New Aspire lounge at Edinburgh Airport now open

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• The Original Nick says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:40

  Thanks. That’s handy because I actually need life insurance.

• The Original Nick says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:04

  Got a quote for £3.99/month. Can’t budge it down anymore.

  • Shoestring says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:11

    you might as well get 2 for £200 total (different providers)

    • The Original Nick says:

      3 Nov3 November 10:25

      Thanks Harry.

• Amo says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:32

  This is a long shot, but I’m in the market for a savings account that’s also easy access. Are there any Miles earning opportunities for opening an account with let’s say £50k?

  • Jon says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:46

    Barclays Premier were doing a promo- think you need to earn >£75k or have £100k savings. Rob did an article about it in the last 2 weeks.

  • Whizz68 says:

    3 Nov3 November 13:15

    I believe Virgin have a flying club savings account, paying 1600 miles per £1000.

• Roger says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:55

  LHR T5 Plaza Premium lounge with Amex Platinum

  Is it card holder plus two guest for free or card holder plus 1guest?
  I have used card holder plus one last time without charge but not sure about two guest.

  This is UK issued Amex Platinum metal card

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:54

    I think it’s holder + 1 guest, not even sure you can pay to add a guest and if that’s reduced vs the walk up fee.

    Amex’s own lounges are 1+2(or immediate family)

  • Aslan says:

    3 Nov3 November 11:07

    Amex app says +1 guest & kids under 3 are free.

• Lyn says:

  3 Nov3 November 10:05

  O/T re Rob’s recent article about paying for the Qantas Heathrow T3 lounge.

  We were there on Friday morning, arriving about 30 minutes before they announced boarding of their flight to Perth. Downstairs was almost empty, only 2 or 3 other tables occupied in the dining table area. The menu choices happened to suit us but were very limited – eggs benedict / smoked salmon and scrambled eggs / or salt and pepper calamari – and service was slow. They closed up at about 11:30am and sent us to an almost equally empty upstairs, I don’t know if we’d missed an exodus of Qantas’ Perth passengers from upstairs before we got up there or if they were duty-free shopping or in another lounge. I rather suspect the latter. I normally like the design of Qantas lounges and was really surprised by how dull the lounge looked in the dreary grey weather, almost as if it had been designed for Australian sunshine. It must be quite different in the evening when they re-open the dining area downstairs at 6pm for the Qantas evening flight, presumably with a wider choice on offer, and the gin bar and upstairs bar get more use.

  I asked about paid access before we left. It is a trial and costs 55 pounds for up to 3 hours or 85 pounds for over 3 hours. They have 5 or 6 people a day take them up on the offer. I didn’t notice any signs about this, but could easily have missed them.

  • Lumma says:

    3 Nov3 November 11:16

    If there was a prize for the most overrated lounge at Heathrow, the Qantas one would win by a landslide. Service is rubbish, food is dreadful – picked onions on breakfast anyone? It’s way too brightly lit, it’s like being in someone’s kitchen.

    After Cathay Pacific, I’d rather spend time in the American lounge before Qantas

    • John says:

      3 Nov3 November 11:25

      +1 I don’t know why people rave about it, no food worth eating until about 0930 (unless you already had a big hotel breakfast) then basically dead until 1700. It was interesting at first as something new but if I just want something guaranteed CX always wins

      The gin bar was OK when it was open, but I tried and failed 3 times to get the green ant thing.

      • Polly says:

        3 Nov3 November 12:06

        Actually late afternoon is very good. Got to time it right unfortunately. Bring out the good stuff pre quantas take off. Saying that we had a lovely meal 4pm ish champagne poured non stop. Great service, so def worth visiting. Just lounge hop til you find the best of what you are looking for, food, booze???

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Nov3 November 12:19

          yep I’m with Polly though obvs horses for courses. I liked the emptiness upstairs mid-afternoon & the food selection suited me, loads of fresh fruit/ vegetarian/ light options – then after lounge-hopping I went back to get the freshly carved roast lamb about 5pm downstairs

          no Champagne? big deal, they have good Aussie fizz alternatives that were very crisp/ dry/ fruity

          I think it’s miles better than the American lounge, which is good in its own right though, esp self pour JDs 🙂

          good job we don’t all have the same tastes/ preferences or it’d be a boring old world

  • Polly says:

    3 Nov3 November 12:09

    Lyn
    Really only worth it pre pm quantas flt. All open and buzzing
    A completely different entity. Might think you landed in oz already. Great atsmosphere.

    • Lyn says:

      3 Nov3 November 17:28

      Polly and Harry, I agree with you. The quiet lounge suited us perfectly well in the morning and I also really liked the fresh fruit and healthy salads. It was also good to have the option for a shower.

      I was just surprised at how empty it seemed to be even before the Perth flight opened for boarding and how unsuited aspects of the design seemed to rainy weather. We didn’t try the Cathay business lounge for comparison as we only had time for one lounge and had been to the first/business one at CDG the evening before. Besides we like Qantas lounges in general.

      I can easily imagine it being more lively and more of a general success in the late afternoon before the Singapore flight, with a more extensive menu and what looks like a very good range of Australian and New Zealand wines.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    4 Nov4 November 05:31

    If it’s the salt and pepper squid they serve in their F lounges at MEL/SYD/LAX, it is amazing and you should order it at every opportunity. The pavlova is the other signature item, which is also very good.

    • Dev says:

      4 Nov4 November 11:20

      The couple of times I was in the Cathay Pacific first class lounge last month, it was full of passengers waiting to board the Qantas flight to Perth. Nevertheless, the Qantas lounge was also quite busy, and I noticed lots of lounge hoppers too!

    • Lyn says:

      4 Nov4 November 16:07

      Yes, I did order the salt and pepper squid, to try it finally, after missing it at the First lounges in MEL and LAX because we were too early in the morning. No deconstructed pavlova though. One down, one to go.

• Jon E says:

  3 Nov3 November 10:21

  O/T Sorry if this has been mentioned before but Combine My Avios -both the IB and BA websites are only letting me transfer FROM BA to IB, and will not let me transfer the other way, i.e. IB to BA. Is this a known problem and is there a work around?

  • Lumma says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:55

    You need an avios.com account via either Aer Lingus or Vueling. You can then pull from Iberia into this account and send to BA.

    I think it’s something to do with you can’t send from Iberia directly into a BA account if your BA account is part of a household account

    • Jon E says:

      5 Nov5 November 08:00

      Thanks – will try that 🙂

• TripRep says:

  3 Nov3 November 10:36

  Heading to the No1 lounge later this week, will be there for breakfast, not wanting to a Walrus…. but.

  Is there anyway to get more than bacon butty, ie they don’t offer a full cooked?

  Alternatively what happens if you turn up at 10am, have the bacon butty and you’re still there past 11am when the lunch options come out?

  If you think that’s greedy I’m on a 4+hr flight and just want to sleep, also unlikely to be boozing, so hardly taking advantage of the lounge.

  • Chris says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:50

    They take the menu away after you have ordered IIRC which signals to the staff that you have ordered and that anything else is chargeable.

    • Shoestring says:

      3 Nov3 November 12:00

      always a few menus lying around left by people who left to catch their plane 🙂

      • Polly says:

        3 Nov3 November 12:01

        Exactly. Smart thinking…

        • Lady London says:

          3 Nov3 November 13:06

          Isn’t that called ‘wombling’ ?
          Another thing I arrived in this game far, far too late for.

        • Andy says:

          4 Nov4 November 01:58

          “wombling” haha I remember on MSE a lot of people talked about wombling Asda receipts for price guarantee vouchers. Some of them made quite a lot from doing that, but the scheme is no more.

        • Rob says:

          4 Nov4 November 09:26

          I wombled some Heathrow Rewards points once when I found a chunky receipt on the floor in T5 🙂

  • Shoestring says:

    3 Nov3 November 12:10

    the ‘free’ breakfast spread in No1 T3 is pretty good: fruits & cereals, tea & coffee, some pastries/ cakes/ toast I think – with the single cooked to order item restricted as mentioned above – you don’t need to worry about going hungry but it’s admittedly not the full English

    I presume similar pattern in other No1s but don’t know for sure

    • Andy says:

      4 Nov4 November 02:01

      Shoestring I remember you told me that we could still claim for a hotel and expenses if our ex-UK BA flight was cancelled due to the strike. They refunded our claim in full (£290 ish) so thanks a lot. My mum enjoyed the free hotel (Staybridge Suites Heathrow) so turned out well 😁

      • Shoestring says:

        4 Nov4 November 19:09

        Nice result 🙂

  • the_real_a says:

    3 Nov3 November 13:27

    There is a basic buffet selection too for breakfast… The one hot item is fairly small, but a couple of plates from the buffet in addition should see you fill up.

• Obi says:

  3 Nov3 November 10:51

  It’s probably to do with Rob wanting you to click through his affiliate links rather than using the site that cannot be named which is fair enough given he has bills to pay.

  • Rob says:

    3 Nov3 November 11:26

    Our overheads are over £100,000 per year now (this assumes I earn £0). We are paying Anika 100% during her maternity leave plus paying Sinead too plus of course Rhys and our office, and that’s before you start on day to day expenses. We would close overnight if we lost all our affiliate income. It’s that simple.

    • Charlieface says:

      3 Nov3 November 11:46

      Yes but most of those comments mention offers for which you have no affiliate arrangement anyway (mainly by Harry), so it’s just a bit OTT, I think.

      • Polly says:

        3 Nov3 November 11:57

        It’s no big deal using affiliate links..and Harry comes up with some really helpful tips to keep many punters happy. Seriosly..where’s the issue!!

      • Rob says:

        3 Nov3 November 12:08

        And have nothing to do with miles or points …. you can discuss these things better at HotUKDeals or Paid To Shop.

      • The Original David says:

        3 Nov3 November 14:12

        Ironically, it was an HfP article soon after I started the points game that prompted me to switch from Qu!dco to the other one…

      • Cat says:

        3 Nov3 November 14:30

        It is Rob’s business, not a public service, to be fair!
        I try to go via Rob’s links if there’s nothing offered on Voldeportal. Last time I made a booking with Melia, I looked at the hotel I was interested in, then shut the Melia site down, and reopened HfP several times until lo and behold, an ad for the Gran Melia Victoria popped up on the right hand side, then I clicked through and booked.

    • Lyn says:

      3 Nov3 November 17:38

      Just a reminder of one way to find the complete list of Rob’s affiliate links – click the “list of partners” at the top of each article and scroll down to the quite extensive list. I wasn’t aware of this until I asked Rob in a comment recently for a specific link, for Qantas I think.

      • Rob says:

        3 Nov3 November 18:33

        Although Qantas has just closed their scheme, annoyingly.

    • Dan says:

      3 Nov3 November 18:26

      Thanks Rob – completely fair and honest answer! Will continue to use your affiliate links in that case.
      M

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