Bits: £15 one-way Virgin Trains tickets to Edinburgh, 40% bonus on Hyatt points

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Steve says:

  6 Oct6 October 08:02

  Is the 50% Avios from Premier Points a targeted offer? I haven’t received any email about it and apart from the link to the Ts& Cs I can’t find any other information on the hsbc.co.uk website

  • Raffles says:

    6 Oct6 October 08:35

    No. I got a press release about it.

    • Louie says:

      6 Oct6 October 09:24

      No similar bonuses for transfers to their other partners then?

      • Rob says:

        6 Oct6 October 13:04

        No

  • Sarah says:

    6 Oct6 October 09:33

    I can’t see anything about it either – there’s no mention of it anywhere during the process to transfer to Avios.

    • Yuff says:

      6 Oct6 October 09:40

      I’ve just done a 50k point transfer to test it out. Going to do the same from mrs yuff’s account as well.
      Will probably hold some back as looking for an Etihad bonus either from HSBC or Amex to top up our guest accounts 😉

      • Johnny5a says:

        10 Oct10 October 21:50

        Any bonus? the link in the article is broken

• Dan says:

  6 Oct6 October 08:06

  I plan on going to York front Kings Cross next month. It’s probably not officially valid to use one of these Edinburgh ticket and get off at York, but would physically be possible even if I have to buy a local ticket to gain access to the platform. Does anyone have any tips or warnings about doing this? I might even be able to get Advance tickets to York for about the same price anyway, so it might be a theoretical question.

  • Tracy says:

    6 Oct6 October 08:18

    Dan, Depends if the ticket allows for a break of journey. If it does then it is safe to exit and restart at York.

    • Raffles says:

      6 Oct6 October 08:35

      No barriers at York station.

  • John says:

    6 Oct6 October 09:07

    You would be committing a criminal offence by not having a valid ticket for the journey you want to make.

    You probably wouldn’t be caught and even if you were caught Virgin would probably just make you buy a full-fare ticket for £113 / £185 in 1st (this is not a fine, which can only be imposed after conviction in a court)

  • Aeronaut says:

    6 Oct6 October 11:10

    Others have responded about using such a ticket to get *to* York – i.e. not permitted, but you’d probably get away with it without a problem – but just in case you (or anyone else) were thinking about it, I definitely wouldn’t try the *reverse*, i.e. board a train at York for London with an Advance ticket for a journey starting from Edinburgh to London.

    • Wayne Phillips says:

      6 Oct6 October 11:59

      buy a separate single from the nearest station to york and use that to walk out the gates (although Rob says there aren’t any in York). You can pick up the single ticket in London before you leave

      Problem solved

      • Aeronaut says:

        6 Oct6 October 12:51

        Yes, for a journey *to* York (and Rob is correct, there aren’t any ticket gates at York).

        However like I said, don’t try this the other way round, i.e. for a journey *from* York (with an Advance ticket starting from Edinburgh).

        • Andrew says:

          6 Oct6 October 21:52

          Well, yes and no.

          Definitely don’t do it on a long distance service – eg Board at York when your ticket was for that service from Newcastle.

          However. It’s worthwhile being mindful that due to the bizarre way that tickets are allocated a further +connections ticket can be cheaper.

          Eg when I buy a ticket from Edinburgh to London, I check the prices from Fife, Borders and central Scotland – sometimes it’s cheaper than simply from Edinburgh and as it is a defined connection not starting at the ticketed origination station doesn’t matter.

• Ben says:

  6 Oct6 October 08:14

  I triggered the bonus pretty quickly but have only been awarded 20,000 avios. It’s a bit annoying to have to wait until the end of the year for the other half.

  Also, is there any information on a long term bonus for large spend on the card? Is the second 20,000 avios likely to be repeated every year?

• rams1981 says:

  6 Oct6 October 08:29

  To be clear it’s not a 40,000 avios bonus is it unless you spend 12k on the card?

  • Raffles says:

    6 Oct6 October 08:35

    Correct.

    • Adam says:

      6 Oct6 October 16:50

      Hi Raffles, would opening a business savings account with HSBC enable me to meet the personal eligibility requirement?

      • Rob says:

        6 Oct6 October 17:27

        Not sure – if you are a sole trader I would guess you’re OK, for a Ltd company it is a different matter – but if you are sole shareholder? You’d need to ask.

      • Bryan says:

        6 Oct6 October 17:50

        If you meet the higher income requirement (income of 100k+) you can make the grade by ANY investment.

        I managed it will £200 in the global investment centre in to a random fund – in fact it is doing rather well. I thought it sounded a little borderline, but checked with their premier call centre before applying.

  • Yuff says:

    6 Oct6 October 09:54

    Looking at my statements, it looks like the 12k spend bonus of 20K Avios doesn’t post when you pass £12k, so I assume it appears when coming up to the anniversary of the card.

• Rosina says:

  6 Oct6 October 08:34

  Yes, Dan, there are warnings here

  http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/15-from-scotland-london-30-1st-class-virgin-trains-east-coast-2522882

• n says:

  6 Oct6 October 09:23

  OT – Can Curve rewards be withdrawn as cash?

  • Jonathan says:

    6 Oct6 October 09:53

    No

• Jonathan says:

  6 Oct6 October 09:55

  OT – Just received my recent Mile Booster bonus from Virgin. The activity description says 30% but the actual points awarded are 100% so cant complain. Just hope Virgin do not realise :-).

• Russell says:

  6 Oct6 October 10:50

  O/T: I stayed at the Guoman Tower last night to try and trigger the £50 Amex statement credit. Absolutely dire – avoid! It’s obviously not been updated in 20 years, room was very small, incredibly stuffy, windows wouldn’t open more than a crack, aircon didn’t work. The bed was uncomfortable and the pipework creaked and groaned as if it’d had the Madras.

  This morning, the fire alarm went off for 2 minutes at 8am and then stopped, leaving everyone half-dressed and wondering whether or not to evacuate (and from speaking to the staff I gather that this is a regular occurrence). They have a single maitre d’ seating people at breakfast which meant the queue stretched all the way around the balcony and back to the lifts – it took 20 minutes to be seated. Finally, they wouldn’t print me an invoice and promised it’d be emailed “immediately” – two hours later, no invoice.

  There is absolutely no comparison between this place and the Guoman Marble Arch, which is a grand, modern and swanky-feeling place.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.