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easyJet and Jet2 snap up Thomas Cook take-off and landing slots at Gatwick and Bristol

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A batch of Thomas Cook slot sales were announced yesterday by the liquidator of the airline.

easyJet has paid £36m for a package of slots at London Gatwick and Bristol.  It acquired 12 Summer and eight Winter slots at Gatwick as well as six Summer and one Winter slot at Bristol.

Jet2 has also announced the acquisition of some Thomas Cook slots at Manchester, Stansted, and Birmingham Airports.  The price was not disclosed.

It is not clear if this represents all of the Gatwick and Manchester slots, which were the most valuable assets, or just the short-haul ones.

The official statement is not totally clear and Cook was originally reported to have 15 or 16 pairs of Gatwick Summer slots.

British Airways was known to be interested in a handful of well-timed slots at Gatwick whilst Virgin Atlantic was keen on some of the Manchester ones.

Comments (123)

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

  • Jamescg says:

    OT: Curve related
    Received an email from Curve this am asking me to participate in a survey. It was specifically about Curve and HMRC transcriptions and which of a number of not terribly attractive options I would prefer if I wished to keep paying HMRC with Curve. I did the maths and worked out that free HMRC as a metal card benefit would be the cheapest unattractive option for me.
    A worrying sign of changes to Curve to come?
    Other than Billhop (2.95%fee) is Curve still the only convenient way to pay HMRC with a credit card?

  • Andrew M says:

    Has anyone been able to use the Lloyds Avios voucher to upgrade from WTP to CW at the sale prices?

  • Nadeshka says:

    OT: Heads up on a convincing scam on amex cards: My husband received 2 SMS messages yesterday morning. First text came from ‘amex’ and said they needed to verify some activity and would send a message from another mobile number with details. A further SMS from an 07 number claimed a £1000 transaction at ‘coinbase’ and to reply Y or N to confirm.
    The very concerning part is it correctly stated the last four digits of his amex. Could definitely fall for this. Luckily he called AMEX directly who confirmed it was fake, and mentioned they had had several similar reports already at that point.
    So somewhere there has been another data leak…
    Not sure what the follow up would be and how they would profit from it though.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      I’ve had lots of Amex cards over the last few years and lots have had the same last 4 digits. I’m not clued up on Amex card numbers but suspect it’s the previous number that are more important

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        This. The 12th digit is the number of cards issued on that credit line (most often 1). The 13th and 14th digit are what number additional card member you are (so most commonly 00 if you are the primary cardholder). The 15th digit is a check digit.

        So the vast majority of Amex cards in circulation will end 100x. Guess the last digit and you’re right 10% of the time; plenty if you ding out enough spam messages. Of course there may be a data leak somewhere but having the last 4 amex digits doesn’t prove one.

        • RussellH says:

          I would guess that most spammers would reckon on a 0.5% success rate (in terms of the data matching) as being pretty good. 10% sounds like a potential goldmine.
          But this also suggests that there may not have been a data leak, as there is no actual account number data being quoted. I would guess that the scammers would be hoping to harvest that further down the line.

    • Fivebobbill says:

      The EXACT some thing happened to me 3 weeks ago, and I too called Amex to query it. They confirmed it wasn’t them. My biggest concern was, and still is, that the initial text came from an “Official” Amex contact number! I have been out of the country for the last 2 weeks, but before i left they told me they were still investigating. I will be looking for a further update from them when i return home on Monday.

      • RussellH says:

        It is pretty easy to spoof phone numbers these days.
        Slightly more effort involved that in faking an e-mail address, but still easy if you know what you are doing.

  • Jtz says:

    Am I right in thinking the 50% of world traveller is only worth it if you can find seats at peak times?

    • Rob says:

      Generally yes, but easy enough to do the maths based on your travel dates.

      • Erico1875 says:

        over Easter 2 x BLR to Edi . 12500 Avios + £225 with Amex 2 4 1 versus cash price £900.

  • Kevin says:

    Rib, any idea whether Lloyd’s upgrade voucher can be used with the BA avios discount?

    • Rob says:

      No

      • Kevin says:

        Thanks for your reply.

      • Johnny says:

        No, you’ve no idea? Or No, the discount cannot be used with a Lloyds Upgrade voucher? If the latter, any idea why?

        • Callum says:

          Because Lloyds vouchers have nothing to do with the BA Executive Club, despite the suggestion in the original article on here that they would work.

  • Munch says:

    OT Looking to close my Platinum card. If I transfer to Marriott will I still receive my bonus if I close the card? Is the payment of the bonus independent to the amex account remaining open?

    • Rob says:

      Amex will send Marriott a list of qualifying accounts who transferred when the promo ends. Clearly a risk a closed account would not go on.

  • RussellH says:

    OT: Two bits of good news yesterday. My Hilton Gold extension to March 2021 came through from Barclaycard (about a month after hitting the £10K threshhold and without me having to chase them), and our favourite local restaurant which has hitherto only taken M/Card and Visa is now sporting its Shop Small sticker.

    • Liz says:

      We hit our £10k at the end of Aug and we received an email from Hilton Honors early in Sept saying “Congratulations! As a HH credit card member you have Gold status for as long as you’re a card member and your HH pts do not expire. I’ve printed the email as evidence but not sure what to do next year. We dont want to lose our gold status as we no longer have the Plat card. Assume we dont need to spend £10 next year on this card and can focus on our IHG spend to retain Spire.
      Has anyone else had this lovely offer!

      • Nick M says:

        Mine came through in September and I’ve just double checked it – it says “another year of the good stuff”

        I’ve spent £10k+ on the card for the last 3/4 years, so would assume if your wording is different then you don’t need to spend anything at all.

        • RussellH says:

          Mine said ““another year of the good stuff” too, and specified the until date 31/3/2021.

          What annoys me is that it comes as a graphic, not in simple text, or even a PDF if they have to.

  • Andrew says:

    Question for you Amex/Avios gurus out there! My other half has spent ~£13k on her BA Blue Amex card this membership year. 1) Am I right in thinking that if she upgrades to the BAPP, this will trigger the 241 immediately? 2) I have a BAPP; should I be referring her for the BAPP in order to receive some referral points? Thanks in advance

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