Bits: 1200 Avios via Tesco PayQwiq, Emirates launches Athens to NYC, HfP on the radio

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• ComeFlyWithMe123 says:

  24 Jan24 January 16:21

  O/T – Holidays extras 15% statement credit on Amex
  The T&C’s state that they can only be used on various products. Overseas transfers are excluded. Anyone have any experience of booking something that was excluded but still got the credit?

  • the real harry1 says:

    24 Jan24 January 19:12

    you can safely ignore that – provided you pre-register the card then go through the HE link, you’ll get the 15% from Amex

• lee says:

  24 Jan24 January 16:49

  cant add a card on Payqwiq app anyone else had same issue after just signing up ?

  • Kinkell says:

    24 Jan24 January 18:12

    Not for me…all went smoothly in the sign up process. Just need to shop to check it works!

  • Yisroel says:

    24 Jan24 January 22:16

    I had issues when I wasn’t connected to wifi, once connected all was fine… not sure why…

• Kathy says:

  24 Jan24 January 18:37

  OT: I’m having a booking dilemma. Not sure whether to book an outbound Club to SYD tonight or not.

  I was going to book LHR-SYD-LHR with a Lloyd’s upgrade voucher but the availability is just not staying around long enough. Have thought about paying full whack for a redemption at t-355 then ringing the call centre to adjust the booking to apply the voucher but I don’t have the Avios to do that twice (I’d need 190k total, I have about 165k after the next Tesco CC statement) and it’s unlikely that I’d earn enough in the next few weeks if I book tomorrow (I’m working towards an Amex Gold sign up bonus but that still leaves me a few thousand short, and I would have to manufacture spend to hit target).

  Plan is to spend 4-5 nights in Sydney then on to a tour of NZ (cash flight). So I could fly out of AKL to HKG on Cathay, then on to BA (assuming they let me book HKG to LHR as a return leg of my upgrade voucher) HKG to LHR.

  That would cost more Avios total, but I’d have enough to book SYD-LHR now and HKG to LHR in a few weeks, with the aim of earning enough Avios over the next few months to book the AKL to HKG leg. It would be a risk, though, as I’d need availability on that exact date to still be there when I have enough Avios to book the flight. Cathay availability does seem much better than BA though, and to stay around for longer.
  I would have enough Avios to book into Cathay PE (assuming I manufacture that spend for my Amex Gold sign up bonus).

  The other option is just to wait until I have all Avios I need in hand and then book.

  Or am I overthinking this – should I just buy a few thousand Avios and have done with it?

  • Rob says:

    24 Jan24 January 20:05

    Pay £1500 business class return LON-SYD via the current Malaysia Airlines deal – amazing price and you get a huge pile of Avios and tier points back as well.

    • Kathy says:

      24 Jan24 January 21:05

      I can’t afford to spend £1500 on a flight when I could spend half that, and anyway, I want to go in 2018 and that deal is only good until end of Nov 2017.

      • the real harry1 says:

        24 Jan24 January 21:20

        yet again proves how useful it is to buy – for cash – an easy 150K or 300K of Avios when they are 1p

        it frees you up to use them for great opps that save you loads

        • Brian says:

          24 Jan24 January 22:01

          If you buy 300K of Avios at 1p each, you’re paying £3000 for them. If Kathy can’t afford to pay £1500 for business class flights to Sydney (much less in real terms when you factor in Avios/tier points earned), then I expect that 1p per Avios would make the flights too expensive, too. A peak economy return is 100,000 Avios – plus taxes, so if you’ve paid 1p per point, you’re almost up to £1500 just like that!

    • Alex W says:

      24 Jan24 January 22:54

      Try turning up your screen brightness to max.

      • Alex W says:

        24 Jan24 January 22:55

        Oops this was meant higher up in response to barcode not a anning issue.

        • Alex W says:

          24 Jan24 January 22:55

          Not scanning!

  • Alex W says:

    24 Jan24 January 22:58

    Kathy as Rob said. I would try and get a sale cash fare to Oz. You’ll earn loads of Avios back. You can spend your Avios easily on intra Oz/NZ flights.

    • Kathy says:

      25 Jan25 January 07:13

      Clearly you have more money than me.

  • Matthew says:

    26 Jan26 January 23:55

    Have you got an SPG card? As 25,000 SPG points would convert to 30,000 Alaska miles which is enough for one-way business class with Cathay (A350) AKL-HKG rather than burning 90,000 avios. You could then use 20,000 avios to fly LAN business B787 from SYD-AKL.

• Alex W says:

  24 Jan24 January 22:43

  I am interested in Center parcs too so thank you for the question even if it is OT!

• Alan says:

  25 Jan25 January 21:40

  OT – update on Uber £20 off in Google Maps – my maps just updated to a new version via Play Store and I’m now seeing the £20 discount 🙂

• StevieM says:

  30 Jan30 January 12:28

  Great interview Rob…..I think you hit the nail on the head given the 7 minutes you had to put HFP in the spotlight 🙂

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