Bits: Virgin Atlantic closes Hong Kong Clubhouse, get 1500 Flying Club miles with Worldhotels

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• David says:

  1 Mar1 March 04:46

  They renovated the HK clubhouse as recently as 2015 didn’t they?

• Dave Prosen says:

  1 Mar1 March 05:14

  Shame. There’s always a ridiculously long queue at that Plaza Lounge with many cash visitors.

  How long until Virgin stop this whole route? They’ve let go of most (all?) of their HK based crew. And the fares for this route are almost always higher than BA and Cathay.

  • Trev says:

    1 Mar1 March 06:52

    I used the Plaza Premium lounge in December and at the time they had 2 queues, one for cash visitors and another for passengers with priority pass etc. The cash queue had a few people in it but the other queue was empty at the time – only been there once so I don’t know if that’s a regular setup or not.

    • Chris C says:

      1 Mar1 March 09:58

      I was in the HK Plaza Premium Lounge a couple of weeks ago. There were indeed two queues, one for cash/priority pass and one for business class passengers. The passengers were given priority and the queue was a lot shorter.

• Smid says:

  1 Mar1 March 08:17

  That just make Johannesburg as their only non north American Clubhouse.

  HK’s writing was on the wall when the Sydney flight was cancelled. There went a bunch of users.

  • Brian says:

    1 Mar1 March 08:29

    Heathrow and Gatwick aren’t in North America, too… :))

• David2910 says:

  1 Mar1 March 08:37

  Copying OT query from late last night: anyone know if there’s a lounge at Seville airport? Seems to have shut a couple of years ago, then opened this year (according to FT), but no evidence of it on OW page? Any recent experience? Thanks

  • the real harry1 says:

    1 Mar1 March 08:51

    http://www.aeropuerto-sevilla.com/salasvip-aeropuerto-sevilla.htm

    Priority Pass, qualifying credit card or •Su billete de avión corresponda a las clases Primera Clase, Clase Preferente o Business Class, y su aerolínea tenga acuerdo con esa sala Vip.

• Sam says:

  1 Mar1 March 08:47

  Wonder whether this space will become the Amex Centurion lounge which is meant to open in 2017. Seems likely as not sure where else they would put a lounge of that size.

• Matthew says:

  1 Mar1 March 09:00

  Got a HKG-LHR redemption in upper class with VS this October – hope the route holds out for then!

• Jonny says:

  1 Mar1 March 09:39

  OT – Hilton honors points pricing has now been updated.

  Points + cash now seems to be a flat sliding scale between the cheapest flexible cash rate and the points rate. So the “bargain” 40% points and cash rates are no more, as expected.

  However from a cursory glance, points redemptions seem to be a fair bit cheaper than they were in periods of low demand.

  Am guessing this will be covered soon by Rob anyway!

  • Tracy says:

    1 Mar1 March 10:50

    All changes for the worse as far as I’m concerned. Checked my reservations just now. I had booked 2 rooms for 5 nights at 50k per room per night, these are now 80k per night. This is a property with resort fees. At time of booking, theorem room reservation stated cost was 200k points, no resort fees mentioned (5th night free). Checked today, my reservation has been changed, now states 200k points, $250 plus tax. I have this for 2 rooms so resort charges are $600. I thought there was no resort fee on reward bookings. Checked my email reservation, no mention of resort fees.
    I have another resort reward reservation for 6 days, same thing. Plus I need to book two more nights on points, price has changed from 30k to 40k…….time for email I think 🙁

    • Jonny says:

      1 Mar1 March 11:01

      surely existing reservations will have to be honoured?
      i made a few speculative “cash and points” bookings in the last few days. majority work out cheaper vs the new pricing, but some i’ll cancel, as eg. 50k/night hotel come down to 28k/night on one date I booked.

      The new pricing seems to also but a value on a Honors point at 0.4p, i.e. if a hotel is £120pn the points price is 30k.

      • Brian says:

        1 Mar1 March 11:11

        Interestingly, a lot of the points-only redemptions have come down in price, but points and cash are now significantly more expensive. For example, I booked the Hilton Hyde Park for £68 plus 20,000 points – if I want to use 20,000 now, it’s £98 for the cash component. The Doubletree Kensington, on the other hand, was 50,000 points for a redemption for the same night when I was booking – it’s now down to 36,000. So, as you say, the points/money bargains are no more, but points-only redemptions may well be better value.

        • Tracy says:

          1 Mar1 March 11:19

          The two reward bookings I have, have both increased for the same nights. Boca beach club has gone from 50k to 80k and Embassy Suites Lake Buena Vista from 30k to 40k, maybe a lot of Florida redemptions have increased….
          Have tweeted Hilton about the resort fees being added to the booking…..

        • Brian says:

          1 Mar1 March 11:24

          Unfortunately, the points/money price is based on the flexible Hilton Honors rate, which is fair enough, since redemptions are flexible. But the Advance Purchase rate is always much cheaper, so if one’s plans are fixed, it’s worth paying just cash.

        • Genghis says:

          1 Mar1 March 11:39

          And the KL reservation has now changed back to just 20k HHs.

        • h1tvd says:

          1 Mar1 March 11:53

          This has just happened to me too. I was complaining above about resort charges being added to two bookings, they have just disappeared again from one of the bookings, the cheap one unfortunately. The other reservation is still showing resort fees of roughly $600 but after speaking to hilton, they say the hotel can only see the points not the resort charge and I will not be charged it. Unfortunately, it is sitting in black and white on my reservation…….weird!

        • Alan says:

          1 Mar1 March 12:03

          I always print the original booking confirmation to PDF – handy in these situations if it comes to it, although in this particular case I think it’s just an IT glitch.

        • h1tvd says:

          1 Mar1 March 14:31

          Must have been an IT glitch, the charges have now disappeared off my other booking. Hilton have also added a note to the booking that no resort charges are to be added, so no need to argue about it on check out either 🙂

• rams1981 says:

  1 Mar1 March 10:37

  OT if you hold a gold amex, you can’t receive the full sign up bonus for platinum unless it’s been cancelled for 6 months right?

  • Genghis says:

    1 Mar1 March 10:56

    Short answer ‘no’. Explanation – per T&Cs you cannot receive any sign up bonus for a reward card if you have held a card with the same reward currency in the last 6 months. Some have reported getting a bonus in less time but not worth risking it IMO as you put back your next sign up bonus another 6 months.

    • Radiata says:

      1 Mar1 March 13:54

      Indeed but there are scenarios where the risk palatable.

      A friend applied for a Gold on being referred by myself and later upgraded to Plat with an additional 20k MR bonus. As she missed the double MR points for flight bookings she thought to apply for a new Gold. After hitting the Plat spend target she rang AmEx and advised that unlikely to receive a sign up bonus but that chance improved if referred… I counselled that this most unlikely but referred nonetheless and pleasantly surprised by referral bonus showing up in my account which I presume means she will receive her own.

      As all done in quick succession downside in potential delay of six month clock minimal. As ever, no guarantees.

      • Lawro says:

        1 Mar1 March 23:09

        Unfortunately you receiving a referral bonus doesn’t mean she will.
        You receive a bonus if the person you referred is successful with their application.
        Their bonus will then depend on whether they have held a MR earning card in the last 6 months-although some people have slipped through before….

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