BA Avios

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Discussion

GT03ROB

13,207 posts

220 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
Kermit power said:
EddieSteadyGo said:
Kermit power said:
2. I don't believe BA Club Europe is ever good value for money, even if you are using Avios for it.
Well, you have now been given three specific examples where using BA Club Europe with avios gives excellent value for money.

The fact you are still being so categoric it isn't ever good value just shows you are not listening particularly well.
No, it just shows that I started typing my reply and then had to go and get the kids breakfasted before finishing it! I'll concede the legroom one for tall people, certainly. I'm only 5'10", so never have a problem with economy personally..
Am I missing something Club Europe doesn't have any extra legroom.

The chief advantage of Club Europe is row 1 & not looking at everyone else.

matrignano

4,345 posts

209 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
GT03ROB said:
Am I missing something Club Europe doesn't have any extra legroom.

The chief advantage of Club Europe is row 1 & not looking at everyone else.
More legroom if in row 1, and I'm sure the seats are a bit wider in B737/A320 type planes (2 seats per side with an empty seat in the middle used as an armrest)

EddieSteadyGo

11,719 posts

202 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
GT03ROB said:
Am I missing something Club Europe doesn't have any extra legroom.
You're not missing anything. Kermit thinks the larger seat pitch is the one good reason to buy a Club Europe seat. Except there isn't any larger seat pitch.

Maybe he should be aiming his "rofl" at himself, or restricting his comments to a topic he knows something about...

GT03ROB

13,207 posts

220 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
matrignano said:
GT03ROB said:
Am I missing something Club Europe doesn't have any extra legroom.

The chief advantage of Club Europe is row 1 & not looking at everyone else.
More legroom if in row 1, and I'm sure the seats are a bit wider in B737/A320 type planes (2 seats per side with an empty seat in the middle used as an armrest)
Certainly the BA planes I've flown on seem to be the same width of seat.

matrignano

4,345 posts

209 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
GT03ROB said:
Certainly the BA planes I've flown on seem to be the same width of seat.
Maybe, but definitely more elbow room!

GT03ROB

13,207 posts

220 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
matrignano said:
GT03ROB said:
Certainly the BA planes I've flown on seem to be the same width of seat.
Maybe, but definitely more elbow room!
Agreed!

rich1231

17,331 posts

259 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
Op do you have the AVIOS or do you have Amex rewards points?

If amex points you can also transfer them to Emirates points and Emirates seem to always have more availability for rewards flights.

Also Qatar are a oneworld partner so you can use AVIOS on them.

//j17

4,471 posts

222 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
GT03ROB said:
matrignano said:
GT03ROB said:
Am I missing something Club Europe doesn't have any extra legroom.

The chief advantage of Club Europe is row 1 & not looking at everyone else.
More legroom if in row 1, and I'm sure the seats are a bit wider in B737/A320 type planes (2 seats per side with an empty seat in the middle used as an armrest)
Certainly the BA planes I've flown on seem to be the same width of seat.
I can only speak for the A320s but there while the seats are exactly the same as part of flipping the centre of the middle seat back rest down to make the shared table the middle seat arm rests also move in a little bit, probably about the width of the arm rest so you DO get extra hip width even if the leg room is the same.

Personally I always avoid row 1 - leg room isn't really an issue for me and I'd rather have my carry-on bag tucked under the seat infront than have to get up and down to the overhead locker/have the stty arm rest table.

Puggit

48,355 posts

247 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
Flew on my first 'densified' A320 on Monday. Row one was now 'Ryanair style' on the left - right next to the door eek

Puggit

48,355 posts

247 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
Gareth1974 said:
A good thing with Avios is that there is no price hike during school holidays, I’ve recently booked return flights to Nice at the end of July for 2 adults and a child for points + £105, Ryanair flights were £700 for the same dates with much worse flight times.
There didn't used to be - but there is now! https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30593374-post3.htm...

djc206

12,244 posts

124 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
Puggit said:
There didn't used to be - but there is now! https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30593374-post3.htm...
It’s been like that for a couple of years. Always worth looking at Iberia’s as theirs is different if you can be bothered to pop down to Madrid.

w8pmc

3,345 posts

237 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
GT03ROB said:
Certainly the BA planes I've flown on seem to be the same width of seat.
I did think that, but if you look closely at the CE row of 3 with the centre seat being a table, the centre seat is or at least would be totally unusable as a seat & is more a gap that looks like a seat rather than a middle seat, which leads me to believe the seats either side must be physically wider & unless i'm mistaken do have a better recline than Economy on Short Haul, but perhaps are the same pitch as WT on Long Haul.

GT03ROB

13,207 posts

220 months

Wednesday 17th April 2019
quotequote all
w8pmc said:
GT03ROB said:
Certainly the BA planes I've flown on seem to be the same width of seat.
I did think that, but if you look closely at the CE row of 3 with the centre seat being a table, the centre seat is or at least would be totally unusable as a seat & is more a gap that looks like a seat rather than a middle seat, which leads me to believe the seats either side must be physically wider & unless i'm mistaken do have a better recline than Economy on Short Haul, but perhaps are the same pitch as WT on Long Haul.
However they vary the number of rows of CE seats depending on requirements. CE can be 4 rows or 12 or more on the same plane. In the old days they used to adjust the width of the seats manually but I don't think they do anymore.

GT03ROB

13,207 posts

220 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
Personally no. I'm more than happy sat in 1C too, gettting the regular refill!

w8pmc

3,345 posts

237 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
quotequote all
Somewhat of an anomaly, but a group of us are off to Ibiza in a few weeks having booked with BA Holidays including CE from MAN-IBZ & 4 nights at hard Rock Hotel for a friends 40th.

During the Summer season, BA have a direct flight from MAN-IBZ & this is what we'd booked (flight time out on the Thursday wasn't great as only arrive on the White Isle at just after midnight, but wasn't really a problem.

We get an email from BA in January saying they've cancelled both the outbound & return flights as not re-starting the route for 2019 until June. Of course we're all pissed off & although a refund was offered, we didn't relish given this was a special occasion swapping to a stag do laden EZY flight from LPL.

I call BA & they're very apologetic, but confirm they'll refund the flight cost or change our route if we'd prefer. I suggested thinking they'd refuse that we go via LHR & retain CE, so MAN-LHR-IBZ. To my surprise they said no problem as it was they who'd cancelled our original travel plans & the changes are made to all tickets. Now this has become a win/win as we arrive in IBZ 13hrs earlier than we originally would & depart on the Sunday just 1hr earlier, however we get 4 lounges, MAN & LHR T5 on the way out, plus IBZ & LHR T5 on the way back & the difference in overall published flight costs is around £950 per person had we booked this route initially over what we actually booked, so given 8 of us are travelling that's quite a saving whilst travelling on better aircraft, better flight timings & longer/more Lounge access, with the only downside being the overall travel time is longer, but hardly a chore.

Not really linked to Avios in any way so appoligies for that, but just thought it appropriate to give a big thumbs up to BA for their Customer Service.

//j17

4,471 posts

222 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
quotequote all
GT03ROB said:
w8pmc said:
GT03ROB said:
Certainly the BA planes I've flown on seem to be the same width of seat.
I did think that, but if you look closely at the CE row of 3 with the centre seat being a table, the centre seat is or at least would be totally unusable as a seat & is more a gap that looks like a seat rather than a middle seat, which leads me to believe the seats either side must be physically wider & unless i'm mistaken do have a better recline than Economy on Short Haul, but perhaps are the same pitch as WT on Long Haul.
However they vary the number of rows of CE seats depending on requirements. CE can be 4 rows or 12 or more on the same plane. In the old days they used to adjust the width of the seats manually but I don't think they do anymore.
Based on my experience/a quick google it depends on which bus you on/which version of seat it has.

Some have 3 fixed seats with a table that clips between the middle seat arm rests meaning the 'active' seats are NOT width adjustable:


Others, and the type I've had the last few times flying LGW/GVA have 3 seats but the table build in to the middle seat back rest pad. Here the arms DO move to offer more space - though whether that's by design or just a side effect of them needing to come in and be supports for the narrower seat back table is open to question:



So ARE the seats wider in CE? Sometimes.

matrignano

4,345 posts

209 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
quotequote all
w8pmc said:
Somewhat of an anomaly, but a group of us are off to Ibiza in a few weeks having booked with BA Holidays including CE from MAN-IBZ & 4 nights at hard Rock Hotel for a friends 40th.

During the Summer season, BA have a direct flight from MAN-IBZ & this is what we'd booked (flight time out on the Thursday wasn't great as only arrive on the White Isle at just after midnight, but wasn't really a problem.

We get an email from BA in January saying they've cancelled both the outbound & return flights as not re-starting the route for 2019 until June. Of course we're all pissed off & although a refund was offered, we didn't relish given this was a special occasion swapping to a stag do laden EZY flight from LPL.

I call BA & they're very apologetic, but confirm they'll refund the flight cost or change our route if we'd prefer. I suggested thinking they'd refuse that we go via LHR & retain CE, so MAN-LHR-IBZ. To my surprise they said no problem as it was they who'd cancelled our original travel plans & the changes are made to all tickets. Now this has become a win/win as we arrive in IBZ 13hrs earlier than we originally would & depart on the Sunday just 1hr earlier, however we get 4 lounges, MAN & LHR T5 on the way out, plus IBZ & LHR T5 on the way back & the difference in overall published flight costs is around £950 per person had we booked this route initially over what we actually booked, so given 8 of us are travelling that's quite a saving whilst travelling on better aircraft, better flight timings & longer/more Lounge access, with the only downside being the overall travel time is longer, but hardly a chore.

Not really linked to Avios in any way so appoligies for that, but just thought it appropriate to give a big thumbs up to BA for their Customer Service.
And you get twice the Tier points - 160 vs 80

w8pmc

3,345 posts

237 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
quotequote all
matrignano said:
And you get twice the Tier points - 160 vs 80
Indeed.

Winner winner chicken dinnersmile

Albeit going Silver anyway in a couple of weeks (before the IBZ trip), but have zero chance of returning to the heady heights of Goldfrown

matrignano

4,345 posts

209 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
quotequote all
w8pmc said:
Indeed.

Winner winner chicken dinnersmile

Albeit going Silver anyway in a couple of weeks (before the IBZ trip), but have zero chance of returning to the heady heights of Goldfrown
I never got to Gold, but I feel the extra benefits over Silver are not enough to justify the additional effort/outlay, especially in my case as I pay for my own flights!

w8pmc

3,345 posts

237 months

Thursday 18th April 2019
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
LOLsmile

Just had a look at my booking on the BA website & both myself & the Wife look as though we'll get the full 160 Tier Points rather than the 80 we'd have got from our original booking, as well as a fist full of Avios. Says 7558 for me, but as i'm currently Bronze but i'll move to Silver a week before these flights, it should be a little more.

As a double bonus, they also allocated our seats FOC which was rather nice of themsmile



Edited by w8pmc on Thursday 18th April 16:38


Edited by w8pmc on Thursday 18th April 16:39