New Avios partner coming: Royal Air Maroc is joining the oneworld airline alliance

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• Peter K says:

  5 Dec5 December 19:55

  They have no flights to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia? Shocking!

  • Backwater says:

    5 Dec5 December 22:08

    I was wondering how long this would take!

• Ant says:

  5 Dec5 December 20:17

  Africa’s first high speed rail opened last week from Casablanca to Tangier… for those who like that sort of thing. Rabat is a fascinating city too and not too far away.

  • Alex Sm says:

    6 Dec6 December 22:06

    I also heard only good things about the Tangier-Fez rail link (not that high-speed) with picturesque views and heritage trains

• Jonathan says:

  5 Dec5 December 22:39

  It would take more than a few Avios/Tier Points to get me on RAM. I do some work with an NGO in West Africa & despite being one of the few airlines with decent regional coverage we are forbidden from using them due to a catalogue of issues with lost baggage & misconnections where people have been abandoned. Anyone who complains about the state of BA CS has a real treat in store!

  • Stewart says:

    6 Dec6 December 08:59

    Who else are you going to use to Bamako, or Conakry, or Ouga? TK is a very long detour… This is great news 🙂

    • Thomas says:

      11 Dec11 December 08:41

      Brussels airlines and Air France…no RAM for me with or without Avios…

• Nick says:

  5 Dec5 December 23:44

  Rob, fyi, still getting desktop view on iPhone over 50% of the time.

  • Lumma says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:18

    Do you not have a “view mobile site” link at the very bottom?

    • Rob says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:14

      The hosting company told me yesterday that they think they can fix it.

      Basically, it is a joke. The new hosts use cache more extensively than usual, eg instead of fetching a new page each time it is requested it simply sends out a copy of the previous request (every 30 seconds it does update). The problem is that it is failing to differentiate between mobile and desktop in some cases. So, if your request triggers the ‘update every 30 seconds’ action and you are on a mobile, it will serve a mobile page for the next 30 seconds to everyone.

      Except …. on desktops it is always serving the correct version. Which is odd.

      Anyway, they claim a fix is very close. If not, we will dump them and switch host again although I’d rather not. What isn’t clear is why one of the biggest WordPress hosting businesses in the world has this issue.

      • Alan says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:16

        Is it maybe an iOS issue? I always get desktop version on desktop and always get mobile on my Android phone (Chrome for both). Works flawlessly. Email alerts also working perfectly so please don’t move host!

• Spk says:

  6 Dec6 December 00:53

  OT – Amex plans to open Centurion lounge in Heathrow.

• James says:

  6 Dec6 December 04:57

  If BA’s IT people (outsourced to the lowest bidder) have to get involved the date will be more like 2030.

• James says:

  6 Dec6 December 05:00

  Not really a like-for-like replacement of Qatar !!

  • Alex Sm says:

    6 Dec6 December 22:08

    Is Qatar leaving OW as well as OPEC?

    • Shoestring says:

      6 Dec6 December 22:09

      rumoured only

• Anna says:

  6 Dec6 December 05:39

  Slightly OT – this still does nothing for the UK regions! I was looking at which One World partners fly abroad from MAN on any kind of regular basis as I am toying with planning Christmas markets trip for next year – the only direct option would be Helsinki with Finnair!

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    6 Dec6 December 07:30

    I dont think UK regions are a OW priority. As I am sure you are aware, there are lots of good cash options from MAN or LPL. Until HfP take us seriously OW won’t.

  • Liz says:

    6 Dec6 December 07:36

    We just came back from the Helsinki on Monday and the Xmas markets weren’t great. We did Munch 3 years ago and they were much much better. Helsinki was mainly food, woolly socks, gloves and hats and wooden kitchen utensils. Found one lovely shop with a Xmas shop in the basement where we managed to get a few nice decorations. Our trip was postponed from Sept so was never meant to be a Xmas market trip. Also did Tallinn and the market was much the same. Also not one shop had a sale on so everything full price till after Xmas – no bargains to be had.

    • CV3V says:

      6 Dec6 December 08:06

      I went to Salzburg one Christmas, arriving on boxing day and found the markets being packed up. I asked a trader why they were packing up and he explained that Christmas was yesterday – so no more Christmas market! Enjoyed the Berlin Christmas market, and the boxing day sales there were good.

  • filipino_chino says:

    6 Dec6 December 07:39

    Sun Air fly from MAN to BLL (Denmark), normally an expensive flight (£200+), my stepfather always enjoys his flight with them.

    Iberia Express fly to MAD

    BA have a few flights to mainland Europe too

    Aer Lingus flight to Dublin, Shannon and Cork

    These are the ones i know of, hopefully we have more?

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      6 Dec6 December 08:09

      There is an excellent Christmas Market in Manchester. We usually combine that with a night in the Hilton. Tick that box beforehand and you can take another OW Carrier further afield east or west.

      • Anna says:

        6 Dec6 December 09:22

        Manchester is my home town so would like something a bit more exotic! It would be nice to have more options to earn avios and tier points generally. BA flights to Europe only operate at weekends during the summer months, so are useless for short breaks or holidays at Easter or half term. There doesn’t seem to be much in Billund, I don’t know if they have Xmas markets?

    • Nick says:

      6 Dec6 December 09:26

      Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (and on from there).
      Qatar to Doha (and on from there).
      AA to PHL and others (and on from there).
      Plus BA and IB, is really the 5 biggest oneworld airlines all serve MAN. Really not that bad for a regional airport!

      (Slight correction though, Aer Lingus is NOT in oneworld!)

      • Anna says:

        6 Dec6 December 09:33

        I don’t really class MAN as “regional” as it has 3 terminals and is the biggest UK airport outside London. And despite the routes served by AA, a lot of northerners still travel to the US via LHR because prices from MAN are so high.

  • marcw says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:35

    If you leave in the regions, trying to get status is pointless – it will be such a waste of time. nevertheless, keep earning Avios though (or other ffp miles/points).

    Use the advantage of choosing the cheapest (or nicest? affordable? quickest?) available option, instead of alliance airlines deciding where you have to go.

    • Alan says:

      6 Dec6 December 10:47

      Yep must say I’ve stopped retaining BA Gold now – with the doubling of RFS cost there’s no benefit in choosing BA over LCC for short haul and for long haul I’m either paying for C or redeeming for C/F so get the majority of the benefits. I’m pushing more to acquire hotel points as I’ve found them better for availability and of even greater value given the weak GBP.

      • marcw says:

        6 Dec6 December 10:57

        I’ve started shifting my strategy to hotels and accommodation as well. Flights have gotten cheaper (while redemption fees more expensive), while Hotels are getting more expensive.

      • Kipto says:

        6 Dec6 December 20:16

        What doubling of RFS cost ? Have I missed something ?

        • Alan says:

          6 Dec6 December 20:19

          Domestic connections used to be free for all flights, a couple of years ago they changed it to long-haul only – made European RFS trips pretty poor value from non-London airports as an extra 9k + £35 cost to the existing redemption cost. Most nearby European ones already cost 9k + £35 hence reference to doubling – is less than doubling for further away RFS routes but still generally makes it cheaper to go LCC (even after paying for extra legroom, etc.)

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:24

      This is me.

      If I use an Airline scheme to ‘buy’ flights I am flying in a class that has all the benefits I need. If I am just looking to hop somewhere direct I’ll buy on price, invariably with an airline where status is meaningless but I’ll go where I want, when I want. Lounge access can be obtained many ways.

      Hotel points are proving much more useful and this is the vast majority of my collecting and status chasing.

      • Anna says:

        6 Dec6 December 16:00

        Which is great if you CAN go when you want! If you have to travel in the school holidays there is no such thing as an LCC, you’re paying £300-400 pp for a flight to mainland Europe or the Canaries but getting the same product as when that flight costs £100 in term time. If I’m paying that price I really like to have some kind of return on it (apart from the precious family holiday, obviously!) Now either Ryanair or Easyjet (can’t recall which) are taking Amex I might re-visit them when they provide the most direct route to where I want to get to!

      • Mr(s) Entitled says:

        6 Dec6 December 21:54

        I travel in the school holidays. Increased demand equals increased price. Same will be true of your hotel. And everything else.

        We still use Center Parcs. That makes my wallet bleed but I’ve given up looking at term time prices the week before we go. It would mean we never went anywhere.

  • marcw says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:00

    Good news! Ethiopian has nice offers from Manchester. They are starting the non-stop route next week with brand new 787! East Africa from £400. https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2018/12/06/ethiopian-airlines-marks-new-manchester-addis-route-with-promotion-on-flights-to-africa/

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