Mandarin Oriental to take over the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi

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• Liam says:

  18 Dec18 December 11:06

  OT— I’m flying LAX-LHR-ARN in February on BA—WT+ for the LAX-LHR leg and Y from LHR to ARN. I wanted to upgrade the LAX-LHR leg using Avios and was quoted 6,250 to do so by an agent on the phone yesterday. However, after a lengthy period of working it out and talking to someone else, he came back to me and said that upgrading that leg would result in taxes for the whole LAX-ARN journey repricing, so I’d be required to pay $374 in tax (in USD because I booked via Amex USA).

  I’m obviously not going to upgrade that leg for such a hefty fee (although I might possibly consider upgrading the whole journey if there’s availability). Is there any way around this at all?

  • Peter K says:

    18 Dec18 December 11:18

    ~£285 + 6250 avios to upgrade from WT+ to CW seems a decent deal to me on a long flight like that, even one way. You’ll be glad you did.

    • Liam says:

      18 Dec18 December 11:38

      The 6,250 Avios is just to upgrade LHR-ARN, not the LAX-LHR part.

      • Liam says:

        18 Dec18 December 11:43

        Which I now realise I wrote incorrectly in my original post. Sorry!

        • Peter K says:

          18 Dec18 December 14:33

          In that case it is a crazy price. As it’s a short journey of only 2:30hrs approx I’d stick with economy. You’d be better off paying for an exit row seat.

  • BJ says:

    18 Dec18 December 12:18

    IIRC the upgrade from WTP to CW is 39,000, not around 6,000.

• NickAnon says:

  18 Dec18 December 11:21

  Im flying China Southern on 15th Jan, is it likely (or possible at all) that I’ll be able to credit those flights to BAEC?

  • Rhys says:

    18 Dec18 December 11:39

    The joint venture is effective from 2nd Jan so you might be able to, although it depends if they can get their IT systems to correctly cross-pollinate…

  • Rob says:

    18 Dec18 December 15:30

    Outside chance, need to see what happens on 2nd January which is the official kick off date.

• Russ says:

  18 Dec18 December 11:56

  ‘….and Marsa Malaz is – by a long way – the best beach resort in Doha’

  *waves small flag for Sheraton Grand Doha*

• Martha says:

  18 Dec18 December 11:59

  OT
  I recently made a transfer to a foreign account with Azimo. I used my Virgin Card and received a cash advance fee. Is there any way to avoid this? Are debit cards free?

  • Jonathan says:

    18 Dec18 December 12:30

    Using a debit card shouldn’t generate fees from your bank if the currency you exchange from is GBP. I also got stung by Virgin on Azimo (their cash advance fee is 5%!). I had thought I might get away with it as I used Curve and Virgin is usually one of the better Curve/Revolut options.

  • Kai says:

    18 Dec18 December 12:45

    Use the back in time feature to revert the charge and then call virgin to ask for a refund

• Anon says:

  18 Dec18 December 12:37

  Bab Al Qasr very good for the price in Abu Dhabi (near to Palace), good for the gram as well if you care about that.

• TripRep says:

  18 Dec18 December 14:18

  SC reminds me of Jez Corbyn in that tie and spouting his ideals…

  Try catching a connecting flight first before a long haul flight and then driving for 2hours on arrival. That’s the real benefit of a lie flat bed.

  https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/economy-flights-ba-climate-change-british-airways-business-class-first-legroom-a9246511.html

  • Shoestring says:

    18 Dec18 December 14:25

    you missed his original spouting
    https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/flight-economy-class-carbon-footprint-emission-long-haul-environment-climate-change-a9241526.html

    • TripRep says:

      18 Dec18 December 14:36

      And the tweet.
      https://mobile.twitter.com/SimonCalder/status/1205458508273127424

      • Shoestring says:

        18 Dec18 December 14:41

        StefanASmith @Stefan21115546
        14 Dec Replying to @SimonCalder
        Actually with these insane articles you write why don’t you do your part and stop traveling the world. Waste of space…

  • Nick_C says:

    18 Dec18 December 15:01

    Well perhaps it would be feasible flying to Australia. Not sure how it would work to Tokyo though. Or even LA. Tosser.

    And if long haul planes are grounded overnight, flying economy could become as expensive as flying business class.

  • flyforfun says:

    18 Dec18 December 19:36

    Black Suit. White Shirt. Red Tie.

    Apparently, that’s what people find most trustworthy- according to a “style guide” course for men I went on earlier this year. Hence why Trump is wearing that combo always. And you think BoJo the clown wore that red tie when he went Sedgewick because it was Labor’s color, you’re wrong. He’s manipulating the country yet again with the stuff his psycho-analyst spin doctors are pushing.

• AndyK says:

  18 Dec18 December 14:25

  Totally OT.
  Has anyone managed to use Esso offer for fuel?

  • Craig says:

    18 Dec18 December 14:31

    Worked for me, was the petrol station on the list of participating ones?

    • AndyK says:

      18 Dec18 December 14:55

      Yes, it was. No email and charge came through as Tesco PFS.
      Wonder if I should wait or raise with Amex straight away.

      • SteveD says:

        18 Dec18 December 16:44

        I had the same – was suspicious when ‘Tesco PFS’ came through on statement.

        Credit arrived after about 5 days though.

  • Peter K says:

    18 Dec18 December 14:35

    Twice successfully so far. I did check the list of participating stations first though.

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    18 Dec18 December 14:45

    Yes..but it took over 2 weeks for the email to come through from amex.

• Shoestring says:

  18 Dec18 December 15:18

  BA 2020 Sale now on! So the prices in Europe tell me, anyway. Go to https://www.britishairways.com/travel/low-price-finder/public/en_gb – navigate to Europe, UK & Ireland – and you can see the low, low prices. Not just in the depths of winter, either – great prices for the summer months included. Eg on our route to the place in the sun – under £80 rtn HBO in June, July, August, September

  • Rob says:

    18 Dec18 December 15:25

    Meant to be launching tomorrow but the prices always go in early. We’ve not been sent any pricing info in advance.

    • Shoestring says:

      18 Dec18 December 16:01

      Just checking out some tier point runs for you guys and you can do (say) Catania for £235 return (Business, 160 TPs) eg June when it’s a pretty nice place to spend the weekend 🙂

      ie Business is in the Sale as well AFAICS

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        18 Dec18 December 18:49

        £196 LHR – HEL

        • Shoestring says:

          18 Dec18 December 19:04

          getting close to £1/ point 🙂

          if you took off some money with Avios (ie the first small one they offer which is best value), then you’d get even closer

        • Shoestring says:

          18 Dec18 December 19:10

          £30 off with 3,000 Avios! so that makes it something like a £6 saving (3000 Avios @0.8p)

          £190/ 160TPs = £1.1875 per TP

          AND you get to use the 4 lounges in T3!

          anybody not yet convinced? 🙂

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          18 Dec18 December 19:26

          Use 3000 AVIOS for £30 off (£166) & get back over 3K AVIOS 😛

        • Shoestring says:

          18 Dec18 December 19:36

          then I believe we have hit Nirvana – £1/ point 🙂

  • Anna says:

    18 Dec18 December 17:10

    I’m guessing this is from London airports where there’s lots of competition. Our MAN-AGP flights are pricing up at £331 pp! Fortunately I have 2 booked with avios and 2 on a BA holiday package, saving us a fair bit of cash.

    • Anna says:

      18 Dec18 December 17:13

      Or £361 if you want checked luggage! (In August)

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