Next Year's Resolution II: GGL in 2021
Nov 2, 2020, 5:13 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2016
Programs: BAEC GGL/CR; Hilton Diamond; Mucci des Puccis
Posts: 5,609
Next Year's Resolution II: GGL in 2021
At Christmas 2017, I resolved to get GGL in 2018, and spent a hugely enjoyable year doing just that.
Times were very different then. You could make a reservation with a reasonable expectation of flying it. You were allowed into airports even without a mask. Lounges were open everywhere. It was all enormous fun and in retrospect very privileged to be able to bounce around the airports of the world without a worry in the world apart from the consequences of beasts from the East or the effects on the digestive system of altitude and over-rich food.
Anyway as I enjoyed doing this last time, I've decided to do a sequel, which will be about the trials and tribulations of requalifying against the backdrop of a global pandemic. With the 75% threshold I'll need just 2250 TP for requalification, but as 3500 is needed for the full guf collection I'll be heading for 3750 and CCR, all assuming I get the dropped thresholds next year. Actually, anything might happen, including not having to requalify, but we'll all find out together. The TP year starts Feb 9th. It happens to be my 50th year of flying too.
So since the end of the last thread - where I quoted T S Eliot's "The Hollow Men", which seems ever more apt, what has happened?
Well I maintained CCR status in 2019. I wasn't intending to, but a bit of work travel and a the Babybus trip put me over the line, not that it's been particularly useful. Bisonrav Jr has maintained his own silver status for more than half his existence now, and is very proud of it. He's a bit of an avgeek in his own right: he's flown to Barra beach, taken the Dragon Rapide for a tour of London, and is planning B17G (it has to be the G variant) and B29 flights for next year.
His head has been turned however: he enjoys the "Horrid Henry" series of books; in "Horrid Henry Up Up and Away", the set-up is that the eponymous anti-hero has heard of the delights of lie down beds on flights, and, looking forward to that, is surprised and shocked to be removed from his selected suite brusquely and sent back to a middle seat in row 89. On hearing this, Bisonrav Jr threw up his hands in absolute horror and refused to listen to the rest of the story, pulling the sheets over his head and hyperventilating quietly to himself, softly crooning "the Muffin Man as a comfort. I'm not sure whether it was the idea of being seated in row 89 that disturbed him, or the idea of someone not entitled to J sitting in the wrong seat, we never did quite establish that. It may have been both.
2020 started very well, with a family holiday in F to Singapore and Malaysia, followed by a quick day return in Y to Malaga and a trip to Tirana for the first TPs of the year. I followed that with a triple run AUH to CGK, just as Coronavirus was really cutting in. On the final run home, it seemed like the world was slamming its gates behind me, with borders being closed almost immediately afterwards, it was a very surreal sequence, not least because of the fatigue of the return trip. And curious little vignettes, like arriving in Jakarta to find the airport being scrubbed and sanitised intensively, and later finding out that that was being done only because the President was making a speech there.
And that was pretty much what happened. On landing I was fully expecting to get to Tirana again the following weekend, but within a couple of days it was obvious that wasn't going to happen, and that I was going to be staying at home rather than going to work for a while, though I wasn't expecting quite the duration of restrictions we had. I had 2150 or so TPs banked, plenty booked for the second half of the year, and assumed I'd carry on when the fuss was over in the early summer.
So began the process which probably most of us are now used to, of cancellations, FTVs here and there, attempts at getting refunds (all now successful except for Royal Jordanian who have yet to bother), and postponements. One thing I was really looking forward to was a hyper low cost tour of Poland and the Baltics in late March, but that was cancelled. There was a trip to Hong Kong which was a family holiday which was first pushed back and then cancelled. A trip to Seattle to visit Boeing and fly Seaplanes on the lake. And so on, it was all very dispiriting. I must say that BA despite the problems early on did deal with things pretty well, the FTV scheme is pretty good. And Hilton also did very well, particularly on allowing cancellation of non-refundable bookings, including via single night voucher issues, of which more next June, should we get there with plans intact.
But status was retained anyway, my voucher validity was extended, so I didn't really need to do any flying. As it became possible to book things again, I did set up some excursions; Milan in July on Wizz (Wizz are my new favourite airline). A 3 night BA break in Corfu at the end of the School Holidays, revisiting my old childhood haunts and the warmth of the Med. I couldn't resist a return to Dublin on Ryanair for a tenner. And I set up a re-run of my Poland and the Baltics trip for November 21st, with a very varied mix of airlines - Wizz, Lot, Air Baltic, Norwegian, and aircraft. Every flight in that was changed at least once and often twice during the Summer, until this week when it finally became impossible again. I'm still a bit in denial about that and have yet to cancel about three different permutations of Hiltons I'd set up using the free cancellation offer against different contingencies.
Mostly however, I used the time during the period between lockdowns for other things, and in particular flight experiences on older types. I did the Lufthansa JU52 in 2018, but that was a victim of Lufthansa cutbacks and will never fly again. I felt that it was probably best not to wait to fly on other vintage types, and there were also some great offers around for Avios and discounts with Red Letter Days, Into the Blue, et al via the various e-stores or targeted email offers (25-30% sometimes, or equivalent Avios). The Dragon Rapide flight had been booked since early in the year, well before Covid, and was repeatedly the victim of weather delays before Bisonrav Jr and myself took to the skies in it, one slightly chilly October morning at Duxford. And as a hint, should you ever try this flight - and you should, it's a wonderfully elegant way to take in the sights of London - take a 5 year old with you, because you'll be given the front seats to help with the centre of gravity. He was also able to see his (at the time) favourite aircraft, the B17G (has to be G), before being rather smitten by the B29 in the USAAF hangar. Great day out.
And then I took an hour in a Tiger Moth,actually tentatively flying it for a little bit, as a precursor and training mission to a Spitfire flight booked for November 20th at Lee on Solent, which has now presumably gone the way of all flesh until next year. This used the Amex 20% off Red Letter Days to get a discount - usually the Spitfire flights don't earn avios and don't qualify for voucher reductions, so I was all over this offer. We have a helicopter trip over Portsmouth ordered too. I shall be doing more of this sort of thing next year if all goes well.
In between times I worked out just about my entire flying history since 1971, including quite a large number of tail numbers and flight details. It's amazing what you can figure out when you really concentrate, and I'm still discovering things - helped somewhat by a rapprochement with my hitherto rather hostile ex-wife who very helpfully looked up dates in her diary. That was an unexpected and rather nice side-effect of the world being turned upside down.
But anyway, what does next year look like? Well almost all BA. In January I'm going to try to get the points I need to get a GUF2 this TP year via Sofia. At the start of the TP year I have a sequence of trips to Bucharest for points using sale fares, sandwiching a family trip to Singapore in Easter. I have a JAL fare to Toyko in March which is exceedingly unlikely to happen now, and a couple of trips to the US. It's unlikely all these will stick, but I'll recount what happens in this thread.
But of all the trips, the one I'm keenest to do is May 10th, when if the Covid Gods allow I'll be retracing my first flight exactly 50 years to the day previously. 10th May 1971 it was a Dan Air Comet 4B from Gatwick into the old terminal at Corfu; this time an EasyJet A320 into the new terminal, and staying at the same hotel, the Messonghi Beach. I really hope that one happens, I'd happily dump all the rest for that.
Times were very different then. You could make a reservation with a reasonable expectation of flying it. You were allowed into airports even without a mask. Lounges were open everywhere. It was all enormous fun and in retrospect very privileged to be able to bounce around the airports of the world without a worry in the world apart from the consequences of beasts from the East or the effects on the digestive system of altitude and over-rich food.
Anyway as I enjoyed doing this last time, I've decided to do a sequel, which will be about the trials and tribulations of requalifying against the backdrop of a global pandemic. With the 75% threshold I'll need just 2250 TP for requalification, but as 3500 is needed for the full guf collection I'll be heading for 3750 and CCR, all assuming I get the dropped thresholds next year. Actually, anything might happen, including not having to requalify, but we'll all find out together. The TP year starts Feb 9th. It happens to be my 50th year of flying too.
So since the end of the last thread - where I quoted T S Eliot's "The Hollow Men", which seems ever more apt, what has happened?
Well I maintained CCR status in 2019. I wasn't intending to, but a bit of work travel and a the Babybus trip put me over the line, not that it's been particularly useful. Bisonrav Jr has maintained his own silver status for more than half his existence now, and is very proud of it. He's a bit of an avgeek in his own right: he's flown to Barra beach, taken the Dragon Rapide for a tour of London, and is planning B17G (it has to be the G variant) and B29 flights for next year.
His head has been turned however: he enjoys the "Horrid Henry" series of books; in "Horrid Henry Up Up and Away", the set-up is that the eponymous anti-hero has heard of the delights of lie down beds on flights, and, looking forward to that, is surprised and shocked to be removed from his selected suite brusquely and sent back to a middle seat in row 89. On hearing this, Bisonrav Jr threw up his hands in absolute horror and refused to listen to the rest of the story, pulling the sheets over his head and hyperventilating quietly to himself, softly crooning "the Muffin Man as a comfort. I'm not sure whether it was the idea of being seated in row 89 that disturbed him, or the idea of someone not entitled to J sitting in the wrong seat, we never did quite establish that. It may have been both.
2020 started very well, with a family holiday in F to Singapore and Malaysia, followed by a quick day return in Y to Malaga and a trip to Tirana for the first TPs of the year. I followed that with a triple run AUH to CGK, just as Coronavirus was really cutting in. On the final run home, it seemed like the world was slamming its gates behind me, with borders being closed almost immediately afterwards, it was a very surreal sequence, not least because of the fatigue of the return trip. And curious little vignettes, like arriving in Jakarta to find the airport being scrubbed and sanitised intensively, and later finding out that that was being done only because the President was making a speech there.
And that was pretty much what happened. On landing I was fully expecting to get to Tirana again the following weekend, but within a couple of days it was obvious that wasn't going to happen, and that I was going to be staying at home rather than going to work for a while, though I wasn't expecting quite the duration of restrictions we had. I had 2150 or so TPs banked, plenty booked for the second half of the year, and assumed I'd carry on when the fuss was over in the early summer.
So began the process which probably most of us are now used to, of cancellations, FTVs here and there, attempts at getting refunds (all now successful except for Royal Jordanian who have yet to bother), and postponements. One thing I was really looking forward to was a hyper low cost tour of Poland and the Baltics in late March, but that was cancelled. There was a trip to Hong Kong which was a family holiday which was first pushed back and then cancelled. A trip to Seattle to visit Boeing and fly Seaplanes on the lake. And so on, it was all very dispiriting. I must say that BA despite the problems early on did deal with things pretty well, the FTV scheme is pretty good. And Hilton also did very well, particularly on allowing cancellation of non-refundable bookings, including via single night voucher issues, of which more next June, should we get there with plans intact.
But status was retained anyway, my voucher validity was extended, so I didn't really need to do any flying. As it became possible to book things again, I did set up some excursions; Milan in July on Wizz (Wizz are my new favourite airline). A 3 night BA break in Corfu at the end of the School Holidays, revisiting my old childhood haunts and the warmth of the Med. I couldn't resist a return to Dublin on Ryanair for a tenner. And I set up a re-run of my Poland and the Baltics trip for November 21st, with a very varied mix of airlines - Wizz, Lot, Air Baltic, Norwegian, and aircraft. Every flight in that was changed at least once and often twice during the Summer, until this week when it finally became impossible again. I'm still a bit in denial about that and have yet to cancel about three different permutations of Hiltons I'd set up using the free cancellation offer against different contingencies.
Mostly however, I used the time during the period between lockdowns for other things, and in particular flight experiences on older types. I did the Lufthansa JU52 in 2018, but that was a victim of Lufthansa cutbacks and will never fly again. I felt that it was probably best not to wait to fly on other vintage types, and there were also some great offers around for Avios and discounts with Red Letter Days, Into the Blue, et al via the various e-stores or targeted email offers (25-30% sometimes, or equivalent Avios). The Dragon Rapide flight had been booked since early in the year, well before Covid, and was repeatedly the victim of weather delays before Bisonrav Jr and myself took to the skies in it, one slightly chilly October morning at Duxford. And as a hint, should you ever try this flight - and you should, it's a wonderfully elegant way to take in the sights of London - take a 5 year old with you, because you'll be given the front seats to help with the centre of gravity. He was also able to see his (at the time) favourite aircraft, the B17G (has to be G), before being rather smitten by the B29 in the USAAF hangar. Great day out.
And then I took an hour in a Tiger Moth,actually tentatively flying it for a little bit, as a precursor and training mission to a Spitfire flight booked for November 20th at Lee on Solent, which has now presumably gone the way of all flesh until next year. This used the Amex 20% off Red Letter Days to get a discount - usually the Spitfire flights don't earn avios and don't qualify for voucher reductions, so I was all over this offer. We have a helicopter trip over Portsmouth ordered too. I shall be doing more of this sort of thing next year if all goes well.
In between times I worked out just about my entire flying history since 1971, including quite a large number of tail numbers and flight details. It's amazing what you can figure out when you really concentrate, and I'm still discovering things - helped somewhat by a rapprochement with my hitherto rather hostile ex-wife who very helpfully looked up dates in her diary. That was an unexpected and rather nice side-effect of the world being turned upside down.
But anyway, what does next year look like? Well almost all BA. In January I'm going to try to get the points I need to get a GUF2 this TP year via Sofia. At the start of the TP year I have a sequence of trips to Bucharest for points using sale fares, sandwiching a family trip to Singapore in Easter. I have a JAL fare to Toyko in March which is exceedingly unlikely to happen now, and a couple of trips to the US. It's unlikely all these will stick, but I'll recount what happens in this thread.
But of all the trips, the one I'm keenest to do is May 10th, when if the Covid Gods allow I'll be retracing my first flight exactly 50 years to the day previously. 10th May 1971 it was a Dan Air Comet 4B from Gatwick into the old terminal at Corfu; this time an EasyJet A320 into the new terminal, and staying at the same hotel, the Messonghi Beach. I really hope that one happens, I'd happily dump all the rest for that.
Nov 6, 2020, 1:35 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2016
Programs: BAEC GGL/CR; Hilton Diamond; Mucci des Puccis
Posts: 5,609
Not much has happened for fairly obvious reasons, and in particular my Spitfire flight (in G-ILDA) has been moved from November 20th. There were slots available in January, but I decided to go for a flight at the end of July from Goodwood. Might have to do a Tiger Moth refresher first though. There is still nominally a helicopter flight in December but I'm not expecting it to happen, and I'm playing chicken with a few airlines around my Poland and the Baltics trip hoping for cancellations. Only Wizz have obliged so far.
And the final missing refund - from Royal Jordanian - has arrived, or in fact had arrived because it went into the dollar section of my Revolut in mid-October but I didn't notice it.
So I've hunkered down with the boy and we're plotting on making a few 1/72 scale models of planes we or I have been on. We'll be starting with the Barra Twin Otter, and we already have the Dragon Rapide from Duxford and the Tiger Moth from Shoreham I flew in, these being available in beautiful die-casts. Not very BA, but also in the stash is a nice kit of the Sun Air J31 which I flew on a couple of years ago, in full BA livery, Well worth hunting down.
And the final missing refund - from Royal Jordanian - has arrived, or in fact had arrived because it went into the dollar section of my Revolut in mid-October but I didn't notice it.
So I've hunkered down with the boy and we're plotting on making a few 1/72 scale models of planes we or I have been on. We'll be starting with the Barra Twin Otter, and we already have the Dragon Rapide from Duxford and the Tiger Moth from Shoreham I flew in, these being available in beautiful die-casts. Not very BA, but also in the stash is a nice kit of the Sun Air J31 which I flew on a couple of years ago, in full BA livery, Well worth hunting down.
Nov 8, 2020, 5:58 am
#4
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: England
Programs: BAEC Gold, UA Mileage Plus, Hotels.com Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Pizza Express Gold
Posts: 603
I'll be keeping an eye on this thread, as I'm tempted to take advantage of the lower thresholds for my year starting in April. Currently just one TP run booked in May (LUX-SFO), which if it happens should be enough to get gold. Just a question of how much travel is possible, and how (un)pleasant it is whether I do more.
Nov 8, 2020, 2:17 pm
#5
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: LON
Programs: BAEC - Silver, Virgin Flying Club, Delta Skymiles
Posts: 229
I've seen the Dragon Rapide up in the skies of London and need to get out to Duxford at some point (my great uncle flew many missions as a B17 waist gunner in the Eighth Air Force - his name and details are noted on the website archives) to see the museum and do that flight. I am much more into WWI aircraft and early military jets, so it looks like a good day out. Hadn't even considered particular offers - thanks for the tip!
Nov 9, 2020, 3:38 am
#6
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: The North
Posts: 1,844
Looking forward to seeing this thread develop bisonrav - I hope you're able to take your planned trips.
For anyone who hasn't been, Duxford is an excellent day (or even a weekend, as there's a lot of stuff there). I'd try to go in spring, as wandering between the hangers on a dark, wet, miserable December/January day isn't much fun!
For anyone who hasn't been, Duxford is an excellent day (or even a weekend, as there's a lot of stuff there). I'd try to go in spring, as wandering between the hangers on a dark, wet, miserable December/January day isn't much fun!
Nov 12, 2020, 3:52 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2016
Programs: BAEC GGL/CR; Hilton Diamond; Mucci des Puccis
Posts: 5,609
I was half thinking I might do my Poland and the Baltics tour next weekend, sneaking past the guards on an early train towards a deserted Luton airport in a sharp suit designed to allow me to convincingly fake a business trip.
Well, not really considering the trip seriously, but not quite ruling it out quite yet.
However the decision was taken out of my hands with gruesome inevitability by LOT, who cancelled the essential Gdansk to Warsaw to Vilnius legs. Wizz had already cancelled and rescheduled the first leg, so I'm just left with an Air Baltic Vilnius to Gatwick leg I can't do much with except cancel for taxes, unless it gets pulled over the next few days. This is the price we pay for attempting complex multi carrier trips in plague years.
So just deciding how to play the offers for Wizz, which I can move in a 60 day window or get a voucher with 20% added. Given the ticket was £8,99, it's not a major preoccupation anyway. LOT is a little easier, with the option of moving the booking completely with a 1 year window, for which I get a 30% voucher on my next booking, plus a 200zl free fare difference.
This leaves only one opportunity for another flight this year, December for a helicopter flight around Portsmouth, And certainly nothing doing with BA at all until January. Suspended animation beckons, but I've spent a little time checking dates and amounts of various refunds and vouchers and wondering what the chances of Norwegian staying afloat until I can spend my 342 cash points. It is all a bit grim again.
Well, not really considering the trip seriously, but not quite ruling it out quite yet.
However the decision was taken out of my hands with gruesome inevitability by LOT, who cancelled the essential Gdansk to Warsaw to Vilnius legs. Wizz had already cancelled and rescheduled the first leg, so I'm just left with an Air Baltic Vilnius to Gatwick leg I can't do much with except cancel for taxes, unless it gets pulled over the next few days. This is the price we pay for attempting complex multi carrier trips in plague years.
So just deciding how to play the offers for Wizz, which I can move in a 60 day window or get a voucher with 20% added. Given the ticket was £8,99, it's not a major preoccupation anyway. LOT is a little easier, with the option of moving the booking completely with a 1 year window, for which I get a 30% voucher on my next booking, plus a 200zl free fare difference.
This leaves only one opportunity for another flight this year, December for a helicopter flight around Portsmouth, And certainly nothing doing with BA at all until January. Suspended animation beckons, but I've spent a little time checking dates and amounts of various refunds and vouchers and wondering what the chances of Norwegian staying afloat until I can spend my 342 cash points. It is all a bit grim again.
Nov 13, 2020, 8:23 am
#9
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 5,596
I was half thinking I might do my Poland and the Baltics tour next weekend, sneaking past the guards on an early train towards a deserted Luton airport in a sharp suit designed to allow me to convincingly fake a business trip.
Well, not really considering the trip seriously, but not quite ruling it out quite yet.
However the decision was taken out of my hands with gruesome inevitability by LOT, who cancelled the essential Gdansk to Warsaw to Vilnius legs. Wizz had already cancelled and rescheduled the first leg, so I'm just left with an Air Baltic Vilnius to Gatwick leg I can't do much with except cancel for taxes, unless it gets pulled over the next few days. This is the price we pay for attempting complex multi carrier trips in plague years.
So just deciding how to play the offers for Wizz, which I can move in a 60 day window or get a voucher with 20% added. Given the ticket was £8,99, it's not a major preoccupation anyway. LOT is a little easier, with the option of moving the booking completely with a 1 year window, for which I get a 30% voucher on my next booking, plus a 200zl free fare difference.
This leaves only one opportunity for another flight this year, December for a helicopter flight around Portsmouth, And certainly nothing doing with BA at all until January. Suspended animation beckons, but I've spent a little time checking dates and amounts of various refunds and vouchers and wondering what the chances of Norwegian staying afloat until I can spend my 342 cash points. It is all a bit grim again.
Well, not really considering the trip seriously, but not quite ruling it out quite yet.
However the decision was taken out of my hands with gruesome inevitability by LOT, who cancelled the essential Gdansk to Warsaw to Vilnius legs. Wizz had already cancelled and rescheduled the first leg, so I'm just left with an Air Baltic Vilnius to Gatwick leg I can't do much with except cancel for taxes, unless it gets pulled over the next few days. This is the price we pay for attempting complex multi carrier trips in plague years.
So just deciding how to play the offers for Wizz, which I can move in a 60 day window or get a voucher with 20% added. Given the ticket was £8,99, it's not a major preoccupation anyway. LOT is a little easier, with the option of moving the booking completely with a 1 year window, for which I get a 30% voucher on my next booking, plus a 200zl free fare difference.
This leaves only one opportunity for another flight this year, December for a helicopter flight around Portsmouth, And certainly nothing doing with BA at all until January. Suspended animation beckons, but I've spent a little time checking dates and amounts of various refunds and vouchers and wondering what the chances of Norwegian staying afloat until I can spend my 342 cash points. It is all a bit grim again.
Nov 13, 2020, 8:58 am
#10
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Hertfordshire
Programs: BA Gold, Accor Diamond, IHG Diamond
Posts: 553
I think more of an issue once we can start flying again without donning a suit and dusting off briefcases is the cost and availability of PCR tests.
Countries that are opening up for visitors are increasingly demanding PCR certs on arrival.
There’s a clinic up the road from me that offers them at £185 pp, but that rules out next months planned long weekend in ACE, it costs more for the test than the flight and airbnb combined.
Sofitel’s deal is alright, but kind of rules out any flight before 9am and for us thats £269 for the worst room & test before we’ve even gone anywhere.
To get some serious TP accruals up and running again we need the availability of PCR tests in cities across the country at £30/£40 a throw with the cert being pushed to an app within 48 hours of the test.
Countries that are opening up for visitors are increasingly demanding PCR certs on arrival.
There’s a clinic up the road from me that offers them at £185 pp, but that rules out next months planned long weekend in ACE, it costs more for the test than the flight and airbnb combined.
Sofitel’s deal is alright, but kind of rules out any flight before 9am and for us thats £269 for the worst room & test before we’ve even gone anywhere.
To get some serious TP accruals up and running again we need the availability of PCR tests in cities across the country at £30/£40 a throw with the cert being pushed to an app within 48 hours of the test.
Dec 4, 2020, 2:58 am
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2016
Programs: BAEC GGL/CR; Hilton Diamond; Mucci des Puccis
Posts: 5,609
Now into interesting "will I fly BA?" territory as 2021 approaches, and all manner of forks in possible futures open out.
The first BA flight is in mid January, ex Glasgow then on to a b2b in Sofia on consecutive weekend days. All sorts of things that can go wrong with this - dark rumours of having to go landside for temperature tests in Sofia that I haven't quite bottomed out yet - but most pressingly the Glasgow leg has been changed from evening to afternoon, which means my connecting EasyJet flight no longer connects.
Before the clamour of "if it's on a different ticket, it's not a connection" voices pipes up, it's absolutely not a problem. EasyJet are on the whitelist of good CV19 responses, and I can make as many changes to the ticket as I want up to two weeks before travel. So I've moved that one out to later in the year to consider options, while waiting to see if the Sofia flights are cancelled before sorting the connection out. Strictly speaking, these flights aren't needed for GGL qualification but for trying to secure a GUF2 this year. I can qualify on the basis of cancellations which apparently sometimes works, but I'll give it one shot at doing it under my own steam first. The real TP year starts in February and gets off the mark with a couple of Bucharest overnights, Covid willing.
I took advantage of the discounts and easy FTV to rebook a family trip to New York for the summer at a saving of about £500 - it's in Y so that's a fair achievement - and moved the old one to FTVs. These particular FTVs are fairly well worn, the veterans of several cancellations and bookings, including a Tirana trip, Bologna positioning for an abortive Finnair ex Italy deal to Hong Kong, and the US trip, and with a complicated split on different PNRs between my wife and myself. So it was with some trepidation, I asked the GGL Line if they could be applied to the taxes to a F family redemption to Kuala Lumpur with GUFs, 241s and avios.
Now the GGL line remains one of the best perks of the status, it really does. Without it, I'd be faced with a call with indeterminate hold to someone who probably wouldn't understand the request or how to action it, it would take about 40 minutes to the computer saying no and HUCA point, and the whole thing would be very stressful indeed. But instead of that, I can drop an email with instructions to the priority team, they sort out the booking and get back to me with a PNR and residual payment amount. I'll really miss the GGL team if ever I run off the road for status. Sadly this particular trip will almost certainly end up being cancelled for FTV to lock in the vouchers, but we'll see, it really depends a lot on the Malaysian government.
In other news, there was a little burst of mid-week glee when I found and booked a few low or even negative priced tickets with LCCs due to offers, and they seem to have stuck. More on this when they've been safely flown. And I continue to book experience flights, for which the Black Friday offers were really helpful. So far I have a Wingly flight in a Chipmunk from Coventry which netted out at about £117 for an hour, about a third the cost of an equivalent "experience", and numerous other flights with Master Bisonrav, including a De Havilland Dove over London, another Wingly around Sussex and Surrey from Redhill, Loch Lomond Seaplanes, and probably some more which I've forgotten.
I do now also have about half the market capitalisation of Wizz in Wizz credit, so I'll have to use that at some stage. Actually I now have a dedicated notebook trying to keep track of vouchers and credits and when I have to use them by. Most pressing is a Ryanair voucher which expires in April, which I may well use to go to Shannon to visit the Seaplane museum in Foynes when it reopens. And I lost almost all of my Air Baltic Riga to Gatwick fare which was sadly unflyable due to restrictions, Air Baltic really do go down as the single most unhelpful and tight-fisted airline for forced cancellations in my experience this year, I really do hope they reap what they have sown.
So onwards and upwards, and no cancellation yet for the Christmas helicopter flight so I may yet get airborne again in 2020.
The first BA flight is in mid January, ex Glasgow then on to a b2b in Sofia on consecutive weekend days. All sorts of things that can go wrong with this - dark rumours of having to go landside for temperature tests in Sofia that I haven't quite bottomed out yet - but most pressingly the Glasgow leg has been changed from evening to afternoon, which means my connecting EasyJet flight no longer connects.
Before the clamour of "if it's on a different ticket, it's not a connection" voices pipes up, it's absolutely not a problem. EasyJet are on the whitelist of good CV19 responses, and I can make as many changes to the ticket as I want up to two weeks before travel. So I've moved that one out to later in the year to consider options, while waiting to see if the Sofia flights are cancelled before sorting the connection out. Strictly speaking, these flights aren't needed for GGL qualification but for trying to secure a GUF2 this year. I can qualify on the basis of cancellations which apparently sometimes works, but I'll give it one shot at doing it under my own steam first. The real TP year starts in February and gets off the mark with a couple of Bucharest overnights, Covid willing.
I took advantage of the discounts and easy FTV to rebook a family trip to New York for the summer at a saving of about £500 - it's in Y so that's a fair achievement - and moved the old one to FTVs. These particular FTVs are fairly well worn, the veterans of several cancellations and bookings, including a Tirana trip, Bologna positioning for an abortive Finnair ex Italy deal to Hong Kong, and the US trip, and with a complicated split on different PNRs between my wife and myself. So it was with some trepidation, I asked the GGL Line if they could be applied to the taxes to a F family redemption to Kuala Lumpur with GUFs, 241s and avios.
Now the GGL line remains one of the best perks of the status, it really does. Without it, I'd be faced with a call with indeterminate hold to someone who probably wouldn't understand the request or how to action it, it would take about 40 minutes to the computer saying no and HUCA point, and the whole thing would be very stressful indeed. But instead of that, I can drop an email with instructions to the priority team, they sort out the booking and get back to me with a PNR and residual payment amount. I'll really miss the GGL team if ever I run off the road for status. Sadly this particular trip will almost certainly end up being cancelled for FTV to lock in the vouchers, but we'll see, it really depends a lot on the Malaysian government.
In other news, there was a little burst of mid-week glee when I found and booked a few low or even negative priced tickets with LCCs due to offers, and they seem to have stuck. More on this when they've been safely flown. And I continue to book experience flights, for which the Black Friday offers were really helpful. So far I have a Wingly flight in a Chipmunk from Coventry which netted out at about £117 for an hour, about a third the cost of an equivalent "experience", and numerous other flights with Master Bisonrav, including a De Havilland Dove over London, another Wingly around Sussex and Surrey from Redhill, Loch Lomond Seaplanes, and probably some more which I've forgotten.
I do now also have about half the market capitalisation of Wizz in Wizz credit, so I'll have to use that at some stage. Actually I now have a dedicated notebook trying to keep track of vouchers and credits and when I have to use them by. Most pressing is a Ryanair voucher which expires in April, which I may well use to go to Shannon to visit the Seaplane museum in Foynes when it reopens. And I lost almost all of my Air Baltic Riga to Gatwick fare which was sadly unflyable due to restrictions, Air Baltic really do go down as the single most unhelpful and tight-fisted airline for forced cancellations in my experience this year, I really do hope they reap what they have sown.
So onwards and upwards, and no cancellation yet for the Christmas helicopter flight so I may yet get airborne again in 2020.
Dec 12, 2020, 4:26 pm
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2016
Programs: BAEC GGL/CR; Hilton Diamond; Mucci des Puccis
Posts: 5,609
A weekend of BA Booking Jenga, with cancellations to a few flights I'd set up early in the TP year, and needing to be moved around. The fares were way too good to cancel for FTV, and it's been like three dimensional chess finding places to slot them.
The problem is not so much finding free weekends, as in making sure big trips aren't clobbered by returning from somewhere dodgy within two weeks of the off. I missed this point entirely yesterday, Friday, fatigued at the end of the week, and shifted them via the inestimable GGL line to just before US trips. Then I remembered that most declarations have a "have you been to x,y or z in the last 14 days" and figured that was probably quite likely to be propagated into next year. I was a bit panicked when I figured this out, having already shifted the dates via the cancellation rules, but it turned out to be OK, though one of the trips, to Budapest, booked in September, didn't seem to have the validity date of a very similar booking made at the same time. It turned out this was because of an embedded FTV from last June which limited the end date.
Anyway, so far I seem to have a Sofia B2B that's somehow managed to stick in January, and a reasonable slot in February to have a shot at getting an additional GUF now the OTP flights have shifted out into the year. And I don't know how others feel, but the optimism there might be Easter travel to Singapore and Malaysia is wearing rather thin now.
It's funny looking back to the 2018 GGL qualification year now. A year when things like non-refundable hotel bookings seemed a perfectly reasonable idea. Everything has to be carefully weighed up and contingency planned, plans become very fluid indeed. But there is just the hint things may improve, let's hope so.
The problem is not so much finding free weekends, as in making sure big trips aren't clobbered by returning from somewhere dodgy within two weeks of the off. I missed this point entirely yesterday, Friday, fatigued at the end of the week, and shifted them via the inestimable GGL line to just before US trips. Then I remembered that most declarations have a "have you been to x,y or z in the last 14 days" and figured that was probably quite likely to be propagated into next year. I was a bit panicked when I figured this out, having already shifted the dates via the cancellation rules, but it turned out to be OK, though one of the trips, to Budapest, booked in September, didn't seem to have the validity date of a very similar booking made at the same time. It turned out this was because of an embedded FTV from last June which limited the end date.
Anyway, so far I seem to have a Sofia B2B that's somehow managed to stick in January, and a reasonable slot in February to have a shot at getting an additional GUF now the OTP flights have shifted out into the year. And I don't know how others feel, but the optimism there might be Easter travel to Singapore and Malaysia is wearing rather thin now.
It's funny looking back to the 2018 GGL qualification year now. A year when things like non-refundable hotel bookings seemed a perfectly reasonable idea. Everything has to be carefully weighed up and contingency planned, plans become very fluid indeed. But there is just the hint things may improve, let's hope so.
Dec 13, 2020, 6:38 am
#14
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: City of Kingston Upon Hull
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 4,940
Well I am not quite going to get to GGL next year but hoping to hit Gold for the first time. I think I may have misunderstood the reduced TP thresholds though, my TP year ends 8th March 2021 and my silver card expiry date is April 2022, will the reduced TP threshold for qualification for gold be applicable for my TP year from March onwards or will I need the full 1500 points? Either way I will qualify, just would be nicer to get the benefits earlier.
Dec 13, 2020, 6:40 am
#15
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,945
Well I am not quite going to get to GGL next year but hoping to hit Gold for the first time. I think I may have misunderstood the reduced TP thresholds though, my TP year ends 8th March 2021 and my silver card expiry date is April 2022, will the reduced TP threshold for qualification for gold be applicable for my TP year from March onwards or will I need the full 1500 points? Either way I will qualify, just would be nicer to get the benefits earlier.