Bits: Amex @ Frieze Art Fair, Accor relaunches the Orient Express brand

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• Elaine says:

  5 Oct5 October 06:17

  “the first UK Belmond hotel – the ex-Cadogan Hotel – is due to open in Knightsbridge in a few months”

  It’s perhaps the first in London but definitely not the first in the UK. The lovely Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons has been a Belmond hotel since Orient Express became Belomnd.

  • Rob says:

    5 Oct5 October 08:55

    Very true, should have double checked that. Sometimes the site would be more accurate if I knew less, since I would be forced to check everything as opposed to assuming that I know 🙂 Although fact-checking HFP would literally be be a full time job.

    • David says:

      5 Oct5 October 09:41

      There appear to be thousands of readers doing that for you, Rob, with varying degrees of politeness!

• William Avery says:

  5 Oct5 October 07:53

  Finally that rusty A340 is gone from our skies. That thing made so much noise overhead especially if it was on late departure. Not sure what it was fuelled on or what the load was but it made more noise than the 747s.

• mark2 says:

  5 Oct5 October 08:30

  According to Philippine Airlines web site:

  May 3, 1947 
  PAL starts a DC-4 service to Rome and Madrid, thus earning the distinction of being the first airline in Southeast Asia to fly to Europe. Each flight took two days with stops at Calcutta, Karachi and Cairo. By the end of the year, the service was extended to London.

  This is very different from ‘Philippine Airlines was the first airline to connect Europe with Asia’.
  Surely European airlines were flying to at least the Middle East before World War 2?

• filipino_chino says:

  5 Oct5 October 08:49

  Any news on the IFE for PAL ?

  I flew with PAL when they just re-launched from LHR and it was a killer in Y…

  I made a good friend on the flight, apart from that – I vowed never to fly with them again… I normally fly with QR, but the time saving makes me think again… From memory PAL was very average, nothing special and the food was rubbish, but things should have improved?

  I know their customer service was great when a bag went missing on route to HKG. (I used to fly MAN > HKG with QR as you got more points than going direct to MNL, then a LCC or PAL to MNL as it’s a cheap route).

• JamesB says:

  5 Oct5 October 10:59

  OT Bit: Spanner in the works for APD reduction from Scotland –

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41509650

  • Alan says:

    5 Oct5 October 11:04

    Damn! At least I managed to get around it on recent booking by going EDI-FRA then >24h before on to longhaul (SIN-AKL) – dropped the APD to £13 and all on one ticket so still protected.

    • Grimz says:

      5 Oct5 October 12:13

      I’m looking up INV-HEATH-LAX on BA for next year and finding its still £600+ in taxes is there another way of finding this cheaper?

      • Alan says:

        5 Oct5 October 12:15

        That won’t be all taxes though, that’ll be taxes + fees + charges. Even if you remove the £130 APD you’ll still be paying hundreds in BA surcharges…

• N says:

  5 Oct5 October 11:20

  OT: My first SPG card, so excuse the potentially silly/simple question.
  Received card 2/10, spent the £1k for the welcome bonus by the end of the day (a well timed utilities bill and a mattress purchase sorted that out very nicely!). Both charges have hit my account, with the total balance showing correctly. However, Starpoints showing as 0, and the welcome bonus tracker still showing “Spend £1,000 by 04 Jan 2018 to receive 10,000 Starpoints”. Is this normal?
  Thanks!

  • Alan says:

    5 Oct5 October 11:23

    Yes – takes a couple of days for it to move from transaction showing to points being awarded. Same for all the Amex cards.

    • mark2 says:

      5 Oct5 October 11:26

      Assuming that you were referred, the extra 1000 points will appear separately as a bonus.

      • N says:

        5 Oct5 October 11:39

        thank you thank you!

      • Genghis says:

        5 Oct5 October 12:01

        Watch out for the points moving across from SPG Amex to SPG. There’s normally a 4-5 day window where you can cancel and the first statement (read fee) has not been generated…

      • N says:

        5 Oct5 October 15:26

        Thanks Genghis – I think I’ll hold onto this one while I wait out my 6 month Gold/Plat and BA churn. I’m trying to focus on SPG points at the moment and paying £40 for the points for the next 6 months seems like the best use of time/effort. Any holes in my thought process?

      • Genghis says:

        5 Oct5 October 16:03

        For me, 29k SPGs through his n hers sign ups for £2k spend is much easier than spending £29k on them. The card is likely to disappear sometime next year.

        • Alan says:

          5 Oct5 October 20:21

          Agree SPG sign-up decent to make the most of just now! I’ve just done a cheeky wee Nectar application after seeing it mentioned on Shopper Points today (30k).

      • New Card says:

        5 Oct5 October 16:15

        If you were hitting £29k of spend on an SPG Amex, there would also be the Free Weekend Night voucher to take into account (which I think is rewarded after £25k is spent on it).

        • Rob says:

          5 Oct5 October 16:20

          …. but which is very difficult to use due to the category restrictions, unless you fancy a romantic weekend at the Sheraton Heathrow.

      • N says:

        5 Oct5 October 17:09

        Still yet to fully convert my partner over to this game, so a guaranteed refer-and-cash-in isn’t yet an option for me!

• pauldb says:

  5 Oct5 October 13:34

  New BA route bookable: LHR-Almeria (a Monarch destination). Tue & Sat.

  HT to gingeola on FT.

• Rob says:

  5 Oct5 October 16:21

  I’ve had 5 emails from them about it today so I assume others have too!

  • Tilly says:

    5 Oct5 October 21:43

    Yep, I’ve had the emails about it. Will pick up a free bits I’ve been holding off buying i think.

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