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

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• Neil Donoghue says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:58

  O/T – I was rejected for the Virgin Atlantic Rewards + card. After taking Rob’s advice and writing an appeal letter, I can confirm that the card arrived this morning (28 days after the letter was sent). The card arrived with a £12k credit limit despite being rejected online! Thanks Rob….very happy with the 1.5 earning rate after all the recent cut backs!

  • Mark2 says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:19

    Thanks Neil.
    I was about to ask how long this took.

  • Catalan says:

    13 Jun13 June 10:20

    Neil, were there any specific points you brought to their attention in your appeal?
    Just wondering in case I have to go through the same process.

    • Neil Donoghue says:

      13 Jun13 June 16:10

      Catalan – I informed them that I have held the Virgin White & Black cards for the past 2 years. I also told them my current salary and that I have a near perfect credit score. I didn’t receive any word back until the card turned up in my letter box! It’s a very strange process and appealing was a pain in the ass but I’m glad it was all worth it. Just to confirm, I sent the appeal letter by signed for mail. The credit card arrived 28 days after Virgin had signed for my appeal letter.

      • Catalan says:

        13 Jun13 June 17:35

        Thanks Neil

  • Mark2 says:

    13 Jun13 June 11:10

    If anyone has been refused again, how long did that take?

• Dave says:

  13 Jun13 June 09:05

  The IHG points look interesting as we’ve got a stay coming up where even bog standard hotels are going for £200 a night.

  I’ve had a IHG account for a while but never stayed or accumulated points – would I have any issue buying and redeeming?

  • shd says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:52

    It would be so nice if there was a legit grey market to trade points. We’ve got a boat-load of IHG points and no sensible way to spend the damn things… 🙁

    • Andrew M says:

      13 Jun13 June 10:50

      If there was, I think redemption prices would go up for the rest of us!

  • Rob says:

    13 Jun13 June 10:23

    No, no odd rules with IHG on active accounts.

• Tom says:

  13 Jun13 June 09:13

  OT – Gold and priority pass

  I have recently taken out the Amex gold, having last had it over a year ago.

  Can someone please remind me how I can get lunge access through priority pass? I have not yet received a priority pass card.

  Do I need the physical card to get access? I am travelling tomorrow and it would be great to be able to use one of the two passes then, but I don’t know if/how this is possible without the priority pass card.

  Is it possible I would still be in the priority pass system from when I last had my Amex gold?

  Thanks!

  • palcsaky says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:34

    Gold card comes with the lounge club card, not priority pass. The lounge club card arrives a couple of weeks after the gold card. Without the lounge club card you won’t be able to use your 2 complimentary lounge passes. You could buy lounge passes for £18 through https://thetelegraph.dragonpassuk.com using discount code TELEDP17

  • Lev441 says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:34

    It’s a lounge club card and not priority pass. You can try and ring them up to get your details and use those at the lounge instead? (I think I they typed it into the handheld device) I’ve done that once when I forgot my card m..

• FlyingChris says:

  13 Jun13 June 10:15

  Re: IHG Points & NYC.

  Got a 5x night trip to NYC next April. Looking at IHG as will have a free night certificate and approx 70k points to cover Night 2. Have my eye on either Kimpton (Ink48/Eventi) or the IC Barclay. Flex rates for the other 3 nights currently averaging £280-£370+taxes. Is this typical of NYC in mid-April? Presumably buying points for an average of ~ £240ish would then make sense for the remaining 3 nights? (despite obviously locking up money in IHG points for months…)

  …also the appeal of locking in a flexible points booking is quite appealing as would no longer be exposed to further USD:GBP fluctuations, a particular concern as travelling a couple of weeks after brexit d-day. Though who knows if the dollar will equally slump further this year.

  • Rob says:

    13 Jun13 June 10:19

    Those sort of rates are about right for midweek stays outside of holiday periods, yes.

    If you are there over a weekend, think about InterCon Ambassador to get the ‘buy one get one free’ free night certificate which could be used at the Barclay.

    Remember that IC Times Square is currently in Court trying to break its management agreement with IHG so I certainly wouldn’t book anything there for 10 months time which involved points, certificates or the potential receipt of any IHG benefits.

    • FlyingChris says:

      13 Jun13 June 10:23

      Thanks Rob. Really useful. Frustratingly dates don’t involve two subsequent weekend nights otherwise the IC Amp Buy One Get One Free voucher would have been great. Good shout on the IC Times Square. Will avoid points booking there until the dust settles.

      • Genghis says:

        13 Jun13 June 10:48

        Another idea might just be to switch hotels – could easily be built into your itinerary – if you don’t like the look of the IHG options, and I didn’t, despite having a stack of IHG points. Stayed at the Conrad last month and rate it rather highly. You could run the numbers to see if it works for you.

        Another tip: for some outstanding flavour combinations, diarise to get booked into Momofuku Ko. Expensive but worth it.

      • the real harry1 says:

        13 Jun13 June 14:23

        I don’t like their attitude 🙂

• Scottydogg says:

  13 Jun13 June 10:37

  If you want to get your car upgraded from your small SUV to a full size (or better) , just slip the guy $20 . Works for me , just google the $20 sandwich trick
  Done it in fort lauderdale the other year and the guy took me out to the lot and let me choose my own car.
  I think the hourly rate these guys get in Florida is pretty low , so $20 is a big deal , and when you have a car for 2 weeks , $20 is nothing really to get it upgraded

  • Graham Walsh says:

    13 Jun13 June 23:56

    Thanks for this. Found some references for hotels too http://www.frontdesktip.com/faq/

    My problem is I don’t get cash out. Might have to now.

• Jtz says:

  13 Jun13 June 11:38

  OT but does anyone know a quicker way to get the gold credit card spend points. I really want to upgrade to plat and refer OH as I have some spends coming up. Called Amex about 3 times and was told to wait 60 days…

  • Rob says:

    13 Jun13 June 11:46

    The sign-up bonus? It is automatic when you hit the £2k, it posts alongside the transaction that takes you over the £2k. If it doesn’t then there is an IT issue somewhere.

    You cannot upgrade Gold Credit to Platinum Charge and get the upgrade bonus. Only possible if you have the older Gold Charge version.

    • palcsaky says:

      13 Jun13 June 11:56

      I think Jtz meant the companion gold credit card. My 5k took approx. 2 weeks to post.

      • Graeme says:

        13 Jun13 June 14:20

        My last lot took about six weeks.

    • Genghis says:

      13 Jun13 June 11:57

      Is Jtz not referring to the old Gold Credit card? Spend £500 IIRC?

      • Rob says:

        13 Jun13 June 12:05

        Ah, in that case, dunno!

      • Jtz says:

        13 Jun13 June 22:42

        Thanks for replies…yes, sorry if I was not clear; gold companion. Something seems a bit odd then that I have been told to wait 60 days.
        Really want to time the gold charge card upgrade to platinum well.

  • AndyR says:

    13 Jun13 June 17:59

    You can go ahead and upgrade to Platinum you’ll still get the points as it is the same MR account. I have recent experience of this. It took 60 days from hitting the £500 spend for the points to post by the way.

    • Louie says:

      13 Jun13 June 23:49

      I’ve recently had the same – as with AndyR the points did arrive eventually even though the Gold card had been upgraded to Platinum in the interim.

• Charlie says:

  13 Jun13 June 11:55

  OT on the premium IHG credit card from Creation, I spent just under £10,000 and didn’t get the free reward night, as I wrongly assumed the £99 card fee was included. I did eventually get Creation to issue the free reward night, but it took a few hours of telephone calls to both IHG/Creation to persuade them. Don’t make the same mistake as me and make sure the spend target is on purchases! Now really looking forward to using the free night.

  • Mark2 says:

    13 Jun13 June 12:34

    So did you carefully spend £9,901?

    • Charlie says:

      13 Jun13 June 13:17

      It was not much higher than that!

      • Genghis says:

        13 Jun13 June 13:21

        Is the £99 fee included on the £10k counter on the Creation website?

    • Charlie says:

      13 Jun13 June 16:29

      I’m adamant that in my case it was included, but I didn’t take a screenshot, I do remember seeing it.

      When I put this to Creation they said it does not get included, and when I sum up my spend in my current year then they are right, the £99 fee is not being included.

      To their credit they made good my situation but I guess we’ll never know if they changed their systems recently.

  • jon says:

    13 Jun13 June 12:54

    That’s so weird. I’ve *just* finished reading an article on another points website about this exact issue, although he was not as lucky!

  • Genghis says:

    13 Jun13 June 13:01

    Always important to read the terms on any offer. It does clearly say “purchases”.
    Like the Amex £450 fee for Plat doesn’t count towards any spend targets as it’s not a purchase.

• Dougie Forde says:

  13 Jun13 June 13:15

  OT About a week and a half ago I added by telephone the second leg of a 2 for 1 flight with BA. The flight is appearing on my account but no Avios have so far been deducted and no payment for taxes and charges has appeared on the credit card. Is this normal? How long should I wait. Concerned that the flight may disappear!

  • Dougie Forde says:

    13 Jun13 June 13:16

    Also noticed there is no ticket number allocated for the return flight but there is one for the outgoing flight

  • Genghis says:

    13 Jun13 June 13:19

    The flight won’t disappear. It needs to be manually processed by the back office team and should be in due course closer to when you fly (most likely not yet ticketed, though I have seen it both ways). If you’re in a rush to cancel the credit card, last time I contacted BA by Twitter and got a call back with payment taken. If not, I would’t worry now but make sure it’s ticketed closer to the time.

    • Dougie Forde says:

      13 Jun13 June 13:44

      Thanks Genghis, that’s good to know. Appreciate that.

  • Lee says:

    13 Jun13 June 15:28

    I got same problem, I called after two weeks then been told the first agent forgot to add £35 change fee to the booking so the tickets couldn’t be issued. Tickets was issued 3 days after I give BA the credit card authorise for extra £70.

    • Louie says:

      13 Jun13 June 23:51

      Was this adding on return flights that you couldn’t book when you booked the outbound because the return date was beyond T-355? If so, you shouldn’t have been charged a change fee in any case.

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