Bits: The Economist on ‘class war in the [BA] airport lounge’, 0% Post Office balance transfer

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• Ian says:

  22 May22 May 06:16

  As an existing card holder we were sent 24 months for a 1.5% fee. Not bad.

  However I think if you purchase anything, yes they will pay off the purchase first, but you will pay 19% from time of purchase as the card is not fully paid off. I assume if you pay the purchase amount immediately then this is reduced.

  • PGW says:

    22 May22 May 06:36

    Has any existing card holder had the 0% and fee free offer?. I was offered 2.9% and my wife 3.5% charge so we’ll be declining this time.

  • James says:

    22 May22 May 07:54

    This is my understanding too

• Anon says:

  22 May22 May 07:24

  Few bits of mild humour in that article, I’m hoping that its tongue in cheek, otherwise he comes across as a totally pretentious €$¥$¢¥$£%&£

  • Susan says:

    22 May22 May 09:01

    And woefully ill-informed – Bronze gets business class check-in and priority boarding. One expects more from the Economist.

  • Harry says:

    22 May22 May 17:26

    oh don’t be so po-faced – it’s a well written, quite funny, article… 🙂

• Anon says:

  22 May22 May 07:26

  I would however add that lounges do make great people watching arenas.

• Charlie says:

  22 May22 May 08:11

  In the article you mention that he could have called BA for a weeks extension and taken an extra flight to get his 30 TP to make gold. Is there anything that can be done “the other way”? – This year I flew on NYE but my tier points year ended on 8th Jan. The points from this flight were wasted – I was already bronze but still a long way from silver.

  What I’m wondering, is had I removed by BA number from the booking just before flying, and then added it retrospectively to claim the points after 8th Jan, would the TP have credited to the next year, making it easier for me to hit status in that year, and not be lost on the reset?

  Thanks

  Charlie

  • James A says:

    22 May22 May 08:19

    Nope, it’s the flight date. That ship has sailed for you sadly.

  • Alan says:

    22 May22 May 08:28

    Afraid not, they’d still post with the same flight date and there’s no leeway in that direction, only at the end of your TP year.

  • Charlie says:

    22 May22 May 09:11

    Thanks for your replies, thought this would probably be the case! Oh well, looks like I might need to plan next year’s ski trip a little better!

• vindaloo says:

  22 May22 May 08:40

  I’ve been reading HFP since soon after it launched, and I didn’t know you could get a one week extension to your tier point collection year! Learn something new every day…

  • Matt says:

    22 May22 May 08:46

    You can get a 2 week extension, not 1 week

• Frankie says:

  22 May22 May 09:01

  Please can you advise how can one get 30 tier points quickly and cheaply? I’m going to need 40 soon but from my research I’ll need 4 short haul return flights earning lowest points (8 flights) to get my 40 points (5 points per flight)

  • Danny says:

    22 May22 May 09:19

    A trip that involves a one way Club Europe to e.g. Amsterdam and/or return/outbound in economy.

    • Frankie says:

      22 May22 May 10:00

      Thanks Danny. For 60 quid extra I can secure silver for nearly 2 years due to the timings of my tier points year end. A real saving for me (and my partner) as I regularly pay for seats upstairs on 747 to Phoenix and Vegas (using amex 2 for 1) so that will now be free.

      • whiskerxx says:

        22 May22 May 16:01

        If you book economy fares categorised as K, L, M, N, S or V you will earn 10 tier points rather than 5 for the Q, O and G categories.
        The fares will likely be more expensive but you will only require 4 flights instead of 8.
        To find fares use ITA Matrix: https://matrix.itasoftware.com/
        Click advanced routing codes and enter:
        BA /f bc=k |bc=l |bc=n |bc=m |bc=s |bc=v
        in the outbound and return boxes.
        This should force the available fares within those buckets.

• AndyR says:

  22 May22 May 09:18

  Sorry for OT but does anyone know from a past booking whether Qatar Airlines use Dynamic Currency Conversion when booking an ex-EU flight?
  I purchased a 2 for 1 flight the other day and the ‘pending’ amount on my Lloyds Avios Reward credit card amount is more than I was expecting. Wondering if Qatar converted DKK to GBP and then billed my card? Thanks.

  • Frankie says:

    22 May22 May 10:01

    The exact same happened to me. was £80 more than I was expecting on the Lloyds Avios CC. I guess there’s nothing we can do about it now

    • AndyR says:

      22 May22 May 10:59

      Really frustrating as they are not allowed to do this without offering an option. Also I didn’t think American Express supported DCC.

      Has yours posted to your account yet Frankie or still pending? Until it’s posted I it’s not possible to see the original transaction currency.

      Was thinking about contacting Qatar but can’t see them doing much.

      • Frankie says:

        22 May22 May 11:14

        It’s posted. I’ll just have to forget about it or it’ll annoy me too much. Still a great deal albeit a wee bit dearer than I expected.

        • John says:

          22 May22 May 16:10

          Next time book QR with amex travel.

  • Matt says:

    22 May22 May 15:40

    I’d recommend booking Qatar airways flights through American Express travel – I found that you get the same price as booking direct but they dynamically convert to GBP at pretty close to the market rate. This means you can use your favourite points earning Amex card to book without incurring additional costs.

    Note: I haven’t verified this across a wide range of flights so it is worth comparing the total against the price to book direct at the time of booking.

    • Matt says:

      22 May22 May 15:53

      For clarity, they show the GBP total for ex-EU flights at time of booking so there are no surprises when the transaction clears.

    • John says:

      22 May22 May 16:12

      It’s not DCC, it’s the IATA rate – the same rates are used to convert your foreign airport taxes and fees to the departure country’s currency

      • AndyR says:

        22 May22 May 22:21

        Sorry I don’t follow John, what is the IATA rate? If I am departing CPH and I purchase a ticket priced in DKK why would there be any conversion to GBP involved. Qatar should have billed in DKK but they have decided to convert to GBP and take a 3% commission. Are you saying it is common for airlines to do this conversion?

    • AndyR says:

      22 May22 May 22:07

      Agreed Matt and John. Just did a comparison on the flight I booked and the Amex travel price is competitive. I usually prefer to book direct with the airline where possible but in this case would’ve gone via Amex travel had I known Qatar do this crappy conversion.

      • Matt says:

        23 May23 May 05:03

        I actually prefer to book with Amex travel over booking direct. Earlier this year I was stranded in New York during the blizzards and found the Amex travel support exceptional. They booked me on a flight back home with another airline that meant I got back on the earliest possible flight departing from JFK once the travel ban had been lifted. This was after making 2 separate changes to my original ticket due to flight cancellations.

        • Alan says:

          23 May23 May 08:17

          That’s good to hear. By comparison a friend booked with Opodo and they were horrendous to deal with re changes.

        • Lady London says:

          24 May24 May 00:12

          + 1.
          Couldn’t even get basic fare and change rules information from Opodo after I had booked a fare and thought I might have to change it.
          Never again will I book with them no matter what the incentive.

        • AndyR says:

          23 May23 May 11:06

          Interesting thanks Matt, will look at using them next time.

• harry says:

  22 May22 May 10:03

  O/T anybody got any thoughts on this snippet? –

  IAG is also in codeshare talks with China Eastern and China Southern and is thought to be considering bids for Wizz Air, Hungary’s low-cost airline, Norwegian Air, and the UK’s Monarch Airlines.
  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/21/unease-mounts-over-qatars-stake-building-in-iag/

  • Rob says:

    22 May22 May 11:25

    Monarch’s CEO is Adrian Swaffield who was previously the MD of Avios, so that rumour is not totally crazy.

    Norwegian – unlikely in my view. Wizz Air – no reason why not, could merge it into Vueling.

    • Callum says:

      22 May22 May 11:45

      I might be missing something obvious, but why does the CEO of Monarch being the ex-MD of Avios increase their chance of acquisition? He’s passing secret information back to his previous employers?

      • Rob says:

        22 May22 May 14:18

        That’s how it works. If you know and trust the CEO it gives you more confidence over the numbers and forecasts they give you.

        I built my old career on this – befriending CEOs 3-5 years before their business was sold so we knew if they were worth backing in an MBO.

        Would you rather buy a second hand car off a mate or a stranger?

        • Susan says:

          22 May22 May 19:50

          Stranger definitely – I know how my mates drive 🙂 And sending the AA inspector around might offend.

        • Fenny says:

          22 May22 May 21:34

          Pretty much!

          I did buy a car from a colleague’s disable father. He did about 3000 miles a year, so it was in mint condition.

    • harry says:

      22 May22 May 16:40

      Wizz would be very willing sellers.

      IAG does seem very serious about scaling up in Europe – expanding the Vueling model ie ‘hybrid, full service and not really LCC’ (so they claim) would be a natural move.

      • Rob says:

        22 May22 May 19:04

        Wiz just floated didn’t it? My wife’s bank was a major shareholder until then.

  • TimS says:

    23 May23 May 11:56

    Norwegian won’t sell. Kjos wouldn’t give up control for start.

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