Get a special British Airways gift if you have flown to the moon

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• Boi says:

  19 Apr19 April 08:39

  OT:
  which one would people recommend between the HSBC world elite and IHG platinum mastercard? The spend target is the same….
  I already have IHG platinum ambassodor

  • Waddle says:

    19 Apr19 April 08:57

    I don’t think the spend target is the same. IHG is £200 in 90 days for sign-up bonus and £10k for anniversary free night. HSBC WE is £2,000 in 90 days for sign-up bonus and £12k for anniversary bonus.

    I think at the end of the day it depends on which you value more – flights or hotel stays. AFAIK IHG points don’t transfer to airlines. HSBC points can be transferred into 4 airline partners but no hotels. HSBC WE is £96 more expensive per annum. Also if you don’t have lounge access in your cards portfolio then HSBC might be worth a look for the LoungeKey access.

    • Boi says:

      19 Apr19 April 09:23

      Thanks Waddle.
      The target I was referring to is the annual one. We wouldnt have any problems spending 2k….We tend to stay in hilton mostly and have over 500K HH points. was thinking could diversify.
      On the other hand airline miles now harder to earn. plus lounge access useful.

• Nick says:

  19 Apr19 April 08:53

  Going to Turkey this week. I will be asked to pay about 500 euros at the hotel for extra services purchased. How will this work? Will they do their own conversion to Lira and then I either pay in cash or with a card?

  What’s best card for this? I have Santander zero, curve revolut and starling.

  Do I insist making payment during the week rather than weekend?

  • Waddle says:

    19 Apr19 April 09:03

    There are several ways to approach this. You can use Curve linked to your MasterCard or Visa during the week. Use Starling to pay at the weekend (Starling uses fee-free MasterCard rate which is generally better at the weekends than Curve or Revolut due to the 0.5% weekend surcharge of the latter). Or if the rate is good, exchange in Revolut beforehand and pay whenever. Not sure about Santander Zero as I don’t have experience with it.

    All of this is dependent on paying in Lira. NEVER get the merchant to do the conversion.

    • Peter K says:

      19 Apr19 April 09:13

      I thought with curve and Revolut it was more than 0.5% markup at the weekend on less stable currencies, like the Lira.

      You could preload your revolut card during the week instead however and convert it to Lira. This is then set and no extra charges are made of using the balance at the weekend.

      • Lady London says:

        19 Apr19 April 11:23

        I was quoted and charged in Euro for most things I paid for with a card in Turkey. It’s almost like some other countries with niche or unstable currencies used to price everything the could in US dollars. Turkey seems to do the same with the Euro. Watch all charges and their currency carefully.

    • Nick says:

      19 Apr19 April 09:36

      Thank you both, however I am not sure how the hotel will convert the euro price into lira?

      As example, I am paying a quoted 100 Euro for transfers and about 450 Euro for other services. Therefore, it seems likely they will convert the Euro price into liras at whatever rate they choose.

      And then present the bill to me at checkout?

      • johnny_c-l says:

        19 Apr19 April 10:00

        Most places just convert to lira when you pay. I’ve yet to have been gouged by any hotel taking advantage of giving poor conversion rates so think you’ll be fine.

      • Waddle says:

        19 Apr19 April 10:09

        Maybe you could try asking them to charge you in Euro? If they insist on charging you Lira I guess the best you can do is to prevent them from doing another conversion into pounds.

• Alan says:

  19 Apr19 April 08:55

  Has been asked before and I believe it’s points.com? (so no good)

• Nick_C says:

  19 Apr19 April 09:14

  OT. Tesco Mobile (and sorry if this has been posted before but some previous comments were unclear to me).

  I have four Clubcards and one account, all in my name. I have now had 4*2000 CCPs, using each CC# once.

  • Nick says:

    19 Apr19 April 10:14

    You may be able to double up as I’ve had 2 X 2000 on one CC.

• Stu N says:

  19 Apr19 April 09:15

  OT – looks like a BA sale on the way, the European destinations I have been tracking on “low fare finder” are significantly cheaper today than they were earlier in the week. e.g. 2 days in Berlin was 345 now 238 and Helsinki 396 to 237.

  • Waddle says:

    19 Apr19 April 10:19

    Very possible. Last year’s sale was around this time in April.

  • Leo says:

    19 Apr19 April 12:20

    It will definitely be any second now as I just made a booking yesterday!

• Zoe says:

  19 Apr19 April 09:48

  OT I have forgotten to bookmark the link to upgrade the Amex Gold chargecard to Platinum. Not even sure if it still exists. I would be very grateful if someone could point me to it. Thanks.

  • Zoe says:

    19 Apr19 April 09:51

    Found it! I’ll report back if it’s still working.

    • Michael says:

      19 Apr19 April 14:45

      Worked for me the other day.

    • Shoestring says:

      19 Apr19 April 14:54

      Of course it’s still working – in my Offers & they also sent me an email invite

• paulm says:

  19 Apr19 April 10:00

  OT – Wonder if anyone can help on this. Looking at booking the Melia Sky Level in Barcelona (have just read the review on here). The Melia website states that Level rooms have free breakfast, but then looking at the rates they offer ‘room only’ and ‘bed and breakfast’ Do all rooms get breakfast regardless or is there some difference ? or is this Melia just trying to get people to pay more for the same thing!

  • Stu N says:

    19 Apr19 April 11:43

    I’ve not stayed in that hotel, but have stayed in a few Melias with Level lounges. The Level rooms have access to the Level lounge and there is a breakfast buffet in the lounge. It’s on a smaller scale than a main hotel buffet but we have never struggled with choice of food.

    If you pay for breakfast, I expect you can take breakfast in the main restaurant but I’d say it’s unnecessary. Hope this helps.

    • paulm says:

      19 Apr19 April 12:16

      Thank you and yes this helps. Will go with the room only option

• C F Frost says:

  19 Apr19 April 10:22

  OT and EU261. Advice sought. My wife and three year old arrive LHR this morning on a rerouted flight from Kuala Lumpur. Their original arrival time (before a flight was cancelled) was 0755. With the reroute their scheduled time is 1155. That’s 4h. But their flight seems to be making good time and will land before. Which is the critical figure: the scheduled arrival time or the actual arrival time?

  • Mike says:

    19 Apr19 April 10:36

    It’s always done on arrival time, not departure time.

    • C F Frost says:

      19 Apr19 April 10:58

      Thank you Mike. My point is to be distinguished from a delay claim when, with good reason, it is the disembarkation time that counts and this is clear enough in the guidance. In this case, the offered rerouting solution threw up an a scheduled arrival time of 4h after the original arrival time. Is it the offered scheduled arrival time that is critical here, rather than dissembarkation?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        19 Apr19 April 11:01

        It’s the time you disembark vs the original flights scheduled time of arrival. If it’s less than 4h then no compo unfortunately.

        The new flights scheduled time of arrival is irrelevant

  • TGLoyalty says:

    19 Apr19 April 10:37

    The time to doors open to allow you to disembark

    • Lady London says:

      19 Apr19 April 11:14

      Specifically, your arrival time is legally the exact time the doors open, regardless of any ‘welcome to London we have now arrived and the time is…’ announcements. Doors open does not count either, until stairs or a walkway into the terminal have been connected and are able to be used. That exact moment is your arrival time.

      • C F Frost says:

        19 Apr19 April 11:43

        Thank you both. LHR states flight has just landed: 1133. Not sure where there is a register of tunes of doors opening, but likely will be before 1155. In any case, my understanding is that in the case of alternative flight arrangements due to overbooking or cancellation, 50% awards are made for shorter excess periods:

        “If you are offered an alternative flight, the arrival time of which does not exceed the scheduled arrival time of the flight originally booked by more than 2 hours for flights of up to 1,500 km, or by more than 3 hours for flights between 1,500 and 3,500 km, or by more than 4 hours for all flights over 3,500 km, the compensation payment will only amount to 50% of the figures mentioned above, i.e. € 125, € 200 or € 300.”

        Thanks you for the wise words.

      • Evan says:

        19 Apr19 April 12:26

        Would they open the doors without stairs or air bridge??

      • Andrew says:

        19 Apr19 April 14:33

        When we arrived at a remote stand at LHR T5 a while back, they put the stairs on and opened the door. We then had to wait 20 minutes for a bus to turn up (and were not allowed to disembark until the bus arrived, of course).

      • Lady London says:

        19 Apr19 April 20:03

        Yes I’ve been on a lot of planes where the doors were open in front of me to leave from one of the front rows (so I could see thus goibgbon and it was clear crew were not letting anyone actually go through the door). Such as someone apparently still messing around trying to connect something, or obstruction on the air bridge needing to be cleared or something else in the way. This with the door open.

        If the airport ground staff are pfaffing around trying to roll a staircase up to the plane etc. or if there is a wait for ground staff to arrive to connect the walkway because the flight is early or very very late especially at a late hour, normally the door won’t be open. So watch and observe and lokk at your watch as the first person is allowed to go through the door and that’s your arrival time.

        PS on a multiflught journey the time that matters about you being late for eu261 is your time of arrival at your final destination on whichever leg (out or back).

  • marcw says:

    19 Apr19 April 17:19

    Remember that in this case EU261 only applies on EU airlines. If your flight has been cancelled and you were rebooked and arrived only with a silght delay you are entitled 50% compo. But important, since you are departing from an airport outside the EU, EC261 only applied to EU airlines.

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