Get tickets for the Goodwood Festival of Speed with your Hilton Honors hotel points

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• meta says:

  10 Jun10 June 15:40

  O/T Couldn’t find an answer elsewhere. Just received an email from Iberia about an upcoming flight from Madrid to New York which states that I should arrive 4 hours before the flight due to new US requirements (in place since April 2018). Anyone knows if this really necessary? I am specifically asking about Iberia. Never had this kind of wording when flying from London.

  • Anna says:

    10 Jun10 June 16:14

    What requirements? I would ask for documentary evidence as I don’t know why Spain would require this and nowhere else, otherwise Iberia might be using this as an excuse to wriggle out of their obligations if passengers aren’t processed swiftly enough.

    • meta says:

      10 Jun10 June 17:15

      They are citing security measures. This is directly from the email. “New US entry requirements from 24 April 2018. In view of the security measures now demanded by the USA, you must arrive at the airport four hours before the departure of your flight to allow enough time to go through the security controls and reach the boarding gate.”

      I don’t usually arrive that early at the airport, so it seems totally unnecessary. I am sure it won’t take 4 hours to clear security and immigration. But then again don’t want to miss the flight due to this. Iberia website has the same wording beneath the check in deadlines. But I am more interested in actual experience as this seems really extreme.

      • Anna says:

        10 Jun10 June 18:29

        I would wasn’t to see the actual US policy on that. I have entered the US 3 times since April 2018 (admittedly not via Madrid) were the security checks any different for people going to the USA. Ditto on the way out.

        • Anna says:

          10 Jun10 June 18:30

          “I would want”

        • Anna says:

          10 Jun10 June 18:31

          Oh dear I have no typing skills today. The security checks were the same for everyone, regardless of where they were going!

        • Nonsense says:

          10 Jun10 June 18:36

          of course the security checks are the same – it’s just BS – ignore

  • Lumma says:

    10 Jun10 June 19:25

    At Madrid, the most severe check was someone examining my passport fully at the gate where the USA flights were departing from (he wasn’t very happy as the gold writing/image was virtually worn off my passport by this point), until this point nothing was any different than flying Spain to the UK so arriving earlier won’t make any difference as this was well after check-in and a couple of hours in the Iberia lounge

    • meta says:

      10 Jun10 June 19:43

      Thanks. I suspected it can’t be true just wanted to check.

  • LoopyLou says:

    10 Jun10 June 20:17

    Fairly new to this site and first posting. Latter half of last year and also last month we experienced extra security checks at lhr. These are at the gate before boarding in T5 and cause delays. I travelled with my daughter last year to JFK and she was pulled over for enhanced security at the gate both for out and return journeys. Last month we went to Boston from againT5 and she was pulled over at the gate. A code (SSS?) is printed on boarding pass and anyone with this is stopped for extra checks. On each occasion she has been on a separate booking to me. She seems to fit similar profile to others – young, travelling alone.

    • Shoestring says:

      10 Jun10 June 20:20

      means nothing, that’s a random extra check code

      • Anna says:

        11 Jun11 June 06:53

        +1 – my OH had extra checks going to IAD last year but it only took a few minutes and took place during general boarding so there would have been no reason to arrive at the airport any earlier. You may also know in advance about this as you may not be able to check in online if you’ve been selected.

• Russ says:

  10 Jun10 June 19:36

  Totally OT but travel related, my car’s just been written off and has a private number plate. Do I have to get the old plate back on it if I want to keep the personal plate?

  • Anna says:

    10 Jun10 June 19:56

    Yes you’ll need to swap it back (DVLA will advise what to do in the case of a write off) as the car will have a “scrapped” marker on it to prevent unscrupulous traders from patching it up and re-selling it.

    • Anna says:

      10 Jun10 June 19:59

      That wasn’t very clear, sorry! The two number plates will be linked to each other anyway, you need to advise the DVLA the car has been scrapped, and once you transfer the plate to a new car it won’t be linked to the old car any more.

      • Russ says:

        10 Jun10 June 20:22

        Thanks Anna. I wasn’t clear either as it’s a leased vehicle. It only happened today so I’m just letting interested parties know now and realized there’s a personal plate on it.

        • Anna says:

          10 Jun10 June 20:29

          Ah right. In that case the car will be registered to the lease company and it will be up to them to notify the DVLA. I don’t know how you go about registering a lease car on private plates, presumably the lease company advised you on that?

• tom1 says:

  10 Jun10 June 20:49

  I stayed at Hilton Sorrento a few weeks ago for 60,000 points per night (cash rates around 250-300eur per night)
  The room at the £29 Travelodge last week (normal room, not super, new hotel) was far better. Modern, clean, comfy bed, endless hot water, USB sockets by the bed. Admittedly no free breakfast or exec lounge, but that doesn’t bridge the gap!

  Needless to say I checked out of the Hilton early and went to a nearby HIE.

• Harry T says:

  10 Jun10 June 21:48

  OT:
  I’ve booked a trip to Florence/Firenze from 16th May to 23rd May 2020 (Avios flights booked from Edinburgh). Any recommendations for places to stay, especially places that are good value for points redemptions? And any recommendations for things to do are welcome too.

  I remember @Shoestring saying he lived there for a bit.

  • Shoestring says:

    10 Jun10 June 22:03

    I was a poor student!

    But things to do – David, the Duomo, the Uffizi etc – you can get a list online in a flash, I could get into the Uffizi for free so used to go daily just to look at one or two things.

    get yourselves up to Fiesole as well

    • Harry T says:

      10 Jun10 June 22:37

      Thank you so much. We are not wealthy, so the student perspective is a helpful one (my OH is a student at the moment). Looks like it will be hard to attain enough points for a weeks worth of hotels, so we may stay in Airbnb – any recommendations for the best area to stay for sightseeing?

      • Alex M says:

        10 Jun10 June 23:06

        I was going to advise airbnb – we stayed in a very lovely flat close to city centre but on other side of the river to save cost. Worked well for us.

      • Harry T says:

        10 Jun10 June 23:46

        Thanks, Alex. Do you remember which Airbnb it was or the area it was in? It’s my first time visiting Florence.

• Russell Gowers says:

  12 Jun12 June 11:57

  Dammit! I’ve just bought tickets to the FoS on Sunday – hadn’t realised there were points packages available.

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