Bits: Avios Suitcase closed, Finnair business class bargains from LON / MAN / EDI to Asia

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• Nick C says:

  8 Mar8 March 05:46

  Seems to be game over for Holidaycheck too, at least for UK users. Haven’t been able to post any hotel reviews in exchange for Etihad miles recently (was getting an error message when submitting) and now the site can’t be viewed in English.

  • James67 says:

    8 Mar8 March 05:53

    Yes, I got an email from them. German only now. It was a good way to keep a few scheme accounts active.

    • guesswho2000 says:

      8 Mar8 March 11:34

      Yes, I went into it about a month ago to funnel a few miles into AAdvantage to keep it alive, found out they were no longer an option on completion, so sent them to EY Guest instead – then about a week later got the email about the impending closure.

      Miles haven’t posted to EY, although it said they still would, so we’ll see what happens there.

• John says:

  8 Mar8 March 06:03

  AY’s sale prices seem reasonable from LHR and MAN, and you get 440 TPs for a 1-stop flight, which is nearly direct given that HEL is in the far north (unlike DOH).

  On BA, you would get 440 TPs for an ex-EU but only if you paid for CE to position – which is more hassle and may work out to be more expensive.

  QR of course gets you 560 TPs but I’d rather not let the tax man have £160 of APD just so I can try the LHR T4 lounge, plus their ex-UK fares are never that great, so it usually means a 2-stop trip with a night in Scandinavia.

• Polly says:

  8 Mar8 March 06:50

  Am sure ex EU AY fares will be good in this sale… Just using RFS to get to HEL. Def prefer spending the APD enjoying a short stay in the EU somewhere.

  • James67 says:

    8 Mar8 March 20:29

    Polly, AY not cheap exHEL, however, try some of thd other usual suspects like AMS or ARN and they usually work out at little over £1k.

  • Roger Wilco says:

    9 Mar9 March 08:33

    Ex-HEL you’d pay 1-1,5k more (or so). You’ll need to start somewhere else to get the good ex-EUR deals on AY

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  8 Mar8 March 08:26

  Xi’an, for those who were wondering, is the resting place of the Terracotta Army.

  Anyone else been watching Michael Wood on BBC4? As a documentary I find it a bit hit and miss, but it’s a novel subject matter for me so that’s enough.

  • James67 says:

    8 Mar8 March 20:33

    Not to mention other stuff like cave dwellings and a train ride to Shaolin.

    • Genghis says:

      8 Mar8 March 20:58

      Or to climb Hua Shan

      • Genghis says:

        8 Mar8 March 20:58

        And not far from Pingyao

• Tilly71 says:

  8 Mar8 March 08:40

  I wondered why I hadn’t seen any suitcase badges recently. (Booo)!

• Matt says:

  8 Mar8 March 09:08

  Might be worth mentioning that Turkish are doing cheap fares out of OSL to places in the US again. There’s a thread of FlyerTalk about it. Maybe they were forced to cut their prices after your recent reviews, Rob…;)

  • Marly says:

    8 Mar8 March 17:13

    hahaha good one!

  • Genghis says:

    8 Mar8 March 19:47

    Would people from the UK really go ex-OSL via IST to the US? Life’s too short surely…

    • James67 says:

      8 Mar8 March 21:14

      It’s amazing the lengths some go to in an effort to save a £, point or mile, or simply for the adventure and experience. For me, time’s too precious, I prefer to make my longhaul trips nonstop overnight if at all possible and I’m happy to pay a premium for that. ExEU works a treat though if you can make a short break out of the positioning flight. Also, some could never afford lonhaul premium were it not for the exEU deals so in such cases I can understand why they want to try it.

    • Alan says:

      8 Mar8 March 22:29

      Haha perhaps – although I am going EDI-LUX-LHR-JFK-LAX-SFO-JFK-LHR-BRU-EDI on an upcoming trip… 😀

      • James67 says:

        9 Mar9 March 10:51

        DIdn’t even know LUX existed, let alone you could get there from EDI!

        • Alan says:

          9 Mar9 March 23:39

          Indeed it does, although actually missed a leg off, going EDI-LHR-LUX (you can’t fly direct). Staying at the DoubleTree Luxembourg on Flash Sale pricing – have stayed with them before and they’re fantastic, they send a driver to pick you up from the airport for free 🙂

• harry says:

  8 Mar8 March 10:42

  Another Tesco Wines 1000 point code on £100 spend just landed on my doorstep. Looks generic but you can’t be sure, so I’ll just have a look around first to see if others are getting it…

  • JamesLHR says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:47

    I tried signing up for PTS but never got approved by the MODs, is it worth it?

    • Rob says:

      8 Mar8 March 12:05

      Most of the news they cover will turn up here at some point. What it has and which I don’t do is Tesco ‘discussion’ eg which watches could you get from Goldsmiths for highest resale etc.

• JamesLHR says:

  8 Mar8 March 11:47

  OT – I’ve just reached my Amex Gold sign up bonus on foreign spend at a hotel. I got the bonus points for the foreign spend as well but I thought you get bonus points for using the card in a hotel as well? Should have I therefore got 3x the £ spend in points?

  • Rob says:

    8 Mar8 March 12:03

    Not any more. Since the card was changed last year you only get double points on airline spend, not all travel spend.

    In any event, it was never meant to stack. Buying an airline ticket in foreign currency should only get you 2 x points and not 3 x points, although sometimes it gives 3x.

    • JamesLHR says:

      8 Mar8 March 16:56

      Many thanks, the 2,000 extra MR’s from the referral help comfort me!!

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