Bits: Tesco Premium credit card changes, BA drops London City routes, Railcard discount

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• Stu R says:

  6 Jan6 January 05:31

  More chopping and changing from BA [rolls eyes] ….

  I currently have 7 bookings in the MyFlights app, 2 of which are with BA, the only 2 which are constantly being changed and tweaked on an almost weekly basis I booked a trip from Glasgow to Granada just before Christmas, and ‘nearly’ booked the return via MAD & LCY, thankfully I stuck with LHR!

• Aeronaut says:

  6 Jan6 January 06:27

  Re the Tesco Premium CC…

  “With the annual fee remaining at £150, it is difficult to recommend this card at the moment unless:

  you want the annual travel insurance policy which comes free with it …”

  For some value of ‘free’, considering the annual fee of £150…

  • the real harry says:

    6 Jan6 January 08:10

    £5000 spend in Tesco = 10000 base Tesco points + 5000 bonus points = 15000 points
    or 36000 Avios

    I think that’s why you might see the insurance as free

    • Genghis says:

      6 Jan6 January 08:21

      Less what you would have earned shopping at Tesco with a free card / paid card with sunk cost already own etc.

      • the real harry says:

        6 Jan6 January 09:05

        in itself a fair point – but then you add in further factors:
        Tesco petrol – usually competitive in price, you have to buy it anyway, so might as well get the best points outcome by using Tesco card + further Tesco spend
        Tesco Direct – all that Lego etc – cheap Avios + further Tesco spend if you so choose
        Tesco Grocery – they keep sending my wife & me good mocs such as £8 off £40, combines nicely with Amazon gcs – further Tesco spend if you so choose

        I could almost convince myself!

        • Genghis says:

          6 Jan6 January 09:22

          It’s still a decent card I think. I was tempted but decided there were better options out there. We also received quite a lot of £8 offs recently. Tidy.

        • Alan says:

          7 Jan7 January 14:49

          Sadly I don’t receive to receive any of these discount vouchers at all now – do you get them in the post with your Clubcard vouchers, Genghis, or as till print outs? I used to get lots of offers but not a jot now!

        • Genghis says:

          7 Jan7 January 15:27

          Get them through the post, with vouchers occasionally, but also as individual mail outs. Mrs G is a delivery saver customer if that makes a difference. Not had a till spit for ages.

        • Alan says:

          7 Jan7 January 15:28

          Ah OK, thanks. Never used home delivery with them although used to get them all the time a year or so ago. Shame!

        • Genghis says:

          7 Jan7 January 15:31

          The Tesco coupons for extra cc points seem to have died out for us though. Is anyone else getting them?

    • Chris says:

      6 Jan6 January 21:51

      As long as that spend is in large chunks or the £7.99 = 0 points rounding nonsense tears your maths to shreds…

• signol says:

  6 Jan6 January 07:20

  I had a reward booking to MAD, and was moved onto the 0720 LHR flight. I received an email yesterday. As it’s the 777 operated one I’m likely to leave it, but it is a much earlier departure especially for someone living in Norwich!

  • Lady London says:

    8 Jan8 January 13:21

    Why don’t you ask them if for such an early flight now from the wrong side of London for you, will they also provide a hotel near Heathrow please.

• Ahop says:

  6 Jan6 January 07:40

  OT: for Amex Platinum churning is isn’t possible to open the account , hit spend target and receive the bonus points all within one month (from a logistical point of view, rather than whether it is possible to spend that amount of money)?

  • Trev says:

    6 Jan6 January 07:53

    Amex cards usually arrive within 2 weeks in my experience. So if you applied and were accepted on the 1st of the month that would leave you plenty of time if you have the ability to spend £2,000 within 2ish weeks

    • Ahop says:

      6 Jan6 January 08:04

      Do you need to keep the account open until the bonus MR hit though?

      • the real harry says:

        6 Jan6 January 08:05

        not a problem as it’s near-immediate

      • Genghis says:

        6 Jan6 January 08:09

        Yes. Best practice is to keep Amex account open until points posted and fully transferred out. My record has been around a week between receiving card and cancelling (for no fees). Mrs G and I just done same with SPG (in the sweet spot between points posting to SPG and statement being generated). No fees.

        • BLT says:

          6 Jan6 January 08:35

          I’m in the process of churning the SPG card. Previously I’ve been offered double points for 3 months to keep the card. Did you get any offers on cancelling Genghis?

        • Genghis says:

          6 Jan6 January 09:26

          Yes – double points for 3 months both times. But decided against it as want to hit 241 on my BAPP and then get wife sign up bonus on BAPP and didn’t want to divert too much Amex expenditure.

          Not a bad offer though. SPG = 1.5p ea x 2 = 3p = 3% back. However, bear in mind that the SPG costs £6.25 a month so negates some of the benefit.

        • Peter K says:

          6 Jan6 January 09:41

          I’ve just cancelled my SPG over the phone and was offered no incentive to keep it.

        • rams1981 says:

          6 Jan6 January 09:44

          my wife and I both got the 2 for 1 vouchers this year. Already booked Buenos Airies and looking at Cape Town for Jan 2018.

          We just moved home so had loads of spending to do with refurbishment. She’s cancelled her BA card yesterday, I’m waiting to book my outbound and then will cancel mine and stick to Virgin Amex until i can churn the gold/platinum cards as soon as my 6 months are up.

          Also looking for SPG card – what’s the best sign up bonus that gets?

        • Genghis says:

          6 Jan6 January 10:07

          We have seen targeted 20k sign ups in the past but unlikely to see again. Just sign up. Get referred (11k), refer (5k), hit sign up (11k), £1k of spend on each of the cards (2k), total 29k SPGs, valued at 1.5p ea that’s just under 22% cash back on your £2k spend. A decent earner alongside the Amex Plats and BAPPs.

        • BLT says:

          6 Jan6 January 12:59

          Thanks. I’ve got plenty of Avios + Virgin miles, so was thinking of trying to get enough SPG to do the Marriott travel package. Double points may make that possible.

        • Boi says:

          6 Jan6 January 17:23

          Hi Genghis,
          Can I hijack this and ask about SPG churning? I applied, hit target and got bonus. Points transferred to spg account yesterday. Unfortunately points for referring my hubby only reached today so have missed transfer from Amex to spg credit card. Do I have to wait another month before I can cancel?

        • Liz says:

          6 Jan6 January 18:36

          Boi – I would wait till they transfer – I cancelled my hubby’s BAPP in November as Amex said the pts would transfer over to BAEC as normal at the end of the month – they didn’t – 2 mths and 4 long phone calls later they finally agreed to put them in to my BAPP account as the link between hubby’s BAPP and BAEC was broken when card was cancelled – never again – it’s not worth the hassle so wait till the pts transfer. I am waiting for my final SPG pts to transfer before I cancel that card.

        • Genghis says:

          6 Jan6 January 19:11

          @Boi. I agree completely with Liz.

• Stuart says:

  6 Jan6 January 08:33

  I had my Lcy-Mad flight changed to I Iberia Express. As Lcy flights were still catered, plus LGW is more expensive to get to than LCY do you think I could ask BA for 1000 Avios like it seems to be offering people who bought tickets impacted by buy on board?

  The agent also told me it was LCY who cancelled the flight not BA and I could travel the same route but just not the date I had booked for.

  • Lumma says:

    6 Jan6 January 14:47

    I think you should try and pressure them to give you something. Iberia express fares from Gatwick are often super cheap and unless you snag an exit row the legroom is non existent.

    I don’t think you get avios in BA with iberia express flights also (although you can credit them to iberia plus)

    • Leo says:

      6 Jan6 January 18:26

      I got avios + TPs on Iberia Express in September. Also counted as an eligible flight.

  • Roland says:

    14 Jan14 January 09:25

    Similar – my LCY – MAD return flights were moved to Heathrow. Similar times but much further and more time consuming (I live in Docklands so very close to LCY), not catered and on a 2-3-2 767 rather than the 2-2 Embraer. Very annoyed, complained to BA for compensation for the further Heathrow journey (rejected) then asked for a Club Europe upgrade, also rejected. They really just don’t care. Anyone had any better experiences?

• Hugo says:

  6 Jan6 January 08:57

  LCY to MAD would have been -very- handy were it not for the terrible scheduling…there’s a lot of business traffic between Madrid and London so I am surprised they can’t just get better slots

• Stu N says:

  6 Jan6 January 09:00

  Yes I have a few purchases from end of November too. From past experience they will catch up and post eventually – 6 or 7 weeks isn’t that unusual from recent experience. You could chase by email if you need the Avios imminently.

  • David says:

    6 Jan6 January 09:03

    I’m guessing it’s a Christmas backlog. At least they’re showing as pending on my account so the transactions have tracked!

    (I really wish I’d corrected that autocorrect to ‘avoid’ before posting…)

    • Genghis says:

      6 Jan6 January 09:59

      Oh – thanks for heads up.

    • the real harry says:

      6 Jan6 January 11:01

      – 7dayshop cancelled one of my purchases back in Nov – not sure why, I’m guessing it was undelivered for some reason & got returned to them – I still got the 1000 Avios though

      – similarly I have seen that there’s a (new?) T&C on Amex statement credits that any refunded items means they can pull back the statement credit, I don’t think this is enforced or monitored

      – I got round to checking my Shop Small credits yesterday – all went like clockwork with no need to ring Amex

    • Liz says:

      6 Jan6 January 18:43

      Harry – I got my final small shop credit this morning from Virgin MBNA – phoned a couple of weeks ago but that person never bothered to do anything about it. I also filled out the claim form that Amex Connect provided and that wasn’t dealt with either! Called again yesterday and the £5 appeared in my account today! THird time lucky!

    • the real harry says:

      6 Jan6 January 18:49

      whisper it quietly but one shop seems to have messed up 4x £10 purchases, not on my statement at all (nor are the credits of course!) 🙂

      till down!

    • Yuff says:

      6 Jan6 January 20:54

      Harry,

      I wouldn’t count your chickens just yet, I had a similar thing with 10 £100 Tesco gift cards bought at a tesco petrol station. About 2 months later they appeared 🙁

• Simmo says:

  6 Jan6 January 09:13

  LGW-ALC on my dates was nearly £250 last time I checked! – Plane seems full!
  Opted for EasyJet instead for £140 (incl Bags, Top Seat Selection)

  Wouldn’t mind VLC as an alternative, but its a tad bit further drive along the coast!

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