Bits: last day for our Scotland competition, Qatar sale and 10% off code, Cathay sale

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• the real harry1 says:

  18 Sep18 September 06:21

  O/T there are a few people on the deals site playing Ryanair Lottery 🙂 – the idea being that you book a £9.99 or under flight then get lucky when it gets cancelled as one of the 40-50 flights a day that are getting cancelled over the next 6 weeks – lucky in the sense of EC261 compo

  whilst it’s slightly unbelievable that an airline that has expanded so consistently over the last 10 years could mess up so badly on pilot hours/ holidays – there do seem to be a few tricks to improve your chances

  RyanAir won’t release a definitive list of flights cancelled, probably for the very good reason that these are likely to be much the same flights cancelled over the coming weeks – but if you can gather that intelligence and still find £9.99 flights a couple of weeks out, I’d suggest that buying (say) 10 flights (and checking in) would give you a very good sporting chance – people are saying Stansted is the one to look at first…!

  • Matt says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:13

    Bit fraudulent, no?

    • Anna says:

      18 Sep18 September 07:21

      No-one is being deceived, that’s what most (non-legal) people don’t understand about fraud. It’s not fraudulent unless the customer was, say, using a stolen credit card to book the flight. Ryanair will have your money, as per their T & Cs, if your flight is cancelled you are eligible for compensation, if not you have the option of either taking your flight, cancelling it or being a no-show. These three things happen all the time anyway and none of them constitute a criminal act. Otherwise anyone who books several flights knowing they are only going to take one (as I believe some business travellers do), would also be committing fraud.

      • the real harry1 says:

        18 Sep18 September 07:44

        https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/useful-info/help-centre/travel-updates/flight-cancellations7

      • John says:

        18 Sep18 September 08:28

        Exactly, while US laws are different, Americans frequently do something similar by trying to book flights which are usually overbooked and getting flight vouchers several times what they paid.

  • Tracy says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:19

    Other things being equal, emptier flights should be more likely to be cancelled. So buying tickets could actually reduce the risk of the flight being cancelled.

  • Rob says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:40

    6 weeks is no good, must be 2 weeks for 261.

    • the real harry1 says:

      18 Sep18 September 09:38

      for some reason they’re only announcing them a few days in advance, so no problem with the 2 weeks rule at the moment

      if over 2 weeks notice, you would still be entitled to duty of care ie food & hotel – so if you fancied a couple of free days in a hotel with cheap eats, still worth a punt

      • the real harry1 says:

        18 Sep18 September 14:15

        ‘Ryanair have really messed up here’ – Full list of cancelled flights released
        Ryanair loses 140 pilots to Norwegian Air as travel chaos continues
        http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ryanair-have-really-messed-up-here-full-list-of-cancelled-flights-released-36141910.html

• tony says:

  18 Sep18 September 06:43

  Note on CX, I can highly recommend the PE service on the A350 from Gatwick. OTAs sell this for well under £900, you get a non-stop flight and a seat that’s significantly more comfortable than BA’s PE. As a BAEC silver, I had no problem pre-assigning myself into the front row on both sectors at short notice.

  • John says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:30

    Disagree that it’s more comfortable than BA. If no J sale, I prefer Y over PE in low season as there is usually a chance of getting a “flat bed” of 3 Y seats.

• Chelseafi says:

  18 Sep18 September 06:44

  O/T I’m having problem adding a new Amex card to my online account, I received my new SPG and my OH got their new BA card and each one I try to register on online account under card management, it says this card can’t be added please create a new online account? any one else getting this? Thanks

  • mark2 says:

    18 Sep18 September 06:49

    This is a common problem I have encountered in the past, but inconsistently.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:29

    I’ve had this in the past. I’ve had to call them up and it took a few weeks due to IT Issues.

  • Alan says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:19

    Occasionally get this. I’ve found mobile app more likely to cause issues than website (accessed via desktop PC). Have also found it worked better if I logged in to website first then went to the link to activate the card. Ultimately you may end up having to call them though.

  • John says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:31

    There might be a mismatch between some of the data you entered when applying for the cards.

    Since Amex introduced the field in its online application form which allows you to enter an existing card number, I haven’t had this problem.

  • Talay says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:36

    Same here. Phoned them up, complained, they then added it to my wife’s account, breaching data protection, complain, compensation. All sorted.

  • Wally1976 says:

    18 Sep18 September 09:14

    I’m getting this all the time recently; I just add a new online account, incrementing a number at the end of my username. I now have 4 online accounts and my wife has 3 (after only needing 1 each for years)!

  • AVM says:

    18 Sep18 September 10:11

    Had same issue, Chat agent was able to resolve it within 10 mins.

  • johnny_c-l says:

    18 Sep18 September 10:16

    I had this the other week too; was told on the phone that they are using a new system and to call back after 4 weeks to get them merged. I contacted them on livechat the following day and they merged them then and there.

  • Keith says:

    18 Sep18 September 10:40

    Do you have an older cancelled version of same card still under account as you need to remove first?

    • Alan says:

      18 Sep18 September 12:57

      That doesn’t matter – I’ve got lots of old versions of the same card type 🙂

  • RussellH says:

    18 Sep18 September 11:34

    I have found, for my last two new Amex cards, that you cannot add a new card over the weekend. Got my new SPG Amex (thanks, Rob) when back home on Saturday, and while I could activate it, the system said that I would have to create a new online a/c for the card.

    But, no problem adding the new card this morning.

• Roger says:

  18 Sep18 September 07:17

  OT_ BAPP

  Is BAPP card as quick to arrive (by post) after approval as Amex Platinum?

  • Graham Walsh says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:30

    Yes it does. I think I applied on the Saturday and it was here by the Thursday.

  • Rob says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:38

    Yes

  • Andrew says:

    18 Sep18 September 09:03

    Applied two weeks ago on a Thursday morning. Card less than 48 hours later on the Saturday morning.

    The PIN took two weeks, so I’d accessed online and changed it to something more memorable by then.

• the real harry1 says:

  18 Sep18 September 07:22

  everybody who applied for the free 1000 Avios courtesy Marriott should now have received them – at least those who applied when HFP ran the news

  • Anna says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:47

    Yes, mine have appeared overnight! I was about to give up.

    Harry, re what you said yesterday about Rob running a feature on the issue of being able to buy avios as low as 0.75p when booking a redemption flight, I agree! I imagine the option has never come up on one of his bookings as it does seem to mainly apply to economy seats. If I get chance later I might interrogate the BA booking system to find some more examples. It could end up actually making WT a reasonable deal for redemption bookings ( it already is for me as my preferred route is relatively expensive).

    • the real harry1 says:

      18 Sep18 September 07:58

      it does come up on Business etc bookings but is not @ advantageous price, which I guess is why so many people here have dismissed it

      but for Economy and WT+ it works fine, you can ‘buy’ your Avios for 0.75-0.8p

      • Anna says:

        18 Sep18 September 08:49

        Yes, I meant the option to “buy” at 0.75-0.8 coming up. I looked at a CW redemption to NYC and it worked out at 3p per avios so obviously that’s rubbish value!

      • Anna says:

        18 Sep18 September 09:16

        Bermuda is another good example. A WT seat in the school summer holidays is a wince-inducing £923, but with a redemption booking you can pay (for example) £478 plus 14,000 avios. A family of four would save £1500 on the cash price.

        I can’t think of another way of buying avios which would come close to what you are getting them for here, which is effectively 0.77p each.

        • John says:

          18 Sep18 September 09:21

          It really doesn’t matter what price you are paying for the avios as long as the whole thing works out to be a good deal.

          I use “part pay with avios” frequently even though it technically works out to selling avios at 0.8-1p.

    • Genghis says:

      18 Sep18 September 08:47

      Note the redemption needs to be a good deal to start off with (i.e. irrespective of then buying avios at 0.8p).

      • Anna says:

        18 Sep18 September 08:53

        But in my case, it is. A WT ticket to GCM is around £1000, the taxes and fees for an avios redemption are around £400, so that’s a saving of £2400 for a family of four, based on the avios being collected from card and Tesco spending only (so not costing me anything to acquire them).

        • Anna says:

          18 Sep18 September 08:54

          And yes, I have paid full price for these seats in the past!

        • Andrew says:

          18 Sep18 September 10:00

          Small point but the avios haven’t cost you nothing. Even redeeming your 100k avios worth of clubcard points in Tesco would give you £420. Still not a bad deal though!

  • John says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:41

    Lol, I got them too without doing anything whatsoever since registering.

    I wonder whether they would always have appeared, or whether those people who valued the time they spent complaining at less than 1000 avios actually made a difference.

  • Andrew* says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:51

    +1, got ours too (x two)

  • Kevin H says:

    18 Sep18 September 09:15

    My final two turned-up overnight too – the 3rd one was received a few weeks ago, even though applied for at the same time. Surprised – and pleased – they all eventually arrived.

  • Wally1976 says:

    18 Sep18 September 09:18

    Blimey you’re right! Gave up on those a long time ago! 3k points to our HHA 🙂

  • Jonathan says:

    18 Sep18 September 11:10

    I complained so much the avios were manually awarded…. then the original ones came through twice so i got 3000 avois. Are they safe or will they be clawed back? During my complaining i found Marriott to the some of the slowest, rudest and most unhelpful customer service i have ever experienced in the travel area. That was now i am avios up, their incompetence paid off for the better.

• barnaby100 says:

  18 Sep18 September 07:26

  I noticed the mobile ad yesterday- or rather I got as far as the mobile ad and then couldn’t clear it and gave up (iPhone 6). Same today- just had to swap to desktop as I cant get past the ad on my mobile.

  • Rob says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:37

    Thanks. You should have dropped me a note.

  • RussellH says:

    18 Sep18 September 11:40

    Are there no adblockers for phones?

    Since these days I only use a mobile for SMS, e-mail and phone calls I have no personal experience. (The browser on my Nokia 9300i seems to have stopped working).

    • Rob says:

      18 Sep18 September 11:53

      I have dropped the full page mobile ad – although it only appears on about 2% of page views. It is still on Shopper Points because we haven’t changed the ‘in post’ ads on there yet.

• Lee says:

  18 Sep18 September 07:41

  Not keen on your full page adverts that appear on the mobile.

  Very annoying!

  • Gavin says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:56

    Mine was for Debenhams wedding insurance. Useless for me as a) I got married 9 days ago, and b) the wedding insurance we took out was with Debenhams

    • John says:

      18 Sep18 September 08:38

      Congrats.

  • Prins Polo says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:23

    Same here. Annoying.

  • Rob says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:36

    Those might go – they bring in about £3 a day which is not peanuts but also not life changing for us.

    • Axel Heyst says:

      18 Sep18 September 09:30

      Rob why dont you put an ad at the end of the comments.

      Regular visitors could then voluntarily click on the bottom ad to make a small contribution to the site at the end of reading the article and comments.

      • Rob says:

        18 Sep18 September 11:58

        …. which would get me closed down by Google very quickly!

        I can put an add at the end of the comments, it is an option in the new ad management system we have just brought in. For desktop / tablet, however, I would prefer to keep all the ads off to the side even though it has a big impact on earnings.

• Jonty says:

  18 Sep18 September 08:36

  Could you put an ad after the comments and a back/previous button below?

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