Air China bringing back its amazing Business Class Oceania deals for Black Friday

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• Mark1980 says:

  21 Nov21 November 08:15

  OT – anyone any experience in how Radisson Golds tend to be treated at Radisson Blu hotels? Much luck with free breakfast or upgrades? I know free breakfast isn’t a gold benefit…

  • Paul says:

    21 Nov21 November 08:37

    Stockholm Blu apologised profusely for not being able to upgrade our room as fully booked (did seem very full), but did throw in the free breakfast and a ‘sorry’ complimentary drink at the bar on our way outbound, and then on the way back, upgraded room, breakfast, and another drink ‘for coming back to us’. Small sample size, but very good anyway…

    • the_real_a says:

      21 Nov21 November 17:17

      hahahah isn’t the breakfast free in Sweden and Norway anyway? 🙂 Have a look at the room amenities

      • the_real_a says:

        21 Nov21 November 17:22

        Ah maybe not anymore. A couple of years ago the Scandinavian hotels all included breakfast on any room.

  • Rob says:

    21 Nov21 November 08:42

    Historically – off a small sample – I have done well. Radisson top tier status is VERY hard to earn so most hotels see few or none of them and Golds are effectively top of the pile most nights.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    21 Nov21 November 09:10

    In my experience, hit or miss. Unlike somewhere like Hilton, where you can be fairly confident of an exec room or something, my experience has either been a full/junior suite or no discernible upgrade. On the plus side, the ‘miss’ stays have usually forgotten the welcome gift as well – fortunately this is a guaranteed benefit and I’ve found the Radisson Rewards Twitter team very diligent and generous (10-20k points) in compensating for that particular service failure.

  • Genghis says:

    21 Nov21 November 09:14

    I’ve had a different experience. Last week I had a port view (if I turned my head a full 90 degrees) “upgrade”, a bottle of Evian and some Navettes. In short, not much.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:29

    Not had anything special, this is in mainly Scandi countries and Germany. The benefit comes from the bonus points on revenue stays, and dining discounts at on-property restaurants, in my experience. This is as a Gold.

    I *think*, IIRC, I got an upgrade in Reykjavik, but it was a larger room on a higher floor, and the hotel was pretty dated (wasn’t the city centre one, I forget the name of the other, but it’s not far out anyway). However, given the prices in Iceland/Norway/Sweden, any sort of upgrade is a bonus, even free water saves money!

  • Chris says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:58

    Radisson Blu Durham recently. I received no upgrade/no breakfast, one bottle of water in the room and an apple as my welcome gift (not joking!)

    pretty much par for the course for my recent experiences with the brand

  • Crafty says:

    21 Nov21 November 11:01

    Had a huge suite upgrade in Malta last year as Gold.

  • Relaxo says:

    21 Nov21 November 11:27

    Zero (noticeable) upgrades with gold across several of their brands. Free breakfast whenever Ive stayed in Rad Blu & Edwardian brands.

  • Russ says:

    21 Nov21 November 12:58

    Is Radisson Rewards still worth transferring MR to get the 1:3 given you don’t get breakfast or lounge access?

    • Rob says:

      21 Nov21 November 16:43

      You can book a Premium Room Reward which is normally a Business Room which includes breakfast (and a coffee machine etc).

      • Russ says:

        21 Nov21 November 19:09

        Thanks Rob, I should pay more attention to these things 🙂

  • TM says:

    21 Nov21 November 20:23

    Radisson Blu Dusseldorf – upgraded to a top floor business room, no free breakfast unfortunately. Also got some bottled water and a fruit platter.

• Ruth Witter says:

  21 Nov21 November 08:25

  This has come at the perfect time as I need to fly to Melbourne next year. I haven’t joined any of the star alliance programmes, would you say it’s best to just join the Air China one? Would I be able to use any of the miles earned on any hotel schemes?

  • Rob says:

    21 Nov21 November 08:41

    You really want an account you can top up via another route – so Miles & More (who have a UK credit card) or one which is an Amex partner like Singapore or SAS.

    However, the best answer is: decide where you want to go with the miles, then see which Star programme has the cheapest redemption chart for UK to XXX and (assuming it gets 125% of miles flown for Air China R class) credit there.

    • Ruth says:

      21 Nov21 November 21:55

      Thanks. So is it necessary to choose the programme first and register prior to buying the tickets. Or can they be credited afterwards?

      • Rob says:

        22 Nov22 November 09:18

        You can do it later BUT most schemes will insist that you were a member on the date of travel, so you will have to open a lot of frequent flyer accounts …..

  • David P says:

    21 Nov21 November 08:43

    You can also credit Air China flights to Virgin Flying Club.

    • David P says:

      21 Nov21 November 08:46

      Sorry, I meant to say you can credit London-Beijing flights to Virgin. Obviously that doesn’t help when starting in Germany, but if you have an ex-UK flight this is an additional option.

  • Lumma says:

    21 Nov21 November 09:37

    I’d use anything but Air China phoenix miles. The website is horrendous and I just keep getting emails in Chinese from them. I ended up with a few miles with them and never worked out how I could use them.

    Maybe look at Singapore airlines for their good value middle East redemptions or Aegean who have one of the easiest routes to star gold, but it’s not as easy as it was in the past. Of course you also need to check where to credit to see how many miles you’ll get if any at all and work out how easy you’ll be able to top up the account

  • guesswho2000 says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:24

    *A I’d credit to SQ in an instant, but only if you can ensure you’ll use them within 3x years, as they have a hard expiry of 36 months from date of earn, regardless of activity. Can be topped up using Amex MR though.

    • Neil says:

      21 Nov21 November 12:16

      +1

  • Ruth Witter says:

    22 Nov22 November 09:35

    I’ve just tried the link again for this offer but can only see return flights for £4000+. Is there a promo code I need or am I doing something wrong?

• Dale says:

  21 Nov21 November 08:50

  Checked for Flybe flights from EDI to Birmingham for March, nothing anything like £25 one way.

  Probably be cancelled anyway by then!

  • Dale says:

    21 Nov21 November 08:55

    Actually looks like Black Friday £25 fare is available from EDI….but only if you want to go to Belfast !!

    Totally underwhelmed

  • Tony says:

    21 Nov21 November 12:56

    Yep, saw that myself. BHX-ABZ had some availability, mind, as did BHX-INV during February half term.

• James says:

  21 Nov21 November 08:56

  never see business class deals like these for Asia to Europe, dont know why that is, v frustrating.. would love to see some Asia centric Headforpoints content

  • Louie says:

    22 Nov22 November 07:02

    How about a one way to Europe and then returns Europe to Asia? That’s what we do from here in Oz.

• Boi says:

  21 Nov21 November 09:02

  OT: I have the old marriott cat5 cert yet to redeem. Is it better to redeem now or wait?

  Thinking of May half term. Any suggestions of where to go without breaking the bank? I will need 2 rooms as 6 of us (have 180K new points +MR if needed for the second room). I will consider all destinations but maybe not Africa or America. Thanks in advance.

• Adam Brown says:

  21 Nov21 November 09:31

  Anyone know what the average APD is on a FlyBe flight? Obviously you only earn Avios on the part after APD so if APD is £20 or something then I assume you will only earn 15 Avios? (3 Avios per £)

  • Adam Brown says:

    21 Nov21 November 09:43

    ok so 36 Avios then? Almost enough for the Qatar First class ticket then! 🙂

    The revenue based loyalty systems really take the fun out of sale fares!

    • marcw says:

      21 Nov21 November 11:53

      Start getting used to it!

• Metopes says:

  21 Nov21 November 10:09

  OT: Hit my upgrade bonus on Platinum in a couple days but a subsequent refund took me back under. Amex have taken the points back, do you think I will experience any problems getting them awarded again when I hit the spend target again? Wondering if this has happened to anyone else, cheers.

  • Genghis says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:10

    No. They’ll be awarded again.

    • Metopes says:

      21 Nov21 November 10:13

      Thanks

  • guesswho2000 says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:23

    Same happened to me, and it was a different transaction to that which awarded the points initially. They were rewarded the instant the new transaction which pushed the spend over the line posted. This was still within the first 3x months though, might not be automatic if you’ve passed the 3x months, but Amex should be willing to accommodate in such a circumstance (based only on my experience of their CS, rather than experience of that exact scenario).

    • Peter K says:

      21 Nov21 November 20:39

      Just had bonus from BA card taken back from me due to a refund. Have spent over target amount but after the 3 month time limit due to this. Live chat basically lied to me about what had happened.. When I pointed this out (politely) they changed their mind as to why it had happened but did not re-credit them. I think I’ll ring and see if get better response.

      • Shoestring says:

        21 Nov21 November 20:48

        The chat monkeys are basically useless on points, in effect, monkeys.

        They can sort out card cancellations etc but seem to have little leeway on points.

• guesswho2000 says:

  21 Nov21 November 10:21

  OT – Amex to Hilton 50% txfer bonus, 1MR : 3HH for the next month.

  • Mark says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:30

    where are you seeing this?

    • guesswho2000 says:

      21 Nov21 November 10:32

      I got an email from Amex about 30mins ago, both my (Plat charge) and OH (Gold credit) UK accounts.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        21 Nov21 November 10:33

        Terms and Conditions

        * Minimum transfer is 1,000 Membership Rewards points. Redeem for this exclusive offer from 12:00am GMT on 21 November 2018 to 11:59pm on 20 December 2018. Points may take up to 8 weeks to be bonused from the time of submission. The additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points will be awarded at the time of transfer. Hilton Honors Bonus Points do not count towards elite tier qualification.

        You must be enrolled in Hilton Honors™ in order to participate in this offer, visit americanexpress.co.uk/benefitstatus to enrol. American Express is not responsible for availability, accommodations or any other rewards in the Hilton Honors program. Once you have transferred Membership Rewards points, they become subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Hilton Honors program and cannot be transferred back to your Membership Rewards program account. See Hilton Honors Terms and Conditions for details. This offer is non transferable and may not be combined with other offers. American Express in its sole discretion reserves the right to alter and or terminate these offers at any time. To be eligible to receive these offers, all Card accounts linked to an enrollee’s Membership Rewards program account must be active and not in default at the time of point redemption.

      • Mark says:

        21 Nov21 November 10:36

        ah I’ve not got it sadly must be targeted.

  • Crafty says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:59

    A family member has received this, but I have not yet. I would be grateful if anyone can confirm whether the bonus is targeted.

    • Rob says:

      21 Nov21 November 12:08

      Seems to be. Not on the MR website and no email to me.

      • Russ says:

        21 Nov21 November 14:06

        Have just spoken to Amex on another matter and asked about this in on the off chance I could get it added. They said they’re not running this promotion. Are recipients sure it’s from Amex?

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