Bits: Chinese to break up Marriott’s Starwood bid?, Expedia 72 hour sale, BA drops Baku

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• Danksy says:

  15 Mar15 March 06:15

  I had to google where Baku was!

  • Danksy says:

    15 Mar15 March 06:18

    To save you the trouble 😛 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/azerbaijan/articles/Baku-Azerbaijan-Dubai-of-the-Caucasus/

    • Genghis says:

      15 Mar15 March 07:22

      The Dubai of the Caucasus? Is that just how Birmingham is the Venice of the North?

      • Matt says:

        15 Mar15 March 07:29

        I grew up in Basingstoke, which is nicknamed, without any apparent irony, “The Dallas of Hampshire”.

        • David H says:

          15 Mar15 March 10:06

          I thought it was Amazingstoke?

  • Anon says:

    15 Mar15 March 06:26

    Would imagine the unprecedented 18month drop in oil prices has cut a lot of OpCo’s & Service companies travel budgets….

  • Daz says:

    15 Mar15 March 07:42

    I ended up there coming back from Afghanistan xmas 2006 for an unscheduled stop. Turkey would not let the RAF plane in to its airspace because we had voted to not allow them in to the EU! Let’s say the hotel in Baku was surprised and very rich after the unplanned stop.

  • Alex says:

    16 Mar16 March 12:53

    Why would you need to show off your ignorance? Sounds pathetic…

• Brian says:

  15 Mar15 March 08:22

  Baku is, or at least was, doing its best to be the next big thing, bidding to and winning the right to host various sporting and cultural events (if you can call Eurovision ‘cultural’…). A bit like Qatar. Not sure if the fall in oil prices has affected its financial clout.

  • Brian says:

    15 Mar15 March 19:54

    Indeed – so it’s pretty much like the Middle-Eastern countries! :))

• @mkcol says:

  15 Mar15 March 08:29

  Baku being dropped should hardly be a surprise. A friend operated it a couple of months ago & the load was 23 with only 2 in Club.

• Liz says:

  15 Mar15 March 08:51

  OT: just got some qualifying points posted from a stay last week for IHG. I bought a points package as part of my Accelerate – didn’t realise that the points package points are qualifying! Still learning about this scheme every day. Good to know if you need qualifying points to get status. Got upgraded to suites in all 3 hotels last week as Spire!

  • Rob says:

    15 Mar15 March 09:12

    Yes, apart from converting Virgin miles, the only other short cut to Spire is buying the bonus point packages.

• planeflyer says:

  15 Mar15 March 09:23

  I spent a week in Azerbaijian (Baku) in Dec 2014 – really liked the place (human rights etc aside). Lovely old town, and very un-post Soviet. I guess now that AZAL (national airline) has finally caught up in the hardware department (operating 787s to LHR) BA were finding it hard, plus the cost of oil not helping. Hopefully the Azeri visas will become easier to obtain soon, boosting tourist numbers. QR has some very cheap o/w flights back to London. BA always seemed very expensive on the GYD route. I guess it’s come full circle! I flew BD TBS-GYD-LHR many years ago, and the J cabin was very light even back then.

• Johnnycl says:

  15 Mar15 March 12:28

  OT: I’ve just received a supplementary Amex Gold card for a family member but it won’t let me register it to my account. Is it possible to do this so I can see it alongside my cards or does my family member need to set up their own Amex login to view it online?

  • Paul says:

    15 Mar15 March 12:46

    They need to set up their own online account. This will allow them to see their own transactions only and has the added advantage of being able to register the card for any Amex offers that come along

    • Johnnycl says:

      15 Mar15 March 12:48

      Great, thanks for the quick reply.

    • Genghis says:

      15 Mar15 March 13:40

      As the main cardholder, you of course will be able to see the transactions of your family member.

• Chris says:

  15 Mar15 March 14:49

  OT but another 20% off virgin east coast advance tickets deal has appeared on the Virgin Red app last night.

• Genghis says:

  15 Mar15 March 16:35

  OT but some ITA Matrix help please. If researching an ex-EU booking, how can I easily find flights where the final ex-LON sector on the return is from a different LON airport? So in my case, the long haul lands at LGW but I want to search for flights (that I might miss due to heavy traffic…) from LHR or LCY to Europe. TIA

  • Alan says:

    15 Mar15 March 19:38

    Your best bet is the FT BA TP run thread but I think most of us now try to play the game and fly the complete itinerary – personally I prefer the extra TP and it’s only one flight extra anyway if picking AMS, BRU, etc. thanks to direct flights back to EDI.

  • Wally1976 says:

    16 Mar16 March 09:25

    Use the Multi-city option, specify your legs individually and for the last leg, instead of putting the departure airport as “LON”, list just the airports you want, e.g. “LHR, LCY”

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