New: earn Marriott Rewards points and stay credit with London house rentals from Hostmaker

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• Anna says:

  25 Apr25 April 04:20

  I still think buying avios could in theory be good value. For instance, 2 F tickets to Bermuda for next Spring come in at £11,576 (though I don’t know what sale pricing is like on that route, but BA do the only direct flight from Europe so there’s little competition). If you bought 150,000 avios to cover most of the redemption price and used a 2 4 1, in cash terms you would be looking at around £2800 once you factor in BA charges, cost of the avios and BAPP annual fee. This does look like quite a bargain!

  • Anna says:

    25 Apr25 April 04:22

    A feature on the most expensive routes (and therefore best value redemption opportunities!) would be really interesting.

    • Tom Cook says:

      25 Apr25 April 07:19

      This is a good point – as a general buy the value isn’t massively brilliant but if you can bag 2 F seats then you’d be looking at decent value. Our ‘issue’ is that we’re a family of 3 which impacts on use of 2 4 1 and the ability to get a steal of a deal!

      • Anna says:

        25 Apr25 April 09:50

        Don’t you have a Lloyds card for the upgrade voucher? We are also 3 so use that in conjunction with the 2 4 1 – my F ambitions are shelved for when we start travelling as a couple again!

      • Tom Cook says:

        25 Apr25 April 10:08

        At the moment no, but that’s a good shout! We tend to pick up an Easter deal to Dubai / Abu Dhabi for the three of us and then do a summer reward flight something European. We’ve then used our main stash and will use our 2 4 1’s for a decent child free trip 😉

      • Anna says:

        25 Apr25 April 10:54

        Tom, if you’re going to get the Lloyds card do it soon as it’s in the process of closing, though afaik they are still accepting phone applications.

        • Rob says:

          25 Apr25 April 11:06

          Apparently the card is not dead and buried, just sleeping. Can’t say any more!

    • Rob says:

      25 Apr25 April 09:08

      Lagos 🙂

• Si says:

  25 Apr25 April 05:47

  Nope, you heard the man… 3,000 for £3,215…

  Feeling generous though, I am however willing to sell 3,500 avios for that amount if anyone is looking for a slightly better deal??

• Lumma says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:05

  OT, I know I can take a guest into a lounge with me as a silver if they have no status but do they get the other benefits if they’re travelling on the same booking as me? Fast track security, priority boarding etc.?

  • Genghis says:

    25 Apr25 April 06:21

    I’ve never had a problem

    • Tom Cook says:

      25 Apr25 April 07:12

      +1

  • Jonathan says:

    25 Apr25 April 06:30

    Fast track security no but normally you can blag it.

    Priority boarding is a grey area. Historically you weren’t entitled but were normally fine. Now there are boarding groups you will be in different groups depending on individual status (still the case on a flight I took on Sunday) but I thought BA were in process of changing their IT to harmonise groups on the same booking. Knowing BA this could take a while.

    I guess if the chance of being forced to take walk of shame bothers you I’d not chance it but otherwise should be fine if you board together & ask nicely.

    • Lumma says:

      25 Apr25 April 06:49

      Thanks for the info

    • Tom Cook says:

      25 Apr25 April 07:13

      I thought that you could +1 on fast track – at least I have and never had an issue!

    • Lady London says:

      25 Apr25 April 07:26

      Priority boarding seemed to work for people travelling together not in same class about two weeks ago at LHR T5

      • Tilly says:

        25 Apr25 April 08:31

        Yep. The BA website actually says that people in different boarding groups if travelling together can board together.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    25 Apr25 April 07:58

    If on the same booking they get to chose a seat for free with your and get the same bonus baggage

    Priority checkin for everyone in your booking as longas you go to the same desk

    Fast track security +1 but you need someone there to let your guest through

    Board together with the highest group in the booking ie If you’re in group 2 and the rest of your party might say 4/5/6 but they won’t be turned back.

  • john says:

    25 Apr25 April 09:36

    The Fast track security +1 works in most places but not all. IIRC it was Milan Malpensa I believe that did not allow my +1

    • Mzungu says:

      26 Apr26 April 14:38

      I’ve had the same in Madrid.

• egg says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:37

  This means that, with the bonus, you will receive 3,000 Avios for a whopping £3,215.

  This is not necessarily a great idea

  HAHA – no S**t Sherlock

• Lewis King says:

  25 Apr25 April 06:48

  OT;

  We are traveling first class out of Heathrow and I know I can guest someone into the Concorde lounge if they are flying BA.

  On the return, we are flying club whilst the others in the party are flying first. Does the guesting rules work for 3rd party/contract lounge or is this a BA owned lounge benefit?

  Thanks.

  • Lewis King says:

    25 Apr25 April 13:26

    Just realised the lounge is the same lounge for F and business, so no problem. Thank you for your time to answer!

• Ian says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:20

  OT – I spoke to MBNA customer service yesterday about my Emirates card, at the end of the call when he asked if there was anything else they could help with I asked if there was any update on the future for the card considering it was pulled for new applications sometime ago… His reply was interesting.. he asked if I had received ‘the letter’, I said I wasn’t sure as I was out of the country. He said ah ok, well letters are in the process of going out, but that he wasn’t allowed to talk about it until the customer had received ‘the letter’. But then let slip that people with other reward cards were being moved to standard MBNA cards, but that he couldn’t confirm anything for my card until I had received ‘the letter’!

  • Mits says:

    25 Apr25 April 07:57

    Thanks for the heads up, Ian! I sure do hope that this card continues for existing cardholders; Emirates is a superior airline, and having the Elite card has meant I am able to make a healthy number of upgrades from J to F on most of my EK flights. Worst case scenario if it ceases is to move to the Amex Gold….any other suggestions on racking up Skywards miles?

  • Andrew says:

    25 Apr25 April 09:18

    It will depend what they mean by a “standard MBNA card”.

    When the BMI card was closed down, I was migrated to their standard MBNA rewards cards pack. The Amex pays 1p per £1 and Visa 1p per £2. Not everyone was offered this deal.

    I don’t know how long the MBNA Amex will last for. But I’m pretty happy with the 1p per £2 on Visa when I can’t use my BA or MBNA Amex.

  • Thomas Howard says:

    25 Apr25 April 10:34

    Is there any chance the airlines (American, Lufthansa, United, Emirates) that previously had deals with MBNA will move to Amex Membership Rewards or will most of them abandon the UK market?

• Lady London says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:24

  Slightly OT: does anyone know of an AirBnB. Homeaway or other-type service that will rent people’s private properties or other unusual type properties by day or period, that would operate in Hamburg? I’m finding the same as Rob in London searching for this…. rates not lower than hotel rates for private properties. Looking for something that could work out more flexible and cheaper overall for repeated short visits within 1-3 months

  • HAM76 says:

    25 Apr25 April 18:19

    Similar services are 9flats.com (the company is even based in Hamburg) and wimdu.de. Lots of smaller hotels of the B&B type are listed on hrs.de. Private properties are sometimes listed on ebay-kleinanzeigen.de, but then you are really on your own to negotiate conditions.

    As Hamburg is growing quickly (largest non-capital city in Europe per capita), we do have rather strict controls of renting out private property commercially.

• Paul says:

  25 Apr25 April 07:42

  I’m slightly bemused by what Brian in the Rip off Britain clip was intending, when he bought 100k avios… especially given his stated lack of interest in business class redemptions!

  • Anna says:

    25 Apr25 April 09:54

    Yes they never really explained that!

  • Mark says:

    25 Apr25 April 13:58

    Yes… I can understand people feeling somewhat aggrieved on finding out that earned loyalty points are of limited value to them, but surely you’d want to understand what you’re getting before spending £1600!

    Obviously not in some cases…..

    • Anna says:

      25 Apr25 April 20:50

      Did he not even get a bonus on the 100k? That’s a real sickener!

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