Hilton Sheffield hotel to close in December

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• S says:

  1 Nov1 November 13:20

  O/T: Rob, have you picked up any goss on BA strike? FT reckons big news today

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 16:37

    BA has caved in and made a generous proposal to BALPA. It will decide today whether to recommend it. We put this on Twitter yesterday – I had it first.

• Benilyn says:

  1 Nov1 November 13:55

  When do you guys see value in using Avios for European flights? Is it during holiday peak periods and last minute? I am looking at Rome and Venice and for (long) weekend trips and just seems waste of Avios at the moment vs Ryanair/EasyJet. Obviously this is in coach

  • Harry T says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:05

    I guess another advantage is the flexibility of RFS fares – easy and cheap to cancel or change.

  • Grant says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:33

    If you are booking for off-peak dates way in advance the benefits can be minimal, aside from the flexibility outlined above. If you need something in the peak periods and and short notice then the ‘value’ of redeeming your Avios soon shoots up.

    I think there was an anecdote just the other day in the comments about someone missing a cash fare flight and then booking a RFS with Avios whilst in the airport.

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:49

    Always check the cash fare first. The best bargains are definitely at peak periods, e.g. Monaco Grand Prix weekend which also falls in school half term holidays. We got 4 x RFS from MAN to NCE when cash prices were nearly £400 pp in economy. Any holiday destination is going to be expensive at peak time – MAN-AGP next August is £300 with checked luggage, or 15,000 avios plus £35.

  • Lumma says:

    1 Nov1 November 16:32

    I tend to only use avios for extremely last minute bookings these days. In the last 24 hours they seem to release more economy seats if there’s any space on the plane. Further out I find most availability is only in club Europe. I find it’s particularly good for last minute trips up north – avios from Heathrow to Newcastle then the last train of the day back to London which seems to always have cheap advance tickets on it, even a couple of days before.

    The value of the avios in comparison to the cash ticket would be phenomenal but I’d hardly pay that if I didn’t have the points so I don’t look at it that way

    • Harry T says:

      1 Nov1 November 19:51

      Just landed from on an Avios ticket from Heathrow to Newcastle – I can confirm it was very good value. Lots of flights opened up last minute too.

    • Lady London says:

      2 Nov2 November 00:24

      “avios availability is mostly in Club Europe”.

      The BA website quite often shows Economy seats to Golds, but not to Bronzes, and also sometimes seats on a particular flight in the day, such as a popular lunchtime flight, are only shown to higher level cardholders.

      Have tested this side by side in 2 different years when I was a Gold cardholder, and seeing much better variety of availabilty across the day/flgihts for the route, than my friend who was Bronze. We logged into our computers side by side, each logged into the BA Exec Club under our own login, and the same searches gave much better results for Gold (me). It’s different again with On Business – historically OB searches yielded even more choice as more fare classes were available – but at least in past year, that effect on OB search results does not seem to be as pronounced as before – but still better than Gold I would say (never worse).

• Lumma says:

  1 Nov1 November 14:02

  OT. Do Star Alliance allow baggage to be interlined and/or offer any protection in the event of a missed connection? Flying Frankfurt to Tokyo in February on ANA redemption and looking at my options for getting to and from Frankfurt. There’s cheaper options on BA and Ryanair but was wondering if it would be less risky if I flew Lufthansa.

  Also are the lounge access rules similar to OneWorld? If arriving on long haul business and flying Lufthansa economy on the way back, would I get lounge access in Frankfurt?

• xcalx says:

  1 Nov1 November 16:00

  OT Amex business Plat
  I was unaware that each supplementary card came with a 5000 bonus, Happy days.

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 16:34

    It’s an offer that was meant to end in August but was extended to 31/10 quietly. Not sure it would still work now it’s November.

    • xcalx says:

      1 Nov1 November 16:39

      data point
      Still working today signed up 2 sons this morning points on 2 hours later.

      01/11/2019 SBS Plat Supp Offer June 2019 0 5,000 5,000
      01/11/2019 SBS Plat Supp Offer June 2019 0 5,000 5,000

      • Rob says:

        1 Nov1 November 19:38

        Thanks.

• Sheffield says:

  1 Nov1 November 16:54

  Sheffield lacks of serious hotel options, particularly now that the Hilton is going.

  However, there are many quality independent hotels like Leopold Hotel as well as a few nice serviced apartments on offer.

  Check out our serviced apartments here: https://www.homelyapartments.co.uk

  Rob, you should visit us at some point 🙂

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 19:37

    Leopold has good feedback, I agree. Didn’t seem too great for the kids but will bear it mind for the next funeral I go to ….

• The Original Nick says:

  1 Nov1 November 17:16

  O:T, I have 500 Virgin miles added to my account and it’s showing as Tesco clubcard auto tippers conversion?? Anyone know what this is?

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 19:36

    I got 1000 added to mine yesterday for an economy flight last week from LGW to Montego Bay 🙂

    • Spaghetti Town says:

      1 Nov1 November 20:16

      Do you fly LH economy rob?

      • Rob says:

        1 Nov1 November 20:44

        I was sat on a beach in Dubai at the time Virgin thinks I was flying Economy to Jamaica!

  • Shoestring says:

    1 Nov1 November 19:48

    not the bonus

    it’s just quarterly conversion of your Tesco points to Virgin, I got 250! (wow)

• Munch says:

  1 Nov1 November 17:26

  OT: The Platinum Business offer for 27,000 referral points ends on the 6th November.

  Do applications made before this date count if they receive the card in the post say a few days after the 6th? Usually points post on the day the cards arrive.

  If the application is not accepted 1st time but under review will this still count if accepted after the 6th?

  Rob you mentioned a possible extension to the promo? Need two more referrals to complete my full quota so busy convincing friends and family.

  • Rob says:

    1 Nov1 November 19:35

    Looks like 6th November is firm – T&C’s still show this as the end date.

    As long as you apply whilst the offer is showing on the landing page you should be fine, but take a screenshot just in case.

• Roger says:

  1 Nov1 November 17:29

  OT – Partner redemption and schedule change

  I have a flight with AA miles on EY and now there is a schedule change leaving me for almost 24 hours in AUH on my return journey to Asia (This is happening on both onward and return trip, so 2 x say 20 hour per stop)

  Do I have any recourse?
  Tickets were booked as soon as it opened and now even getting a refund is of no use as flight prices over Christmas is astronomical.

  • Shoestring says:

    1 Nov1 November 18:26

    I take it you’re flying out of Europe? You should have a strong claim for EC261 duty of care on your outward flight, though getting Etihad to refund you might be a different matter.

    Europe—> Asia via AUH on 1 PNR counts as a single ‘journey’ under EC261, so you might be able to see a more convenient connection in AUH and persuade EY to re-ticket you/ or even re-ticket the whole journey. Under EC261 the airline is obliged to re-ticket you if they are giving you an unreasonable variation to your booked itinerary and you can see a better option. Much easier getting this done with BA, though, with EY you’d probably be wasting your time but worth a try.

    • Lady London says:

      2 Nov2 November 00:15

      Also check it’s really a schedule change. A few cases of being told a flight is cancelled but actually being offloaded and the flight is running. Check if seats are being sold on your original flight, or any better flight. Politely request your preferred alternative, or reinstatement to your originally booked flight if you can see that seats are still being sold on it – happened to me twice and both times I politely requested reinstatement and was successful.

      An extra almost-24 hours each way added to your journey is really unacceptable. Plus, I presume, hotel costs? Even if airline offers hotel costs it’s still unacceptable. Not everyone has 2 extra days of holiday they can just add to their booking, and I guess it’s quite possible that arriving 1 day later will cause you to miss an event you are travelling for.

      • Roger says:

        2 Nov2 November 09:39

        Thanks you both for replying.

        The trouble is it is booking with AAmiles with EY, so they keep bouncing back between AA and EY as they say tickets are issued by AA so EY wouldn’t do anything.

        I have looked up the schedule and the original flight is indeed now rescheduled as per KAYAK schedule finder and no longer seen even on other nearby dates.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Nov2 November 15:16

          AA issued your ticket do they are responsible for rerouting you. By any measure (and would be supported by the courts) there is no way adding nearly a day to the time your flight takes is acceptable. As your flight departs from Europe you are covered by EU261 and so you can’t be forced to accept this if there are other flights even on other airlines that will get you to your destination/back from it reasonably close to your original landing time (at least within a few hours) then you are entitled to request AA to ticket you in those (and award seats do not have to be available on the replacement flights).

          EU261 means you could obtain those flights for cash and sue AA for their cost if they continue to refuse. Ask them to escalate and mention EU261 if you’ve found a replacement set of flights (easier to get them to cooperate sooner if on original airline booked, or OneWorld airline(s), but technically does not have to be).

          If you go this route make sure you have a record of asking them for a fair rerouting at least 3 times or their final refusal. Don’t take a refund if you can avoid it as posters here have said this releases AA from the contract and they then owe you nothing.

          I believe Etihad redemptions may cost AA more than other OneWorld flights so this may be a factor. Additionally Etihad could be difficult for AA to deal with. None of that is your problem. You have a ticket to reach a destination bought from AA and if departing from Europe you are covered by EU261 on any airline. If returning to Europe from somewhere else then you are only covered by EU261 only if carrier is a European airline.

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