BA urging passengers to check flight details as Heathrow T5 opening approaches

British Airways is urging customers to check flight details as it prepares for the opening of Terminal 5 on March 27.

The first flights to move to the new terminal include all BA's domestic and European flights, with the exception of Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Nice and Helsinki.

Flights to and from Tripoli and longhaul services to and from Johannesburg, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Miami will also transfer on the same day.

On April 30, the remaining intercontinental flights will move to T5 with the exception of Singapore, Sydney and Bangkok.

BA has advised passengers to check bookings to ensure they know which terminal to depart from, or check the transition schedule.

It urged passengers to check in online, where possible, and print their own boarding pass.

Once at the airport, passengers who have not checked in online should make their way to the kiosks on the departures level.

Those who have checked in online or at a kiosk who are flying longhaul or taking a shorthaul flight to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Prague or Kiev and are only carrying hand luggage will need to go to one of the Passport and Visa Check desks before going to security.

Passengers with luggage for the hold will have their passport and visa checked at a Fast Bag Drop or Customer Service Desk automatically by BA staff.

It also advised that travellers must have entered the security search area and be ready to fly at least 35 minutes before their flight departs.


With permission from Travelmole

I went with BA from Gatwick to Varna (Bulgaria) in February. It was the first time I've flown them them and I was very impressed.

Firstly, with the online check-in - 24 hours before departure. You get to choose where you want to sit. I chose an aisle seat and when I got on the aircraft, the row that I had chosen was one of the two rows on the aircraft that has extra leg room. Normally you have to pay extra for that, but not with BA. You than have to go to the fast bag drop once you get to the airport.

The food onboard was OK, not a hot meal but a cold snack. When I asked for a veggie meal, that was no problem either. And the best thing about the flight was that it was free, well almost. I exchanged my Tesco clubcard vouchers into airmiles and booked through airmiles. The equivalent flight with BA was just over £200, but I booked with airmiles just a couple of days before I wanted to go and it was no problem. Will definitely be booking that way again.

And one other thing about my flight - the food and all the drinks were complimentary. And if you wanted more than one drink, they were very obliging.

BA gives more OpenSkies details

British Airways is to operate a three-class service on its new OpenSkies transatlantic offshoot between the Continent and the US.

The carrier will run Boeing 757s in an 82-seat configuration split into three classes.

'Biz' class will have 24 seats that convert into six foot flat beds, 'Prem+' class will have 28 premium seats with a 52-inch seat pitch - claimed to offer more legroom than rival premium economy services - and economy will have 30 leather seats.

Personal entertainment units will feature more than 50 hours of programmes.

Flights between Paris and New York are subject to regulatory approval and the resolution of a dispute with pilots over the employment terms offered by the start-up.

No date for the first service this summer has yet been given, although BA says it intends to add a second 757 "later in 2008".

OpenSkies will have a fleet of six aircraft by the end of 2009. Fares have yet to be announced.

The carrier's managing director Dale Moss said: "OpenSkies combines the proven track expertise of one of the world's biggest airlines with the passion and commitment of a start-up.

"We're out to do things differently and have total focus on creating the best customer experience on our routes.

"We want to deliver an unforgettable premium flying experience and an atmosphere focussed on personalisation and comfort."

One relief, critics will say, is that the new airline will not have to operate from Heathrow Terminal 5.

With permission from Travelmole

BA unveils summer schedule

British Airways is launching flights this summer from Gatwick to Alicante, Antalya, Faro, Genoa, Gibraltar, Ibiza, Malaga, Malta, Palma, Paphos, Poznan and Tunis.

All new routes start from March 30, except for Antalya (April 10), Genoa (April 4), Ibiza (June 1), and Paphos (July 1).

In addition, BA will start flights from London City to Amsterdam, Barcelona and Warsaw on May 6.

Flights to Dallas and Houston move from Gatwick to Heathrow following the implementation of phase one of the EU US Open Skies agreement

Services to Algiers will move from Gatwick to Heathrow and Warsaw flights will move from Heathrow to Gatwick.

BA will also launch a new route from Heathrow to Malaga.

But this summer, services from Heathrow to Detroit, Gatwick to Aberdeen, Nice, Prague and Reykjavik and from London City to Milan Malpensa will be suspended.

With permission from Travelmole

Unless BA (and the BAA) can get their act together over T5 and the luggage situation - which has now gone beyond a joke - it might be worth trying to sell them to someone else .......... Air France/KLM for example .... after all if they want to buy Alitalia (another can of worms) they might get better results than the current management, and we could start to try other UK airlines for real service ........ yet another rant. I'm sick of Britain becoming a laughing stock in a market sector where there is money to be made legitimately and regularly.

British Airways is a publicly traded company?

Yes, it was one of Mrs Thatchers early privatisations. For share info see here. Down about 50% over the last year.

And before you suggest it. No! You can't organise a share holders revolt over recent fiascos because most will be held by institutions who are only concerned about dividends and not people having holidays wrecked, sorry.

well I'm just back and BA and terminal 5 is a shambles just now. I feel really sorry for those who have to work with them and put up with all the flak just now. Spoke with several who said they were embarrassed to admit they worked for them.
First of all, they had cancelled several of the Aberdeen/Heathrow flights on the day we flew. Ours appeared to be ok. But they delayed it for 2 and a half hours. There were many people with connections who were panicking. We checked before we eventually boarded whether it was worth us going down- as did all the others. We were assured we would be ok. Well, we then sat ages in the plane wating to get off. We had to run all the way through T5 to get to the shuttle and then run through T4( if you were there last Saturday and saw a female running barefooted through the terminal that was me!) We made it with seconds to spare.At flight connections most of the others on our flight found they were too late) Of course when we arrived in Mumbai we discovered( as we knew really) that our luggage had not made it. And the same was true for quite a few others. They gave us a paltry £50 to tide us over the two days it would take according them for the luggage to arrive. They still have not found it, although it is probably in Milan.
On our return, our flight went sick. There is nothing that can be done about that. My gripe is that they knew at 1pm that it was sick. We were in the departure lounge by then. We were there for the next 5 hours. I can't complain about the flight crew. they were out there, sorting out water and something to eat and putting up with all the queries. We were eventually taken to a very nice hotel( Mumbai Hyatt) and had to get up at 1.15 am for our return. I was issued with a second set of return tickets from heathrow to Aberdeen. We were then delayed 2 hours. When we landed something had gone wrong and we had to wait on the runway for a bay. We had missed our other flight.
We then got issued with our third set of return tickets. This was after a long wait at the BA service area, which has about 16 desks but only had 4 manned. Our last plane only started to board 45 mins after it should have left. The last straw was having to sit in it for 2 hours as they found that the wrong cases had been loaded. They had all to be taken out and then they didn't know which ones should actually be loaded there. The captain was really apologetic. The crew were just fed up with the whole thing.
I'm not going to say now that I will never fly with them again. I await with interest to see what they think we should get as compensation.
T5, if it ever gets sorted, does actually look really nice.

Flying on the 31st May Gatwick to Tampa on BA2167 , just wondering what the seat configuration is in World Traveler . Have checked out BA's own site , Seat Guru and Seatexpert but they all have differing plans , lol.

Thanks for any help .

caroled,

Your flight is operated by a Boeing 777-236/ER. For a seating plan, click here or here

Darren

Thanks Darren .

Hi, My hubby and I are going Club World to Barbados at the beginning of December and I can't wait. What I don't understand is why we can't reserve what seats we want until 24 hours before

Can anyone tell me which two seats are, in their opinion, the ones to go for??? Also does anyone think that BA will move this flight from Gatwick to Terminal 5 or not???
Thanks

Rapunzal,

As per your monarch flights, it's personal preference which part of the aircraft you like. Your flights are operated by a Boeing 777-236/ER. For a seating plan, click here or here. Seatguru (second link) gives a bit more information on specific seats. BA don't allow pre-booking of your seats more than 24 hours before your flight departs. That's why you can't book specific seats this far in advance. For more information click here. BA have announced the move of longhaul flights to T5 has been postponed. They are planning a phased move to T5 starting June but you'll have to check closer to the time of your flights if they have or not. I would expect (hope!) they will have done by December. Click here for more information.

Darren

Thanks Darren, our flight at the moment is from London Gatwick, so whether BA will decide to move their long haul from Gatwick is another thing isn't it?
Rap

Rapunzal,

Sorry, misread your post slightly!! When you mentioned T5, I assumed Heathrow. LGW flights aren't being moved to T5.

Darren

We actually had the two front ones- some would not like these as they are close to the toilets and people can congregate there. We liked them as we had two on their own and I didn't have to worry about stepping over the bottom of someones bed in order to get to the loo. Only done Club once and it was just brilliant!

The Daily Express is today reporting a boycott by travel insurers of claims for lost luggage or missed departures, in relation to BA at Terminal 5 ... click here for more.

David

Not so much a comment on Direct Lines approach, but why are unclaimed bags going to be incinerated ? Surely the stuff could at least be donated to charity, there must be folk around the world who could benefit from the clothes and the unfortunate travellers who have lost their luggage might feel a bit better knowing it isn't going to be burnt.