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

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• filipino_chino says:

  10 Jun10 June 07:27

  I know i might not be in the same league as everyone in this group, but i use Travelodge frequently and the new version is not bad at all… They are fine if your travelling and just need to rest your head, but not to use as a base for exploring.

  TBH i only use them for an over night before a flight…. such as a cheap flight from Liverpool to Ibiza, which the flight timings are not great, when we travel from York/Harrogate a £24 room for 3 people (family room), you cannot go wrong….

  • Anna says:

    10 Jun10 June 07:43

    Totally agree, we used to use Travelodge regularly before starting to collect Hilton and Marriott points. When we’ve more flexibility to travel again we’ll definitely start using them again. Great family rooms and where they have an on-site restaurant the breakfasts were decent as well.

    • David says:

      10 Jun10 June 08:54

      No “points” anywhere for the Travelodge though, which arguably makes it out-of-scope for this site.

      • Rob says:

        10 Jun10 June 09:45

        True – actually, the reason it spiked my interest is that I booked one for Anika last week to cover a HFP meeting she is doing (at £150, shockingly, and this was a standard Travelodge – you don’t want to know what other hotels were charging) so they were on my mind!

      • Anna says:

        10 Jun10 June 10:18

        They take Amex, though, so potentially can help with a sign up bonus or 2 4 1 target spend!

• John says:

  10 Jun10 June 08:06

  Presumably more avios earning opportunities, as Stobart, Virgin, IAG shuffle their portfolios.

  Chances of aerclub crediting the points without tremendous hassle, not high though.

  https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/loganair-in-discussion-to-agree-codeshare-with-aer-lingus-1.3919940?mode=amp

  • Rob says:

    10 Jun10 June 08:27

    Interesting if these are bookable without a connecting Aer Lingus flight, but I would guess not.

• Simon says:

  10 Jun10 June 10:13

  Horrible experience with Travelodge and avoid them like the plague unless they are the only option.

  • David says:

    10 Jun10 June 10:32

    A Monday morning brainteaser: would you rather sleep in a tent in a car park or get the plague?

    I think I’d opt for camping, tbh…

    • Dimitri says:

      10 Jun10 June 19:39

      I would rather sleep like a homeless on the street than stay at a travelodge or rather not travel at all if there is no other option.

      There are so many other good budget options around like Holiday Inn Express or Premmier Inn, which is beyond my comprehension why would anyone ever stay at a travelodge.

      • Rob says:

        10 Jun10 June 22:29

        The new PLUS in the City is decent.

• Nick_C says:

  10 Jun10 June 10:27

  My one and only experience with Travelodge was at LCY last month. £90 for a “super room” when The Moxy and everything else nearby was £170 (there was something on at the Excel). It was absolutely fine and I would certainly stay there again if the price was right. And until the Marriott Courtyard opens, it’s the closest major hotel to LCY.

• SimonW says:

  10 Jun10 June 11:11

  O/T – Have had to bite the bullet and book Economy seats to Dubai next Feb Half term for the family. Trying to pre-book bulkhead seats, but they are all greyed out – assuming bassinet etc held back… Is there anyway to get these opened up now? 2 adults and 2 kids if that makes a difference.

  • Anna says:

    10 Jun10 June 11:23

    I feel your pain…! We are flying back from GCM in Y next Easter but did manage to get 3 bulkhead seats as booked at T-355 (better value than WTP IMO). Have all the other options gone? On our flight there were 2 sets of bulkhead seats, only one row had a bassinet. To my knowledge these are reserved for anyone with a baby until a few days before the flight. How old are the kids? Could you reserve 2 exit row seats and put the children in the row behind?

    An option I used one year before my son was old enough to have an exit row seat was to put my OH and me in the exit row middle and aisle, and put my son (who was 11 1/2 and fine) across the aisle in the middle of the plane. On our plane this was NOT the bulkhead row, it was the row behind but because of the plane layout this row was flush with the exit row. It’s worth checking seat guru to see if this option would be available to you as I think their diagrams are more realistic than BA’s. Good luck!

    • Jonathan says:

      10 Jun10 June 11:28

      You won’t (or shouldn’t as the block seems to be missed sometimes) be allowed to sit parents in exit row & child elsewhere as in an emergency they want you focusing on operating door not trying to locate/help child elsewhere.

      • Anna says:

        10 Jun10 June 11:36

        Clearly that’s not the case as my son sat across the aisle from us on our flight. Obviously he was only inches away from us but he was not in the exit row with us. Also BA have been known to split children and parents up, which is woeful but clearly their current policy.

        • Jonathan says:

          10 Jun10 June 16:16

          That’s an IT failure then. The policy is clear (as per FAA/CAA regs) you cannot have children split from parents who are in exit row. It’s fine to have 1 adult with 2 children and other adult in exit row but must be 1 adult with kids. Anyone who hand on heart says they think they would be fine in exit row operating door/exiting aircraft knowing their kids were in the mêle behind is kidding themselves or knows they’d be fighting their way against the crowd to retrieve them.

        • Shoestring says:

          10 Jun10 June 20:03

          @Jonathan – I think you might be forgetting that a 12YO *is* an adult as per BA definition, so can sit in exit row

    • SimonW says:

      10 Jun10 June 11:36

      Thanks Anna. Checking on seat guru. the seatmap on BA isnt the same ! BA only showing rows 39-55, with 39 and 40 blocked out and bassinets there. Seat guru map shows economy starts at row 28, with bassinets around there… So bassinets in different places on each map…. Will give them a call. I was hoping to spend some avios on bulkhead seating rather than cash. somehow we are generating 45k avios including paying the cost of the holiday on my BAPP.

      • Anna says:

        10 Jun10 June 11:46

        The extra avios are the silver lining of cash bookings with BA! We’re due 20,000 this summer for my OH’s CW seat plus car hire package.

        On the 777-200 which is the pretty mediocre plane used on the GCM route, we had 26 B & C (exit row) and our son was in 27 D. The row 26 bulkhead seats (which were unavailable) are set forward of the exit rows on this aircraft, therefore we could have 2 exit row seats and a middle row seat virtually in line with each other and solving the problem of my son being weeks off his 12th birthday and not allowed in an exit row seat. His seat was also cheaper to reserve!

        • SimonW says:

          10 Jun10 June 11:53

          Yeah that sounds like a decent set up. Our kids will only be 5 and 7 when we fly, so would like the 4 middle bulkead seats together….God i am going to miss the 4 centre CW seats we’ve always been able to book on redemptions.

  • Jonathan says:

    10 Jun10 June 11:25

    Bassinet for half of them & potentially blocked for Gold/Silver for the others. It varies from aircraft to aircraft & (I think) route to route which seats are held back for frequent fliers. Children on the booking shouldn’t block you if they’re not also emergency exits.

• Anna says:

  10 Jun10 June 11:31

  OT but points. Just had some good news in this time of reduced collecting opportunities. We have just taken delivery of a new lease vehicle courtesy of VW finance. After a lot of badgering the CSA who brokered our deal (who kept insisting that payments could only be made by direct debit), it came to light that all payments, can in fact be made with a debit card (therefore allowing use of Curve linked to points earning Visa or MC). Even more interesting, when I called VW finance today to make the initial payment, they told me that bank transfer is also an option, so for anyone desperate to spend on Amex, Billhop might be an option.

  • AmexPlatNoMore says:

    10 Jun10 June 11:58

    Anna – VWFS accept credit cards also (not amex though). I paid for my entire car lease, including initial payment via my virgin atlantic credit card…

  • Memesweeper says:

    10 Jun10 June 12:13

    Alphera (aka BMW finance) accept Amex for settlement! Got 50% of a 2-4-1 off that 🙂

    • Anna says:

      10 Jun10 June 12:50

      Thanks both – this lease if for 2 years and our next one may well be a BMW which would tie in well with our 24 month breaks from Amex!

  • PaulC says:

    10 Jun10 June 15:44

    Does that mean I’ve to cancel the Direct Debit and start paying with my CC. Only just learnt this trick with my council tax so another bonus when AMEX is cutting bonus sign ups.

    • Anna says:

      10 Jun10 June 16:10

      I don’t think they will let you cancel the direct debit, but apparently if you make your payment early via debit/credit card, they then don’t take the direct debit. It took 20 minutes of the VW CSA “going away to check” to confirm all this, I really had to stand my ground but in the end he conceded it was possible to pay this way. I guess it creates extra work for them so they not to encourage it!

      • PaulC says:

        10 Jun10 June 16:23

        Thanks Anna, will try toward the end of this month, my DD date is 28th although I’ll be on holiday.

      • AmexPlatNoMore says:

        10 Jun10 June 16:25

        You can just cancel the direct debit (what i did). Just make sure you make the payment by the due date or you’ll get a late payment on your credit file.

• berneslai says:

  10 Jun10 June 12:46

  OT: I’m booked to fly to LAX in August. Return flight is on a 787 but morning outbound flight is a 747. I’m considering upgrading the outbound flight but want to make sure this is worthwhile. Is this a refurbished plane or will I be dealing with in-flight entertainment on a 5″ TFT screen with a remote attached by a phone cord?

  • lumma says:

    10 Jun10 June 13:27

    The 747s with the smallest economy cabins have the newest interiors – layout 3 on Seatguru

    • berneslai says:

      10 Jun10 June 14:38

      Thanks, based on the BA “reserve seats” option under Manage My Booking, it looks like I am in a layout 3 747 in WTP. Hopefully, it will be OK – I can’t seem to upgrade using the website anyway.

      • Cruz says:

        10 Jun10 June 18:33

        Unsurprisingly BA uses latest refurb 747 on LAX route (indeed most 747 have now been refurb’ed and any that haven’t wont be on LAX route)

• BlueHorizonuk says:

  10 Jun10 June 14:49

  OT – Does anyone have any good Qatar discount codes (in economy if it makes a difference). Thanks

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