British Airways 'Experiences'

clarabell1984

I've booked flights with British Airways for our honeymoon next year to Rome then travel down to Sorrento.

I've noticed today when I logged in to 'manage my account' that there is an 'experience section' where you can buy passes and day trips for your location.

(I also noticed that they have cancelled one of my flights and not sent me any notifications but that's another story!)

What I would like to know is, has anyone ever booked these 'experiences' and are they good value for money?

Thanks in advance :T

InsideInsurance

Presumably the 2nd flight isnt BA? I had similar with my trip to India in that logging in the 2nd leg which was going to be with Air India showed as cancelled but in practice it was just that the final confirmation hadnt come through yet and this was normal practice/ nothing to worry about etc and in deed about 10 hours later it came back as all being ok (and indeed it was on the day too).


They may not have embraced the internet as much as we have but most places have websites with the fees advertised so comparing the prices of trips shouldnt be too hard.

Was in Rome for a few days last month, for places like the Vatican and Colosseum there are MASSIVE queues and a lot of "tours touts" offering to get you passed all the queues for a premium. Had the same in NYC but didnt trust them and gut was correct but in Rome you could see the queue going almost the whole way round the Colosseum so paid up. It appears most its just a queue jumping exercise and the "tour" is limited but you are free to do what you want afterwards in the venues. If you get passes its worth checking if these are just prebought tickets and you still need to queue or if you get to go in the tour operators entrance with them

Westin

The additional options will be supplied and are provided by British Airways Holidays. Perfectly find to treat yourself and add on to your flight.

clarabell1984

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Presumably the 2nd flight isnt BA? I had similar with my trip to India in that logging in the 2nd leg which was going to be with Air India showed as cancelled but in practice it was just that the final confirmation hadnt come through yet and this was normal practice/ nothing to worry about etc and in deed about 10 hours later it came back as all being ok (and indeed it was on the day too).


They may not have embraced the internet as much as we have but most places have websites with the fees advertised so comparing the prices of trips shouldnt be too hard.

Was in Rome for a few days last month, for places like the Vatican and Colosseum there are MASSIVE queues and a lot of "tours touts" offering to get you passed all the queues for a premium. Had the same in NYC but didnt trust them and gut was correct but in Rome you could see the queue going almost the whole way round the Colosseum so paid up. It appears most its just a queue jumping exercise and the "tour" is limited but you are free to do what you want afterwards in the venues. If you get passes its worth checking if these are just prebought tickets and you still need to queue or if you get to go in the tour operators entrance with them

The connecting flights was originally:

Glasgow>Gatwick Gatwick>Rome

Naples>Gatwick Gatwick>Glasgow

We will travel down from Rome>Naples>Sorrento on the train.
We couldn't fly direct from Glasgow at the time of booking over 6 months ago so this is what we went for.

The booking for the Gatwick>Rome leg was indeed cancelled and they cannot understand how I did not receive any notification as they have both my email address and mobile number. I have previously received all notifications from them in this way. All she said she could do was apologise.

Anyway, they have switched us to fly Glasgow>Heathrow Heathrow>Rome as the flight they wanted to put us on meant we'd miss our first full day in Rome. They also wanted to charge me the difference in fares which she was promptly told no chance!!!

Yes we will need to spend a bit of time deciding what we want to do/see and compare prices but just thought i would see if anyone had any experience of the BA trips.

Thanks for your info

clarabell1984

Westin wrote: »

The additional options will be supplied and are provided by British Airways Holidays. Perfectly find to treat yourself and add on to your flight.

I just wasn't very sure if these were overpriced at all

littlereddevil

BA have done this to me before. Booked flights to Tampa 11 months in advance , they then told me 4 weeks before travel they were cancelled and had apparently known for months. I had even asked them about it when I didn't see the same flights available but they assured me they would be fine! I ended up taking my money back and going elsewhere, just on principle!

clarabell1984

littlereddevil wrote: »

BA have done this to me before. Booked flights to Tampa 11 months in advance , they then told me 4 weeks before travel they were cancelled and had apparently known for months. I had even asked them about it when I didn't see the same flights available but they assured me they would be fine! I ended up taking my money back and going elsewhere, just on principle!

Believe me I thought about doing the same as I managed to find a direct flight from Glasgow to Rome and from Naples to Edinburgh which weren't available back in May when we booked, but they didn't fit around our non refundable hotel booked in Rome and would have cost us more money/time lost in Rome.

Finefoot

have a look at a vesuvius. pompeii and a capri tour.

redpete

clarabell1984 wrote: »

I just wasn't very sure if these were overpriced at all

Should be easy enough to do quick internet search for similar experiences from other providers to compare prices.

fifeken

clarabell1984 wrote: »

Believe me I thought about doing the same as I managed to find a direct flight from Glasgow to Rome and from Naples to Edinburgh which weren't available back in May when we booked . . . .

Who were the NAP-EDI flights with?

I travel this route regularly and only ever found Easyjet offering a direct flight. Even then it only runs in the summer and only two days a week.

I think one of the holiday companies had a Friday flight, again in the summer only, but this never suited me.

runningben16

For our trip to Rome in October, I prebooked the Colosseum and the Vatican online. It spreads the cost of the break a bit, but more importantly it lets you queue-jump. Queues for both places were horrific! Both websites were easy to use, though I think they both charged a couple of euro online booking fee.

For what it's worth, the Colosseum is amazing, and the ticket is valid for Palatine Hill as well. But I was underwhelmed by the Vatican museums, not sure I'd pay to go there again. They were just unbelievably busy and hot, and my overwhelming memory is of slow-moving lines of tourists smelling of BO.