Thanks Darren, as quick and helpful as ever!!

ATB,J.

Hi folks.....!

I'm off to Orlando on 24/3/11 flight No BA2037. I think it's a boeing 777 and i'm travelling in economy class. Can anyone tell me if this aircraft has had the referb and has video-on-demand technology installed.....

Thank's a million,

Ash........

barjiash,

Most of the 777's should have on-demand IFE by the time you go, just a few of the early aircraft that're too costly to upgrade won't.

Darren

Cheers Dazbo.....!

One other question.....! I'm flying on BA from Manchester to Gatwick then to Orlando ... Can i check in at Manchester all the way through to Orlando or will i have to reclaim baggage at Gatwick and check in there......?

Thanks again,

Ash......

barjiash,

As you're flying BA all the way, you'll be through checked from Manchester to Orlando.

Darren

I'm looking to fly BA from Newcastle -LHR then Kingfisher to Delhi. I know they have a codeshare agreement for some routes but will I be able to check my luggage straight through from Newcastle? There are only a couple of hours between flights so I think I'd need to check straight through.

Cheers,

Jim

jim98,

If it's a codeshare agreement, you should be able to through check from NCL to your destination.

Darren

Darren,
Thanks again for your help. I've been in touch with BA and although they do have some codeshare agreements with Kingfisher unfortunately not on this route so they reckon I'll have to collect my luggage at Heathrow. Trouble is I'll be flying into Term 5 and departing from Term 4. I have a choice of a 6 hour layover or a 2 hour layover. Question is, will 2 hours be enough to collect luggage and get over to Term 4 to check in on time or will I have to put up with the 6 hours at Term 4?

Jim

jim98,

That's a pain it not being a codeshare. Given you need to transfer, I wouldn't risk 2 hours. The free bus takes 15 minutes between the terminals so by the time you've colleted bags, got from T5 to T4 then checked-in, you'll be pushing it and if there's even a slight delay inbound or with luggage, there's a good chance you'll be too lake for check-in. If you didn't have to check-in again, you'd be fine. I know 6 hours is a long time to wait, I've had a 5 hour connection in CDG before, but if you miss your flight, you'll have an even longer wait.

Darren

Darren,
I agree it's just too risky so we'll probabaly have to put up with the 6 hour layover. Some of this is self-inflicted as we are using Kingfisher mostly because they use A330's rather than BA's 777. The choice of having the 2 window seats in the 2-4-2 rather than the 777's 3-3-3 was the deciding factor.
Thanks once again for your help.

Jim

Just an update on my problem with BA & Kingfisher. After some work by my travel agent I have confirmed they do have a codeshare agreement and I can check my luggage through from NCL. Although someone at BA initially said no they finally agreed with Kingfisher it would be OK.

Jim

New strike threat for BA

Unite will ballot British Airways cabin crew next week for strike action over the half-term holidays.

The action could also be extended to the period over Easter and the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29.

The Unite union has given BA chiefs seven days notice of its intention to ballot cabin crew members on strike action.

The month-long ballot starts next Tuesday and will end on 21 January.

The union would then have to give an additional seven days notice of a strike date, but could continue to strike for up to three months after that date without having to hold another ballot.

Unite said the ballot is over the following five outstanding issues:

1. The immediate restoration of staff travel concessions, in full, to the crew from whom they were taken by BA.
2. Binding arbitration, through ACAS, of all cabin crew disciplinary cases related to the original dispute.
3. The restoration of all earnings docked from crew who were genuinely off sick during strike dates.
4. Full and proper discussion of the trade union facilities agreement at the company with the immediate removal of all threats and sanctions made by BA in relation to this.
5. The introduction of mixed fleet on different terms and conditions without the agreement of the trade union.

Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley said: "British Airways knows what it must do to end this dispute. Four of the five outstanding issues are no cost issues for the airline and are about treating cabin crew with dignity, respect and ending the climate of persecution. The fifth item is about stopping BA from imposing a near minimum waged workforce and killing their brand.

"Unite is still open to talks but BA must appreciate the strength of feeling across the airline about how badly they've handled this dispute. BA must get serious and work with us to settle the issues before us."

BA immediately issued a statement saying Unite had reneged on a deal struck in October.

"The union agreed last week to hold further talks with us, but has instead issued a strike ballot. It continues to be riven by internal divisions and its behaviour remains dysfunctional," said the airline.

"We have put forward very fair proposals that enable our existing Heathrow crew to remain the best rewarded in the UK airline industry. Despite the difficult economic conditions we have faced, we have made savings in ways that have avoided compulsory redundancies.

"Industrial action would be a grossly disproportionate response to the issues that Unite continues to press.

"Should any industrial action take place, we are confident that our well-established contingency plans will allow us to operate normal timetables at Gatwick and London City airports. At Heathrow, we will aim to run a substantial proportion of our short-haul programme and 100 per cent of our long haul operation."

With permission from Travelmole

OK It's well into 2011. My NY resolution was to be nice to folk and say thanks.....
So here goes.....

I'd like to send a bouquet to the British Airways staff at Glasgow Airport for the horrendous days of 7th and 8th December when Glasgow Airport Management hadn't a clue what they were doing, couldn't even keep their info boards up to date, and had no information staff around (but the gift shops, duty free, and bars were, of course, all fully staffed). (Sorry,. Glasgow Airport Management are excluded from nice wishes...useless plonkers).

BA were stars - doing their best in terrible circumstances. I'd single out for special praise the poor guy sitting on the Glasgow bag drop checkin virtually alone, all afternoon. He took, with good grace, all the bad stuff from irate passengers and did his utmost to sort things. And the lovely BA lady Claire, who arranged a hotel for those of us stranded souls in the snow, and the nice BA lady with long eyelashes at gate 22 who helped me eventually get on a plane that actually flew the next day, Thanks to you all.
I got to where I was going on the other side of the planet, albeit late, albeit almost with a coronary, but I got my vacation.

And the journey back was a bit bad also.
Lots and lots of thanks to TUI and the wonderful Thomson Rep Sandra in Costa Rica, for an extra well organised free night of holiday due to Gatwick airport closures - so not so bad.....
And when the probability was I'd spend Christmas Eve on the floor of Gatwick airport cos I got back from Costa Rica a day late....
BA saved me again - by converting my officially non-convertible ticket to an actual flight back to Glasgow on a packed flight.

I got home for Christmas - and my frozen and burst pipes.
Yea - I hate all plumbers now...but BA are wonderful

Afternoon all,

We are travelling on the BA 2159 LGW to Port of Spain on 23rd Feb.

Could anyone confirm if this aircraft has the individual seat back tv's?

Also, as we are travelling with our toddler, we apparently get seats together allocated 3 days before departure. Can we change them if we want to thereafter? I am thinking we'd like window seats so if they allocate us in the middle we'd like to change it online if possible.

Many thanks for any help

Lisa

LisaMJ,

LGW-POS-LGW (BA2159/8) are operated by a Boeing 777-236/ER. The flight makes a stop either way in St Lucia. These have seat back IFE throughout. You should be able to change your seats unless the todler is under 2 years and doesn't have their own seat allocated. This is due to the need for an extra oxygen mask so you may be limited to certain seats.

Darren

Darren, thanks so much for your speedy response.

Lisa

BA saved me again - by converting my officially non-convertible ticket to an actual flight back to Glasgow on a packed flight.

I too think BA are wonderful for similar reasons - I won't go into the full convoluted details but on 2 occasions when my travel arrangements went badly wrong they couldn't have been more helpful. Once when I left my case on the train and was late getting to Edinburgh airport while I waited for Scotrail to retrieve it and return it to me - they took all my flight details from me over the phone and printed out the boarding card in advance and had someone meet me at the entrance to the terminal to fast track me through security and use the 'hand luggage' only check-in in the departure lounge even though my case was really pushing the limit for so-called 'hand luggage'. And once for getting me on my way on a later plane back to Edinburgh at no charge even though I too was on a non-returnable, non-transferable cheapo ticket and then letting me again take my case into the cabin with me thereby ensuring that that I was disembarked quickly enough to be able to get the last train north out of Edinburgh.

Yes, there has been an instance of them mislaying my case on the way home but given that was on the final stage of a complicated 3 leg journey (Seville - Madrid - Heathrow - Edinburgh) I've found their overall track record to be pretty good. Though not as good as Iberia were on the luggage front when on the outward journey the case missed the connection at Madrid but given my own track record (see above) I can hardly complain too much

SM

Hey, hoping Dazbo can maybe help me out on this one! We've booked to fly Glasgow to Orlando via Gatwick this coming Monday (10th Jan) and were wondering if BA have the seat back tv's on their economy section? Flight number is BA2037.

Also, ive been watching the Glasgow departures on their website over the past few days and im getting really nervous as the majority of flights just now seem to be taking off late? We've just had more snow in the central belt today so this is increasing my nervousness! Is the website possibly wrong or are most flights taking off late recently?

My main concern is that we have 1 hour 25 minutes between connecting flights. We've never flown with BA or flown anywhere using connecting flights so panicking that we'll miss it if the flight to Gatwick is delayed!

GlitterGirl,

Your connection from GLA down to LGW (BA2957) is operated by a Boeing 737-400. These are only set up for domestic and short european flights so don't have IFE installed. The flight from LGW to MCO (BA2037) is operated by a Boeing 777-200/ER. These have seat back IFE throughout. You'll find further aircraft information including current IFE listings on BA's website. Due to weather problems over the last month, there have been scheduling issues. With any luck, things will be running smooth on the day of your flights. When you land at LGW, ensure you go straight to your connecting flight. The normal recomended connection time is 90 minutes so you're about on the minimum so no stopping at duty free on your way through! You'll be through-checked all the way to Orlando so there's no need to collect bags or anything in Gatwick, you'll get all your boarding cards when you check-in at Glasgow so all you need to do is get yourself to the connecting gate. I'm sure you'll be fine. If the worst happens and you don't get your connection, BA will look after you and get you on the next available flight.

Darren