Last chance to book Flybe flights with Avios points and to save your Flybe Avios account

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• BrianN says:

  28 Apr28 April 04:21

  Is there any word yet on when you may be able to redeem virgin miles on flybe? Would be great to have a same booking connection from regional airlines to Virgin Atlantic long haul. Thanks

  • Graeme says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:48

    I’d like to know this too. Only way I’ll be using VS if they start a RFS type scheme coming from ABZ.

    • BrianN says:

      29 Apr29 April 00:50

      Main reason I haven’t got the Virgin credit card yet is because I can’t be bothered changing flights in London after flying from GLA/EDI. Thus BA remains first choice as more convenient. If Virgin had miles connections with luggage straight through then I’d definitely choose them.

• Ben says:

  28 Apr28 April 05:33

  There used to be a lot of Flybe redemptions available from East Midlands. But they all disappeared last month. So …

• Andrew says:

  28 Apr28 April 06:59

  Any news on the next quarter “Accelerate” promotion for IHG?

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:26

    No. Looks like there may be a gap.

    • Lady London says:

      28 Apr28 April 12:38

      S*** law there will be a gap because right after the current promotion ends, looks like where I’m going the only available hotel in the place I have to stay some nights is an IHG…They’re going na na na naaaaaa at me for completely ignoring their last two Accelerate promotions. (or whatever they’re calling the weak replacement now).

• Shoestring says:

  28 Apr28 April 07:37

  O/T Orbis Investments update: still no sign of the matched £100 offer which Orbis usually offer at least once a year to recruit new users to its ISAs. There’s plenty of time yet. (This is the offer where you invest min £100 and Orbis match it with a free £100, which you get to keep if you stay with them for 12 months.)

  Obvs that’s miles better than LY’s Virgin ISA offer, which has not yet been repeated this year in its attractive (low cost monthly contribution) format. Whilst it’s a on-off offer with both Orbis and Virgin, I’m looking to invest for my 3 kids but will hold out for a better ISA offer. I think Orbis will come up trumps pretty soon – and Virgin will be disappointed enough by the poor response to minimum £8000 investment that they’ll bring back min 6x monthly contributions, maybe £200/ month this year, later in 2019.

  My wife and I have now cashed out of Orbis with real terms almost exactly 20% y-o-y increase on our £100 ISA investments, better than Orbis themselves achieved thanks to some market timing (sitting out some bad months in uninvested funds). Or £120 profit each on £100 stake with the matched £100 = 12,000 free Avios or Virgin miles if you choose to compare to (say) Virgin’s ISA offer LY.

  What do I think of Orbis? A very smooth and professional set-up, where I will be likely to invest a proper chunk of ISA money later this year. Easy internet interface. Innovative and very fair fee structure (read more on their site https://www.orbis.com/uk/individual/home ). Choice of only 2 funds. Check their performance there vs peer indices – Orbis had a pretty bad year LY so you should also look at 10 year performance.

  If Virgin come up with a repeat of the 6 monthly contribution ISA Virgin miles offer first, I guess I’d go for that x3 for my kids.

  • Shoestring says:

    28 Apr28 April 07:40

    Sell in May, buy again St Leger’s Day – didn’t really guide my thinking in cashing out – could be about right though in terms of a market correction given oil concerns. Personally we were just taking profits on a small ‘hobby punt’.

    • John says:

      28 Apr28 April 08:16

      I bought 100K of Vangaurd LS100 last March, timed the market correctly to sit out October to December so now on 125K. All in ISAs, not wasting my ISA allowance to make £20 plus a few measly miles. Will I get it the timing right for the next trough, who knows.

      • Shoestring says:

        28 Apr28 April 08:30

        We’re old enough for the guaranteed instant +25+% profit on pension contributions to be more attractive than ISAs, given the new pension rules on access. You invest £32K (or less if higher rate taxpayer), immediately gets converted to £40K by HMG. Plus the pension funds did OK LY as well.

        But this year looking to proper investment in ISAs as well. Couldn’t afford to do both LY. I’ll take a look at Vangaurd LS100.

      • Alex W says:

        28 Apr28 April 08:31

        Great work. What I want to know is why these banker types don’t pull the money in and out for you. Why do I pay them a fee if they just let your money sit there when the market is clearly going down.

        • Rob says:

          28 Apr28 April 11:22

          De facto, if it was that easy you would have a Warren Buffet level of wealth by now.

      • Shoestring says:

        28 Apr28 April 08:33

        Often because their constitution requires them to stay (say) 95% fully invested.

      • Shoestring says:

        28 Apr28 April 09:08

        Just correcting myself: actually higher rate taxpayers also need to invest £32K to max out on £40K pension contribution – they claim back the extra tax through self assessment.

      • Genghis says:

        28 Apr28 April 09:13

        HRTPs don’t need to claim through SA if otherwise don’t complete SA
        https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-your-private-pension/pension-tax-relief

      • Shoestring says:

        28 Apr28 April 09:18

        @Genghis – doesn’t apply unless you contribute everything through employer pension scheme. My wife has 2 different schemes going and contributes most to the second (non-employer) scheme, so obvs the employer knows nothing about that.

      • Genghis says:

        28 Apr28 April 09:25

        @Shoestring your wife still needs to claim the relief for her private pension if HRTP+. Point being that if she’s HRTP (not ARTP) and doesn’t otherwise complete SA, this doesn’t have to be done through SA.

  • Alex W says:

    28 Apr28 April 08:29

    Shame about Orbis. I really need to invest about 50k soon and can’t wait much longer.

    In terms of kids, I might do a Junior ISA for one year i.e. £4k. Orbis doesn’t charge any fee for the first year of a Junior ISA which I guess is worth about £40? I don’t want any more than £4k in a junior ISA though as I want some say over what he spends it on!

    Last year did a Scottish friendly young saver plan. I think the interest is pants but got decent cash back offer. I think you need to leave the money in 5 years otherwise there is a withdrawal fee.

    • Shoestring says:

      28 Apr28 April 08:32

      Patience. Orbis have run the promo several years in the recent past, not necessarily just in April.

    • Genghis says:

      28 Apr28 April 08:47

      I opened a vanguard JISA and invested similarly to how I do (just no ETFs).

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      28 Apr28 April 09:03

      With 50k to invest you+partner can max isa allowance with a bit left over for jISAs or whatever. In this scenario points/miles/rewards shouldn’t even come into it. A good self select ISA with low dealing and admin costs and ultra low cost ETFs will serve you well over the long term. The difference in returns AFTER fees will be £1000s better over a few years vs a product with average charges. Puts a few Avios into context…

      • Genghis says:

        28 Apr28 April 09:08

        +1

      • Genghis says:

        28 Apr28 April 09:10

        Read Smarter Investing by Tim Hale

  • Waddle says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:59

    Thanks for this info. I’ve been looking closely at Orbis for a while as I have £15k left of my allowance this year to use. Thinking about maybe investing £10k. Would HfP readers say Orbis is the right route as a S&S first-timer?

    • Shoestring says:

      28 Apr28 April 10:27

      There’s no ‘right route’ and nobody here is qualified to give you advice, well that’s not true, there are plenty here qualified but you have not engaged them as your IFA 🙂

      All depends on you, your age, your investing outlook and investment timeframe.

      But yes – for a (say) 5+ year investment, I’d say either of the 2 Orbis funds are pretty good – pull up their performance on the link I gave above.

      And very fair on the fee structure, where you only pay for out-performance – not many funds can say that.

• Peter K says:

  28 Apr28 April 08:16

  OT
  It may have been covered on here already (I searched but didn’t find it) but American Express has bought loungebuddy. Might this end the priority pass problems if they offer their own lounge access card?

  • Genghis says:

    28 Apr28 April 08:45

    Loungebuddy the lounge database co? They do not offer their own access cards?

    • Peter K says:

      28 Apr28 April 09:06

      You can buy lounge access on the site so an access card is only one step away from that.

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:24

    They’re not. LB will be an extra service for Amex cardholders and will only accept Amex cards going forward.

• Tom1 says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:06

  Reference point.. booked open jaw lhr-bkk/sin-lhr using avios and Lloyds upgrade voucher.
  84,500 avios and Taxes and fees were £597!! Or if I wanted to add Manchester on to the start and end, £680. As everyone keeps saying.. the fees are killing the Avios/Lloyds value.

  My search now begins for a good ex-EU offer.

  My only hope… Could BKK be one of the first a350 destinations with club suite? Don’t think there is first class is there?

  • Anna says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:12

    It’s been that way since last year, sadly! I would highly recommend adding the MAN leg on when you book, you only pay the associated RFS fee (no avios). If you book connecting flights separately at a later date, you can end up paying over £300 return and you won’t be able to check your luggage all the way through.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:05

    Isn’t Bangkok in a more expensive zone than some handily close by other destinations? Why not see if you can get a cheaper Avios/taxes fare, perhaps not on BA, and then take one of the cheapie cash fares within Asia to finally get to Bangkok?

    • tom1 says:

      28 Apr28 April 14:06

      I think actually BKK and HKG are the cheaper ones (in terms of Avios) compared to KUL and SIN.
      Using Lloyds U/g, so paying WTP rates, it is either 39,000 for BKK/HKG or 44,500 for KUL or SIN.

      My last trip was to KUL and return from HKG – I thought I could get them to price the taxes as 2x one ways to get the cheaper taxes out of HKG, but they wouldn’t do it.

      Unless I am missing some other destinations?

• SM says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:17

  O/T – I am planning to cancel my VA Reward + CC, I have hit the spend threshold for upgrade voucher, I am guessing the annual fees would be refunded pro rata, any idea what would happen to the upgrade voucher? Would that remain in my VA miles account and is there an expiry date for the voucher? Thanks.

  • Peter K says:

    28 Apr28 April 09:24

    No guarantee of a pro-rata refund of the yearly fee. Some apparently have had it, others not.

    • Rob says:

      28 Apr28 April 11:19

      My wife did NOT get it. Others have.

      • SM says:

        28 Apr28 April 20:04

        Thanks Peter and Rob, any idea what happens to the upgrade voucher however?

        • Rob says:

          28 Apr28 April 20:05

          My wife’s still seems to be there.

• Trevor says:

  28 Apr28 April 09:41

  Have Amex plat

  Does the insurance cover a GP visit when abroad ?
  I estimate cost would be around 70 euros.

  Is there any excess on this policy?

  Reply

  • Js says:

    28 Apr28 April 10:38

    Yes. Immediate necessary treatment or emergency treatment only. Also covers prescription/pharmacy fees. Excess £50.
    May need a GP letter to prove you didn’t have the ailment in the last 2 years (which can cost £30 to get, basically adding to the excess).

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 11:18

    It does BUT in theory you need to ring Amex and use a GP on their list. In my experience this is not enforced.

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