News in brief:
£20 off Virgin Atlantic this weekend
Virgin Atlantic’s Winter Sale ends on 8th February and this weekend you can get an additional £20 off on selected economy flights.
Unfortunately this offer is not on all routes and the discount will only be given for flights to Boston, St Lucia, Orlando, San Francisco or Hong Kong.
The £20 will be knocked off the full price automatically which means you don’t have to enter a promo code.
Virgin Atlantic’s sale site is here.
British Airways to halve Leeds Bradford services
British Airways is halving the number of flights to Leeds Bradford Airport from 20 per week to just 10 from the end of February.
The airline has said that this is down to “matching flights to demand”. It does make a bit of a mockery of Heathrow’s promises to increase the number of domestic flights to the airport, although this is more of a political game as the third runway will never get built if it cannot be sold as a project to benefit the whole of the UK.
The route attracted 165,000 passengers in 2016 and was up 1.6% for the first 11 months of 2017. This implies around 80 passengers per flight although, of course, yield is more important than volume.
Leeds Bradford to Heathrow had historically been a successful bmi British Midland route until rail improvements led to the service being axed in 2009. British Airways revived it in 2012. With only flight per day for four days of the week, it is difficult to see it surviving much longer.
You can find out more in this Yorkshire Post article.
SAS EuroBonus removes free baggage for status members on Go Light fares
Scandinavian airline SAS has tightened the rules on the free baggage allowance for status members who purchase its cheapest Go Light fares.
Previously, any Star Alliance Gold or SAS EuroBonus Silver or above status member was allowed to check in a suitcase for free when purchasing a Go Light ticket. If you buy a ticket now for travel from 7th May, this will not apply.
Tickets already purchased, or tickets purchased for travel before 7th May, are not affected.
Details are on the SAS site here.
(Want to earn more Virgin Flying Club miles? Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)
About Head for Points
Dear People of the North remember winter is coming and so be the White walkers 🙂
Why on earth would you take a train down to London then spend an extra hour on the tube when there are direct trains from Donny to MAN that are cheaper and will get you into the airport at the same time as you would arrive in Kings Cross?
I just find this idea of travelling the length of the country simply to fly abroad completely bizarre.
Because it takes about 1h 50 to get to Manchester airport from Doncaster….that’s on the hourly or so train. ..add on the to be safe minimum 2hrs before flight I’m over 4 hrs travelling. Plus a 45 minute flight plus taxiing etc then I would estimate 5hrs door to door. Done it before and vowed never to do it again too long traveling. However since I can be at KGX in 1hr 20 on the east coast main line that’s not quite LHR but it’s closer than by that stage probably getting to Stockport on the transpennine express….
Factor an hour on the tube worst case that’s roughly 2hr30 in total…again I know this from experience as I did it once before years ago…. Or take the slightly alternative tube to Paddington then HEX in 20 or so mins (never used before)…..this is of course with no delays on both options…..I didn’t know about the direct gatwick route from st Pancras just always discount it as again drove it and it’s an absolute ball ache of a journey for us.
Maybe we should do a top gear style challenge and see the difference…..I’ve often wondered who would win.
you are allowing 2h at the airport in the 1st scenario , but not in the 2nd.
That’s because I’m only referring getting to LHR not flying from it!
You seem to be assuming that there are flights from MAN to the desired destination.
You can get to hubs like CDG, AMS, FRA, ATL, ORD, DOH, DXB & SIN direct from MAN so I guess that would cover most destinations around the world.
Excellent, so why the continual sniping at BA ?
‘It does make a bit of a mockery of Heathrow’s promises to increase the number of domestic flights to the airport, although this is more of a political game as the third runway will never get built if it cannot be sold as a project to benefit the whole of the UK.’ @Rob
Talking of runways the word on the street – and it’s a very good street – is that LGW is gearing up to use its emergency runway as a regular runway. LGW unlike LHR has 24/7 approval.
I thought Gatwick’s emergency runway/ taxiway is too close to the main runway for them to be used at the same time.
They can’t use them both at the same time but – I believe – only due to some agreement with the local authority which is about to expire.
OT – apologies if already asked! I plan to churn my Amex SPG soon, as I’ll hit the target on my next statement, but I just remembered that, somewhat accidentally, I paid for a flight ticket with this card.
Would I be correct in thinking that, if I churn the card on which I paid the ticket for, the Amex travel insurance benefit would be lost? I still keep other Amex cards which I don’t churn, and I normally would have bought the tickets with my “permanent” Amex, just for this reason.
Quite an obvious question, but I thought I’d ask anyway!
If you’re referring to the limited cover on the SPG card of:
£150 for flight delay, overbooking or missed connection.
A further £150 for extended delay.
£600 for baggage delayed by airline for 6 hours.
An additional £850 for extended baggage delay by airline.
then this benefit would be cancelled if you close the account. I’d recommend more comprehensive insurance anyway…
If however you mean Amex Plat insurance which you keep open, you still paid for the flight on an Amex issued Amex for the purposes of the T&Cs so should be OK.
Thanks – yes, that’s the insurance cover I was referring to, it might not sound like much, but better than nothing!
I was under the impression that the Amex Plat travel insurance was only valid for trips purchased in full with the Plat card. Hence why I should have paid with it 🙂
I might just keep the SPG for couple more months, the fee works out at £6/month, and since I’m accumulating Marriott points, the earning rate is quite decent.
No. For Amex Plat insurance just need to pay with Amex issued Amex if merchant takes Amex. Otherwise other cards are ok. I posted the logic the other day.
The SAS baggage change looks like it could be handled quite badly. The English version of their website basically states that if you booked before the 25th January then you still get the free bag after May 7th but you have to pay for it and then claim the money back. In my case that would mean 11 flights at 30 euros a go. After a few FB posts they eventually said that if I’d booked direct and registered my EB number then I shouldn’t be charged. If you booked through an agent then tough. I understand the basic logic in the change. I will be giving them about £300 extra a year in revenue if I repeat my flying pattern from the past two years. However, this could make BA competitive again so they risk losing some of my business.
Reduction in services to Leeds is due to BA having to dish out some of the BMI slots again.