Check out my weekly column over at TravelSort.com. This week I share tips for maximizing the value of the British Airways companion certificate for travel on British Airways, given that they’re largely devaluing their program for US based members come November 16.
I got to Charles de Gaulle’s shuttle center in terminal three at about 6:20AM, just over an hour before my flight. Charles de Gaulle is hands down my least favorite airport in the world, so I guess I shouldn’t have let my cheap side get the best of me by taking the first hotel shuttle instead of booking an earlier cab.
I literally sprinted to check-in in terminal 2A, which is probably about a ten-minute sprint. While the terminal as a whole was eerily calm, British Airways check-in was an absolute zoo.
British Airways check-in
I tried to use one of the kiosks to check-in, though after entering all of my information it told me I needed to see a representative. There was an agent assisting with the kiosks, and when she saw me walk away she asked if everything was alright. I explained the kiosk wasn’t working for my ticket, at which point she went to a kiosk with me and did the same exact thing again, and not surprisingly it didn’t work either.
I then got in the business class check-in line, where there was about a ten minute wait. With just a couple of minutes to spare before the check-in cutoff, I had my boarding pass in hand and proceeded through passport control and security. Fortunately, much like the rest of the terminal, passport control and security were empty, so I was through in a matter of minutes.
Terminal
I even had enough time to briefly check out the lounge that British Airways uses in Paris, which is the American Admirals Club. The Admirals Club is located all the way at the end of the terminal in the retro/futuristic building… I can’t decide which.
Walkway to Admirals Club
Futuristic or retro?
At the Admirals Club was an American agent (both in terms of the airline she worked for and her nationality) who told me I’d have to head to the gate soon. It was nice to get a bit of Texas in my morning right in the middle of Charles de Gaulle.
Admirals Club entrance
I just dropped in to snap a few pictures. The snack selection was fairly basic, consisting mostly of croissants, pretzels, etc.
Admirals Club
Admirals Club
Admirals Club
Admirals Club snack selection
After a few minutes there I headed to my departure gate, which was A45, about a five minute walk.
By the time I got there boarding was well underway with no priority boarding lane in sight, so I got in the queue.
Queue for boarding
Plane
British Airways 303
Paris (CDG) – London (LHR)
Sunday, June 5
Depart: 7:35AM
Arrive: 7:55AM
Duration: 1hr20min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 2F (Club Europe)
Once aboard I settled into 2F. A French gentleman was already seated in 2D, so this was the first intra-Europe flight I had in a while where I actually had a seat opponent (though the middle seat is blocked, so it doesn’t really matter).
Legroom
View from 2F
Boarding finished up within about 20 minutes, at which point the captain got on the PA, welcoming us aboard on behalf of him and his “senior first officer.” Help me out here, but if the first officer is so damn senior, why is he flying the right seat of the smallest mainline jet British Airways operates? The funny thing is I heard the same announcement on the outbound as well. I’m guessing it’s just the captain trying to be nice, though it doesn’t make any sense to me.
The captain also announced the flight time as being 45 minutes.
After a fairly quick taxi to the runway (long by any other airport’s standards, short my Charles de Gaulle standards) we were airborne.
View after takeoff
Cruise altitude
About five minutes into the flight the flight attendants sprung into action to serve a hot breakfast.
On one hand it’s impressive that British Airways serves a hot breakfast on a 45 minute flight, though unfortunately it was the dreaded mystery egg and sausage dish, the same one I had a couple of weeks earlier from London to Vienna. At least the croissant tasted good and it was served with a smoothie.
Breakfast
We started our descent only minutes after leveling off, as the 18 year old girl from Dallas seated immediately in front of me started talking to the flight attendants in the jumpseats right across from her. She explained how her mom was one of American’s most important frequent flyers, and her mom had booked her to fly from Paris to Rome via London, “because no airlines fly that route nonstop.” Maybe not with your mom’s AAdvantage miles…
As we began our final descent we picked up a bit of chop thanks to the cloudy skies over London, though arrived at our gate at terminal five about 10 minutes early.
On descent
Touchdown
After deplaning I headed to the transfer center and boarded the bus bound for terminal three, where my connection to Miami would be departing from.
If you’ve read my blog the past couple of days, you may have noticed that I’m convinced the sky is falling, at least as far as British Airways Executive Club goes for those of us on this side of the pond. British Airways is “revitalising” their frequent flyer program (a term I’ll be using on this blog from now on in place of “enhancing,” by the way), and by that they mean they’re putting us all on a level playing field. In the past the award chart was incredibly lucrative for those of us in North America, while those in Europe were paying substantially more for similar award tickets.
As I argued, it’s a function of being competitive. In the US, airlines have become nothing more than credit card companies with a fleet of private jet that are just a cost of doing business. In Europe, credit cards are side businesses for airlines.
Just as Delta charges fuel surcharges on award tickets originating outside of the US, British Airways had a much more competitively priced award chart for travel on their partners originating in the US, because their competition suddenly became United, US Airways, etc., and not Lufthansa, Virgin, etc. And when I say that, I’m referring to their co-branded Chase Visa credit card that they launched in the US a couple of years ago, which offered 1.25 miles per dollar. I wouldn’t spend a dime on the card if it would take me 250,000 miles to get a first class “saver” ticket to Asia, while otherwise it was sometimes a good value.
I’ve seen dozens of comments from people saying “that’s it, I’m canceling my British Airways Chase Visa card.” Not so fast. For one, we should wait until they officially announce the new award chart. Speaking of which, it really ticks me off that they announced the changes put say they won’t release the new award chart until it goes into effect.
But beyond that, I suspect that the value of the British Airways Visa card will actually be increasing for me. While they haven’t announced the full new award chart yet, they have provided a few examples of the new pricing, and one of the routes that will go down in price is New York to London, which will now cost 120,000 miles in first class. Many are assuming the new award chart will be distance based, so I wouldn’t expect the price to be the same from the west coast.
But the above pricing means that you can essentially get two first class award seats from New York to London for 120,000 miles, or 60,000 miles per person, plus taxes and fuel surcharges. If you spend $30,000 on the British Airways Visa in a year you get a “companion voucher” good for a second passenger on an award ticket
To add to that, I suspect we’ll see a lot more 50% transfer bonuses from American Express Membership Rewards. They offered a 50% transfer bonus just a couple of months ago, and I’m sure once the new award chart is released they’ll offer several more. So with that in mind, you’re potentially looking at first class for two from New York to London for 80,000 Membership Rewards points, or 40,000 Membership Rewards points per person, plus fuel surcharges.
Yes, fuel surcharges and taxes are substantial, but you’ll typically pay 125,000+ miles per person for first class between the US and Europe, so the taxes and fuel surcharges shouldn’t be more than the value of 85,000 miles.
And yes, New York to London is a short flight. A very short flight, actually. But it’s regularly operated by British Airways’ new first class, and you have access to the Concorde Room in both New York and London.
So my point is simply that the value of the British Airways Chase Visa is increasing with these changes for me, for all the wrong reasons. Previously there was no need to have the card (for me, at least), since my redemptions were on partner airlines and I could rack up those miles at a more favorable ratio through American Express Membership Rewards. Now, the major benefit of the card, which is the companion certificate good for travel on British Airways, suddenly became much more valuable.
Earlier today I posted about the changes to British Airways Executive Club that will kick in come November.
The changes they advertised were all more or less cosmetic, though the real question for me was what would happen to British Airways’ single partner award chart. British Airways has multiple award charts, and the most reasonably priced one is the “single partner” chart. When they said the program would be more “straightforward,” I feared the worst — that they would get rid of the single partner award chart, which is the best redemption value.
And it was just confirmed by BA Executive Club on FlyerTalk:
Sorry if it wasn’t clear in my earlier post, partner rewards will be priced the same as BA. So – a single pricing table for itineraries which are:BA onlyBA +1 partner or partner only
For multi-partner itineraries these will be priced using the current oneworld multi carrier redemption. The pricing will be based largely on a distance banded model for all reward sectors. We are not purposfully witholding anything or trying to hide anything – I will be as informative as I can and try to keep up with your questions. Please do feel free to prompt me if you feel I am missing something important that needs a detailed or urgent answer.
This is awful news.
Now, they haven’t actually published the new award chart, though I suspect it will be closer to the award chart for travel on British Airways than the award chart for travel on a single partner airline, based on what they’ve said so far.
While a business class award ticket from the US to Asia currently costs 100,000 miles if flying just one partner airline, British Airways charges 240,000 miles for travel on their own flights — and that’s not an anomaly.
This is an interesting situation because most Executive Club members are in Europe, and actually use their miles for travel on British Airways. In the meantime many of us in the US have racked up a substantial number of British Airways miles through their 100,000 mile credit card sign-up bonuses and 50% transfer bonuses from American Express. All along I’ve been wondering “when will it change,” and I guess that day is coming quick.
So I suspect for those of us that are used to redeeming miles for travel on partner airlines, this will essentially translate into award prices going up by about 100% on average, sometimes more.
It is worth mentioning that the one award that is priced the same by British Airways for travel on their own flights as it is on partner airlines is travel between the US and Europe. But that was never the best use of British Airways miles anyway.
More than anything else I can’t help but think this is another huge hit for American Express Membership Rewards. They’re losing Continental as a partner on September 30. My favorite partner of their’s, Aeroplan, devalued their award chart back in July. ANA, another partner of their’s, recently started charging fuel surcharges on Virgin Atlantic award redemptions. And now British Airways miles will be massively devalued.
So it’s time to burn those British Airways miles now. I have a small fortune of them, so I’ll be booking a couple of Cathay Pacific first class tickets to Asia for 150,000 miles each, and also a couple of tickets to South America on LAN for 80,000 miles each. The only issue is that my schedule is pretty booked up. Rarrr…
Who’s in the same boat?
No, this isn’t the end of the world. Actually, it might be, we’re just not sure yet.
British Airways has just announced they’ll be “revitalising” (I guess that’s to Brits as “enhanced” is to Americans?) their Executive Club program.
They’re starting by renaming their miles “Avios Points.” You’ve gotta be ______ kicking me. Avios Points?!? Of the feedback I’ve seen, about 0% of people like the new name. Maybe it’s an acquired taste? I’ve always been told that about beer, but I still haven’t “acquired” it…
What are the changes? First, you can use your miles for hotels and car rentals. I’m guessing that won’t be a good redemption rate, so frankly couldn’t care less about the option. Second, they’re offering a new type of shorthaul award, Flight Saver, where you can spend some miles Avios Points and some money for your shorthaul award ticket.
And then there’s the third change. Let me copy it straight from the source:
Straightforward pricing for reward flights
We’ve found a simpler, easier way to price reward flights and our reward flight zones will be enhanced in November.
On 97% of our routes there will be either no change or the route will require even fewer Avios points than the current BA Miles. We will update you more on this nearer to November.
The problem is, they don’t share the reward chart. They just list the number of Avios Points needed for some routes. They list London to New York, which will go from 150,000 miles to 120,000 miles in first class. That sounds nice.
But here’s my concern. Part of the beauty of British Airways Executive Club is the complexity of their award charts. They have multiple award charts, and one of them is the “one partner” award chart, whereby you can fly a single partner airline. For example, 80,000 miles will get you from the US to South America in business class, while 100,000 miles will get you from the US to most of Asia in business class.
There’s no mention of the partner award chart, though I can’t imagine that they won’t severely devalue it. My concern is that when they say “straightforward pricing for reward flights,” they mean they’ll switch to a single, “simpler” award chart. As a point of comparison, British Airways charges 240,000 miles for business class from the US To Japan on their own flights. So my concern is that the new pricing will be streamlined, and that’s what we’ll be paying for business class on partner airlines too.
So I’m guessing the changes with the program will be substantial, though so far we’ve only seen the lipstick on the pig. I hope I’m wrong.
After walking through an endless number of corridors I found myself at the transfer center, where I boarded a bus bound for terminal 5. While I usually do everything I can to avoid a connection involving a terminal transfer at Heathrow, I was quite excited to see the infamous terminal 5 firsthand.
Terminal transfer bus
The bus ride was quite enjoyable, much like the car ride from Lufthansa’s first class terminal… minus the luxury sports car and person that carries your luggage for you.
I got to see quite a bit of cool traffic, including a Cathay Pacific 747 and Qantas A380, which I had flown just a week prior from Melbourne to London.
Cathay Pacific 747
Qantas A380
Once at terminal 5 I followed the “flight connections” sign for what must have been a mile until I reached the security checkpoint.
Heading to security…
Security was surprisingly quick, so I found myself in terminal 5 with plenty of time to spare.
The terminal itself is quite grand, almost similar to Hong Kong Airport.
Terminal 5
Terminal 5
I headed to the South side of the terminal to visit the first class lounge, where I was admitted by a cheery agent after presenting my inbound American Airlines first class boarding pass.
Escalator to the lounges
The lounge itself was huge and with plenty of seating, though lacked the first class “feeling” if for no other reason than how full it was. The lounge is a nice business class lounge at best. Not a nice first class lounge, and not even a really nice business class lounge.
Admittedly this probably has something to do with the fact that OneWorld Emeralds are permitted access to the first class lounge, which really doesn’t make it all that much of a first class lounge. Instead, British Airways first class passengers have access to the Concorde Room, which is the “real” first class lounge.
First class lounge
First class lounge
First class lounge
First class lounge
Business center
The food selection was really lacking. They had crisps and cookies, but that was the extent of the self serve selection. They also had a menu with more substantial dishes, though not once did I see a server roaming around to take orders.
Self serve bar
Self serve bar
Menu
My selection
After spending some time catching up on email I left the lounge at around 10AM. My departure gate was A11, which was only a few minutes away, so I got there before boarding started.
Departure gate
I was happy to see they had a dedicated fast track boarding lane, which made for a rather easy boarding process. At 10:15AM boarding began.
Fast Track lane
British Airways 308
London (LHR) – Paris (CDG)
Friday, June 3
Depart: 10:45AM
Arrive: 1:00PM
Duration: 1hr15min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 7A (Club Europe)
At the door I had to show my boarding pass, as usual. I always find it funny how they say “that’s lovely” when you show them your boarding pass.
The business class cabin had seven rows, and I ended up in the last row this time around. I had pre-selected 2C, but due to my ticket being canceled the night before my trip, my seat assignment on this segment was wiped out.
Club Europe cabin
Since I had all three seats to myself I took the window seat. As is usually the case in intra-Europe business class, the seats were really only coach seats with a blocked middle, so not especially comfortable, particularly after coming off a transatlantic flight.
Cabin shot from my seat
Legroom
View out the window
Around departure time the captain made an announcement advising us of congestion at Heathrow (there’s a shocker!), and saying it would be about 15 minutes before we pushed back. However, she advised us that our flight time was only 40 minutes, so we should still arrive right on schedule (pronounced my favorite way, of course — “shed-jewel”).
As expected we pushed back right on the hour. Nothing beats the variety of traffic at Heathrow, so I quite enjoyed the views as we weaseled our way out the alleyway.
Tough choice between Dallas Debbie and Washington Wilma!
We ended up holding at the end of the alleyway for about 10 minutes, which turned out to be quite an interesting front row seat to some emergency. Something seemed to be going on in the cargo hold of a British Airways 747, as I counted at least nine fire trucks surrounding it.
Something’s going on!
Once we were out of the alleyway it was just a quick taxi before we were airborne.
Heavies, heavies, and heavies
View after takeoff
As soon as we climbed through 10,000 feet the service began. Brunch was being served on this flight, which was a cold plate consisting of cheese, ham, fruit, and Gerber baby food… or something like that. Unlike British Airways’ dreadful Club Europe breakfast service, this was actually tasty.
Given how short the flight is, one flight attendant distributed the trays with food on them, while the other flight attendant came around with drinks.
Brunch
We were well into our descent before the flight attendants managed to clear the trays.
View on approach
After touchdown we officially reached the halfway point in our journey, given that taxiing at Charles de Gaulle can take longer than the actual flight from London to Paris.
Stop trying to show off, Air France!
Huh? That’s an airline?
Cathay Pacific 747
After disembarking I followed the signs towards the train I’d be taking to the city, which turned out to be at least a 20 minute walk.
Terminal
Walkways galore!
While London and Paris are probably my two least favorite airports in the world, the flight was pleasant, and as usual the meal service on a 40 minute flight on a European airline is impressive to see when you’re used to US airlines.
Through October 31, 2011 Hyatt is offering 1,000 British Airways Executive Club miles per eligible night stay at a Hyatt property. Registration is required and the bonus can be earned a maximum of 30 times (for a total of 30,000 miles).
This isn’t a great deal, but then again Hyatt isn’t running any major promotion right now, so it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re a few thousand points short of a British Airways award ticket.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that Hyatt is offering 2,500 Aeroplan miles per stay through September 30, 2011, with a maximum of 25,000 miles that can be earned through the promotion.
The Aeroplan promotion is much more lucrative, especially for a one or two night stay. However, if you’re (theoretically) making a longer stay the British Airways offer might be better, since the 1,000 points are earned per night as opposed to per stay.
Through Hyatt you can choose to earn either points OR miles for stays, so this promotion is probably only worth considering for a long, cheap stay. One usually earns 5 Hyatt points per dollar spent, or if you’re a Diamond 6.5 points per dollar spent. If you’re making a five night stay at a hotel that’s $80 per night, you have the choice between 5,000 British Airways miles or 2,000 Hyatt points (2,600 if you’re a Diamond). In that case this British Airways promotion is worthwhile. Otherwise probably not.
I realize everyone values their miles/points differently, but I’d value Hyatt points maybe 20-25% more than British Airways miles.
Yesterday British Airways announced a 50% off award redemption promotion good for bookings made through August 12, 2011, for travel through August 3, 2012. The details are as follows:
Get 50% off with your BA Miles. Wherever you want your reward flight to take you, you’ll need 50% fewer BA Miles if you book within the next ten days.
So you can go either sooner or further than you expected. And use 50% fewer BA Miles whether you fly in World Traveller, World Traveller Plus, Euro Traveller and Club Europe.
If you’ve got a promising collection of BA Miles, this is too good to miss. Just pick a destination on your must-go list and book before the ten days are up.
That sounds exciting in theory given that many of you probably have British Airways miles either through Chase’s past 100,000 mile sign-up bonuses or American Express Membership Rewards’ 50% transfer bonuses, though unfortunately the promotion excludes just about all good redemption options.
As written above, the promotion is only valid for travel on British Airways flights in coach, premium economy, or intra-Europe business class. Intercontinental business class and first class are not eligible.
Given that British Airways’ best award redemptions are either partner redemptions (like 80,000 miles for business class to South America, 100,000 miles for business class to Asia, etc.) or in first or business class on British Airways, I’ll give this one a “pass.”
If you do like redeeming miles for coach, just keep in mind that British Airways imposes fuel surcharges on award tickets, so while a roundtrip coach award ticket from the US to Europe will only cost you 25,000 miles, it can cost you $500+ in taxes/surcharges.
Hefty taxes and fuel surcharges
(Tip of the hat to Gary)
————————————————————————————————————-
After 23 hours in Qantas first class, reality hit me. The journey would only go downhill from there. After deplaning I followed the signs for my connecting flight. As much as I wanted to fly out of British Airways’ (somewhat) new Terminal 5, Vienna is one of the few destinations that British Airways serves out of Terminal 3. On the plus side my flight from Singapore was arriving at Terminal 3, so I didn’t really mind that.
When I picture what hell is like in my nightmares, I picture a combination of London Heathrow and Paris Charles DeGaulle airport. There’s a reason many of us Americans are out of shape – so many of our airports are designed in such a convenient manner, making connections and transfers fast and easy. Heathrow, on the other hand, cares about your health. They want to maximize your exercise and reduce your carbon footprint by making you walk half the way to your destination.
Fortunately I didn’t have to change terminals, so it only took me about 15 minutes to make the transfer, though then I had a bit of an encounter at security.
I’m used to the lovely TSA, which really couldn’t care less about liquids. I don’t remember the last time I’ve taken them out of my carry-on, and I don’t remember the last time I was stopped.
Not at Heathrow, though. This was a scene right out of the BBC show “Come Fly With Me.” I got through the checkpoint and the agent detected liquids in my bag, so he searched it. The only liquids in my bag were shaving cream from the collection of Qantas amenity kits I had gotten over the past several days. Each amenity kit had two sets of shaving cream. Instead of getting the liquids out of my bag all at once and then re-screening the bag, he had his own method (despite my practical suggestion). He preferred to take my liquids out one at a time, test the bottle each time, and rescreen the bag each time. I was absolutely blown away. The process took about 20 minutes and I stood there in amazement, though kept my mouth shut. Given that my bag was screened eight times, I guess I’m not a threat, at least.
After going through the shopping mall which is Terminal 3 I made it to the British Airways lounge, where I was promptly admitted to the first class section based on my inbound boarding pass.
Terminal 3
British Airways lounge sign
British Airways lounge entrance
The lounge was very bland for a first class lounge, certainly not as nice as other OneWorld lounges, let alone the first class lounge in Terminal 5.
First class lounge
Fortunately the lounge was quiet and featured fast wifi, which kept me happy.
The lounge featured a beverage, coffee, and cookie station, which offered every packaged cookie you could possibly imagine.
Drink/cookie selection
First class lounge
Drink station
First class lounge
The lounge also featured a breakfast menu which was decent, though I was anything but hungry.
Breakfast menu
I caught up on email, and about 30 minutes before departure headed to the gate for my flight to Vienna.
The gate was about a 10-minute walk away and when I got there I was sad to see that it was a bus station and not a gate, since we were leaving from a remote stand. Boarding started about 15 minutes late, at which point I got on the sardine can (which I suppose could describe both the bus and the intra-Europe configured plane I was flying).
Walk to the gate
Gate
After a five minute ride we arrived at the remote stand for the Vienna flight. I proceeded up the air stairs and as is the norm for British Airways flights, had to show my boarding pass at the door for “inspection.”
Aircraft taking me to Vienna
Boarding
British Airways 696
London (LHR) – Vienna (VIE)
Wednesday, May 25
Depart: 7:40AM
Arrive: 10:55AM
Duration: 2hr15min
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Seat: 3C (Club Europe)
Intra-Europe business class sucks. While the service is nice enough, the seats are normal economy seats with a blocked middle.
Boarding was complete within about 20 minutes, and I was happy to see that the business class cabin was less than half full and that I had an empty seat next to me. Because of that I switched over to the window seat since the views intra-Europe are usually quite nice.
Club Europe cabin
Club Europe legroom
Club Europe blocked middle seat
Sasha, the customer service director introduced herself on the PA and advised us of our fight time of 1hr40min. The manual safety demonstration played and we started our taxi to runway 27L for takeoff. After a long wait and quick roll we were airborne.
American 777 arriving
Taxiing to runway
Shortly after takeoff
On the climb out
About 15 minutes after takeoff the service began, consisting of a “hot breakfast” in Club Europe. Service was done by the two flight attendants with a cart, with one offering the meal and the other offering drinks.
Curtains closed
Views enroute
The breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs with sausage and mushrooms. How was it, you ask? I’ll let the picture speak for itself…
Breakfast
A close up
The only good part of the breakfast were the pretzel roll and croissant. Drinks were constantly being topped off and service was generally good, though intra-Europe business class still isn’t great. I’ll take a domestic US first class seat with no service over an intra-Europe business class flight any day of the week.
About 10 minutes before landing we began our descent with beautiful views of the Austrian countryside, making me even more excited about my visit to Vienna.
Views on descent
Final approach
We touched down nearly on-time and had a quick taxi to our gate.
Short final
Terminal
After deplaning I made my way through the rather tired looking airport to baggage claim, where I was relived to see my bag made it (it was even the first bag off the belt).
Terminal
Baggage claim
It was a beautiful day outside and I headed for the train going to central Vienna.
Path to train station
There was an American lady who was maybe 40 years old traveling with her 80+ year old dad and they needed help figuring out how to use the ticket machine, so I helped them (since I speak German). After helping them they said “wow, you speak amazing English,” which always cracks me up. I responded with “thanks, I’m from the US.”
We ended up sitting next to each other on the train. As it turns out they were on a six-week tour of Europe and just got in from Ireland. How sweet of the daughter to take that trip with her dad, I thought. Our conversation was perfectly normal and they started asking about what I do. I explained and they were fascinated by it all. Up until this point her 80+ year old father was perfectly mellow, until he loudly exclaims “wow, you must get a lot of action with what you do.” I was surprised to find that I was the only one that found this awkward, since his daughter didn’t seem to bat an eyelash. I responded with “nah, not really,” at which point he only pushed it further. Oy.
Train to the city
Soon enough I made it to Vienna and walked to the Le Meridien to check-in for my one night in Vienna.
William and Kate (I’m not good with formal titles, sorry!) were flying back from Los Angeles to London on British Airways a couple of nights ago in first class, when their in-flight entertainment system wasn’t working.
Customers were offered the choice between frequent flyer miles or a duty free voucher. William and Kate each received a $300 duty free voucher.
Interesting, I would have thought they were trying to build miles towards their next free (heavily fuel surcharged) ticket…
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