Saturday, February 24, 2007
Giving Up Booze
I have given up alcohol for lent.
As a result, I'm drinking lots of diet coke. And actually, I'm not hating the whole thing as much as I thought. Having said that, we're only 4 days in so far.
As a result, I'm drinking lots of diet coke. And actually, I'm not hating the whole thing as much as I thought. Having said that, we're only 4 days in so far.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
In a moment of arrogence...
...I have just emailed that blog to British Airways. Their auto-reply assures me that "your email is important to us and will be responded to as soon as possible, therefore it is not necessary to resend your email at any point. We thank you for your patience."
It'd be cool if they respond!
It'd be cool if they respond!
BA Executive Club
There are some things in life I really can't be arsed with - and high on the list is consumer loyalty cards. Apart from ones that are actually useful (Blockbuster... er... well that was a short list), I avoid them. I don't have a Best Buy card, a Kroger card, or a Barnes and Noble card.
I did, for a short while, have one for Borders. Whenever I bought something there I would show them my bar code which they'd then scan, and in return, I'd get a discount of zero. Not overly satisfying.
However, having got into the habit of flying transatlantic 3 or 4 times a year, Air Miles would seem to be an obvious one. I joined American Airlines' AAdvantage system (see what they did there) which is cool because if you fly with their partners, you can still collect points.
Good news: One of their partners is British Airways, who I prefer to fly with to London.
Bad news: I recently discovered in the small print that if you're flying a route that AA also fly (including DFW to Gatwick) then you can't claim the points. Which means that all this time, I've been giving my AA number to British Airways, who have been nodding, scanning it in, and then I've got bugger all out of it. Much like the Borders scenario.
So it seemed sensible to join BA's Executive Club. No doubt it'd take me 10 flights to be eligable for an extra pack of pretzils, but hey, you don't know if you don't try.
Here's the catch though: they won't let me join!
Why? Because you have to have flown with them in the last three months on an "eligable flight". Then you can claim any flights within the last six months. But all my flights in the last three months (which includes Dallas to London twice) have been "ineligable flights" because I've gone for the cheaper tickets.
This leaves me with the following options...
1. Upgrade my next ticket for around $250 so I can join the club. Please note, all I'll be upgrading is the category of ticket - I'll still be in the depths of cattle class.
2. Wish I'd never started looking into the whole thing.
Oh... hold on... I've thought of a far better solution...
3. Bollocks to BA, I'm flying American Airlines next time.
I did, for a short while, have one for Borders. Whenever I bought something there I would show them my bar code which they'd then scan, and in return, I'd get a discount of zero. Not overly satisfying.
However, having got into the habit of flying transatlantic 3 or 4 times a year, Air Miles would seem to be an obvious one. I joined American Airlines' AAdvantage system (see what they did there) which is cool because if you fly with their partners, you can still collect points.
Good news: One of their partners is British Airways, who I prefer to fly with to London.
Bad news: I recently discovered in the small print that if you're flying a route that AA also fly (including DFW to Gatwick) then you can't claim the points. Which means that all this time, I've been giving my AA number to British Airways, who have been nodding, scanning it in, and then I've got bugger all out of it. Much like the Borders scenario.
So it seemed sensible to join BA's Executive Club. No doubt it'd take me 10 flights to be eligable for an extra pack of pretzils, but hey, you don't know if you don't try.
Here's the catch though: they won't let me join!
Why? Because you have to have flown with them in the last three months on an "eligable flight". Then you can claim any flights within the last six months. But all my flights in the last three months (which includes Dallas to London twice) have been "ineligable flights" because I've gone for the cheaper tickets.
This leaves me with the following options...
1. Upgrade my next ticket for around $250 so I can join the club. Please note, all I'll be upgrading is the category of ticket - I'll still be in the depths of cattle class.
2. Wish I'd never started looking into the whole thing.
Oh... hold on... I've thought of a far better solution...
3. Bollocks to BA, I'm flying American Airlines next time.
