Bits: the best hotel in Frankfurt for €55, no more free Etihad spa treatments

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• SS says:

  5 May5 May 04:53

  Another poor decision by Etihad. I have been a Gold member since 2008 – when they launched or a year after and then a Platinum for the past 3 years. But service levels have dropped with absolutely poor decision-making for “no brainer” situations. Hence have stopped flying EY and switched. Not impressed with the inconsistent inflight service. JFK to AUH on the Jet Airways is cra* (in J or F). And no Guest redemption seats available in F on any date from either JFK / IAD / DFW for 1 year! EY are playing some sort of game. Their “premium” Twitter account has zero influence to do anything except “pass comments on”. Their business guest program is poor- I have several hundred thousand miles and am still a basic member! I made round trip bookings for my family of 5 and need to cancel and they want to charge me 2000 miles per person for the privilege – so 20,000 miles in “fees” to cancel because I am a “basic” member.

  The spa was a very good benefit. But to charge for it will kill the product. Rather drink and eat than pay for a spa. Next, they will remove or limit the chauffeur option.

  Sorry for the rant! Trying to use up all the Etihad miles I have and can’t on EY.

  • Tom C says:

    5 May5 May 07:32

    They already did remove the chauffeur option on discounted J tickets.

  • James67 says:

    5 May5 May 08:16

    On my last flight with them in J from AUH-EDI the aircraft was filthy, service terrible and in flight dining almost nonexistent. I’ll never fly them again

    • Brian says:

      5 May5 May 08:28

      Fun to see people having a rant at Etihad – normally, we are slating BA and saying they are so far behind the ME three… :))

    • Mrs_Fussy says:

      5 May5 May 10:10

      Compared to Emirates they are miles behind in terms of service. On my business AUH to LHR, they forgot to bring me my main course and the flight attendant took 20 mns to respond to the call bell !
      On top, our Chauffeur arrived an hour late to pick us up from Qasr Al Sarab ! apparently they got lost in the dessert – stressful indeed

      • Brian says:

        5 May5 May 12:00

        Must have been one of those complicated Middle-Eastern desserts with lots of honey…

• Stu R says:

  5 May5 May 06:43

  I personally think the best hotel in Frankfurt is the Rocco Forte Villa Kennedy; outstanding property, with fine service and fabulous food, all in a pleasant location …. just my tuppence worth!

  • lucinda says:

    5 May5 May 10:03

    Completely agree. VK is excellent

• jovanna says:

  5 May5 May 07:20

  I wonder what Etihad will charge.

  I had a lovely massage at the lounge in Heathrow back in January but my other half wasn’t as fortunate; he was 8 minutes from leaving his seat to returning. I thought he’d gone to the loo and was still waiting, he was so quick. Then the ‘masseur’ turned up with a cup of tea for him! He said it took her longer to make the tea than sort his shoulder.

• harry says:

  5 May5 May 08:20

  OT Easter hols 2017

  If you are going away next year @ Easter, I suggest you think about booking flights without delay. In Europe, at least, the new tiers Basic/ Plus/ CE in Peak @ Easter are so far proving sticky on prices and – wanting to pat myself on the back, of course 🙂 – I’m following the dynamic pricing evolution as tickets get sold on ‘our’ route. This stickiness is no doubt true for other Peak periods – haven’t checked this yet.

  On our return flight I got 4 Avios redemptions plus a 5th HBO ticket – £125 – on T-355 days – already the cash tickets have jumped to £200/ £225. It’s because there’s not too much choice on flight days. Easter Monday is the 17/4/17 with most state schools starting again on the next day Tuesday 18/4/17. Unless you are prepared to pinch a day, you have to fly back on Sunday or Monday.

  There are still plenty of Avios redemptions available (not on my flight of course, but on the other 7 flights). So they offer rather good value!

  Anyway, you might not always be a T-355 days person but schools have already published Easter 2017 dates so really there’s no excuse! I anticipate BA will remain sticky like this on Peak periods while it tests the model. You have been warned 🙂

  • Anne Marie says:

    5 May5 May 08:37

    Excellent reminder, harry, thank you!
    You wouldn’t happen to know when most London/UK schools are starting the long Easter break, would you? My kids’ school has not posted term dates yet and I’d love to get a clue!

    • harry says:

      5 May5 May 11:17

      Most state schools are starting the Easter break on Saturday 1 April (Peak starts then). Worth checking your county/ school.

      To avoid Peak, fly on the Friday – though that is filling up fast as well. You’d probably find RFS availability, though.

  • Rob says:

    5 May5 May 08:37

    Whack ’em into private school 🙂 I booked the Middle East for October half term last week and had no problem getting 4J to Abu Dhabi and 4F back from Dubai on our preferred dates, because mine do not go back until 7th November!

    • Talay says:

      5 May5 May 08:52

      When I look at the number of weeks out of school, I worked out that per week, it costs a laughable amount of money to keep the kids in school these days. Then you have to fill up the time off with even more expensive holidays 🙂

      Perhaps we should send them back to the state sector and bank the extra cash for retirement jollies !

    • harry says:

      5 May5 May 09:18

      Luckily got 2 of them in grammar schools, both of which get far better A level results than most independent schools. I’ll keep my £280K, thanks 🙂 – and that’s not counting anything before Year 7.

    • SS says:

      5 May5 May 14:18

      Europe seems to be different than North America when it comes to Guest Seat availability. No dates from now until T-355 from JFK/IAD/DFW to AUH in F. And only 2 seats in J here-and-there. So planning to fly to Europe and then connect. Don’t know what EY are doing but it’s pretty impossible that every single F seat on every single day for 355 days is booked on redemption!

  • Liz says:

    5 May5 May 11:09

    What time do the flights appear on the BAEC system at 355 days out?

    • Yuff says:

      5 May5 May 13:28

      Midnight.
      Thanks Harry, for the heads up, but already have 4 seats in F to Dubai booked for next Easter 🙂
      Raffles some private schools have the same dates as state schools 🙁

      • Rob says:

        5 May5 May 13:47

        How can that be? My kids are never at school! 4 weeks at Christmas, 4 at Easter, 8 in the Summer, 2 at October half term ….

    • harry says:

      5 May5 May 15:12

      Midnight

      or 1am in BST

      • Yuff says:

        5 May5 May 17:33

        I suspect it’s uk time, I’ve only ever waited for flights at February half term and they were released at midnight.
        Prices then make summer flights Lowcost in comparison. £300 OW to Italy in economy.

        • harry says:

          5 May5 May 18:33

          It’ll be GMT, which is why the Avios seats pop up at 1am after BST starts.

          Just checked & our 4 Avios redemptions @ Easter are now costing nearly £1500 return – we paid 56000 Avios + £140 🙂 – c. £515

• What's the Point says:

  5 May5 May 08:38

  Last week we flew LHR to AUH in First on Etihad and the spa staff at the lounge at Heathrow were actively wandering round the lounge looking for people to have a treatment. Giving the impression that they were a bit quiet.
  We didn’t have a treatment as we were running late due to the delay in the chauffeur picking us up, they didn’t seem to leave much wiggle room if the driver turns up late.

  • Talay says:

    5 May5 May 08:57

    On a recent LHR-AUH A380 flight in business, I and many of my fellow passengers were dismayed at the low staffing numbers, which were, apparently, not unusual according to staff.

    The stewardesses simply had too many people to cater for each.

    As to chauffeurs, whilst a taxi to the airport might cost me £70 or so each way, so about £150 all in, I have gotten used to having it. I do notice recently though that the quality of cars has fallen, from previously near brand new mid and upper range Mercedes and BMWs to older and lower model variants.

• travelbear says:

  5 May5 May 09:03

  I don’t rate any airline lounge massage to be honest.
  The barbers in Auh in my opnion do the best wet shave and beard trim I’ve had.
  I am still of the opinion Etihad is the best airline in J.

  • Brian says:

    5 May5 May 09:51

    i thought the free head massage offered in Virgin’s arrivals lounge at Terminal 3 was pretty good.

  • Alan says:

    6 May6 May 06:25

    The one at the Melbourne Qantas First lounge was very good – half an hour, pre-booked and very decent service.

• Jason K says:

  5 May5 May 09:05

  On my recent return LHR-AUH A380 flight in business, service was absolutely dismal. Out was pretty good, but the return flight had low staffing and apparently many new staff too. The chauffeur car in London was an old 5 series, pretty tatty, and smelt terribly of cigarette smoke. I wouldn’t go out of my way to fly Etihad, would stick to Emirates preferably.

• Jordan D says:

  5 May5 May 10:06

  Anyone know by when the bookings for Frankfurt must be used by? (E.g. can I book for the Christmas markets …)

  • Jack says:

    5 May5 May 10:44

    Must be booked between 5 May and 30 December 2016

  • Rob says:

    5 May5 May 11:09

    No, to mid September only

    • Jordan D says:

      5 May5 May 11:40

      Bah. Shame they don’t say that anywhere.

    • Jordan D says:

      5 May5 May 11:49

      Actually T&Cs do say until December …

      • Jack says:

        5 May5 May 12:27

        “Guests can enjoy a one night stay in a Deluxe room at the weekend for just EUR 55 between 5 May and 30 December 2016. This rate can only be booked for 55 minutes on 5 May 2016 from 17:55 CEST onwards on jumeirah.com.”

        • Rob says:

          5 May5 May 13:06

          So it does! Sorry, brain seizure, was on the phone and trying to remember what it was.

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