VS400 LHR-DXB 14 Oct 06 (Upper)

Ok, I know we've not gone on this one yet, but I suspect that it may turn out to be a saga. Plan was to go to Dubai, for the first time, duting the October school week (in Scotland). I decided to book and pay for premium economy, and see if there was a chance of an upgrade to Upper, especially for the night flight on the way out.

Booked it no problem, got a good deal on the flights, and booked us into the Jumeirah Beach Hotel for the duration. [:D] Bad news was that there was only one Upper class upgrade available. Oh well, I'm sure the wife and boy won't mind...er....oh...[:I]

Now, we needed to get to LHR for the flight, that should be no problem as we have some freebie tickets from GNER to travel first class anywhere in the country. I get these when I have been working in Edinburgh and travelling by GNER daily - it's not a bad 'frequent flyer' deal at all. So off I go to find my vouchers which were in the kitchen, last seen just before we ripped the kitchen out and replaced it. Oh dear. No vouchers to be found. Searched the house. Nothing. searched the car. Nope. Left it for a while, and looked again. Nada. [:(!]

We had a few weeks to sort someting out, and after searching again (and again) we stil had no tickets. I took a chance and emailed GNER, explaining that we were planning to use the tickets for a holiday, we appreciated that it was our fault, we didn't expect any joy etc etc. Imaginemy surprise when I got a phone call a couple of hours later telling me that as a gesture of good will, GNER were goint to send me some replacement vouchers. Woohoo! All I had to do was fill in a form saying that the vouchers were lost or stolen, and they'd send out the new ones. Great.

Form duly arrived a few days later, I quickly filled it in and returned it. Vouchers were sure to arrive in time, we had over 2 weeks before we needed to book.

With one week to booking deadline, I sent an email thanking GNER for their generosity, but pointing out that we had no vouchers as yet, and that we needed them pretty soon in order to meet their 7 day advance booking requirement.

No reply. Silence. Nothing.

I found some BMI flights for the return journey going for 6 quid. I took them, so we were at least covered for getting home. The outward flights were expensive, with the 14th being the first day of the school hols, so I (foolishly?) decided to rely on GNER.

Today is the day before the 7 day advance booking cutoff, we have no vouchers, flights are hideously expensive (for a family) [:0] and we are now looking at hiring a car to get to LHR. I have just sent a disappointed email to GNER thanking them for getting our hopes up and then dashing them. [V] I await a reply.

But on the bright side - Mrs S insisted that boy and I went for a haircut last weekend. Which reminded me of something. I made a couple of calls, and told her that we would not be going for harcuts as requested, as we were now booked into the cowshed at the UC Lounge for haircuts. We got our UC upgrades!!! [:D][:D][:D]


I suspect that there may be more to follow, not just the trip report. [8D]

Originally posted by v8gaz
Today is the day before the 7 day advance booking cutoff, we have no vouchers, flights are hideously expensive (for a family) [:0] and we are now looking at hiring a car to get to LHR. I have just sent a disappointed email to GNER thanking them for getting our hopes up and then dashing them. [V] I await a reply.

If you do need to hire a car for one way try using:

http://www.britishcarrental.co.uk/

which is a portal into Europcar.

Worked pretty well for me earlier this year..but research where to fill up at LHR as I didn't and ended up getting stung by the rental company's price per litre (to which they then add VAT..)

Paul

Thanks Paul - I got a great one-way quote from holiday-autos.com - how about £58 for a 24hr 1 way hire of a Mondeo class car? The one way charge is 35 quid, do i think thats ok! I'll try yours as well for comparison,

cheers

g

Latest installment :-

GNER vouchers arrived yesterday, so I got them when I arrived home yesterday. Called GNER to plead my case, given that we are now past the 7 day booking deadline. I explained that I had been chasing these, and that GNER were aware that I planned to travel on the 14th. Ah, said the booking line - we can't do that without authorisation from GNERTime, the 'frequent flier' team. Called them - ah, no we can't authorise, we need to pass to management, and we rarely allow bookings with less than 7 days notice. Ah well, don't expect much. At least I have the car booked. It's a long drive, and I'd rather be sat in first class having a glass of something nice, but thems the breaks.

So, today, Wednesday, I get a call from GNER bookings, to complete my booking. Great - we're going by train after all. Ah, says the man, you can't go on the 8:15 as requested, there is no 8:15. Theres a load of engineering work (great timing, start of the Scottish school hols) and some of the trains are replaced by buses to Newcastle, and the rest are cancelled. What this means is a long bus journey (no 1st class [:0]) followed by an already disrupted train journey that should, that's should, get me into london in time for our haircut appointments at 5:30 [ii]

So my choice is risk the train/bus combo, or knacker myself driving to LHR. Hmm...[:?]

Originally posted by v8gaz
Thanks Paul - I got a great one-way quote from holiday-autos.com - how about £58 for a 24hr 1 way hire of a Mondeo class car? The one way charge is 35 quid, do i think thats ok! I'll try yours as well for comparison,

cheers

Good deal I think (though I see things have moved on). I shall be looking to holidayautos in the future if I need the same facility. My charge was about £60 each way. It was still cheaper than leaving the car at LHR on the way out and then having to bus / taxi 4 of us from LGW-LHR on the return.

Hope it all works out...so long as you're in the CH on time you can then relax big time (or so I understand[:#]).

Paul

Gaz,

Isn't there a Motherwell - Newcastle train option changing when you get there???

Or what about a one way drop car hire to Newcastle then train?

All very messy and annoying I must say.

Regards

John

John,

It's bus replaement services all the way to Newcastle, which rather defeats the purpose of having first class tickets. I think it involves several changes of bus as well, so a nightmare journey.

We've decided to leave Friday night, andget a couple of hours in so that Saturday is a bit more relaxed. As the boy pointed out, it means the holiday starts a day earlier!

At last - the actual trip!

I picked up the hire car in Glasgow on the Friday night, my mum drove in and met me with my 8 yr old son, and out 6 month old black labrador (Max). We were given the option of an automatic vectra, or for an extra £3 per day, a vectra mabual with nav. As I'm not a big fan of automatics, and a big fan of sat-nav, we splashed out the extra 3 quid and upgraded [8D]

Off we went, and dropped the dog off at the kennels, and by the time we got home, it was after 7pm. Mrs S was there waiting for us with her 4 cases (yes, 4 cases for 4 nights in Dubai!! [:0] ), so we fed the goldfish, packed up, locked up the house and set off for our overnight stop at Penrith Travelodge (no expense spared[8D])

The road was nice and clear, and we got there in ample time to open a bottle of wine and relax in our, er, salubrious surroundings. We had stayed in Travelodge family room before, when we drove down to the motor show in Birmingham one yaer, and it was actually very nice - clean, roomy, cheap, everything you need for a quick overnight stop. Penrith TL, however, is a dump. Avoid[V]

we got up next morning, and boy and I went for a tasty breakfast of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup (mmmmm!). Mrs S was having some last minute panic about her beachwear appearance, and so elected to miss breakfast[ii]

we set off around 10am, heading for heathrow, not wanting to appeat too early, but also not wanting to risk getting stuck in a jam and losing valuable lounge-time. As it turned out, we made the right decision leaving on the friday. We had just left, when I got a text from my mum telling us that a lorry had crashed on the M74, the main road out of Scotland, and closed the road for 3 hours [:0]

The road down was remarkably clear, and the sat-nav's countdown of the distance left made the journey bearable for both me and Cameron.

we arrived at LHR at 2:50, and dropped Mrs S and the luggage of at T3, then took the car back to the rental place. There was a shuttle bus just leaving, so in no time we were back at T3, and checking in for UC [:D]

We whizzed through fastrack security (whizzed being a relative term [:w]), being delayed only briefly by the couple and their triplet toddlers [:0] running back and forth through the metal detector[:D] and stopped briefly at Boots to replenish any liquids and potions that we didn't try and bring through security.

Then it was off to the Lounge - first time since the revamp. We took the lift (Mrs S had 2 bags to carry on for her overnight on the plane ) and arrived at the most impressive new entrance. As we walked in, we all stopped and gasped - the new lounge is most impressive. We toured around, settled in our respective locations (me, email, boy, games machines, Mrs S, bar[:D]) and enjoyed the place. Cameron spotted the Gibson guitar display, and we went for a look. As we got there, the Gibson rep arrived. he explained that he was there to give demos and lessons if required. I had a haircut booked, so I left boy in the capable hands of Mr Gibson, getting a lesson on a VA branded Flying V[8D]

Eventually we all got together for a delicious meal, followed by some quality bar time, before being ushered through to the gate.

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