The University Arms hotel in Cambridge joins Marriott’s Autograph Collection

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Dermot K says:

  24 Aug24 August 08:18

  Why has BA suspended Tehran flights? Just curious.

  • Roberto says:

    24 Aug24 August 08:32

    The currency out there has faded so much in recent times what with the US sanctions and its effected the loads to such a level that its no longer financially viable.

  • Nick says:

    24 Aug24 August 08:34

    Economic reasons following the devaluation of the Iranian currency resulting from the new sanctions imposed by The Donald’s regime. Businesses are slowing investment in the country or withdrawing altogether and BA no longer see Iran as a viable route. Air France / KLM has also withdrawn from the route and will also stop its Joon flights in September. Further detail at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45288659

    • Lady London says:

      24 Aug24 August 11:19

      Such a pity. I personally believe world peace is safer if we work with countries that may be doing things we don’t like, than if we isolate those countries. Sorry for OT.

      • Will Avery says:

        24 Aug24 August 13:02

        Agreed.

      • pauldb says:

        24 Aug24 August 20:51

        In fairness, that rather misstates the Trump policy. As for North Korea, there are carrots available to Iran but the White House thinks they should be doing more to reverse its arms programme in order to receive them. The idea isn’t to isolate them, but time will tell whether they fold to this.

      • Callum says:

        24 Aug24 August 21:28

        So did Chamberlain, then we had WW2…

        It’s incredibly naive to believe engagement always wins over punishment. I completely agree that in this specific case it would, but even then the only way this was possible was because of the previous isolation of Iran forcing them to cooperate.

• Nick says:

  24 Aug24 August 08:27

  OT: There appears to be zero availability for Cathay Pacific redemptions in any class on any route within Asia between 17th November 2018 and 16th January 2019. Up to 16 November and after 16 January there redemptions on most flights on a daily basis. Looks like a problem with the flights not loading onto the BAEC systemforc2month period. Spoken at length to BA on the Silver hotline and had it referred to a supposedly senior manage but to no avail. They just say the system works and no availability on those dates. Looks very strange.

  • Leo says:

    24 Aug24 August 08:39

    Accepting defeat regarding an avios redemption I’ve been looking on the Asia Miles site. Seems availability is only there within a 3 months window of the date of flight. Am I doing something wrong?

    • Nick says:

      24 Aug24 August 09:51

      On BAEC redemptions are wide open for Cathay up to 16 November and then from 17 January with zilch in between so I don’t think it is an up to 3 months issue but may be different on the Asia Miles portal. Will be interested to see if Rob Burgess has any insight into what is going on and whether it is a technical fault.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Aug24 August 11:21

    I thought I saw awhile back that British Airways has blocked all CX redemption bookability until about one week before the flight? I guess they got tired of too many people preferring to book a superior service.

    • Lady London says:

      24 Aug24 August 11:23

      Hum. If you can see that far ahead although not to the weeks you want then it looks like that old policy that was reported is not still the case. Could it be something to do with the times you want being peak time for travel those routes?

      • Nick says:

        24 Aug24 August 11:38

        I don’t think so. There is availability on flights within Asia on most days and most routes other than this two month period which appears to have no availability on any route on any day.

• will says:

  24 Aug24 August 09:01

  Somewhere to use a new 7 day 1-4 travel package 🙂
  It highlights something quite interesting if not surprising, a week in september in that hotel is coming in at £1700. On airbnb you can get a very pleasant 4 bed townhouse for the same money.

• Albert says:

  24 Aug24 August 10:22

  When I looked through the deals it appears that the fares do not accrue KrisFlyer miles. C’est vrai?

  • Rob says:

    24 Aug24 August 11:19

    Would be a bit odd given the competition for KF members!

  • Michael C says:

    24 Aug24 August 14:24

    When I used to do the BCN-SIN direct, that was certainly the case: lowest fares accrued zero miles.

  • Lady London says:

    25 Aug25 August 03:39

    I have seen that in the small print on an SQ promotion quite a while back. Maybe it’s something to look out for, with SQ promos. I like SQ a lot but agree with other posters that the promo prices are not really pulling me.

• Lady London says:

  24 Aug24 August 10:59

  OT: if anyone qualifies for a German credit card apparently Amex is now running a 60,000 miles signup bonus

  • Pangolin says:

    24 Aug24 August 16:39

    That’s crazily generous for Amex in Europe but sadly I don’t qualify!

• Alastair says:

  24 Aug24 August 11:11

  O/T – I have just finalised avios reward 241 bookings in First outbound to SJC and back from IAD next July/August. When I look at the BA app it shows no seats selected on the booking but offers me the ability to do it. When I look at manage my booking online on ba.com and choose the Seats option it tells me “Seat Choice Available” and “Reserve seats now for free” (both of which would indicate to me that no seats have yet been selected) but when I click through it seems to have already allocated 1E and 1F outbound and 4E and 4F return which are the centre partner seats. Those seats are fine, but since they are not showing earlier in the process or in the app I wonder if they really are allocated to us or not ? I cannot press “Confirm seats”, I can only “Cancel any changes” at that screen. I could try and change them to window seats to make sure but could I then change them back to centre partner seats to make sure (assuming no-one nabs them in the middle of the process which seems unlikely this far out) ? Any advice appreciated.

  • Rob says:

    24 Aug24 August 11:18

    It is a weird system. What I do is move and move back and then confirm.

    • Alastair says:

      24 Aug24 August 11:48

      Thanks, done, sorted

• Amit says:

  24 Aug24 August 14:55

  O/T had an avios booking on hold with AA, which was cancelled as the hold expired.How long does it take to appear again to be able to book it?

• Adam says:

  24 Aug24 August 15:24

  I was initially excited to read about the Singapore sale in business but after looking at the prices on the website, it was a bit of an anti-climax 🙁

  Cheapest business fares for London are from £2,055 to Bangkok – Rob is this a good deal? I suspect not otherwise you would have listed some of the fare deals.

  • Rob says:

    24 Aug24 August 17:05

    BKK is certainly poor, I agree.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.