SWISS special – book a £199 return flight to Zurich in Business Class

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• ee says:

  18 Jan18 January 06:02

  O/T any recent experiences on timescales for Amex Gold to Platinum upgrades where not instantly accepted? Mine has been 3 days and no update to the online account. Getting a little nervous but not sure why they would not upgrade as have perfect long history with them and not aggressive churner.

  • Louise says:

    18 Jan18 January 06:35

    Give them a ring, this has normally sorted it. Think the department you need is 9-5 hours

    • ee says:

      18 Jan18 January 06:41

      Good plan. We did move house in September but the new LA said we’d be on the electoral roll from 1st Dec. Maybe they screwed up!

      • Hunter says:

        18 Jan18 January 07:09

        Also re gold to platinum upgrade….if I’ve just intro’d someone gold to gold I guess I’ll loose the referral bonus if I now upgrade to platinum prior to the points landing? Ideally I’d have waited and intro’d them from platinum of course, but they wanted the card asap.

      • Louise says:

        18 Jan18 January 08:13

        I think change of address is the issue. When we moved I never got instant decisions for a while

    • Grimz says:

      18 Jan18 January 16:58

      I did mine on Tuesday and was accepted right away – within 12hrs my Gold changed to Platinum on my online account!

      • Grimz says:

        18 Jan18 January 16:58

        Sorry – not accepted

  • JP says:

    18 Jan18 January 07:08

    It was about 2-3 days before the gold changed to plat in the online account. As soon as that happens you can use your gold as a plat to count for the spend. The plat cards came a few days later. Previously I had had the cards the next day after applying.

  • Lottietiger says:

    18 Jan18 January 07:37

    I upgraded Monday and didn’t get a decision. Suddenly I got the card inthe post yesterday with no prior warning, so 3 days for me.

    • ee says:

      18 Jan18 January 08:46

      Have spoken to them having also applied on Monday using the upgrade link and they say the card should be with me today.

      Randomly the online account hasn’t updated (still shows gold) but apparently that is normal and I will need to add the Plat as another card to my online access. Pretty sure when I upgraded the BA card the online access automatically migrated to the new card. Maybe it just needs more time…

      • rash says:

        18 Jan18 January 09:27

        Does anyone know if the upgrade offer is still only applicable for those who have not had a plat card in the past 6 months? The email I got today from Amex offering an upgrade makes no mention of ineligibility for those with a Plat card in the past 6 months in the Ts & Cs

      • S says:

        18 Jan18 January 10:16

        I upgraded last November — didn’t have to add it as a new card, it changed the colour in online portal 2 days before the card actually arrived.

      • JP says:

        18 Jan18 January 11:20

        The gold to plat change is automattic. For other cards you do have to activate to see it, but not this one.

      • JP says:

        18 Jan18 January 11:23

        I don’t believe the 6 months is relevant here, that is only if you cancel you card and want to reapply. I got the plat upgrade and will find out in a few days if I get the bonus when I hit £1K.

      • Bonglim says:

        18 Jan18 January 14:12

        “I don’t believe the 6 months is relevant here”

        I wouldn’t recommend anyone try this. But if the 6 months gap is not relevant here, could you just oscillate between gold and platinum on a month by month basis?
        i.e. start the month on Gold, upgrade to platinum, spend £1k, bag the bonus then back to gold to repeat the process next month (or in 2 months)?

  • Ali says:

    18 Jan18 January 14:02

    if you’ve upgraded from gold to plat in year 1 is the platinum fee charged immediately or on 1st yr anniversary of gold card (when the £140 fee would have been due)?

    • Doug M says:

      18 Jan18 January 14:11

      Either from what I’ve read, depending on whether you’re lucky or not.

      • ankomonkey says:

        18 Jan18 January 20:30

        I’ve just been lucky 😉

• HMHB says:

  18 Jan18 January 07:09

  “you will be able to access the Lufthansa lounge – or, if you’re willing to walk over to the satellite terminal, the fantastic United Club lounge (or the less fantastic Singapore Airlines and Air Canada lounges).”

  Useful advice. Is it possible, time and energy permitting, to visit to all four lounges one after the other, on the same ticket?

  • Talay says:

    18 Jan18 January 07:11

    Not sure what is meant by the “satellite” terminal ?

    I read the glowing praise of the united lounge but never thought I’d get there …. maybe ?

    • palcsaky says:

      18 Jan18 January 07:29

      Satellite terminal is where all the B gates are. All lounges can be visited on one ticket.

  • Gavin says:

    18 Jan18 January 07:39

    Yes, went to United and Singapore lounges when on an Aegean upgrade voucher

    Food, shower and drinks in United Club, and a Singapore Sling and some ice cream in Singapore lounge

  • Daftboy says:

    18 Jan18 January 07:56

    It’s a looooong walk to B though, with no transit train thingy, so I’d only attempt if you have lots of time – but you can move freely back and forth

  • Rob says:

    18 Jan18 January 08:20

    Guess so – if they are all open all day, that is.

  • Pawel Siewko says:

    18 Jan18 January 09:10

    Yes You can use all star alliance lounges one by one and also Plaza if You have Priority pass 😉

    I did it once 😉

  • John says:

    18 Jan18 January 09:17

    You need about 7 hours if you want to fully sample everything each Star lounge has to offer and even longer if you want to try the Plaza premium. The walk to B takes about 5 minutes as there are travelators and you have more energy. If you are flying from an A gate, it takes 15 minutes to walk back as you will be stuffed and tired, and in that case I suggest using the Lufty lounge (in A) last so you don’t miss your flight.

    I usually only go to 1 or 2 now the novelty has worn off.

  • Lady London says:

    18 Jan18 January 11:52

    Yes. Start with the United Lounge particularly if you’re there for breakfast (surprisingly decent coffee and orange juice,with properly cooked bacon).

    Singapore Airlines Lounge is practically next door. It’s smaller than most SQ lounges and, exceptionally for SQ lounges, not the best lounge in this location.

    You might as well pop in to the Maple Leaf lounge on your way back but I’ve heard no reports of it so think it’s not exceptional.

    Then you have a loooooooong walk back to the main terminal. You’ll arrive back pretty much in the main shopping area behind the security gates you came in through. The Lufthansa lounge is there. It’s actually quite a good LH lounge compared to many that are not at their home bases in Munich and Frankfurt. However this one definitely not as great as the United Airlines lounge for sure.

    • meta says:

      18 Jan18 January 16:57

      I love United lounge, but I actually prefer Maple Leaf to Singapore Airlines. They have waffles and pancakes with maple syrup (if that’s what you like) plus for me the coffee is the best in Maple Leaf of all three lounges. Signapore’s lounge uniqueness is Singapore Sling ice cream… I did all the lounges in Terminal 2 once (minus Aer Lingus). Takes about 5 hours before boarding in total.

      • HMHB says:

        18 Jan18 January 22:15

        Excellent, thanks for all the replies. I think I have only managed two lounges in one visit (the JAL Sakura lounge and AA Admiral’s Club at NRT). Glad (and not surprised) to hear that HfP readers have maxxed out the lounge options in one sitting, good work!

• will says:

  18 Jan18 January 07:36

  O/T – does anyone have any good missed connection insurance? Most travel insurance covers departures but not any connections.

  • Pawel Siewko says:

    18 Jan18 January 09:13

    Insurance on my amex ba platinum covered 1500gbp missing connection in 2016;)

    But you must check fine print we had also another insurance that time and found out that if missing connection is domestic You will left with nothing avoid insure2go….

  • palcsaky says:

    18 Jan18 January 09:24

    Amex Annual Multi trip Select paid out for my missed connection on the way back from HKG last year (Ex-EU & separate tickets). They even paid for a new train ticket home from London.

    • will says:

      18 Jan18 January 10:44

      Thanks, this is useful. I have this policy.

    • the_real_a says:

      18 Jan18 January 10:46

      Can i ask how long you left between flights? AMEX were non committal as to what constituted “reasonable”

      • Rob says:

        18 Jan18 January 11:09

        Every airport has a published Minimum Connection Time. As long as you are inside this you should be OK.

      • palcsaky says:

        18 Jan18 January 11:09

        Just under 3 hours. The flight from HKG got cancelled and I was rebooked for the next day.

• N says:

  18 Jan18 January 07:37

  QR Sale – is the sale still live in other countries? Was booking an ex-HEL on Monday night and the page timed out at 2201. Fare was gone by the time I reentered my routing

• MrConair says:

  18 Jan18 January 08:10

  For those that have flown LHR-ZRH is there a specific aircraft type that is better than others? Maybe the C-Series for uniqueness?

  Does anyone know if a Swiss still run the 777 onto Geneva from Zurich?

  Thinking a fun weekend could be brewing.

• Louise says:

  18 Jan18 January 08:11

  @Hunter I don’t believe your referral code changes, so you should get the gold referral OK, if not I would chase it! I may be wrong though!

• Wivus says:

  18 Jan18 January 08:24

  I thought I was going to miss the Qatar sale so looked around and got a BA CW flight in March from AMS to JNB via LHR for £1,443. Amsterdam is quicker and cheaper to get to than Frankfurt or Sofia. Ok it’s BA not Qatar but it is overnight with no break at midnight to 2am so asleep most of the journey anyhoo. The power of Google flights

  • Rob says:

    18 Jan18 January 08:54

    South Africa is not great via the ME – better to fly BA or SAA and get 8 hours sleep.

    • Michael_s says:

      18 Jan18 January 09:25

      I second that. I flew thomas cook, direct cpt-lgw, one of the best economy seats I’ve seen for a while!

      If direct is not an option, check turkish

    • Wivus says:

      18 Jan18 January 09:28

      Indeed, I have had to do it on occasion though but direct is better for certain, but usually far more expensive. I am surprised AMS is that price. Adds half a day extra but saves nearly £1.5k.

    • Genghis says:

      18 Jan18 January 11:40

      I keep getting updates from our hotel in CPT that the pool is not in use…

• Dave says:

  18 Jan18 January 08:35

  So I got my Amex Gold in October, have hit the spend and planning on cancelling in March/April once I refer my wife. However I am tempted by the platinum upgrade Amex emailed me today: 20,000 points for spending £1000 in three months. Can I upgrade now, hit the spend and then once I cancel in April get a pro rata refund of the £450? I seem to remember there was something funky about having to pay the £140 gold fee as well or am I imagining it?
  Any thoughts if it is worth upgrading? The hotel status isn’t much use to me as I’m only a leisure traveller although I do have a long haul holiday coming up in March/April where the lounge access would certainly be handy.

  • Alex W says:

    18 Jan18 January 08:50

    Yes and yes. If you’re lucky you can cancel before you get charged any fee at all. The £140 thing I think is if you downgrade from Plat to Gold. But should still be refundable pro rata if you cancel. It’s definitely worth upgrading to Plat. You’ll get a higher referal bonus when you refer your wife too.

    • Dave says:

      18 Jan18 January 10:01

      Sounds good. Is the fee pro rata on a daily or monthly basis? I.e if I applied today and cancelled on April 16th would I be charged 3 months worth of fee as I’ll have only held it for 12 weeks or would it be 4 months as I got the card in January and held it for 4 separate months?

      • JP says:

        18 Jan18 January 11:25

        Daily, but they don’t seem to charge it very quickly when doing the upgrade. When you get the plat without being gold first it gets changed straight away.

  • mark2 says:

    18 Jan18 January 09:05

    remember that the lounge access ceases when you cancel the card.

  • S says:

    18 Jan18 January 10:59

    Yes, we’re about to do just this with my gal, except I’m keeping my Platinum. I’ve referred her for gold, when we hit the spend target on that, she’s going to upgrade it to platinum, hit the spend target, refer me for the BAPP (for a sweet 18k referral bonus as it’s been a bit over 6 months since I’ve last held BAPP), and cancel it.

    Rinse and repeat.

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