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The Aspire lounge network is offering 15% off your next visit to one of its UK sites.  If you don’t have a Priority Pass then this is one way of saving money on your next trip.

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You must use this link to book to receive your 15% discount, which will show automatically at check-out.  The offer closes on 13th January but you can book for a future date.

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The Platinum Card from American Express comes with two free Priority Pass cards, one for you and one for a supplementary cardholder. Each card admits two so a family of four gets in free. You get access to all 1,300 lounges in the Priority Pass network – search it here.

You also get access to Eurostar, Lufthansa and Delta Air Lines lounges.  Our American Express Platinum review is here. You can apply here.

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American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for the first year. It comes with a Priority Pass card loaded with four free visits to any Priority Pass lounge – see the list here.

Additional lounge visits are charged at £24.  You get four more free visits for every year you keep the card.  

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HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard gets you get a free Priority Pass card, allowing you access to the Priority Pass network.  Guests are charged at £24 although it may be cheaper to pay £60 for a supplementary credit card for your partner.

The card has a fee of £195 and there are strict financial requirements to become a HSBC Premier customer.  Full details are in my HSBC Premier World Elite Mastercard review.

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PS. You can find all of HfP’s UK airport lounge reviews – and we’ve been to most of them – indexed here.

Category

General

Comments (182)

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

  • N says:
    10 Jan10 January 04:04

    OT one to kick things off… What are readers/hivemind experiences of Chile? Heading for two weeks – things to do, places to stay, food too eat, etc?

    • James says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:06

      Was in Santiago in a November. Fantastic city, but would only stay 2/3 days and then move on.

      In Santiago, you could take a walk up Cerro Santa Lucía for some great views and an easy walk. For even better views over the city, there’s a slightly longer (1 hour) walk up Cerro San Cristóbal. There’s also a cable car which you can take one or both ways.

      If you like touristy stuff there’s a changing of the guard most days at La Moneda Palace. If you like trendy/hipster then a wander down Av Italia from Santa Isabel metro station is worth the train ride.

      I was only there for a weekend, so just a few tips!

      • Daftboy says:
        10 Jan10 January 08:12

        Agree Santiago is a nice city, worth a day or two – definitely consider Patagonia and Torres Del Paine, if you have the budget we stayed at the Singular which was exceptionally good (but not cheap)

    • Pedro says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:16

      I would highly recommend a couple of days in San Pedro de Atacama in the northern desert. There you will find the El Tatio geysers, Valle de la Luna, etc. Nice village and surprisingly good nightlife for the middle of a desert. Short flight from Santiago – airport is at Calama. ‘SKY’ is a very good, local, low cost airline for such a trip.

    • Vivian says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:45

      I’d recommend Bocanáriz (José Victorino Lastarria 276) – wine bar that serves really good food. A bit pricey for local standards but cheaper than what you’d pay for in the UK.

      +1 on Patagonia, Torres del Paine and San Pedro de Atacama. If it’s SPdA I’d recommend bringing altitude sickness medicine.

    • David says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:37

      I can also recommend Hotel Ismael in Santiago, lovely accomodation, park view room, and great staff
      i also use a guide there who is taking us to Atacama in June, if anyone wants details let me know

      Bocanáriz is a great recommendation, largest selection of Malbec i have ever seen, hic.

      2-3 days enough in Santiago, also Holiday Inn is a very convenient airport hotel if travelling around Chile

    • N says:
      10 Jan10 January 13:57

      thank you all! working on an itinerary in the next week. very exciting country all round by the looks of things

      • e.thomas says:
        10 Jan10 January 16:52

        Chile my fav country – because it’s such varied scenery, being long and thin. Have travelled the length
        +1 for Atacama, Torres del Paine ( borders argentina) , lake district and “fly” over the Andes ( puerto varas to bariloche boat/bus combo) , osorno area and EASTER ISLAND.
        Dont spend much time in santiago, it’s the least interesting of areas you can visit.

  • Bob says:
    10 Jan10 January 05:42

    Regarding infight air quality I suddenly begin to wonder if this is why I feel miserable (flu?) after 8 out of 10 flights, including short intra-european sectors. And it seems worse after flying in A318/319/320/321 aircraft.
    I never suffer from this when flying light aircraft / general aviation, which I also do quite a bit.

    • Erico1875 says:
      10 Jan10 January 06:18

      My 81 year old father was hospitalised after each of his last 2 flights. Doctors have advised him never to fly again as his immune system can’t cope with the inflight germs.

    • Will says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:23

      Not listed to the article yet but I never feel particularly great after a long flight.
      It could be “germs” but I doubt this is the main reason.

      I suspect generally lower air pressure has all sorts of effects on the human body and lung blood boundary and am not entirely convinced that the air isn’t tainted with burnt hydrocarbons.

      A350 seems to me better, it could be placebo though.

      Also my partner suffers far less than I do which would suggest different bodies can cope at different levels.

      It’s a subject that fascinates me, I’d have thought with the quality of cabin crew that have served for years and are now retired the data set available should be very big.

      • Lady London says:
        10 Jan10 January 16:59

        On everything except A350 A380 A787 I’ve found I always feel a lot worse if seated anywhere further back than the wing.

    • Craig says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:37

      It’s mainly to do with the way air is fed into the aircraft to lower the cabin altitude from thirty odd thousand feet to below eight thousand. Older aircraft use bleed air from the engine which is prone to problems with faulty oil seals affecting air quality. More modern aircraft use filters to reduce this, also the cabin is kept at a lower altitude closer to six thousand feet which is bound to have some health benefits. In fact the 787 doesn’t use engine bleed air at all, it uses an electric compressor which brings air from outside the aircraft and bypasses the engine, I’m not sure whether it goes through a heat exchanger or is electrically heated though, the air outside is usually below -50C!

    • Andrew says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:26

      There are just so many different interactions for travel, the opportunity to pick up something is considerable.

      I currently have a “very contagious” eye infection and a consequantial shocking sore throat. It’s clearing up now, but on NYD it was like drawing dirty yellow string cheese out of my eye continously. I’d flown from EDI to LHR on Hogmanay.

      I could blame the flight. Or I could blame the ticket machine at Stirling Station, lift buttons at Stirling, train buttons and seats, lifts at Edinburgh Park, tram to EDI, self check-in at EDI, luggage trays (now that’s something a BBC documentary should swab!) at security, my saunter through WDF or nosey around the shops. I washed my hands at this point after a loo visit.

      Flight to LHR, overhead locker touch, hand cleaning wipe, BOB on flight, again overhead locker, lots of headrest holding on the slow disembark, hand wash and loo visit at Heathrow.

      Collect luggage, lifts to HeX, door buttons, HeX to 2-3, lift, walk to T2, lift, NCP shuttle bus, drive home.

      It just too one hand touch to the wrong surface, then touch around my eye area to pick this up.

      • Alan says:
        10 Jan10 January 10:13

        Absolutely – good summary of potential places!!

        Have downloaded the episode to have a listen to, suspect poor seals and bleed air much more to blame for many issues than an infection from the cabin air itself.

    • C says:
      10 Jan10 January 11:01

      The last 2 years I’ve been on 12 hour flights 5-6 weeks after having immunosuppressive treatment, both for holidays and work (my doctor told me to wait a minimum 4 weeks before travelling but some people on forums who had the same thing say they won’t go on a plane for 6 months as that’s roughly how long it takes the immune system to recover!). First time I tried wearing one of those face masks but fell asleep and woke up with a very sweaty face feeling like I was suffocating so didn’t try that again!! After reading that I feel quite lucky I haven’t picked up anything major, but to be honest it can’t be much worse than going on the tube to work every day and as mentioned above there are so many places that you can pick up germs, even going to the supermarket! I am sensible and use antibacterial hand gel and wipes etc when travelling, and won’t let a period of ill health stop me from doing so when I’m only in my early 30s! Good data point that I’m still alive though!

  • Paul says:
    10 Jan10 January 06:33

    There is no difference in taxes from J to F!

    Any difference is due to BA greed and their hike in spuriously charges which they alone keep.

    Please stop referring to these as taxes. In the main the only tax is APD which represents less than a 1/3rd of the charges made.

    Calling BAs fees taxes just let them off the hook and suggest that society (NHS, Education,etc ) benefits. It does not!

    • BLT says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:18

      This a getting a tad boring. I’m not defending BA, but it is a free market and if you don’t want to pay the “taxes” for a reward flight, don’t book with BA. If everybody did this they would have to change the reward seat model. They are not going to do it because a few people moan on a travel blog.

      • Victor says:
        10 Jan10 January 08:38

        You are correct on the commercials and free market situation, but missed the point on referring to them as taxes. Even in parentheses it is still misleading.

        • Craig says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:51

          I think anyone that reads these articles regularly knows that Rob is referring to taxes AND fees, it is just boring to have to have the discussion about what the fees actually are regularly.

        • Evan says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:08

          I’m with Craig on this. Yawn.

        • Callum says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:38

          Evan – While I also don’t care (I care about the price, not what components make up that price), I don’t think it’s that ridiculous to want things accurately described. They categorically are not taxes.

      • Thomas Howard says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:46

        The problem being there isn’t an airline loyalty programme that offers flights without fees and has a UK credit card earning route. The MBNA changes mean the vast majority of global schemes aren’t available here and even if there was a programme without exhorbitant fees somewhere in the world, chances are they wouldn’t have asufficiently large UK centric route network to make it interesting.

        In airline loyalty terms, we’re a captive market.

        • paul says:
          10 Jan10 January 20:11

          Yes a captive market…another way of describing this is that it is an abuse of a monopoly.

          The usual claim that you simply don’t buy will stop these charges is ridiculous. You don’t have a choice. BA charges these fees even when the operating carrier does not have them. To then refer to them as taxes…as there sales staff do on calls, is misleading and duplicitous .

  • Craig says:
    10 Jan10 January 06:48

    Has anyone made Nashville work with BA Redemption Finder, all I get is route not available?

  • Gary says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:04

    OT just noticed Amex and lounge club have increased fee for subsequent visits following the freebies to £20 per person…. apologies if this is old news!

    • Peter K says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:29

      Rob covered it a while back. Don’t use it at the grain store at Gatwick South to pay £20 and only get £15 benefits!

      • Polly says:
        10 Jan10 January 17:29

        No choice if turned away, like we were on Sunday.. annoying.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          10 Jan10 January 18:13

          But then you’d just pay for £15 worth of items.

          Worth it if its your free passes/PP with plat ofcourse

        • Polly says:
          10 Jan10 January 19:44

          And another 15 after you eat.. as multiple entries allowed….

  • Adam says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:29

    Rob, for the first time in ages, I’m getting thr desktop version of this article on Android using Chrome. I’ve tried refreshing and clicking back and retrying but no luck.

  • TripRep says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:29

    “If you have Avios seats booked for Nashville after 31st March, you might want to consider upgrading one or both legs to First Class if seats are showing. As well as additional Avios, you will need to pay the £35 per person change fee and any extra taxes. The taxes difference could be noticeable given that BA hiked its surcharges late last year.”

    surprised that CIS/YQ are being collectively called taxes by Rob.

    Let’s be specific.

    This increase in “Carrier Imposed Surcharges” is a Devaluation of Avios.

    They are not Taxes.

    • N says:
      10 Jan10 January 07:40

      Rob please lead the way on this and update your style guide to refer to these carrier charges as what they are,which is definitely NOT taxes.

      • Stu N says:
        10 Jan10 January 08:09

        +1. Having just booked a redemption and paid £693.85 per person in taxes, fees and charges, I think journalists should be highlighting this.

        BA have presented this as £690.25 of “government, authority and airport charges” and £3.60 BA fees and surcharges. The former includes “YQ” of £400. The explanation doesn’t clarify what “YQ” is and lumping it into the first bucket would imply it’s a non-BA charge. In reality about £403 are BA charges and £290 true “taxes and fees”.

        I find this presentation at best opaque and at worst deliberately misleading.

        In my industry (financial services) we would end up in a lot of hot water from the FCA for this sort of opacity. Surely this should be clarified?

        • Genghis says:
          10 Jan10 January 08:57

          “I think journalists should be highlighting this”

          Middle class people have to pay a bit more for their business class flights.

          Doesn’t make much of a story.

          • Rob says:
            10 Jan10 January 09:00

            I could place this with a national paper but I’d need exact data. Which I could get via the readers. Let’s see. Genghis is right though, outside of the Mail, Sunday Times or Telegraph it wouldn’t get much traction.

        • Thomas Howard says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:56

          As someone that leans a little to the left I still feel its disengenious to blame the government or taxman for what is a business decision. The angle that wouldn’t work (I doubt) in the Mail and Telegraph is that sometimes the problems caused by the taxation system or government in general are overstated.

          I don’t know if the Guardian or the Indy would run an article that big business is ripping you off in the name of the always benevolent government. I doubt it would whip up enough hysteria to change anything though.

        • Stu N says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:31

          Rob – I’ll send you a screen grab from a booking made this week.

          My “journalists should be highlighting this” was not really aimed at national press and I’m not sure you’d get much traction or sympathy there.

          I do think specialist sites like HfP and the wider travel press should in my view make it clear that what the airlines like to call “taxes, fees and charges” are often primarily carrier charges, with some airport/ govt fees and APD added on.

        • Ali says:
          10 Jan10 January 13:44

          How about a crowd-sourced spreadsheet (e.g. Google sheets)
          I’m sure many readers would be willing to contribute

        • N says:
          10 Jan10 January 13:59

          I don’t think anyone is asking to go to The Sun/Mail/Times with this, but one small way to shout louder about this is to not normalise calling them ‘taxes’ on the blog, and potentially encourage other bloggers in this little weird world of ours to start doing so too.

  • Lloyd says:
    10 Jan10 January 08:01

    As it happened I booked F to Nashville earlier this week. For the first and probably only time we decided not to redeem avios and paid cash. £1,750 ex. LHR, plus saved an extra £200 on top of this by incorporating car hire. Spending 170k avios and £650ish fees p.p didn’t feel like a great return even if using a 241.

    Fares do seem to be soft at the moment, F was only £400 more than J for most dates in August.

    • Stu N says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:43

      That’s an excellent price Lloyd. Coincidentally my booking was Nashville too. For the dates we could do cash fares were a bit higher ex London and we had a domestic connection as well so redemption just about made sense. We are getting 1.5p per Avios – in isolation that’s marginal with a 241 (F out and J back) but we have a decent pipeline of Avios and the flexibility of a redemption ticket is potentially useful too.

      • Polly says:
        10 Jan10 January 17:41

        Same here, def worth our while paying those taxes and BA imposed! fees, with avios rolling in monthly…mind you, that’s a jump since we booked our F 241 this time last year..BA need to be more clear, they are carrier imposed charges….

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