Special ‘Part Pay With Avios’ deals on London City and Manchester routes – good deal?

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• Myer says:

  24 Oct24 October 05:51

  Priority boarding at LCY is strictly limited to Gold Executive members only. Silver and Bronze are not permitted priority boarding, they have to wait in the regular line.

  • Waribai says:

    24 Oct24 October 07:29

    Since when? We last used LCY during the February half term, they allowed us as silver members to use priority boarding. Admittedly, we then waited for another 20 minutes on the cramped staircase leading down to the tarmac doors!

    • Lynx says:

      24 Oct24 October 09:02

      The policy is Club Europe and Gold only, although if you volunteer to check your bag in when they call for it you normally get priority boarding as well. How strictly it is enforced is down to the staff on the gate.
      With regard to the standing on the stairs, that seems to be standard practice. I don’t remember ever going straight onto the plane, although the wait normally seems to be about 5 minutes. Also, it’s better to be standing on the stairs than outside in the wind and rain!

      • Waribai says:

        24 Oct24 October 10:01

        That could then explain why we there were very few takers for the priority boarding then. Anyway we waltzed through. As for standing on the stairs, I guess they want to have people right by the doors ready to get on the tarmac once the plane is ready. If you are with kids though, anything more than 5 mins on the cramped LCY staircases starts to get rather hellish and then I start tweeting BA….

      • Worzel says:

        24 Oct24 October 10:38

        ‘If you are with kids though, anything more than 5 mins on the cramped LCY staircases starts to get rather hellish and then I start tweeting BA….’

        Really ?

• Genghis says:

  24 Oct24 October 05:55

  For completeness, the E170 fly some of these routes too, specifically EDI, GLA, DUB and ZRH

• Alex W says:

  24 Oct24 October 07:47

  I for one don’t think BA deserves any credit for this! In the past I seem to recall there were promotions offering 1.5p per Avios. The very fact you have to calculate your own pence per Avio is just annoying.

  I can only assume there are enough suckers out there wasting their Avios on this poor deal that BA doesn’t need to offer anything better.

  If they made it a flat 1p per Avios (or better during promotions) then I’m sure many more people would use it. Then the knock effect would be more redemption seats available for everyone else!

  • David2910 says:

    24 Oct24 October 14:34

    I disagree actually. The knock on effect to setting an avios floor price as high as 1p would potentially cause gradual deval over time. Those ‘suckers’ help get avios out of circulation cheaply so that’s fine by me. There are plenty of infrequent flyers who are never going to get material redemption so absorbing these stray points is no bad thing.

    • Alex W says:

      24 Oct24 October 19:12

      I agree with the 2nd bit – and increasing the value would help to get even more Avios out of the circulation! Not sure how that would lead to a devaluation though?

      • David2910 says:

        24 Oct24 October 20:40

        I just presume they’re marked at sub 1p on IAG b/s. Pricing at 1p on their most readily observable conversion would make it hard to argue that they’re sub 1p, so they’d be more likely to revalue over time (change floor price).

      • Alex W says:

        24 Oct24 October 21:26

        Cynical me suspects that the IAG balance sheet already values them more highly and they are trying to get rid of them on the cheap via Part Pay with Avios.

• a270 says:

  24 Oct24 October 08:57

  OT: I found a flight on ITA Matrix with Emirates but when I am putting the exact cities and dates directly into Emirates UK website, it is showing a difference of over £600 in the total for 2 adults and 2 children for same flights. How do people get around this as I know you can’t book directly with ITA Matrix? Secondly, are there any other ways to save money (not opening another credit card). My flight is cheapest if it originates in an EU city so can’t use the 10% AMEX code as it’s for flights departing from UK. Any cheaper from any other Emirates websites like we book car rental from an Australian site? Any help would be appreciated as flights from the UK are really expensive and there hasn’t been a good economy sale for a while such as Qatar’s BOGOF so am thinking of just booking.

  • Rob says:

    24 Oct24 October 09:21

    Have you tried doing a ‘flight and one star hotel’ booking via Expedia or perhaps Emirates own site? May be cheaper.

    If you set ITA to ‘sales city = UK’ it will block tickets which are not for sale in the UK. Or, plan B, use ITA to see the fare rules and if they say ‘only bookable in these countries’ use a local Expedia site.

    • a270 says:

      24 Oct24 October 09:27

      Thanks Rob, I followed your ITA matrix guide and did put the sales as Lon. Will try other tips. If it’s a non-UK site and showing in say $, I will be charged the 2.99% fees won’t I? I don’t think calling Emirates and mentioning that quote would get me anywhere. I am just a bit disappointed as I thought the fare I would see on the matrix would be exactly what I’d find on the airline’s website.

      • Wally1976 says:

        24 Oct24 October 09:31

        You could try https://bookwithmatrix.com/ although I can’t say I’ve ever had any success with it I’m afraid.

      • a270 says:

        24 Oct24 October 09:48

        Thanks Wally1976, great minds and all that 🙂 I did try that website earlier without any luck.

      • Rob says:

        24 Oct24 October 10:27

        Did you tick ‘only show tickets that are for sale’?

        If you don’t tick this, it shows filed fares which have sold out.

      • Nick says:

        24 Oct24 October 19:25

        Why would you assume airlines sell cheaper tickets direct from their own websites… the suckers who go straight there will often pay more for the convenience than those who use price comparisons!!

        Turkish is another one, they’re always more expensive direct than through TAs.

        Try Amex travel if you have gold or plat. Not guaranteed to be cheaper but usually are. There’s a phone option if the website doesn’t play ball.

  • RTS says:

    24 Oct24 October 10:03

    What is this 10% AMEX code?!

    • a270 says:

      24 Oct24 October 12:20

      It’s UKAMEX7. See details here:
      https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emirates-skywards/1872302-10-off-economy-business-amex-uk.html

• NP says:

  24 Oct24 October 09:36

  If a flight is cancelled where part pay with Avios was used are the Avios points returned?

  • Roberto says:

    24 Oct24 October 10:17

    I cancelled a part pay with avios flight and did not get back the avios just the fees/taxes less £15 pp

    • bagoly says:

      24 Oct24 October 14:17

      Chase them (although it can be painful)

• Cate says:

  24 Oct24 October 10:00

  Bit of help please, regarding cancellations of all point award bookings do the points just go back into your account or do you have to pay an admin fee to get the points back? I have to cancel some Iberia, Iberia Express and some JAL bookings done through BA website.

  • Rob says:

    24 Oct24 October 10:26

    They were offering free tickets if you registered by a certain date. No mention of a date restriction (unless I have had a serious brain fail).

  • Rob says:

    24 Oct24 October 10:26

    £35 per person canx fee, or less if the taxes were under £35

    • Cate says:

      24 Oct24 October 11:38

      Thanks Rob. It still feels a bit of a rip off though for something that would just go back into your account anyway….

      • Rob says:

        24 Oct24 October 13:32

        BA will tell you that the fee improves availability because it stops people making lots of speculative redemptions. I (almost) believe them too, because it would be easy for me to book, say, Heathrow to Hamburg on every Friday for next Summer, knowing that I could cancel 14 bookings to leave the 1 weekend we will actually need. Clearly at £140 canx fee for a family of 4 I won’t be doing that.

• Scottydogg says:

  24 Oct24 October 11:00

  OT , im wanting to fly to Singapore next year , looking to fly business on Avios
  I see i can do this out of London Heathrow but is there any other ‘sweet spots’ in europe that i should be looking at for these flights to save on taxes and Avios ?
  I don’t mind repositioning

  • Gavin says:

    24 Oct24 October 11:32

    Don’t think so as no other OW direct flights. Any partner redemptions e.g. Qatar would be at peak rate so higher Avios plus having to pay for 2 flights. At an extreme you could fly BA Club Europe to Larnaca, which is as far as you can go on RFS, for 17000 off peak / 20000 peak + £25, then 2 Qatar flights on to Sin. 2 changes, only a slight saving in Avios / tax and a much longer journey.

  • TripRep says:

    24 Oct24 October 11:54

    You could do an overnight in Inverness, to start your journey to SIN via LHR, should save £290/per couple on CW taxes & surcharges minus accommodation/repositioning costs. Heck it maybe possible to do it same day, but its can bit extreme before a long haul…

  • TripRep says:

    24 Oct24 October 11:59

    Also do FinnAir have any direct availability to SIN via HEL? (Those airports go well together)

  • Cate says:

    24 Oct24 October 12:06

    If you’ve not set confirmed dates and can be a bit adaptable:

    1) Marriott Hotel and Air Package number 2 – Singapore Airlines:

    2) OUT: LHR->IST RFS = 20,000 avios plus £25 cash (peak season) in biz per person.
    IST->SIN 45,000 Kris flyer miles + £11.38 cash in biz per person.

    3) IN: SIN->IST 42,500 Kris flyer points + £18.94 tax in biz per person.
    IST->LHR RFS 20,000 avios plus + £11.10 (peak season) in biz per person.

    • Gavin says:

      24 Oct24 October 14:06

      I was curious and looked at dates for November – Outbound this requires an overnight in Istanbul as BA arrives after the Singapore flight leaves – BA seem to have dropped to 1 / 2 flights a day this winter, it was 3 flights per day 2 years ago when I visited. Also Singapore airlines only fly 4 times a week to Istanbul

      On the way back it’s either a 90 min connection, or an 9 hr layover.

      Personally I would fly direct!

      • Cate says:

        24 Oct24 October 15:24

        You can pick up a very reasonable Istanbul Marriott hotel for 7,500 Marriott points. That would be free if you pick up on the current Marriott NFL twitter promotion. Shuttles to/from the airport are free. For £66.42 round trip to Singapore I’d be willing to make a few adjustments to my itinerary, but it’s up to the op what suits them.

        * Apologies but it’s 42,000 Kris flyer points each way which does come in under the 85,000 Marriot option 2.

    • Sam G says:

      24 Oct24 October 16:40

      You can actually carry on into most of Asia – Bali etc for no extra miles. But yes you do overnight in Istanbul going. On the return you’d be better on TK anyway as SQ will interline your bags. Their economy isnt bad

    • GB74 says:

      24 Oct24 October 19:36

      You can also do SIN-IST in business on SQ for 40k Virgin miles, which may be easier to acquire than Krisflyer (especially with current 30% buy miles bonus). Availability is good – got 3 seats each way next August.

      Plane used is a 772 so gets around the usual limitations around 388 and 77W business not being bookable outside of KF. I think SQ have a number of 787s on order so guessing this exception may not be around forever.

  • JamesB says:

    24 Oct24 October 20:55

    Direct on Norwegian premium class from LGW might not be much higher than BA tax and fees and you would save all the avios for something else. I fly to Asia with BA from INV as suggested by TripRep, and back to EDI. However, I use BKK or HKG as they are zone 7 and flights back from HKG are low tax. If you consider this option check hotel pricing in Inverness as it is often horrendous.

• Anna says:

  24 Oct24 October 11:14

  No “bits” today so hope you don’t mind – my 1000 avios for ordering from Rolling Luggage have finally posted on avios.com. Now wait and see if the other lot post on BAEC for my second order!

  • PalCsaky says:

    24 Oct24 October 13:36

    Have you contacted them regarding the missing avios or did they post automatically? If you did make contact was it through BAEC missing avios form or through Rolling Luggage? Thanks

    • Anna says:

      24 Oct24 October 14:46

      I placed 2 orders and asked for lot of avios to be credited to avios.com and the other to BAEC. I emailed Rolling Luggage directly when they didn’t post and RL appear to have taken it up with both. The avios.com lot have now posted, presumably because that order was placed first, so hopefully the BAEC ones will follow in a day or so.

      • Crafty says:

        24 Oct24 October 21:34

        Thanks for the info. That’s encouraging. For interest what product did you buy?

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