Why a 40% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points means a good Mallorca deal

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• John says:

  2 Nov2 November 06:08

  Odd that they are rebooking on a Star Alliance airline instead of oneworld partner Finnair.

  This is possibly due to the reduction of BA metal LHR-HEL to once a day, while ARN has many flights which may be underfilled? Or perhaps AY wants a lot of money for the 20-min hop while the SK Baltic flights I’ve taken have always been half-empty

• S says:

  2 Nov2 November 06:23

  OT: Shop Small is live. We have it on all 11 cards we’ve got between us.

  • Ron says:

    2 Nov2 November 06:36

    How do I register Lloyds Amex? I can’t findthe register page anywhere. Thanks.

    • Genghis says:

      2 Nov2 November 06:41

      You can’t. Lloyds cards not part of this year’s promo.

    • Max says:

      2 Nov2 November 06:41

      Offer excludes Lloyds Bank, Corporate and Pre-Paid Cards

      • Max says:

        2 Nov2 November 06:47

        Also notice the post office is not listed either this year

      • Shoestring says:

        2 Nov2 November 06:49

        Post Office has never been included.

      • Genghis says:

        2 Nov2 November 06:53

        There was a separate PO offer last year (and the year before) spend £10 get £5 back if that’s what you mean? Good for the gift cards (no longer “top uppable” to Amazon).

      • Nick_C says:

        2 Nov2 November 07:29

        I thought our village Post Office was in it three years ago. The local garden centre and my dentist are also no longer included. I’ll be stocking up on firewood from the farm shop, but I’m probably only going to save £15 this year.

      • Shoestring says:

        2 Nov2 November 07:37

        @ Nick_C Post Office Counters have never been included in Shop Small. Your village PO is probably actually a shop with a PO Counter franchise within it. Shop Small won’t work on the PO Counter side but the shop till (being separate) is a different matter. Both sides often sell books of stamps, so you’d get the chance to buy half price stamps, for example (shop side).

        Or else you’re thinking of the quite separate Amex PO statement credit promo.

      • Brighton Belle says:

        2 Nov2 November 11:26

        Our local post office doesn’t appear on the map. But when I search for Convenience Stores or Post Office it appears. The map is not that reliable.

        The game last year was to buy £10 one4all gift cards that cost you £5 after the Amex credit. Not redeemable on Amazon but plenty of other shops will take them.

  • Chris says:

    2 Nov2 November 08:17

    So for anyone that knows, how is the shop small promo funded?

    A post on here wa while back intimated it was opt in for merchants, does that mean they (at least part) fund it?

    My enthusiasm for maxing it is more than tempered by the idea I’m basically just costing small business owners money…

    • Shoestring says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:27

      100% funded by Amex

      • Polly says:

        2 Nov2 November 09:12

        Our local small shops love it. Wine and stamps go flying out the door. Got some amazing reds last year. All registered stuff from our house is weighed and pre stamped at home, post office don’t like it, but …

      • RussellH says:

        2 Nov2 November 10:37

        I was only able to make one Shop Small purchase last year. (Most of the local merchants listed on the Shop Small map do not take Amex.) That shop checked that I had registered for Shop Small before processing the sale. £5 off £11.50, but still not found any use for what I did buy.

    • Stu N says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:29

      The dry cleaner I use said Amex picked up the bill as it made no difference to him. Would be useful to corroborate this though – like Chris I am uncomfortable with maxing out on this if it is actually harmful to the great wee businesses it’s meant to support.

      • Chris says:

        2 Nov2 November 08:33

        It makes the difference between sitting the bill across multiple.l cards and not, at the very least. I’ll fleece Sainsbury’s until the cows come home of course because of my perverse sense of ethics that appears not to scale very well, but my local Indian, dry cleaner and farm shop not so much..

      • Polly says:

        2 Nov2 November 09:15

        Chris,
        Same attitude as you. In CPH atm heading off on QR later today to PEN. One of their newer routes. So all,round benefits here being used. Nice to be keeping our Silver…

    • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:46

      A friend of mine who is a Shop Small retailer (small local village store and cafe) also explained that it costs him nothing. He has no problem with people splitting transactions to maximise the offer; most modern charging is a flat percentage so shouldn’t be costing the merchant any more other than their time.

      • Chris says:

        2 Nov2 November 09:04

        Well that settles it then – clearly fleecing a small business is wrong but fleecing the company that lays for my holidays each year is perfectly fine.

        Fear I may struggle to rationalize my attitude to this sort of thing if called to at the pearly gates but as long as I get there in J at a minimum then so be it.

      • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

        2 Nov2 November 09:31

        Fair comment Chris. Personally I just have BAPP plus the supplementary card for my husband, so the most we do is split the bill when we’re out.

        I suspect Amex have run the numbers on this and have decided it’s beneficial to them to run the offer.

      • Paul S says:

        2 Nov2 November 10:41

        Slightly OT, how does a supplementary card holder add this? Do they have to have a separate account? On the main account I can only add it to my card…

      • Genghis says:

        2 Nov2 November 11:00

        @Paul S. “Do they have to have a separate account?” Yes. Add card then wait a day or so (may be required) then offer should appear.

• Max says:

  2 Nov2 November 06:36

  Thank you for playing 29 Ways to Stay today. By playing, you’ve received an entry into the 29 Ways to Stay Sweepstakes.

  So no bonus points today 🙁

  • Tilly says:

    2 Nov2 November 06:59

    500 for me this morning.

    • Mike says:

      2 Nov2 November 07:12

      wow congrats Tilly – that is the sum total of my prizes for the last 10 days

      • Robman says:

        2 Nov2 November 08:04

        +1

      • RussellH says:

        2 Nov2 November 10:42

        Ah, so I am doing better than some! 12×50 + 1×500 so far.

      • Tilly says:

        2 Nov2 November 12:37

        I joined the game late – day 11. So far had 2 x 500, 2 x entry to sweepstake only and the rest have been 50 points.

    • Adey says:

      2 Nov2 November 07:13

      +50 for me… first points after a three day losing streak!

  • C says:

    2 Nov2 November 08:10

    1000 today after a maximum of 50 up to now. Keep the faith.

    • Jill (Kinkell) says:

      2 Nov2 November 11:13

      My total so far is 6050 and my hubby has 750 but he came late to the game.

  • Sarah says:

    2 Nov2 November 09:08

    I’ve played a few times and only ever received 50. BTW, has anyone actually seen these points show up in their account, because none are showing in mine>

    • Rob says:

      2 Nov2 November 09:30

      8-10 weeks ….

      • Sarah says:

        2 Nov2 November 10:32

        Thanks, I missed that bit. BTW, on my Marriott account, there’s a strange message on the Activity page which says “We’re sorry, but your points expired on 02/28/2019. Our records show no account activity for at least 24 months. If you believe we missed something, please contact customer support.”

        Has anyone else seen this? I had a few miles expire in 2017, but there’s no reason any others should, and none appear to have expired on the statement. although perhaps they will when we actually get to that date.

• Thomas Toomse Smith says:

  2 Nov2 November 07:15

  Real shame, we have been on the LHR Tallinn flight several times throughout the last year and it has never been anything but full.

  • Michael Jennings says:

    2 Nov2 November 11:36

    The London-Tallinn route presently has four airlines flying it (BA, airBaltic, Ryanair and Easyjet), for a total of ten flights a week between them, and all of the flights are at awkward and/or inconvenient times. I’d like to go there for a weekend, as it is a lovely city, but the flights just don’t work. If it was a single airline doing a daily flight at the same time every day, I suspect passenger numbers would go up.

• Max says:

  2 Nov2 November 07:16

  Amex BAPP offer: Get £100 back when you spend £500+ on a direct, return flight from London Heathrow to Durban online at ba.com before 14/12/18. Valid once per Card for the first 20,000 Cardmembers to save.

  • Zane says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:27

    The first 20,000? Are they expecting a rush on with this particular route? ????

  • Rob says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:27

    20,000 is optimistic I think!

    • Roger1* says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:59

      I suspect it is a sign of weak demand for the route.

      I could actually use this offer, so why haven’t I received it, instead of dubious ‘fashion’ and other offers? (Jimmy Choo anyone?)

      • Rob says:

        2 Nov2 November 09:31

        But not so weak they will cut the fare for everyone, oddly!

        Would this trigger against the taxes on a redemption?

      • Tilly says:

        2 Nov2 November 18:21

        I wish I had the Jimmy Choo offer. Way more useful to me.

  • Lewis says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:45

    Was trying to work out if this would work with redemptions…

    • Genghis says:

      2 Nov2 November 11:03

      Most likely

      • Lewis King says:

        2 Nov2 November 11:27

        In that case… very tempting.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    2 Nov2 November 10:47

    Last week in Nov, no direct flights!! Have to fly to JNB first

• Marcw says:

  2 Nov2 November 07:44

  For anyone interested in FlyingBlue, some excellent business awards to China for 90k return. Economy to Seattle for 10.5k ow, and China 18k oneway.

  • LewisB says:

    2 Nov2 November 13:04

    Last month there was a very juicy Vancouver 50% promo fare. I’m surprised FlyingBlue doesn’t get more coverage since they fly from pretty much all UK regional airports and most of the promo fares can start from anywhere in Europe.

    • Rob says:

      2 Nov2 November 17:52

      We do cover these occasionally but not regularly. Perhaps I hire someone who gives more of a toss about FB than I do 🙂

      • Shoestring says:

        4 Nov4 November 18:50

        There are a few of us who have built up some significant points in Virgin now. I think we are getting close to the million.

• HeathrowFlyer says:

  2 Nov2 November 07:47

  OT: Any chance of the shopsmallcrawl dot com map returning this year?

  Found it very useful in London last year.

  • HeathrowFlyer says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:52

    There was one created by a HFP reader last year than mapped Oyster top up shops that took AMEX. That address is currently down. I find the official map incredibly buggy!

    • Shoestring says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:12

      You’re right, it’s Buggy with a capital B. Now that you mention it, I remember what you mean – who put that together?

    • Shoestring says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:27

      Just one decent pub on my local map. They knocked off one but added another, Tribute & the St Austell range on tap, a few cheap pints coming right up 🙂

      TBH it’s very slim pickings within easy striking distance so far , a few good chippies & 1 pub!

  • IanMac says:

    2 Nov2 November 08:11

    The Amex map should at least pinpoint the locations on the map instead of having to hover over the name on the left list which then highlights on the right side map

  • Polly says:

    2 Nov2 November 09:18

    Is your friendly butcher not onmitmthismyear? Seem to remember you splitting many purchases there over the years…

    • Shoestring says:

      2 Nov2 November 10:07

      Oh didn’t check that, I think butchers will be a definite yes, that’s a massive saving. 7 cards = £70 this year, freezer will get nicely stocked plus Xmas joint of beef.

    • Russ says:

      2 Nov2 November 10:37

      We’ve done the freezer thing and patted ourselves on the back for being clever with the stacking. We’d forgotten we go away regularly and turn the electric off…

    • Curious says:

      2 Nov2 November 22:16

      WTF would you turn the electric (mains??) off??

  • Tom Cook says:

    2 Nov2 November 10:20

    There are quite a few on there near me that have closed down! Also, not sure HSBC are considered a small shop but they appear!

• e.thomas says:

  2 Nov2 November 07:50

  0/T: Phoning BA very early on a Sunday.
  I need to book return leg of a 241 very early on a Sunday .
  Which is best country to phone please?
  I think Japan was once mentioned but they don’t open on sundays.
  Many thanks

  • HeathrowFlyer says:

    2 Nov2 November 07:54

    I called the US number 1800 something just before midnight to secure CPT J seats. This number routed me to a very helpful operative in Delhi who was able to complete my booking.

  • Scallder says:

    2 Nov2 November 08:16

    I’ve had luck with both Hong Kong and Australia before

    • Scallder says:

      2 Nov2 November 08:17

      Assuming they’re open…

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