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Bits: Marriott UK weekends flash sale, British Airways scrapping ‘unaccompanied minors’ service

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News in brief:

Marriott launches a UK flash sale

Marriott has launched a flash sale which is running until 5pm next Monday 29th.

It covers 50 hotels across the UK for weekend stays before 10th April.

The headline entry price is £49 but its not clear how many rooms at how many hotels are available at that price.  The special booking page is here.

Brownie point for the first reader to recognise the UK Marriott below ….

Marriott flash sale

British Airways dropping ‘unaccompanied minors’ service

BA announced yesterday that it closing its ‘unaccompanied minors’ service, a move which will cost it a lot of business in ferrying overseas boarding school children to and from the UK.

Here is the announcement:

Despite the overall growth in our customer numbers over the last decade, demand for our Skyflyer Solo (Unaccompanied Minor) service has declined.

Having conducted a thorough review of the service, we have concluded with regret that we can no longer offer this service.

British Airways will honour all bookings that have already been made for unaccompanied minors, but new bookings will cease from today (Wednesday February 24, 2016). In line with existing policy, the airline will continue to take bookings for 12 to 18 year-olds who wish to fly independently. However, children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult aged 16 years or over.

Existing Unaccompanied Minors may have changes made to their bookings provided all travel is completed by January 31, 2017.

Following today’s announcement, any customer with an existing booking for an Unaccompanied Minor may cancel their booking and receive a full refund.

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (59)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • @mkcol says:
    25 Feb25 February 04:53

    That looks dangerously like the Northampton Marriott Hotel (blame nightshift boredom…..)

    • neil says:
      25 Feb25 February 05:00

      @mkcol, I hope you didnt cheat by rightclicking on the image and viewed the image info…. )

    • Chris H says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:26

      It is indeed, I lived there for 3 glorious months…

    • Daftboy says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:38

      I knew I recognised that Marriott! Flashbacks to 2005 and a 5 month sojourn (alternated with the Hilton down the road)…*shudder*

      I booked very late once and ended up in a “suite”, which was predictably underwhelming (jacuzzi aside)….less fun for my colleague though who was crashing with me rather than bunk with her family nearby. She decided to air out her jeans on the terrace before having to wear them in to a client site the next day for dress down Friday (having been out in pre-smoking ban days), only to awake in the cold light of a December morning to find them frozen stiff…cue furious use of the tiny in-room hairdryer to attempt to make them wearable again while battling with a dreadful hangover.

      Good times!

    • ankomonkey says:
      25 Feb25 February 09:10

      So you get the brownie point, @mkcol. Not sure if you can get some more from Amex MR or if you have status in the scheme… I hear the credit card offers 2 chocolate brownies for the price of 1 with an annual £5k spend.

    • James67 says:
      25 Feb25 February 15:11

      Where’s Northampton?

  • Johnnycl says:
    25 Feb25 February 06:11

    Will the Marriott sale rates attract points and count towards the MegaBonus promotion?

    Also T&Cs state special rates may be available for some properties on weekdays too so is worth checking no matter if you’re looking for a weekend stay or not.

  • Raks says:
    25 Feb25 February 06:57

    Shame about the BA unaccompanied service – what are the other airlines ppl use for this? Are other airlines going to follow suit?

    • Talay says:
      25 Feb25 February 07:53

      Personal preference perhaps but I wouldn’t send a child who was young enough to require a chaperone on a flight where they might be sat next to potential kiddie fiddlers etc.

      Either I find the time or we make alternative plans.

      • Rob says:
        25 Feb25 February 08:28

        There are rules about who UM’s can be sat with.

        I admit I am personally not too keen on the idea, but my wifes sister has been shuttling her kids on Emirates between Dubai and Hamburg on their own since they were very small with no ill effects!

        I think, at 8 and 4, I would now trust my kids to do this – as long as it is an airline where I know they can work the IFE!

        • Jeremy says:
          25 Feb25 February 08:53

          I used the BA service twice as 9 or 10 years old to visit my grandparents. I was seated in 6-birth row with no passengers in the two seats next to me and an air stewardess sitting with me for half the trip, and regularly coming to check I was ok for the other half. The service may have changed since but I think I was pretty safe.

          • Richmond says:
            25 Feb25 February 09:27

            I think it was standard, kids sitting in last row on the right with no one else. That’s what I noticed number of times. I didn’t know it’s called Skyflyer Solo and was always intrigued by desk with this name on Gatwick.

          • Alan says:
            25 Feb25 February 11:47

            Ah yes I remember reading about this case at the time, good on him for donating the settlement to charity too!

    • Fadi says:
      25 Feb25 February 12:28

      The first time I flew was as an unaccompanied minor. Emirates of course. In those days I was allowed to the flight deck, mid flight for a chat with the pilots.

  • Andy says:
    25 Feb25 February 08:43

    BA made such a song and dance of this service in that fly on the wall doc a few years ago!

    • TimS says:
      25 Feb25 February 11:47

      BA made a song & dance about a lot of things in that documentary which either no longer exist or were not reflected honestly in the programme in first place!

  • rams1981 says:
    25 Feb25 February 08:47

    Timely potentially. I need to hire a car in the US for 3 days. I have hertz top level membership through spire elite. Worth going through them or just getting cheapest deal?

    • John says:
      25 Feb25 February 08:59

      Hertz membership “level” doesn’t mean anything. A rental car “upgrade” just means you get a car which costs more to fuel up. At least oil is cheap these days.

    • rams1981 says:
      25 Feb25 February 10:22

      thanks. Noticed Enterprise seem to charge for the actual days used so if you take it Friday night and return Monday afternoon 4 days are charged whereas other charge for the hours actually used so you can pay fr 3 days

  • Liz says:
    25 Feb25 February 09:28

    Sorry to keep asking OT questions. 1000 pts have appeared in my IHG account as “points.com” – I had to purchase 1000 pts as part of my accelerate and for this I would receive 1000 pts towards my target – I bought 1000 pts a few weeks ago and the 1000 purchase points posted ok back then – not sure if this new 1000 pts is the bonus from the accelerate – the accelerate page does not show this activity as completed yet – would the points from the accelerate program say “points.com” ? Or do I need to query it with IHG – not done an accelerate promotion before so not sure how the points post. Has anyone else had this?

    • Rob says:
      25 Feb25 February 10:50

      I bought 1,000 and it hasn’t tracked. I put in a claim but that has not been responded to yet. I also have an outstanding claim for an app-booked stay which did not track as app-booked.

      • Liz says:
        25 Feb25 February 11:10

        Where do you see where things have tracked – is it just on the main accelerate page. I have one app booking tracked for my Jan stay – how do you raise a claim? Still not sure what that 1000 points.com is in my account.

        • DJ says:
          25 Feb25 February 11:42

          That is the Accelerate bonus for buy points and should appear on the Accelerate page in the next few days

        • Brian says:
          25 Feb25 February 11:58

          When you buy points, you get them from points.com, so the 1000 points are indeed the points you bought. They are NOT the Accelerate bonus, which will only appear once the purchase has tracked on your Accelerate page.

          Give it a few weeks and then send them an email, if it still doesn’t appear on your Accelerate page. I’m in the same boat.

          • Liz says:
            25 Feb25 February 12:19

            Yes I got the points from the actual purchase made on 26/1 but today I got this other 1000 pts from points.com – I am not expecting any other points to post at the moment except for the bonus from accelerate for purchasing said points – just thought it was odd that the accelerate bonus would show up as “points.com” in my account when it is not showing as tracked yet. So not sure if it is the actual bonus points or a welcome error??!!

          • Brian says:
            25 Feb25 February 13:10

            If it is not showing on your Accelerate page, it’s unlikely to have already posted to your account. Nor would it post as ‘points.com’, but with the name of the task, just like the other ones do. Maybe it is the bonus points – I know IHG were offering a bonus of up to 75% or something. Or maybe it’s a welcome error! 🙂

          • Liz says:
            25 Feb25 February 13:45

            Thanks Brian – that’s what I thought. I actually sent an email to IHG this morning and they have just replied. They confirmed that I have purchased the points via the Accelerate promotion but said there are technical issues that they are aware of – said if it has not posted by 8 wks to contact them again. So these points are a welcome error I think!

          • Simmo says:
            25 Feb25 February 16:08

            Very Strange! – I’ve had this post today also.

            I bought the points back in January, and the 1,000 bought posted then also.
            So Points.com has posted 1000 points twice to my IHG account & the accelerate offer hasnt been completed in the offers page.

            Will wait and see I guess.,

          • Liz says:
            25 Feb25 February 16:18

            Glad it’s not just me then! Happy to accept any free points!

    • James67 says:
      25 Feb25 February 15:24

      I wish my bank statement for this past year looked even half as good as your points and miles statements Liz 🙂 I think you must be doing close to best ever for a UK-based first year newbie. All you need mow is to win one of those million miles competitions.

      • Liz says:
        25 Feb25 February 16:03

        I just followed Rob’s and others advice and was lucky to be able to take out credit cards when the increased bonuses were on. It quickly adds up when you put everything on your cards and some monthly bills like CTax. We normally only do one big holiday per year but my husband is taking early retirement later this year and we want to travel – our income will be greatly reduced going forward so won’t be able to max out like that again but I have enough miles for the next 3 years (600k). I don’t have too many hotel points left as I have redeemed most of them for 12 nights in the US later in the year. This is my first accelerate program and I will complete it in 2 weeks time in Madrid and I will get 97K which will be fab! Just started on our 2nd BAPP. A competition win would be lovely – although a lottery win would be even better! Our neighbour won £2m on the lottery about 18 moths ago!

  • Rob says:
    25 Feb25 February 10:51

    OT, BA has just announced a major overhaul of its short haul pricing structure. Full details on HFP tomorrow. Seems OK at first glance but, as ever, the devil is in the detail ….

  • Scott says:
    25 Feb25 February 10:52

    The unaccompanied minors change may also mean children can’t be booked into a separate class of service to their parents on the same flight.

    • harry says:
      25 Feb25 February 16:27

      This seems to be confirmed on FT as one poster with a split cabin booking got the advisory email.

      What you could possibly do is book you & minor into economy then upgrade yourself only to business etc.

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