Bits: Irish Independent 18,000 Avios vouchers arriving, Which? names the best UK airports

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• richard says:

  31 Aug31 August 09:06

  Sorry – O/T – any other HFP readers STILL waiting for the Marriott bonus 1000 Avios to be credited?
  Anyone i can ring/email?
  Thanks.

  • Anna says:

    31 Aug31 August 09:12

    Still waiting. I have emailed them 3 times (there are contact details on their website), they keep saying it’s a BA IT issue.

    • Mark says:

      31 Aug31 August 11:15

      mine landed yesterday!

• Tom says:

  31 Aug31 August 09:13

  I contacted their customer service email in an attempt to cancel the auto-renew and was told I had to wait until “the end of your subscription”

  • Genghis says:

    31 Aug31 August 09:17

    Bull. Others have reported success once pushing a bit.

• Anna says:

  31 Aug31 August 09:15

  OT – BA fees. If I book 3 x single RFS seats from LON to MAN, the cost is 13,500 avios plus £52.50 in fees. However, if I add these to a long haul flight, the cost is 0 avios as expected, but £105 in fees. How can this be? Is this effectively BA charging this for the privilege of checking my bags through to the final destination?

  • Genghis says:

    31 Aug31 August 09:17

    In a word, yes.

  • Alan says:

    31 Aug31 August 09:24

    Sadly it’s the penalty that BA now apply to customers not departing from London – as you say made all the worse by their ludicrous baggage policy where they now refuse to even interline bags between their own services if on different tickets!

    Occasionally when you go to the final payment page the amount will drop slightly from a higher initial quote but it won’t be as good as RFS.

    • Anna says:

      31 Aug31 August 09:49

      Yes I had to collect and re-check on Tuesday, the only consolation was that I could buy duty free alcohol in GCM ($12 and upwards for very decent rum, whisky etc) and check it in at Heathrow; they won’t let you buy booze there if you’re on a single booking with a connection, even though you could theoretically check it in between flights if you had a spare bag.

      Interestingly, if you use the “stopover” option to book the flights (the connection being the following day of course), you can select CE for just £6 more per person. Coming off a long long-haul WT flight (not enough avios for CW both ways), it might be pleasant to pop into the lounge between sectors and also get some free F & B on the connection.

      All this is only possible anyway thanks to HFP, I can now visit GCM every year instead of only every other year which is fantastic.

      • Colin JE says:

        31 Aug31 August 12:28

        Thanks Anna
        I’d never thought of using the stopover method to switch classes. Last time I was booking a flight back from FRA to LHR in ET I used the call centre to get my onward travel to EDI bumped up to CE (though maybe it was because the flights were paid but I wanted to upgrade with Avios. The system only allowed upgrading the whole return journey. I will check next time if the system allows partial upgrading if doing a stopover.

  • Liz says:

    31 Aug31 August 12:44

    Isn’t it because they are charging you for increased taxes for CE if your connecting long haul was CW now that they have the 2 classes in domestic. We found the same thing when connecting at LHR from EDI on the same ticket.

    • Anna says:

      31 Aug31 August 16:14

      Not sure, but it was offering me the option of a CE connection to Manchester off a long haul WT flight (not enough avios for CW in both directions, but also not convinced it’s worth it for an overnight flight, I’d rather pay for exit seats in WT).

• Dom says:

  31 Aug31 August 09:31

  OT – I need to buy a few Japan Rail Passes for an upcoming trip. Any tips on somewhere to buy them with Amex without credit card fees? Thanks.

  • Rob says:

    31 Aug31 August 09:40

    Inside Japan in Bristol was the main place to get them, but they have a temporary block “until September” if you look on their site. No idea about fees but these guys are regarded as the specialists.

    • Scallder says:

      1 Sep1 September 09:23

      Thanks for the tip about these lot Rob. Mother in law having retired last year is looking at doing a 35 day trip and usually the Mrs and I usually end up being her personal travel agents. She called up yesterday and was extremely impressed with them, so you’ve saved the two of us a huge amount of hassle (especially as neither of us have ever been there!)

• Hugh says:

  31 Aug31 August 09:37

  my points have just posted in my Avios account, after i redeemed the e-coupon yesterday

  Thanks for the heads up HfP

  • Tom says:

    31 Aug31 August 11:16

    In your avios or your airline partner account?

    • Hugh says:

      31 Aug31 August 13:39

      e-voucher paid into my avios account, but now transferred into BAEC

• h1tvd says:

  31 Aug31 August 10:40

  O/T I have just checked in to an American Airlines flight EDI – JFK. I’m travelling economy (whispered so as not to embarrass myself lol). I was offered an upgrade to business one way at OLCI, didn’t take it as I prefer to save my pennies for shopping in NYC. Just wondering at what price point would people say its worthwhile? I know its an older plane, no IFE etc but its just 7 hours…. the upgrade offered was £400 each….

• Anna says:

  31 Aug31 August 10:51

  Also OT – spending 3/4 days in Washington DC next August and hoping to get 2 x Hilton free night vouchers to use there. Any recommendations for the best use of the free nights? I can’t remember which other brands the voucher covers off the top of my head.

  • Alan says:

    31 Aug31 August 10:59

    Free night certs valid at all Hilton brands (of which there are now many!). Conrad are normally decent (not sure if there’s one in DC), DoubleTree can be better than Hilton sometimes – worth reading the reviews.

  • h1tvd says:

    31 Aug31 August 11:24

    If you would consider other brands, I would def recommend Crystal Gateway Marriott. We stayed there summer 2016, paid $70 per night for a family of 5. Booked concierge room for first night (extra $45), basic room for next nights and asked for booking to be combined, we kept concierge privileges for all nights ;-). Got free breakfast in lounge for 5 every day & earned enough points to basically get the room for free. Hands down the best hotel booking I have ever made. Its a big impersonal hotel, mainly for conventions but it is directly above the transit centre so very easy to get to the sights.

    • Anna says:

      31 Aug31 August 11:44

      Thanks for the tips – who did you book the Marriott with, it’s coming up at £183 per night on TripAdvisor?!

      • h1tvd says:

        31 Aug31 August 14:23

        I booked directly with Marriott. It worked out cheaper to book individual nights or two nights together etc. I booked refundable rates on the more expensive nights and kept checking the rates & cancelled when rates dropped, they changed A LOT! I booked 5 nights Wed to Mon, the Fri, Sat & Sun were the cheapest, probably because it’s a conference hotel, not sure if you are traveling over a weekend or not…. I paid $85 for weekend nights, $87 for thursday and $140 for wed night in a club room

• Crafty says:

  31 Aug31 August 11:22

  OT: Just noticed that the Marriott 1,000 points bonus has successfully transferred to my partner’s BAEC and in fact did so almost a month ago! Whereas my own points are still stuck in my Marriott account. Anyone had luck with their customer service people?

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