Your American Express Platinum and Boingo free wi-fi offer is extended

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• Louie says:

  21 Jan21 January 10:01

  I’ve seen various comments in the replies to Rob’s articles about bonus points for taking out supplementary cards. Does anyone know to which cards this relates (we have Plat, PRG, the Rewards Credit card, SPG, BA Blue in the family), how many supplementary cards per account would qualify and how many points you would get?

  • Davide says:

    21 Jan21 January 10:39

    Currently if you have a Plat, you will get 18k point per referral regardless of what card is taken. I have had four referalls recently that have all secured me 18k each. These have been for 2x Gold, 1x SPG, 1x BA Blue.

    • Stuart_F says:

      21 Jan21 January 10:41

      Louie is asking about supplemental cards on the same account. Not referrals.

  • HASSANJ says:

    21 Jan21 January 13:48

    I tried to get some bonus MRs last week for taking out a platinum supplementary card but the amex agent refused it. First time this has happened as usually they agree to the bonus.

    I miss the secure messaging system. Personally I think it was a lot better than the current chat facility they have.

• Alex W says:

  21 Jan21 January 10:48

  I found Boingo useful, I think it was at Dubai airport. Data roaming and WiFi would otherwise have cost ££.

  • Rob says:

    21 Jan21 January 10:54

    I used it in an airport a few years ago where there was no free wifi option …… I think it was in Germany somewhere.

  • CV3V says:

    21 Jan21 January 11:48

    Doesnt DXB have free wifi? Used to.

    • Alex W says:

      21 Jan21 January 13:03

      I seem to recall you only got the first hour free.

• Paul Ashcroft says:

  21 Jan21 January 10:59

  On Boingo – I found that this service blocked every other WiFi service and I had to remove the app from my iPhone to regain control over my comms.

• Nick says:

  21 Jan21 January 11:07

  Rob, I really hate to say this, but there’s poor research here again! It really doesn’t take much to check BA’s schedule…
  ALL BA flights to Moscow have long-haul-style seats and service. The first each day (BA233) is a widebody – either 777 or 789 depending on day – with the rest all flown with the mid-haul A321s with lie-flat CW seats and full IFE in economy.

  Incidentally, for anyone heading to Japan, 3/4 days a week the Aeroflot A330 service continues on to Tokyo with no change of aircraft.

  • Rob says:

    21 Jan21 January 11:31

    Ah you see … I did have a look but saw them as A321 and didn’t know they were the ex-BMI planes.

    If you have been flying this route long enough you will know that it has gone through various phases, including being a 747 route at one point and having bog-standard short-haul aircraft during the low point of the economic crisis.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      21 Jan21 January 14:10

      Since I started flying BA around 2007 this was originally a Club Europe route with the usual CE product. bmi decided to compete against them and offer their midhaul product which at the time was much more comfortable than Club Europe, but it wasn’t lie flat seating. Apparently Aeroflot also offered a better product than Club Europe on this route. As it was Club Europe it was 80 TP.

      So BA decided to change it to longhaul. Started with 747, but since it was reclassified as longhaul it has never gone back. There’s been times when aircraft have been substituted for shorthaul 321 or 767 but officially the product was ‘Club World’ with 140 TP. Some other routes such as TLV have also suffered with shorthaul aircraft substitutions at times but they’ve never officially been recategorised shorthaul.

• Cat says:

  21 Jan21 January 11:36

  OT – I recently spent 3 nights in Germany (Hilton Dresden, then independent hotel in Saxon Switzerland NP booked through hotels.com, then back to the Hilton in Dresden). It occurred to me that I often do this (fly into city, stay a night in a big chain hotel, head out of the city to go enjoy Mother Nature in all her glory and hug some trees, then return to the chain hotel to clock up another stay before flying home) a strategy I frequently use to hit bonus promotions that often reward single night stays over multiple night stays.

  This works for me because I don’t ever stay in hotels for work, so I would struggle to achieve bonuses like Accelerate and the current Hilton promotion otherwise, I love hiking and the great outdoors (and would always choose a NP as an end destination above a city break), and my boyfriend would NEVER agree to the inconvenience of hotel hopping around within a city purely in order to satisfy hotel promotional targets, but will happily do it if it means the convenience of being able to relax in a hotel quickly after a flight, then completing the journey to our chosen spectacularly beautiful destination the next day.

  Is this something that other people do at all? Is it worth sharing recommendations of chain hotels that exist close to stunning landscapes? I’m always looking for new options!

  • Cat says:

    21 Jan21 January 14:06

    Agreed, although if you’re willing to settle for somewhere that’s stunning (but not a NP), it gets easier.

    Recommendations for easy trips within Europe:

    Dresden for Saxon Switzerland NP (Google Bastei bridge for an idea of how stunning it is!)
    Milan Malpensa (stay at an airport hotel) for Lake Maggiore (or really any of the Italian lakes if you drive)
    Geneva for Lake Geneva, hiking around Mont-Blanc (or up it if you’re hardcore) – an alternative and cheaper base is the Hilton at Evian, which has a fab Spa and a nice Exec lounge
    Grenoble – the Novotel Grenoble Nord Voreppe is less than 2km from a train station, and is in a valley between 2 Parc Naturel’s
    Antalya (well – part of Turkey’s in Europe…) – there are 2 IHG hotels there, and the coastline West of the city is stunning, as well as there being a ton of hikes in the mountains nearby, including to the ruins of Termessos
    Bordeaux – do a few boozy hikes between stays at the Intercontinental
    Costa Smerelda in Sardinia – there’s a Sofitel and various SPG hotels, then make your way to Cala Gonone and then do hikes along the Golfo of Orosei
    Madrid – many hotels to choose from, then head into the Picos de Europa for some lovely hiking and kayaking opportunities
    Dubrovnik – stay at the Hilton and use it as a base for a bit of island hopping, plus you can hike up Mount Srd from the city
    Madeira – there’s a Melia there, and 2500km of levada to hike…

    Please reply with your own recommendations!

  • RussellH says:

    21 Jan21 January 16:36

    Having sold both walking and cycling trips to Saxon Switzerland in my past life (IIRC it was the second area in the east that I offered starting in the mid 1990s,with the Harz being the first) I am curious to know where you stayed. For anyone who does not know the area it is stunning. Public transport from Dresden ios excellent – if you avoid the Inter City services to Prague and beyond (every other hour) you can use a day rover on the local trains, Dresden trams and buses, other buses and some of the ferries across the Elbe. Dĕčin, just across the border in the Czech Republic, is very doable as a day trip from Desden, or anywhere else in the Elbe Valley. There is a great walk from south of Bad Schandau to a fabulous rock arch, the Pravčicka Brána, too – used to be a popular day out from Dresden before 1914.

    Other destinations that I used to sell:

    Munich -> Garmisch and Füssen, as well as the pre-Alpine Lakes.

    Cologne or Frankfurt -> the middle Rhine Gorge – walking routes such as the Rhine Castles Way and the Rheinsteig

    Strasbourg -> Vosges. You can combine wine and hillwalking.

    Cologne (again) -> Eifel

    Hannover -> Harz

    Bruxelles or Luxembourg -> Ardennes – some fabulous food as well as great walking.

    Basel -> southern Black Forest or the Vosges (again).

    And, although I did not sell Switzerland, Zürich for loads of alpine places to the south.

    I could go on…

    • Cat says:

      22 Jan22 January 05:59

      Please do…

      Some brilliant ideas there – thanks Russell!

      • RussellH says:

        22 Jan22 January 13:01

        OK – since you ask!!
        🙂
        A bit further away from Dresden is Oberlausitz (Upper Lusatia), which fits in the corner where Germany, Poland and Czech Republic meet.

        North east from Munich (you can get a bus from the airport to Freising and then a train through) is Passau. From there walk high above the Danube Valley along the Donausteig (I sold this as the Danube Heights) to Linz (I do not know if Ryanair still serve the airport there) which has / had a Courtyard/Marriott and frequent fast trains to Vienna.

        Between Stuttgart and Zürich is the Schwäbische Alb (spelled with a b); fantastic limestone country with some great castles and distinctive food, which I like, though may not be to everyone’s taste. Home to the largest regional walking club in Germany.

        North of Stuttgart you can follow the Neckarsteig (Neckar Heights) to Heidelberg – arguably better countryside than the Rhine, and almost certainly even more castles.

        I am still learning about Italy, but since Verona is a popular start for skiers, it should be as good for walking in the Dolomites. And a friend spent a week walking to the north of Turin last year.

• AndyR says:

  21 Jan21 January 13:14

  OT does anyone pay Thames Water via a Paypoint?
  I am currently paying via DD but pondering whether to go Paypoint. Is it possible to pay a few months in advance? I don’t fancy going to the Co-op to pay £30 a month but say £90 a quarter would be worth the hassle.

  • Rob MC says:

    21 Jan21 January 13:23

    I do. They give you a paypoint card and you can top it up whatever amount you like.

  • Genghis says:

    21 Jan21 January 14:02

    I do. I pay six months and then six months

  • AndyR says:

    21 Jan21 January 14:40

    Great thanks will do that.

    • Genghis says:

      21 Jan21 January 14:53

      I sometimes also pay it all when needing to hit a sign up bonus given any TVM rate I applied to future cash flows would be v low. Also possibility to overpay a bit and get cash refunded but TW have a proper refunds review control in place unlike some co’s I know…

• rchild says:

  21 Jan21 January 13:33

  Just tried to book MAN-LCY one way, and receive two errors that:
  BAMAN15 may not be used when flying to this arrival point
  BAMAN15 may not be applied to journeys containing this number of flights

  A return removes the error for number of flights.
  Seems that the offer is return only, with LCY excluded.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    21 Jan21 January 14:16

    Same last time a similar offer was run.

• Graham Walsh says:

  21 Jan21 January 13:33

  I’ve found he WiFi very useful at various airports where they charge or means I can get premium access and carry on with working doing video calls.

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