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Bits: 2400 Avios with £99 tablet, Norwegian adds Singapore, more Amex Platinum lounges

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News in brief:

2,400 Avios with a £99 Samsung tablet

Tesco Direct is running an interest Samsung Galaxy Tab offer this week.  Until April 24th, these four tablets – all priced at £99 or £119 – come with 1,000 bonus Tesco Clubcard points.

That would get you 2,400 Avios or 2,500 bonus Virgin Flying Club miles, on top of your base points.

Norwegian adds Singapore

Low-cost long-haul airline Norwegian turned up the pressure on British Airways yesterday with the launch of a new London Gatwick to Singapore service.

Services start on 28th September using a new Boeing 787-9.  It will initially operate four times a week before stepping up to five.  Headline entry fares are £180 one-way in economy (although checked baggage and meals are extra) and £700 one-way in Premium.

This is an aggressive move by Norwegian which has focused on UK to North America routes to date, and it remains to be seen if such routes will remain viable if fuel prices rise from their current low-ish level.

There will now be 50 flights per week between London and Singapore over Winter 2017.

Our recent article outlining the Norwegian Reward programme is here.

Norwegian 787

More Amex Platinum lounges – Bradesco lounges in Brazil

Two days ago I ran an article on the long list of airport lounges which can be accessed with an Amex Platinum card but which Amex doesn’t tell you about.

A reader pointed out that I missed one group.  Amex – in conjunction with its local issuer Bradesco – has a network of lounges in Brazil.  These can be accessed with a Platinum card or, it appears (my Portuguese is a bit ropey) a Gold card.  Full details, in Portuguese, can be found here.  Here are the lounges:

Sao Paulo Terminal 2 – Bradesco Lounge – airside – 1st floor
Sao Paulo Terminal 3 – Star Alliance Lounge – airside – mezzanine
Sao Paulo – Amex Centurion Lounge – airside – opposite gate 5
Rio De Janeiro – Amex Centurion Lounge – landside – 1st floor
Recife Terminal 2 – Sala VIP PontesTur – airside – ground floor

…. and Plaza Premium lounges

Amex Platinum cards issued in Hong Kong – but which look very similar to the UK version – can be used to access a large number of Plaza Premium airport lounges.  You can learn more here.

Most Plaza Premium lounges are in Priority Pass, which means that you can enter anyway by using the Priority Pass card which comes with Amex Platinum, but this is a fall back option if you don’t have your Priority Pass with you.

Getting airport lounge access for free from a credit card

How to get FREE airport lounge access via UK credit cards (April 2024)

Here are the four options to get FREE airport lounge access via a UK credit card.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

If you have a small business, consider American Express Business Platinum instead.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

There is no annual fee for Amex Gold in Year 1 and you get a 20,000 points sign-up bonus.  Full details are in our American Express Preferred Rewards Gold review here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard

A huge bonus, but only available to HSBC Premier clients Read our full review

PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Category

American Express Platinum card, British Airways American Express, British Airways and Avios, Tesco Clubcard, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (130)

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

  • mike says:
    21 Apr21 April 04:45

    O/T: If i refer my friend for an Amex card do I receive the bonus soon after they are accepted or soon after they complete the minimum spend?

    • Paul says:
      21 Apr21 April 04:52

      Normally within a few days of them being approved for the card

      • John says:
        21 Apr21 April 05:34

        Furthermore, if they don’t get accepted instantly, the referrer receiving the bonus is often the first indicator that the card application was approved

    • Wivus says:
      21 Apr21 April 09:03

      Also keep a close eye on it going forward as they missed my referral for my wife completely. I had to phone them up to get the bonus.

  • luke says:
    21 Apr21 April 05:39

    Sao Paulo Star alliance lounge is probably best priority pass lounge i have ever been to…bottomless bubbles, heavenly desserts and huge space…really nice

    • the real harry1 says:
      21 Apr21 April 06:29

      Sao Paulo Terminal 3 – Star Alliance Lounge – airside – mezzanine

      entry with Plat but not Gold

  • Steve says:
    21 Apr21 April 05:57

    Amex Platinum – the Hong Kong charge card is by Invitation Only and costs HKD7800 per year (approx USD1000).

  • RC says:
    21 Apr21 April 05:59

    Quite interested to know if anyone has any experience of getting into plaza premium just by flashing their Amex platinum or whether the desk still swipe it!?

  • Sam G says:
    21 Apr21 April 06:41

    If anyone is booking Norwegian seems to price up cheaper on the singapore site in SGD

    Though there are plenty of good deals on Singapore Airlines at the moment so do double check before you book as they might not be as good a deal as they seem!

  • Clare says:
    21 Apr21 April 06:45

    Norwegian is running 50 flights a week to Singapore – they ARE confident.

  • Anna says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:14

    Sort of related – is the car hire insurance on the Amex Platinum fully comprehensive (including excess)? Having just been charged $18 per day for car hire insurance in the Caribbean, I am wondering whether it would be worth getting the Platinum for this and the other benefits. I usually get an annual excess policy but I’ve never found a company offering full insurance cover for hire vehicles abroad.

    • the_real_a says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:23

      Yes it is truly comprehensive, and allows you to decline anything that is declinable (!)

      Also you get a 20% Hertz discount which is useful sometimes too.

      • xcalx says:
        21 Apr21 April 07:38

        Plus 4 hours can be added to a rental for no fee . I am using it next week for 2 days and 4 hours charged for 2 days

      • Anna says:
        21 Apr21 April 07:39

        That’s really good to know, I will definitely look into it for next year. Hoping to do a fly drive to Washington DC and Virginia so the Hertz discount might also come in handy.

      • dezeeko says:
        21 Apr21 April 12:32

        I have been trying to utilise the 10% Hertz discount for Gold Amex holders using the CDP code and booking as a member on the Hertz site to no avail recently. When I called Hertz I was told the discount only applies to NON-prepaid bookings which are obviously much more expensive than the pre-paid rates. Does anyone else have experience of this or know how to get the discount off pre-paid reservations please?

        • Alastair says:
          22 Apr22 April 00:02

          Just completed a Hertz rental over easter. It was definitely prepaid and definitely included the 10% Amex discount (have checked on the receipt). If I remember it has to be at least a class C car or above – and maybe there’s a minimum rental period? I used the Gold Amex ‘CDP’ code added to my Hertz profile. If you try and book it through kayak or similar I found that it wouldn’t let the discount be added too.

    • Jovanna says:
      21 Apr21 April 08:09

      Amex (AXA Travel) still haven’t sorted my claim with Hertz from January of last year. Hertz won’t provide any confirmation that the excess will not be refunded. Without that AXA won’t provide a refund. I’ve just sent a letter before action to Hertz, hoping to get a response.

      I complained to Amex, pointing out that AXA are sat idle. Surely my insurers should be doing the work and not me? They passed me to AXA, who said they’d ‘try to look into it’…

  • Concerto says:
    21 Apr21 April 07:15

    Is that really all the hotels that are on it? Just one property in Europe??

    • rick says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:17

      Apparently crowne plaza vilnius lithuania is also on list.

      • Rob says:
        21 Apr21 April 09:37

        Is that the one which is built above a nightclub which pounds out music until 5am on Friday and Saturday?

        • Sandgrounder says:
          21 Apr21 April 11:14

          I think you might get some noise from the panoramic restaurant if you are on a high floor, but I don’t think they have a nightclub.

          I am slightly annoyed because I need a room in Vilnius in the middle of August when I will be en route from Latgale to Minsk. Will just miss out on the sweet pointbreak action. :^(

        • LB says:
          21 Apr21 April 13:02

          Rob, you may be thinking of the CP in Bratislava. That had a club below which was “entertaining” throughout the night…

      • Ro says:
        22 Apr22 April 04:13

        That club in bratislava is mental…. good times

    • the_real_a says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:22

      No the list is usually released at around 4-5pm UK time (those are the left overs from last time)

    • Andrew M says:
      21 Apr21 April 07:24

      I’m hoping that’s the old list and the new one hasn’t gone live yet. It would be very poor if that was the new list.

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