British Airways, Terminal 4, Heathrow, London, UK
My tickets for the UK trip were booked with the British Airways. Gradually, it is coming to a stage when I do not feel that enthusiastic about flying anymore, but then it is rare that I get to watch back to back movies ever in my life, apart from a flight. I will write more about the flight later but this is to give the BA thumbs up for a different reason.
I found the prices in UK a little bit strange. Buy something and you will drown in change. I mean if the price is 5.94 pounds you get 4 coins of 1 penny each. A few purchases later, my handbag was full of small change that was unfamiliar. Try as I might, I could not get rid of them at the speed at which they were coming.
So, finally when I took the flight back home, I still had a lot of loose change. Then I spotted a good thing. Along with the Bose headphones (that don’t work at times) was an envelope where BA in collaboration with UNICEF was asking to give the loose change (that is anyway useless for me at my home destination) for the fund. So that is where all the loose change went from my handbag. I believe this is a really good idea.
On board coin collection program is a good concept. United Airlines has that program too. Other airlines are catching up.Over here in Kuwait, the Red Crescent Society (equivalent of Red Cross elsewhere) accepts coins from anywhere in the world.
I read somewhere that British coins are the heaviest in the world, even after they have reduced the size of some of them e.g. the 50p piece. I think that may be true although it does make them easier to get hold of than, for example, a eurocent coin! Anyway, I generally save foreign coins in those plastic film cartons (remember those – before we all went digital?!) and then when I realise I am never going to visit a country again – or when the country changes currency – put them in the charity boxes at airports.
You might also see collection boxes in shops and malls. Many times you can take these small change, and straightaway dump them in the charity box on the billing counter..
Indica, Qaminante and Arun, thanks a lot for sharing your experiences. I do hope our small deeds do make a small difference.
Believe me these tiny pennies are a headache in the US too… I always get rid of them at McDonald’s “Daan-Petika”.
thats indeed a shrewd idea. hey whats the dear ol lady in the previous post doing in the foto.
Thanks for sharing Atul.I agree Poison. And the dear lady was just adjusting her hat when I clicked the picture.
If you happen to be in UK again, here is one more solution to get rid of these penny coins. If you have loads of them, just go to a Tesco store and locate a Coinstar machine. Put them in the machine and in return the machine will issue you a voucher which you can redeem against purchases made from Tesco. Alternately you can donate them and the machine will issue you a receipt for it.Cheers,Anuj
Anuj, thanks a lot for sharing, whenever I head to the UK next I will keep all the suggestion in mind.