Bits: SWISS sale, Star Alliance Heathrow Express upgrade, use Avios for Lapland

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• DS says:

  4 May4 May 05:52

  Air Berlin fly to Arvidsjaur, Sweden from various places (possibly Birmingham? not a direct flight though)
  That is where many of the major car and tyre manufacturers do their winter tests.
  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-04-07/in-swedens-frigid-north-car-testing-is-hot

• Jamescg says:

  4 May4 May 06:11

  Apologies OT. A few days ago in a comments section someone helpfully posted a link for upgrading a Gold Amex to Platinum for 20,000 points. I have been unable to google a working link. Does anyone know one. Thanks!

  • Alex W says:

    4 May4 May 06:41

    Send Amex a secure message online.

    • BigDave says:

      4 May4 May 08:11

      you can select the nature of your enquiry about card upgrades on the secure messaging system but it fobs you off by sending you to the application pages and not letting you send a message – you have to spoof a general account enquiry and ask them in the body of the message

  • the real harry1 says:

    4 May4 May 06:42

    https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/platinum-charge/upgrade/

    • mark2 says:

      4 May4 May 08:35

      My wife has just got this upgrade but no mention of points on online account. Does this taje a few days?
      Also it happened a couple of days before the statement date and the statement shows a charge of £170 for ‘Supplementary Card Fee Assessed’. Is this in lieu of £450 annual charge or a mistake? When she cancels in July might she get a pro rata of £450?

      • Andrew* says:

        4 May4 May 08:43

        Did she apply for a separate for you in the application despite you already having a supplementary gold card on her existing PRG account?

        The existing supp gets upgraded automatically so requesting a ‘second’ supp becomes chargeable…

        Phone and cancel and they should refund the fee – although (not that I’m still very bitter 😉 ) I did get charged a day’s fee for the supp when the refund went through… 🙂

      • Carl says:

        4 May4 May 08:57

        I upgraded as well and no mention of points. I’ve got pending transactions on the card which should push me over the spending target. I’ll let you know tomorrow if the points point at that point.

      • JP says:

        4 May4 May 09:32

        I did the same you shouldn’t request another supp card when you already have a supp card with your gold card.

        • JP says:

          4 May4 May 09:33

          From the last time I did it it doesn’t say anything about the extra points and they just appear after the £1000 threshold is reached.

        • mark2 says:

          4 May4 May 09:50

          The ‘extra’ supplementary card has now arrived. Finger trouble on my part.
          I will cancel. Thanks for the help – it’s obvious now!

    • Jamescg says:

      4 May4 May 17:37

      Thank you very much.The link worked a treat!

• Louise says:

  4 May4 May 07:06

  We went to Lapland via finnair a few years ago – but via Helsinki to Ivalo.

  Pleased there is now a direct flight to Ivalo and we would defiantly go back. Stayed in a great log cabin in Saariselka and saw the Northern Lights 3 nights

  • Mike says:

    4 May4 May 08:04

    Been twice – Saaraselka and Levi, both fantastic. Spent Hogmanay / New Year in Levi – best holiday ever. The kids will never forget it, neither will we. The late evening snowmobile forest tour was the highlight. Definitely worth a visit.

    • Genghis says:

      4 May4 May 08:06

      I’ve been considering a Lapland trip. Is it good for two adults or more of a “with kids” thing?

      • Louise says:

        4 May4 May 08:25

        We went as two adults, log cabin with wood burning stove and sauna. Duty free alcohol chilling in the snow outside. Saariselka has a long toboggan run too. Nightime snowmobile trip to see the northern lights.
        Didn’t do the night in the glass igloo as that cost as much for one night as our log cabin cost for 6 nights!

        We will go back with kids

      • JamesB says:

        4 May4 May 11:20

        Good for Big Kids too Genghis. Only downside is that after meeting Rudolph and friends you feel guilty about dinner.

        • Julian says:

          4 May4 May 11:54

          Alternatively anyone who fancies a northern lights trips (I believe late November is meant to be a particularly good time) rather than a lapland/santa trip may fancy taking a look at Norwegian’s new direct winter service from London Gatwick to Tromso Direct Outbounds on Monday (hand luggage only) from November onwards from £72.60 and returns on the Friday from as little as £31.50 (or £15 more each way for a hold bag and allocated seat with Low Fare+), Although to go out on a Friday and back on a Monday is going to be more like £200+

          I also can’t see why the cheapest return is less than half the cost of the cheapest outbound flight.

      • Ro says:

        4 May4 May 17:31

        Lapland is definitely a fantastic place to visit with your partner sans kids.

• Michael says:

  4 May4 May 07:06

  OT
  We often complain about avios from FlyBe nor posting but a few days ago I got the points for two of my flights; one taken in June and one in August! I hadn’t even bothered to chase but at least I’m not up to date.

  • Olivier says:

    4 May4 May 10:35

    I flew only once with Flybe – that was last Wednesday and the Avios posted on Monday

• John says:

  4 May4 May 07:32

  Anything to do with the end of AZ?

  • Rob says:

    4 May4 May 07:36

    A gentle kicking perhaps!

• N says:

  4 May4 May 07:49

  OT headsup for anyone with expiring flyingblue points. I have 4.5k expiring in a few months and was clicking around trying to work out how to use them without spending them on tat from the flyingblue shop.

  You can redeem them at a pretty good rate with pointshound for discounts off cash rates at hotels.

  One check I did brought a nightly rate down from £105pn down to £69 + 2000 points per night.

  Not bad for points I’d written off the value of!

  • JamesB says:

    4 May4 May 11:24

    Good tip, thanks.

  • Mzungu says:

    4 May4 May 15:24

    Another useful factor might be that Flying Blue have just increased the validity of their points to 2 years (from 20 months IIRC), so that may help. It also applies retrospectively, which I didn’t expect.

    I have c18k points which were due to expire at the end of May, and no likelihood of taking a flight with them before September. The expiry initially still showed as end of May, so I messaged them, and they confirmed that I was OK until end of September. My account now shows end of Sept. (I don’t think this was due to messaging them), and I have a flight in Sept., so I’ll be in the clear for another 2 years.

• Gavin says:

  4 May4 May 08:27

  OT

  It seems that PayQwiq is giving out more than 10x 50 clubcard points, I’ve just earnt my 11th lot of 50 points. Might be worth a few trips before the promotion ends

  • Scott says:

    4 May4 May 10:05

    Surprised to hear you’ve had your points credited. I’ve had none and an enquiry to Club card got the response that they would all be added in line with May’s end of period processing.

    • Crafty says:

      4 May4 May 17:20

      You’ve been shafted, mine always arrive shortly after the transaction

• @mkcol says:

  4 May4 May 08:34

  KTT is a great wee airport, admittedly it’s a couple of decades since I went there – first on a travel agent’s educational for 3 nights with Inghams to visit Levi (where we stayed), Yllas & down to Santaland in Rovaniemi, then again the following winter for a week’s skiiing holiday again based in Levi with my boyfriend, best friend & my mum – so I can confirm you definitely don’t need to have kids with you to enjoy a holiday in Levi/Finnish Lapland as there is so many different non-skiing activities to do.
  I seem to recall it was only about 20 minutes on a coach from Kittila to Levi.

  • ankomonkey says:

    4 May4 May 10:34

    Agree with this. Airport is small so very easy to navigate. Transfer buses are there for plane arrivals and take you into Levi in 15-20 minutes. Very quick and easy. You can even buy your transfer tickets on the bus using a card.

    We spent Feb half-term in Levi. We flew Norwegian Gatwick to Helsinki and Helsinki to Kittila for about £200 return per person with checked bags each. Very enjoyable trip!

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