Iberia returns to Guayaquil in Ecuador – an intriguing Avios flight redemption

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• Craig says:

  15 Jun15 June 11:48

  OT: Is swapping the supplementary cardholder fairly straightforward on Amex Plat?

• John says:

  15 Jun15 June 12:53

  Rob an article covering all options for getting free PP or equivalent from banks, cc etc will be very useful indeed!

  • Wollhouse says:

    15 Jun15 June 13:42

    NatWst Black includes a raft of benefits (travel insurance, breakdown, mobile phone cover, concierge and Dragons Pass. The latter includes lounge access and discounts up to 25% in restaurants). I’ve been w them for a long time and (not wanting to jinx myself,,,) have always found my act manager and their support staff v helpful. And they’ve been very quick to block fraud on two separate occasions. Plus, The credit card fee can be refunded if you have their current account- can’t recall criteria just know I get similar benefits to Amex plat for free.

    • Wollhouse says:

      15 Jun15 June 13:43

      But, no Avios! just cash back

      • David says:

        15 Jun15 June 14:43

        I believe cash back received through the account can be converted to Avios via the Natwest Rewards portal. Not sure on the rates but think they’re reasonable.

        • Wollhouse says:

          15 Jun15 June 17:43

          Yes, that’s true

• Cat says:

  15 Jun15 June 13:56

  I put in a complaint about a dreadful incident on my Iberia flight 3 weeks ago – any idea how long they usually take to respond?
  I did try emailing the address that someone helpfully posted, but they redirected me to the online complaints department. I tried Twitter, but they haven’t responded to that either.
  This is a pretty bad one, the least they can do is reply with an offer of Avios.

  • Lady London says:

    15 Jun15 June 16:28

    Dreadful incident? do tell us more, Cat!

    When I complained on the URL they gave me I got an automatic acknowledgement from the sytsem quite quickly, certainly with a week, but it was then quite a numer of weeks when they came back to me. their response indicated they hadn’t read what I had sent.

    I will be pleased if you get a better result from Iberia Cat. their customer service still seems to be marginally better than Accor’s, though.

    • Cat says:

      15 Jun15 June 17:20

      Well Lady London, I was using the facilities. The FA decided that she had forgotten to unlock the toilet after take off. She hadn’t. She rapped on the door sharply then IMMEDIATELY unlocked the door (without so much as a word of warning in Spanish or English) and let it swing wide open while she went to deal with someone’s drinks order, without so much as a glance to check whether there was anyone in the toilet. This allowed the man who was waiting to use the facilities a full view of my (ahem) holiday grooming, while I shrieked and frantically tried to cover up. When I had managed to get my clothes back in their proper place (and flushed the toilet), the man stood there looking rather distressed and alternating between the speak no evil and see no evil postures, while the FA’s apology was of the indignant “Well, I’m sorry, but…” (…you didn’t respond, …I thought I had left it locked etc). She tried to cover up her name badge and didn’t even offer me so much as a glass of water in lieu of a proper apology, and I was left shaking with anger and shock for the rest of the flight.
      I can joke about it now, but I was quite upset at the time.
      I mean, if someone knocks on a toilet, I take that to mean “Hurry up, I’m desperate”, not “I’m opening the door”.
      I was aware that turning right can be a bit of a shock after turning left (especially if into Cathay Pacific first class), but this was more of a shock to the system than I’d bargained for.
      I’m astonished that they haven’t fast-tracked this complaint – if I was them, I’d want to avoid this being spread (pardon the pun) all over social media. I will resort to this if I haven’t had an adequate response in the next couple of weeks.

      • Shoestring says:

        15 Jun15 June 18:32

        I guess you wouldn’t be a fan of those unisex loos in France where the ladies have to walk past the gents pissoir bit to get to the cubicles 🙂

        • Cat says:

          15 Jun15 June 18:36

          That wouldnt be a problem, as long as the cubicle door stayed closed while I was inside!

• Richard says:

  15 Jun15 June 13:58

  OT: Are we in for another round of Lloyds Amex fraud?

  Lloyds Amex supplementary card never used, never left the house somehow used for a series of transactions with US and Mexico companies & failed at Amazon.com. Confused agent says several different (cancelled) card numbers were used across the multiple transactions. Had no recollection of there ever being problems with Lloyds Amex in the US in the past…

  Any similar experiences?

  • Anna says:

    15 Jun15 June 14:11

    I really wonder what on earth goes on at Lloyds! Quite glad I don’t have a major product like a mortgage with them…

  • Richard says:

    15 Jun15 June 14:59

    Talking further with another Lloyds agent (they generally cut me off after half an hour…). Says they’re currently seeing lots of Mexico-related fraud on the Amex cards. Claim they don’t know why but point the finger at Amex for a data breach they haven’t been notified of.

  • Mike says:

    15 Jun15 June 22:32

    I hadn’t said anything before but I will now.
    Lloyds changed my card and kindly sent me my “new pin” through the post. Only it wasn’t a “new pin” at all. It was my existing pin for my Lloyds and other cards too.
    Am I being unreasonable in telling them they shouldn’t do this? I would never have missed it if it had been intercepted.
    I complained but they didn’t seem to see the issue. I’ve agreed that they have exhausted the complaints process and I’m going to the ombudsman as their process is, in my view, very compromised.
    I don’t want any compensation, just for them to accept their process isn’t secure and change it. Meanwhile they’ve lost me as a customer forever.

    • Rob says:

      15 Jun15 June 23:14

      To be honest I get annoyed when my pin is changed. I got a new Curve this week (lost the old one) and was not happy pin was different.

      • Mike says:

        15 Jun15 June 23:33

        Fine. Just send a letter saying “your pin is unchanged”.

        Don’t send an unexpected letter that I’m never going to miss saying “this is your pin” and reveal a pin I’m already using.

    • Doug M says:

      16 Jun16 June 08:58

      Lloyds are just poor in almost all customer interactions. It seems they’ve decided the compo is cheaper than fixing things. They made a complete mess of the recent Avios card change for me. Eventually sorted, not that I’ll use the new card anyway, so poor compared to previous.
      The PIN thing is typical of the outdated methods used by many banks, sending pieces of paper through the post will never be secure.

      • Lady London says:

        16 Jun16 June 21:11

        I always collect anformation thy new card at the bank wherever possible. That way I try to separte PIN and any other information that may be sent separately, from the card.

• Aston says:

  15 Jun15 June 14:44

  Lounge Club. Got turned away by the three lounges in Gatwick North around 13:30 today, as did some people with priority passes.
  However, watched someone last to get into the Aspire lounge despite them saying they were full.
  There were several unoccupied tables and seats in Aspire and MyLounge. Unsure about No1 lounge as didn’t get past the door staff.

  Is this normal?

  • Aston says:

    15 Jun15 June 14:46

    Typo, that should have read “watched someone pay to get into the Aspire lounge”

    • tom1 says:

      15 Jun15 June 14:57

      Yes, a lot of the contract lounges reserve tables/space for passengers travelling in business class with airlines that have a contract with the lounge, or those who have bought lounge access through a tour operator.

      Some lounges let you reserve a place by paying £5 – usually on their own website. Sometimes gets you access to priority lane in security too, so can be worth it.

  • Lady London says:

    15 Jun15 June 16:09

    Most of these lounges that are pretty well known to be turning Amex Plat PP cardholders away far too often, are owned by Collinson.

    Priority Pass is also owned by Collinson.

    And yet, Amex Plat card holders with Priority Pass from Amex, are getting turned away consistently by these lounges.

    Does anyone think that Amex and Collinson could be at war over prices being paid by Amex to the lounges when an Amex Plat Priority pass is used? Like, are the llounges trying to make a point about not being paid enough by Amex for their cardholders to use the Amex Plat PP to enter?

    If the problem is that the lounge has contracts with airlines to host airline passengers entitled to lounge access, and as PP and Lounge Pass holders are being consistently turned away, then why is Priority Pass not expanding the dining program ?

    If there is all this unmet demand, surely the existing lounge should either meet demand most of the time – after all lounge access has been paid for in the Amex fee – or should the airport allow an additional lounge to operate? And lastly the dining credit was helping at one or two pinch points, and yet that’s being canned now?

    Whatever is going on in background here it would be nice to know that Amex is making some efforts to deliver on the Priority Pass benefit at the ‘rogue’ lounges that are not delivering the Amex Plat PP benefit to cardholders.

    I can see it being much harder toj justify the new higher Amex fees now that Priority Pass access cannot be guaranteed, and almost can be guaranteeds not to be available, in the UK at major airports so much of the time. It was hard enough at £450 to kid oneself the Amex card fee was just about covered by the benefits package. PP makes up a significant part of the value of UK Amex,. I just can’t see other numbers making up the value of hte fee until this problem is resolved by Amex so that the promised benefit of lounge access via Amex Plat Prriority Pass can be relied on.

    • Klaus-Peter Dudas says:

      17 Jun17 June 12:50

      How do they know that it’s an Amex PP? Are you saying that they are letting in people with directly purchased PP but turning away the Amex ones?

• Ash says:

  15 Jun15 June 18:44

  As OT as it gets but it’s a slow day:

  Anyone got any good wine vendor recommendations?

  Trying to get my hands on a bottle of the Mullineux Chenin Blanc Granite 2017 and can’t seem to find it anywhere in the UK.

• Globetrotter says:

  15 Jun15 June 19:40

  Iberia. Is their onboard service as cheap skate as their Dali and Valasquez flagship lounges? Barely any hot food. 2 bottles of cava put out at 4pm then nothing until 9pm I was told. If you miss it too bad! And cava is cheap! Even standard white wine had completely run out at 5.30pm in Wed 12/6 in the Valasquez lounge. Is this normal for Iberia?

  • Andy says:

    15 Jun15 June 23:59

    They don’t have the mini bottles of cava in the drinks fridges anymore?

  • Andreas says:

    16 Jun16 June 05:53

    There’s usually plenty of wine as the fridges close by are always well stocked. I agree that food offering can be poor depending on what time you are there, lunch time seems to have the best variety. Other than that the cold options in between meals are ridiculous: slabs of fresh white cheese and turkey slices sitting there for hours. At least they usually have Haagen Dazs!

  • Globetrotter says:

    16 Jun16 June 11:03

    @Andy @Andreas Thx, fridge with wine locked (!) and no more mini bottles. The mini bottles in the past were Demi-Sec and not commonly drunk in Spain where Brut or Brut Nature is preferred. So a cynical person would say the only reason the mini bottles were Demi-sec was to discourage people from drinking them. Really does not make me want to fly Iberia … is this the worst airline in OneWorld?

    @Rob Any thoughts given you may have more experience of more airlines?

• guesswho2000 says:

  16 Jun16 June 06:29

  Priority pass cuts are coming to Australian issued cards too apparently. I wouldn’t be surprised if it eventually goes for all Amex issued PP’s.

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