Buy cheap Avios points via Groupon Ireland from 1.05p

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• Shoestring says:

  26 Nov26 November 07:27

  should be a Welcome discount for new sign up to Groupon Ireland

  • Rob says:

    26 Nov26 November 07:36

    Doesn’t work on this deal.

• Anna says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:00

  (Finally) created an AerClub account, which seemed refreshingly straightforward compared with Iberia! Is it worth building up an avios balance with a view to making Aer Lingus redemptions?

  • Shoestring says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:07

    just one more a/c to worry about points expiring?

    can move points freely to AerClub if needed

  • Rob says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:40

    No, because you can move them from BA instantly whenever you need them.

• Doug M says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:00

  Should be easier with AerClub were words no one that’s ever dealt with AerClub would expect to read.

  • Doug M says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:02

    On second thought, compared with Iberia that may be right.

• Jamesay says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:02

  Backpacks! WARNING! These are TINY and can carry very little. Quality … Meh….. but main issue is they are TINY!!

  • Bosco says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:08

    Yeah. They’re for young kids.

    • The Original David says:

      26 Nov26 November 10:26

      I couldn’t fit my kid in mine until I chopped his legs off

      • ankomonkey says:

        26 Nov26 November 13:53

        🙂

• Oh Matron! says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:27

  Booked on A350 to joburg next year in PE. Happy that it’s a a350 but the entire PE cabin seems to be sat on the wings. Hoping that my bid for an upgrade is successful…

  • marcw says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:49

    Isn’t is a night flight anyway?

• Charlieface says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:53

  Also aren’t Aer Lingus awards cheaper to book by phone on BA than on Avios.com?

  • Charlieface says:

    26 Nov26 November 08:54

    That was a reply to Anna

  • Rob says:

    26 Nov26 November 09:48

    Yes, much of the time, although worse availability weirdly (anecdotally, never done it myself).

  • ADS says:

    26 Nov26 November 10:57

    that used to be the case … but a few months ago it swapped around, and BA started charging stupid amounts of fees on (phone) redemptions

• Rui N. says:

  26 Nov26 November 08:54

  OT:
  I’m going to my first Morrison’s on Saturday (the excitement!) and have a couple of questions regarding using the Amex offer:
  1. Buying “regular” gift cards (Amazon and the likes), if they are available, is there anything I should be aware of?
  2. I’ve read here that you can buy “paper” vouchers to use on the gas station, right? Can anyone explain how does that work?
  Thanks!

  • Brian says:

    26 Nov26 November 09:01

    You get 2% back in More points for buying branded gift cards, so make sure you present your card. They are suspicious of people buying large quantities of gift cards – be prepared for the cashier to call over a supervisor if buying more than, say, £100.

    And yes, you can buy paper Morrison’s vouchers that can be used for fuel.

    • Shoestring says:

      26 Nov26 November 09:11

      buy the paper Morrisons vouchers at the kiosk in £10s, no point buying the £5s as you get change when using (they’re not on the giftcard rack, tills will have a limited number) – bring some photo ID just to avoid a wasted journey if you plan on buying (say) £500 of Morrisons vouchers, I’ve never been checked but sounds like M have suffered some card fraud recently so might as well be prepared

      • Shoestring says:

        26 Nov26 November 09:42

        no more Morrisons change from next month (January?) as M are moving to a sort of pre-paid debit card idea instead of paper vouchers, ie top up your balance – presumably will still work fine topping up with Amex but the change angle adds on a small benefit in % discount terms

        • BJ says:

          26 Nov26 November 10:26

          Anybody heard if we will still be able to use paper vouchers or these new cards for petrol? I was going to buy £1k paper vouchers but now having second thoughts.

        • EwanG says:

          26 Nov26 November 10:54

          @BJ – Tesco and Sainsbury’s have had the plastic gift cards for some time – they used to take them for fuel, but that changed a few years back, and I would be surprised if M do not follow suit by not accepting the plastic card for fuel.
          There is no expiry on the paper vouchers, so they will continue to take them as long as you hold them, and I think lower risk that they change the terms on what these can be spent on, given they will stop being issued soon!
          I would say go ahead, but £1k is a fair whack and you might need to do over a few days and different stores. For paper I generally don’t go above £150 a pop.

        • Rui N. says:

          26 Nov26 November 11:30

          Sainbury’s plastic gift cards bought in store do work on petrol stations. I have bought them on the (rare) occasions when Lloyds has an offer for Sainsbury’s (just finished my last one a couple of weeks ago; it was bought in the spring or thereabouts).
          The “corporate” gift cards you can get via employer’s perks do not work on petrol stations.

        • BJ says:

          26 Nov26 November 12:09

          @EwanG, my thoughts were along similar lines. I think maybe I best cut the risk and settle for £500. I have £200 already so just another three visits at my usual £100 a time.

        • BJ says:

          26 Nov26 November 13:48

          @Rui N, thanks for that. I was quite sure I had also used a giftcard at a Sainsburys PFS this spring but comments from a few people convinced me it must have been longer ago than that. I’m going to pick up a card and put £10 on it to try again and see what happens.

      • Polly says:

        26 Nov26 November 14:29

        Harry,
        They are definitely checking these days. I was even told recently, l had to pay for them in cash! So changes in the air. Morrison’s should not bother with Amex offers if they don’t want us buying their paper vouchers. Plastic GC will be fine, as l often buy a 100£ Tesco card to use for small shops with my Clubcard. So don’t mind doing the same with Mr M. Huge fraud last Xmas with stolen credit cards, and paper voucher churning.

        • Callum says:

          26 Nov26 November 19:26

          Is that a joke? Morrisons are obviously trying to get people to do their weekly shop, not just buy a load of discounted vouchers!

    • Rui N. says:

      26 Nov26 November 09:22

      Thank you both. Appreciate the help!

    • mark2 says:

      26 Nov26 November 09:42

      Not any more, sadly. The more points went down to 0.5% some time ago.

  • Andrew says:

    26 Nov26 November 09:35

    Enjoy your visit!

    Don’t just buy the vouchers though, they often have some really good deals, and I think they are the only British Supermarket to run their own abbatoirs and production facilities.

    Like many people on here, I have a near permanent 5% discount at Morrison’s (and Waitrose) all year round thanks to InStore. The LBG (and Amex offers) are just a extra bonus.

    • Rui N. says:

      26 Nov26 November 09:44

      Thanks Andrew. I plan to take a look at the entire store. 🙂

      • Polly says:

        26 Nov26 November 14:23

        If you get a 5% off offer. Don’t’ even save it. Ignore it, wait til the next round of offers you most likely will get a 10% off offer. Much better way to accumulate paper vouchers and GCs.

        • BJ says:

          26 Nov26 November 19:14

          Once in a while I let one of my amex cards go unused for a month. Not sure if it’s a good idea or not.

    • ADS says:

      26 Nov26 November 12:02

      how do you get the InStore deal ?

  • RussellH says:

    26 Nov26 November 11:07

    I would check at the CS desk as to where you get the paper gift vouchers.
    It seems to vary by shop. Shoestring regularly posts that he gets his from the kiosk, so the first time I went to the kiosk and was told that they are only available at the tills.
    Except that the tills no longer stock them either. I order them at the till, the cashier calls the supervisor who gets the vouchers. Meanwhile you pay and get out of the way of the next customer, while you wait for the supervisor to bring them.

    • Harry T says:

      26 Nov26 November 21:04

      I get them from the kiosk. I’ve bought about £300 in one go before and no-one seemed to mind – though they did have to get more from the store safe. I last did this about a month or two ago when I had 10% off. I live in the North East though.

  • Rich says:

    26 Nov26 November 11:14

    Yes, I heard too that they’re stopping giving change on the paper vouchers shortly. I’m surprised they ever didm tbh!

• Joe says:

  26 Nov26 November 09:00

  Out of interest, why can’t airlines seem to make a daytime flight from JNB back to London work? I know most business pax want a night flight, but surely there is sufficient demand to turn the plane around for a daytime return?

  If Durban works for a daytime flight, surely a daytime JNB flight (filled with connection pax from all over Southern Africa and Mauritius) could work? Anyway, just my morning musings…

  • Mr Wibbly says:

    26 Nov26 November 09:10

    The Durban daytime flight departs 0730 and arrives at 1730. So I agree, daytime should work from JNB. But what about a daytime flight the other way, from London. Could that work?

    • Shoestring says:

      26 Nov26 November 09:13

      would it be the time difference? just a couple of hours, so maybe most people prefer to sleep on the plane

    • marcw says:

      26 Nov26 November 09:21

      KLM flights leave at 10:15 am to CPT and JNB. Their inbound flights are ON. No silly ground time at JNB/CPT.

  • marcw says:

    26 Nov26 November 09:20

    I think this works fine if you only have 1 service a day, or many (like JFK). If you have a few, like 2-3 the risk is that the lower yield option (which would be the daytime flight) cannibalises the high yield options.
    Look at KLM, they fly daily to CPT and JNB. Their outbound flight is a daytime flight. Their return, an ON flight.

  • Dev says:

    26 Nov26 November 11:33

    Interesting theories here. Although I am not a technical expert, I understand that the higher temperature during the day affects MTOW (Maximum Take Off Weight), as well as the runway length required at JNB. Not just for the A350-1000, but also for other large aircraft.

    Therefore, VS would be better placed to operate a daylight flight outbound to JNB and an overnight return. It would not surprise me if VS swap the A350-1000 out after a few months, given the cost of operating it on this route. Their A330-900 could possibly be a better option for LHR – JNB – LHR with the flight times proposed for the A350-1000.

    But then again, I’m no expert in aviation operations (just the aircraft financing) 😉.

    • Rob says:

      26 Nov26 November 13:03

      There was an issue with this in Las Vegas recently, with certain aircraft not being able to take off at certain times of day during the Summer.

      • BJ says:

        26 Nov26 November 14:01

        It was supposed to be a concern in Dubai too because the a350 supposedly performs better in the dry heat than the 787. The 787-10 most have proven good enough though as Emirates went ahead and ordered them in favour of a350s.

  • ChrisC says:

    26 Nov26 November 13:51

    Thee isn’t a curfew at LHR. It’s myth that there is.

    There are quota limits on the number of movements between 11.30PM and 06.00AM

    https://www.heathrow.com/company/local-community/noise/operations/night-flights

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