News in brief:
IAG ‘to make a third €1.5bn offer for Norwegian’
Spanish newspaper Expansion reported yesterday (see here, Chrome can translate) that BA’s parent company, IAG, is to make a third offer for Norwegian.
This will value the airline at 330 NOK per share, giving the equity a total valuation of €1.52bn. This is a 31% premium to the share price last Friday although, as Norwegian carries a huge amount of debt, the actual premium to the Enterprise Value of the business is much lower.
Since the Norwegian CEO controls 27% of the company, the decision will in reality rest with him. With the oil price remaining fairly high by recent standards, Norwegian will face increasing pressure from its lenders.
Whilst Norwegian has said that other airlines have expressed interest, I would be less certain. As IAG is likely to be a more conservative owner of the company – and may well close down the long-haul operations entirely to free up aircraft for LEVEL, BA, Iberia and Aer Lingus – Air France KLM and Lufthansa might be happier to sit it out and reap the benefits of reduced competition without having to spend any money of their own.
Club World ad campaign kicking off
The new Club World bedding, provided by The White Company, will be available on all Heathrow routes from the end of May.
British Airways is launching a new ad campaign to promote this, albeit only on limited sites in London and New York – the main push appears to be social media. Here is an example, click to enlarge:
Get 720 Avios or 750 Virgin miles with a NOW TV media stick
Until 30th May, Tesco Direct is offering 300 bonus Clubcard points – worth 720 Avios or 750 Virgin Flying Club miles – when you buy a NOW TV media stick for £20.
You will also get a period of free premium TV viewing:
- NOW TV stick plus a 1 month Sky Cinema Pass (click for the Tesco Direct product page)
- NOW TV stick plus a 2 months Sky Entertainment Pass (click for Tesco Direct product page)
- NOW TV stick plus a 3 months Sky Kids Pass (click for the Tesco Direct product page)
Full details are in this Shopper Points article.
(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for the latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios from current offers and promotions.)
About Head for Points
When I checked last week, after the SP article, Tesco were out of stock of the NOW stick with 2-month pass. No worries.
I just need the stick. Can’t get it from Tesco, NOW or amazon. I don’t need any more passes atm. Oh, well.
This site occassionally has the passes at a good saving to regular prices. You can stack them up to a point. I know it’s not what you’re after but in case anyone is looking.
OT re Virgin Atlantic credit cards. MBNA said we would be hearing from Virgin Atlantic.
Mrs Roger was surprised to receive a mailing this morning containing her TWO new Virgin Money cards. On first view, they looked just like genuine cards. On reflection the back contained info promoting the cards.
Eye-catching, I thought.
A colleague holding the Gold (charge) Card was looking to upgrade to the Platinum Charge Card (and hopefully bag the 20k bonus), but instead made a new, distinct application for the Platinum card.
When realising his mistake, and before he had activated the card, he phoned up to cancel and was able to do so with no charge, as he was within the 14 day cooling off period. Due to this, Amex said there shouldn’t be any record of the application etc, and this he is now going upgrade from Gold to Platinum.
Might be worth doing the same (i.e. call up to cancel within cooling off period). Though of course you risk ending up with nothing! If you do so, ask Rob for a referral link for the BAPP which will net you extra Avios (again, if it works…).
sorry this was meant to be in reply to an earlier post, pls feel free to delete!
Tesco Direct will cease trading on 9 July 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/22/tesco-shuts-its-online-non-food-website-tesco-direct
all those lego points tipped them over the edge 😉
Bad news for all stakeholders! 🙂
Best of luck finding a new job to the real losers, ie those who will get made redundant.
Wowsers. Indeed. For a biz line of a FTSE 100 firm though, the control environment of Tesco Direct was shoddy.
Hopefully we may see some better Clubcard deals in store now – they have been pretty poor in the past year.
OT
Bad news_
My wife received Avios on her previously defective Lloyds Avios account and has received a manual credit for points missing.
So no more compensation!
If it wasn’t within the time they stated (6 months?) You may still get some compo. Think I got another £50.
I complained on Sunday evening for the 3 months of missing points – I needed those points for my flight booking.
My phone rang on Monday morning – a nice lady from Lloyds telling me that they opened a new Avios account for me (but never told me) and gave me the Avios membership number.
So I now have my missing points 🙂 But no compensation 🙁
OT. TFL Rail have taken over running the Heathrow Connect service. As I understand it, Oyster and Contactless PAYG are now accepted on it, with a special (ie higher than normal) fare, but period travelcards and daily caps will be the standard.
2 train ph from Paddington to Hayes&Harlington are the new Crossrail stock too!
O:T, Just noticed 1500 ihg points posted to my account under ‘Airline Incentive’
Anyone have any idea what it is for?
Similarly, I’m seeing lots of “Offer Win” for zero points. Any ideas?
Nick – did you sign up for the BA promo which I think JamesB posted about 2 months ago?
Genghis – same here (but just the one on my account) which appeared after booking a PointsBreak night to meet one of my Q2 Accelerate targets. Only thing I could think to cause it was BA promo as above!
EwanG, maybe but not sure. Also seeing “Offer Win” for zero points.
Slightly odd question,RE: signup bonuses and BA taxes.
Illustrative figures;
1. I want to make a redemption in J
2. I have just taken out a gold card
3. I am 20k points short of the J redemption value
Is it possible that I book one way in J and return in Y, and pay the taxes on my gold card I have just taken out? Do these taxes count towards signup bonuses?
Once I have hit the signup bonus (from the taxes and other spending), is it possible to then change the Y leg to J with my additional avios/MR?
1) Is it possible that I book one way in J and return in Y? Yes
2) and pay the taxes on my gold card I have just taken out? Yes
3) Do these taxes count towards signup bonuses? Yes
4) Once I have hit the signup bonus (from the taxes and other spending), is it possible to then change the Y leg to J with my additional avios/MR? Yes, only if availability in J and you’d be subject to the £35 change fee
@alab. Have you considered booking WTP then upgrade using Avios. Should cost you 1/3 the Avios of a J redemption (on a peak date), Plus you earn Avios and TP back.
If you need a refundable ticket though, cheaper to go with Genghis’s full redemption option.
O/T how do I transfer points from my SPG a/c to my wife’s, please? Will the option pop up in My Starpoints via Amex log in once I get a few points?
Your SPG points will transfer from Amex to your own SPG acct. Then just login to your SPG account and there’s an option with something like “transfer within household”. Enter your wife’s SPG no then wait a few days for the transfer to take place.
thanks
The transfer option comes under “redeem” on the SPG site
My Vueling flight from Gatwick to Barcelona this evening is delayed by 3.5 hours. Booked using creation but I do have Amex Plat. Could I claim compensation? Any advice would be gratefully received.
EU261, no bother.
Bit more to it than that. Are there extraordinary circumstances? Make a careful note of what the captain tells you is the cause of the delay, record it if possible. And even with a 3.5 hrs delay on departure, you might arrive under 3 hrs late at destination vs scheduled arrival time (ie when door opens for disembarkation), which is what counts.
Here are a couple of links for EU261 compensation in case they help.
UK Civil Aviation Authority —
https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Resolving-travel-problems/Delays-cancellations/Your-rights/Am-I-entitled-to-compensation-/
Vueling —
http://www.vueling.com/en/vueling-services/more-vueling-services/flight-disruption
You should be covered, unless they can claim extraordinary circumstances.They still have care of duty anyway, or whatever it is called. It is worth finding out what you can about the reason for the delay. I think I heard there may be French air traffic controller strikes affecting flights over French air space today – but I haven’t actually checked this. I’m afraid I don’t know details about the Amex Plat.
Good luck!
Just testing – I’ve just written a reply re EU261 compensation, twice and the comment didn’t go through either time
I copied this from CWS (Raffles will have to approve it as it holds several links)
Try another browser or the Incognito mode of Chrome.
new claims:
https://disruptionclaim.britishairways.com/
updates:
https://disruptionclaim.britishairwa…ditionalClaims
and/or try going in under
ba.com/delays
Anything with two links is automatically queued because it is usually spam.
OK here goes again. I’m afraid I can’t help re Creation/Amex Plat coverage. As trh1 says, circumstances are key to EU261 compensation, so very important to try to find out the reason for the delay.
I haven’t actually checked, but I have heard there might be delays in flights over French air space today due to a possible French air traffic controller strike. Regardless, the airline has certain duty of care obligations.
I put in the Civil Aviation authority link on EU261 compensation before, and also the one from Vueling’s own website, but am omitting them now in case that was the reason my replies didn’t go through. Good luck with both your flight and compensation.
There are French ATC strikes today https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/france-air-traffic-control-strike-flights-delayed-cancelled-ryanair-easyjet-british-airways-a8362781.html
A strike outwith Vueling’s control would be an extraordinary circumstance & you wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance of getting EC261 compo.
As stated, you would be entitled to duty of care.
Even a Vueling strike would be deemed outside of Vuelings control. I have sufferred this before on Luft. Strikes are exempted.
Actually strikes are currently being tested in law as to whether in-house strikes are routine & to be expected or indeed extraordinary circs. EC261 specifically only says strikes outwith an airline’s control (eg ATC) are extraordinary circs – some people are of the opinion that in-house strikes are therefore to be coped with by an airline/ planned around. Therefore not a way to get out of EC261 compo. Watch this space.
Good luck Vin, but I thing it´s all due to France´s strike. Remember that Barcelona is just south of the French border, so almost all flights have been affected. If you want to have a look at Spanish newspapers, you will read plentuy of reports like “long delays today in Barcelona due to French strike”.
Slight moment of panic – received an email from BA saying how they keep my details safe and then notice that they say I have 300 Avios… surely there should be another 3 zeros on the end?! Then I realise it was one of the children’s accounts…!
o/t Any tips on booking eurotunnel?
Looks like using Tesco vouchers at 3:1 is the best way currently?
I just did a weekend crossing for 2000pts which normally costs £60 so was great value I thought
I had initially planned to use my points haul from the ink cartridges for avios but I seem to be using it all on Uber and now Euro Tunnel
I use Tesco for this. 3:1 is a good rate and a genuine saving on an item I would otherwise be paying cash for.