Gatwick Airport opens new gates for arriving domestic passengers – no more buses

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• Russ says:

  26 Jul26 July 12:16

  Another OT, I’m looking for a yearly standalone insurance policy for travel. Anyone got any recommendations? Thanks.

  • BJ says:

    26 Jul26 July 13:23

    LV or Direct Travel Insurance according to long-running advise on ML site.

  • Rob says:

    26 Jul26 July 15:15

    Look at MSE, they have done a lot of work on this.

  • AJA says:

    26 Jul26 July 16:31

    +1 per Rob’s suggestion. Or any of the other comparison websites. Key in your details and they will give a range of insurance quotes.

    Did that and bought an annual worldwide multi-trip policy with AXA, Not had to claim so not sure how good they are but got 5 stars for reviews and premium was reasonable for my age. Far cheaper than I found elsewhere.

    • BJ says:

      26 Jul26 July 17:57

      Unless I am mistaken Rob’s suggestion is not for comparison sites but for feedback and recommendations, that is where LV and Direct Reavel Insurance come from.

    • Lady London says:

      26 Jul26 July 18:05

      The source for rating of insurance policies is defaqto. Trouble is, so many are 5 star rated due to headlines of what they cover. But some of them have conditions so onerous before you can claim, they’re not really 5-star.

      I personally always look at who the underwriter is. Its the underwriter who decides if your claim is paid out. I have a preference against Axa, sorry, due to seeing a few policies and their user comments about payout and conditions deteriorate once Axa took over as underwriters. I know they were underwriting some Amex and I used to buy Amex annual worldwide travel cover as it was one of the best but I won’t touch it now.

      When you start looking at the underwriter of each policy it’s funny an awful lot of policies are pretty much the same and same underwriter : just sold under many different brands. I then just compare policies that have my preferred underwriters and pick on price and any minor variations. Makes it a lot easier. MAPFRE, for instance, was a good one last time I looked.

      • BJ says:

        26 Jul26 July 19:53

        Care to share which underwriter you prefer and why?

        • Lady London says:

          26 Jul26 July 22:14

          As above MAPFRE is one I view as positive, Allianz can be good and unlike some others can be found underwriting a range of heavy to lighter policies (defo not eliminate immediately, as I would an annual travel policy underwritten by Axa right now). The people underwriting the US Blue Cross policy used to be good but I’ve forgotten who it is! Anything using Mondial Assistance seemed to get good reviews from people who’d actually claimed. If your employer’s paying the Internationalsos people seem to do an excellent job in some pretty far flung places. But don’t know if there’s a way for individuals to get their service.

          Right now I’m with Staysure who get good reviews. I did that in a hurry and underwriter is Great Lakes which I think is Munich Re.

        • BJ says:

          27 Jul27 July 06:50

          Thanks, useful insights. Might ditch my Bationwide FlexPlus next year so will be looking for standalone policy.

        • Lady London says:

          27 Jul27 July 13:58

          Funnily enough, BJ, I’m looking at moving over to Nationwide flex plus! At about £156 per year and with me typically being willing to pay £90-£135 for worldwide annual travel insurance (within that I just shop on underwriter and conditions) then for me the mobile phone insurance and breakdown insurance in the flex account would not end up costing much at all.

          Wondering have you found any drawbacks to the Nationwide Flex account cover?

        • Lady London says:

          27 Jul27 July 14:03

          PS just noting that what Anna called “Volde-sites” (read Harry Potter to interpret!) and what Shoestring mentions as ‘sites which cannot be named’ remains a beneficial route for anyone switching travel insurance particularly for the higher quality providers.

  • Russ says:

    26 Jul26 July 20:20

    Thanks everyone for your input, very helpful. Looks like it’s going to be a more time consuming job than I first thought….

• Gavin says:

  26 Jul26 July 12:30

  OT: Anyone had any luck changing the decision after having an application declined for the IHG Premium card? I just had my denial letter in the post. My Equifax score is 492, and I’ve never been declined a credit card before (currently hold Halifax Clarity, BA Free card, Amex Nectar, Hilton Visa). I’m essentially living off savings/investments at the moment, no salary, which I guess might have been the stumbling block.

  • lev441 says:

    26 Jul26 July 14:05

    Equifax score means nothing. They probably didn’t like the fact you weren’t employed…

  • Mark2 says:

    26 Jul26 July 14:17

    My wife and I have got an IHG Premium card each and are both retired with only state pension + running down.

    • BJ says:

      26 Jul26 July 15:11

      OT @Mark2, I think you are finally going to get your wish, I see BoJo in his desperation to cling onto power pursuing an impossible EU deal as a pretext to calling a GE that would effectively be a referendum on leaving without a deal. Securing the leave vote for the Tories and splitting the remain vote between the other parties is the only hand he’s got to play. All a bit ironic and facical given I have serious doubts that he himself is/was a true leaver.

  • Liz says:

    26 Jul26 July 19:31

    I think the Premium IHG needs a min income of £10k for acceptance. If you write to them showing them your income from savings they may reconsider.

  • the_real_a says:

    26 Jul26 July 21:52

    Have you previously held the card? It appears Creation are routinely declining anyone who held it previously regardless of credit worthiness.

  • Jonathan says:

    26 Jul26 July 22:22

    Creation are the most stringent of credit card providers.

• NigelT says:

  26 Jul26 July 12:36

  A350 delivery cancelled today

• Ben says:

  26 Jul26 July 12:44

  O/t Absolute shambles at T5 last night. 30 odd flights cancelled, no assistance to rebook flights, hotels, transport. Information was contradictory. Staff are evidentially woefully under trained and equipped for chaos and just say whatever they can to get rid of people.

• Benilyn says:

  26 Jul26 July 12:49

  OT: want to open a share dealing account, any points bonuses / ideas?

  • Genghis says:

    26 Jul26 July 15:51

    What exactly are you wanting to buy?

  • Doug M says:

    26 Jul26 July 16:31

    Anyone series about investments shouldn’t give a toss about points.

    • Spaghetti Town says:

      26 Jul26 July 17:10

      I agree. I would never make an investment decision based on how many miles/points i’d earn.

      • Genghis says:

        26 Jul26 July 17:34

        But if you can earn points doing what you would normally do…

        • Simon says:

          26 Jul26 July 18:19

          Exactly!

        • Doug M says:

          27 Jul27 July 02:50

          Who offers points and matches the low charge providers?

• Lyn says:

  26 Jul26 July 13:04

  O/T re recent discussion in comments about using Alaska miles for redemptions in case this is useful to anyone.

  As someone said, one of the advantages of using Alaska miles is getting a stop-over in each direction without increasing the number of miles needed. I booked a fairly last-minute one-way First award on BA for my OH from Europe (the closest zone) to the U.S. West Coast. So last-minute that First was absolutely the only class available and even then only for one seat (thank you HfP for reward flight finder) . It cost 70,000 Alaska miles and the same ex-EU surcharges/taxes as BA. I could have added a stop-over in London for the same number of miles but increased surcharges/taxes. It would have cost 100,000 + 9,000 avios through BA in this case, but BA would have charged more for connections from European zones further away from London. Alaska charges the same number of miles from anywhere in Europe, so you could always include an onward flight from London on the return at the same cost for a later European tip or positioning flight.

  At the other extreme, the only available award flights back were on American Airlines and only in economy this time, for 30,000 American miles plus only $5 in fees/taxes. I think BA would probably have charged a lot more in surcharges even for a flight on AA.

  In my case I was glad to have some alternatives as a back-up for Avios and also the ability to top up our Alaska miles with points earned through our SPG credit cards. While we would never pay for First, the value of the points used was very little higher than the cost of a last-minute economy cash fare and the outbound flight should be a lot more comfortable.

• pauldb says:

  26 Jul26 July 14:18

  My wife has only just received her Lloyds card conversion letter, sent literally the day before her card anniversary. Anyone else still riding the wave?

  I thought maybe I’d missed the letter. Her £24 hasn’t been charged yet. A nice surprise the get another summer (2 months) of 0% FX, and her voucher spend still apparently counts until (randomly) mid November so that seems to be another voucher unexpectedly.

  • Nick_C says:

    26 Jul26 July 14:48

    I earned my final Lloyds Upgrade Voucher last month. I had not used the card recently and only needed to put £500 through to trigger the voucher. I hit the threshold on Saturday and the voucher was in my Avios account on Tuesday. Unable to book on line though and had to call Avios.

    I’m using two Lloyds vouchers (got the accidental extra one last year) for OH and I to go to HK and Japan. Very useful, as were were able to book it as two singles and benefit from the lower redemption fees.

    Will miss the Lloyds vouchers, and the free overseas use, but looking forward to 0.5 Avios/£ on the MC (I have a Club Lloyds current ac) and the opportunities this will bring!

  • Anna says:

    26 Jul26 July 15:12

    Not had my letter yet so will be using the Lloyds Amex to pay our hotel bill next month and trigger the final upgrade voucher, unless they issue any more “mistakes”! I’ll have had 5 vouchers in 3 years so can’t complain.

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      26 Jul26 July 16:08

      Mrs Yorkieflyer still not had the letter whereas I had it months ago, only hiccup is only £200 to spend till hitting the trigger and a March renewal date!

• Gringo says:

  26 Jul26 July 15:22

  OT – Amex Plat question.

  I’m renting a car with Hertz without CDW, TP & TPPD cover. They’ve emailed me saying that I need proof of my CC covering the above insurances, what can I show them from Amex which describes this?

  Thanks!

  • Harry says:

    26 Jul26 July 15:27

    https://www.americanexpress.com/content/dam/amex/uk/pdf/insurance/platinum-insurance-documentation-april19.pdf

    • Harry says:

      26 Jul26 July 15:28

      Page 12

      • Gringo says:

        26 Jul26 July 15:39

        Amazing thank you!! 🙂

        • Olly says:

          26 Jul26 July 19:07

          Be prepared to authorize @£1000 eqivalent with Platinum or other CC on collection though!

  • Mark2 says:

    26 Jul26 July 18:03

    it may be worth sending proof that you have the Platinum card too.

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