[Henkel.Trocken]

“VintageKrug – 19/11/2012 10:50 GMT

As BusinessTraveller itself stated, Simon Calder is an “interesting” individual.

I wouldn’t trust any of his pronouncements as far as I could through them. His articles are often superficial, and for someone who makes his living writing travel articles he is extraordinary poorly informed.”

1. It’s throw not through and extraordinarily rather than extraordinary.
2. Simon Calder is an award winning travel journalist.
3. You can take or leave his opinions.
4. His article on Saturday was based on research not opinion.
5. Simon Calder is an interesting individual, I’ve met him several times and always found him interesting. It doesn’t need the emphasis of inverted commas.
6. A lot of journalism is superficial, it’s in the nature of the beast. If it encourages you to dig deeper then it’s good writing.
7. I’ll draw VK’s comments to Simon’s attention. He may wish to take issue with the suggestion that he is “extraordinary poorly informed.”

[rferguson]

VK in the case of LHR-SYD for redemption in F or J Simon Calder is right.

Belive me, i’ve tried searching ba.com for one return date ANY time over the next twelve months for myself and my partner.

Nada.

[MartynSinclair]

Instead of this thread falling into another avios longhaul bashing – can we have some comments relating to the other rewards programmes. Are there any good longhaul programmes where availability is more freely available, in all classes without the need for the loyal passenger to get on their hands and knees and beg!

[Henkel.Trocken]

As before, I don’t actively collect anything in the way of miles but it doesn’t mean I don’t have lots. Rather I just collect whatever is being given out by the airline I fly with today.

For years I’ve been an LH SEN. I don’t look to redeem that often from them but I have never failed to get what I want in terms of F & C bookings on LH Group using the on line booking system or for other *A carriers using the telephone booking service. I must be lucky with them because I know others who have had a lot less good fortune but for me it has always worked. I generally look for tickets in F going east or occasionally to YVR. If I don’t get F, I always get C.

I also have a stack of Skywards miles, I find redemptions on EK to be fairly easy and get about 75% of what I try for again in F & C. On EK it seems relatively easy to get F which is what I always want.

I used to have QF miles but they are all used up now but I often redeemed them on SK which was a quirk of the scheme and again, no problems.

I recently joined Flying Blue but have yet to try and redeem anything with them.

Avios – I don’t bother, if I wanted a short haul route I might give it a try but my impression which is often validated in this forum is that you stand little chance of getting exactly what you want and again, as I look east more than west, I doubt I would get what I want so I always go to Miles & More first and it works.

[SimonS1]

I would be in the same position Henkel.Trocken. Im a member of a few schemes but I don’t let my travel get dictated by them.

Most of my trips are on Emirates and the recent tie up between Emirates and Easyjet for redemption purposes is quite handy.

[JohnHarper]

I collect what’s going rather than follow any airline or alliance. If I can cash it in I think it’s good fortune.

I’ve found Miles & More pretty good and also Etihad Guest. Qatar Privilege club is so so.

[FormerlyDoS]

I am constrained by my use of miles, which is primarily business oriented. If I fancy a relaxing break, I can walk out on to my terrace, with a Med view and good weather for most of the year.

Based on activity during the past couple of months (so recent), C class

BA Avios longhaul, useless due to non availability

BA Avios shorthaul, excellent

M&M miles redemptions, excellent

These are based on my experiences, others with different travelling patterns may have different experiences and opinions.

[Binman62]

Martyn….I think that as many of us are based here in the UK that almost any other programme is meaningless and no other airline has the breadth of operations BA provides. It is very clear that BA is exploiting their stranglehold hold on LHR and on the UKs principle UK HUB.
I doubt that I could ever amass the sort of mileage I have with BA, on LH or indeed any other alliance and when I factor in the Amex 241 then it is harder still.
Consequently I no longer fly BA on a paying basis and opt instead for the cheapest business class either from mainland Europe or the UK (but it is now almost entirely mainland Europe). This means I do not worry about status – as lounge access is assured – and if I get some miles then that is a bonus. (To be burned on short haul flights only.)
Simon Calder’s article added nothing to the debate, we all know that long redemptions have been slashed; we all know that they have become enormously expensive; and we all know that they are often very poor value for money.
We also know that VK is right and that there are seats for those who are omnipotent, psychic, travel alon, on Tuesday out of season! In that respect RoadKing was spot on.
And before anyone else says it – yes I have had 3 x 4 returns in F all the same aircraft in the last 15 months but not one was a first choice of dates or even destination and all were booked 6-8 months ahead.
Flyertalk is running a thread on where people are going with Avios but there are also multiple threads, running to many hundreds of pages critical of BA long haul programme and availability. In one notable post it was noted that LGW MLE has no seats outbound for 4 months yet almost every day there are seats available inbound. The feeling was this helps with statistics if / when they are every published or requested whilst ensuring no one can ever actually use a seat.
SYD SIN JNB CPT SFO SEA DEN and many others have simply been removed from BA route network as far as Avios are concerned. This probably explains why Nectar are now the UK leading loyalty reward offer.
BA will not change this as they now have a dominant position at London, a situation that is not likely to change until a proper new airport is built offering unfettered access to likes of CX SQ etc etc.
So sadly I do not think there is any FFP that provides value, certainly not for UK passengers and in any event even then the costs of entry to the UK would be very high.

[Biztraveller74]

Will the airline surcharge BA, Lufthansa, AF apply on long haul redemption tickets hold in the future, or adapt to same model as shorthaul and see the tax and charges come down to only compulsory state and airport taxes?

[SimonS1]

Interesting bit in the Standard tonight from VK’s friend Simon Calder saying Iberia are losing £1,000 per minute. Ouch.

[FormerlyDoS]

That’s about half a billion a year.

[VintageKrug]

Iberia won’t be losing anything like that once the necessary restructuring is initiated by IAG’s management.

Plenty of upside for Iberia.

[Henkel.Trocken]

Well, I for one won’t hold my breath.

Now that SAS is sorted out, it really does leave Iberia looking like the sick man of Europe and I suspect that the problems will be at least as difficult to solve as those at SAS.

I foresee lots of industrial turmoil, possibly ending in IB being closed down in its current form.

[BigDog.]

Walsh has been intimately involved with Iberia for SEVEN years, 2 as its overall boss being CEO of IAG.

Recall how the Spanish insisted on the HQ being in Spain, its Govt. still being the largest shareholder and IB being regarded amongst the Spanish as a jewel to be proud of , all coupled with the fact that Walsh was at the helm as it began to sink. There are now forces at play pushing to decouple IB – which for BA would be a great result as it should also mark the exit of Walsh who has miscalled the merger itself; the Spanish Economy; the state of Iberia and the value of Iberia.

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

Emirates Skywards – No problem.

I have Just cashed in Melbourne-Dubai Business class. Every day available, Every class available

I need other sectors to complete the itinerary and have not come across any issues whatsoever – although trying to refund one sector to book something else.

I tried to cash in London-Bangkok on BA CW or F with my Avios and there is absolutely nothing for the first 3 months of 2013. Unless you want to go to Europe [forget it as flights are cheap enough as it is] or somewhere where they have 3+ flights a day then forget it. In their devence, I have a Cancun flight in WT+ that I bought on their world offers for £440. To upgrade outbound with cash was £560 however I have just upgraded it with money and avios [£56 and 12,500 Avios] which I though was fairly decent.

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