Bits: Virgin East Coast 50% off sale, HfP in the Daily Mail, a good Club Europe meal

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• krys_k says:

  15 Aug15 August 10:56

  O/T (but slightly BA related)

  – BA Premier card, I’ve triggered my 241, if I downgrade to a free card, do I keep the voucher? And can I trigger another sign-up bonus in 6 months?

  – recent ex-UK flight. Flew back from NY yesterday in business. I had to get off at Heathrow rather than fly to Dublin for personal reasons which I explained to customer service. I wasn’t charged anything extra, and all I lost was the Avios for the LHR – Dublin section.

  • Rob says:

    15 Aug15 August 11:29

    Yes, you keep the voucher.

    You need to cancel ALL BA cards and wait 6 months before you can get another bonus.

    • Ben says:

      15 Aug15 August 13:31

      In theory, could you sign up for the premium card in January, spend £10000 and get the voucher, then cancel.

      Sign up after 6 months and do the same again. Could you have 3 vouchers in just over 18 months?

      • Genghis says:

        15 Aug15 August 13:37

        In theory, you could do it in less than 18 months. e.g.
        1) Sign up in Jan, spend £10k and cancel in Feb
        2) Sign up in Aug, spend £10k and cancel in Sep
        3) Sign up in March, spend £10k and cancel in April.

        Though I struggle to spend £10k so quickly. My wife and I do one a year. To simplify it:
        1) I sign up in Jan and we spend £10k on the card. I refer wife in June for 9k avios. I cancel card.
        2) Wife (with me as supp) spends £10k from July – Dec and then cancels card.
        Come Jan, I can apply for the card again. This way we benefit from the sign up and referral bonuses.

    • krys_k says:

      15 Aug15 August 15:42

      Thanks. When you say all cards, what do you mean as I only got one card.

• bsuije says:

  15 Aug15 August 11:15

  Very OT:

  Qatar are advertising sub-£1,000 return fares in Business between the UK (London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham) and Dubai (DXB).

  Book by 31 August 2016 for travel between 22 June 2016 to 31 May 2017.

  Includes some dates around Christmas, too, e.g.:

  EDI-DXB on 18-28 December for £975 return per person.

  A return trip should net 400 TPs, as the Doha – Dubai leg books into First.

  • Rob says:

    15 Aug15 August 11:29

    Yes, covered that when it launched. It is a good price if you can get the dates to work, especially if you can get into the Al Safwa lounge in Doha on the outbound (you won’t be allowed in on the inbound).

    • TGLoyalty says:

      15 Aug15 August 13:09

      Having just visited both Al Mourjan and Al Safwa both are brilliant lounges

      And the onboard product is excellent on the 787 and even the older 777 to MAN wasn’t too bad

      Now need to find a good deal on Qatar to the far east and dates which work

    • Nick says:

      15 Aug15 August 14:00

      Why aren’t you allowed on the inbound raffles?

      It wasn’t open when I flew doh – Auh in F so had to slum it in the al mourjan lounge

      • Rob says:

        15 Aug15 August 14:05

        Because it is based on your next flight which will be in Business.

• BlueHorizonUK says:

  15 Aug15 August 11:35

  OT – When you upgrade from the Amex Gold to Platinum, do you need to enter your supplementary card holder details again or do they automatically get upgraded to platinum too?

  • Axel Heyst says:

    15 Aug15 August 12:21

    It’s automatic. In my recent case the supplementary plat. card arrived before main cardholder in the post.

    Not sure what benefits the supp. gets. There is an option to enter supp.card hotel/rental etc. membership details but I left them blank except hilton (which upgraded to gold by email after a few days)

    • Genghis says:

      15 Aug15 August 12:33

      Supp gets a Priority Pass and can get the hotel statuses (e.g. Hilton, Melia etc).

      • Jason K says:

        15 Aug15 August 12:44

        Is the 20k upgrade from Gold to Platinum still running? Also, has anyone seen the 3k or 5k bonus offer for adding a supplementary card to the gold or platinum respectively? I know some people got it via email, anyone have a link?

        • Genghis says:

          15 Aug15 August 13:02

          Liz reported a few months ago that it is live until Jan 17 but others have reported that they are not getting the points. YMMV it seems…

          https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/upgrade-to-platinum/index.html

        • Andrew* says:

          15 Aug15 August 15:51

          Latest report: hit £1k spend for Plat upgrade last week and 20k MR points did not post immediately (as they usually do), AMEX confirmed bonus would be paid but would/could take up to 60 days… not into double-digit-days’ wait yet…

        • roberto says:

          15 Aug15 August 16:07

          I asked answer was told the 3000 MR for sups had finished off the 31st of July.. I pushed a bit further and was told to apply and they would add the 3000 points which they duly did.

          And as for the gold to plat I did read here in the comments that the will be running upto the end of December.. of course that might change.

          I plan to UG my OH to plat just before Xmas, spend the money & cancel as the points post Genghis Style.

          “Eh, sexy lady
          Op, op, op, op
          Oppa Genghis Style”

          You know it makes sense rodders…

        • Liz says:

          15 Aug15 August 16:26

          I am waiting for the 5k pts to post on my hubby’s platinum card for adding me – I emailed Amex and have told me 60 days – on or around 8th oct – but I applied on 27/7 which is more than 60 days! Bummer as I want to cancel on 7/9!

        • roberto says:

          15 Aug15 August 16:46

          Liz, my points arrived before the card.. I emailed CS via the secure message service to “remind them” in advance.

        • Liz says:

          15 Aug15 August 18:41

          Roberto – I think you are the exception as you phoned them when you applied. I am hoping they post before the date they said so we can cancel as soon as we come back from holiday!

        • Matt says:

          15 Aug15 August 18:51

          I upgraded during the last week of June, not sure when I hit the £1000 mark but my 20,000 bonus landed 2 weeks ago. Note: my account page didn’t advertise the bonus as it has done in the past.

    • BlueHorizonUK says:

      16 Aug16 August 13:26

      Thank You

  • Andrew* says:

    15 Aug15 August 15:53

    If you enter the details again (not knowing what was stated above) your (lucky) supp will get two cards (and 2 Priority Passes) – and you’ll get charged an extra £195 (?) fee – which you can then get back 😉

• Charlie says:

  15 Aug15 August 13:37

  O/T can anyone confirm how soon you receive the companion voucher after hitting the £10k on the BAPP please? Amex agent seemed a little unsure.

  • Genghis says:

    15 Aug15 August 13:38

    Around 2-3 days for my last few.

    • Charlie says:

      15 Aug15 August 13:40

      Thanks for speedy reply!

• harry says:

  15 Aug15 August 14:18

  O/T bits I reckon you could usefully send a few people to Shopper Points today Raffles/ Anika

  shopperpoints.co.uk

  Today Tesco is launching 2 eCoupons that will help you save money when shopping at Tesco Direct. EVERYTHING is included.
  All you need to do is enter the right code at check out.
  •to save £10 when spending £75 or more, use the code TDX-TNMP
  •to save £20 when spending £150 or more, use the code TDX-WYMJ

  As the eCoupons are valid site-wide, you can use the codes everywhere on Tesco Direct.

  ***

  Not too difficult to turn these discounts into Avios

  • Rob says:

    15 Aug15 August 14:47

    Thanks for the plug 🙂

    They went on the HFP FB and Twitter feed but it is the sort of thing I am trying to keep out of HFP, at least full articles.

• Ben says:

  15 Aug15 August 16:18

  Off topic but I’m trying to cancel a domestic American Airline Avios award. I was of the understanding that the cancellation fee would be the lower of taxes paid (£3.90) and £35. Has this changed? I cant seem to cancel online and BA are trying to charge me £35 each ticket on the phone.

  Cheers,
  Ben

  • harry says:

    15 Aug15 August 16:24

    I think it’s £35 pure & simple

    however, I did manage to get them to lower this last year by turning on the charm, I got away with £17 for some reason, possibly because that was the actual taxes, though they were just being nice

    • harry says:

      15 Aug15 August 16:25

      £17.50 because that was the RFS fee, now I remember

  • Rob says:

    15 Aug15 August 21:33

    If you can cancel online that is the deal. Not sure how BA acts on the phone. Avios.com, on the phone, insists on charging you the £35.

    Are you logged in to the account of the person who made the booking when trying to cancel? That can be an issue.

• Liz says:

  15 Aug15 August 16:38

  OT is anyone else having trouble getting access to the ordering food part in manage my booking. We are flying in 2 days and I thought I would have a look and see what was on offer but I keep getting a message saying there is an problem with their systems.

  • Genghis says:

    15 Aug15 August 17:08

    I managed to order food yesterday for BA flight on 10 Sep.

    • Liz says:

      15 Aug15 August 18:55

      Still not letting me access the food page !

• Clive says:

  15 Aug15 August 16:42

  Just took a Qatar flight from OSL to BKK in business. Set me back under £600 in the big sale. To say I was impressed is a statement which would be severely underestimated. Fantastic service and food. Great plane and entertainment and then the lounge experience in Doha.

  Wake up BA

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