The InterContinental Maldives hotel resort is opening soon

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• Ben says:

  3 Jun3 June 10:36

  OT If I want to book at Gold Priority Reward, is it only the Gold card holder or can I also book it for my Mrs (she is only blue)

  • Rob says:

    3 Jun3 June 10:55

    You can book for anyone, and you do not need to travel.

• Graham Walsh says:

  3 Jun3 June 11:17

  OT flying from T3 later with BA and am Silver but in cattle. Can I use any of the oneworld lounges or will I need to use the trusty old No.1 lounge with my PP?

  • Ben says:

    3 Jun3 June 11:27

    You can use any of the OneWorld Lounges. Enjoy

  • Lady London says:

    3 Jun3 June 11:31

    You can use the Oneworld lounges as Silver including those which are not BA lounges.

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    3 Jun3 June 11:31

    As Silver you can use any of the lounges….my preference is the Cathay lounge

    • Graham Walsh says:

      3 Jun3 June 12:58

      Thanks all. Nice to try out something different.

    • Graham Walsh says:

      3 Jun3 June 14:11

      Nice and quiet in Cathay. Great Chicken Wings and champers wasn’t bad either.

• rams1981 says:

  3 Jun3 June 11:27

  OT Lloyds upgrade voucher. Do you still need to have the card to use the voucher? I assume not

  • Simon says:

    3 Jun3 June 11:53

    nope, that’s never been a condition.

    • rams1981 says:

      3 Jun3 June 12:07

      thanks Simon

• Boi says:

  3 Jun3 June 12:14

  OT:
  I have a cousin visiting and is considering renting a car from London to Leeds for the weekend. Best place to rent? He’s in London city centre …..
  Also are the small companies any good? I see their prices very cheap…. he’s just looking to get from A to B as train fares high for booking late.

  • The Lord says:

    3 Jun3 June 12:56

    Europcar £1 one ways do not seem to be working at the moment. Site just gives an error message. After a bit of looking around Thrifty seem to have good one way rates. Have a booking for end of month but no experience with them before.

  • Lady London says:

    3 Jun3 June 13:33

    The one ways with all companies would work TO an airport particularly London ones. Less likely to be any offer FROM London one way. If you are not able to do something creative with train to get decent pricing then could you consider bus? Direct, national express may be expensive but a bit of googling may well still yield a channel to a bus ticket that could be quite cheap. Seeing lots of megabus for next week 5-8pds but i wouldnt hang around booking and there are other bus channels too.

  • Rob says:

    3 Jun3 June 13:50

    I would look for a depot near the bottom of the M1. Given his travel times, getting from Central London to the motorway could easily take as long as getting up the motorway itself. Take a train to the pick-up point.

    One option, oddly, would be Luton Airport Parkway via train. Cuts out all the grief and means a fairly short drive.

  • Charlieface says:

    3 Jun3 June 15:50

    Europcar £1 deals are good but I don’t think they’ve been working for a while, there’s also Hertz who do the same.
    Hertz and Enterprise have fairly low one-way charges.

• Anna says:

  3 Jun3 June 12:42

  I’ve just emailed BA with my EU261 claim for my delayed arrival yesterday on the basis that:
  The on board air conditioning system was broken.
  The aircraft left LHR for JFK earlier that day and the captain and crew were fully aware that the system was broken at the time of departure but were relying on the ground cooling system at JFK being available to cool the aircraft interior on arrival.
  The ground cooling system at the gate at JFK was also not working, which meant it took an extra 2 hours to cool the cabin to an acceptable level to allow boarding.
  The delayed arrival of this flight at LHR caused me to miss my connection to MAN. The replacement flight (also delayed!) landed at MAN 5 hours after my original scheduled arrival time.
  Therefore I should be eligible for compensation under EU261/2004.
  Let’s see what response I get…

  • Catalan says:

    3 Jun3 June 12:53

    I’m sure under those circumstances they’ll pay up without messing you around.

  • Lady London says:

    3 Jun3 June 13:35

    Good one.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    3 Jun3 June 15:05

    I think I might be on the same aircraft. Flying to Denver on a 747 from T3. Already delayed. Boiling in here and captain has just mention about needing the engines to come on to cool down the cabin. Sitting at the back today 🙁

    • Anna says:

      3 Jun3 June 15:50

      I’m no aviation expert but it’s slightly worrying when they are flying aircraft with known technical issues! Let’s see if they suddenly decide it’s fit to take off as the 3 hour deadline looms like they did with us. Obviously a large number of pax were only travelling to LHR and therefore were only delayed by 2 hours.

      • Russ says:

        3 Jun3 June 17:42

        Would you drive a car if one of the brake lights didn’t work? Same thing just people are more fearful of aircraft issues.

        • Anna says:

          3 Jun3 June 19:51

          No, it’s an offence unless you are en route to get it fixed!

      • Reggie R says:

        3 Jun3 June 18:25

        Please be assured that there is no way that BA or any other reputable airline would risk your safety. Each aircraft has a Minimum Equipment List which details the equipment that must be fully operational for the aircraft to fly. Good luck with your claim – I regularly fly out of MAN so will follow your progress with interest!

        • Fc99 says:

          3 Jun3 June 20:16

          Didn’t some American Airlines continue to use the Boeing 737 max even after it became clear there were safety issues?

        • Rob says:

          3 Jun3 June 22:02

          The FAA refused to ban it until the rest of the world had banned it.

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Jun3 June 21:04

          only for a few days, at that time it was just presumption of risk

• Russ says:

  3 Jun3 June 13:10

  Transfer prices to the Maldives are just ridiculous. They must be laughing all the way to the bank after they’ve dropped people off at those over water B&Q sheds. Just charter a yacht for two weeks.

  • Don says:

    3 Jun3 June 13:48

    Well they have to make up those redemption reimbursements somehow! Oh, apart from the F&B, spa, excursions, gift shops…

    • Russ says:

      3 Jun3 June 14:12

      ….compulsory celebratory dinners no one else has ever heard of, 20% gratuity if you are grateful or not…

  • Anna says:

    3 Jun3 June 15:56

    I agree! It’s nearly 20 years since we went but I’m sure the seaplane transfer was about £100 pp (and we got it as a 2 for 1 offer which was even better). If we go again I’ll be sure to pick an island a reasonable boat ride away. Although I do think it’s become overpriced in general as a destination because it’s so desirable these days. The Hilton resorts in Seychelles look highly affordable by comparison!

    • Cat says:

      3 Jun3 June 16:58

      The Seychelles is completely affordable, but I wouldn’t go to the Hilton resorts! Praslin and La Digue are gloriously beautiful, and there aren’t many big name resorts on either island – you’re far better off finding a family run hotel on hotels.com – it’ll cost you a fraction of the price, especially if you find one with a small kitchen, so you can self cater from time to time. Also, getting to and from Praslin or La Digue will cost a tenth of what it costs in the Maldives!

      • meta says:

        3 Jun3 June 19:51

        True, but reality on Seychelles is that if you self-cater you will spend maybe 10-20% less than eating out and the choice in supermarkets is limited. Seychelles is by no means a cheap destination. Cheaper than Maldives, yes. Both are overpriced for what they offer. I actually prefer Mauritius in that part of the world. But that’s me. Some of my work colleagues can’t stop raving about Seychelles.

        • Tilly says:

          3 Jun3 June 21:56

          I haven’t been to Maldives but I do absolutely love the Seychelles. It’s different to Mauritius. We enjoyed both equally for different reasons. Stayed at the Hilton Labriz on Silhouette Island and found the resort just beautiful. Couldn’t fault it and we were there a week and a half. Each to their own but personally I would recommend both Seychelles Hilton Labriz resort and Mauritius (we stayed at Long Beach). Mauritius is more affordable though.
          Would love to visit The Maldives one day………when we have the funds.

        • Cat says:

          4 Jun4 June 06:45

          Meta – it depends what you’re cooking, I was happy cooking basic pasta or Asian noodles one night, which costs next to nothing, and then eating a feast at the likes of the Bellevue every other evening (where the food and the view are both incredible). The main reason for that was that I spend 30 days in the Seychelles last summer, and eating out every night would have added up to quite a lot of money – I kept it cheap by cooking student food for myself every other night! If you’re cooking properly, I imagine it’s much more!
          I haven’t made it to Mauritius yet, but it’s on the list (when I do, I’m planning a side trip hiking in Reunion too!). I keep being sidetracked by The Seychelles though!

      • Anna says:

        3 Jun3 June 19:55

        Thanks – I will definitely look at that! Maybe 5 nights in one of those and 5 on Hilton points?!

        • Jtz says:

          3 Jun3 June 22:35

          We just booked rangali Maldives for 5 nights, yep the transfers are eyewateringly expensive!
          We are hoping to see some local islands too before rangali so that should bear the sting a bit.

          Coming back to LON on krisflyer miles.

• r* says:

  3 Jun3 June 13:39

  Currently having issues with Virgin credit cards.. gf got a card, set up direct debit. Now the direct debit details have vanished and they are saying there was never any direct debit set up (there was, it had been checked on the acct a couple of weeks ago to make sure it would pay the full amount) is there much that can be done should they charge interest?

  • Rob says:

    3 Jun3 June 13:47

    They have had quite a few issues with their DDs – I think you’d accept what you say if there was any charge.

    • Jonathan says:

      3 Jun3 June 21:55

      I got them to accept what I said, and had the £9 late payment fee refunded. And refunded a second time for some strange reason. Happy days I was £9 up. But then they charged me £54 interest and refused to refund it. A manager refused to speak to me and passed a message through the CSR that it was justified so I paid it there and then and cancelled the dark and told them to poke it.

      • Shoestring says:

        3 Jun3 June 22:00

        you could have controlled that temper as Virgin has admitted they messed up on the DDs so you could have done better on the money front – up to you

        • r* says:

          4 Jun4 June 14:50

          What are the wider issues that Virgin have been having with DDs? I suspect that its going to be a battle as the Cs agent was arguementative.

        • Shoestring says:

          4 Jun4 June 15:00

          this started it, then a couple of weeks later Virgin backed down
          https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cardsloans/article-6652443/Virgin-Money-credit-card-customers-hit-charges-thanks-minimum-payment-default.html

        • Shoestring says:

          4 Jun4 June 15:01

          https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cardsloans/article-6768365/Virgin-Money-customers-hit-credit-card-charges-refunded.html

• Tom says:

  3 Jun3 June 13:42

  OT: I am Gold with Virgin Atlantic. Do I have to be flying to get the 10% off with Virgin Holidays?

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