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Bits: Cathay boosts Gatwick and Manchester, BA schedule changes, MOXY Aberdeen opens

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News in brief:

Cathay Pacific boosts Gatwick and Manchester

Cathay Pacific has announced a further boost to its UK operation following the successful launch of its Gatwick service this year.

The Gatwick flight will increase to a seven day service from 1st June.  It currently operates four times per week.  In the same week, the Manchester route will move from four to five flights per week and will gain a brand new Airbus A350.

Cathay A350-900

British Airways announces Summer schedule tweaks

British Airways has announced some minor tweaks to its Summer 2017 schedules.

The main reason for mentioning this is that – irrespective of how tough it is to find Avios redemption seats on existing flights – all of these new services will have been loaded into ba.com with at least two Club Europe and four Euro Traveller seats available.

This is what is new:

Mykonos – additional Heathrow Thursday flight in June, July and August

Malaga – additional Heathrow Saturday flight in June, July and August

These are offset by cancellations to Athens, Bucharest and Rome.

Additional ‘shoulder season’ flights (26th March to 14th May, 10th September to 22nd October) added to Pisa (Saturday), Copenhagen (Tuesday), Basle (Sunday), Venice (Monday and Thursday), Porto (Wednesday), Edinburgh (Saturday), Hamburg (Tuesday), Munich (Tuesday) 

The new services are already bookable at ba.com.

Moxy Aberdeen Airport opens

Finally, the first UK outpost of Marriott’s new ‘funky’ chain, Moxy, has opened at Aberdeen Airport. 

Moxy, which is a joint venture with IKEA of all people, is decribed as “a budget hotel with the soul of a boutique hotel.”  The photos of the public areas do look impressive, see above.

Aberdeen is proving to be a hotel graveyard at the moment.  When oil prices were at their peak and hotel rates were through the roof, every major hotel chain decided that it needed a project in Aberdeen.  These are now starting to hit the market but – with the oil industry in a downturn – it is virtually impossible to see all these beds being filled.

The Moxy Aberdeen Airport website is here if you want to find out more.

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Marriott Bonvoy points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

There are various ways of earning Marriott Bonvoy points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

The official Marriott Bonvoy American Express card comes with 20,000 points for signing up, 2 points for every £1 you spend and 15 elite night credits per year.

You can apply here.

Marriott Bonvoy American Express

20,000 points sign-up bonus and 15 elite night credits each year Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points by converting American Express Membership Rewards points at the rate of 2:3.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Marriott Bonvoy Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

You can also earn Marriott Bonvoy points indirectly:

and for small business owners:

The conversion rate from American Express to Marriott Bonvoy points is 2:3.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Marriott Bonvoy points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, Cathay Pacific and Asia Miles, Marriott Bonvoy

Comments (57)

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

  • James A says:
    14 Dec14 December 07:02

    Singapore are also apparently switching MAN to the A350 early next year. Sadly no increase in frequency (and thus more award seats! :P) though.

  • James67 says:
    14 Dec14 December 07:04

    Moxy best avoided, price just doesn’t work in current market. CP is nice new hotel and throws in upgrade, breakfast and lounge for spire for under £40 for advance weekend bookings. For similar pricing for those on other schemes treetops has been rebranded as doubletree and there is the marriott, both with leisure centres if I recall correctly.

    • Anon says:
      14 Dec14 December 07:11

      lol, snap – that’s what happens when you edit a post whist making a cuppa.

  • Anon says:
    14 Dec14 December 07:09

    The Hilton Treetops Aberdeen has also just been refurbed & rebranded as a Doubletree, I may go check it out whilst the sale + triple points & 5k Visa offer is on, only £55 for DBB. sometimes use it to treat my parents when they are in the area.

  • Anon says:
    14 Dec14 December 07:22

    As this its Bits….

    O/T. Iggy IHG Advent calendar

    Iggy middle at foot of bridge arch

    Mookie Easel. 30000 pts

    Interest in this seems to have dwindled, so if this gets no thanks, I’ll stop posting them.

    • Matt says:
      14 Dec14 December 07:32

      Keep it up please, your comments prompt me to do it each morning and make it much faster.

      thanks

      Matt

    • Peter says:
      14 Dec14 December 07:52

      Thank you – keep it up.

    • ankomonkey says:
      14 Dec14 December 08:23

      I got my third “You’ve been playing for 5 days and will receive 500 points” message today. Pretty happy since today is only the 14th 😉

      • Brian says:
        14 Dec14 December 09:53

        Interesting – I didn’t receive any messages. I wonder if I did something wrong…

        • RussellH says:
          14 Dec14 December 10:42

          No additional points here either.

          I have sometimes had problems enetering the no. of points with my firefox install – the page sometimes keeps reloading every second or so and any data entered is deleted.

          Thanks, though, for the data!

      • Anon says:
        14 Dec14 December 12:38

        Not had any msg on pts as yet and I’ve done every day…

        • ankomonkey says:
          14 Dec14 December 16:23

          To be clear, this is a pop-up message on the web page, not an e-mail. And my points balance hasn’t had the points post yet, just the pop-up messages.

    • Charlie says:
      14 Dec14 December 11:00

      Thanks from me too. I’ve not logged on here for days. Be nice if one of us won something.

  • Alan C says:
    14 Dec14 December 07:22

    Great for a bit mattress running at the airport hotels. Last weekend up for a running event and the CP was £40.50 and the next door Express at £36.50. We bagged our final Accelerate Challenge stays and got Lounge access as a Plat and a Spire.

  • Genghis says:
    14 Dec14 December 07:25

    OT. Rookie Q but Mrs Genghis and I have the Lloyds avios Amex cards and each have an upgrade voucher in our avios.com accounts. Can we cancel the cards safe in the knowledge the voucher isn’t going anywhere?

    • Gavin says:
      14 Dec14 December 08:26

      not sure

      never cancelled it as find the FX free cards too valuable.

    • mark2 says:
      14 Dec14 December 09:23

      can you churn or do you just want to release some credit please?

      • Alan says:
        14 Dec14 December 10:09

        Lloyds say they won’t let you churn – although sign-up offer is double points for 3/12 rather than a specific amount. I tend to keep the card anyway so I can delay triggering the voucher until as late in the 12 month period as I can!

        • AndyR says:
          14 Dec14 December 15:22

          We’ve just churned and our letter said the usual double points for 6 months. Is this not the case then?

          • Alan says:
            14 Dec14 December 15:28

            I don’t think the Lloyds IT is always up to their promises 😀 I’d say it’s likely you’ll get them!

      • Genghis says:
        14 Dec14 December 10:18

        Can’t churn. We don’t use the cards and I just want to release some credit. We’ve built up an awful lot of unused credit and want to release it.

    • Alan says:
      14 Dec14 December 09:30

      Yep, the voucher is safe in your Avios.com account.

  • Scott S says:
    14 Dec14 December 08:41

    Sometimes I think it would be easier if you could post in the relevant post rather than random bits appearing in amongst threads that have nothing to do with them!

    Anyway, got 400 CC points in my Tesco account from PayQwiq this morning for the 4 transactions I’ve made so far. Took about 3 weeks.

  • Wally1976 says:
    14 Dec14 December 08:51

    OT – Shop Small – it’s been mentioned on here a few times that if your Amex card is refused at a Shop Small retailer, a quick call to Amex will see them credit you with the fiver. Has anyone had success doing this for Amex cards which are not Amex issued (e.g. Lloyds, MBNA)? Thanks

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