Aer Lingus applies to join the BA, AA, Iberia and Finnair transatlantic joint venture

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• Degsy says:

  23 Dec23 December 10:35

  Thanks Leo and Rob mc I just thought I had read somewhere on this site about using Avios for flights in the Far East for short journeys with BA partner airlines so I must be mistaken.

  • Matt says:

    23 Dec23 December 10:38

    If you’re going from or to HKG or KUL or around Japan then they can be great value, but you’d be looking at indirect flights, so more expensive in Avios (and time).

  • Polly says:

    23 Dec23 December 19:19

    Def useful to use avios all around Asia on CX and MAS. But saying that, always price up air Asia and the like for internals throughout the region. If you can get J on CX or MAS and you don’t have status, then the lounges are certainly worth it. Go for It!

  • Lady London says:

    24 Dec24 December 06:49

    You can and it can be an excellent use of Avios either booking close in, or on domestic flights on Continents where cashbprice is outrageously inexpensive.

    For hops around Asia what people here are saying is that there are many airlines that do these short hops round Asia for very low cash prices. So if you’re not in a position to waste Avios unnecessarily mostly your Asia hops can be done with these. Even upgrades on these might not always cost that much.

• Gin and Tonic Please says:

  23 Dec23 December 10:56

  I’ve been using the IHG OpenTable route for a while. It doesn’t always show the same availability as going on OpenTable direct, though I can’t always figure out why. Certainly seems to be he case for reservations that require a credit card to secure them.

• Nick says:

  23 Dec23 December 11:56

  OT – E-rewards and Hilton – Points redemption from mid November has now credited in Hilton, know others were in the same boat of waiting so worth checking

  • David Dunphy says:

    23 Dec23 December 12:27

    Like the Marriott game points it may take a few days to process all of the points by Hilton. Currently waiting on a 7,000 point credit (third one this year, also done a Radisson credit for 4,500 to keep points alive). One thing from the e-rewards team was Hilton points may now take 8 weeks to credit rather than the 6 stated on the redemption page.

  • RussellH says:

    23 Dec23 December 17:47

    My 7000 still not arrived.
    Complained again to e-Rewards as they said to wait until yesterday.

    • Liz says:

      23 Dec23 December 18:34

      I got mine a couple of days ago from 23/11. Still waiting on MR pts transfer from about 10 days ok.

• Mr Dee says:

  23 Dec23 December 14:04

  ATTENTION: ROB
  Just been on your homepage and got redirected to some Flash install hacked page, perhaps your Wordpress has been hacked or there was a dodgy advert!

  • mr Dee says:

    23 Dec23 December 14:05

    had the address
    securitycreative com

    • Rob says:

      23 Dec23 December 15:47

      It will be another dodgy ad that has slipped through Google’s web unfortunately.

      • Mr Dee says:

        23 Dec23 December 16:58

        Useless google adverts, so strict on accepting real websites these days but allow scammers, what a joke they are!

• Jtz says:

  23 Dec23 December 14:42

  OT but I’ve got a way to meet an upcoming plat and also the referral gold spend for referring my parents, but not sure how to go about it.
  It’s HMRC payments and Thames water bills
  I understand curve are in beta stage to allow Amex, but is there a way I can do this in these 2 weeks?

  Thanks a lot

  • N says:

    23 Dec23 December 15:39

    TW at co-op via paypoint

    Can’t help with HMRC, soz!

  • Rob says:

    23 Dec23 December 15:45

    No, not in two weeks. If you get a Curve it will only allow Visa and MC for now for you.

  • Anna says:

    23 Dec23 December 15:52

    Does your council take PayPal? Otherwise vouchers for places where you’d shop anyway. My OH loves doing “Home Improvements” so I’ve taken to buying B & Q gift cards at Tesco (thanks Harry!) so that he’s got them to hand when he starts on a new project!

  • Mr Dee says:

    23 Dec23 December 17:00

    Buy some bargains and sell them online in January, maybe you will make a profit!

    If you have the Morrisons 10% go and buy £1000 in vouchers just ask at customer services.

    • Jtz says:

      23 Dec23 December 18:35

      Thanks all! Love the community here,
      I think I might just go with billhop and pay the fee. I think it’s worth it for the quick spend and MR points
      Is there a limit for how much you can ‘overpay TW at co op

      Will also do the vouchers

      Nope council don’t take PayPal unfortunately, but I noticed my parents have a paper pay point card?

      • Genghis says:

        23 Dec23 December 18:42

        Is there a limit for how much you can ‘overpay TW at co op?

        From experience, yes – it’s quite heavily monitored by the cash management team at TW.

      • Polly says:

        23 Dec23 December 19:26

        Yes, many of the utilities monitor overspend, and will refund to the direct debit account. Willingly, but not to push it. Gift cards for the supermarkets the best way, food petrol, plus BT prepay at co op too. BT love refunding overspends…just a thought!
        Def go for Morrison’s atm. Got all our gift cards in advance and Morrison’s own paper gift vouchers, which are VERY useful. Like Alan, we have probably got our plat fee back by now. And will use the 200 off 600 amex travel spend next month.

      • Mr Dee says:

        23 Dec23 December 20:26

        Don’t bother with Asda or Tesco if you want to use the vouchers for fuel.

      • ScienceTeacher says:

        23 Dec23 December 23:43

        You can use John Lewis / Waitrose Vouchers at Waitrose Petrol Stations (NOT Shells stations or Welcome Break stations with a Waitrose attached). Makes the £1.27/L for diesel slightly better…

      • Bazza says:

        24 Dec24 December 08:50

        I’ve used Tesco gift card for Tesco petrol. Are morrison gift cards good for morrison petrol?

      • Mr Dee says:

        24 Dec24 December 09:06

        Tesco banned gift cards months ago, yes to Morrisons, not sure about Sainsbury’s

        • Alan says:

          24 Dec24 December 11:50

          Did that include their own GCs bought in-store? Certainly earlier in the year it was only the corporate ones (often bought through the likes of Zeek) that didn’t work in petrol stations.

  • ScienceTeacher says:

    23 Dec23 December 23:40

    Buy something from Apple.

    I worked there, and the refund process is “to the same card type”. Type is bolded. When you pay via. Apple Pay you can refund to any card on Apple Pay. So, add the Amex Gold to Apple Pay, and your Visa Debit. Refund to the Visa Debit.

    • Jtz says:

      24 Dec24 December 09:05

      Don’t have an Apple phone, would it still work with curve?, downloaded curve yesterday (thanks Rob for the referral)

      • Mr Dee says:

        24 Dec24 December 09:07

        If using curve it shows as a debit card, so just use a different debit card for the refund

      • Genghis says:

        24 Dec24 December 09:23

        If you’re not on Curve Beta (and you won’t be if you just downloaded yesterday), then you can’t top up Curve with Amex.

• Shoestring says:

  23 Dec23 December 16:59

  So I got dissed big time @Club Aspire T3 yesterday, they shamefully said they were full, nothing I said about ‘2 little ones, how about it?’ with a grizzly smile did any good, (though her glance seemed to go lower), my favourite girl from same place as our place in the sun I’ve chatted to before wasn’t on the front desk to it was obvs no go, thank you.

  I had to go for the poor man’s lounge yet again.

  3 pints of Guinness in the pub. £5.25 a pint now, but I got a very good bar stool.

  Should have taken a selfie. £15.75. What am I going to do with my 2 free Lounge Club passes?

  Compared to the 150,000 people who have been inconvenienced or worse (some were going to see expiring rellies) @Gatwick, it’s not too bad, I suppose.

  • Mr Dee says:

    23 Dec23 December 17:06

    Did you forget the xmas hamper bribe option?

  • Polly says:

    23 Dec23 December 19:30

    Harry,
    Do we not have comeback on this PP lark. No entry for ages in there. Sorry you,didn’t get in.
    I figure we should have our receipts refunded by amex, as it is one of the perks of the plat card. Ok we have grainstore on LGW Sth, which is fab, use it twice in one visit, once for food, other for wine etc. We don’t mind that, but we don’t have that option in LGW Nth, to T5. Supposed to be better with new lounges opening in N LGW.

    • Mr Dee says:

      23 Dec23 December 20:27

      Twice same person?

      • Polly says:

        24 Dec24 December 06:27

        Yes! Tried it last time, no charges yet appeared on the Plat.

  • David says:

    23 Dec23 December 21:57

    It’s stories like this that make me glad I spend £400 a year maintaining my Silver status instead of an Amex Plat…

    • Polly says:

      24 Dec24 December 06:30

      Sometimes, just have to fly Paddy Air, from LGW to Dub. when fares are so low, not worth using RFS, anyway, by the time we refer each other for Plat, we are getting plenty extra avios, for the 1 fee, with pro rata refunds etc. But thinking, it might be worth paying the £5 reservation fee for PP lounges, just to get in, but also to,use Grainstore for goodies before boarding. Just thinking of optimum use.

  • Anna says:

    23 Dec23 December 23:13

    I’ve given up with it at MAN. All smiles till you get out the Lounge Club or Priority Pass then all the empty tables are suddenly fully booked. Lucky enough to mostly be in CE or CW anyway these days so I’ve stopped factoring this in when calculating the worth of gold or platinum Amex.

• Mr Dee says:

  23 Dec23 December 17:16

  Yes reminds me when you book CE and they don’t bother with the priority line call…

• lady london says:

  23 Dec23 December 21:15

  I’d put Plaza T5 exactly half way between the Cathay Lounge in T3 (at least, pre-Accor) and Galleries Club. Plaza T5 has a slightly Asian feel which makes me think of the CX Lounge. But obviously it’s not on the same scale as the CX one.

  I’m doing my first visit to Aspire T5 tomorrow, hope it’s better than comments have been on here!

  I think commercially there is room for even one more non-airline lounge in T5. There’s so much pent-up Priority Pass demand and so far it seems as though Aspire is too overcrowded to be as nice as it could be. We’ll see tomorrow!

  • Polly says:

    24 Dec24 December 06:36

    Agree, as it’s much more difficult now for folks to obtain Silver, they had to do something. Perhaps another lounge option will be considered. Space may be their restriction right now tho. Good luck, hope you got in!

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