Bits: new Amex cashback deals, Amex wine deal, new 35% ‘buy Avios’ bonus

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• JamesR says:

  18 Apr18 April 17:14

  OT – Ive realised a bit of an issue I have regarding a positioning flight return DOH-ARN-LON

  Im flying back to Stockholm from Sydney in November and Ive realised I land in Stockholm at 7pm which on the surface is fine.. however the latest flight back to london that night is 9pm, with Norwegian.. Am I up a creek here? Is 2 hours enough to get through customs/baggage, Check in bag then be back at the gate?

  (keeping in mind ive already gone a bit over with my holiday from work and I ideally need to be in the office the next morning, so a hotel overnight isnt really ideal)

  • Sam says:

    18 Apr18 April 17:25

    Difficult to say but I’ve been there once and it was busy. If it’s the Qatar flight then at least both flights will be at Terminal 5… Doesn’t the Doha flight land at 2000 anyway?

  • the real harry1 says:

    18 Apr18 April 17:27

    You might get serendipitous but for me that would be cutting it very fine – yesterday we landed early, de-planed & breezed through an empty Immigration @ T3 – then got stuck waiting for checked luggage (along with everybody else) – finally clearing Customs nearly an hour after landing.

    Unlucky? Yes – but what if your flight is half an hour late and the checked bag slow similar to ours? Then re-check-in & re-Security etc…

    Is hotel + taking the 7.05am the next day an option?

    • JamesR says:

      18 Apr18 April 17:51

      According to my itinerary its 19:00 it lands (seems it goes back an hour before November)

      The Terminals being the same is lucky. I might have to book the 21:00 and the 07:05 as a backup and grovel immensely if it all goes terribly wrong.

      I would hope at late time of night check in would be at the quieter end of the scale.

      • the real harry1 says:

        18 Apr18 April 18:04

        yep I was going to suggest buying both so that you had Option 2, I suppose Norwegian don’t do fully flex 🙂

        • JamesR says:

          18 Apr18 April 20:12

          Or… If I book the 20:10 BA to LHR couldn’t I get Qatar to check my baggage through leaving me airside the whole time so I can head to the gate with my boarding pass on the BA App??

        • the real harry1 says:

          18 Apr18 April 20:40

          better men than you have tried to get airlines to check luggage through like that – used to be straightforward, so worth a try

        • TGLoyalty says:

          18 Apr18 April 21:49

          All reports suggest Qatar will through check with other Oneworld carriers

      • Aliks says:

        19 Apr19 April 04:44

        Remember the gates for the London flight will close 20 or 30 mins before takeoff, and the arrival is timed as the moment the plane’s doors open up. You should probably lookup the Minimum Connection Time (MCT) on the ARN website.

        We got burned in a similar scenario on a Qatar flight returning to CDG at 7:30 pm. Our Easyjet flight to London was at 9:40 but then the Qatar flight was retimed and baggage was slow to arrive – etc etc. Net result we arrived at Easyjet checking 10 mins after it had closed and locked up for the night.

• rick says:

  18 Apr18 April 17:43

  What is the best way to upgrade Amex PRGC to platinum.
  Using the link that is posted in last couple of weeks here or by calling customer services?
  Appreciate if anyone has applied recently and also to share when does the fee (£450) hit account?

  • Louise says:

    18 Apr18 April 19:04

    in theory the 450 fee should go on straight away, it was reported last year that this wasn’t happening but not heard any recent reports of this continuing. Best to factor in that you will be charged it from the off.

  • Sam says:

    18 Apr18 April 19:38

    Posted this in another comment but do not upgrade by phone. You do not get the 20k bonus doing the upgrade this way. The only way to get the bonus is via the link. The offer is different but everything else is the same. Fee is with your first statement.

    • Genghis says:

      19 Apr19 April 00:10

      Someone posted yesterday that £450 isn’t charged straight away?

      • RM says:

        19 Apr19 April 07:28

        Yes – we upgraded using the link, just had first statement and no fee charged. But as Louise suggests we hadn’t been counting on this and had factored the fee into our spending for the month.

      • Brembo87 says:

        19 Apr19 April 12:30

        @MattyS how did you go with your spending target? Did you get charged the fee?

        @TripRep I call them today and i was not offered 20k for the upgrade, however i might give it a go and see if I got any luck(via the link). I will report back once receive the card.
        I have the feeling that I wont get charged the fee either, however I will consider the fee.

    • Graham Walsh says:

      19 Apr19 April 11:27

      When I sent them a message online about upgrading they said phone up to upgrade and I’ll get x amount of points. Think it was 10 or 15k.

• Optimus Prime says:

  18 Apr18 April 18:09

  Just in case there are any spanish HfP readers with a spanish amex card: looks like Amex Spain is giving a 20% bonus when transferring MR points to Iberia Plus until 4th May 2017.

• the real harry1 says:

  18 Apr18 April 18:45

  that’s pretty good

  can you explain a bit more: was it online etc? otherwise how are you getting the Virgin miles?

• TGLoyalty says:

  18 Apr18 April 21:46

  Nice

  Online shopping tracks too, payments are processed by the store on the day.

• mark2 says:

  19 Apr19 April 16:51

  The important question is when should I buy $150 for when I go to Seattle on 31st May? and where?

  • Rob says:

    19 Apr19 April 17:20

    $150? Don’t waste your time, take it out of an ATM. Any cost over and above the cheapest possible option will not be worth the bother required to achieve the cheapest possible option.

    • rams1981 says:

      19 Apr19 April 18:58

      True… unless you work or live close to a decent fx exchange place as I do. As @genghis said always good to have some money ahead of the trip for taxis etc

• David says:

  26 Apr26 April 14:31

  Just realised I might be spending £400 on an end of May Hilton trip – any chance I would get the cash back if I went for a pre-pay rate? Not 100% certain, but the extra cost saving would probably sway me towards booking now.

  • Alan says:

    26 Apr26 April 19:57

    A very good chance and not much risk if you are happy booking non refundable anyway. If your card isn’t charged within a day or two just call or email the hotel and ask them to process the charge.

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