Globaliser

I've learned something new today. And I lived in an adjacent area for over a decade!

For my own part, my apologies for trying to correct the (common) misconception that "the first airline's allowance governs the whole ticket".

In part, because the UA website seems to give misleading information. If it's wrong (and it immediately looks wrong to me), it's hardly surprising if passengers get confused. Using the calculator and inputs of FRA-IAD in "Business or First", the website returns: General and non-members in Business or First cabin 1st Bag 2nd Bag Weight per bag Standard: $0 Prepaid: $0 Standard: $0 Prepaid: $0 50lbs (23kgs) Below that, it says (when you open the drop-down): Overweight bags $200 extra per bag 51 to 70 lbs (24 to 32 kg)

It's a bit more complicated than this. For this itinerary (because it ends in the US), assuming that the bags are checked at AMS and next collected in the US: First, you have to identify the first marketing carrier. This is the airline whose code appears for the first sector on your ticket (which may not be the operating airline). Then you have to find out whether that airline has chosen to use IATA's Most Significant Carrier rule, or to apply its own baggage rules. If the choice is to use the MSC rule, then the MSC is the airline that operates the flight from Europe to the US (FRA-IAD in this case), and that airline's baggage rules apply. For the OP, this may all end up coming to the same result. But "it's the rules of the first operating airline" is a misleading summary that's sometimes wrong and can therefore cause problems. Fortunately, in most cases the ticket will clearly show the correct result. Stepping back, I'd be very surprised if the correct result is anything other than what 6rugrats has said. But in that case, the UA website does seem to be baffling.

In your opinion, based on your extensive and in-depth knowledge of how the industry works? Repeating the same old stuff on thread after thread in this forum doesn't make it any more true.

Yes - think of it as the industry's equivalent of long Covid.

Well, it's the Daily Mail, innit?

And your point is? Airlines all over the world are having big problems at the moment. So are airports. None of this is news (at least to anyone who reads news). This is happening to both government-owned and privately-owned companies alike (as well as non-air transport companies like cruise lines). So nationalising or regulating airlines isn't going to achieve anything, let alone solve these problems. But to see that, you have to know a bit about what the industry's problems actually are, rather than just bleating "Waaah, I don't like it!" from the narrow point of view of a passenger.

Welcome back! There really wasn't much going on here for a long time, and I'm only back myself because of a possibility that we might do a cruise this year. But that plan has hit a date clash, so you may all be rid of me again for a while.

Friday morning, 2 September 2022? I reckon that from near Tower Bridge, this will probably take you closer to 2½ hours by road because you're starting from the "wrong" side of central London. If you're already inside the Congestion Charge zone, so that you have to pay that £15 extra simply to get picked up, then a bit of time might be saved by taking a route that goes through the centre of town. But going around the eastern edge of the CC zone is unlikely to be fast on a Friday morning. Schools will have re-started the previous day so those who have children will already be back from their summer holidays.

The shady side. Sadly, sunflight.net seems to be down at present.

Moored for about 55 minutes!

I haven't yet come out of the Elizabeth Line deep platforms at Paddington myself, but there will be step-free access to mainline station level. You should be able to get between street level and the deep platforms by lift (elevator) at both Canary Wharf and Paddington. When you get to mainline station level at Paddington, you will be near platform 1. As things stand, the Heathrow Express normally uses platforms 6 and 7; if you want to continue on the Elizabeth Line, departures to Heathrow normally use platform 11. I think that Elizabeth Line rolling stock is actually just as luggage-friendly as the Heathrow Express. The whole system has been designed for accessibility.

Then you should know better than to suggest to the public that they have a contractual entitlement to the times published in schedules. So what? Airlines have to overbook flights, otherwise they would go out half empty (and fares would have to be double what they are). Airlines don't like to oversell flights, because that costs them a lot of money, but the random nature of the business means that it does sometimes happen.

This is very near one little-known but worthwhile museum: the Museum of London Docklands. The hotel is also very close to Canary Wharf Elizabeth Line station. Farringdon station (especially if you use the Long Lane exit) is reasonably close to St Paul's, and there are interchanges to other lines at all the central London Elizabeth Line stations. The Elizabeth Line is fully integrated into the TfL fare structure, so you can treat these like normal Tube journeys. It's a significantly longer walk to get to Canary Wharf Jubilee Line Tube. West India Quay DLR is right next door to the hotel. Trains go from here direct to Bank; you'd have to do a same-platform change at Westferry (or Limehouse or Shadwell) for a Tower Gateway train. NB: DLR trains from Bank towards Lewisham do not stop at West India Quay. Either get off at Canary Wharf DLR and walk back to the hotel (it's a very short distance between the two stations), or get a Beckton or Woolwich Arsenal train, get off at Poplar and walk back to the hotel (also a pretty short walk). In August, to get from Canary Wharf Elizabeth Line to Heathrow you will still need to change at Paddington. You will come up from the deep platform to the street-level mainline station, where you have a choice of using the Heathrow Express (for a separate fare) or continuing on the Elizabeth Line from mainline platforms. Through trains to Heathrow on the Elizabeth Line are not expected to start running until this autumn. But if you have lots of luggage, then you might want to think about one of the usual suspects for car transfers.

Are you wanting help with the two itineraries (which look very similar), or are you really asking about Celebrity vs Princess? As usual for British Isles cruises, there are a number of ports of call that really ought to be visited separately, not from a ship.

Trainspotting? Or is it still too early in the life of this thread for this suggestion?

This is a standard provision in airline contracts all over the world, including in jurisdictions in which consumer protection is strong. There are good reasons for it, because airline operations are inherently unstable. Safety causes many delays, and that alone justifies the contract provision even if it also benefits the airline at other times like when there's a staffing shortage. So I wouldn't fancy anyone's chances of getting it struck down. In the EU, the route taken was to overlay legislative rights on top of the contract, rather than fiddling with what the contract could contain. For what it's worth, in case anyone thinks that the standard provision is wrapped up in incomprehensible legalese, here are the relevant sentences from four big US airlines. American Airlines: "We do our best to be on time but our flight schedule is not guaranteed and not part of this contract." Delta: "Delta will exercise reasonable efforts to transport you and your baggage from your origin to your destination with reasonable dispatch, but published schedules, flight times, aircraft types, seat assignments, and similar details reflected in the ticket or Delta’s published schedules are not guaranteed and form no part of this contract." Southwest: "Flight schedules are subject to change without notice, and times shown are not guaranteed." United: "Times shown on tickets, timetables, published schedules or elsewhere, and aircraft type and similar details reflected on tickets or UA’s schedule are not guaranteed and form no part of this contract." So this is absolutely clear. You have no contractual entitlement. What is more entertaining is people who make grand pronouncements about the industry when they clearly don't even understand the most basic things about it.

You'd be wrong.

Her first class ticket didn't mean anything either. It was the £3,000 per person extra that she paid on top of that.

These days, the biggest difference is usually this: In premium economy, you sleep sitting up. In business, you sleep lying down. Surely the answer to this is "all of them"? In any case, there's not a lot of point doing any detailed pricing for flights that are almost 15 months away. It may be 3 or 4 months before you can even book anything; and if you book as soon as bookings open, you may end up paying more than if you wait.

Unsurprisingly, Thu 30 June (5 nights) now seems to be off sale (judging by the NCL website - although I can only see the UK version). But Tue 5 July (9 nights) is still on sale.

This one comment shows how little you understand about the business. The scheduled times of departure and arrival are not part of your contract, and you have no contractual entitlement to them. So yes: If you think you are entitled to get to your destination at "approximately the contract time", you do indeed have an excessive sense of entitlement. So if you genuinely think this, you really don't understand how this business works.

She's moved off the dock. It's 14:45 local time.

Understood, thanks. I was also thinking about the Hotel Hoppa when I suggested that staying at Paddington might also be an idea. I reckon that in some circumstances, you could have travelled to Paddington and got checked in at the Hilton there before the Hotel Hoppa has even turned up at your Heathrow terminal to take you to a supposedly near-airport hotel.