A journey to Sofia and back on CX/BA/QF/SQ

[phaleesy]

Thanks for the report on mostly OW carriers.

The BA new clubworld is the only cabin where I possibly would not mind spending money on to fly long haul. It serves its purpose - a flat bed to sleep on, for a fairly reasonable fare.

The thought crossed my mind several times, but was worried that someone might have a heart attack from the thought of his favorite airline going down the toilet.

And here I was thinking you would be using emoticons such as these: as we discussed during dinner.

[jhm]

Looks like we'll have to try Gold Mine and Four Seasons duck side by side!

The BA new clubworld is the only cabin where I possibly would not mind spending money on to fly long haul. It serves its purpose - a flat bed to sleep on, for a fairly reasonable fare.

And provided you can get availability upgrading using BA miles can be good value, e.g. I recently bought WT+ to JFK in the BA sale and upgraded one leg to CW for 12,500 BA miles but (with the BA gold bonus) I get back 12,104 BA miles for the whole trip. (Of course, still not a patch on BD cash+miles but both are far far better than KF...)

[KeithMEL]

And here I was thinking you would be using emoticons such as these: as we discussed during dinner.

I guess I have to try to paint a nicer picture of Traitor Air in future TRs to (sorta) return the favour.

If I end up on them that is....

[StarG]

One question about BA's priority baggage handling:
What is the actual policy on that? From HKG, I noticed they used a hand-luggage type tags "Club World" or "First" - the kind that you can flip open and write your name and address. From Sofia, they used a bright orange "Priority" tag.

[StarG]

The BA new clubworld is the only cabin where I possibly would not mind spending money on to fly long haul. It serves its purpose - a flat bed to sleep on, for a fairly reasonable fare.

Agree that BA delivers the Club World very well. It is an excellent product at reasonable price. Service onboard (on my flight) was excellent as well, albeit different in style than SQ.

Looks like we'll have to try Gold Mine and Four Seasons duck side by side!

And provided you can get availability upgrading using BA miles can be good value, e.g. I recently bought WT+ to JFK in the BA sale and upgraded one leg to CW for 12,500 BA miles but (with the BA gold bonus) I get back 12,104 BA miles for the whole trip. (Of course, still not a patch on BD cash+miles but both are far far better than KF...)

Yep - good idea to try the ducks side by side.

Didn't know BA EC offers such a good value on upgrades, otherwise I would have banked my miles there instead of Asia Miles.

[KeithMEL]

One question about BA's priority baggage handling:
What is the actual policy on that? From HKG, I noticed they used a hand-luggage type tags "Club World" or "First" - the kind that you can flip open and write your name and address. From Sofia, they used a bright orange "Priority" tag.

I've had both. I'd presume they ran out of the tags on the day they used the hand-luggage tags. But the bags popped out v quickly at the other end when I had the hand luggage tags so I didn't think too much about it.

However with the exception of CX who'd actually fish out your luggage and tag it with their own priority tags, whenever I interline baggage across OW carriers, more often than not my bags will not receive any form of priority as the 'end' carrier will not recognise the tags of the carrier that did the check in. "oneworld revolves around you".... indeed.

[jhm]

One question about BA's priority baggage handling:
What is the actual policy on that? From HKG, I noticed they used a hand-luggage type tags "Club World" or "First" - the kind that you can flip open and write your name and address. From Sofia, they used a bright orange "Priority" tag.

In practice, my expectation is that BA priority baggage handling doesn't work at LHR so I don't really worry about it.

I think the bright orange tags are for Club Europe and the others obviously for CW or F. I don't consistently get the tags when in J (and you don't get priority baggage handling on BA by virtue of OW status unlike CX who seem to tag your bags F if you have OW emerald) but in any event, I believe they're actually only for vanity, i.e. the automated baggage system at LHR is meant to recognise the encoded luggage tag and direct your J/F baggage to the J/F luggage container to be loaded on the plane.

Didn't know BA EC offers such a good value on upgrades, otherwise I would have banked my miles there instead of Asia Miles.

The key is the text I wrote in bold above! Availability to the US is fairly good but awful to Asia (although I don't know how the recession may change that).

When the GBP/EUR exchange rate was better, it was significantly cheaper to fly BA J ex-EU and depending where you start/go (and subject to being BA gold and there being award availability), you could get a "free" oneway upgrade to F, e.g.

NCE-LHR-LAX in J r/t - 24,350 BA miles; and 25,000 BA miles required for the upgrade to F

[KeithMEL]

In practice, my expectation is that BA priority baggage handling doesn't work at LHR so I don't really worry about it.

Admittedly I've not arrived at LHR as much as you have, but I've got priority baggage work there all but once. Pure luck maybe?

[HUGE AL]

Didn't know BA EC offers such a good value on upgrades, otherwise I would have banked my miles there instead of Asia Miles.

Yup, this is one of the best values to the USA BA has...though I've never used it myself, one of the publications I subscribed to kept reporting on it...and reporting on it...

[jjpb3]

Didn't know BA EC offers such a good value on upgrades, otherwise I would have banked my miles there instead of Asia Miles.

One of the main reasons why I bank with MPC is that BAEC -- due to the lack of availability -- is practically worthless for my travels to SE Asia.

[StarG]

Ah I see... thanks for the info guys.

[ws8n]

Looks nice... great report...I guess it's a blessing in disguise not having cleared on SQ.

[StarG]

Indeed it was in this case.
I wouldn't want my SQ waitlist not getting cleared if the alternatives are GA or AI.

[Kiwi]

Arrived at SIN T1, went to Sony Style at T3 then to SKL where I saw Kiwi typing away on his computer.
My flight then departed T2 from gate F41.

Sorry I couldn't stay longer to catch up My flight left quite a bit before yours.

[StarG]

Sorry I couldn't stay longer to catch up My flight left quite a bit before yours.

No worries... it was a nice surprise to see you there nevertheless.