I consider myself to be a very loyal person. Once someone or something has caught my attention and come into my life it takes a lot for me to ever really lose my affection and let that same thing leave my life.

At times I can be quite fanatical about my allegiance and single minded in my approach. Whether it is towards a relationship which is well past its sell by date or a designer label that suited me when I was 18 but at 31 looks ridiculous, sometimes my loyalty totally impairs my judgment.

My relationship with British Airways is a perfect example. I have always been a big BA fan ever since my first ever flight with them aged 5. I remember admiring the pretty air stewardesses and the handsome air stewards and wondered how real life people could look like my Barbie and Ken dolls. A decade later and as a stroppy teenager I was utterly delighted when I got upgraded on a flight to Kenya due to an accidental overbooking. The luxury of travelling business class (and the free upgrade!) intensifying my zeal.

Such was my passion for BA that when I worked for Miramax I point blank refused to fly any other airline but BA. This led to a number of rows with my then boss, the feisty but wonderful Harvey Weinstein whose eyes used to water when he got my expenses sheet to sign off. Why oh why, he would ask wearily do you have to travel BA, when flying another airline will provide the same quality of service but will save me thousands? I would repeatedly answer that I loved BA, felt comfortable flying with them and really didn’t like flying any other airlines.

However like many great love affairs the love was one sided and BA finally came a cropper last December. I was spending my first Christmas in the slopes and it was my first ski trip for seven years. To say I was excited was an understatement. On the morning of the flight I received a text message half an hour before we were due at the airport to say that the flight had been cancelled with no other explanation. It was the 22nd of December and as I was headed to Zermatt which is a very long train journey from Geneva it was almost not worth going on the trip unless we got ourselves on another flight immediately. Good old EasyJet came to the rescue and later that evening we sat in our chalet looking at the Matterhorn so grateful that we had managed to get another flight and make our Christmas in the snow. It was a truly magical holiday, one of the best Christmases I have ever had and will always look back on fondly. We all forgot about the BA flight issue until the long train journey back to Geneva when we started calculating how much we had spent as a result of the cancelled flight. As a group of four adults and two adorable little ones we spent approximately £1,500 as a direct consequence of BA’s cancellation of our flight. Soon after we returned I wrote a long letter to BA and asked them to reimburse us for the expenses we incurred and to refund the cancelled flights. I explained (in detail) my longstanding love affair with them and how I felt that they should not only do the right thing and refund our flights and our expenses, but also make a gesture towards loyal customers to show they valued our business.

Four months on and I have only just had my flight refunded (I don’t believe my fellow passengers have as yet) and been offered a mere £94 compensation which I rejected yet has been sent to me in a cheque anyway. And this has been after four months and numerous correspondences. It has utterly enraged me that BA appear to have absolutely no interest in doing the right thing (they are actually obliged under EU laws to reimburse customers for expenses incurred as a result of cancelled flights) for the right reason – to show a long standing customer that they do appreciate their loyalty and wish to retain their custom. Like many flagging relationships sometimes you need a real slap in the face to get your perspective back and walk away.

And that’s exactly what I am doing. I am now a fully fledged born again Virgin. Mr Branson will be getting my business and loyalty with pleasure…

Q: My boyfriend has just got a job working for the New York Post and he is transferring over there in about six weeks time. We have been dating for two years and are living together and fully intend to get married one day. We really do not want the distance to break us up and so my boyfriend has suggested that I just move over there with him and continue my freelance stylist work but I am not sure if this is legal or not as from what I understand the Americans have very strict visa rules.

I would be grateful if you could provide some clarity on the visa rules.

A: “I’m an alien, I’m an illegal alien, I am an Englishman in New York” - Sting.

Our Yankee cousins love to term non Americans without the correct visa for their stay as ‘illegal aliens’. The consequences of being found to be an ‘illegal alien’ are rather harsh. You will be put on the next plane back home (wherever that is) and will have a big black mark against your name at the US immigration office meaning in the future they are entitled to refuse you entry into the country as a result of your previous visa issues.

Under the visa waiver program you can enter the USA for 90 days or less for tourism or business. So you can use this visa waiver to legitimately be in the USA for business reasons as well as personal. You should be eligible to travel under the visa waiver unless you have been convicted of a criminal offence/found to have links with terrorism or been previously refused entry to the USA. You can also apply for a H1B work visa permit, the problem with this is it requires you to be sponsored by a US company and only your US employer will be able to apply for this visa for you. As you are self employed this isn’t appropriate for you.

You don’t mention what type of visa your boyfriend has but I am presuming it is a H1B visa which has been arranged by his employer. If that is the case then under that visa if you were his spouse you would be entitled to live with him in the US and be covered by his visa.

However getting married just to stay in New York with him does seem a bit extreme but if he is planning on being there long term (under the H1B visa you can normally live and work in the USA for six years) then you may need to consider your other options as your visa waiver will only allow you to be in the country for 90 days, you will then have to leave the country and re-enter under a further visa waiver. It is possible that if you try and use this system to your advantage by leaving every 90 days and coming back to the UK to see your family or going to Mexico or somewhere and then returning to the US that the immigration authorities will work out what you are up to and refuse you re-entry which could potentially mean you are never allowed back into the US again.

I would consider your options carefully with a specialist Visa advisor and also discuss the future with your boyfriend, you need to be aware of the fact that you can’t keep using the visa waiver program indefinitely and at some point you will have to work out whether your future lies together across the pond. If it does then it may just be easier to take that next step in your relationship that bit sooner and formalise your relationship in the near future. Good luck with the move to NYC - my second favourite city in the world!

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