ANA announces a new Vienna to Tokyo flight, redeemable with Virgin Atlantic miles

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

• ChrisC says:

  10 Nov10 November 04:31

  Ex INV is only worth it if the saving is more than the price (and inconvenience) of the positioning flights.

  I’ve done a couple of ex INVs but only because the savings were much, much more than than the ex LHR flight or ex AMS or DUB etc.

  And recently for the dates I want ex INV have been more expensive than ex LHR etc.

  I hope these new flights and times generate some good prices from BA!

• Doug M says:

  10 Nov10 November 04:50

  I disagree this makes INV better. I had a B2B booked for May 19, and now as a result of the changes I’ve had to re-time the flights, The early INV-LHR now uses the aircraft left there overnight, so those wanting B2B have only the later flight. I think INV only works if the fare is low for other reasons, the ADP saving helps, but on a business class flight that doesn’t make enough of a difference for a positioning flight cost, and the time and trouble.

  • John F says:

    10 Nov10 November 11:35

    I agree with you Doug M, we had similar situation, booked for 01/05/18 with Hotel in INV and Flight booked to Vancouver, was automatically rebooked on the early flight by BA which gave us over 10 hour change at LHR and an early start which was not wanted just before a long haul flight. Fortunately had free cancellation on Hotel, phoned BA and the agent rebooked us out of NCL at 11.40 am , which in the long run worked for us as are returning to NCL, swings and roundabout this time, we lost our little trip to INV, but still saved the taxes as the rebooking did not attract any further payment.
    I agree the use of INV now will only work for certain situations/destinations

• MDA says:

  10 Nov10 November 05:31

  OT: When is the curve Amex announcement?

  • Roberto says:

    10 Nov10 November 06:41

    November… so in the next 3 weeks.

    • Jonathan says:

      10 Nov10 November 07:23

      Rob originally said around 8 weeks, so my guess is around 15th

  • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

    10 Nov10 November 08:41

    I’ve resigned myself to believing that it’ll be on November 30th.

    • Dan says:

      10 Nov10 November 09:06

      Did anyone else get an invite to the curve community? There’s a message on there saying they are launching it in beta soon, and I think, only those invited to the community will be the early adopters? Here’s a copy and last from the admin post:

      We are very excited to tell you that the Amex Beta testing program will start November 20th!

      Our team has been working non-stop to bring Amex back. With the Alpha stage nearly completed we are in full preparation for launching Beta program.

      More information on how our community members can apply to join the program will be published early next week. Make sure you are ‘watching’ this thread to be notified.

      • Dan says:

        10 Nov10 November 09:07

        Also…

        We will share the application link on this thread so everyone in the forum can apply to beta test the Amex feature.

      • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

        10 Nov10 November 09:57

        Well that’s disappointing to hear. I mean, it’s great that the feature is moving forward…. It’s disappointing that I wasn’t invited to the Curve Community!

        I wonder how long us normies will have to wait… Clearly being an early adopter of the card itself wasn’t enough to make me eligible for access.

• BJ says:

  10 Nov10 November 05:45

  The two most suitable hotels were Travelodge and HIX by the retail park from where you could get a bus to/from airport in 15 minutes. The bus to Airport no longer stops at retail park so a taxi is about £18 each way. HIX can be £170+/night in high season or a 30k redemption. Travelodge prices are not far behind. Jury’s Inn is now most suitable as Airport bus stop on main road right outside of it but again prices are often £150+, when it was Thistle you could often get it as a topsecret hotel for £45 including breakfast. So any overnight positioning flights don’t really work unless 2+people are travelling or doing them around this time of year when the likes of Travelodge have a sale and you can get s room for £30-50. Here’s the thing though, Inverness region is a fantastic place to visit, the opportunity is perhaps best seen as a way of saving £150pp on a short break. Would highly recommend hiring a car and doing a one day tour to Skye or to Ullapool and Lochinver.

  • HeathrowFlyer says:

    10 Nov10 November 08:50

    Stayed at INV after missing a flight 2 weeks ago. Bus driver offered to drop us by the Travelodge, despite not being an official stop. £3.70 fare departing from outside the terminal. Walk-up cash rate at the Travelodge was £49. HIX, Jury’s and Murcure were all coming in under £70, so it appears there are large seasonal discrepancies in pricing.

    Highlands seems to be enjoying somewhat of a renaissance – both flights I took were almost full. Lovely part of the world.

  • Cat says:

    10 Nov10 November 09:38

    I agree 100% BJ. Either hire a car or take the train West. Plockton, Dornie, Glenfinnan, Ratagan are all breathtaking and well worth a visit,or you could head further North to Applecross, Torridon and Inchnadamph. Then there’s Skye, Harris, Lewis, Mull and Iona to explore…
    It’s absolutely glorious up there!

    • RussellH says:

      10 Nov10 November 11:13

      All true – but do not forget the midge repellent in high summer. Arguably, May is the best time to go.

    • Jill (Kinkell) says:

      10 Nov10 November 14:25

      …and all on my doorstep! Just in from the garden, the sun is shining, enjoying a coffee ,admiring the scenery of the Beauly firth, the hills and Ben Wyvis . Bliss

  • Axel Heyst says:

    10 Nov10 November 11:25

    Hire cars are nearly always available to take back to Glasgow for £1 or so from Inverness by the major car hire dealers. Just choose to take the high road and a few days getting to Glasgow. Think there was a past article on this.

  • Lady London says:

    10 Nov10 November 13:27

    Yes. No point going up there just for a positioning flight. Take a car and go to Skye and the Three Chimneys etc.while you’re at it.

    • Andrew says:

      10 Nov10 November 15:14

      Or (if you’re like me) tick off another bucket list item by taking the sleeper train to get to Inverness 🙂

• Relaxo says:

  10 Nov10 November 06:44

  OT – just combined my spg & Marriott accounts. Unfortunately looks like any spg points you have are not converted to 3x Marriott points. Thankfully only had a small stash of 800 pts. I hope this is not the case with SPG amex earning and signup bonus from a referral is still 33K ?

  • Genghis says:

    10 Nov10 November 06:59

    Any SPG points you had should have been converted a few months ago in your SPG / quasi Marriott looking acct to new Marriott points and x3 then.

    • Sam says:

      10 Nov10 November 07:05

      Didn’t get the 3x multiplier. Just 1x. Would SPG or Amex fix this?

      • Genghis says:

        10 Nov10 November 07:14

        There’s a difference between combining SPG and Marriott accounts (call Marriott) and SPG Amex conversions to Marriott (call Amex).

    • Relaxo says:

      10 Nov10 November 08:23

      No there was no automatic conversion. My spg points were in one account & Marriott in another. The 2 accounts were ‘linked’ and you could convert points from one scheme to another manually. Now when ‘combining’, all points get swept over into 1 account but ex-spg points are swept over on 1:1 valuation.

      • Genghis says:

        10 Nov10 November 08:39

        Yes, when you combine the old SPG accounts and current Marriott accounts it’s 1:1 (i.e. no uplift). That is because when the system change happened, your SPG balance should have been multiplied by 3.

        E.g. prior to change, you have 10,000 Marriott in your Marriott account and 2,000 SPG in your SPG account.

        Then day after the change, you’ll have had 10,000 new Marriott in your Marriott account and 6,000 new Marriott in your SPG account.

        Now when you come to combine them, you’ve got 16,000 in total.

• paulm says:

  10 Nov10 November 07:07

  Re SPG Amex

  The Amex site states you get 6 pts/£ at “participating” spg/Marriott properties but I can’t see anywhere a list of these. Is there any list or is it generally that all hotels do ?

  • Scallder says:

    10 Nov10 November 17:17

    Can’t help on the list but you also get it if there are restaurants in hotels which charge back to Marriott. Wife and I went to Berners Tavern last year and got double points on the SPG Amex as the restaurant payment system seemingly goes through the hotel…

• Rory says:

  10 Nov10 November 07:25

  “Inverness seems to be low on decent accommodation near the airport…”

  Au contraire… https://www.boath-house.com/

  • TripRep says:

    10 Nov10 November 07:41

    Agreed that’s one of the luxury B&Bs I had in.mind to start a holiday…

    • Rory says:

      10 Nov10 November 14:52

      It’s more of a restaurant than a B&B. It’s a few years since I’ve stayed there, but the experience was comparable to Le Manoir, in terms of set up, service and quality of food.

  • Cat says:

    10 Nov10 November 09:52

    Oooooh, that does look nice!

• The Original Nick says:

  10 Nov10 November 07:48

  O:T, Do Melia rewards have a refer a friend offer? I’m sure they did some time ago but I can’t find it on my account.

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