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Bits: British Airways taking 4 ex-Singapore A380’s?, Virgin Trains discounts

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News in brief:

British Airways to take four A380’s from Singapore Airlines?

A couple of weeks I wrote about the amazing new First Class Suites being fitted to the new A380 aircraft being received by Singapore Airlines.

These new planes are replacements for the first batch of A380 aircraft taken by Singapore Airlines, which were on a lease which has now expired.  The current version of the A380 is lighter and has more fuel efficient engines and it made sense to switch over to newer aircraft.

The German leasing company is now trying to find a new home for these older planes, and it has named British Airways as one of the parties ‘in discussions’.

This is likely to be an exceptionally good deal for BA.  There is currently no second hand market, at all, for the A380.  Malaysia Airlines tried to sell its fleet but ended up deciding to turn them into 700-seat ‘all economy’ aircraft to serve the Hajj pilgrimage market to Saudi Arabia.  Any deal which is more profitable than stripping the aircraft – the engines could be used for spares and cost over $40m each – is likely to be taken.

The talk is of a six year lease for the planes.  If we ask nicely, perhaps BA will leave the Singapore Airlines First Class Suites installed ….

British Airways A380

Virgin Trains discounts launched

We’ve mentioned the Virgin Red app before.  It is a smartphone app which brings together various different Virgin Group companies (Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Money, Virgin Active, Virgin Trains etc), offering discounts and competitions.

This week it is offering 30% off Virgin West Coast and East Coast train tickets.  All Virgin Red members can take advantage, it seems, although you can only make one booking at this price.  The discount is valid against any First or standard class Advance ticket.  There are no date restrictions.

Virgin Trains West Coast has also given us advance notice of a big Black Friday sale running from Thursday 23rd November to Monday 27th November. This will offer a 50% discount, but only for travel between Monday 18th December 2017 to Sunday 14th January 2018.

PS.  Virgin Red always offers a 20% discount on West Coast tickets to new members.  If you have redeemed this offer before, uninstall the app and sign up again using new credentials.  You will see the 20% discount link back on the app home screen.  I did this for my trip to Manchester this week.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (115)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Scallder says:
    16 Nov16 November 05:28

    OT – about a week ago my wife’s Lloyds Avios Amex card was used fraudulently by someone over in New York for a few different things so we called Lloyds to talk about this and get the card cancelled and a replacement sent out. Logged into her account yesterday to find that my supplementary Amex was also used fraudulently earlier this week, also in New York. As my card has been sitting in a drawer at home and my wife’s has been in her purse the whole time, certainly haven’t been nicked and cloned or anything like that.

    When speaking to Lloyds last night, they said that they were currently getting thousands of calls a day as they were seeing a lot of fraud on specifically the Amex cards people had, with the vast majority of the activity being contactless transactions in the US (the one on my card was for $100 at a drug store).

    Therefore it might be worth checking your accounts in you have those cards (or perhaps others) and haven’t done so recently just to make sure nothing dodgy going on. The guy we spoke to said that clearly there had been some issue somewhere but given the large quantity of it going on, it was clearly an issue somewhere else and not with us – slightly happy but obviously also concerning there’s a significant issue somewhere else in the system! Certainly explains why it took 25 minutes to get through to their fraud team…

    • Scott says:
      16 Nov16 November 05:46

      Yes, I also had two cases of fraud on my Lloyds Amex in the US. Taken off no problem but annoying.

    • the_real_a says:
      16 Nov16 November 06:05

      Wow – I also have had my llyods AMEX used fraudulently a few weeks ago for Just Eat. The worrying thing for me is that it was hardly used. The only online transaction was on google to buy some apps with a few other chip and pin transactions. If any of my cards was to be cloned i would not expect it to be my LLyods AMEX!

    • Nocnoc says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:15

      Hi I got a text from Lloyds s over the weekend asking if I was trying to pay for something in Albertson? As I’d never heard of the place I texted back no. Checked my account and there were six transactions all in New York State I didn’t recognise. Two in Office Depot, one in Babiesrus. Called Lloyds and all removed no problem but it did make me wonder how the card had been cloned, I really use it infrequently. Having read the comment above I’ll stop wondering!

      • Lynx says:
        16 Nov16 November 07:52

        Me too, I had to ring them last night as I had a fraudulent transaction appear in my pending transactions. They need to wait until it clears to refund it. Apparently there were a few more attempts that were declined.
        It does look like there has been a serious breach of security somewhere.

    • ian says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:42

      Same here with my Lloyd’s Amex.

      I was wondering if it was a PayPal issue, as that’s the card I have registered there?

    • Ian says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:42

      I have the Lloyds Amex and mine was also used fraudulently in the USA last week! Very annoying as I’m out of the UK in Japan and Australia for a month and was planning to use it a lot!

      Seems very odd. I wonder what’s going on.

      I also have the MBNA Emirates card and have had fraudulent activity on that 5 (yes 5!) times in the last 18 months. Every few months have to cut them all up again!

    • Tom says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:43

      Same here. My Lloyds Amex was used fraudulently to pay some car parking charges in the US. I think there is a huge data breach here with Lloyds – just hope they only lost card numbers and not all of our personal information. I spent two hours on the phone with Lloyds this week trying to sort it, they were blaming Amex for it, until I said I’d call Amex directly and ask, then they changed their mind.

    • David says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:01

      Same for me – queued for 45 mins on Saturday afternoon to speak to the fraud team after my card was declined – there was an attempted US transaction on there. And spoke to a colleague this week with the Lloyds Avios Amex whose card had also stopped working.

      There’s clearly been a massive leak somewhere…

      • Gavin says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:49

        Lloyds Amex – four transactions in California, last weekend, before I spotted and got the card cancelled. No issue with the MasterCard…

        • gomigo says:
          16 Nov16 November 09:16

          In my case it was Lloyds MasterCard which was used for fraud transactions. 6 attempts and also for luxury shopping bags purchase through online. I have cancelled the card. Looks like a major data breach from Lloyds side and they are staying silent which is suprising, no communication to customer to be vigilant. It’s been doing it’s rounds for last 2 weeks at least.

    • Alan says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:10

      Yep, happened to me too when I noticed a fraudulent transaction mid October. It was spent on the mastercard though. Funny thing was despite reporting to customer service they insisted that I contact the retailer. Must be a newbie.

    • Alan says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:21

      Thanks for the heads up – have checked and thankfully no issues, but will be interesting to hear what has happened, clearly something pretty major!

      • AndyF says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:35

        Exactly the same thing happened to both me and my partner this week with the Amex card! Mine was used in a California petrol station last Tuesday and then two days later she had her card (separate accounts) used in Chicago!! I think it must be a data breach.

    • Mark Smith says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:34

      I also had my Lloyd’s Amex used fraudulently, in my case at a garage in Liverpool.
      I was really impressed by the speed with which Lloyd’s picked it up, notified me and dealt with it.

    • Oh! Matron! says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:35

      Whilst I;d been in Boston the weekend before (Uber charges, mainly), my Amex had also stopped working. Spent 1.2 hours in Lloyds Kingston.

      No fraudulent charges on mine, but it was cancelled anyway.

    • Rob says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:15

      Have to say me too! 2 days ago $105 at Staples in the US (California) as a contactless transaction on the AMEX. I’ve never put this card onto Paypal so can’t be them, suspect leak from lloyds/amex themselves due to the number of issues.

      They did mention on the phone also to me that they’ve seen loads of these over the past week.

    • New Card says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:25

      Me too! Mine in Bakersfield, California. Foot Locker, Kohl’s…

    • Sunny M says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:13

      +1 to the Lloyds Amex fraud. I had a transaction from Office Depot in California – a contactless payment of USD 105 (didn’t even know that a contactless payment could even be for so much). Appears to be a huge data breach here! Called the Lloyds Fraud team and they are credited the transaction. Amex has been blocked and will be re-issued. MC not affected apparently.

    • kk says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:45

      Interesting to hear of this! My Lloyds AmEx got stopped. I called them and the customer rep started nattering something about “big customer data breach with AmEx” and also something about PayPal. I tried to press him for more details but he sounded either clueless or evasive. Getting a new card this week. (He asked whether I had been making some small 15-pence transactions but I had no idea, as I couldnt’ see them on the statement yet). K.

    • Will says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:05

      Yeah, my Lloyds Amex was stopped too last week.
      Thankfully, no fraudulent transactions on my account.

      • Chris says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:22

        +1 for fraud on the Lloyds Amex – was used in India last month for about two weeks buying various mobile phone credits until they flagged it up by text and it was stopped and refunded. But then on Sunday got a spam text from supposedly Lloyds saying my account had been used for International payment but thankfully called them using the number on the back of their card rather than the number in the text so rapidly realised it was spam.

    • Vivian says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:30

      Whoa this seems like a widespread issue. I thought the two fraudulent transactions on my Lloyds Amex was because I’d recently booked holiday stuff (flights/tours) on Bolivian and Vietnamese websites and thought maybe some of the sites weren’t secured. At the end of October my card was used twice on the same day – one for a transaction with Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and another at a grocery store in Anaheim, CA.

      • Chris says:
        16 Nov16 November 12:25

        I thought that as well as I had just made a booking on the Indian train web-site but then realised that I had used my Lloyds mastercard for that but it was my Lloyds Amex that was used for the fraud.

    • CV3V says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:30

      Me too! On a brand new card which had ever been used.

      • YL says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:55

        Oh dear!! I am another one! I called Lloyds exactly a week ago to report 2 unknown purchases in New York and they told me there were actually 2 more in pending. All been contact less payments. The frustrating thing was that I made a hotel booking payment in between they declined it and asked me to confirm first, but in the meantime they did not catch all these contactless payments in New York. I though it might be something with my card stored in Lyft app, but it looks like it is a very serious data breach now.

        • Denis says:
          16 Nov16 November 13:55

          My BA Amex was used fraudently 7 times in California earlier this week: FedEx, Target, T-Mobile for £800. Got a refund two days later. Impressed by Amex quick response to this annoying situation.

    • Rum says:
      16 Nov16 November 13:58

      Yikes, came here to check an article and I see I’m not alone… I actually contacted Rob about this a few months ago. Think it was in September when my Lloyds Amex (Avios) was cloned. They did it again a month or two before that… I think towards the end of July? First time it was to buy luxury shoes from a German brand’s website, then the second time to buy car tyres. Lloyds were pathetic as ever in trying to help. They had no clue this is something bigger than just a card cloning – I never take my Lloyds Amex out of the wallet. I’ve barely used it! Can’t wait for them to lose the Amex contract. They’re just a bunch of muppets.

      • CV3V says:
        16 Nov16 November 15:31

        Its certainly not a case of card cloning in the sense that someone is copying a card you have handed over, my card has never been used and never left the house!

        Attempted fraud took place in USA. I did think someone had cracked the amex code for generating card numbers and then getting lucky with card numbers that were active, but some of the comments say the fraud was taking place using contactless, so dunno. More like a big data breach – i guess in about 6 months time Lloyds will admit it.

        The reason my amex card was new and hadn’t been used was that it was a replacement for an old card that had also been stopped!!!!

        • the real harry1 says:
          16 Nov16 November 15:39

          but it could have absolutely nothing to do with Lloyds, ie the data breach could be elsewhere – we’ve had Lloyds and Amex themselves named here (separate entities) – the breach is probably at a third party

        • CV3V says:
          16 Nov16 November 16:14

          trh1 – yeah not saying the breach is at Lloyds, could no doubt be from elsewhere, until reading the comments today i thought might be an issue at Royal Mail, but its clear there is a problem and Lloyds should be asking cardholders to be more vigilant and check their accounts regularly. My Lloyds cards are only used for overseas travel, so i don’t regularly look at my statement.

      • CDB says:
        16 Nov16 November 16:02

        Another case here, mainly on a supp card which has not been used for at least a year I think so certainly not cloning.

    • Simon says:
      16 Nov16 November 15:06

      I’ve had 4 transactions also in California on my Lloyds AmEx and none on the MasterCard in the last week. All small amounts (i.e sub $30).

      The odd part was that I was in the US last week but in Florida – made working out which transactions were fraudulent a little harder…!

      • Phil says:
        16 Nov16 November 15:52

        And another one here. 45 mins on hold and they’ve removed the transactions.

        Lloyds really need to make a statement on this. I really don’t trust them now.

        • GB says:
          16 Nov16 November 17:24

          Plus one – used my card in Orlando in September and got multiple low value transactions in California 6 weeks after we returned, We assumed the card had been cloned in Orlando but reading this maybe not?

    • Mzungu says:
      16 Nov16 November 16:35

      ..and another one – Jeez! My card was used twice in a USA sports goods store about 3 weeks ago. I’d only had the card for about a month. Again it was the Amex, they replaced the Amex card, said that the MC was not compromised.

      Interestingly, the transactions showed as “magnetic stripe” on the Lloyds app – all my uses had been chip and pin or contactless, so it seems that someone has copied the mag stripe.

      Oh, and this was flagged by Lloyds, they left a message on my answerphone to call a number which I couldn’t identify, so I Googled it: about half the posts suggested it was a fraudulent number! So I called the main number, they confirmed that the call was valid, and put me through to the fraud department – after a very long wait!

      • Ian says:
        16 Nov16 November 17:02

        My heads up was also from Lloyds, as when I tried to log on to my account after returning from the US I was locked out and told to call the fraud department number.

        They had locked the card after 2 attempted fraudulent transactions amongst some others I’d legitimately made on my trip.

        Strangely, they knew which ones were the dodgy ones and which ones were really me.

    • Leigh says:
      16 Nov16 November 18:29

      +1 last month in October, used at Autozone US and all showing as Contactless. I did suspect a more widespread breach given contactless could only occur with card present – and no pushback from Lloyds whether the card was still in my possession

    • flyforfun says:
      16 Nov16 November 18:30

      I had fraud on my Lloyds card last year, and in the US, California and just outside San Fransisco from memory. They attempted 2 transactions. I think the first was successful but on the 2nd one, LLoyds sent me an auto generated text asking did I make a transaction in the USA. Texted back no and transaction was not allowed. Called and found that the first transaction had then been removed by Lloyds from my account as fraudulent one as well. I was impressed with the automation and response from the team.

      Several years ago I had my AAdvantage card (run by RBS at the time) cloned at Heathrow as I left to go to Australia fro work for a couple of weeks. My partner spotted the spend on the bill that came in while I was away but RBS were downright rude in dealing with him when he was trying to extract information on who I should call and while he was flagging the issue (he was a supplementary card holder) . Really poor response when I called during the middle of the night from Australia to try and sort things out. They tried to make out that I was lying about buying jewelry and petrol, even though I was in Australia at the time. Eventually I got everything wiped off, but I never used the card again. As a result I had 3000 miles that they never clawed back from me. A minor win!

    • Alan says:
      16 Nov16 November 18:31

      Hopefully everyone get a new card before shop small!

    • CountryKerry says:
      16 Nov16 November 21:43

      Same here.

      £600 in various shops, Foot Locker etc…

      Lloyds are useless.

  • Hingeless says:
    16 Nov16 November 05:42

    “If we ask nicely, perhaps BA will leave the Singapore Airlines First Class Suites installed …”

    I would be happier if the SG crew and F&B came with the A380 !!

    • Talay says:
      16 Nov16 November 07:22

      Even sadder is the fact that we are hopeful BA may decide to upgrade to a product Singapore Airlines decided to dispense with.

      Doe that make BA 2 generations behind the curve or 3 ?

      • milgom says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:44

        Well to be fair, I’d say that the first class suites would be an upgrade for most airlines.

        But, yes, BA is 2 generations behind the curve when it comes to business class.

  • Roger says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:06

    Experian Credit Score:
    Just managed to take a look at my credit score is too low!
    870/999

    It says I have too many applications in a short span as well not very long relationship for account stability. If you were to keep churning CCs, how do you have a long relationship!?

    Any general pointers to help improve credit score (other than to slow down churning!) is highly appreciated!

    • Richard says:
      16 Nov16 November 06:24

      Don’t miss any payments, maintain 40% or less credit utilised – but equally don’t have a ridiculous number of cards open either, reduce overall debt level, don’t withdraw cash on CC. Register to vote at your current address. Check that there aren’t any mistake debts on the file that either aren’t yours or are actually paid off. Other than that it’s somewhat an art rather than a skill + remember that for some lenders your credit can be too good! they don’t want every single customer to pay off without any interest at all.

    • the real harry1 says:
      16 Nov16 November 06:25

      keep 1 card open permanently?

      tip – canceling a card is negative for a couple of months – but you may need to do this to free up potential credit relative to income

      • Andrew says:
        16 Nov16 November 09:04

        Top tip.

        There’s a good reason why I keep my BoS Visa Card and First Direct Visa Cards opened in May 1990 and December 1991 ticking over.

        Likewise with all the fuss about switching current accounts – I’ve got my “switcher” accounts with two direct debits that my salary goes into that I change every year (goodbye Coop, hello Clydesdale and £250 last week). Then my three BoS current accounts that I’ve had since I was 18 years old that I FP my salary into on payday once a month.

    • the_real_a says:
      16 Nov16 November 06:45

      The thing to remember is your credit score is liquid, it changes every week depending on a number of factors. There is a definite weight to certain criteria. The biggest in my experience is “consumed” credit as a percentage of total available credit line. The thing to note on this is that 1) “debt” is only updated to reference agencies on your statement creation date, hence if you pay off your credit card mid-cycle it will never be reported 2) Outstanding debt will remain on your credit file until your next statement creation date, so even if you “pay off” your debt the day after your statement it will remain showing as debt on your reference file until the following month. Hence its wise to be creative with your payment days if you are planning to churn a lot.

      The second biggest factor is “total available” credit line (note this is not number of cards). From a reference agency point of view this is relative to payment velocity (not income as income is never reported) which is your demonstrated propensity to pay off debt – i.e. you have a history of paying off 5k or 10k each month. The credit card providers WILL asses this against your income based on their criteria so its not to say credit line Vs income is not important its just saying the reference agency scores use a slightly different criteria.

      Card relationship length and number of cards open are very marginal factors in my experience. I currently have 15 credit cards open.

      • the_real_a says:
        16 Nov16 November 06:51

        Just to add – im making the assumption you are applying for Reward cards. The big caveat is that for Balance Transfer cards, providers do expect a high % of utilised credit line since this is their target market, so you are likely to be accepted provided your “payment velocity” is demonstrated.

        • Genghis says:
          16 Nov16 November 07:01

          Some great advice. I just do what seems sensible based on reading stuff online. Closing unused cards, keeping credit utilisation low (but supposedly too low recently as I had been making intra month payments but now keep a balance at statement date. What I do seems to work. I keep three cards long term and have longstanding bank relationships.

        • Roger says:
          16 Nov16 November 07:04

          That is very helpful, the_real_a, Thanks.
          Yes it is mostly Amex and now bygone MBNA Airline cards!

          Very good points regarding paying off card just before a statement is generated so sees less balance on card.

        • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
          16 Nov16 November 07:25

          This is entirely incorrect. Utilisation data is shared with other lenders strictly in support of responsible lending. It would not be a permissable use of bureau data to use it for profitability modelling.

        • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
          16 Nov16 November 07:34

          Disagree also that income is ‘never reported’. Underwriters can get ‘Current Account Turnover’ data that’s a vastly better income proxy than payment velocity.

        • the_real_a says:
          16 Nov16 November 08:40

          I never said credit utilisation is not reported, i said it was only reported at the point of statement creation and not further updated until the next statement creation date (i.e. its a monthly snapshot).

          Through multiple bank accounts only debt utilisation (i.e. overdraft) has ever been reported. Positive balances or any form of account turnover have never appeared on my credit file. If Experian has this information then they are in serious breach of multiple SARs of mine.

    • John says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:48

      In the UK, the “credit score” is completely meaningless since Experian, Equifax and Noddle don’t issue credit cards or mortgages etc.

      Every bank and financial institution calculates its own score and decides what factors are important on their own.

      It’s the data that is important.

      • the_real_a says:
        16 Nov16 November 15:03

        Very true, but in the theme of “every institution calculates its own score” we will never know what algorithm they use – the scoring is just a guide to help “clean up” an individuals finances as a few basic things can have a big impact on future acceptance.

  • the real harry1 says:
    16 Nov16 November 06:22

    O/T talking of Virgin Money: those of us who took out the 8000 Virgin miles ISA when the offer first appeared will be paying the last of the 6x minimum monthly £100 instalments in about 2 weeks time – could be worth diarising to cancel the direct debit after that payment is taken, depending on your intentions – check your payment schedule, YMMV

    the T & Cs were initially simply minimum 6x monthly payments but changed later to add on ‘and keep ISA open minimum 12 months’ or risk losing the 8000 miles, so be aware of what you signed up for if you’re thinking of withdrawing your money from the ISA – you might want to keep in £1 for example, not sure what would happen if charges ate up that £1 or indeed sent the ISA into negative territory?

    • Genghis says:
      16 Nov16 November 06:57

      It was 6 monthly payments and keep account open for 6 months. My plan is to withdraw cash just after sixth DD payment (IIRC it takes quite a few days to become available in online acct so may do two tranches) then close down in early Jan.

      • Roberto says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:27

        Cancelled my DDM yesterday and will withdraw the £597 in a couple of weeks to spend over Xmas. Hope to repeat again next may. Easy miles.

    • Vivian says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:42

      Got the 8,000 miles really quickly but they still haven’t debited anything from my bank account…

      • the real harry1 says:
        16 Nov16 November 13:17

        @ Vivian – that’s not necessarily a good thing – Virgin are pretty good at removing miles that haven’t been earned and ISAs are well-regulated so they’ll probably spot that you haven’t paid

        and they might just start you off paying randomly, so you could straddle 2 tax years and be unable to take out another stocks & shares ISA next year (missing out on more Virgin miles)

        I’m assuming your 6 months would have ended before new tax year 2017/2018? you could possibly contact Virgin Money and get them to take the missing contributions in one payment – you can explain that you want the freedom to open a new ISA next tax year

  • Relaxo says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:16

    I’m not sure the virgin trains sale is available for all app users. Dosent shoe up for me, but I do have 30% off virgin balloons offer.

    • Andrew says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:09

      Currently showing as two different offers for me:-

      30% one off code for Virgin Trains (West Coast)
      30% one off code for Virgin Trains East Coast

      I also have a permanent offer with my employer that gives me 20% off all Virgin Trains (West Coast) advance fares.

    • Antonio says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:10

      I’m also not seeing 30% off trains…

  • Rob says:
    16 Nov16 November 07:25

    These early A380s have their own unique issues amongst others:

    – No wing twist
    – Specialist hand built wiring that needs to be replaced
    – Overweight

    I think some of the old SQ frames have their own individual certification making maintenance much more difficult/costly. Qantas’ Joyce mentioned he could fly 2x 236 seat 787’s nose to tail and still the CASM would be better than 1x 484 seat A380.

    I’m sure BA would be pushing on the pricing, however, I’m sceptical they would want these even if they’re free!

    • Stu N says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:08

      They make sense on shorter routes that BA flies the A380 on as a 747 replacement. Even an overweight A380 will probably do better than a 30 year old Jumbo.

      I am thinking the <3000 mile routes like London-JFK/ IAD/ BOS/ MIA where fuel cost is less of a factor than the 4,000+ mile routes to Asia.

      • Oh! Matron! says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:38

        As well as a healthy push from the jet stream on the way back.

      • Mark says:
        16 Nov16 November 08:50

        Which means if BA got them they would likely be ring-fenced to shorter routes rather than treated as a single fleet with existing aircraft which currently service some much longer routes including HK and Singapore.

        May make sense for routes such as Boston and Washington – can’t see them being used to JFK though due to the need to maintain frequency, and that BA’s terminal isn’t A380 ready.

        • Rob says:
          16 Nov16 November 09:46

          HK and Sing they need the 777s for cargo (A380s have minimal space below).

          As you say JFK won’t see A380s from BA, need frequency but also taxiways and runways would need to be redeveloped around T7.

          Maybe use them year-round to MIA/JNB. Personally I would prefer A350s both as an accountant and from a passenger comfort perspective with 787s on less heavy routes.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    16 Nov16 November 08:27

    Can’t see any mention of the VS miles?

    • MattyS says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:40

      Not sure it shows anywhere on the website, but me and MrsS both made a first order in the last couple of months and got the 3000 miles added within three weeks. All the bottles they have sent have been pretty decent.

    • the real harry1 says:
      16 Nov16 November 08:41

      you input your Virgin membership number whilst ordering – and first orders @ Virgin Wines earn 3000 miles (subsequent orders 250)

      I did have to chase up my wife’s 3000 miles a couple of years ago but they were awarded promptly after that

    • Wally1976 says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:14

      I had to chase but even managed to get the 3k miles on a Groupon offer some time ago 🙂

  • Wally1976 says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:09

    Thanks Harry; how easy is it to cancel the Wine Bank membership?

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