[Goldcardsaplenty]

Stevecoots / NTarrant

Regarding flying in First I totally agree that there are not many circumstances that warrant an extra £5k but I travel FC if CW is full which happens regularly on the Far Eastern routes.

Obviously I also often travel F through promotions such as the long running ‘one way upgrade’ with full fare J class ticket, on the day upgrades through overbooking and occasionally upgrading with miles on a particularly long flight when I need a good sleep (the whole sleeping experience in First is better than CW).

So there are times when people pay for F.

Several of the posts here mention that the original thread has been obscured and this is correct.

I travel a lot and have done for the past 20+ years. I have flown in everything from Concorde to bush helicopters. I cannot name all the carriers I have flown with as I have simply lost count. I currently hold 6 Gold cards with major carriers.

I do not claim to be an expert in air travel but I have spent many hundreds of hours in the air and this gives me the opportunity able to compare many of the different products available.

I have had some great flight experiences with BA but over the years the product has diminished. The premium products offered by BA are now poor value. Just to get things in perspective I recently needed to travel from London to Pusan, BA quoted £7k for LHR/HKG/PUS and Emirates quoted £3k for LHR/DXB/ICN/PUS with both long haul sectors being on an A380. No brainer.

BA have fallen behind the times as the quality with other carriers (SQ, EK, CX) is vastly superior and often far cheaper. It is no good blustering about unfair competition and government aid – the point of the Business Traveller is to highlight the best products available to us. If BA are at a disadvantage due to government aid to other airlines that is for Willie Walsh to take up, not me.

I am intrigued by our man in Malta’s comments as all the times I have flown Air Malta there was not a business product available (great enthusiastic cabin crew though)?

[stevescoots]

Bush chopper, would love to do that, but I will raise your bush chopper 🙂

with tail up runway taxi in a lancaster at east kirby (my reward as a teenager for helping out the restoration of just jane)

I have also done first a few times but always as a free upgrade. and regarding Pusan, i used to fly to HKG all the time with BA, now with qatar for past 4 years, while i would prefer BA’s direct route Qatars superior product and at average 1500 round trip in business vs 3K+ on BA (2.5 if i start in europe) makes it a no brainer

[Goldcardsaplenty]

Stevecoots

Lancaster sounds cool. Although my Uncle used to fly them on the German route and he said the inflight service was poor………..

Regarding fares to HKG how do you get LHR-HKG with BA for £3k – a quick check on their website quotes £6424 for J class?

[NTarrant]

Goldcard – not sure what you are looking at, possibly fully flexiable, but cheapest fares start from £2407 in J between April and October, according to the low fare finder on ba.com

[stevescoots]

yep, that route to hamburg used to suffer some severe turbulance!

2407, I use BA.com to check

[Goldcardsaplenty]

stevecoots / NTarrant

I always travel on fully flexible tickets as my plans constantly change so Yes, the above price is J class outward on 25/03 and returning 05/04.

the price you quote is D class, not J – it needs to be booked at least a month in advance there are no changes, no upgrades, no cancellation and no good to me.

J class is £6424. Disgusting

[NTarrant]

Goldcard – let us forget which letter class it is that is irrelevant, we are talking Club World. If you choose fully flexable tickets then you have to pay the price for that flexability.

I just looked on ba.com and the fare with a change at a charge is £5847.50.

Having said that why are you paying £3K via DXB etc when you can go with Finnair via HEL for £1917.99, okay there is a change fee, but it is still cheaper even if you have to change dates etc

[VintageKrug]

And for comparison, Cathay is charging £4500 on the same dates in D, and a whopping £6,700 for the same dates in J.

So BA is again a clear winner on price……! 😉

And, for those that maintain there is never any availability for BA Miles flight, you can get 2 seats in BA F on the inbound (05/04) and if you could wait until 29/3 to depart there are is also availability for 2 in F on that day as well.

If you have to travel on 25/3 you can get a CE flight to AMS and switch to Cathay for Business Class to HKG, again two seats on that flight available, and CX direct in Business available on your return date for two.

[Goldcardsaplenty]

VintagKrug

You have me confused. I would be more than happy to fly CX – that is the whole point of this thread. Cathay Pacific are superb both in quality of their aircraft, the beautiful food and the fantastic cabin crew.

On these dates I can book in business class with CX for £4355 with £250 for change/cancellation. Cathays restrictions on discounted tickets, like most airlines, are far less punitive than BA’s no refund, no change, no upgrade, no matter what attitude.

And as for Mileage Awards please don’t make me laugh! If you think BA offer good choice for BA miles then give me options for a return flight to Singapore for 2. I will make it really easy for you – it can be in either First or Business and can be during July, August, September or October.

NTarrant

Sorry to disagree but the letter class is vital as you will find out if you ever try and change a discounted BA ticket.

Finnair are off my list of carriers at the moment as I recently turned up at Tokyo Narita for a flight to HEL only to find that the flight had been cancelled the previous day due to cabin crew strike action (sound familiar?) and no one had had the courtesy to inform me. I would only class their business product as ‘average’ anyway.

[NTarrant]

Goldcard – I can understand now why you would not wish to travel Finnair.

I won’t argue with you over class letters, I have changed discounted Club World and Club Europe tickets in the past.

The BA fare I quoted you has a fee of £200.00 which is not the same as no changes, no refunds. So it can’t be a D or a J

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

“I am intrigued by our man in Malta’s comments as all the times I have flown Air Malta there was not a business product available (great enthusiastic cabin crew though)?”

At the risk of thread drift, KM offers business on many, but not all, routes.

http://www.airmalta.com/club-class

[MartynSinclair]

ex-Europe fares are generally fully flex – if there is a charge its minimal. If you are travelling that much, its probably cheaper to keep 1 or 2 live/active tickets going at the same time.

£6000+ for a fully flex J class ticket, wooooooooow – you need a creative travel agent!

[CallMeIshmael]

Keith Williams, BA’s CEO acknowledges issues and comments on the long term growth plans..

http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/the-new-british%E2%80%88airways-boss-says-the-business-ready-take

[Goldcardsaplenty]

Just to close out the above comments:

1. CX 6895 J 01APR PUSHKG HK1 0800 1015
OPERATED BY HONG KONG DRAGON AIRLIN
2. CX 253 J 01APR HKGLHR HL1 1440 2030
3. CX 254 J 05MAY LHRHKG HK1 2220 #1705
4. CX 6894 J 07MAY HKGPUS HK1 0220 0635
OPERATED BY HONG KONG DRAGON AIRLIN
VLOC-CX*######/30MAR 1549

Cost £4354.03

Fully flexible J Class changeable without fee and 2 grand less than BA.

Also excellent aircraft, superb food and fantastic cabin crew.

No more BA for me.

Sorted.

[FlyingChinaman]

Goldcard: You are very sorted and smart! At least you are not hard-wired to flying “the Flag” type of Brits! Which you will find many on this forum!

Enjoy your top choice!

[Author]

Posts