News in brief:
Back in the Plaza Premium lounge in Terminal 5
Back in March I ran a full review of the new Plaza Premium lounge in Heathrow Terminal 5 – click here.
I like it. It is small BUT it is very exclusive. This is because you cannot get access with a Priority Pass or Lounge Club membership card.
The only realistic ways to get in – unless you have certain obscure Asian credit cards – are:
By showing an American Express Platinum charge card (Plaza Premium has a global deal with Amex, a guest is allowed for UK issued cards, foreign Platinum cards may vary)
By showing a DragonPass lounge club card, but these are rarely seen in the UK – Barclays is the main issuer
By paying cash ($49 for 2 hours booked online, $79 for 5 hours – but see below for a cheaper deal)
In March I was there during breakfast. On Wednesday I popped in at 5pm – using my Amex Platinum card – to check out the evening food selection. It was pretty decent. Importantly there were fewer than 20 people in the lounge.
There were BBQ chicken wings and potatoes:
There was tortellini in mushroom sauce:
And in the other pans:
….. were chicken tikka masala, beef stroganoff and steamed rice. There was also a large selection of wraps and a salad bar.
And if you wanted dessert, there were special cupcakes to celebrate Plaza Premium’s recent Skytrax awards! Photo below. If you want to see photos of the lounge itself, read my March review.
If you want to pay cash to visit the lounge, LoungeBuddy is cheaper than the official Plaza Premium website. Via this LoungeBuddy link (click) you can get a three hour slot for $45 (the official site charges $49 for two hours) and a six hour slot for $75 (vs five hours for $79 on the official site). LoungeBuddy also lets you cancel bookings up to 24 hours before arrival.
Bonus Avios and Virgin miles from Tesco via Pay+
I wanted to flag up this offer again today as it is a few months since we mentioned it and it is valid until the end of the year.
Tesco has a smartphone payment app called Pay+ (previously PayQwiq, a name that was dropped when they realised no-one could remember how to spell it).
It is Tesco’s payment app which let’s you pay your shopping and automatically collect Clubcard points. Pay+ works a bit like Apple Pay or Android Pay, but with the added benefit of automatically adding your Clubcard number to the transaction so you don’t need to dig out your blue card.
To encourage people to try Pay+, until 31st December 2018 you will get 1 extra Clubcard point for every £4 spent in Tesco. This is a decent offer, worth an extra 0.6 Avios per £1 or 0.625 Virgin Flying Club miles for every £1 of Tesco shopping you do. It is a bit of a faff to set up Pay+ but once you’ve done it you’re good to earn bonus miles for the next five months.
You can read more about Pay + here. You will still receive all your usual loyalty points from your credit card too.
(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
Sorry for another O/T – I recently took out a SPG Amex card 3 months ago and have banked the 10000 SPG points for meeting the minimum spend target. Is there any reason that I should keep this card any longer or am I better to cancel and obtain a pro-rata refund. I find that I put most of my spend on BA Amex and Platinum cards and that there is not much value in earning SPG/Marriott points when Hilton is my preferred brand.
Some people have been offered double points when calling to cancel, if not offered you can always back out. A lot of us have cancelled already in hope of a further churn before year end. You would be looking at January for that now.
O/T
Avios redemptions from Cuba
Has anyone any experience of doing these? I thought it would be possible to do AA redemptions to US e.g. Miami but can’t find that option on BA.com
Am aware of Iberia and Virgin options.
Fairly typical offer from MBNA. Better options on both interest fee transfers and spending elsewhere.
Obviously wouldn’t use for transfers as they have 3.5% fee, but given I’ve got ~£30k limit between MBNA accounts (which they’re happy to combine), it’s a significant chunk that could be locked away at 0%.
OT – is it acceptable to use 2 x £15 on Priority Pass (from Amex Plat) at the Grain Store (LGW) eating it in then use the same PP card to purchase another 2 x £15 worth of stuff to take on the plane??
No
Isn’t it just the same as using your PP to enter a lounge, leave for a bit then re-enter?
Different business model – ie I went into No1 T3 with my 3 kids on the way out last week – they ate plenty, drank a few cans of pop (& smuggled out a few more for the plane, I think their tally was about 15 ‘liberated’! 🙂 – but even so they didn’t consume more than about £15 each – whereas my score must have been about £25-30 – and for every lounge user like me, there must be 5 people who are there for the peace & quiet as much as the odd G&T. So leaving the lounge to look around the shops & coming back later doesn’t really affect consumption (& the lounge’s costs).
Whereas the Grain Store works on £15 limit as that tallies with what it can recover from PP. If you could scan a PP card twice and the GS got 2x £15, I suppose that would be fine. But my assumption is, you can’t scan twice.
As the MR points to SPG is blocked until 8th Aug, do you think I can still get points in Marriott account in time to make a booking before the rise of points on 18th Aug? I have done a successful transfer to SPG 2 months ago, so account linked so it’s usually quicker, what do you think? Also are you able to make booking on current rate to lock it in if points haven’t gone through before 18th Aug, it’s for a booking summer 19? Thanks
You can book 350 days ahead I think, assuming the hotel has loaded reward availability that far out.
I get a feeling the suspension may last until 18th to stop confusion over the transfer rates. Why open it up on the 8th?
Thanks, so yes I have managed to book one room for July 19 7 nights with my TP but I need two rooms now or a bigger room (its Domes of Elounda), as we are 2 adults and 2 boys aged 20 & 18. The family room I have booked says 3 adults & 1 child under 12. Now I’ve shown the boys what I have booked, they have said yes they can come!! So are you saying Rob we can book now with points yet in account for the 45k pn? The other option I would like to look at is checking with hotel to see what they could offer for an upgrade for 4 adults in one room.
We are going with 2 adults and 1×19 and 1 x16 so I can let you know as we have done the same booking. We are going the end of August and are gold but probably platinum by then.
On the Tesco Pay + deal..
The T&Cs state you cant get double points on any awarded points gotten thru a Tesco Credit Card. Fair enough. However.. I have a Tesco Premium Mastercard which gives 1 C.Card point extra per £ spent. So the question is, If I pay using Pay + will I get the two points I normally get from using that card instore AND another point per £4 spend?
I asked the Tesco Bank helpline , but Amex Customer Service its not. I gave up after 4 times trying to get a coherent response.
Yes. I use pay+ with my tesco current account card and get 1 point for using the card, 1 as the clubcard and 1 for every £4 spent
Thanks 🙂
O/T – Rob, you have been mentioned over on OMAAT in relation to the IB 90k promo Avios now being freely available to transfer to BA. Good news for those that may be struggling to redeem within the IB program.
Thanks. Saw it (by accident) just before I saw your comment!
Hi, sorry for OT question.
We’re currently sitting in Heathrow waiting for a BA flight to Bangkok. It’s been steadily getting more and more delayed and has now reached three hours late.
I was just wondering what our eligibility will be like for delay compensation, given that this is a reward flight, using a BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher (not the best redemption I know, but the only one which suited us)? Are we entitled to anything? Only for the paid for flight maybe?
Under EU law you are both entitled to Euro 600 and BA will pay it within a week of you submitting the online form. Avios makes no difference.
Thanks Rob, that’s great to hear and I appreciate the quick response. Although isn’t it 300 rather than 600 unless it reaches 4 hours? Or have I misunderstood that part?
Might be, I didn’t double-check the number.
It is delay ON ARRIVAL time (vs scheduled arrival).
I had situations when Virgin caught up in the air and landed minutes just under 3 hours delay on arrival. No compensation.
It’s not the landing time which counts though, it’s the time the cabin door opens to allow disembarkation which counts. You may land 10 minutes under the 3 hours but then sit there 15 minutes or so fannying around waiting on a gate/stairs. Bingo!
Landed just under 5 hours late, have lodged a claim for the two of us for what hopefully should be EUR600 each.
Will update when I hear back on the off chance anyone is interested.
OT: Hilton; stayed 2 rooms on 1 night. Points for 1 room only, which I assume is the policy.
In future is there any way to work this so I get the points for both rooms?
You need to merge the 2 folios into 1 bill to receive points for both rooms.
Got it. Thanks.
Just contact customer services they will fix it for you as long as you paid both rooms.
Tesco Pay + doesn’t work in over 1/2 the self scan tills …the older ones.
This occurs in Brooklands and Guildford stores, so I assume it is a national problem.
They are promoting this service via email to customers and it doesn’t seem work in all the tills
D’OH tesco