Wizz Air to launch flights from Luton to St Petersburg and Moscow

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• Rob says:

  18 Jul18 July 09:04

  He is, he rings me up occasionally for a chat! I am in an interesting spot for him because of my knowledge of private equity (having done it for over a decade) plus my fintech knowledge plus my loyalty knowledge plus my ‘influencer’ position.

  • Gringo says:

    18 Jul18 July 09:36

    Talking of humble 😉

    • S says:

      18 Jul18 July 10:00

      Can’t beat a humble brag, its a HfP staple 😛

    • Rob says:

      18 Jul18 July 10:07

      Those are all statements of fact.

      • BJ says:

        18 Jul18 July 14:05

        I once had a colleague who claimed on his CV that he was familiar with any instrument/technique he had seen, and was experienced with any instrument/technique he had used just once. He became a VP of a multinational engineering company before he was 40.

  • Lady London says:

    18 Jul18 July 13:01

    Ever thought of doing a fintech, Rob? 🙂

    • Rob says:

      18 Jul18 July 13:29

      Seems like hard work at my age! Let’s leave it to Shak.

      We’d certainly look at working together with someone if they had an early stage project that was heavily loyalty dependent.

      There is someone involved in the frequent flyer scene who made a reported $60m by taking equity in a start-up which wanted promoting on his website, and which later went on to float for a substantial sum.

• Froggee says:

  18 Jul18 July 09:38

  OT – I need 190,000 Krisflyer points for an SQ redemption. At my disposal I have:

  90,000 Amex MR = 90,000 Krisflyer
  150,000 HSBC points = 75,000 Krisflyer
  180,000 Bonvoy = 75,000 Krisfyer

  I’m pretty sure that the HSBC points should be the first to be used given that they expire but I’m torn between the Membership rewards points and the Bonvoy to make up the balance. My instinct is to keep 120,000 Bonvoy given the possibility for out-sized hotel rewards at some point but I have no idea if that is bonkers or not. I imagine MR are less likely to be devalued? Help!

  • Michael says:

    18 Jul18 July 09:48

    Bonvoy points are much more versatile than Membership rewards – i think Bonvoy converts into something like 40 different schemes. Membership Rewards less than half of that.

    I think if I was in your position, I’d use the MR’s up. Purely because you can use your Bonvoys for a nice hotel stay.

    • Peter K says:

      18 Jul18 July 09:55

      I’d agree with Michael?

    • Russ says:

      18 Jul18 July 10:03

      Is there any legs in a Marriott travel package: 100,000 miles + 7 night hotel stay?

      • Rob says:

        18 Jul18 July 10:06

        They are SUBSTANTIALLY less good value than they were. However, if you are planning a 7-night redemption anyway then it is worth thinking about. It is no longer a no-brainer though, so think about your need for the miles vs what you’d do with the extra Bonvoy points.

        • Froggee says:

          18 Jul18 July 10:32

          Thank you all. Deed is done. or at least I think it is done as the first time with Marriott I got an error…

          I’ve left 120,000 Bonvoy for another occasion.

          The Marriott travel packages wouldn’t work – there are four of us “needing” a one way flight in business class which is silly money for cash but quite reasonable in miles. This allows us to open jaw next year’s holiday hopefully with an Amex 241 + a GUF2 being used for the long haul flights.

          I almost feel like a professional!

        • David says:

          18 Jul18 July 11:03

          Froggee – note for furture reference, the Marriott travel package, you can do whatever you want with the miles. They don’t need to be linked to using the hotel voucher, you can spend them however adn whenever you want with the airlines scheme.
          And the hotel voucher does not need to be used immediately either.

          That said, I agree – they are not the ‘no brainier’ that they once were.

        • Froggee says:

          18 Jul18 July 11:16

          Okay – thanks David. I get you. Bonvoys definitely have more use than my Hilton points. Sadly I have a lot more of the latter 🙁

        • The Original David says:

          18 Jul18 July 12:04

          What are the expiry rules on HSBC Premier points?

        • Genghis says:

          18 Jul18 July 13:00

          3 years

        • Russ says:

          18 Jul18 July 18:27

          Thanks Rob. Forgot about the changes.

    • Nick says:

      18 Jul18 July 13:40

      But you can convert mr into bonvoy? So surely they cannot be less versatile?

      • Rob says:

        18 Jul18 July 14:40

        Depends how you look at. 40 airline partners vs 12? with Amex, although of course no other hotel partners except Marriot (and no Eurostar, no shopping vouchers etc).

        Looking purely at airline miles on the credit card, 1.25 miles per £1 on the SPG Amex (assuming you convert in chunks of 60k Bonvoy points) out-earns Gold and Platinum. For many airlines (Aeroplan, Qatar Qmiles etc) the SPG Amex is the only game in town.

      • Michael says:

        18 Jul18 July 15:39

        You convert a 2 MR : 3 Bonvoy so you lose value.

• Credit card newbie says:

  18 Jul18 July 09:53

  OT: Have just triggered the 241 on my BAPP. Can I downgrade now to the free BA Amex, keep the 241 and receive a pro-rota refund of the annual fee? Are there any downsides to this? Will this be treated as an entirely new card application (ie would I need to cancel the BAPP, then apply for the free BA Amex)?

  • Anna says:

    18 Jul18 July 10:19

    No impact on the voucher. You can apply online but it will be treated as the same account, just with a blue card instead of a black one, so it might be easier to just call or see if you can do it via chat (experiences of this seem to vary). You can actually just cancel the card and start your sign up bonus clock ticking if you want, however I would (now) only do this is I was going to use the voucher soon as there have been so many Amex changes recently!

  • Chris L says:

    18 Jul18 July 10:30

    The taxes and charges on a 241 booking must be paid with an Amex card, so you just need to make sure you have one available. Officially I think it’s meant to be the one that earned the voucher, but in practice any Amex is fine.

    • Anna says:

      18 Jul18 July 10:46

      Sorry, yes, but any Amex in any name will do currently. We usually make sure one of us has a BAPP at the time of booking as the 3 x avios per £1 can add up to quite a lot when paying the “fees”!

  • Alex Sm says:

    18 Jul18 July 22:07

    I have a ‘mirror’ OT question on BA Amex. I currently have a Blue card and am close to 10K spending mark (anniversary on 20 Aug). I was thinking of upgrading it to Black and getting a 241 voucher. Hence a few questions:

    1) How long does it take to process an upgrade?
    2) Will it trigger the voucher?
    3) For how long will I need to have a Black card before I can downgrade back to Blue?
    4) Most importantly – will Paypal transfer to a friend/family funded with BA Amex count as a purchase? I am short of 800-900 pounds spend to reach 10K but don’t want to spend on nonsense

    • meta says:

      19 Jul19 July 07:49

      1. The usual as if you applied for a new card. It can be a few days or 10 working days.
      2. Don’t spend 10k until the upgrade and then when you do after the upgrade it will trigger as normal.
      3. Not sure, but people suggest 3 months.
      4. It will, but Paypal may block your account. Better would be to purchase gift cards for future spend.

      You also might be lucky to get 6k Avios for upgrade.

      • Alex Sm says:

        19 Jul19 July 11:44

        Thanks, let’s see what happens

• Jonathan says:

  18 Jul18 July 10:02

  If a traveller likes using the Oneworld group of airlines, then flying to Helsinki then a short flight from there to St. Petersburg is an option, yes it involves a connecting flight, but for a lot of people who regularly fly BA and or Virgin Luton Airport is a long way out of the way. Plus two flights means more Avios and Tier points! Or if you want to see some county side when travelling Helsinki to St. Petersburg (or vice versa), a train is an option that many travellers enjoy

  • The Original David says:

    18 Jul18 July 11:56

    There’s some visa dodge available with this route too. I can’t recall the details, but I think if you get a boat from HEL or TLL, you can get a few days in LED visa-free.

    • Lumma says:

      18 Jul18 July 12:04

      You can visit St Petersburg visa free if you get the ferry from Tallinn or Helsinki, the downside is you need to leave via the ferry, you can’t fly home or it would be a good interesting option to avoid the visa application and fees

• Rob says:

  18 Jul18 July 10:13

  Email Amex and they can move the balance to any other Amex card you have. This is the easiest option.

  • Lev441 says:

    18 Jul18 July 10:41

    Or they can send you a cheque in the post or via a BACS payment if you push them.

    • Genghis says:

      18 Jul18 July 10:44

      But whatever you do, don’t withdraw the cash from an ATM.

• Chris L says:

  18 Jul18 July 10:39

  Unfortunately, the ridiculous age restrictions imposed by Clubrooms (no under 5s in Luton and no under 12s in Birmingham) means it will be several years before my family are welcome.

  • mvcvz says:

    18 Jul18 July 11:19

    Good. The fewer children in lounges, the better.

    • Chris L says:

      18 Jul18 July 11:30

      But you’ll get teenagers plus stag and hen parties 🙂

      • The Original David says:

        18 Jul18 July 11:58

        Let’s ban the teenagers too then!

        Although if you try to ban the stag parties, you might not have much of a business model at Luton…

        • LB says:

          18 Jul18 July 12:35

          Even you must have been young once! Give them a break.

        • lady London says:

          18 Jul18 July 12:44

          Don’t be fooled. There is a lot of non-stag party money that flies out of LTN.

    • Lady London says:

      18 Jul18 July 12:43

      Yaaay!

      An oasis especially at school holiday times.

      No wonder the queue for Clubrooms was out the door in LTN when I was there last week. The Aspire, on the other hand, was a much better experience and less crowded.

      i suspect Clubrooms is not the venue for stag and hen parties and that they will do everything possible to ensure that they do not become such.

    • Nick says:

      18 Jul18 July 13:30

      Nothing wrong with kids in lounges.

      • Peter K says:

        18 Jul18 July 15:42

        Correction. Nothing wrong with well behaved children or those that parents are trying to get to behave. Poorly behaved children with parents who don’t care are a problem in most situations.

        • Alex M says:

          18 Jul18 July 19:32

          correction: nothing wrong with well behaved humans; poorly behaved humans are a problem in most situations.

        • Lady London says:

          19 Jul19 July 12:40

          Lets be honest though squeaky children who wont stop talking and squeaking, whose parents are really enjoying the opportunity to actually talk to their kids while the family is on holiday, can (depending on volume and continuity of the squeaks) get quite draining if you’re knackered or trying to concentrate. Even the nicest and best behaved kids. So I will take opportunities to avoid this if they’re there.

          As some of you may have gathered I’m not into virtue signalling. H***, I’ve already confessed to liking the Saturday edition of the Daily Mail.
          So my reputation is trashed and I might as well be truthful.

• Big Ernie McCracken says:

  18 Jul18 July 12:31

  My BA silver runs out end of February. I want to book seats to Boston for next June. If I book whilst still Silver presumably I won’t pay for requesting specific seats. Is that the case and if so what happens in March when I am no longer Silver (I won’t be!).

  Also not sure if paying cash or Avios so as a general question if I book on Avios would I need to pay for booking specific seats?

  Thanks

  • David says:

    18 Jul18 July 12:42

    Ive book like that before and booked my seats, if they change planes or anything like that, you’ll likely lose your seats, as they will pick up you aren’t silvere

  • Doug M says:

    18 Jul18 July 12:43

    Your seats will remain as are for a time, don’t try to change them or the system will note you’re no longer silver. But at some point they’re usually swept away by a batch process of some sort. I think you’ll be lucky to hang on to them from Feb to June.

    • Roberto says:

      18 Jul18 July 14:15

      Your seats will stick. If you were Gold and drop down you could be kicked out of your ecomomy extra leg room seat but thats about it.

• Harvey says:

  18 Jul18 July 13:13

  OT. I am planning next summer. A family of 6 would like to get to USA or South Africa. I have plenty of Avios/virgin points and looking to get to get return flights to one of these places for cheapest possible cash price. economy is fine. Any advice please?

  • Anna says:

    18 Jul18 July 13:53

    That’s a lot of destination choice but wherever you decide to go you are likely to get the best deal via a package holiday. If you book with BA (there should be a holiday sale in the autumn soon after the summer prices are released) you’ll get a decent deal plus tier points and avios. Though if you have a load of avios, why not use these for a couple of your seats or for an upgrade?

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