Airways BA1 and BA2 continue to impress me. It’s a very tightly managed service, well delivered and with nice flat seats. When priced well – yes, my go-to service across the pond. When priced as well as this trip costed – it would had been rude to fly BA mainline.
The Holiday Inn Express JFK could had been better. Mainly due to an air-conditioner that had a mind of its own, costing me my sleep and sanity.
US Airways First. Transcontinental – a larger seat and food… that sums up the joy of First Class. No power sockets, but the staff cared. Hawaii Route… those 757s really let the side down and need a refit – urgently. Saying that, some care attention needs to be paid attention to the product as a whole, because these flights weren’t the best I ever flew.
US Airways Economy (Transcon) is as bad as I remember US Airways being. Yes, service standards have improved (with the Executive Platinum bonus), but the seats are as bad as they have always been, and no power at seat really caps off the picture. The only upside was the empty middle seat. Almost like EuroBusiness then.
The Aston Waikiki Beach was a holiday hotel – and that’s no bad thing – it provided a place to rest as well as get some of my own things done… as well as a gorgeous view of Waikiki Beach
And for Honolulu & Hawaii? I intend to return – that much is certain. It’s a different pace of life, full of history – and I feel I’ve only scratched the surface of one part of Honolulu – let along explore the Big Island or anywhere else. If I return on a Tier Point fare, all the more the better – but I’ll be keeping my eyes open for a chance to go back in comfort, that much is certain.
And that’s it for Book It Danno! It’s been a big old adventure this has with adventures on Low Cost Carriers, right up to one of the most private ways to cross the Atlantic. Oh yes, and a clapped out US airline.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this adventure as much as I did… as well as some of the experiences I had as well. Your feedback of course is welcome in the comments box as always.
Coming up: You’ve got a week or so off before I launch into the next epic I have for you – BRRRR! Chicago! Featuring British Airways and Iberia (least of all, I have to write a lot of the trip up yet).
But probably more important, I’ll be at The Aircraft Interiors Expo which as well as a trip report afterwards, will feature a lot of live writing as I go along.
As well as British Airways flights… operated by someone who’s not British Airways.
Until then, you can browse my previous trip reports. Enjoy!
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Great report. I enjoyed reading these posts and kept an eye out for the next installment. Good detail in the reports of the service on the different routes and carriers. Very helpful.
Glad you enjoyed it – I try to cover little things that others may miss, or just oversee on their day to day travels..
Fantastic report, enjoyed it the whole way. Looking forward to hearing about the next one.
Glad you enjoyed Weston. It’s back to Economy on the next trip, but some entertaining things coming up!
Love your trip reports! Thanks for posting them, and I look forward to the next.
Great trip report. Enjoyed reading it and as a fellow Brummie it’s nice to relate to!
Really useful info. I have been given a mission to organise a tier point run by my boss (I’m a pa) and didn’t know where to start. You’ve covered everything I can think of. Dreading doing this but at least I’m now well armed. Wish ba would let you buy the gold membership – I’d pay for it myself !!!!!!!
Really useful info. I have been given a mission to organise a tier point run by my boss (I’m a pa) and didn’t know where to start. You’ve covered everything I can think of. Dreading doing this but at least I’m now well armed. Wish ba would let you buy the gold membership – I’d pay for it myself !