Bits: 2400 Avios with Tesco Mobile, Qatar Airways launches flights from Cardiff

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• Greg says:

  25 Apr25 April 05:12

  As somebody who used to fly from Cardiff at every opportunity (including Cardiff to Paris weekly when BA had the route with a Monday 7am flight), this is welcome news – provided you live close by. The only thing required now is a new road linking the airport to the M4.

  I do agree however that it is a rather strange move unless of course the Qataris have some inside info on Wales qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

  • the real harry1 says:

    25 Apr25 April 06:50

    or are Qatar/ Etihad/ Emirates all now looking for innovative ways to fill their planes? (since they ordered so many)

  • Nate1309 says:

    25 Apr25 April 13:56

    I agree a link road from the M4 would be good. Very exciting for CWL though.

• RIcatti says:

  25 Apr25 April 05:24

  Part of the broader investment commitment of Qatar state to the UK.

• TripRep says:

  25 Apr25 April 05:47

  Cheap layover in Lisbon for a day or two could be a useful starting point for an OZ/NZ trip if you’re not pushed for time.

  I’ve heard rumours of another Qatar sale coming up soon……

  • Talay says:

    25 Apr25 April 06:59

    I hope they do something for the single or odd numbered of travellers. We are a family of three and we rarely travel as a two !

    Wife went direct long haul on her own to Asia for some lunatic reason to save cash and regretted it after boarding. She didn’t want to go ex EU but has apparently now changed her mind. It didn’t help that between her booking and flying Etihad ran a 30% off sale on that route and business was available for just over £1150 !

    • Polly says:

      25 Apr25 April 08:34

      Tally, l seem to recall that QR often run their sales alternatively. Either as 241! On fare part only, or just single tickets. We got three at one point. It may have been via an OTA but they do have them. Depends if it suits your holiday planning. We can be flexible on travel dates.
      We are waiting for a sale soon now for new booking.

    • NigelM says:

      25 Apr25 April 08:41

      I’m sure I read their latest ex-eu prices were for between 2-9 travellers…? I’d imagine they mostly want to exclude lone business travellers spending company money rather than odd numbers.

• James A says:

  25 Apr25 April 05:50

  What Qatar announce and what they actually end up doing can be two very different things sadly. I’ll believe it when it’s on the ground.

• John says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:42

  Welcome the news from Qatar for people living in the south west of the UK !!!
  It’s often forgotten that we all don’t live near London

  • David says:

    25 Apr25 April 07:34

    Welcome from the North of Scotland. Cardiff _is_ near London.

  • Adam says:

    25 Apr25 April 10:05

    It will save us in the South West around 40 minutes to go via Cardiff.

    Exeter to Cardiff Airport by road:-
    Via M5 and M4
    126.2 miles (show in km)
    2 hrs 11 mins

    Exeter to Heathrow
    Via M5 and M4
    186.9 miles (show in km)
    2 hrs 56 mins

    Someone is paying for Qatar to fly from Cardiff, it would of made more sense for them to fly from Bristol.

    • Peter K says:

      25 Apr25 April 13:10

      I know an Adam from the South West near Exeter. You’ll know who I am from my name of you’re him 🙂

      • james says:

        25 Apr25 April 13:13

        Yeah someone is paying for this Cardiff service. I

        I have always wanted BRS to have a ME3 service probably with a 787. It just makes sense as most people from Bristol travel to London for good flights.

        Bristol has a wealthy population with lots of people with disposable income, and I think a lot more than the Cardiff area, though I could be mistaken.

        Everyone says BRS runway is too short, but its 6600 FT long, that must be long enough for a 787-8 ?

        • Adam says:

          25 Apr25 April 15:09

          From what I can see from “Google” the 787 needs a runway 8,326 ft long. I can’t see how they can fill a 787 from Cardiff, I would of thought it would be an A320.

        • Adam says:

          8 May8 May 19:24

          This video shows Bristol can take a B787.

• Paul says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:44

  Great news about Cardiff however the anti competitive agreements with BA and the lack of fares at levels see from thevrestbifbthevEU is bad news for customers. Sadly typical in the U.K. Where the consumer seems to ignored no matter the service masquerading as competitive. Energy travel or almost any thing else,

  • callum says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:04

    Yes, that’s just a UK thing, it doesn’t happen in every single country on the planet…

• the real harry1 says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:53

  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/25/british-passengers-could-banned-taking-laptops-flights-us/

  • Anna says:

    25 Apr25 April 07:04

    They might find that families with children are suddenly not so keen to take an 8-12 hour flight to the US without an iPad or other tablet…

    • Yuff says:

      25 Apr25 April 07:27

      Or those families, and business people, may decide to travel on a US airline which isn’t affected by the ban 😉
      Handy for their profits 😉

      • the real harry1 says:

        25 Apr25 April 08:16

        they can hardly say it won’t apply to US carriers 🙂

        I think it’s inevitably going to happen soon – airlines will keep some ‘loan’ iPads on board to tide kids/ adults over the journey, I guess

        • Rob says:

          25 Apr25 April 09:22

          There are no flights on US airlines from those destinations. All of the countries in ‘dodgy regions’ served by US carriers are excluded from the ban. Funny that.

      • Polly says:

        25 Apr25 April 08:23

        This could be their secret protectionism plan for their US carriers. But l understood its from destination based anyway. So quite possibly many of their own US based flights won’t be affected.

        • Rob says:

          25 Apr25 April 09:21

          Destination based, based on destinations not served by US airlines.

          At Abu Dhabi, for example, they have US pre-clearance. Security is done by US officials in the same way as it is in Dublin. How can the US, with a straight face, say that this is unsafe?

          And the UK isn’t banning flights from the UAE or Qatar because they are our mates.

          And the rest of Europe isn’t banning anyone.

          It seems difficult to see any other explanation than a) the US is acting purely for political reasons, b) the UK is acting purely to keep in with Trump – but carving out the UAE / Qatar because they are our mates and c) the rest of Europe doesn’t believe a word of it and has no interest in sucking up to Trump purely for the sake of it.

        • JamesB says:

          25 Apr25 April 12:48

          Their position will always be that US-based carriers have stricter security checks. This is farcical in itself, I once got on a flight out of SFO when I accidently presented an expired passport with a corner snipped off, they didn’t notice and neither did I until I was putting it away. Anothef time I got a gate area bag inspection and the guy stood looking at a razor for about a minute like it was something from another planet he had never seen before. It’s been obvious from the outset the laptop ban was driven by commercial and political, as opposed to security, considerations. The funniest part is that they did not seem to perceive how easily and quickly the ME3 would respond to the ban.

    • JamesB says:

      25 Apr25 April 09:23

      I read someplace in the past week that vusitors numbers to USA have alread been declining.

• Genghis says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:01

  OT. All my points from Q1 Accelerate have now posted including the 1.5k for using my IHG credit card at an IHG hotel (stay in Jan). Had to chase twice and they said that it was a “mistake on [their] end”

  • Marknewstart says:

    25 Apr25 April 08:18

    Still waiting on my what your advise?

    • Genghis says:

      25 Apr25 April 08:33

      Chase them through the online form

      • Andrew says:

        25 Apr25 April 08:59

        I gave them a call, and they sorted it out for me, with points in my account by the end of the call. Might be quicker than the online form.

        • Genghis says:

          25 Apr25 April 09:02

          Would seem so. I waited a couple of weeks

  • Graham Walsh says:

    25 Apr25 April 09:04

    Thanks, will chase as my CC points are missing and the bonus points.

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