Bits: 15% off Iberia flights from the UK, craziest trip report ever?, Aeroplan devalues

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• Rohan says:

  27 Sep27 September 08:26

  What a trip report ! Fantastic!

  • Leo says:

    27 Sep27 September 09:48

    Well done to the Avis staff who come out best from that TR. Sorry but that bloke needs to get a life.

    • nick says:

      28 Sep28 September 08:45

      You’re in the wrong place.

• Kathy says:

  27 Sep27 September 09:26

  I’m amazed at the dedication and planning involved in that points run! I can’t even seen to manage to do the obvious ones – I finally succumbed and bought a new iPhone yesterday from Argos, having kept the old one for 4 years. As I stood in the supermarket afterwards I realised I should have cleared the local Tescos out of Argos gift cards and earnt a bundle of clubcard points from buying it.

  Gah!

  • James67 says:

    27 Sep27 September 09:30

    I didn’t even know tesco sold argos giftcards.

    • Erico1875 says:

      27 Sep27 September 10:45

      Its a crime punishable with an hour long points lecture in my family for anyone to buy anything from Argos or B&Q without visiting Tesco first 🙂

      • James67 says:

        27 Sep27 September 14:58

        I’ve always been a bit lazy when it came to the smaller amounts of miles but being avios-poor at the moment I guess it’s time I upped my game.

  • Jonathan says:

    27 Sep27 September 09:40

    Plus use reserve & collect via Virgin shopaway or ba and get 4 per £

    • Erico1875 says:

      27 Sep27 September 10:53

      can you then use the gift cards to pay at the counter?

    • Kathy says:

      27 Sep27 September 12:54

      Didn’t even think of that!! So that’s about 6000 miles I missed out on yesterday.

      Gah!!

      • Brian says:

        27 Sep27 September 13:29

        So return it! And then buy it the ‘proper’ way!

        • Kathy says:

          27 Sep27 September 18:04

          Too late, I’m using it now!

        • Kathy says:

          27 Sep27 September 18:06

          My Tesco has never had pay.com cards. Which is part of the reason why the gift card trick slipped my mind – got out of the habit of looking at the gift card stand.

• James says:

  27 Sep27 September 09:27

  This is my favourite trip report: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1164285-fnt-pnh-ie-long-long-way.html

  2 days in the Emirates lounge during the 2010 New York storm. You have to hunt through the thread for the full report but it’s well worth it!

• Nick says:

  27 Sep27 September 09:41

  And I thought I was doing some crazy trips hitting every Tesco Store I could in 2013 searching and buying every 3V card I could.

  • Jason says:

    27 Sep27 September 13:26

    I’m still doing that now 🙁

    • Jason says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:30

      Ps pay.coms are a lot more lucrative than that report though!

    • Nick says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:32

      Fair play to you Jason. How do you use most of the cards these days? They are now different cards aren’t they?

    • James67 says:

      27 Sep27 September 15:02

      Do ypu guys honestly thimk they are worth the time and effort? I processed a carrier bag full of them in the good old NS&I days but it was so painful I’ve never looked at them since.

      • Jason says:

        27 Sep27 September 18:10

        Depends how easy it is to get them. They haven’t re-stocked them for a while and supplies are getting low. I only travel for leisure so they have been a handy way of earning plenty of points the last 6 months.
        They are painful and tedious but I don’t have another way of earning plenty of points, so they work for me, the alternative is to pay £79/£1k, for paid visas, which work out at 0.77p per avios with my Amex gold using tesco gift cards at a petrol station:)

      • Erico1875 says:

        27 Sep27 September 20:34

        Its all part of the game.
        Its a hobby, so you do ridiculous things to satisfy the craving.Even if I was a billionair, Id still do it 🙂

        • harry says:

          27 Sep27 September 20:51

          I’m a zillionaire, & I do it too 🙂

• Liz says:

  27 Sep27 September 09:58

  OT: In response to the recent question about the IHG free night certificate, IHG have responded to my email by confirming that the certificate must be redeemed within the date of the certificate and it cannot be cancelled or changed beyond that date.

• idrive says:

  27 Sep27 September 10:41

  The Iberia code does not work with me, I tried yesterday on a few routes. Why am I the only one? not even the Ba works!! 🙁

  • Rob says:

    27 Sep27 September 11:04

    Code is meant for 27th and 28th so it was not meant to start until today.

• Phill Ramsay says:

  27 Sep27 September 11:42

  Slightly OT but have you heard anything about the devaluation of amex MR rewards to BA which is meant to be happening on the 1st October. Seen it mentioned on a few US travel blogs but cant recall seeing anything here.

  • Jason says:

    27 Sep27 September 13:28

    Would have thought it’s US related!

    • Alan says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:30

      Indeed seems to come up once a week or so here – it’s a US change, no impact on us – they still get a better deal anyway!

      • James67 says:

        27 Sep27 September 15:06

        And they got a 100k avios cc signup bonus again so TATL redemptions will be harder to find.

        • Rob says:

          27 Sep27 September 20:20

          You need to spend $20,000 to get the full 100,000 Avios!

  • RIccati says:

    27 Sep27 September 15:23

    It’s a US-specific thing. Going to be 250 MR = 200 Avios.

    It makes sense for credit card providers/airlines to recognise that earning 1 point per pound and 1 point per USD is not the same thing. Especially for BA. As noted here, US-based card for British Airways had an astounding 100,000 Avios subscription bonus for years before April 15 devaluation, and it was a Visa card. No FX loading too, if memory serves.

    US MR ratio for SPG is 1,000 points = 333 Starpoints (3:1). While UK MR to SPG is 2:1.

    Reflects 1 GBP = 1.5 USD approximately.

    But UK Amex SPG only gives one point per pound…

    • James67 says:

      27 Sep27 September 16:03

      I don’t think making sense in a comparable fashion has anything to do with it. I think it simply comes down to whatever deal a company can negotiate with IAG for the purchase of avios and therafter deciding how they want to use those avios as an incentive to sustain existing business and drive new business.

• EB says:

  27 Sep27 September 12:51

  Thank you Rob. The Iberia promo is also valid ex-EU. The codes are available on http://www.flynous.com/iberia-promotion-code-great-discount/

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