Flybe closes its UK Mastercard credit card to new applicants

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• Vivian says:

  1 Nov1 November 05:12

  Shop small can be registered on my BA Amex.

  Also got a £100 off £500 spend on the LHR-Durban route on my BA Amex.

  • Shoestring says:

    1 Nov1 November 06:50

    yep 1st November is the first day of registration. All eligible cards take one step forwards.

    Get back in line Lloyds Amex!

    • zark says:

      1 Nov1 November 07:14

      In the shop small T&C’s Amex say:
      ‘”Offer excludes Lloyds Bank, Corporate and Pre-Paid Cards”
      Does anybody know what this means?
      Excluding Lloyds bank Amex perhaps?

      • Matt says:

        1 Nov1 November 07:22

        Yes of course that’s what it means!

    • Brighton Belle says:

      1 Nov1 November 07:30

      Lloyds Amex? The only useful outing that gets us to keep the hotel lights on

      • Doug M says:

        1 Nov1 November 11:25

        You don’t like saving 3% on every foreign transaction, whilst getting 1.25 Avios, and a voucher for an upgrade all for £24. I’ll really miss this card when it’s gone.

      • Anna says:

        1 Nov1 November 12:14

        I spoke to Lloyds this morning about various card-related issues and asked about the closure date. The CSA was frustratingly vague and could only offer the info that all cardholders would get 65 days’ notice of the changes but had no idea when individual customers would be contacted.

    • AlexT says:

      1 Nov1 November 10:13

      So basically all third-party AMEX cards are excluded, seeing as MBNA withdrew theirs from the market a while back…

  • Tilly says:

    1 Nov1 November 07:25

    Also registered all my cards for shop small this morning.

    Plus got the BA offer on my BAPP and supplementary BAPP cards. Saved both. How do Amex know what you purchased on BA.com? Do BA inform them if you booked LHR to Durban?

    • Dave Barron says:

      1 Nov1 November 07:35

      Whenever I’ve booked BA flights my routing with flight numbers has always appeared on my statements, so I expect this will only work on the promotional route.

    • Nick says:

      1 Nov1 November 07:35

      Have you ever looked at your Amex statement after you booked a flight? It shows a full breakdown including ticket number and route, even cabin. This is part of the mandatory data exchange that Amex insists airlines use if accepting Amex cards. (It does also benefit the airlines in terms of fraud and payment tracking so they don’t really mind.) Many – but not all – non-Amex cards have similar structures. In the US many big retailers have to send card companies your entire receipt, but that’s not allowed in the EU.

      So yes, in short, they can see if you book LHRDUR ????

      • Tilly says:

        1 Nov1 November 07:45

        Thanks Dave and Nick! Must admit I’ve missed that detail. Don’t often book just flights via ba.com (only done a few times) as often include hotel in the booking.

      • the_real_a says:

        1 Nov1 November 19:19

        Its level 3 data, which is available for certain categories (just flights and rental cars in the EU i think) for all credit card providers. For example curve could see this data when i had some issue with a flight refund – just many CC choose not to show it to consumers. In the US level 3 data extends to line item level for most transactions – so CC companies know exactly what biscuits you buy in wallmart. This is how AMEX knew that certain US people were buying gift cards and revoked their statement credits.

    • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

      1 Nov1 November 09:53

      I would imagine this should work on a redemption too though, right?

• Roger says:

  1 Nov1 November 05:14

  OT-Car hire booking at Cancun Airport

  While all UK based sites have rates starting at £80+ for a week (Amex Travel also has similar rates).
  Priceline in USA based site has rates at $40 or so.
  Is this something to do with what taxes are included?

  Any general pointers for car hire in mexico (Cancun) will be greatly appreciated.

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 05:33

    Check what’s included in terms of insurance – the headline pricing may be targeted at Americans, a lot of whom have car insurance provided by their credit card issuers and therefore don’t need to purchase extra cover when renting a car. If you have the Platinum Amex I am assuming you would have car hire cover through that.

  • the_real_a says:

    1 Nov1 November 19:20

    Take it through to the last page as generally there is lots of tax that goes on top. Echo Anna`s view on insurance.

• Stu R says:

  1 Nov1 November 05:16

  Flybe’s ‘double rebranding’ has seen around half their fleet repainted in garish purple, before now deciding on a more sedate (dull) white/purple combo to be applied across the fleet.

  Seems a reckless waste of money (IMO there was nothing wrong with the original colour scheme) when meanwhile the manky interiors haven’t had a makeover in 10+ years and are desperately in need of one! Who cares what the outside looks like, we fly inside the plane?!?

  • HeathrowFlyer says:

    1 Nov1 November 09:29

    IMO their Comic Sans style logo was out of date (and terrible) the moment it was launched…

  • RussellH says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:07

    I entirely agree!

    This is what I was on about yesterday, money being wasted on marketing, while investment in the actual product is zero.

    Maybe we should be campaigning for a uniform look to the exterior of all aircraft, something along the lines of the tobacco pack regulations, though perhaps without the health warnings.
    🙂 🙂
    This could then force airlines to use images of the interior, ie the actual product, instead!

    • Lady London says:

      1 Nov1 November 16:02

      What a very good idea @RussellH. A bit like the white cargo planes (DHL et al) you often see parked up on the other side of airports

• ChrisC says:

  1 Nov1 November 05:29

  So which credit card would you recommend we use to buy Flybe with?

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 05:34

    If they take Amex we could trigger a few 2 4 1s ????

  • Alex W says:

    1 Nov1 November 05:57

    Amex gold earns double points on airline spend.

    • Czechoslovakia says:

      1 Nov1 November 06:36

      Lol. My tea went down the wrong way reading that.

    • TripRep says:

      1 Nov1 November 07:11

      Surely we should buy on Alex Platinum, as that includes insurance for airline failure? 😉

      • Peter K says:

        1 Nov1 November 08:46

        My laughing out loud became louder with every comment! ????

• Roger says:

  1 Nov1 November 05:53

  OT- AUH airport

  I have about 7 hours transit at AUH airport.
  I do have PP via Amex but obviously would like to avoid spending 7 hours at aiport.
  Any ideas on what I could use this time for?
  Are there any airport to airport city site seeing trips?
  In reality useful time I can spend in city is 3 to 4 hours due to taking showers on arrival after overnight flight and reporting time at airport on arrival.

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 06:33

    My gut feeling would be to pick a beach hotel on Saadiyat and head down there for a meal and hopefully a lounge around their beach and pool.

  • Bagoly says:

    1 Nov1 November 06:40

    If you like roller-coasters then consider Ferrari World.
    It has the fastest roller coaster in the world, and the second one is pretty impressive too.
    During local school term-times on weekdays (Sun-Thu) before 15:00 it certainly used to be wonderfully empty – I went on the fastest one about ten times.

    Sheikh Zayed Mosque is impressive, although lacking the historical atmosphere of E.g. Cairo.

  • Sandra says:

    1 Nov1 November 08:52

    Sheikh Zayed mosque is worth a visit (as long as it’s not Fri morning), the new Louvre museum is open on Sadiyaat Island or you could book a boat trip/activity – Captain Tony is good and you’ll find his website if you google him. There’s not a huge amount of sightseeing in AD, desert/dune bashing trips would be too long. Plenty of air conditioned malls including the huge Yas Mall where you can spend all day if that’s your thing. Taxis are cheap & metered.

    • Nick Burch says:

      1 Nov1 November 10:51

      At the mosque, which is an amazing building, get the free audio guide if you can’t get on a tour. They loan them at the info desk near the shoe drop at the main entrance. Just leave some ID as a deposit

• Rob MC says:

  1 Nov1 November 06:44

  OT. Lloyds linked to Curve, do you get charged for withdrawing cash now?

  • paulm says:

    1 Nov1 November 06:55

    Did not a few weeks ago.

    • AlexT says:

      1 Nov1 November 10:15

      Ditto

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 10:36

    No, only on a Tesco credit card.

    • Arthur says:

      1 Nov1 November 11:01

      Slightly OT but still Curve Related – I had previously paid a supplier in the EU via Azimo using Curve + Creation IHG. In a moment of madness I hit “re-send” to settle their next bill and can confirm that this is now being flagged (and charged) as a Cash Advance.

      Also, now full txn data is being passed to the card issuer has anyone used a linked Hilton or IHG Credit Card + Curve to settle a hotel bill and it trigger the bonus points for spending at own brand? (I’m travelling soon and would prefer to avoid the 3% markup by using Curve but would like to get the bonus points too 😉 )

    • Rob MC says:

      1 Nov1 November 12:03

      Thanks. Does the withdrawal count towards the 7k or not anymore?

      • Anna says:

        1 Nov1 November 12:22

        I’m pretty sure it does, it would tally with the amount of time it took me to trigger my voucher this year.

• Marcw says:

  1 Nov1 November 07:02

  So essentially FlyBe is becoming an obscure airline… ????

• Charlie T. says:

  1 Nov1 November 07:02

  With that level of thought having gone into HfP and it’s readers taking Flybe private, you should definitely send a “Funding Secured” tweet. 🙂

  • Shoestring says:

    1 Nov1 November 07:35

    or they could try one of those cloud funding sites

    • Doug M says:

      1 Nov1 November 11:38

      Boom boom. Get yer coat

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