Sounds dreadful!

Using points or vouchers for upgrades is the only sure fire way of getting into a higher class of travel other than actualy paying for it in the first place.

Frequent Flyer programmes are the best way of doing this and as you are KLM Silver your membership pack will surely explain what you need to do in order to be able to upgrade your class of travel?

Some programmes are simpler than others. AA has a voucher system for its top tier fliers which works very nicely. I’m on a £300 ticket to San Francisco in a fortnights time and I am in First and Business Class all the way through because of the level of business I give AA. Works for me! 😎

An hour on the ground in Shannon easily outweighs:

a) A long car journey from Canary Wharf to Heathrow
b) Long Check in times and queues at Heathrow (15 minutes at LCY, 40 minutes at LHR)
c) A long wait for immigration at JFK

Each flight already has around 50% of its seats guaranteed by some of BA’s biggest clients, so it is profitable before it even starts.

I asked a while ago (but noone replied [:dev2:]) about what AA are going to do with regards to their ‘paint scheme’ when they finally get their 787s and the ‘bare metal finish’ will no longer work.

Nothing new there. AA fly A300s with which a bare metal finish also doesn’t work in theory, but looks identical to the rest of the fleet in practice 😉

Is BAA not responsible for the maze of Luggage belts behind the scenes at LHR?
Isn’t it this system that cloggs up, misroutes bags and has workers who don’t give a damn?
BA is based at LHR, therefore, their baggage is at the mercy of said system. No wonder they suffer huge baggage issues.

LHRs baggage system is old, tired and needs a complete re-invention.
Last I knew, that was BAA’s responsibility. And we all know how reluctant BAA are at investing money.

If the above is true, then shoving all the blame for the lost and delayed luggage onto BA is just a matter of convenience and lazy reporting.

Sort of.

BAA are responsible for the hardware, but the workers are BA. BA very much is self handling at LHR.

As for BAA not investing in the baggage system, that is not entirely true. T5 has a state of the art system which loses very few bags and the central area will be similarly upgraded with massive investment during the construction of Heathrow East.

Baggage continues to be a problem after T5 opening, but the problems are almost entirely where baggage are being transferred between terminals. The problem will diminish almost entirely when the final long haul flights move from T4 to T5 later this year, although T3 will continue to be a weak point as some flights are moving there due to lack of space in T5.

In flight internet technology has been around for years. Connexion by Boeing was the first commercial venture that was rolled out on board but the business was not a success and folded a few years ago.

El Al have had a system in place for a while now on, I think, all their long haul aircraft.

American Airlines have just launched a “trial” onboard all their 767-200 aircraft, which fly solely between New York and San Francisco/Los Angeles. This appears to be working quite a lot better although I’ve not had the chance to try it out just yet.

It will be commonplace in a few years, but for now the availability of the technology is very much on a small scale and only with a handful of specific operators and aircraft.

Not sure what CIB is, however a B fare is in most instances refundable.

How on earth did you manage to find a ticket from the UK to Australia for that price, let alone in such a high booking class?