FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Newbie Question[s - getting from DEN to TLV on miles in WT+/J]
Old Nov 4, 2009, 1:33 pm
  #3  
BA or bust
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UK
Programs: Mucci! And BA Silver – previous awards - Gold 11, Silver 6, Bronze 4
Posts: 4,096
Hi JSteel and welcome to the BA Board.

My comments below in italics (caveat is that I don't know the TLV route nor do I book from the US). I think you will get your answer from a number of replies, so just wait for them to appear over the next few hours/days. We on this board pride ourselves on responding to requests - especially to help welcome 'newbies' into the fold.

The Minuses:

I have no idea what the typical award availability is at BA. The best thing to do is to log in to your account and have a play around with various dates. the tool is now very good and it will tell you 'there are x seats left'. You can also vary between WT+ and Club quite easily.The general rule of course is that the further out you book, the better.

I am having a hard time figuring out what the fuel surcharges would be for the ticket passengers and lap child on that route. Doing a dummy booking will tell you (but you may have to call BAEC in USA for the lap child).

The whole seat assignment fee bothers me. The web site says they waive that when traveling with a lap child, nothing about other young children. Don't know this one.

Questions:

Is award availability reasonable like AA or "good luck" like United? Is it common/possible to find 3 award seats in WT+ or CW? In my experience yes, we have a family of 5 and I have been able to fly us all in Club UK-US. Some flights the dummy booking will show you even more that that (I think I have seen up to 'only 7 seats left'). If the 'only x seats left' flag does not come up it means there are quite a high number.

Does anyone know what the current fuel surcharges are for the DEN-LHR-TLV route in WT+ and CW? Do lap children pay them? Exactly the breakdown of what is fuel surcharges and what are the 0ther charges varies. You should just take the total - because that is what you have to pay anyway.

Could my 3 year old not be seated with one or both parents if we don't pay the seat assignment fee? Read this

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...y/public/en_us

it tells you your options. With children 2-12 you can choose seats 3 days before the flight even if you don't want to pay.

Is Heathrow still a black hole for checked luggage? No, works pretty well now IME. And your flights both go in and out of T5 so reducing the risk of things going wrong.

Last edited by BA or bust; Nov 4, 2009 at 1:39 pm Reason: I see Prospero was typing fast as I was typing slowly!
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