Bits: Rolling Luggage Avios change, Luxury Travel Fair tickets, 3 x Flying Blue miles with Accor

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• Crafty says:

  13 Sep13 September 07:04

  I assume Rolling Luggage will still honour the original terms for orders completed before the change. Have they communicated with you about this?

  • Phil says:

    13 Sep13 September 08:23

    I bet they won’t. Tempted not to collect mine from St Pancras shop now. Hmmm…..

    • the real harry1 says:

      13 Sep13 September 08:45

      why not? keeping mine in original condition just in case, their 14 day returns policy is invalid if they don’t keep to the original T&Cs – PayPal would sort it out for sure

      • Andy W says:

        13 Sep13 September 09:06

        I will be claiming the avois which are owed under the t&cs valid at time of purchase.

  • Rob says:

    13 Sep13 September 08:56

    This was not mentioned.

    • Nicky says:

      13 Sep13 September 10:01

      I posted a comment on 7th September re not seeing confirmation of the points on my order. I spoke to customer services that day and received the following reply (which I have archived in case they try and backtrack).

      …..”It is normal you do not see the confirmation of the points on your order confirmation from us…..you will actually get notice on your Avios account in 28 days” – Customer Services.

      I was one of those naughty £8.00 luggage tag purchasers but a contract is a contract!!!!!

  • Tilly says:

    13 Sep13 September 09:04

    My case lock was delivered yesterday. They should honour the original terms. If not I’ll be complaining.

    • Crafty says:

      13 Sep13 September 12:54

      I actually quite like my neck cushion, so won’t be returning it; but I like it at £5.00 not £15.00!

• David says:

  13 Sep13 September 07:46

  OT: I’m arriving in Hong Kong in October on a Finnair (in J) overnight flight and have to head straight to the office – can anyone help with suggestions of an arrivals lounge? Or will I have to try and persuade the Pullman to give me an early check in?

  And advice gratefully received!

  • David says:

    13 Sep13 September 07:48

    I meant to add – I’m BAEC Silver and have Lounge Club with my PRGC…

  • David says:

    13 Sep13 September 14:03

    Thanks!

• Tom says:

  13 Sep13 September 08:02

  Highlighted by Stu_N yesterday, worth looking at if you have got the offer (some haven’t, it seems);

  OT: 50% extra Avios via BAEC at the moment to purchase and gift Avios. I don’t get the same deal at Avios.com or Iberia, no idea if it is targeted as I only saw it when I went into the purchase Avios page.

  “Purchase and Gift Avios: 50% bonus Avios offer Terms and Conditions
  This promotion is only open to Eligible Participants. An Eligible Participant is a British Airways American Express® Cardmember aged 18 or over and is a British Airways Executive Club (‘BAEC’) Member. The Promoter reserves the right to verify the eligibility of Eligible Participants. Eligible Participants confirm that they accept the terms and conditions set out below.
  Between 00:01 hr GMT Wednesday 13 September and 23:59 hr GMT Friday 29 September 2017 (the ‘Promotional Period’) Eligible Participants will receive 50% Avios bonus upon any Purchase or Gift Avios transaction of up to 100,000 Avios.
  Eligible Participants may Gift Avios (purchase for someone else) during the promotional period, provided that the recipient holds or opens a British Airways Executive Club account and the recipient’s BAEC membership number is entered at the time of purchase. Members can receive up to 100,000 gifted Avios. The recipient will receive 50% bonus Avios.
  Eligible Participants may not exceed their annual 100,000 Avios limit. Bonus Avios do not count towards your annual limit.”

  Small purchases still awful VFM but looks like about 1.1p per Avios as long as you’re buying more than approx 10k (e.g. 22.5k for £255, 45k for £495, 60k for £655)

  • Stu N says:

    13 Sep13 September 08:31

    Thanks – I was just coming back to add this but you’ve saved me the bother.

    NB – You actually have to go all the way through to the page where you choose how many Avios you want to buy to see the offer.

    Rob commented late last night that that he thinks it’s targeted.

    • Tom says:

      13 Sep13 September 08:39

      Thank you for spotting it! It’s certainly not clear until, like you say, you get through to the page to buy. Odd that if it was targeted you’d have thought that they might have also sent an email out to encourage you to buy.

      I wonder if I use my BAPP card do you get the extra 3 avios per £1 spent, thus meaning that if you bought 45k for £495 you’d get another 1485 avios?

      I have the bonus offer and have bought a decent chunk to help our HH balance for a redemption next year.

      • the real harry1 says:

        13 Sep13 September 08:42

        fairly sure it’s not seen as a cash advance so you should get the points

      • Rob says:

        13 Sep13 September 08:53

        No, payments are processed via a 3rd party and not BA.

        • Stu N says:

          13 Sep13 September 09:52

          I bought some from
          Avios in the spring from Avios.com and Iberia to fund Cathay redemptions, came up as “Avios (or Iberia) Buy Points, Points.com” on my Amex so you’ll only get standard earning rate.

• the real harry1 says:

  13 Sep13 September 08:31

  O/T booked our return tickets re summer hols 2018 – as there are 5 of us I included 1 HBO ticket which was super cheap – along with the 4x RFS redemptions

  (cheap enough to make me think about 3x HBO + 2x RFS – decided against as the £13-odd difference per ticket means I can move the 4 RFS redemptions up the plane @ T-24 seat selection and you never know, 4 items of checked baggage might be better than 2)

  anyway, I did part pay with Avios on the HBO ticket and got nearly 0.9p but only on 625 Avios! 🙂 – the other options were rubbish

  and on the RFS redemptions I swapped £160 for 20K Avios again to ‘pay’ 0.8p/ point – so that easy ‘earning’ option is still going strong

  • Genghis says:

    13 Sep13 September 09:51

    If one then cancels a RFS booking paid with points and some cash, how is the refund processed? Thinking aloud, potential to buy avios for an OK price for some where there’s a cheap RFS flight option, say ex-LUX single?

    • the real harry1 says:

      13 Sep13 September 10:08

      it is unfortunately done as you might expect

      ie within 24 hrs, exact refund of cash & points

      after 24 hrs, either £17.50 or £25 deducted on single legs then cash & points returned

      after 24 hrs, either £35 or £50 deducted on return tickets then cash & points returned

      danger in the ‘after 24 hrs refunds’ being that BA incorrectly charges you the full RFS fee even when you paid less because of low taxes in certain countries, ie they ‘steal’ some of the Money element

      so I don’t think there’s any mileage in it

      • the real harry1 says:

        13 Sep13 September 15:42

        however, before people go buying Avios @ 1p in the BAEC sale, they should check out the Avios + Money options, which give a lower price

        eg Vienna —> LHR on 2/10/2018, 2 people in ET
        15,000 Avios + £35.00
        12,000 Avios + £65.00
        10,600 Avios + £75.00
        9,000 Avios + £85.00
        7,600 Avios + £95.00
        5,000 Avios + £115.00

        the 5000 option gives 10,000 Avios saving for £80, so you are in effect ‘buying’ the Avios for 0.8p

        this is on avios.com but I guess BA site will be the same

  • Mikeact says:

    13 Sep13 September 16:39

    So, where are you off to ?

    • the real harry1 says:

      13 Sep13 September 20:54

      Back to LHR as we have to get the kids back in school 🙂

• Mark says:

  13 Sep13 September 10:43

  O/T sorry! I am booking our Japan-South Korea trip for next year and thanks to this site have a 241 and enough avios to do it in comfort. Flying to Tokyo, it seems I can easily get either First on a 777 but with an early flight time of 11.40 (not ideal for a flight one you’re supposed to sleep) or CW on the 787-9 (i can never see and first availability on this, guess this means I am just missing out) but a better afternoon flight time. Should I go for first even on the older plane or CW on the new 787-9? Should I try the 1am trick t get the outbound flight? Any help/suggestions appreciated.

  • Genghis says:

    13 Sep13 September 10:55

    The flight times to Tokyo on BA are not ideal IMO. Bear in mind the first flight goes to Haneda while the second flight goes to Narita. The 1am “trick” isn’t going to help you get F necessarily as only 2 J and 4 Y seats are guaranteed to be released at this time. Choosing between these two I’d probably choose the first flight in F if that’s the only availability you can see.

    • Mark says:

      13 Sep13 September 11:00

      Thanks Genghis, that was my thoughts too, Think we’ll just grab what we can in first, even if its the 777.

      • Stu N says:

        13 Sep13 September 11:24

        No guaranteed F availability so I’d just take what you can get. If there’s more than one daily service it will almost inevitably be the less attractive one that has reward flights.

        For example Hong Kong, a route I was watching avidly for months, they only seem to release F seats on BA27/28 which is the 777 service; I guess they can fill the A380 seats BA 31/32 with paying passengers. Timings are similar due to curfews so I think equipment is the key on this route.

        • Andrew* says:

          13 Sep13 September 14:05

          Flying next year to HKG and, on the same day, got 2 F seats on the A380 and 2 F seats on the 777.

          Annoyingly, the A380 was showing as >> 2 F seats but as soon as we booked 2 F seats with one 241 voucher the rest of the F availability vanished when we went to book 2 more with a different person’s voucher… BA31 timing is much better IMO as it gets you to HKG earlier the next day giving you a chance to actually get tired enough to sleep that night…

        • Stu_N says:

          13 Sep13 September 18:40

          You’ve done well to get the A380. I was looking daily for flights in Spring ’18 before booking something in April. I’ve checked fairly regularly in case the A380 becomes available on our dates or we can get an extra day or two out there at either end but nothing useful, and I’ve only ever seen F on the 777 in all that checking.

  • mark2 says:

    13 Sep13 September 12:52

    I believe that the 789 has only eight seats in F so less likely to get redemption.

  • David says:

    13 Sep13 September 13:28

    I think it’s the luck of the draw to be honest. We’re doing LON-TYO in April/May next year using a 2-4-1. The outbound we’re on the 787-9 and there was F availability so we’ve nabbed that, but only got J availability on the return on the 777. Have been keeping an eye out for F coming available for the return but no such luck yet!

  • Mzungu says:

    13 Sep13 September 15:33

    Interesting read – I’m in a similar position with flights LHR-DEL in Mar 2018. BA143 has lousy timing, but better availability, BA257 has better timing, but poor availability. I’ve booked CW, but hoping I’ll get a chance to upgrade to F – anyone any idea if this might open up in the last few days?

    Actually, I’m sure this was a 787 when I booked, the website is now showing it’s a 777, and my seat numbers have changed. Grrr – do they normally notify you when a seat allocation is changed?

    • Genghis says:

      13 Sep13 September 15:38

      My Flights certainly does…

  • hearingdouble says:

    13 Sep13 September 16:23

    I would definitely choose the 777 as (for most visitors) HND is a far more convenient airport than NRT. It’s as close to central Tokyo as LCY is to central London, whereas NRT is further out than Heathrow.

• n says:

  13 Sep13 September 11:06

  Purchased a Marriott Travel Package for 270k points yesterday. Took 30 mins on the phone between being on hold to speak to someone then being put on and off hold with an agent who had no idea what she was doing…

  The 270k have been debited from my accont, but I have no idea what happens next. Will my Avios account be credited with 120k (132k according to the phone agent!), or will I get a voucher or similar?

  • pointsarb says:

    13 Sep13 September 11:11

    Assuming you gave the agent your Avios a/c number points should post within 72 hours……

    Enjoy your package!

    • n says:

      13 Sep13 September 11:36

      I did! I hope it all goes through ok. Will give it a week and call back to chase the points if they haven’t posted. The phone agent didn’t fill me with confidence…

• pointsarb says:

  13 Sep13 September 11:08

  O/T Does anybody know a good way to auto-check for reward seats on intra asia flights on Cathay/Dragon?

  Expert flyer doesn’t support Cathay and so I’m stumped and really don’t want to be checking the BA site daily for these Cathay/Dragon award seats if I can help it!

  Thanks!

  • Scallder says:

    13 Sep13 September 13:18

    Pretty sure using the Qantas site allows you to see availability on a monthly basis if nothing available for the dates you initially put in…

    • pointsarb says:

      13 Sep13 September 20:48

      Thanks Scallder!

• Rob Brown says:

  13 Sep13 September 11:18

  I’ve been to the Luxury Travel Fair a few times and it is an interesting couple of hours but not the best and I definitly would never pay. The way I always go is to look up the lists of exhibitors and then contact them to enquire about a holiday – every time I have recieved an offer of free tickets.

  • Genghis says:

    13 Sep13 September 11:23

    I’m sure I got a flyer for free tickets with STTM last year? Speaking of which, my Dad, auntie, wife and I have now received 13 issues of our subscriptions which I have since cancelled. Might they have messed up their admin?

    • Lumma says:

      13 Sep13 September 11:56

      I got an extra issue the other day as well. Cancelled the direct debit as soon as the avios posted as well. Not gonna complain if they keep sending them as I like the magazine. Wish they’d stop sending me the literary supplement tho, straight in the recycling bin with that

      • LB says:

        13 Sep13 September 12:11

        +1

    • Alan says:

      13 Sep13 September 12:17

      I wondered the same but then noticed the wrapper on it said it was my last issue, so not expecting to receive another…

      • David says:

        13 Sep13 September 14:05

        Yes I had that too. Which is a shame. But I’m reluctant to resubscribe until they offer me some more points!

        • Wilco says:

          13 Sep13 September 23:17

          Promotional copies. From their email to me:

          “Thank you for your email. I can confirm this subscription has been cancelled, and no further charges will be applied. The October and November editions are being sent as a free extension to this subscription, applied by the publisher. I can have this cancelled if these are not required. As it stands I can confirm that November’s issue will be your last.”

        • Genghis says:

          14 Sep14 September 06:31

          Thanks Wilco

    • Janeyferr says:

      14 Sep14 September 11:00

      My address label says subscriber until April 2018, and I did the one-off payment last summer.

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