Interesting HfP articles you might have missed whilst on holiday – and reviews on the way

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• Henry Young says:

  3 Sep3 September 06:44

  I just booked my best value ever Virgin Atlantic redemption, literally 6 days ahead of departure. Premium Economy HKG -> LHR one way goes for lowest HKD 13,055 and can be redeemed for 22,500 Flying Miles. That works out about 5.7p per mile. Last time maybe a year ago I was getting 4.6p. HK laws banning certain kinds of surcharges help. As does VS going off-peak for this route on 7 Sep. Is that the sweet spot, or can anyone give an even better value example ?

  Pro-tip for VS PE seats which are leather and impossible to sleep on without continuously sliding down. Get one of those rubberised high grip table place settings or tray liners – problem solved !!!

  Pro-tip in case you don’t have a lounge access card (the HKG generic lounges are often full anyway), Pizza Express is always quiet and has power outlets under the bench seats.

  • Alex W says:

    3 Sep3 September 09:53

    Undoubtedly an excellent redemption. I just booked LHR-Seattle in Virgin PE with an upgrade voucher. 15k miles plus £380 fees (damn fees). Cash price is £1600 one way. Supposedly 8p per point, however you could consider a few things.
    – would you actually pay that price
    – is another airline cheaper
    – miles you would earn on cash ticket
    – could you get a cash return ticket more cheaply (and throw away the return leg)

    • Henry Young says:

      3 Sep3 September 15:29

      Some good points there. In my situation the one-way suits me. To get between UK and SE Asia with unbundled one-way pricing the only options are a redemption or using Norwegian to SIN + an Asian low cost for the final hop (in my case over to Manila, but probably not cost effective if your end destination is HK. If I’d needed a return flight I would have hung onto the VS miles and paid up for Qatar (where I have status). But there is also a concern about VS’s commitment to the HK route. I see them getting out-competed by Asian airlines generally. They already closed their HKG lounge. So I feel some pressure to use up my miles in case they close the only VS route that’s useful to me these days.

      • ankomonkey says:

        3 Sep3 September 16:21

        I recently flew Finnair out to Asia (<£330 o/w) and back using a VS redemption. I thought the Finnair price was pretty reasonable. Norwegian would have been cheaper but I wanted to fly in and out of LHR rather than out of LGW and back to LHR.

• marknewstart says:

  3 Sep3 September 07:23

  The amex code for amazon did it get cancelled or is it so working?
  I tried but as not worked for me as anyone had success?

  • EwanG says:

    3 Sep3 September 07:45

    It’s been extended. The promo landing page now says it ends 31 October 2018.

    • marknewstart says:

      3 Sep3 September 08:38

      Thanks

    • Rob says:

      3 Sep3 September 09:39

      Great 🙂 We’re away the last week of October so this is an article I can pre-write with a quick cut and paste!

  • Rob says:

    3 Sep3 September 09:40

    It works fine. If it isn’t working then either a) one item has different delivery terms to the others (it doesn’t work if split delivery is required) or b) one item is not ‘sold and delivered by Amazon’.

• S**mo says:

  3 Sep3 September 11:50

  OT/

  Need a hotel for 1 night after a cruise in Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

  Looking at the Curio in Hollywood as that’s in between the two cities, we have 2 flights back the same day, and 2 flights the day after (avios availability).

  The hotel seems to let you book for 4 adults in a single room, 2 doubles – Can anybody see an issue with this? i.e checking in as 4 people, and only 2 people spending the night?

  • guesswho2000 says:

    3 Sep3 September 13:26

    Not really sure why you’d want to, but I can’t see a problem with it. Plenty of people check into hotels with one person, with zero spending the night, a la mattress run.

    • S**mo says:

      4 Sep4 September 11:51

      Its mainly because its a resort property.
      I didn’t know if the ‘resort’ would get funny with checked in people using the amenities.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        4 Sep4 September 12:20

        Well I’m guessing if they let you have 4x people in the room, and let you check in as such, they’ll never know who actually stayed the night, unless you tell them, I think?

• Ben Smith says:

  3 Sep3 September 13:47

  Any news on when IHG accelerate 3rd quarter will start? IHG Spire Elite and keen to make a few bookings for upcoming business trips but waiting ( impatiently! ) for the incentive to start.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    3 Sep3 September 13:54

    New promo is live, and it’s terrible.

    https://www.ihg.com/content/gb/en/offers/doublepoints2018

    • Alex W says:

      3 Sep3 September 14:16

      …for some. For Mrs W – 60k points in 2 stays

• Alex Sm says:

  3 Sep3 September 15:13

  Ha, I’m quite the opposite: why to bother going on holiday in August when it’s warm and nice in London, too hot, crowded and expensive elsewhere. It’s better to enjoy quiet time at work and wait until September when things calm down and travel then to beat the crowds. Reading this at a nice and relaxed ice cream parlour on Bali – flew to Singapore with my partner on 2-4-1 in BA First last week, and then tried brand new 787-10 in SQ Business using Star Aliiance miles.

  • MrK says:

    3 Sep3 September 15:43

    I’d rather go somewhere hotter in Aug and reap the benefits of air conditioning wherever you go than suffer in a hot home and the ghastly London tube during summer.

    Yes I have a fan but you can’t beat air conditioning

  • Optimus Prime says:

    3 Sep3 September 15:49

    Warm and nice in London has been an exception to the rule…

    • Alex Sm says:

      3 Sep3 September 17:06

      Still, summer is the best time to be in the UK actually, both weatherwise and doing various activities. And go somewhere warm or cold during other seasons, preferably avoiding peak times and getting good deals, no?

      • Genghis says:

        3 Sep3 September 17:21

        We holiday out of season whilst we can (no kids).

      • Optimus Prime says:

        3 Sep3 September 20:12

        Sure, don’t get me wrong, of course I prefer to go away during off-peak season since we have no kids (even though sometimes my birthday coincides with a half term 🙁 )

  • Polly says:

    3 Sep3 September 16:41

    That’s why we use our 241 in Jan or feb in F to Asia, to give us warm time away from uk winter..love the summers! In the uk…this year exceptional of course…

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