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Bits: Manchester lounge deal, Lloyds drops Choice Rewards, Louis Vuitton hits Terminal 3

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News in brief:

Good Groupon deal on Manchester’s impressive 1903 Lounge

In May I went up to Manchester to take a look at the new premium adults-only “1903 Lounge” that opened in Terminal 3.

My review of the 1903 Lounge is here and a photo is below.  I was very impressed by the food, the drinks selection, the staff, the design …. pretty much everything actually.  Which is as it should be, given that standard entry is £35 per person when pre-booked (£40 on the door).

Groupon is currently selling passes for Manchester’s 1903 Lounge for £28 per person – see here.  You save a further 15% if you are creating a new Groupon account by using code NEW15, taking the price down to £23.80. According to the comments below, code FLASH gives a similar discount on existing accounts.

If you are travelling through Terminal 3 this Summer and want to treat yourself, it is a good experience.  Note that the maximum group size allowed is four people and children are not allowed.

The official lounge website is here although you need to visit Groupon here to get the lower price.

Review 1903 lounge Manchester Airport Terminal 3

Another licensed American Express card bites the dust

American Express has withdrawn its licences to issue Amex branded credit cards from TSB, Barclays, MBNA and Lloyds.  As existing deals expire, the cards are being scrapped.

They are dropping like flies now.  It was only four weeks that the American Airlines credit card, issued by MBNA, dropped its American Express half and became a pure Visa product.

And now another travel Amex has gone.  Lloyds has removed its Choice Rewards card, which was a double pack of American Express and MasterCard, from the market.

Lloyds Choice Rewards was an Avios credit card – this was our review – albeit one few people used.  The downside was that the Avios earning rate was worse than the Lloyds Avios Rewards credit cards.  The upside was that there were plenty of other redemption options available, so if you decided not to use your points for Avios you had some decent alternatives.

I think, in the end, the card suffered from being neither a decent airline card or a decent shopping rewards card.  There was certainly very little interest from our community.

The only remaining American Express credit card issued by Lloyds is Lloyds Avios Rewards.  But for how long now?

Louis Vuitton store opens in Heathrow Terminal 3

Finally, Louis Vuitton opened a store in Heathrow Terminal 3 yesterday.  This follows the, presumably, success of the Heathrow Terminal 5 shop which was its first airport store outside Asia.

Note that the Terminal 5 shop was excluded from earning Heathrow Rewards points and I assume Terminal 3 is the same.

As the website says:

“The store’s concept is inspired by 1950’s Italian design. A beautiful see-through façade akin to a moucharabieh with latticework utilises the brand’s signature LV monogram of flowers and diamonds. Leather belts are used to fuse each module of the store and support each display shelf, blending the modern explorer’s journey with the one of the brand.

The new 110sqm store features the Maison’s signature items including fragrances, leather goods and accessories for both men and women.”

Comments (91)

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

  • linda says:

    Lloyds have just taken my fee for the next year on my Avios rewards card, What are the chances it would refund or pro -rata if they withdrew the Avios earning on the Amex part, the main reason I have the card. I presume they would keep the MasterCard element of it. and the fee free exchange rate.

    • RTS says:

      They would have to refund otherwise you could ombudsman them.

    • Alex W says:

      Are you that bothered about £24?

      • Genghis says:

        If people are bothered about 250 avios they were promised for free but didn’t receive, I’m sure they’re bothered about £24 paid out of own pocket

      • Rob says:

        They have to refund you if the benefits go, that’s not a problem. See Barclaycard / IHG recently.

  • Mike says:

    Groupon 15 % discount with out having to open new account enter code “FLASH”

  • krys_k says:

    I have the old Lloyds premier Amex / MasterCard combo where I get an upgrade voucher at £5,000 (two others in my Avios household account have the same). How likely is this card to stick around / when conceivable could it be pulled?

    • Rob says:

      It goes when the contract expires ….. which could be next week or 2020 ……

  • Lee says:

    We have just had our AA Amex cards reissued by MBNA – so valid for 3 years. Wonder what will happen especially as we do not have a Visa card issued by them – I suspect we had ours too early for the dual pack.

    • Roger says:

      That is not to say MBNA cannot withdrawal and replace your card altogether. It happens in such situation and they will simply cancel old card and replace with a new one deemed appropriate by them.

  • Andrew says:

    Also worth noting that only passengers travelling outside the EU benefit from tax-free prices at LV T5 – prices for EU-bound passengers are the same as the regular stores (and so would be better off buying from Harrods where you do at least collect their reward points)

    • Talay says:

      By that argument, wouldn’t you still be better off to buy at “Harrods” and then reclaim the VAT ?

      Assuming one can – as we have mixed passports, I forget what the rules are for people only with UK passports.

      • the real harry1 says:

        regardless of passports/ nationality, it is country of residence that determines whether you can claim back VAT

        EU residents cannot claim back VAT as individuals (company expenses obviously different)

        • AVM says:

          AFAIK eu citizens can claim vat back if they can demonstrate that their country of residence is/will be outside eu (let’s say you are moving to work in uae for couple of years).

        • Lady Londno says:

          Perhaps this could be one of the upsides of Brexit then.
          Duty-free returning to terminals for flights to Europe?

          • Alex W says:

            Clutching at straws there! I bet the shops would find a reason to keep the prices high anyway!

  • JP says:

    OT: Is it possible to use the plaza landside arrivals lounge in T2 LHR if you are *departing* on that day, and don’t have a boarding pass yet?

    I have a late afternoon flight to NRT with ANA. I need to arrive at the airport in the morning, and need a space to do some work. I don’t know how early ANA will let me check in. I hope I might be able to spend a couple of hours in the arrivals lounge before checking in

    • Rob says:

      Recent reports suggest they want a boarding card, but you may be able to show them an eticket.

  • Tom says:

    At the moment, LV works differently with a Harrods Rewards and Heathrow Rewards.

    Heathrow Rewards- they don’t issue points, but they do accept Heathrow Rewards £5 vouchers as payment.

    Harrods Rewards- they do issue points, but don’t accept Harrods Rewards cash as payment.

  • Matt says:

    OT: My free weekend night voucher has just arrivered from my Hilton HHonous Visa, which Hilton property is the best to reedeem it at if I want a stay in central London? I usually stay with either IHG or Accor in London so I’m fairly clueless about Hilton.

    • Jon says:

      Others will be more knowledgeable than me, but when I got my voucher I stayed at the Hilton, Park Lane. I didn’t have any status at that time (apart from silver with the card), so I thought it was worth paying £60 on top for executive lounge access and a really high level room. Close to a lot of restaurants, Hyde park, and Buckingham palace. Room was lovely. Would recommend!

      • Rob says:

        Conrad, by a long way. Only downside is potentially the location.

        Park Lane can be good if you have status on a quiet day but it is dated. Great location and park views from the right room though and cool top floor restaurant, run independently and well regarded.

        • Talay says:

          I echo the Conrad, which is actually not that inconvenient, though I disclose having previously lived in Victoria and Pimlico so the area is familiar to me.

          We used 2 x vouchers in the week before Christmas added onto a paid night through Amex travel with a £50 rebate which allowed a 3 night stay.

          We also upgraded on site to a junior suite for an extra £150/200 or so (not per night, for 3 nights) which gave us inclusive breakfast and lounge access. The lounge was particularly well received by my wife and daughter and the junior suite allowed for an extra full bed to be made up without cramping us too much.

          Rooms are fairly small and the hotel lacks the pool and other items one might hope for but given the two free nights, it allowed a splurge on nice restaurants and a cab back from the West End was hardly more than £15 or so, which is not too much.

          St James’ tube is literally a minute away and you can get the 24 bus from Victoria Street which takes you up into central London through many of the tourist spots.

          I looked to go back a few times but they have ramped up their rack rate. I did manage to get a deal speaking to them directly so perhaps you could organise an upgrade etc. before you book your free night/s ?

          • JP says:

            How did you upgrade via the site? I have two reward nights booked at the conrad tokyo and didn’t know paying to upgrade was an option.

            Additionally – did you have to do anything special to combine the two reward redemptions into one booking? I currently have one night booked from my account and another night booked from my wife’s account

          • Rob says:

            They can combine at check in, never had issues with this.

          • JP says:

            Thanks Rob!

          • Rob says:

            You’d get to the tube in 1 minute if you crawled on all fours ….. 10 seconds is more likely 🙂

        • LB says:

          +1.

        • pauldb says:

          And if you consider driving, it’s free to park in the streets nr the Conrad after 1330 Saturday and all day Sunday.

    • Sean says:

      The 2 best central London hotels seem to be the Hilton Park Lane and the Conrad, have a look at both of them 🙂

    • CV3V says:

      i used my voucher at Conrad, combined with Diamond status i got a room upgrade, free breakfast and access to one of the best hotel lounges I have been in.

      All the staff i met were great and really focused on service – felt like i was abroad!

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