Etihad goes to FIVE flights per day from London Heathrow

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• Bagoly says:

  2 May2 May 06:37

  Flying airports – has a cousin of Lady London’s spellchecker taken over Rob’s keyboard?!

• Shoestring says:

  2 May2 May 07:52

  Anybody trying the £25 off £40 on Amazon today? It was working last night – also works on *brand new* Amazon a/cs, eg now is the time to sign up all your kids and any other hangers-on (miaaow!) to use AMEX25OFF. No age limit on Amazon members and it doesn’t seem to have a rule about homo sapiens only.

  • Doug M says:

    2 May2 May 08:56

    Worked two minutes ago on an existing account for L’OR coffee capsules. My own version of cat food. NIce one.

  • BJ says:

    2 May2 May 08:59

    OT @Harry: that 3x £10 thingy you gave me about a week ago and told me to be careful, I carefully chose number 12 and guess what… 🙂

    • Shoestring says:

      2 May2 May 10:43

      Good to hear 🙂

      • BJ says:

        2 May2 May 11:26

        …I lost!

      • Shoestring says:

        2 May2 May 11:54

        Got mine for better than free (they paid me to take the points away) because there was an extra £2.50 bonus going. Could only use twice, as used previously. 7550 Avios for free.

      • BJ says:

        2 May2 May 12:14

        Cool, with the price already low I couldn”t resist the temptation of a potential £350.

      • Shoestring says:

        2 May2 May 12:19

        That’s a decent haul of points

• Russ says:

  2 May2 May 09:10

  The Radisson news is very interesting. At first sweep, top tier in J-Club seems on par with Marriott platinum and it’s an Amex partner. Probably going to be a devaluation of the 1:3 amex transfer ratio but if J-club stays as it is you’re getting breakfast, late check out till 4.00 plus 20% off meals. Decent trade off.

• Sarah says:

  2 May2 May 09:19

  Seems crazy to be adding extra flights to the Middle East in the summer.

  • Bagoly says:

    2 May2 May 09:24

    Not everyone lives in London!

    I agree that there is not much demand for London to Middle East when it is very hot.
    But the same flights service:
    – London to Asia via Middle East.
    – Asia to London via Middle East.
    – Middle East to London

  • Rob says:

    2 May2 May 10:14

    They are slot sitting. Heathrow has a rule that if you don’t fly 80% of your allocated slots per ‘season’ you lose them. As the record price for a Heathrow slot is $75m (paid by Oman Air in 2016) this is a very expensive thing to lose unnecessarily.

    You also – and I didn’t know this until last week – have to fly them to a place you register. Etihad can’t just lease a tiny propeller jet, fly it to Norwich for the day and then fly it back later to retain the slot.

    Here is another interesting Etihad fact. A380 aircraft have little cargo capacity. Etihad flies cargo planes into East Midlands Airport and ships – by road – most of its cargo from Heathrow to East Midlands, because there is no space. The 787s have a lot more cargo space.

    Worth noting that Dubai hotels are running at about 80% occupancy in the Summer now. They are very good value – for a fraction of what you pay in Spain in August you can stay in a far, far more luxurious property. You can’t go outside between 10am and 3pm, but a lot of people are willing to make that trade off.

    • Russ says:

      2 May2 May 10:28

      Yep and Marriott are currently running a three nights for the price of two up until December – I think -in the middle east. Cheap points especially with double point’s offer currently running. Middle east executive lounges are very good and put UK one’s to shame.

    • Anna says:

      2 May2 May 10:53

      Ditto the Caribbean, and you CAN go outside during the day, in fact (despite the rampant humidity), temperatures hover around 30 C which can often be lower than in the Med.

    • Mark says:

      2 May2 May 12:29

      Didn’t BMI have some empty slot sitting flights to Cardiff operated by BMI regional?

• DavidK says:

  2 May2 May 09:21

  Am I being silly or does the article not state the destination of these additional services. Are they just do etihads Abu Dhabi base?

  • Bagoly says:

    2 May2 May 09:27

    Etihad has only one hub so “everyone” reads AUH (Abu Dhabi) without it being stated.

    • DavidK says:

      3 May3 May 19:06

      Indeed! Obvious now I think about it.

• Ant says:

  2 May2 May 10:26

  OT: just wanted to say thanks to Rob for our current trip
  Flights into Singapore and out of KL using 241.
  2 nights in Marina Bay Sands – only hotel paid for. Worth the money.
  2 nights at IC Middle Street
  3 nights at Hilton Kuching – status match to diamond.
  3 nights Penang Holiday inn – used Iberia points from offer in Sept
  3 nights at Ritz Langkawi – amazing hotel. Absolutely love this one. Pool is amazing. Gold member from Amex Platinum. Got upgraded to a suite – the size of our apartment in London plus terrace!
  3 nights Hilton Doubletree KL.

  • Genghis says:

    2 May2 May 10:39

    What were your thoughts on IC Middle St? We really liked it but I know others aren’t so keen.

    • Ant says:

      2 May2 May 11:13

      We liked it though we were out most of the time. The room was perfect for us, good size and spotless. The location was also ideal. Walked to most places and close to The Long Bar and Atlas Bar. Staff were also really nice and always with a smile.

  • Pangolin says:

    2 May2 May 12:08

    You got a suite upgrade at an R-C with Marriott (Bonvoy) Gold? Wonders never cease. Normally you’d need to be Titanium (2 levels above Gold) to have any chance of a suite upgrade in their properties.

  • Crafty says:

    3 May3 May 23:04

    Lucky you with a suite upgrade at RC Langkawi. Beautiful hotel. We looked longingly at the beachside villas each day…

• MAY L LIM says:

  2 May2 May 10:36

  Malaysia Airlines:
  Please be aware that MH has changed its pricing tiers to different check in luggage allowances. Effective 8 April 2019. Now the starting luggage allowance for international with the cheapest price point is 20kg, going up over 4 bands ending with 35kg. Be aware that the cheapest fare for domestic has no luggage allowance. Watch up when flying in from international then to domestic, & vice versa.
  Business class at whatever price band is 40kg. While business suites is 50kg.
  Most expensive economy may be more expensive than cheapest economy &/or additional luggage.

• Vanessa says:

  2 May2 May 11:48

  Malaysian airlines, at GBP2699 to south east asia (business), not exactly a sale price ?

  • BJ says:

    2 May2 May 13:54

    No, not difficult to get one stop flights to most Asian destinations for around £1700 routinely, and much less in genuine sales.

  • Jon says:

    4 May4 May 02:20

    Bangkok’s £2249 (almost always cheaper to go on somewhere in the region than just to KL), but agreed, not exactly headline-grabbing fares.

    That said, I was happy to get Hong Kong – London return, with stopovers in KL both ways, for HK$19167 (approx £1875).

    You can almost always get cheaper if you re happy to do two 7-hour legs with a Middle East transit. Personally I prefer a single 12/13 hour direct sector so I can get some proper sleep, but each to their own 🙂

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