janjan

Trying to book flight next May with a MME connection. Kept getting error. When I look at Logainair website, the MME flights stop end March.

If they do get extended will I be able to add the connection later with BA?

KARFA

Yes you could, but it would be treated as a voluntary change and you would be liable for fare differences if applicable.

lhrpete

FWIW to regress a few posts the SID for both MME and NCL was Pole Hill on a south bound departure and equally that was where you left the airway on a northbound to make a more localised approach to either airport. Equally south easterlys were SID to Dogger but I don't know the rest of them. AFAIK, that's still the standard practice from both places. Pole Hill SID also included places like DUB. Routings to and from Pole Hill were not as tight as SIDs from for example LHR where there is no deviation from the SID designated.

UTFB

Some observations after taking this flight recently from LHR to MME as part of a connection after arriving in LHR from MAD on IB:

• Seamless transfer via bus from T5 to T2
• Minimal passport / border processing time
• Interestingly I was asked to show my IB baggage tag at T2 just as I was boarding. Looked like they were doing this for everyone with checked luggage (or at least everyone coming from a connection). I noticed when I arrived at MME the tag had been reprinted.
• Can’t comment on lounge access at T2 as I didn’t have a huge amount of time so just waited in the main departure lounge with a coffee. As a Gold member on a J ticket it wasn’t very clear to me if I could access anything in T2 (but I didn’t really look into it).
• Aircraft was a bit tatty onboard.
• My seat (12A) was allocated at booking and at no stage was I able to change it either via BA app, BA website, Loganair website or Loganair app, even at online check-in.
• Light pax load 14 total
• No service at all “due to covid restrictions”.
• Enjoyed flying over my house on final approach.
• In my house within 25 mins of touching down including collecting luggage.
• Received 20 TPs and 1,000 Avios for this flight - it was part of a J booking including Iberia segments.
• This flight was booked via Expedia as it wasn’t possible to book the itinerary with J legs onwards from LHR via BA.com
• Will use it again due to the convenience for me and meaning I can avoid going up to NCL when I live 10 mins from MME.
• Awaiting clarity on lounge access at MME when I make the reverse journey soon.

UTFB

So my return leg MME-LHR-MAD had a few issues.

Seat selection - not possible at all via MMB, Loganair app or website until I contacted them via social media. However they still wanted £6 to choose any seat (£9 for exit row) and there was no way round this despite me querying it with both Loganair and BA.

Baggage - despite my booking being all one ticket to MAD, this wasn’t recognised by Loganair, they said due to the itinerary including an IB segment, so they wouldn’t check my case all the way to MAD meaning I had to collect it at LHR T2 and re-check it in at T5 which was very inconvenient.

Lounge access at MME - not possible. Whilst I have a Priority Pass card and still got in with that, having a BA 125- ticket in J (at least for the LHR-MAD legs) and BAEC Gold didn’t count for anything (this may be correct though and if so I accept that). Interestingly the lady at the lounge had no knowledge whatsoever of BA codeshares using MME / Loganair and I was the first person to ever ask.

On board - aircraft very tatty (as per inbound leg) and minimal onboard service - 250ml water bottle and a Tunnocks bar.

At LHR when I finally made my way to T5 I went to the First wing but was told I couldn’t use it as it’s an Iberia flight so I had to go to the Iberia desks. I was also informed that the First wing closes at a certain time (news to me??) so I wouldn’t have been able to use it to go straight into the First lounge anyway.

Finally - only received 5 TPs and 625 Avios for the MME-LHR leg compared with 40 + 1250 if I’d travelled from Newcastle (and 20 + 1000 for the inbound).

Overall a bit disappointing as the airport and Tees Valley mayor have been waging a big social media campaign about the LHR route, BA codeshares, easy to travel onwards anywhere in the world from MME with bags going all the way etc but clearly not always the case (excuse the pun).

So in future I have to weigh up the convenience factor of MME over NCL, against the slightly higher cost, lack of interlining baggage, minimal onboard service with no alcohol, tatty aircraft, no free seat selection and fewer TPs and Avios....

lcylocal

A few thoughts on this. The local of through checking luggage might be because of a lack of interline agreement between Loganair and Iberia? Can someone with Expertflyer check?

I think lounge access is right. Loganair don’t offer business class and BA don’t have a lounge agreement at MME as they don’t fly there. Even then lounge access on code shares outside of Oneworld can be quite restricted.

The TP sounds wrong. What fare class were you booked into? What did Expedia say about the class of this segment compared to the previous one you mentioned?

My experience of these types of codeshares - airline X ticket, with travel on airlines Y and Z who both parter X but not each other - has often been a bit lumpy.

UTFB

I can't see from my Expedia booking what fare(s) I was booked into.

I wouldn't normally book with Expedia but this was the only way to book this itinerary - even speaking direct with BA before I booked they confirmed it was simply not possible to book from MME on a Loganair codeshare with an onward connection in a premium cabin.

According to my transaction history on ba.com, the fares were as follows:

MAD-LHR (C/I)
LHR-MME (M/B)
MME-LHR (M/O)
LHR-MAD (nothing shown yet so will be the usual chasing to credit these, as it was on the inbound and which it is on 90% of my IB sectors).

corporate-wage-slave

M/B is nearly the most expensive economy band - second only to full fat Y, and that attracts 20 TPs on shorthaul. O on the other hand is one of the lowest fare bandings. It's entirely possible to construct this sort of fare so the TP award looks about right. When there are 4 fares involved here (or possibly 2 fares and 2 add-ons) then it's tricky to spot a super expensive fare lurking in the middle. In particular a B add on that route can go beyond £600, round trip.

tigertanaka

I recently flew NCL-LHR-CPH/ARN-LHR-MME (timings meant that I could not do the domestic leg from the same airport).

Coming home I was unable to check in online but did it at the desk at ARN. However, the agent was only able to check me in as far as LHR despite the trip being on one ticket and the LHR-MME leg being on the BA codeshare. I arrived at LHR, went to the T5 transfer desk and was told "no we can't help you, this is a LM operated flight, you need to get your boarding pass from T2", I took the airside transfer bus to T2, went through the bag scan and approached the UK border and then the boarding pass check. I was obviously unable to provide a boarding pass either person but both (after checking my passport and asking a few questions about where I was connecting on to), let me into the departure area. No Loganair desks there but when the gate opened I was able to get my BP from the gate agent.

Reflecting that:
a) if I had checked luggage then I would have had a much more complicated journey
b) should I really have been let through into the T2 departure area without a BP?
c) would I have failed conformance if I had not collected my boarding pass (effectively checked in) as soon as the gate opened (and potentially got booted off the flight)?
d) why does the IT just not work (after all BA & LM have a relationship going back years)?

corporate-wage-slave

b) is definitely OK. What they used to do was to print a QR code, stick it on the passport and then the QR code could be linked to the boarding pass in due course. I didn't know that had stopped, but it was probably unnecessary.
c) T2 has positive boarding but not conformance per se, and certainly not Ready to Fly, so that's not an issue. So long as you get to the gate in time a skill gate operator can do the rest.
d) Much of aviation IT is pretty shambolic, but it's always very difficult to justify spending big sums on niche cases like yours. I've been able to do BA + LM OLCI and boarding pass via BA.com (but not the app), but that would be in the context of domestic - Scottish sectors, get no choice on seat allocation, but obviously no COVID or international transit rules to work around.

I think (but obviously wouldn't have experience) that checked luggage can be through checked via the luggage system, which is separate from the passenger systems, and then the agent could, if it was useful, add the baggage reference on to the LM passenger system.

janjan

Just had notification 2 x MME-LHR cancellations. 11th and 25th January. This is on top of two previous ones in November and January.
With only two flights per day it means a 25hour layover in LHR.
I dont know who has the problems here, but this is not the benefit I thought it would be when the route was announced.