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Bits: new way to spend Emirates miles, British Airways removes therapeutic oxygen

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News in brief:

A new way to spend expiring Emirates Skywards miles

I get a lot of emails from HfP readers concerned about some Emirates Skywards miles which are approaching expiry.

Your options are fairly limited.  There is no way of extending their life so you need to spend them before they expire.  For small amounts your options include:

There is now a new option.  Thanks to a new partnership with Rocketmiles, you can now redeem Emirates Skywards miles for hotel rooms across the world.  You can combine miles and cash – as long as you have at least 5,000 miles – so this is a good way of using up your entire expiring balance.

You can also earn Emirates Skywards miles on hotel rooms booked via Rocketmiles.

Full details can be found on the Emirates website here.

BA to remove therapeutic oxygen from short-haul flights

In an interview with Skift last month, British Airways CEO Alex Cruz said “If one particular day we don’t come up with an idea to reduce our costs, then we’re not doing our job.”

And so it came to pass on Friday that BA announced it will no longer provide therapeutic oxygen on short-haul flights departing after 1st February 2018.

Customers requiring therapeutic oxygen on short-haul flights are being told to make their own provisions.  You need to receive medical clearance from BA before you can bring your own therapeutic oxygen onboard, and it must be from a list of acceptable providers.

British Airways will continue to provide therapeutic oxygen on board long-haul flights.

Abu-Dhabi

Etihad offering a free repeat holiday if it rains

Etihad is pushing its Etihad Holidays packages at the moment with an interesting guarantee.

If you book a break in Abu Dhabi, and there is more than 5mm of rain during your stay, Etihad will provide you with a free replacement holiday up to the same value.

The small print is confused, however.  The website for this offer mentions ‘1st May to 30th September’ but the small print talks about stays between 1st June and 31st August.  This is a major difference as your best chance of a downpour is obviously in the shoulder season, primarily May.  That said, the chance of a payout is slim in any event.


How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (February 2025)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile.

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, not just with Etihad but with any airline.

Comments (90)

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

  • Will says:

    So much uncertainty in GBP, EUR and USD at the moment. Bitcoin may actually prove to be a great choice if your holding currency as cashZ

  • mark2 says:

    Someone was predicting that another Scottish referendum would cause the pound to fall. I would have thought that Scotland getting independence would have helped the pound.

  • Mr Dee says:

    I think the euro will weaken against the pound and USD from todays rate as for the USD I am not sure, trump will no doubt make a big impact on the economy long term.

  • Catherine says:

    You can also spend Emirates miles on Qantas! I just used up 20,000 that were about to expire, by booking a one way flight from Sydney to Perth (a 5 hour flight that usually costs around $400-$500AUD one way on Qantas). Great for anyone visiting Australia who needs to book internal flights! Not sure if you can also use Emirates miles for long-haul Qantas flights (UK to Aus for example).

  • RIcatti says:

    Please do not listen to bank analyst and currency strategists even from places like a big bank.

    Their role is to generate more business/trading.

    Pound devaluation has to do with current account (of international banking operations) deficit, as of known for Q3 2016, the UK’s Balance of Payments Current Account Balance is

    -25, 494 million pounds (25.5 billion)

    There is a reasonable expectation that Brexit will lead to decrease in the services (financial services) that UK provides to the European countries in particular and therefore, less payment and capital inflows.

  • Alan says:

    Had something similar for my Amex Nectar card (only got this for the enhanced 40,000 account opening offer)

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

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