New Club rooms launched at the ANA InterContinental Tokyo hotel

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• Mark1980 says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:19

  OT but has anyone used BlueAir before? Looking at potentially booking a flight with them from Liverpool to Majorca but I’ve never heard of them so would be interested to hear other’s experiences?

  • Andrew says:

    5 Jan5 January 15:15

    Not sure if you’ve seen this but this guy did a trip report for them and slated them. I’m not sure I would be put off from what I remember correctly though, something about scratched windows and failing to load his meal. If you’re just looking for a cheap ticket and don’t care about a meal etc the rest looked fine… https://youtu.be/wLSYQrGnn6A

    • Mark1980 says:

      6 Jan6 January 11:29

      Thanks Andrew, have decided to go with Ryanair (for my sins!)

• Gill says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:22

  Thanks folks. Neither Norwegian or Scoot seem to appear on search results so had never crossed my mind. Singapore would be a good hub for a connection to wherever I find. The other half hasn’t visited so we could spend a couple of days.

  Any experience on which offer a better premium plus product between Scoot and Norwegian?

• Simon says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:36

  Massively OT here (sorry! :(): does anyone have any tricks for earning one solitary starpoint? My partner’s SPG account is stuck on 999 starpoints and she recently closed her SPG Amex. Her Marriott account has less than the minimum transfer amount (to SPG) and I don’t really wish to send some of her MR points across to her SPG account just for a single starpoint. Off the top of my head I can’t think of a way to achieve it?! Any suggestions very welcomed! Thanks!

  • N says:

    5 Jan5 January 13:39

    Phone and ask for it?

    • Stu N says:

      5 Jan5 January 14:33

      Uber used to work but I think that partnership has ended.

      You could sign up for the Marriott social media thing and do their Sunday evening NFL thing on Twitter – you’ll get a few hundred points for linking accounts then 1,000 Marriott points for getting the question right. You can send 1,000 points to SPG at 3:1, giving you 333 Starpoints.

      Or if you have a local Starwood hotel, they may give you points on F&B spend even if you’re not staying? A coffee or a beer would get you what you need.

      • Simon says:

        5 Jan5 January 15:21

        Stu, great idea too re coffee spend in a local SPG hotel. If I’m not actually staying at the hotel in question, though, how would I go about marrying my coffee purchase with an SPG account? Sorry if that’s a super-obvious question!

      • Stu N says:

        5 Jan5 January 17:22

        From the “Earning Starpoints” bit of SPG:

        “Even without a stay, all members may earn Starpoints for eligible spend on food and beverage at participating hotels or resorts.”

        Not tried it but I’d guess you just give them your card or SPG number when you pay the bill.

    • Simon says:

      5 Jan5 January 15:17

      N, many thanks for replying. Do you mean phoning to see if SPG might just give us an extra starpoint as a gesture of good will? If so, great idea.

  • mark says:

    5 Jan5 January 16:31

    do you have an star points? if so just move some of yours over? alternatively do the marriott twitter (i think its still going) on sunday which will earn you 1000 marriott points then move that over and then back?

    • Stu N says:

      5 Jan5 January 17:25

      You can only move Starpoints in units of 1,000 so that still leaves the 999 stranded.

      From memory, you can transfer Amex MR points in multiples of 400 at 2:1 so that would only leave 199 SPG points stranded, if that’s a viable option.

  • Louise says:

    5 Jan5 January 20:18

    Why don’t you leave the starpoints in there and get the spg card again in 6 months!

    • mark2 says:

      5 Jan5 January 22:17

      excellent advice.

• Harry Hv says:

  5 Jan5 January 13:02

  Scoot used to be fine until last August when it was taken over by the awful Tiger Airways. Now, you’d have no idea what sort of aircraft will turn up if any. And in our experience Scoot[Tiger] will happily re-sell your biz class seats to someone else if they can make more money that way, and you’ll find yourself downgraded with no options. Go with Norwegian and pay with a credit card in case they go belly-up.

• Leo says:

  5 Jan5 January 14:04

  OT: Paying Tax before 13th – my tax bill is a bit larger than expected (drat) and will have to pay in 2 (heftyish) chunks via Creation – anyone got away with 2 card payments for one bill, I presume this would be “reasonable”?

  • Rhys says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:30

    I paid in 10k chunks last year as that was my card limit and it worked fine. Need to leave enough time for the payments to process to avoid any issues with putting your credit card in credit.

  • EwanG says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:38

    Normally this would be fine but you might not have enough time.
    “HMRC limits the number of times you can use a credit or debit card within a certain time to pay your tax” – so I would do your first payment ASAP, then make a payment to Creation and then hope HMRC allow the second payment on/before the 13th. If no you’ll need a contingency to pay via another method (debit card?) before the 31st (assuming Income Tax).
    I have never had Creation block payments to HMRC (transactions of £4k-£10k)

  • John says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:52

    Order a supplementary card and hope it arrives in time? Probably too late now

  • Leo says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:55

    Thanks guys – I’ll pay the first chunk today and then pay creation. If I have problems with Creation and the second chunk I’ll whack it through on the Virgin White – better than nothing. I’ve goy my VAT to do as well! My fault leaving it co late.

    • EwanG says:

      5 Jan5 January 15:53

      Leo
      You should be fine using the same card across multiple tax “accounts” i.e. pay for self assessment, Corp Tax and VAT all using the same card within a short period (subject to available credit).
      The HMRC “reasonable” restriction will be within the same tax account i.e. if you have hit their unpublished barrier using one card, using a different card won’t help. I hit the limit last year when using the £25 prepaid Mastercards – could use 3 at a time and then nothing for another 7-8 days, hence why recommending this first transaction ASAP.

      • Leo says:

        5 Jan5 January 22:47

        Thanks for that. Info noted – I’ve made a payment on the card today and and also paid the sum straight to creation so hopefully I’ll free up enough credit so I can get the second part through before 13th. Contingency will be paying the rest by bank transfer but I’ve got my VAT to get through too, so may well have to stick that on the other visa anyway because of credit limit etc. Just left it all too last minute! Many thanks.

• Leo says:

  5 Jan5 January 14:20

  OT: Sorry again. Making an EU261 claim as BA flight on Wednesday was cancelled – anyone used the tool on MSE via Resolver? Any suggestions as to best way to actually make claim as haven’t had to do it before personally?

  • Rebecca says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:57

    Yes, and got the full amount paid into my bank account within two weeks of making the claim! Would definitely recommend using it.

  • Leo says:

    5 Jan5 January 22:37

    Thanks Both – I’ve gone with the BA website which I agree was slightly “buried”. If no joy I’m happy to go to the Small Claims court lol – I’ve more experience there!

• John says:

  5 Jan5 January 14:55

  IHG – just noting that I did in fact stay a Spire after buying AMB but only having 20 nights in 2017, so it worked as a pseudo-renewal.

• Rob MC says:

  5 Jan5 January 16:51

  Has anyone received the 10k IHG points for taking out ambassador?

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