Bits: avoiding Virgin’s credit card fee, duty free ‘reserve and collect’, Luxury Travel Diary auctions

News in brief:

How to avoid the Virgin Atlantic credit card fee but still earn double miles

One of the benefits of the Virgin Flying Club credit cards is double credit card miles when you purchase Virgin Atlantic tickets via the American Express part of the package.

Unfortunately, as the Virgin website charges a 1.5% credit card fee, this is unlikely to be a good idea.

A HfP reader came up with a solution.

If you book a flight on expedia.co.uk, it is often charged BY THE AIRLINE with the Expedia fee appearing as a separate item.  This happens with British Airways most of the time.

In turns out, at least on this occasion, that Virgin Atlantic operates the same way.  When the reader booked a Virgin flight on expedia.co.uk, the ticket appeared as Virgin Atlantic Airways on her Virgin credit card statement and triggered double miles.

You haven’t paid the 1.5% Virgin credit card fee however, just the Expedia booking fee.  For any major transaction, this is likely to work out cheaper.

You still receive tier points and miles on your flight even if you book via Expedia.  It is only the hotel companies who restrict your benefits if you don’t book direct.

World Duty Free rolls out ‘reserve and collect’ to Heathrow

World Duty Free, which runs the perfume, tobacco and giant size Toblerone duty free outlets in Heathrow, has launched ‘reserve and collect’.

You can reserve purchased between 1 month and 24 hours before departure via this special website.  Turn up at the airport on the day of your flight and your items will be waiting for you.  You do not need to pay in advance so you can still any WDF vouchers you may have.

This will make life easier for any HFP reader who has ever hunted around World Duty Free on behalf of their partner trying to find a particular brand counter and then track down some obscure French-sounding product, the purpose of which you do not understand anyway …..

New batch of Luxury Travel Diary auctions closing

Finally, the Luxury Travel Diary site dropped me a line about another wave of its luxury auctions closing this week.  These are often worth a look as there are often deals to be had.

Packages closing soon include some European and UK offers.  Including glamping, if you are so inclined!  Looking further out in terms of closing date, there are some options in The Maldives and some interesting Bali offers.

As usual, it is worth having a poke around to see if anything takes your fancy.