The new Club Aspire airport lounge is now open in London Gatwick’s North Terminal

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• Olly says:

  13 Jun13 June 05:50

  The old Aspire was great, a little haven of tranquillity, walking past the check-in and around to the left to the quiet zone. Food in the mornings recently went from bacon rolls to hot buffet breakfast and the few staff there was got on with the job at hand.We were there on Saturday morning and felt it had lost its charm to the extent we moved to the No1 lounge. The food was unimpressive though the sausages were enjoyable, and I’ve never seen so many staff though what the majority of them did I couldn’t say. It’s personal choice I know. Some might live the change.

• Mark says:

  13 Jun13 June 06:23

  Does anybody know if I book two rooms on le Accor hotels for Novotel if I get the points and status for both rooms or just the one I sleep in?

  • Stuart_f says:

    13 Jun13 June 08:48

    How many rooms can I credit to my card for the same stay ?
    You can credit up to 2 rooms to your Le Club AccorHotels card on the condition that:

    – The stay is made in the same hotel and over the same period
    – You stay in one of the said rooms and the other room is not occupied by another member
    – You pay the whole cost incurred by the two rooms on your check-out from the hotel

    Source: https://www.accorhotels.com/gb/support/loyalty-membership/le-club-accorhotels/gain-points/faq/how-many-rooms-can-i-credit-to-my-card-for-the-same-stay.shtml

• oonagh cacioppo says:

  13 Jun13 June 06:30

  Can I take a guest flying with me into Aspire North Gatwick ? (Amex Plat therefore PP holder)

  • Rob says:

    13 Jun13 June 07:34

    Yes, via PP from Amex Plat

• Frankie says:

  13 Jun13 June 06:33

  Is anyone having any issues with the BA website in making avios bookings? I’ve been having issues for days. I keep trying to book a reward flight and I keep getting messages saying there is a technical issue on the site and to try later. Or if it’s not that error, I keep getting asked if I want a stopover (no matter where I am trying to fly to. Even GLA to LON is asking if I want a stopover!) and when I select NO it then just throws an error and asks me again if I want a stopover and this just repeats again and again until I give up. I’ve tried 3 different browers and the BA app on my phone is throwing the same errors.

  • LB says:

    13 Jun13 June 06:37

    +1

    • the real harry1 says:

      13 Jun13 June 07:41

      It was OK for me yesterday, though yes: the stopovers pop up was making an appearance. There are a couple of different pathways into making reward bookings on the BA site, so if one is throwing a wobbly, try going in another way, the page where you can choose left or right search box, try rhs/ clear cookies might help.

      • Frankie says:

        13 Jun13 June 10:04

        Harry where is ‘the page where you can choose left or right search box’? and what do you mean by rhs? I’m stuck in the stopover loop again this morning having cleared cookies

      • the real harry1 says:

        13 Jun13 June 14:35

        log in
        Home Executive Club
        Avios – our Club currency
        Spending Avios
        Reward availability tools

        You get to a page with:
        lhs Reward Flight Finder (search box #1),
        rhs Search and Book – check all availability and prices, including partners, for specific dates (search box #2)

        I’m suggesting you can different results whether you opt for lhs or rhs

  • Nick_C says:

    13 Jun13 June 06:54

    I’m having the same problem on the BA Web Site and the app.

    Although the Avios app works fine!

  • K says:

    13 Jun13 June 07:44

    You need to clear that particular page from your history. Are you using a Mac?

    • Darren says:

      13 Jun13 June 10:38

      Done that, still rubbish

  • Pareet Shah says:

    13 Jun13 June 08:30

    Yes. Had this for 2-3 weeks. Sometimes it eventually goes through to the page where it shows availability. I tweeted BA but all I got in response was to call them!

• Oli says:

  13 Jun13 June 06:33

  OT – as far as I understand, the Amex Platinum does not cover van rentals (no commercial vehicles per their T&C). Could someone recommend a good insurance for a van hire in the UK?

  • Lev441 says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:29

    If you’re talking about the excess insurance for a van, we used to use insuremyvanhire.com – had to make a couple of claims and never had any issues.

    • CC says:

      13 Jun13 June 11:06

      Do you declare these claims when purchasing insurance for you own car? I read that any claims on car/van hire insurance is logged on the same data base as what normal vehicle insurance claims are but not sure if this is true.

      • George says:

        13 Jun13 June 13:35

        The law is that if you have an accident (RTC) you have to report it when you apply for insurance – it is part of the same data that insurers share and they will use it to invalidate or refuse your policy if they can. Once that has happened life gets tough.

        However, excess insurance is most often used for non-RTC damage (I can’t think of a better way to put it but there is one) like a scratch or stone chip damage. This you wouldn’t traditionally report. I don’t know the exact distinction but claiming on excess insurance when you caught your door on a wall is not something that would require reporting when you are purchasing insurance IMO

• TripRep says:

  13 Jun13 June 06:47

  Bits O/T:. Sorted my peak season Florida Car Hire…

  Top Tips, if you use an intermediary like Holiday Autos but don’t book immediately you may get a sponsored advertising on webpages you visit for 15% off. But beware using Europcar in Florida, looks like they subcontract to a local company called Advantage that are based off airport via shuttle bus and get terrible reviews.

  In the end for only a few $$$ more I went with Alamo via Virgin Atlantic website, prepaided to get a voucher. For a small SUV (eg RAV4, etc), fully insured, works out at less than £30 /day.

  Also earn 2x VS miles. They also do extremely good one-way deals, that I’ve travel hacked in the past. Email me for details if interested 😀

  Thanks again to all those that responded to my original question
  https://headforpoints.com/2018/06/06/marriott-platinum-benefits/#comment-260783

  Rob if you reading is it worth filing stuff like this away for future reference?

  • Alan says:

    13 Jun13 June 07:57

    Nice work, have dropped you an email re one way deals!

    • thehornets says:

      13 Jun13 June 07:58

      Harry.. am definitely interested in your one way hacks. Am looking to book SFO to LAX and LAX to LAS as one way trips soon…

      • TripRep says:

        13 Jun13 June 08:16

        Ping me an email, think my trick works for Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California.

        ps I’m not Harry 😀

      • AndyR says:

        13 Jun13 June 11:54

        Between those cities there is usually no one way fee anyway with Hertz or Avis.

      • TripRep says:

        13 Jun13 June 13:15

        Andy – true, but my trick doesnt work with them….

      • Lumma says:

        13 Jun13 June 16:31

        Triprep

        Does this one way trick have to be in the second state or can you drop off in a different state?

  • David says:

    13 Jun13 June 07:57

    I used Advantage through Europcar last year in Las Vegas. Seemed fine, although every car hire operator was in the off-airport car hire centre, accessed by shuttle bus. Booking via Europcar means you get CDW and SLI by default (like in Europe), rather than the standard US scheme of having them separately.

    • Anna says:

      13 Jun13 June 10:16

      Though in Europe there tends to be a horrendous excess attached to any car hire insurance policy (1400 euros for our recent hire car in Nice, fortunately we have an excess cover policy).

  • the_real_a says:

    13 Jun13 June 12:14

    I had a weeks car hire for £130 via europacar/advantage last year for a road trip. The service is appalling – the staff REALLY do not care, its so bad that its quite funny if you can connect with them a little. The great was new and in good condition. Watch out for the toll transmitter if fitted, mine was “working” even in the off position which despite declining the use, charged $30 a day for the full length of the rental. I needed to do a charge-back via AMEX.

    • the_real_a says:

      13 Jun13 June 12:14

      great = car!

    • pauldb says:

      13 Jun13 June 15:32

      I don’t think there’s much point trying to create a reference for this type of thing as price is the most important thing and fluctuates so much. I can see Advantage as the cheapest for a 2 week SUV at MCO in August – £316, and that’s what I’d take, regardless of the reviews (I believe they are on-airport, not shuttle). I just ensure I know how not to get ripped off.
      We hired from Hertz there at Easter, £364 for 2 weeks full size SUV. We got a rather tired Toyota Highlander (as a Presidents Circle member) and the staff were equally disinterested. The only emotion shown was incredulity that I wouldn’t take a “special discounted upgrade” that cost more than the rental to a newer Chevy Tahoe.
      Incidentally if you have Hertz status (through Amex Plat) and book a mid-size at the main US stations, they will typically offer a good choice of cars, called Ultimate Choice, which should dependably include 5 seater SUVs as well as premium cars – it just didn’t work out for me as we needed 7 seats.

      • TripRep says:

        14 Jun14 June 06:49

        Paul,

        Europcar claim Advantage have a desk at MCO but I have been informed cars are based off site via shuttle. It’s also not uncommon to have to wait upto 3 hours to get the car type you’d booked, particulary at peak US hols, eg Thanksgiving/Xmas. A shuttle and a long wait is not my idea of starting a holiday after a long flight.

        Good luck with using them, sounds like you’ll need it.. 1.5/5*

        “I wish I could give them 0*”

        https://m.yelp.com/biz/advantage-orlando

        Virgin/Alamo also allows online check-in and “skip the counter”, means you walk to the parking lot get in the car type of your choice and drive off. According to the very helpful staff at TripWheels Alamo are currently the best for customer service. They also advised steering clear of Europcar/Advantage.

• Optimus Prime says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:16

  OT – I’ll be flying MSY-LHR in February. Looks like doesn’t have any OneWorld or PP lounges. Is that correct?

  • Roberto says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:12

    Correct.. you may get a voucher for some fast food or booze. I flew AA outta NOLA and got neither

    • Optimus Prime says:

      13 Jun13 June 09:19

      Thanks, have just seen that’s what others have reported in both TA and FT.

• C says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:28

  Does the priority pass card arrive automatically with the platinum card or do you have to apply? Thinking of upgrading to plat before next holiday and want to make sure I time it to arrive before we go so that we can use the lounge!

  • Rob says:

    13 Jun13 June 08:30

    Comes separately at roughly the same time.

    • N says:

      13 Jun13 June 09:39

      sometimes before!

    • Alan says:

      13 Jun13 June 12:19

      Mine came in in the same welcome pack that the platinum card arrived in

      • Genghis says:

        13 Jun13 June 12:59

        Really? Never seen that before.

  • Kevin says:

    13 Jun13 June 13:12

    Mine came separately the next day. This was last month.

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