Bits: American Airlines charging seat fees via BA, £15 Uber code to beat tube strike

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• James says:

  24 Mar24 March 06:15

  Hello

  I have two x $50 Cathy Pacific service vouchers which will expire in April, is there anything I can do with these, I can’t even find and merchandise I could waste it on? I have nothing planned with them this year and need to use them or lose them?? Ideas?

  • Matthew says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:29

    You can use the vouchers to buy duty free items or you can use it towards any flights with CX. If you do want to use it towards flights, you will need to call up CX to make the booking (or make the booking online, hold the booking and call up to get the discount applied before you pay for it).

• tony says:

  24 Mar24 March 06:45

  Yep – I really think people should be very careful making big financial decisions for a few avios. As was noted by another poster on Tuesday their performance hasn’t been great (although neither has the market’s) and there are many other competent providers out there.beyond HL and SJP (even if you don’t get that impression reading the weekend money sections).

  All I’m saying is do your research. Getting roped in to paying a 0.95% management fee is a pretty poor deal if someone else will offer the same for either a lower % or a fixed fee.

  • David says:

    10 Apr10 April 13:49

    I would be v e r y wary of SJP – mostly staffed by ex allied dunbar sales people – very smooth operators when it comes to separating the naïve from their money. lots of fees (some of them very opaque indeed).

    if you want a low cost platform, aim for something with zero (or very low) platform fees, and for a low cost index fund where the total cost (fees plus expenses) is under 0.2% pa. I would suggest you consider :
    iweb (£200 upfront fee, but no ongoing platform fees)
    interactive investor (£20/qtr platform charges, rebates against transaction fees – so no good for the small investor but if you have six figures to invest its fine)
    SVS XO (no ongoing platform charges – but a bit salesy – not for the novice)
    HL, _if_ you stick to buying shares directly, and avoid the fund platform fees, which are quite high
    AJ Bell
    and, if you want to minimise fees and spread you investments, do look at some of the low cost index funds, notably those from vanguard.
    I’ve used all of the above, and have been pretty happy with them – waaay better than the exorbitant fees charged by many of the big names.
    if its complex then get proper advice (…from someone who isn’t out to make a load of commission from you)
    D

• Smid says:

  24 Mar24 March 07:08

  Yeah, Nutmeg claimed to have over 10% growth of funds during 2014-15.

  Last time I looked at my ISA I got last year, it had lost 7%.

  So bear that in mind.

  (Probably that I invested in something, the kiss of death of something which makes money).

  • Genghis says:

    24 Mar24 March 08:00

    Good posts Tony and Smid. Evidence points that we’re in economic slowdown so unless you’re investing in govies, your capital may not be safe.

• Aeronaut says:

  24 Mar24 March 16:33

  I wonder how well the UberPOOL concept is doing in London? My suspicion would be that we’re a bit reticent when it comes to sharing a cab.

  • Rob says:

    24 Mar24 March 16:42

    There is a snag with it. Your 25% discount is based off Uber’s estimate of what your actual fare WOULD have been had you not diverted to pick up or drop off the extra person.

    Someone I know who tried POOL says that Uber’s ‘guess’ was far higher than he used to pay for the same journey in reality – so the 25% ‘discount’ didn’t save him anything.

    • Nick says:

      24 Mar24 March 21:50

      Huh? Doesn’t make sense. When I get a fare estimate for a journey- I can get an estimate for uber x pool, xl and the others. Pool is definitely lower than x

      • Rob says:

        24 Mar24 March 21:54

        Yes, but in reality X was coming out at less than the estimate – this guy did the same trip every day.

• Guy says:

  24 Mar24 March 16:34

  OT but that difficulty I’d had applying for the Accor plat seems to have been because my account got “locked” after the December quiz.
  Accor scrutinuised the “lock” and told me the Iberia auto transfer was not allowed as I’d not had a stay that year and they’ve closed the account forthwith – you win some you lose some I guess, anyhow now trying to cut losses and apply for the Accor plat as a new account without points before it goes – here’s hoping!

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