Today’s Airfare of the Day goes to British Airways and their basic season business class excursion non-refundable round trip fares between London (LGW), United Kingdom and Milan (BGY), Italy.
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If you’ve ever transferred flights between American Airlines and BA at London Heathrow Airport it might have annoyed you that you had to change terminals to/from Terminal 3 in order to catch your connection – this will now change effective tomorrow July 7, 2020 as the carrier moves into British Airways’ Terminal 5.
Terminal 3 where American operates for as long as I can think back is sort of a collection all all different airlines including most oneworld carriers such as Cathay Pacific that also operate their own lounges there (T3 airlines have temporarily moved to T2 in late April as part of a consolidation effort due to Covid-19).
British Airways has been slowly ramping up its operations at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 where it has consolidated all flights from terminal 3, Gatwick and London City.
The airline will reopen its First Class lounge (in reality Emerald lounge) with a new Concorde Terrace for First Class and CCR passengers, and an arrivals lounge. The Club (business) and Concorde Room (first) lounges stay closed.
British Airways took its time and announced 12-months long tier (status) extensions to Executive Club members the other week (read more here).
The status extensions have just posted, and my Gold Guest List expiry per app is April 2022. There is no change in the tier collection years, however.
British Airways has been a bit slow at its response to the Covid-19 pandemic when it comes to blanket Executive Club tier extensions (most airlines already have).
The airline has today decided to extend everyone by 12 months, whose tier collection year ends between July 2020 and June 2021. BA has also decreased the number of Tier Points required for renewals and upgrades in the following qualification period by 25%.
British Airways has reportedly sought out a reputable auction house to sell off some of the airlines prized artworks which have been exhibited in various public areas over the past decades.
Apparently the carrier has quite a few pieces of valuable artworks of British artists in their possession that gained significantly in value over the years (not uncommon for the art market).
British Airways is in another round of battles with pilots, demanding additional concessions from the pilot union to be able to cut a further 125 jobs or they will fire all pilots at once and re-hire at individual contracts.
The carrier is already seeking to reduce their pilot workforce by 1,130 positions and these 125 further cuts BA demands would be in addition to this number.
Finnair made some fare changes a couple of months ago that involved moving R-fare class from the discount economy, which hardly earns anything on partners, to discount business.
These changes are often problematic to those who credit these flights to Oneworld programs (remember QR R-fares?) as they are usually very slow at updating earnings charts.
British Airways has just sent out an email to their U.S. and Canada based customers informing them that effective today they are subject to an arbitration agreement and class action waiver.
According to BA’s email to customers will be asked to accept these changes the next time they book with the carrier on their main website (ba.com).
LATAM Pass and Delta SkyMiles members can now book each other’s awards online, and LATAM flights, for now, continue to be available using Oneworld frequent flier programs excluding AA’s.
I decided to execute a few searches for LATAM routes that I tend to flow both using Delta SkyMiles and British Airways Avios to see if there are availability differences.
LATAM (was formed when Chilean LAN and Brazilian TAM merged) exited Oneworld Alliance on an expedited schedule on May 1, 2020 (read more here) due to Delta buying a stake in 2019 (read more here).
LATAM’s goal was to continue frequent flier partnership (earning and burning miles + elite benefits) with all other Oneworld members than AA (Delta’s competitor) after leaving the alliance. I was already questioning back then if this would even be possible?
British Airways launched the other week an Avios sale for Executive Club members at a 50% or 75% bonus that ends tomorrow (May 18, 2020).
Executive Club has capped the number of Avios that one can purchase any calendar year before any bonuses at 100,000, but the limit has been lifted during this sale to 200,000 (max 350K with bonus).
Heathrow Rewards, a program that rewards those who shop and spend at the airport, and British Airways have launched a conversion offer.
Members that convert from Heathrow Rewards to Avios can get a 50% conversion bonus between May 12 – June 2, 2020.
Comair, an airline behind Kulula and British Airways franchisee in South Africa) has filed for business rescue, South African version of bankruptcy protection, on Tuesday.
Kulula is a low-cost brand, while British Airways is a full-service airline serving domestic and regional destinations. Comair has grounded all flights since March 26 and doesn’t expect to resume any until October or November.
