Bits: British Airways launches Bremen, get £100 off £800 Emirates spend

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• Karen says:

  3 Sep3 September 03:51

  Thank you for this Rob, we were looking for flights for the Christmas Markets and this will be ideal!

  O/T – my husband, I and 9 yr old son are travelling from LGW in 5 weeks time and it sounds like the NO1 lounge is hell! We are travelling CW with BA, are there any other suggestions?

  • Genghis says:

    3 Sep3 September 03:59

    I think ‘hell’ is a bit strong. I was there a month ago prob 6-7pm on a Fri evening and wasn’t all too shabby. Do you have PP?

    • Karen says:

      3 Sep3 September 04:10

      Hi Genghis

      No I don’t have PP, is it worthwhile getting? We are travelling on a Monday morning.

      • Genghis says:

        3 Sep3 September 04:39

        It depends how often you travel and whether you have status. If you’re regulars with no status, it could be worth it. You can buy directly – I remember seeing some offers recently mentioned on HfP or 2 PP cards can be included as part of Amex Plat. Remember though that BA move to south terminal in Jan whereupon they’ll have their own lounge again. You could also buy access to aspire lounge on a single use basis.

        For this trip though, might be worth just going to No 1. There’s light food, booze, snacks etc though not been on a Monday morning.

      • harry says:

        3 Sep3 September 06:22

        adds: yep Karen have you seen the £12.50 per person offer for No1? Article recently on hfp. Well, technically it’s £20 with 750 Avios returned to you – from avios.com

      • James67 says:

        3 Sep3 September 07:07

        My tuppence worth is try the lounge and see how it goes Karen. If it’s not to your liking then get a decent coffee and sandwich or whatever and find a quiet spot someplace to enjoy. The drink and sandwich will be better quality than you will get in most lounges, an empty gate area will feel much more relaxing than a lounge with people falling over you, and the price will be less than any paid for lounge access. I love the lounges if they are not overcrowded, and have reasonably decent food and drink on offer but any that don’t are best avoided in my opinion.

        • Stu R says:

          3 Sep3 September 07:26

          That’s always our plan these days, grab a sandwich from Pret or Eat, and a nice coffee then find an empty gate (preferably with a view of the planes) then relax for as long as it takes! Failing that, you’re (probably) on holiday so Caviar House & Prunier or Fortnum & Mason bar in T5 are always good alternatives, if a lot more expensive!

        • RoC says:

          3 Sep3 September 23:45

          Pray tell where does one find a “nice” coffee in an airport? Cafe Vue in Melbourne Tullamarine can be decent if the barista knows what they are doing… but in the UK?! I yearn for the day….

  • John says:

    3 Sep3 September 06:15

    I was in the No1 Lounge Friday morning. It was supremely busy and the attendants were directing people to sit at particular sofas or tables. At 1130 it suddenly cleared out and I had the place nearly to myself for half an hour.

  • Fenny says:

    3 Sep3 September 08:33

    The schools will be back by then, so surely less hellish than over the summer.

  • Diydegsy says:

    3 Sep3 September 15:46

    Hi Karen I would give it a try. There were 5 in our group and we used it two weeks ago on Sunday at 9.30am when I was told it would be really busy due to school holidays but we had no problem finding seats etc so don’t give up!!

  • Keith says:

    5 Sep5 September 17:45

    IIRC BA are using the No1 Lounge while the BA lounge is being refurbished? If so, does anyone know when this is scheduled to be completed?

    • Genghis says:

      5 Sep5 September 17:50

      Will the BA lounge not then be in the South terminal post Jan 17?

      • Rob says:

        5 Sep5 September 22:21

        They will. Anika was in No 1 South on Saturday so there should be a review when she gets back from her hols.

• James A says:

  3 Sep3 September 06:06

  Are the Bremen markets good then? I’ve been wondering where to go this year, we have been to Berlin in the past and were considering Munich.

  • Stu R says:

    3 Sep3 September 06:39

    James, Munich markets were the best we’ve been to IMO and the Novotel city centre, about a 10-15 minute walk from the actual centre, is clean, comfortable and very quiet (i.e. no traffic noise etc). We went to the markets every evening then to the Ratskeller after for good food, beer & wine!

    • James A says:

      3 Sep3 September 08:36

      Thanks Stu! This is going to sound a bit sad, but the loss of the MAN – MUC flight on SQ has made me doubt Munich The do328 is on the to do list and is very cheap using Avios.

      • Trickster says:

        3 Sep3 September 08:45

        I second Munich for the Markets, been several time and they are great.

        The Manchester Bremen flights look like good times for a weekend jaunt though.

        • Mr(s) Entitled says:

          3 Sep3 September 10:19

          Save yourself some cash and enjoy the markets in Manchester.

        • Trickster says:

          3 Sep3 September 11:48

          Agreed, they are very good. Frequent them a lot in the run up to Christmas as I work very close by!

          I think they’re very authentic too having been to the Munich ones several times too.

  • ankomonkey says:

    3 Sep3 September 16:01

    Nuremberg Xmas markets are excellent in my opinion, better than Munich, Birmingham and Hyde Park!

• roger says:

  3 Sep3 September 07:38

  OT_ does anyone know how do I get some activity in my IB plus account. This is mainly to get some sign up bonus points by crediting some miles to account.

  • Gavin says:

    3 Sep3 September 07:42

    Wine from vinoseleccion usually comes up every few months or buy avios via Groupon when the offer comes up again quite regularly.

  • harry says:

    3 Sep3 September 07:47

    credit Amex MR points

    • Genghis says:

      3 Sep3 September 07:51

      +1. Easiest way IMO

• Amit says:

  3 Sep3 September 07:47

  I have only got one offer on my Gold which is a nespresso offer 🙁
  How long after getting the card do offers start to load? Thanks

  • Damboy says:

    3 Sep3 September 09:03

    This Nespresso offer looks great. Order 400 coffee capsules (roughly 30p each), enabling you to purchase coffee machine for £39 instead of £129 (available online at £99). Savings of £90 and great coffee. Will order today.

    • Roger* says:

      3 Sep3 September 10:37

      I didn’t think i wanted to be a Nespresso customer. I checked the offer and it looked OK. Apart from buying too much coffee (eek!), I was surprised to have free delivery in about 24 hours! By Yodel, too.

• John G says:

  3 Sep3 September 08:14

  OT but did anyone receive their 500 bonus points for booking with Virgin Trains last month? T&Cs say they should have been posted by 31AUG but neither I nor the Mrs have received any bonus.

  • Genghis says:

    3 Sep3 September 08:30

    No. I chased on Wed by email but no response

    • James A says:

      3 Sep3 September 08:37

      Also no

      • Graeme says:

        3 Sep3 September 08:49

        and thrice no…

        • Peter K says:

          3 Sep3 September 12:48

          and it’s a no from me also.

        • Andrew H says:

          3 Sep3 September 17:17

          A no from me too.

        • RIccati says:

          4 Sep4 September 13:12

          Nope.

• Guy says:

  3 Sep3 September 08:17

  They used to fly a Dornier to Bremen on the BA Cityflyer subsidiary from LGW. I used it a bit in the late 90s, almost had it to myself on a couple of occasions (which might account for them having stopped the route?). Bremen’s a lovely town and such a short tram hop from airport to city centre.

  @Karen I didn’t experience No.1 “hell” last week at 9am – loads of space then.

• Mycity says:

  3 Sep3 September 08:39

  Completely OT, but anyone noticed transactions on your Supercard that are not yours? This morning I see £500 plus over two transactions yesterday on my card and £253 on one transaction on my wife’s card, these are UK ATM transactions it seems, most defiantly not ours, trying to contact Supercard but no response, may be worth checking your Supercard and the linked card out

  • Genghis says:

    3 Sep3 September 08:50

    I gave up on Supercard a while ago after barely getting started. Does anyone actually have anything positive to say? Apart from getting compo from them?

    • Alan says:

      3 Sep3 September 08:54

      Sadly not about the relaunched version. I used the old one a lot and thought it was excellent but having read about the problems on here I haven’t made even one transaction yet – given how they’ve changed things it just seems useless now.

      • Genghis says:

        3 Sep3 September 09:05

        OT. ATM cash withdrawals on curve abroad. Ive had some contact with curve who say that the 2% FUP charge on ATM withdrawals when linked to a credit card is not yet being charged as there is no application in place to monitor this. So I make that I’d be charged 1% over MC wholesale + £2 overseas ATM charge. This could just be acceptable. Does anyone have any real world experience of this?

        • roberto says:

          3 Sep3 September 10:39

          I am mostly overseas and have used the curve over and above the £200 monthly limit since day one and have not been charged anything more than the standard rate. No £2 and no extra 2% markup as far as I can see. I admit I have not taken huge amounts, less than £1000 per month, unlike the £30k+ I took fee free with the supercard during its beta.

        • Genghis says:

          3 Sep3 September 10:43

          Cheers Roberto. I think it’ll be my card of choice for ATM withdrawals in China

        • Rob says:

          3 Sep3 September 11:12

          Same here

        • Paul says:

          3 Sep3 September 11:16

          Has anyone else been able to withdraw more than £200 from ATM, using their Curve card, without the extra charges mentioned by Roberto and in T&Cs?

        • nate1309 says:

          3 Sep3 September 21:14

          I have also been using my curve card a fair amount and not had any issues at all. I would like the AMEX functionality to come back though!

      • Raymond Hennessy says:

        3 Sep3 September 13:00

        I’ve made about a dozen transactions in Hungary last month ranging from a few quid upto approx £500. No problems anywhere and quite happy with the card.

        • David2910 says:

          5 Sep5 September 08:48

          200 withdrawal per day, cap 1k per month. Try it.

  • Nick M says:

    3 Sep3 September 11:26

    I’ve been chasing them for 2 months as I can’t view my pin in the app… It’s a shame as I made good use of the Beta test

  • Leo says:

    3 Sep3 September 12:52

    I’ve not used the new card yet as I was put off by horror stories on here – I thought I’d leave it a while till it settled down. Was planning to use in Spain this coming week. Guess it’s not worth the hassle – worryingly though if there are rogue charges this could happen even if you don’t use it?!!

    • John says:

      3 Sep3 September 13:02

      Remove all your linked cards and hopefully this won’t be possible (but I wouldn’t be surprised if it still happens)

• Serena Wilson says:

  3 Sep3 September 08:48

  Folks, there are also 800 rupees off Jet airways flights bought on Amex. That is about £90. Email arrived today.

  Use code JETAMEX800

  • roger says:

    3 Sep3 September 09:52

    that must be 8000 rupees or if 800 then £8 not £80

    • roger says:

      3 Sep3 September 10:02

      ignore this, it is only for internal flights in India.

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