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Bits: good SPG auction ends today, third runway to destroy BA HQ, new Gatwick route

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News in brief:

Good SPG Moments auction ending today

There is an attractive SPG Moments auction ending today which, so far, has attracted very little interest.  It is one of those auctions where the headline used to sell it vastly undersells the value of what you will receive.

The Moments home page is here.

The auction is headlined “Get backstage passes to Five Guys Named Moe at Edinburgh’s Christmas”.  The current bid at the time of typing is 9,500 Starwood Preferred Guest points (28,500 Marriott points).

Dig into the auction and it looks a lot more interesting:

  • A two-night (2-night) stay in a Club Room at Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa, Edinburgh, checking in on 4 December 2016 and checking out on 6 December, 2016
  • Two (2) 55-minute spa treatments at One Spa
  • Dinner for two (2) at One Square on Monday 5 December
  • Two (2) tickets for the Street of Light on Sunday 4 December, 2016 (6:00 pm showing)
  • Two (2) VIP tickets to Five Guys Named Moe on Monday 5 December (show starts at 7:30 pm)
  • Private backstage meet & greet with the cast of Five Guys Named Moe on Monday 5 December, 2016

As long as you are free on those dates and can get to Edinburgh, this looks like a good deal to me.  The Sheraton Grand was fully refurbished a couple of years ago and is one of only a handful of Sheraton hotels to carry the ‘Grand’ name.  The hotel website is here.  I value the package at around £700.

The auction ends at noon today although the closing time extends by 5 minutes if there are any bids in the last 5 minutes, and only ends when there are 5 minutes with no bids.

Third runway to destroy BA’s Waterside headquarters

Falling into the ‘couldn’t make it up’ category comes this article from The Guardian yesterday.

Apparently, until he saw the final draft of the Airport Commission report into Heathrow expansion, Willie Walsh (CEO of IAG, the parent company of British Airways) didn’t actually know that the third runway would require the demolition of BA’s state-of-the-art and hugely expensive Waterside HQ – photo above, I’ve been, it’s very nice.  No-one from Heathrow Airport had ever bothered to tell them …..

Whilst BA will receive 25% above its market value when the site is purchased, this is of limited benefit as the airport recoups the cost by increasing charges to airlines – 56% of which is paid by BA.

New British Airways route to Limoges

British Airways has announced a new route to Limoges in France.

Flights will operate four times a week from Gatwick, with the service commencing on 28th May 2017.

Tickets, for cash or Avios, are available for booking at ba.com.

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Category

British Airways and Avios, Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (44)

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

  • N says:
    24 Nov24 November 08:21

    OT – some discussion in the last few days re Naked wines and stacking the amex2016 offer with the £100 off £150 offer. Has anyone got this working over the past 48 hours?

    • Nick M says:
      24 Nov24 November 09:42

      I did this yesterday (before seeing the comments…) – have had email confirmation, and currently have 3 pending transactions (£1, £1, £156). Hoping it all goes smoothly, if not will be having a chat with Amex. (and if it comes to it, NakedWines have a moneyback guarantee)

      • the real harry says:
        24 Nov24 November 10:58

        You mean the success email from Amex? if so, the £100 is yours 100%

        pls confirm as I’ll double dip 🙂

        • Jim says:
          24 Nov24 November 12:06

          I wouldn’t be so quick Harry. I received the success email from Amex when I made my purchase but as I mentioned yesterday not the credit.

          I have followed up with amex twice now & it has been passed to a specialist team to look into. I have to say Amex were very evasive on phone about whether I would ultimately get the credit, despite having an order confirmation for £150+ from Naked & an email from Amex saying I had successfully redeemed the offer.

          • Kinkell says:
            24 Nov24 November 12:39

            Confirmation of redemption almost instant from Amex, but It took a few days before the £100 appeared on my account. We are well stocked up as I also got the Majestic offer a few weeks back as well (£20 off £80 spend)

          • Matthew says:
            24 Nov24 November 13:46

            They won’t credit the £100 to me either despite getting the success email. The fact the naked wines split the transaction sounds dodgy to me and I don’t know what recourse we have if Amex don’t honour it. The email I got was basically oh sorry the pulled it tough luck. Yet the offer is still saved in my account.

          • the real harry says:
            24 Nov24 November 13:58

            I think it’s pretty much unheard of for Amex Customer Services to act in anything but a very correct & helpful way – perhaps you need to go higher? I certainly would be doing all of this on the phone, not by email.

            But you’re right, Jim – I should wait & see. I think we’ve got a few more days yet to redeem.

            FWIW my £100 credit was applied 2 days after the purchase.

  • Genghis says:
    24 Nov24 November 08:48

    OT. I’m just pricing up Frankfurt-New York (or JFK-FRA) on Singapore Airlines and have found some saver fares in Suites class but they all say “Waitlist” for the 57k Saver fare. I’ve not found one without the Waitlist. Does anyone have any experience of the waitlist? I don’t want to transfer points across only to not get tickets. Cheers.

    • Matthew says:
      24 Nov24 November 23:37

      I think 1 gets released at T-355 and another within 2 weeks or departure. If you have status (can get silver via the shangri la Jade status tie up via Amex Plat, then phone them to send a chaser which often has success.

      • Genghis says:
        25 Nov25 November 06:34

        Thanks Matthew. Will look into it a bit more and get that status match done

  • Wally1976 says:
    24 Nov24 November 09:44

    OT – I posted this the other day but no replies.
    I matched my SPG gold (from Amex Plat) to Marriott gold and was expecting it to be valid until end 2017. However, got a Marriott card in the post a few days ago showing valid until 2/17 only :-(. Anyone else had this? Have some Marriott stays coming up later in 2017 so hoping I can get Amex Plat nearer the time and re-match the status.

    • Scallder says:
      24 Nov24 November 15:32

      I haven’t asked Marriott for a card yet, however in previous years SPG has renewed my Gold status, even when not holding a Platinum card. So current SPG card runs until end of Feb, so if the SPG gold is renewed, then it should automatically update/match your Marriott membership. Personally I have got 10 nights in SPG properties in April in the US, so if that doesn’t renew then will get a Platinum card to get the gold level back. Hope that’s of some help

  • Simmo says:
    24 Nov24 November 10:55

    OT/
    How far does Credit Card insurance go?
    Booked the Rod Stewart event at the o2 for Tomorrow night, and its now been cancelled due to ‘health concerns’ I have booked a couple of rooms on the Accor Happy Mondays rates, which obviously now pretty useless.

    Its not a great deal of money, but still a waste…

    Any advice, of how best to play it? maybe the hotel? or try Amex?
    Luckily I’ve never had this happen before…

    • Rob says:
      24 Nov24 November 12:11

      Hotel may move the room to the new date as a goodwill gesture. Can but ask. SPG refunded us our concert points as the new date for last Tuesday does not work.

  • BlackBerryAddict says:
    24 Nov24 November 12:05

    To be fair to WW, until recently he was based in World Business Centre at Heathrow, away from Waterside. His desk there was also of the normal variety, and in an open plan office. IAG have recently moved back to Waterside, to reduce costs

  • Grimz says:
    24 Nov24 November 12:31

    OT – My friend just cancelled his BAPPC after having it for a year and his companion voucher is sitting in his BA Executive account. He was told by the Amex rep on the phone that unless he takes out the free classic card his voucher would become invalid.

    • Genghis says:
      24 Nov24 November 12:52

      Yes – Amex reps do not always give the right advice.

    • Jeff says:
      24 Nov24 November 14:30

      You do have to pay the taxes/fees using a BA Amex card when you use the voucher. It is part of the T&Cs, but don’t know if it is actually enforced.

  • the real harry says:
    24 Nov24 November 20:01

    O/T the Skyscanner boys did pretty good 🙂

    I couldn’t believe the £1.4b this morning when I heard it about 7am – & looking into the numbers, we’re talking annual revenues (REVENUES!) of £120m. Any guess as to bottom line on that figure?

    I just can’t believe it is any sort of unassailable business. OK, 700 employees and a decent market position. But you could presumably start from scratch and put up a very decent model/ competition with (say) $50-100m investment.

    • Rob says:
      24 Nov24 November 20:23

      Revenue is commission revenue, 700 at £50k average is £35m, £15m overheads, £70m profit, 20 x multiple? Rough guess.

      • the real harry says:
        24 Nov24 November 20:29

        oh right – 20x not so amazing

        thanks

        even so – Skyscanner rarely passes my radar – I have on occasion looked – because they don’t offer me anything particularly exceptional in value terms

        so am I a rare beast?

        do they offer anything very exceptional to anybody? (I wish you well, Skyscanner!)

        and couldn’t a bunch of us set up Skyscanner2 in about 6 months with $50m?

        • Rob says:
          24 Nov24 November 21:40

          I agree, never used it – except – it can do ‘clever’ stuff (I think) like look for flights to a country or from various airports at once. Can’t it?

          • Alan says:
            24 Nov24 November 23:15

            That’s what I mainly use it for – pick a date and say from Edinburgh to Anywhere. Or pick a route and then look at prices over a month. I’ve been using it more since RFS doubled in price as it is often cheaper to go direct and I find they have a decent interface (web and mobile)

        • Rob says:
          24 Nov24 November 21:42

          In my old City job some colleagues wanted to buy Trainline. I took the same view – you could recreate it for a fraction of the cost (altho’ see redspottedhanky who tried).

          My other reason for not spending £400m on it was that only a loon buys a business which sells a commodity product (rail ticket) at a higher price (due to fees) than its competitors …..

    • Alan says:
      24 Nov24 November 23:13

      Yes, I always think how well they’ve done when I walk past their HQ in Edinburgh (it’s on the site of the old Royal Infirmary), but hadn’t realised they were doing THAT well – wow! Hat’s off to them. Not surprised they got snapped up though given the weak pound.

  • Kipto says:
    24 Nov24 November 21:11

    I suspect going into business with you Harry would be like going into business with Philip Green

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