Get £50 Marriott hotels cashback with your American Express card

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• Alex M says:

  4 Oct4 October 08:09

  Flybe – sister of Virgin? Poor step-daughter rather…

• Shoestring says:

  4 Oct4 October 09:21

  BA Madrid-Shanghain in Business EUR1200, good availability thru to summer 2020

  • Doug M says:

    4 Oct4 October 09:39

    Nice. There’s been a BA/AA/AY fare around this level for CDG and Nice to many USA cities, although I think availability drying up now. It’s fares like these that stop me redeeming Avios on long haul.

    • marcw says:

      4 Oct4 October 10:02

      That’s why you should burn your Avion on short-haul RFS in peak season. Shoestring has a lot of experience doing this going to his place in the Sun.

      • Doug M says:

        4 Oct4 October 10:12

        That’s how they go. I don’t care about value as such, most are earned from flying anyway. All short haul I just book a redemption, offers good flexibility and as a gold economy is only marginally inferior to CE. Will take exit row leg room over a bit of plane food and an empty seat next to me any day.

      • Lebron 23 says:

        4 Oct4 October 10:27

        if i could ask rob to change 2 things about hfp comments they would be as follows

        1. no more mentions of harry shoestrings place in the sun
        2. no more mentions of triprep anons visits to rangali

        • Spaghetti Town says:

          4 Oct4 October 10:29

          and people helping to kill off all the points earning tricks you can do with curve by bringing them up here…

        • Doug M says:

          4 Oct4 October 10:37

          Do you think that Curve and the underlying card providers are unaware?

        • Spaghetti Town says:

          4 Oct4 October 11:21

          @ Doug – well if they are, they arent’ doing much about it. I.e Virgin and IHG

        • Polly says:

          4 Oct4 October 12:22

          Ah, don’t be a spoilsport! Great entertainment that lot!

  • BJ says:

    4 Oct4 October 12:16

    Thanks, tempting even though we have flights already exINV with a 241. Would probably get my partner to silver, save 150k avios and a 241, earn a bundle more, and cost around £900 more were I to write off the costs of a few days in Madrid. Decision time again.

    • Polly says:

      4 Oct4 October 12:28

      Go for it! Hard to cancel that hard earned 241 but can be used again. And you like LH direct flights…
      We cancelled our F 241 to kul for qr sale arn to hkt. And yes will earn buckets more avios too. Although wish they were still sub 1k like before.

      • BJ says:

        4 Oct4 October 14:52

        I was surely tempted by LH too Polly as you may recall. In the abd I kept the BA241 reservations. My parents are elderly and both in poor health so tbe £35 flexibility Is a big factor for me.

        • Polly says:

          5 Oct5 October 01:06

          Yes the flexibility of the baec is a godsend. Esp great for us w last minute flts to DUB when my elderly parents were v ill. Where are heading off to on this next trip? Asia?

  • Tom1 says:

    4 Oct4 October 20:51

    Shanghai well worth a couple of days stopover as well. Very pleasantly surprised.

• Doug M says:

  4 Oct4 October 09:35

  OT: Virgin Miles Booster bonus. X1 20%, X2 30% and X3 40%.

  • Rob says:

    4 Oct4 October 09:46

    Thanks, will take a look.

    • ChrisA says:

      4 Oct4 October 22:06

      Good offer IMO. Just boosted an upcoming one way UC to JNB. 23554 points for £168 with the x3 boost works out at £0.007 per point.

      • Matt B says:

        4 Oct4 October 22:47

        Might be out by a factor of 10

        • ChrisA says:

          5 Oct5 October 10:43

          Quite possibly, Matt – Maths ain’t my strong point. But I thought that was 0.7p?

• Graeme says:

  4 Oct4 October 09:52

  OT but Marriott-related – how far in advance are rooms available to book on points? Specifically HFP favourite Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa in Dubai. Is it a 355 day-type thing?

  Thanks all.

  • Stu N says:

    4 Oct4 October 13:13

    Varies wildly in my experience – often release dates in batches every few months. If you check the property for a range of dates every few weeks you should see their rough pattern of releases.

  • ankomonkey says:

    4 Oct4 October 13:20

    I think they release 7 days at a time around Sunday night each week. They’re something like 340-347 days ahead depending on how close the current day is to Sunday.

  • Graeme says:

    4 Oct4 October 15:02

    That’s great; thanks both – much appreciated. When I looked a couple of days ago it probably was about 340 days behind – I’ll keep checking and see if they do update that weekly.

    • Graeme says:

      4 Oct4 October 19:03

      Just checked – the latest date is actually 314 days away. I’ll just have to keep checking.

  • marcw says:

    4 Oct4 October 22:30

    I’ve seen this property recently in Secret Escapes and alikes, quite affordable TBH.

• Spaghetti Town says:

  4 Oct4 October 09:52

  Biman Bangladesh adding Manchester for 2020. 3 weekly flights

• John says:

  4 Oct4 October 11:08

  O/T
  Has anyone contacted Capital on Tap yet for a refund?
  Like others mentioned in past my £200 + card was purchased purely for the facility of it being a debit card that could be used for suppliers who do not accept a credit card !!

  • Rob says:

    4 Oct4 October 11:19

    You need to wait until you get the new card, I reckon – they may outline your rights at that point. I believe the new card will available from next week for new applicants.

    • Ben says:

      4 Oct4 October 17:10

      My COT MC has stopped working with HMRC so I’ve cancelled today and requested a refund. We’ll see how long that takes!

• TW says:

  4 Oct4 October 11:54

  Interesting that Brunei (BWN) is not on the list for the new BA/Malaysia Airlines codeshares.

  I assume BA must have some sort of agreement with Royal Brunei instead.

  • Spaghetti Town says:

    4 Oct4 October 11:56

    I think BA have some sort of interline agreement with them, yes

  • marcw says:

    4 Oct4 October 22:31

    Who wants to go to Brunei?!!!!??

    • John says:

      5 Oct5 October 10:44

      I do

• Ash says:

  4 Oct4 October 12:29

  OT some advice please, what are your rights if you get bumped from first on a 241 award booking? Destination HK. Thank you in advance.

  • Nigel says:

    4 Oct4 October 14:06

    When you say ‘in theory’ – do you know if this is what has happened in practice in the past?

    • Shoestring says:

      4 Oct4 October 15:33

      ask @TripRep

      There are a few accounts where BA have treated people using 2-4-1s and other upgrade mechanisms in a worse way than people paying cash. BA have even tried to claim that there can be no compo payable for the ‘free’ ticket or ‘free’ upgrade (when downgraded) because there was no monetary value associated. In these instances you have to be prepared to go to MCOL to assert your rights.

  • TripRep says:

    4 Oct4 October 16:28

    Ash, you can email me if you like. You have the right to demand alternative routing if you can find similar class.

    You are also entitled to full EU261/2004 compensation & refund rights if the reason is not weather.

    BA will be a PITA and deny everything to try and wear you down. I suggest threatening small claims court ASAP. Flyertalk has a good section on this search for EU261 and user CWS

    • Anna says:

      4 Oct4 October 16:35

      I used CEDR recently for delay compensation after BA refused to pay out. They were very good and BA eventually had to back down and pay up!

      • Shoestring says:

        4 Oct4 October 16:43

        yep fine when it works but there’s a recent case on FT where CEDR have come up with some complete nonsense in terms of interpreting the legal position on a claim against BA, I was aghast to read it (1155)
        https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1948451-2019-ba-compensation-thread-your-guide-regulation-ec261-2004-a-77.html

        I’ve always thought that in many cases you’re far better off going straight to MCOL, with a much better chance of someone with relevant legal experience (EC261) deciding the outcome

        • Lady London says:

          4 Oct4 October 20:56

          +1. Highest chance BA settles when you have filed an MCOL claim, it let’s them know you mean business.

          Several instances of unreliable outcomes from CEDR and I think if you go some mediation routes you must give up your right to go to court/MCOL in advance even if it turns out you get a mediation/CEDR judgment that is inappropriate.

        • Anna says:

          4 Oct4 October 22:22

          Interesting reading – in that case CEDR held that the traveller had accepted the downgrade as he had not responded to BA’s email advising him of the seat change, and the fact that this was sent more than 14 days before the travel date was also deemed relevant. Don’t know what Ash’s circumstances are here.

  • Rob says:

    4 Oct4 October 17:08

    75% of what you paid in Avios. BA may try to avoid paying for the 2nd person, at which point you take them to arbitration and arbitration makes them pay you 75% x 1.6p per Avios, so get a tidy sum back.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.