Bits: Kimpton Amsterdam on points, British Airways dropping and starting routes at City

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News in brief:

Amsterdam’s forthcoming Kimpton bookable on IHG points

OK, if you’re not a bit of a hotel geek the headline above might not mean much. However, fans of Kimpton Hotels – the cult US boutique hotel brand now owned by IHG – have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the first European site in Amsterdam. This will be a conversion of the Crowne Plaza in the city centre, pictured below.

Kimpton has now been owned by IHG for two years. IHG has been very wary of messing with a successful formula, however, which is why Kimpton has retained its own loyalty programme and the hotels do not allow you to earn or spend IHG Rewards Club points.

Except … Kimpton Amsterdam (home page here) IS now available for IHG Rewards Club redemptions. It is due to open on 26th June and is pricing at 50,000 points per night.

As a trade off, you will NOT earn Kimpton Karma Rewards if you stay here. This may not go down well with Kimpton fans in the USA.

50,000 points is a little toppy, given that cash rates for the opening period are around €260 – €280, but I would still redeem at that level. In fact, I will be redeeming at that level because I want to check it out as soon as I can!

Note that the hotel cannot be booked on the Kimpton website, either for points or cash – you need to use ihg.com.

Crowne Plaza Amsterdam Kimpton

Changes for British Airways at London City

British Airways has announced some adjustments to its London City services.

Flights to Hamburg, currently 3 x daily, will be suspended from 27th March

Flights to Angers, due to operate 3 x weekly during the Summer starting from 27th March, will not now happen

If you are booked onto either of these routes you will be transferred to a Heathrow service.

Instead, BA is launching a new route to Skiathos in Greece.

The timings are a little odd. There will be three flights per week, but those days are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday only. The service runs from 26th June to 6th September.

BA will also offer an extra flight to Mykanos from City. This will operate on Fridays from 30th June to 8th September, adding to the existing Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday services.

Avios and cash seats for these new routes are already available at ba.com.

British Airways BA Amex American Express

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (September 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards. Both have increased sign-up bonuses until 2nd November 2021:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

10,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 241 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

40,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

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We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies. This card has a limited time offer of 60,000 Avios when you sign up:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

60,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, IHG Rewards

Tilly71 says:

5 Feb5 February 15:46

Quick Q: how do you select your seat or pay to reserve seats on a booking made with avios points?
- Rob says:
  
  5 Feb5 February 15:51
  
  On BA? Go into BA.com and pull up the booking via the 6-character reference.
  - Tilly71 says:
    
    5 Feb5 February 16:00
    
    It’s a booking made on the avios site. When I log into our HH account I can’t even find any reference to the booking even though we have the email confirmation & itinerary.
    As it was booked through avios do I need to call up to reserve seats but it would be nice to be able to view availability.
    - mark2 says:
      
      5 Feb5 February 17:06
      
      you can add your flight into BAEC using the six character reference
      - Tilly71 says:
        
        5 Feb5 February 18:04
        
        Cheers all, found it now.
    - the real harry1 says:
      
      5 Feb5 February 17:56
      
      as Raffles said, go to ba.com manage my booking
where2travel says:

5 Feb5 February 15:59

They’ll have to be going some to make the existing Crowne Plaza anything like a typical Kimpton.

It’ll need more than a wine hour and yoga mat to make the hotel anything boutique-like. It is in a good location for visiting Amsterdam though and I did enjoy my stay at the Crowne Plaza a couple of years ago.
- Rob says:
  
  5 Feb5 February 18:22
  
  Oh yes, it is a 270 room boutique hotel ……
  - Lewis Watson says:
    
    5 Feb5 February 18:35
    
    Can’t be any less boutiquey (if that’s a word) than some of the hotel Indigos I’ve stayed at
David says:

5 Feb5 February 17:54

“If you are booked onto either of these routes you will be transferred to a Heathrow service.”

Even the Angers route? Are they going to start flying Embraers/Saabs from LHR, or start landing A319s at Angers? Either of those options sounds unusual…
- Rob says:
  
  5 Feb5 February 18:21
  
  Dunno, it was in the BA note I got!
the real harry1 says:

5 Feb5 February 18:45

Update on my claim against BA for cancellation of free F&B on tickets booked before changes announced

So I got knocked back after 5000 Avios ie 5x 1000

BA say you won’t get more than 1000 Avios compo per person irrespective of number of tickets booked

I’m keen to test this in law

but worried BA could get nasty eg cancel my flights ie give me a refund instead – I got those flights nice & cheaply so that would be a bad outcome

remember BA vs Virgin?

so my current plan is to take my flights then claim in law retrospectively

will probably write stiff letter to Cruz before then
- Lady London says:
  
  5 Feb5 February 19:04
  
  @Harry do please keep us posted on your progress on this.
  - the real harry1 says:
    
    5 Feb5 February 19:09
    
    plus it seems I left all my screenshots of the ‘free F&B that you don’t get with LCCs’ at our place in the sun 🙂
    
    nae problemo, I thought I emailed them to myself but I’ll just get them at Easter anyway, I am actually quite worried by BA’s ability to be vindictive/ nasty so it all works out nicely re: timing
    
    I have got a couple of journos interested already
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  5 Feb5 February 20:14
  
  Once you board could they claim you have retrospectively accepted their new terms of travel?
  
  I know Car hire and hotels can be cheeky like that can’t they?
- roberto says:
  
  6 Feb6 February 00:26
  
  We got 4000 each, a thousand for each of the four sectors we had booked. Total 8000 between my good lady and I.
  
  Took some pushing, initially the standard1000 and then the other 3000 after some email tennis. I was happy with that.
Ant says:

5 Feb5 February 19:50

Completely OT sorry. But out of the blue my parents mentioned they’d like to go to Sydney for Easter. They don’t mind going ex EU. I know recently there have been a few articles about these flights but I wasn’t paying attention as it wasn’t something I was interested in and now it looks like the offers/sales have expired.
Anyone has any suggestions on where I should look for the best prices in business? Thanks
- Rob says:
  
  5 Feb5 February 21:53
  
  Vietnam Airlines is doing £1600 from Heathrow on brand new 787s I believe.
  
  The Malaysia £1500 deal is over – at least to Sydney.
  
  Sub £2k is always available, even if it is China Southern ex Amsterdam …..
  - James Ward says:
    
    6 Feb6 February 11:53
    
    If your parents go with Vietnam and have a long layover in SGN, tell them to call the airline at least 36 hours before travel and book the free city tour and day hotel. Made for a very nice treat on my way to and from Aus last month.
Pierre says:

5 Feb5 February 22:34

Apparently Angers dropped has something to do with the airport closing to all civilian flights., due to a loss of subsidies and ATC personnel.
BigDave says:

6 Feb6 February 14:26

“Flights to Hamburg, currently 3 x daily, will be suspended from 27th March”
good job my flight from Hamburg to City is on the 23rd March then….as I was looking forward not to buy on board….
Tim says:

6 Feb6 February 15:38

40 years ago Mykonos and Skiathos were over-done and unatractive, Does it take two generations to die off for these places to become attractive?

The number of times I saw cruise ships come in, prices and adrenelin levels triple… Decades ago.

Mykonos and Skiathos were never attractive. Never. There are 2000 inhabited islands in Greece. The ones with airports tend to be most like the mainland.
- Talay says:
  
  6 Feb6 February 18:25
  
  Folk cannot help when they are born.
  
  Those travelling today have so little left to explore and so little time within which to do it.
  
  I held a long nurtured desire to go back and see some places I knew well from the 1990s but I have not, certain as I am that as they were discovered by the internet generation, they have become shadows of their former selves and fallen foul of the capitalistic excesses which allowed us to visit them in the first place.
  
  We need another world to explore as we’re nigh on done with this one.
  - the real harry1 says:
    
    6 Feb6 February 18:32
    
    I first went to Koh Tao in 1988, it was beautiful, cheap, unknown to the masses & wonderful.
    
    I bet it’s still pretty good now but nothing LIKE as good 🙂
    
    Koh Samui was getting developed and pretty horrible in parts – with the full moon parties already started on the island in the middle Koh Pha Ngan – very sad place once a month & the party-goers simply didn’t know it…bet it’s carnage now
    - Talay says:
      
      6 Feb6 February 20:57
      
      I was in Samui before the inside roads were built and what accommodation there was was dispersed between almost forest like plantation. A few years alter, it was still semi idyllic but the magic was waning. Now it is a metropolis with overpriced everything and shit attitudes.
      
      Koh Pha Ngan is a money pit for those who run the island like a mafia fiefdom. As the recent murders show, nothing is allowed to stop the cash machine from functioning.
      
      I lived in the South Andaman, travelling largely on big engine long tail boats heading off into the ocean with no idea of where we were or whether we would survive; sadly some did not.
      
      What was great back then might well be good now but it won’t be as good. just look at La Residencia in Deia, my Mallorcan home from home. It was fantastic until it was destroyed and can never be reclaimed.
- Leo says:
  
  6 Feb6 February 19:02
  
  Completely disagree.
  - the real harry1 says:
    
    6 Feb6 February 19:13
    
    yep had a perfectly pleasant holiday in Skiathos with a girlfriend nearly 30 years ago, it was lovely