Air Belgium to operate Toronto flights for British Airways

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• RussellH says:

  15 Mar15 March 12:24

  OT:-
  Would anyone have advice on how long it usually takes to transfer from Marriott to United Airlines?
  Just done a top up of my UA a/c.

  Was surprised to see e-Rewards points transfer to UA within a few minutes!

  • Lyn Hall says:

    15 Mar15 March 15:43

    I think it should be fairly quick, within a day or two, since United has long been Marriott’s “special” airline transfer partner.

  • Lyn says:

    15 Mar15 March 21:17

    We did a recent minimum transfer from Marriott to my husband’s Qantas account to keep his Qantas miles active and that took less than two days. It may have transferred quicker but I only checked it after 2 days. I doubt if United would take any longer than that.

• Munch says:

  15 Mar15 March 12:58

  OT – Any reason high end hotels do not include tea / coffee facilities in room or is it just to make more money from room service. I’m seriously considering buying a travel kettle as I not happy paying over $20 each morning so I can have a coffee in my room before breakfast. Is this just me but $100 on coffees over the last 5 days has just tipped me over the edge.

  • Olly says:

    15 Mar15 March 13:34

    You need to find another hotel chain. My only experience of a hotel without tea and coffee in the room was a Swiss private hotel in Davos last year, even Premier Inns have it. And I’m including Corinthia, Pan Pacific, Conrad, Fairmont etc 5 star hotels.

  • Brian says:

    15 Mar15 March 14:05

    Go down to breakfast early and have a coffee there before eating?

  • Andy says:

    15 Mar15 March 14:11

    US$20 for a coffee?!? Does this include $15 of tips, handling charges, tray charges, service charges, sales taxes and all other ancillary charges that American establishments levy on customers?

    I’d choose a hotel that doesn’t rip you off tbh…

  • Darren says:

    15 Mar15 March 15:10

    High end hotels will (should) provide tea and coffee in a room on request, if they won’t then go somewhere else.

  • Anna says:

    15 Mar15 March 15:12

    I think in some countries it’s just not the custom to have tea and coffee making facilities. It didn’t used to be in Spain, for example, though I don’t know about more recently as I tend to book rooms with at least basic kitchens these days. Even when there is tea and coffee there’s never enough milk for my tastes so I always travel with plenty of supplies, including powdered milk!

    Do they still sell those heating devices which you could plug in and pop in your mug of water to heat it up? I haven’t seen one for years but they would take up less space in your luggage than a kettle.

    • john says:

      15 Mar15 March 15:19

      Or an alternative might be something like Rommelsbacher RK501 Automatic Travel Hot Plate. Only 500W though so might take a number of minutes

  • Munch says:

    15 Mar15 March 16:09

    Looks like its the travel kettle on the next trip. $20 was with all the service charges in a Category 8 Marriott. I just want a simple coffee in bed before i venture out for breakfast

  • Rob says:

    15 Mar15 March 16:26

    Posh hotels will bring you a coffee machine on request, in general, in the same way that will bring you pretty much anything else you want on request.

    • Munch says:

      15 Mar15 March 16:36

      Thanks for the feedback everyone. Ill ask for a machine and see what they say.

    • illuminatus says:

      15 Mar15 March 17:36

      Rob, was not expecting YOU to use the word ‘posh’!

  • illuminatus says:

    15 Mar15 March 17:37

    I specifically look for Nespresso machines while going through hotel reviews and try to avoid staying in any hotel that does not offer that, certainly any 5* star hotel

    • Lyn says:

      15 Mar15 March 21:24

      That’s one of the advantages of IHG Platinum / Spire sometimes. Holiday Inns in France usually upgrade to rooms with Nespresso machines. Not in the high end category of course.

• ankomonkey says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:09

  OT: From Virgin Atlantic Flying Club e-mail:

  “From 31 March 2019, Virgin Atlantic will no longer be flying to Dubai.”

  Did we know this was happening?

  • ChrisC says:

    15 Mar15 March 13:17

    Yes. It was announced last year and has featured several times on HFP and other blogs too

    • ankomonkey says:

      15 Mar15 March 15:51

      I see. I somehow missed it. Next you’ll be telling me they’re cancelling HKG-SYD and LHR-NRT.

  • Michael says:

    15 Mar15 March 14:12

    Yep been about for a while. Leaves just two carriers on the London-Dubai route down from 5 only 2 years ago.

    • guesswho2000 says:

      16 Mar16 March 05:15

      Yep, even QF have switched back to SIN, I guess they reckon they can make more money on connecting pax that way (individual MEL/SYD-SIN and SIN-LHR)

  • marcw says:

    15 Mar15 March 15:06

    Very soft market ATM.

    • Michael says:

      15 Mar15 March 16:40

      I hear Dubais gone a bit soft.

      • marcw says:

        15 Mar15 March 19:04

        the *hype* is over. everyone’s seen it, been there, not going back.

• Olly says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:37

  Can anyone tell me from experience the average real time it takes for AMEX rewards to go into Radisson accounts? I know the official line is up to ten days but what is reality? Many thanks.

  • RussellH says:

    15 Mar15 March 14:30

    At least a week, IME. You really do need to allow the 10 days to be safe.

    • Jovanna says:

      15 Mar15 March 14:43

      Yes, I transferred on 17 Feb and they hit my account in 1 March.

  • Olly says:

    15 Mar15 March 21:36

    Thanks for that Jovanna and Russell.

• Charlieface says:

  15 Mar15 March 16:09

  OT: Anyone had random £5 credits on their Amex recently? Wondering if it’s related to Shop Small, can’t think of anything else.

  • Shoestring says:

    15 Mar15 March 16:14

    quite a few got reported here, some were guessing late credits from Paypal or SS – no such free fivers here!

  • Charlieface says:

    15 Mar15 March 17:54

    Didn’t do the paypal offer but it does match SS missing credits which I already got manually!

• Shoestring says:

  15 Mar15 March 18:20

  Good bit of info on FT – the IB 9000 offer – he cancelled by phone a flight paid largely but not wholly with the promo Avios (rest were ordinary Avios) – got all the Avios refunded immediately into his IB a/c – quickly transferred them all to BAEC.

  So there’s no automatic instant process to make you lose the promo Avios if you cancel. I guess it’s a manual process, not that we have seen any evidence yet of promo points getting cancelled if you cancel a flight.

• Jimbob says:

  15 Mar15 March 18:46

  OT – anyone else notice Curve starting to clamp down on money recycling?

  • Doug M says:

    15 Mar15 March 18:53

    In what way?

  • Genghis says:

    15 Mar15 March 18:54

    What type of money recycling? I was given notice of their terms changes which I’ll have deemed to have accepted in two weeks’ time.

    • Jimbob says:

      15 Mar15 March 19:02

      Used to be able to top up my isa, savings account and Revolut. But all seem blocked now

      • Genghis says:

        15 Mar15 March 19:35

        I’m ok

      • Thomas Howard says:

        15 Mar15 March 22:24

        Are you sure its not the underlying card? I couldn’t top up my II ISA with a IHG card, I called Creation and they said they were declining the transactions as the MCC was associated with bitcoin. I switched to Lloyds and the transaction went straight through.

• Darren says:

  15 Mar15 March 18:56

  O/T,
  I’m looking ot boost my avios balance by a significant amount, 300,000ish as I seem to always earn and burn and leave myself with too small a balance.

  There was a discussion last month about the merits, or otherwise, of this when BA had a bonus offer on of £3k for 300k avios. I was wondering whether to wait for the next BA offer or go via another route (maybe groupon). Is it possible to build that amount instantly with avios purchase other than BA?

  • Shoestring says:

    15 Mar15 March 19:20

    yes – Iberia!

    dates of bonus Avios promos don’t mirror BA’s

    and IB was slightly cheaper last time

    • Darren says:

      15 Mar15 March 21:07

      Thanks Harry

  • BJ says:

    15 Mar15 March 19:40

    IMO earn & burn is the optimum strategy as avios are an inflexible currency and subject to devaluation, which many think may not be far off. If you are going to buy avios at about 1.1p each in a sale you need to exercise caution to ensure that you will get value in return. Given the tax and fees on longhaul this can often be difficult unless you value flexibility, redeem in First, at peak season, in conjunction with a 241 and/or in cerain markets where excelkent cash deals ard as rare as hen’s teeth. Absent those circumstances, a better steategy would be to buy great value avios-earning revenue flights and rebuild your avios balance more gradually at much less than 1ppa. At the moment I’m using the Tesco mobile offer which is at the upper end of what I am prepared to pay per avios ever, most of those I havd collected cost much closer to 0ppa.

    • Darren says:

      15 Mar15 March 21:15

      I understand the need for caution, but my usage is always with a 241 and I’d prefer First when available as I don’t have status which makes seat selection a bit of a pain. I suppose Amex MR would be a safer bet for redemption options, is this possible as a cash purchase?

      The cushion of a larger balance would make this mad game a little easier.

      • BJ says:

        15 Mar15 March 22:18

        241, F and no status makes buying avios at 1.1ppa worthwhile. Consider SPG card as opposed to an MR card. However, next time the buy avios offer comes along you could self refer for platinum giving you 9k + 35k +300k avios plus hotel and car status, and tgen cancel the card.

      • BJ says:

        15 Mar15 March 22:25

        241, F and no status makes buying avios at 1.1ppa worthwhile. Consider SPG card as opposed to an MR card. However, next time the buy avios offer comes along you could self refer for platinum giving you 9k + 35k +300k avios plus hotel and car status, and then cancel the card.

    • Shoestring says:

      15 Mar15 March 21:21

      Depends how much money you have tied up in Avios/ how much you paid for them/ how this relates to your other assets etc

      Plus how realistic you think it is that a destructive devaluation will come along.

      I guess we have close to 2 million Avios/ Virgin miles now. If somebody offered me £20K for them, I’d take it like a shot. But that offer’s not on the table. And I didn’t pay £20K – I guess at most we paid about £3K, so that’s what I stand to lose in a 100% wipe-out. 100% wipe-out is not too likely, more like 10% tops if a nasty devaluation comes along, so £300 downside. Plus a few travelling dreams shattered!

      My view is that you need a not too hot, not too cold solution on the size of your points stash. If you earn & burn constantly, you’re not too likely to ever get your stash big enough to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. So a quick 300K stash generated as Darren is contemplating is not madness but just a pragmatic way to generate an overnight stash that could save you twice as much very easily, think 2-4-1s etc.

      • BJ says:

        15 Mar15 March 22:28

        In the right hands that would be a steal so you may get some offers…400 cases of cheap but drinkable… 🙂

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