Nice People Thread No. 14, all Nice and Proper

vivatifosi

(First para deleted)

We use hotlines/avios firms for busy times, popular routes and trips where we have to arrive on time (e.g. going on a cruise where ship will leave without you). Tend to use avios on short haul as that's what works best for us. As you probably know but just in case, if you buy a hotline you can still collect avios.

Eurovision flights are always full, so we booked as soon as the contest winning city was announced. Not going again this year as tickets sold out too quickly. We just use Avios/part payment for those.

silvercar

I've done MH Bus in an ex-BMI A321, it had been refreshed. It was surprisingly good. A bit un-nerving when your feet and half your body disappear into the hole that is the seat well of the seat in front, but aside from that it was comfortable.

CKhalvashi

silvercar wrote: »

I've done MH Bus in an ex-BMI A321, it had been refreshed. It was surprisingly good. A bit un-nerving when your feet and half your body disappear into the hole that is the seat well of the seat in front, but aside from that it was comfortable.

The answer to getting around that is 1D/F, or 'the throne' (1B) if flying alone. This works in the fire exit row, too (can't remember the row number off the top of my head)

2-1, 1-2 works well in the 321, as it gives the right amount of personal space while not compromising on efficiency IMO.

If travelling together LH, we try to get the middle 2 seats in CW (not on the 767, 787 (which I've not flown on yet) or upper deck 747/380 I believe, but present elsewhere), which are great for couples. They're something I'd prefer to not fly alone in, though, again for privacy reasons.

Don't quote this part, will probably delete.

Just seen BA are going to be flying from Stansted. OH says it's a shame she's not ERJ rated.

vivatifosi

The seats we like in club are the ones at the rear of the cabin. DH can have window seat and get out without the footstool conundrum, I quite often sleep semi reclined so not a problem. Haven't used any of the smaller mid/long haul club cabins as not on the routes we use. He prefers window, I prefer aisle. If we are in traveller and know the loads are light, we try to book those anyway, and take a risk that someone may be between us.

CKhalvashi

vivatifosi wrote: »

The seats we like in club are the ones at the rear of the cabin. DH can have window seat and get out without the footstool conundrum, I quite often sleep semi reclined so not a problem. Haven't used any of the smaller mid/long haul club cabins as not on the routes we use. He prefers window, I prefer aisle. If we are in traveller and know the loads are light, we try to book those anyway, and take a risk that someone may be between us.

That's where the 76s come in useful, as they're 2-2-2 in biz (both CW and CE) and 2-3-2 in economy. Window-aisle seats are sorted very easily in that case.

I will delete if you want (in relation to earlier post), but we try to book to the stopover (before connecting to the green OW member) in advance, even taking into account that passenger numbers have taken a massive hit in the last 18 months.

In fairness though, the first U2 flight to AMS, followed by A9 is a lot more convenient due to where we live, and gets to the same destination at a not stupid time. The pain in the backside is that the A9 flight has now gone from 5 a week to twice a week, but that's a completely different story.

No direct service since BA stopped flying via GYD, and even then we couldn't use that one for immigration reasons. The LHR-EVN-TAS doesn't fly now, too, even though now is arguably the best time to restart it, as there's a heavy-ish transatlantic presence and the country in question has no airline.

GDB2222

Are others having trouble following? Not that it matters, though. Hotlines, Various codes, and CK seems to be flying a U2 spy plane.

CKhalvashi

GDB2222 wrote: »

Are others having trouble following? Not that it matters, though. Hotlines, Various codes, and CK seems to be flying a U2 spy plane.

Hotline is BA staff fares
CW = Club World (BA Long Haul business)
CE = Club Europe (BA Short Haul business)
WT = World Traveller (BA LH economy)
767, 380 = plane type (starts with (B)7 = Boeing, starts with (A)3 = Airbus)
U2 = Easyjet
A9 = Georgian Airways
3 letter codes are airport codes
OW = OneWorld, the alliance BA, American, QANTAS, S7 etc are in

Any further questions, fire away

michaels

Is the new LHR runway due to be built on top of Waterside?

CKhalvashi

michaels wrote: »

Is the new LHR runway due to be built on top of Waterside?

I have absolutely no idea. Although with BA utilising both LCY aircraft on weekends (at STN) and the QR contract that IAG have (I believe 10 777F runs a week), I'd have thought that a third hub would make a lot more sense.

Assuming the 18 A35J will replace the older 772 and 772ER's, I can't see the harm in at least an NY service from STN, probably with other BA Holidays destinations too, however my bet is that they'll be used to replace the B744, which is a shame.

Still no news on the 30+ widebody order that will need to be placed at some point in the next 5 years. Secretly hope it's the 748 (Lufthansa has made both jumbos work, so why can't BA?), but I'm thinking it's more likely to be the 777X

silvercar

CK wrote:

If travelling together LH, we try to get the middle 2 seats in CW (not on the 767, 787 (which I've not flown on yet) or upper deck 747/380 I believe, but present elsewhere), which are great for couples. They're something I'd prefer to not fly alone in, though, again for privacy reasons.

Our preference is Upper Deck for night time flights in CW.

My one and only upgrade was from WT+ to middle seats in CW. I was hooked. Before that I'd always thought them the worst due to the need to hop over to access the aisle, but it really is quite a cosy set up for 2.

I'd never heard of hotline until today. Seems to be for ex BA employees with at least 10 years service, gives entitlement to staff fares for the same length of time as an ex-employee as they served as an employee. Is that right?

CK wrote:

Although with BA utilising both LCY London City Airportaircraft on weekends (at STN Stansted)

AIUI, LCY is shut at weekends, so BA are taking one plane from there and operating it on 4 return short haul runs over a Saturday & Sunday in quick succession. No doubt there will be some geek who books all 4 return flights, just because they can. (Though I imagine that a delay that occurred on the first would trigger 8 x compensation.)