Get a 35% discount when you buy Starwood Preferred Guest points

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• Genghis says:

  4 Jun4 June 06:42

  OT. If I book two Virgin returns for me and my wife, the points for 3 sectors can come from my FC account and for 1 sector from wife’s FC account. Does the same work for booking partner redemptions, e.g. ANA?

  • Lawro says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:58

    Genghis-I’m fairly sure ANA partner redemptions have to be booked as returns and therefore you couldn’t just book a single sector from your wife’s account.

    • Rob says:

      4 Jun4 June 11:07

      They have relaxed the rules on one ways on some partners recently ….. not sure if ANA was included.

      • Lawro says:

        4 Jun4 June 11:58

        I may be mistaken, haven’t checked in a while, but I think ANA were one of those that still needs to be booked as a return.

        • Lawro says:

          4 Jun4 June 12:04

          The relevant FT thread did have a post at beginning of May suggesting that many, if not all, partner redemptions can now be booked as one-ways with the exception of MH and NH….

        • Genghis says:

          4 Jun4 June 12:33

          Cheers Lawro. We still want two returns just the points to come 3/4 from my FC account. Is the only way to do that to book as two singles?

  • the_real_a says:

    4 Jun4 June 21:51

    Usually ANA short haul is better value with Avios

    • Rob says:

      4 Jun4 June 22:18

      You mean using JAL instead of ANA for short-haul Asian flights is better with Avios, I assume.

      • the_real_a says:

        4 Jun4 June 23:17

        Ooopss yes indeed Rob. Lots of availability too.

• Phillip says:

  4 Jun4 June 06:58

  On the SPG front, I’ll once again say what incredible value there is in redeeming through Alaska Airlines for intra Asia flights on JAL! 25,000 Miles and $35 gets you a one way in business class between Tokyo and Singapore (a 7 hour flight)! That’ll be 20,000 SPG points. At $455, that’s about £350! JAL has now installed reverse herringbone seats on the 777-200s they use on their longer flights to BKK, SIN etc.

  • scott says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:34

    Amazing deal and for the same price and same ticket can add a stopover in Tokyo and then fly onto anywhere else in Asia including Delhi (10 hour flight). Can potentially get 17-18 in JAL Biz for 25k Alaska. Done a couple of these recently and probably my favourite redemption to date.

    • Rob says:

      4 Jun4 June 09:09

      I would be interested in hearing about more of these redemption opportunities, could we get an article going on brilliant value redemptions using various programmes miles?

      • Rob says:

        4 Jun4 June 10:14

        Not that simple, unfortunately, because you need to factor in a) ease of earning, b) redemption availability and c) whether you’d use a BA 241 instead which generally makes BA better.

        I did recent articles on Air China via Virgin, ANA via Virgin and loads on Aer Lingus and AirBerlin via Avios.

    • Mrs_Fussy says:

      4 Jun4 June 09:58

      Really interested in hearing more about this as I have an upcoming Delhi visit planned and Tokyo is on my wish list

      What routing are you using ? London – Tokyo – SE Asia – Delhi … then how are you getting back to London ? Is availability easy to come by ?

      • Phillip says:

        4 Jun4 June 14:40

        If you want to use the stopover version then the itinerary you want would look something along the lines of:

        Open Jaw:
        London – Delhi, Singapore – London (maybe with a companion voucher?).
        Then for 25,000 Alaska Miles you can book Delhi – Tokyo – Singapore, on JAL. There are many permutations. I would start by looking at JAL’s route network if you are after routing ideas.

        JAL has decent availability and they also release seats throughout the year and close to departure. They don’t, however, release as early as BA does. Usually 330 days out. Also be aware of the various equipment used, especially from the two different airports in Tokyo. For example, they use 767 from
        Narita to Singapore but 777 and 787 from Haneda to Singapore.

• Dannyrado says:

  4 Jun4 June 07:49

  Are the airline miles given with a travel package posted to your airline account upon booking the stay or actually staying at the hotel?

  • Genghis says:

    4 Jun4 June 07:56

    After ordering the travel package

    • Dannyrado says:

      4 Jun4 June 07:59

      Thank you

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:54

    On ordering the package

    • Amit says:

      4 Jun4 June 13:46

      Re: Marriott travel package. Is there an end date for this if looking to earn Aadvantage miles?

      • Rob says:

        4 Jun4 June 13:48

        No – although they may not survive the merger of MR and SPG next year into a brand new programme.

      • Alan says:

        4 Jun4 June 13:48

        We don’t know what will happen when the SPG and Marriott progs get merged so I’d definitely want to do it prior to that happening

• GF says:

  4 Jun4 June 08:27

  I’ve had no stays with SPG this year and my points are about to expire. Would buying SPG points count as activity this year allowing the points to be retained for another year?

  • Phillip says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:32

    Yes it would.

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:53

    Move them to Marriott!

  • Leo says:

    4 Jun4 June 15:27

    Yes I bought the minimum amount just last month in order to do this.

• the real harry1 says:

  4 Jun4 June 08:49

  O/T half-term May-June 2018 – most state schools

  runs Saturday 26/5 – Sunday 3/6

  so tonight midnight would be T-355 if you were planning an Avios flight to pinch the Friday – or tomorrow midnight if going out on Saturday

  • Anna says:

    4 Jun4 June 16:14

    SSHHH! Lol.

• Rob says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:01

  OT – can anybody confirm how long your account needs to remain open after you upgrade from gold Amex card to platinum card? Is it the 14 day requirement? Ideally want to cancel a few days after activating.

  Thanks

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:52

    Why do that? Why not wait until all the hotel statuses etc are processed?

    • Liz says:

      4 Jun4 June 13:24

      I applied for the upgraded statuses for the hotels through the Platinum card on 16/4 for both myself and husband and received the two confirmation emails from AMex but so far not received any acknowledgement from any of the hotels. What experience are others having on how long this is taking. Want to be cancelling this card soon.

      • Phillip says:

        4 Jun4 June 17:04

        Never actually got confirmation from the hotels, the status just changed.

        • Liz says:

          4 Jun4 June 18:59

          I have a couple of hotels where I haven’t previously been a member so not received any info about any new account or status.

        • Alan says:

          4 Jun4 June 19:03

          Ah- the system generally seems to work better if you have an existing account and upgrade it (my folks went to Hilton Gold within 48h). I wouldn’t trust Amex’s systems to properly deal with setting up a new loyalty account…

        • Rob says:

          4 Jun4 June 21:28

          It may well be set up but they haven’t told you ….

        • Liz says:

          4 Jun4 June 19:17

          Ok – I wasn’t a Shangri La member but wanted to get upgraded so I could match to KR Silver if that was still available – booked our KF flights for next May.

    • Rob says:

      4 Jun4 June 14:19

      Actually it was really just to avoid paying the fees, which other people have mentioned is possible.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        4 Jun4 June 14:23

        Can get more out of SPG/Marriot and Hilton gold for 2 years than the £50 it might cost.

        As a data point I got all mine within 3 weeks

  • Allan says:

    4 Jun4 June 14:01

    How much is the bonus? I was thinking of waiting 6 months since closing gold to then go for platinum.

• krys_k says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:06

  Economist. Had a subscription for over a decade, runs out in 3 weeks. Last two years got 13k Avios through Iberia (no issue with the points posting). What’s the chance of a higher sign up offer coming along?

  • Genghis says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:26

    I didn’t take advantage of the last avios offer since the Economist wouldn’t put my sub through as if I was based in South Korea and I wasn’t happy with the UK price point. I like reading the economist but it’s not essential reading like the FT. I’m not tempted by this offer and hoping for another Iberia 12k avios at c.£155 offer

    • Cate says:

      4 Jun4 June 11:52

      +1 with Genghis on the Economist offer. It does seem a tad stingy.

      • Lady London says:

        4 Jun4 June 14:35

        + 13K or so with Lufty or Iberia is the best I can recall seeing.

        I do need to renew my Economist subscripton but even at 13K last time, the fall of the UK pound made value tougher to find. I then got busy and forgot about it. I will focus more next time 13K or so comes around and will spring for it.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          4 Jun4 June 21:01

          Avios.com was offering 13200 very recently

• Anna says:

  4 Jun4 June 16:24

  Slightly OT. Thanks to this site (especially Rob, realHarry and Genghis), I’ll very soon be hitting my BAPP 2 4 1 AND Lloyds upgrade. This is mainly by transferring all my spending – council tax, car insurance etc – to the cards, which has been incredibly productive in terms of collecting avios, and being alerted to Tesco promotions.

  So, now, there are plenty of other Amex options to fill the gap until the anniversary of the BAPP and the Lloyds come round again, but what do people recommend for non-Amex spend? I don’t really want another card with a fee attached like Lloyds, and in any case would struggle to use more than one upgrade voucher in a year anyway on top of the BAPP 2 4 1, as we tend to travel as 3 pax. Hilton Honours is out as I’m not going to be able to use the free night voucher before it expires if I apply for it now. I’m not going to start collecting Virgin miles as it sounds as though we would struggle to use them at the moment (bound to school holidays). So a bit stumped!

  • Genghis says:

    4 Jun4 June 18:16

    Hi Anna. Good to hear my comments prove useful. I thought I just rant a bit.

    It sounds like you’re looking for another card, Amex or non-Amex that doesn’t have a fee.

    For Amex, look at Amex Gold if you’ve not done so already. And I know you said no fee but his n hers SPG Amex for 29k SPGs for 2 x £1k spend and £75 fee pro rata, so £1k a month spend = only c.£12. As I’m sure you’re aware, SPGs are rather valuable and can be converted to avios but even better to Marriott points.

    As for free non-Amex, I’m at a loss. The HH Barclaycard is the obvious one – arguably a 0.8% return – but you’re not ready to use the free night. We use the IHG black x 2 but it’s not free. But if you apply now and get 40k bonus, spend £10k for the free night and get the spend points, it works out as follows: £200 + 250 + 100 – 99 = 451 = 4.51% net return, valuing IHGs at 0.5p. This is decent but it’s £99 for the card (taken into account t in previous calculation) and relies on spending £10k.

    • Anna says:

      4 Jun4 June 19:14

      Those rants are a goldmine of information 🙂

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