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How I booked a ticket during British Airways IT meltdown
Yesterday I wrote about how BA bumped my fare bucket from discount business ” I ” to full fare ” J ” on the long haul portion of my trip from Stockholm to Los Angeles. I’ve become a bit jaded when it comes to finding last minute award space and had waited to the very last minute to get from England to Stockholm to start my journey back to LA ( The idea behind this was that I could route to Stockholm from Manchester or London, spend a night in Stockholm, and then fly back through London on a great fare in business.) What I wasn’t expecting was a MASSIVE and COMPLETE failure of one of the biggest airlines in the world.
I’d been tracking SAS flights from Manchester, BA flights from LHR, and felt confident we would find a way to get to Stockholm on May 29th. On Saturday the 27th I was looking for award space and something happened. BA went down. I thought it was a website glitch or bad internet connection. Then the tweets started coming in on my phone. BA, as a whole, from the website to the luggage belts – WAS DOWN. My girlfriend and I were without tickets to Stockholm 48 hours before we were supposed to leave and now…the easiest and cheapest way to get there…wasn’t working. To make matters worse…the only award flights from Manchester to Stockholm via SAS were overnights that would put me in Stockholm after I was scheduled to leave to fly back to London. Uh Oh.
For the rest of Saturday and Sunday the BA site was completely down.
The only way I could find space was on expertflyer. Early Sunday morning they were showing avail…
Soooooo, while en route to pick up a cake for a Christening…I called BA.
The US line was down.
The British Line was down.
I found this number: +44 03444930748
I called it and 33 minutes and 55 seconds later I had a ticket booked 2 ticket with Avios while flights were being cancelled and standby lists expanded. Where there’s a will….there’s a way.
Less than 24 hours later…we were kicking it in the BA First Galleries Lounge at Heathrow thanks to our One World Emerald Status. I may have insta-storied it. @zacharyburrabel
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Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
- Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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