Etihad launches a 2-4-1 flight sale across all classes

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• Tom Cook says:

  13 Feb13 February 11:59

  OT Cancelled my SPG card yesterday, no issues, no offers to keep it with bonus spend, no mention of not being able to sign up again in 6 months time….

  • Grant says:

    13 Feb13 February 13:03

    How long did you keep it for?

  • Mr Dee says:

    13 Feb13 February 13:09

    Did you do it through online chat or phone? Unless you do it on the phone they don’t give an offer

    • Benylin says:

      13 Feb13 February 14:10

      I cancelled through chat, they did say do you want to call to discuss deals, but I declined. The other spg I cancelled they didn’t offer anything over chat.

• Craig says:

  13 Feb13 February 12:08

  OT: I need to send my sister some money, it looks like I can use my credit card to send without any fees through PayPal. Has anyone done this who can confirm I am correct?

  • Rob says:

    13 Feb13 February 12:33

    3% PayPal fee.

    Get a free Revolut card and use that. You get a better FX rate too – https://headforpoints.com/2018/05/18/revolut-travel-money-card-reviewed/

    • Craig says:

      13 Feb13 February 12:36

      Sorry Rob, I should have made it clearer, it’s not a foreign transaction. Sterling to sterling.

      • George says:

        13 Feb13 February 12:58

        Still 3% unless funded by DD. Revolut can be funded by CC.

      • Rob says:

        13 Feb13 February 14:32

        Doesn’t matter, 3% fee.

        You seriously think Paypal swallows credit card fees for free?

      • jc says:

        13 Feb13 February 20:45

        In my experience they absolutely do swallow the 3% fee in this case. £x appears on the credit card statement, and £x arrives in the recipient’s PayPal account -> bank account.

  • Grant says:

    13 Feb13 February 12:58

    You pay a fee when using a credit card in Paypal to transfer funds to an individual.

    • BlueHorizonUK says:

      13 Feb13 February 22:14

      You really don’t, unless you have a business account

      • Rob says:

        14 Feb14 February 00:08

        If you don’t pay it, the receiver pays it. One side pays. For example, a friend sent me £300 recently and I received £289.60.

      • jc says:

        14 Feb14 February 05:53

        @Rob every time I’ve transferred money (using the friends and family option, not the pay for goods/services option) the same amount has arrived as has left the sender’s Amex.

  • Mark2 says:

    13 Feb13 February 14:27

    I would just send from my bank account to hers. Two hours max and free!

    Assuming she is in this country.

    • S says:

      13 Feb13 February 15:46

      Classic case for a bank transfer. Or withdraw from ATM via Curve if you really must earn some points. Any recurring cash-like transaction through PayPal, irrespective of fees, draws the full wrath of PayPal’s Indian review team.. some horror stories online!

  • Peter K says:

    13 Feb13 February 19:02

    @Craig. Yes you are correct to a certain extent. A credit card linked to curve allows you to send friends and family with no fee. Amex is 3.4% to yourself or 3.4% +20p fee to the receiver if sent goods and services.
    Too many transfers to someone will cause problems but I send an occasional £200 with no repercussions, but then I do use PayPal a lot for normal purchases as well.

  • S**mo says:

    14 Feb14 February 14:19

    Actually….. Paypal have changed this recently in the way it works.

    Previously when you paid with friends & family using a credit Card you would be charged an extra 3%. Now, if you pay via friends and family using a credit card its ‘free’ – both the sender & recipient do NOT get charged a fee.

    I’ve noticed this for the past month or so… Not sure if its the way it should work, or if its an update but the original poster is correct.

    • Rob says:

      14 Feb14 February 16:07

      OK, happy to stand corrected.

      The transaction I mentioned was over a month ago.

• Mr Dee says:

  13 Feb13 February 13:07

  O/T anyone still waiting for Curve to respond to support requests from weeks ago?

  I have been waiting 2 weeks, a couple of days I can understand but weeks makes no sense, even if Amex had not cancelled why such a big delay especially if you were to have subscribed to their paid packages!

  • Grant says:

    13 Feb13 February 13:15

    In my experience response time seems to be on how difficult it is for them to answer. In my examples, I’ve had a response to a request for an increase on daily spend limits answered (in the negative) within 2 days. I’ve had two other, slightly more ranty, messages with questions about charges and level of service etc, go unanswered for 2+ weeks.

  • David says:

    13 Feb13 February 14:31

    I was in a similar situation of waiting for 2 weeks for a response from Curve regarding getting limits increased. I contacted them via Twitter and I had a response (which was they won’t raise my limit) a couple of hours after that. On that note does anyone have any idea how long it takes for the limit to naturally increase from the £5k rolling monthly and £10K annual limit?

    • Zana711 says:

      13 Feb13 February 14:41

      I asked 2 months after started using the card last year and was declined. I then asked again in a few weeks (approx 3 months after started using the card) and was increased to £50K annual limit. I then asked again earlier this year and was increased to £100K p.a. but they asked me to provide “varied spending patterns”. Not sure whether my increased limit is because mine is one of those Commercial cards, so effectively I’m “making money” for Curve when my underlying personal cards are charged.

    • Grant says:

      13 Feb13 February 14:53

      The AMEX debacle aside, this is one of the most frustrating things about Curve and if they don’t sort it out it will put a lot of people off. The Community forum, and places like HFP where Curve is disucssed regularly, is full of people in catch 22 situations where they want to use Curve but are restricted by low spending limits. Curve seemingly won’t increase those limits without users demonstrating a varied spend pattern which a lot of people are struggling to do because of the low limits.

      I struggle to understand why, if my underlying card has a £10k credit limit for example, Curve won’t let me use all that within one day if I want to.

      • Mr Dee says:

        13 Feb13 February 19:36

        Yes its hard to vary spend on purpose with a low limit just to use the Curve card and by doing that its not natural spend anyway, only if you have a decent spend people are going to use it naturally or just not put their big spend through.

        I am starting to think they want to stick people to the 10k limit and just get as many sign ups as possible rather than having as much spend as possible, time will tell I guess

    • Mr Dee says:

      13 Feb13 February 19:38

      I think they want to see varied spend now so just using it for HMRC may mean they won’t increase it, so now I am using mine for small things as well which hopefully will let them to increase my limit if they ever respond

  • Mr. AC says:

    14 Feb14 February 00:48

    I used my Curve card as a normal person would (day to day shopping, occasional large purchase like a hotel stay), and was up to 50k within 2 months without asking for anything. To be honest I struggle to imagine how the initial limits can be limiting, unless the first thing you do with a newly received card is buy a car or cash tickets to Oz in First Class.

• Gavin says:

  13 Feb13 February 13:24

  OT – anyone recommend a suitable hotel for a one night romantic break in Stratford Upon Avon? Doesn’t have to be a chain, as I am open to getting something via hotels.com

  • Grant says:

    13 Feb13 February 13:37

    There is a new HDV or the Arden if you want something contemporary; or the Shakespeare (Mercure) if you want low ceilings, exposed beams, log fires and Shakespeareiness.

  • Genghis says:

    13 Feb13 February 14:05

    Not SUA but we enjoyed our stay at the Ebrington Arms.

  • Sean says:

    13 Feb13 February 17:11

    Billesley Manor 3 miles outside Stratford

    • Matt says:

      13 Feb13 February 17:52

      The hotel indigo looks very nice (not due to open till 1st April though).

  • Mark2 says:

    13 Feb13 February 18:26

    Arrow Mill https://www.brunningandprice.co.uk/arrowmill/ (walking distance for me) at Alcester (8 miles from Stratford) has just been refurbished at enormous expense but room prices are reasonable. Food is superb.

    • Gavin says:

      13 Feb13 February 19:43

      Thanks all, a few options to ponder.

• Abhi says:

  13 Feb13 February 13:28

  I cant get the deal for Bangkok priced at £1,533.

  Is that for two people or one person based on two tickets?

  Thanks,
  Abhi

  • Rob says:

    13 Feb13 February 14:28

    #The Etihad website shows the price for your whole party, so if it shows £3000 when you search for 2 then that is £1500 each.

  • AndyW says:

    13 Feb13 February 15:25

    If it was 1500 for two from the UK in business this would be getting a whole lot more airtime..

• bill says:

  13 Feb13 February 14:33

  i tried to purchase a flight with amex travel using my platinum charge card. the flight didnt get confirmed. but as soon as the pending transaction was on my amex i got a notification i had redeemed the £200 credit for £600 spend. amex travel they’ve advised me to rebook. if i call amex travel to rebook over the phone will i still get the £200 statement credit if i book by phone with them (when spending £600). I am registered for the offer. Is it only valid for online purchases or can i book by phone?

  • bill says:

    13 Feb13 February 14:38

    offer states online only and amex chat says online only. so i’m stuck. unable to boko online due to a website error – it shows two “total” prices on the checkout page. and I am unable to book by phone. I’m so frustrated by them !

    • AndyGWP says:

      13 Feb13 February 14:58

      Phone Amex, ask to speak to the Brighton staff and explain the situation 👍🏻

      • AndyGWP says:

        13 Feb13 February 14:59

        (For clarity, I found them very helpful over the phone and they accommodated a similar situation I had with no bother whatsoever… though the person I spoke to did have to speak to a supervisor)

    • RakishDriver says:

      13 Feb13 February 15:12

      I had a similar issue whereby my plat card kept getting declined on amex travel, had to use another card, which worked immediately – raised a complaint with amex the next day, the £200 was manually credited. They claimed to have never found out why their own amex issued card didn’t work.

      • bill says:

        13 Feb13 February 17:12

        i re-booked on line. i think i found the reason why it didnt get confirmed on the first attempt. i found the price on the checkout screen had two totals – one at the top of the page and one at the bottom of the page. when i logged in there were two different total amounts ! when i logged in the one at the bottom of the screen increased. the booking failed. i repeated the reservation in a new 2nd browser and didnt login. this time the two totals remained the same on the checkout screen and I was able to complete the reservation. hopefully the £200 statement credit sticks. but i’ve been quite inconvenienced due to the messing around and the complete deinal of amex that they have a problem with the website

  • MonkeymaN says:

    13 Feb13 February 22:29

    Thanks for this info. I had a similar situation with failed bookings. Managed to resolve by not logging in.

• Leo says:

  13 Feb13 February 15:49

  Has anyone seen this today?
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-intercontinental-m-a/ihg-buys-six-senses-hotels-business-for-300-million-idUSKCN1Q20NE

  • Grant says:

    13 Feb13 February 15:54

    Yes, briefly discussed half way down the first page of comments

  • Genghis says:

    13 Feb13 February 16:08

    @Leo I thought you’re a firm believer OTs should be marked as such? 🙂

    • Leo says:

      13 Feb13 February 16:25

      I am – at least I made it into bits.

      • Benylin says:

        13 Feb13 February 17:35

        This is very exciting for redemptions! Their hotels in Asia (as someone mentioned before) are top notch.

• Liz says:

  13 Feb13 February 16:02

  OT: can anyone recommend a travel company that does escorted tours. Over the next few years we want to do trips to India, China, Peru maybe Sri Lanka etc but would prefer to do these by organised tour rather than independently. Not looking for 5* accommodations but more well organised and reliable tours that don’t break the bank. A friend of mine used Mercury Holidays for a Tanzania Safari and loved it and she is a seasoned world traveller. We have booked the same trip for late Sept at a fraction of the price of other Safaris on her recommendation. Their other tours all seem to be much cheaper than the likes of Trailfinders. I think maybe the airlines they are using may be cheaper eg. Jet Airways, Kenyan Airways, Avianca. If anyone has any recommendations I would be grateful.

  • Grant says:

    13 Feb13 February 16:21

    My parents have used Titan on two occasions for US tours and were very happy with what they got. No idea how they compare to others cost wise.

  • Zana711 says:

    13 Feb13 February 16:27

    I’ve done 7 trips with GAdventures and couldn’t recommend them highly enough. Explore and Exodus are also good for adventure travel but I like GAdventures’ philosophy of always giving you free time despite the organised nature of the tour. I only did one Intrepid tour and got turned off by no free time whatsoever, so after a week, I was just tired of “enforced social time” within our group. If you want upgraded accommodation, consider GAdventures’ National Geographic tours (I obviously don’t work for any of these companies!)

    • Liz says:

      13 Feb13 February 17:01

      Thanks Zana. What I am finding with Mercury Holidays is that their prices include the flights and all others you have to add the cost of the flights. So a quick look at a similar Peru trip costs the same with GAdentures but without the flights. It’s the same with the Safari we have booked. I priced it up with Trailfinders and the cost was the same excluding the flights than the whole Safari including the flights with Mercury. Feel like it’s too good to be true but they have been in business nearly 40 yrs. Reviews are mixed – either brilliant or bad! Will keep researching.

    • Bill says:

      13 Feb13 February 19:20

      I used G Adventures for Cuba. Highly recommended

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