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I think the small planes are cool there like flying buses

Your presentation is highly interesting to watch. Thank you very much and take care 😊

Useful. I will be in BA business class next April out of T3 and normally I'm flying American business out of there (normally would be once a year LOL) and just use the American lounge. I agree about the food area looking messy often but it is a big space with a lot of room even if there are many flights. A few months back i was there and there were three extra ad-hoc American flights that day and checkin queues / crowds downstairs were insane (I always fly HBO so could smugly breeze by) but the lounge could still handle it without feeling crowded. Is the Amex lounge business class ? AIUI I wouldnt be eligible because I dont have a fancy Amex card. (I do have an unfancy one). But with a fancy one i could be flying economy and still use it? Think i'll checkout a couple, I will be there at breakfast time any recommendations from other visits? ETA I agree about T5 BA lounges, i recall in the past once it was almost impossible to find space for a couple, we ended up on a very dirty table, and I know on other occasions seats have been few and far between.

Greetings from the US. After flying across the Atlantic on Iberia several times in all classes, I can safely say that I would much rather saw off my arms with a dull butter knife and use the bloody stumps to paddle in shark infested waters than ever fly Iberia again. Insanely rude flight attendants who clearly hate passengers, inedible food, lost luggage and uncaring customer service on the ground. Always. Every time. Never again.

Please do a vlog on all the flights and tier points you earned in the past year to get to gold status.

Flying from South Africa to UK 11th December upgraded to premium economy looking forward to it

Ive just used my first barclaycard voucher to upgrade from PE to Club for a caribbean trip. NOt intuitive how to use the voucher but it did all work in the end. Note, AIUI the vouchers do expire after two years. I guess i could look into the Amex card but I dont like the idea of splitting my points across two accounts, perhaps not enough in either for soemthing useful but enough in one to get soemthing i want. And from a cursory search it seems you cannot transfer Avios to Amex whilst you can in the other direction. So i could end up with points stranded within amex and unable to use them?

I chose not to pay for seat choice as it was very expensive and boy did i pay the price for that decision as i was seated in the middle of the row of 4. Lesson learned. No toilets in our cabin. And the seats i did reserve for the return flight no longer existed as they changed the plane so it was back to the middle for me and this time i paid for the priviledge of being stuck in the middle. Personally i wouldn't touch BA with a 10ft bargepole.

you didn't mention the charges for reserving your seat of choice. Up to £160 return. Just for info

Its arguable if the upgrade was actually an upgrade. You got less legroom by being moved away from the exit row and also in an exit row you dont have someone reclining back in your face. All that traded for a free drink and meal you probably wouldnt have ordered / eaten anyway? (plus, TBF lounge access if you have time, maybe the best benefit) I wonder, if you don't want to be upgraded, if theres a way of stopping that? I'm guessing not because normally upgrades are regarded as a positive thing. What if, say you were travelling with a companion and got split up?

I occasionally buy american airlines points because they dont do part payment for redemptions its either all miles or money so sometimes the incremental cost has a very big payback, eg either i can or cannot do that (say) first class flight to hawaii, but i always wait for sale periods. Do BA have similar occasional sales on avios purchases?

Great balanced review of BA Club Europe. BA theoretical seating is another unpublished benefit of status even if you don't receive a upgrade. With status the BA seating algorithm blocks the seat next to you before general checkin opens and only releases it to most passenger for allocation once all other free seats are allocated. Doesn't always work but with status you have a significantly increased chance of having a free seat next to you in economy or the entire row to your self on the business cabin. I probably benefit from the theoretical seating algorithm on circa 50% of my shorthaul BA flights. Can't be sure but your free business class row may well have been due to theoretical seating at work in the background. As blocked seats are released inversely to status our chances of a free adjoining seat as Gold will be higher than as Silver.

Interesting article which resonates. Last year i got a fantastic deal on Qatar, UK to Seychelles in business. many fewer points than if id been doing equivalent distance with BA. Next year i'm using an upgrade voucher (via Barclays) to go to the Caribbean , business class but on PE level of avios. I also used my Avios to upgrade an economy seat to europe to business this year, i'm not sure if it was a good deal (thouygh i think it likely was) but there was no way id pay the cash for that plus and it paid back in spades when my outbound flight was significantly delayed and i had the lBA ounge to rest in rather than a horribly crowded gatwick. One question, you said you looked at where you could go in a specific time period to make use of a voucher before it expired. Where would you do that search? I'm also going to consider in future at flights with BA partners from outside the UK and a positioning flight to get there. Ive known that was an option when buyinag ticket but had forgotten/didnt realise the same applied for avios. lasty you said dont trade nectar for avios.I do the reverse, every month theres an automatic sweep of my nectar points into avios. Do you think that makes sense? ETA please turn down or remove the background music

I don't fly BA much but i noticed while booking an Avios redemption for next year that id become Bronze and i realise now that must be because i booked a 5 night holiday flying business in Europe earlier this year. Didnt even realise at the time. So I've checked how many TPs i have seems i need 280 more for silver. So i suppose if i did one more holiday that would work. The main use to me would be using it to book seats, though as i will be flying business solo that is if limited use, eg in April im flying business on a 1-2-1 config so any of the single seats is good for me.

Great video - very informative!

Decent airline but when I flew their atr to Ireland a bit of the metal on the wing wasn't properly screwed in

Nice, ty !.

I had the same breakfast a few weeks ago. Far from being unedible

The current sign up bonus when using a referral is 45k points! If you’d like a referral, contact me at: charlesontravelsenquiries@gmail.com

As I fly from Heathrow quite a lot on long haul I always go to the B Gates but with short haul flights are you allowed to still go to the B Gates lounge so I can know for next time?

I’ve already made my choice, Business Class is another world from P.E. particularly when I fly Air France 😄😄.

Slightly new to all this so would appreciate all your insights on this: Tier Points - if I'm not mistaken my Tier Points will reset annually. So let's say I do manage to make it to Bronze or Silver, I'll get knocked back down to Blue after 12 months - is my understanding correct? Lifetime Tier Points - this is just a total of Tier Points I've collected when travelling with BA and partners and has no value besides, if I reach 35,000 lifetime points, I'll be upgraded to Gold for life? Is my understanding on the above correct? Thanks!

Unfortunately if the flight is over booked in club Europe sometimes the middle seat is used and it’s pretty rough if that happens ,great free upgrade and lovely video thank you .

My best free upgrade on BA was from Singapore to Sydney on the overnight flight. We had been in premium economy but were upgraded to the new club suites the day before travel. We only had Bronze status.

Thank! Does PLUS also include Fasttrack passport control? Or only Fasttrack security?

I lost my Silver status in March this year, i had it since Jan 2022, when BA were offering great prices from Heathrow.. so i flew 14 times to Tenerife and used the lounges at both ends. In October I'm flying to Tenerife again with BA , but this time I've purchased AA One World Emerald Status for 4 Months, so that gives me First class lounge access plus all the other perks.. maybe a nice upgrade ..👍

Hi There, a great Video and thanks for sharing your thoughts, it's greatly appreciated, what a nice surprise to have the free business class upgrade. Cheers Peter 🙂

Great video Charles. I did a tier point run yesterday, EDI > LCY and back. Alas it wasn't for Gold just Bronze. I think you are spot on. I have zero benefits being blue and paying for a CE ticket meant I had lounge access in EDI and got fed on the flight. I really enjoyed it. Aiming for silver one day.

Thanks for the tip about getting free room delivery if ordering a coffee!

Took a flight from Chicago to ft lauderdale American first. Also have a ambassador club membership so it’s more but I’m old and I like to sit in the boogie seats

That’s domestic first class within the US

WOW, A SEAT? ON A PLANE? What kind of witchcraft is this?

Which Heathrow lounge is the one with the horse and lighting art installation??

Personally, I would upgrade for £95 only if I needed the additional 35 tier points. But like you, I’m gold also so lounge access, gold seat blocking, more chance of an upgrade are good enough for me. I went for a 1300+ tier point run at the beginning of my new year and got gold which lasts the remainder of the year plus all of the next. Managed to get JER-SFO/LAX with BA holidays and double TPs for just a shade over £2k

Very shabby plane that first one 🤢

Depends on how much I need the tier points ... as to whether I would upgrade or not... my recent T5 domestic was rammed with 12 rows of CE.. lounges packed and queuing to get in.. fast track very slow... must be the holidays!!

Any change where to get the offers like this , where to find them

Where to book for 20k dont see below 55k

How to book for 20k avios Dont see below 55k one way

It's too bad they "fixed" the pricing. Deal is dead.

The old club world business class is absolutely horrible! I just flew it in July from Baltimore to London Heathrow, and it was extremely uncomfortable. Specifically it has no room to maneuver, it's narrow, there's no storage, and I have to step over the guys legs to step out of the aisle, horrible horrible layout. On the way back from London to Baltimore I had their new layout and it was 10 times better wider seat, direct isle access, more storage, more comfortable seat, I would never ever fly the old club world.

The first A319 from NCL to LHR is actually not that old. It's actually newer than the vast majority of the 319's. It's just got the old BMI configuration.

I haven't flown American in 5 years and was so disappointed when I realized that the video screens have been removed. I always fly business and expect some sort of entertainment on my 6 hour flights. Use your own mobile device? I DON'T THINK SO! Watch a movie on my tiny phone? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! I'm going to use up my miles with American and switch to another airline that offers entertainment screens. Bye bye, American Airlines.

I've been lucky enough to fly club suites and the older club world seat, and agree that the bulkhead seat is great but almost every other seat is fairly weak. The A380 club world seat (old type) also features a throne seat, which is in between two club world seats and can be even more anxiety inducing during due to two dividers. I've just flown from HND to LHR in premium economy on the BA A350 and found it to be quite comfortable with both meals being quite decent. Definitely a step above economy and worthwhile the price difference (funny enough the premium economy seats were cheaper than economy when we booked). Given the choice, I would choose the club suites over the older club world every time as that product offers so much better consistency.

At Newcastle, if in the Luxe lounge, you get one free glass of Prosecco if travelling BA, you just have to ask for it

A Beyond Abysmal carrier with a Beyond Abysmal record for cancellations, delays and the worst IT in the sector, globally. Best Avoided

Hi, thanks for this it was really helpful. I have just booked this hotel an hour ago and didn’t choose the option with the swim up room..simply because the sea view looks amazing. I’m in two minds about changing the room now that I’ve seen this but we are going 25th October do you think we’ll get the use from it or will it be too cold? Many thanks and safe travels to you both

We did this lounge crawl (excluding centurion)but super early at breakfast time so didn't get the full benefit really, and we were in the BA 1st class lounge purely because the business class lounge was really busy so they bumped us to the 1st class (well gold card) lounge. Cathay Pacific is always the winner for me.

Compo culture at its best

The trouble with the "short haul" business class is the definition of short haul. I use BA to fly to Turkey which is usually a 5 and a half hour experience from stepping onto the plane to leaving it, and the basic seat and austere surroundings always leave me questioning exactly what I paid £££ for....