Get £100 off British Airways Holidays and 10% off Virgin Holidays packages this weekend

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• Mr. AC says:

  3 Jan3 January 05:16

  OT: are there any known periods every year when Qatar runs discounts (e.g. I recall seeing a 10% off code here in September), and do those usually apply to the base economy fares (not Promo) or no? Trying to figure out if I should book now for travel in March or hold out for a discount.
  Also: I think Qatar used to have a 24 hour cancellation policy a-la BA, but no longer? Can’t find a reference on their website, only links from blogs or forums that no longer open.

  • tony says:

    3 Jan3 January 06:55

    Qatar seem to have shaken up their discount policy a bit, but deals still lurk out there. I got a promoted 12% off on Facebook although it didn’t seem to work for me on the route I wanted. There was another email shot with a “Thankyou19” code out which gave 12% off bookings for Feb & Mar over Christmas, but that’s now ended.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:50

    I’m sure the travel festival deals used to be at this time of year but nothing atm

    There is a London to Asia J class sale on fares c£1800 though so not amazing.

  • Dawn says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:40

    I’ve just booked for my sister and her friend to travel next October but from Oslo. When I checked a month ago the best flights were out of Rome to Sydney via Doha for £2000 approx. They weren’t ready to book then so we had to wait. They are really happy as they’ve never flown Bus class before and they will be in a Q suite for one of the legs at least. We checked Rome, Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo in total.

  • PJJ says:

    3 Jan3 January 16:48

    The cheapest I’ve seen a return in economy, LHR to Melbourne in January was during their Cyber Monday deal at £795. No good for you this year though !

• Tilly says:

  3 Jan3 January 07:03

  O/T – BAEC status extension for maternity/ paternity. Has anyone applied before? Do you do it before or after baby is born? Just wondering if I apply now and send them a shot of my MATB1 or have to do it once I have a birth certificate. Tier point year ends in June so I have plenty of time after the birth if I need a birth certificate.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:50

    From what I’ve seen posted in other comments best to contact them closer to June and after the babies born.

    • Tilly says:

      3 Jan3 January 10:14

      Thanks.

    • Pid says:

      4 Jan4 January 00:02

      I did it after the baby was born and just after my TP year ended. They upgraded me back to SILVER with no problem. I was then lucky as the following year despite not requalifing I remained at SILVER. Do not think getting 2 years was supposed to happen and not sure if it had had anything to do with the timing of the application but will be trying again with second child!

  • Mr. AC says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:51

    For me it worked the following way – I emailed them when my kid was born, they told me that I need to send another email right before the tier point collection year ends if due to the kid being born I fail to hit the status I had the year before, in which case they’ll extend it instead of the soft landing to the lower tier. I ended up hitting the status anyway, so it didn’t end up being useful for me.

    • Tilly says:

      3 Jan3 January 10:17

      Thanks, that’s good to know. I have barely flown so far this TP year, only long haul trip we’ve taken have been reward flights. I definitely won’t be taking any more flights before June. So zero TPs earned this TP year.

      • The Original Nick says:

        3 Jan3 January 10:54

        Hi Tilly. Hope you’re well. Time to collect some Avios from on the ground now then. Remind me, which flight was it we met on?

• BJ says:

  3 Jan3 January 07:18

  While any discount is always welcome, this from BA is miserly. I cannot see a 4% discount being much of an incentive to anyone who has yet to make their plans and has a choice of travel partners. Even with the sale prices and discount on top I am sure it is possible to get comparable holidays with better airline seats at substantially lower prices. Following a poor Black Friday, we have also failed to see the real headline grabbing BA deals around Christmas/NY that were always very useful for some. Only conclusion that can be drawn from this is that IAG must be in good shape and feel confident of remaining so despite the industrial action and pay settlements last year. Combined with reductions in premium seat numbers due to both the introduction of Club Suite and replacement of older aircraft with often smaller new ones, it seems that an avios devaluation must now be that bit closer.

  • Chelseafi says:

    3 Jan3 January 08:21

    I’m currently looking to book our family summer holiday in one of the Ikos resorts Greece, I’ve found BA holidays is the best price by far for this. Any advice from others on these resorts appreciated. Thanks

    • BJ says:

      3 Jan3 January 08:50

      Good to hear that they are competitive on something 🙂 I think they do better on short haul with CE but I was thinking longhaul.

    • JRC says:

      3 Jan3 January 10:12

      Love IKOS, been to Dassia and Olivia. Dassia better for Adults due to adults only pool etc. We tend to go off-season as the prices in the summer are eye watering plus we don’t have kids. Def give “Cancun” type All Incl a run for their money. One day free hire car is also nice- new Mini Cooper, just pay for the fuel you use.

    • SimonW says:

      3 Jan3 January 12:16

      We have been to them all – group of 10 with parents, grandparents and kids. Dassia is our fave, Kos a close runner up. They are superb. We are going to try the new one in Marbella for May half term this year…. You never feel like you are at an All Inc place. Various a la carte restaurants. I would say a week is enough. I think 2 weeks is a long time eating at same places every day…. BA Holidays was always the best value when we have booked.

      • Chelseafi says:

        3 Jan3 January 13:37

        Thanks yes they do all look nice, struggling deciding between Dassia, Oceania & Olivia, we are going last week September, family 2 boys will be 22 and 20, so it’s better value to have 2 rooms or we could have one larger type room?
        We did Domes of Elounda 2019 which was a massive hit with amazing room with pool and lovely Food, so hoping Ikos will be good option, with more choice of restaurants and facilities.

        • SimonW says:

          3 Jan3 January 14:08

          I’d def pick Dassia if cost similar. You will miss the school holiday madness so should be decent value. We always have a 1 bed family suite, with the kids on sofa beds (they are 5 and 6). With older kids I think you will prefer the space of 2 separate rooms., as well as having separate bathrooms!

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    3 Jan3 January 11:23

    The Virgin one isn’t any better. Flying Club members normally get 7% off anyway so this is just an extra 3% in practice.

  • Sal says:

    3 Jan3 January 12:14

    Although I do like BA and go to them a lot to book. The pure push on this website of them when they’re offering such a small discount is rather frustrating. The Virgin offer below is way better but the way it’s written and it being second peddle make it seem less so.
    head for points sponsored by BA

• Boi says:

  3 Jan3 January 07:47

  Early OT: what exactly is money laundering? A friend accused me of that for using worldremit famous £55 multiple times. And also for Monese, Revolut and curve. Is he right?

  • Froggee says:

    3 Jan3 January 08:11

    Money laundering is the process of concealing the origins of money that is the proceeds of criminality thereby turning it into apparently clean money. I think your friend is confusing using financial products in accordance with their terms and conditions to obtain an ancillary benefit and money laundering.

  • BJ says:

    3 Jan3 January 08:17

    No, he is wrong. It is the effort to disguise or transform money obtained from criminal activity into respectable capital or assets. You are just taking advantage of rules governing the use of reputable and, by and large, regulated financial services and products.

  • Harry T says:

    3 Jan3 January 08:21

    @Boi your friend is wrong.

    Also, how did you get World Remit £55 multiple times?

    • BJ says:

      3 Jan3 January 08:32

      Multiple accounts via multiple accounts at Harry’s place in The City?

    • Boi says:

      3 Jan3 January 08:33

      Thanks all. Now I can relax and play the game.
      @Harry, “my friends “ were happy to send me money. They just used my UK debit card, my (site that can’t be named) to pay into my Canada account.

      • BJ says:

        3 Jan3 January 08:47

        @Boi, a few grateful people for the code you posted last night so thanks again if you did not see the replies 😉

        • Boi says:

          3 Jan3 January 09:46

          You welcome @BJ. I am glad I could help my hfp family.

      • Shoestring says:

        3 Jan3 January 11:06

        we’re on number 5 x £55, they do not care about/ or even monitor the end a/c so it is OK to use it several times

        though they check email address repeats and stop those

        WR is another fintech where they are very happy to burn investors’ hard-earned capital @ up to £55 (£60 the other day) a pop to recruit ‘new’ users – makes Monese’s £15 look cheap 🙂

        • Chas says:

          3 Jan3 January 12:49

          I’ve not used World Remit yet, but looking at the site which can’t be named the intro offer is at &40 not £55. Is it just a case of keeping an eye on it until they increase it, or am I missing something? Also, are there any of the Fin Tech cards which help me gain a foreign bank account for the relevant amounts to be transferred to?

        • Boi says:

          3 Jan3 January 12:51

          I missed the £60 by few minutes. Saw it on my email notification just after the 24h window was closing.
          We plan to move to Canada this year anyway so I am slowly transferring cash there. I am on the lookout for any international money transfer deals. If anyone spots then ps let me know. Thanks

        • Tom says:

          3 Jan3 January 13:06

          Does WR work with a transferwise borderless account?

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Jan3 January 15:02

          @Chas it goes from £15 to £60 on a rolling basis plus the amount you need to transfer varies a lot – don’t forget there are 2 good reward sites and when one is low, the other is often high

        • Chas says:

          3 Jan3 January 17:52

          Thanks Shoestring. Tried the Q one but that is lower still. Will rack my brains and try Mr Google!

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Jan3 January 17:55

          I gave up on any but the top 2 sites, I think you’re better off just waiting for one or other to offer £55 again

        • Jtz says:

          3 Jan3 January 20:08

          I tried it when you first posted it x 3 with 3 accounts to accounts abroad for real purchases and only 1 worked, the others were declined and 1 took so long WR refunded the money back
          Not sure if thay was just for me and country i was sending money to though

  • Nick_C says:

    3 Jan3 January 12:29

    Although manufactured spend isn’t illegal, if you are cycling large sums across various accounts you could find your accounts temporarily suspended. If this happens, it can take a few weeks for normal service to be reinstated.

    By large sums, I’m thinking around the £8k mark.

    • Boi says:

      3 Jan3 January 12:48

      Surely everyone on here cycles more than 8K per month? Or what’s your timeframe? Ps explain further.

      • Nick_C says:

        3 Jan3 January 13:04

        I got into trouble doing £8k a week regularly with one institution. I was paying in each Monday and withdrawing three days later.They’ve since frozen withdrawals for much smaller amounts (including one for £995). They reinstate after a couple of weeks. I’ve even written to the National Crime Agency to explain what I was doing, as the length of time my account was frozen suggested they would have received a Suspicious Activity Report.

        I’m just saying be careful, don’t get greedy, and make sure you have sufficient funds to cover any repayments if an account gets frozen! If an account of yours ever gets frozen it is very frustrating experience the first time it happens, as the Bank is required by law to lie to you!

        Luckily, I’ve done no lasting damage.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          3 Jan3 January 13:47

          We all have different levels of faff/work/risk beyond which points hunting is not worth the time or trouble.

          Have to say I’m out long before the need to write to the NCA because you’ve come to their attention!

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Jan3 January 15:09

          @TSS you’d be surprised (possibly) to learn who has done what, in the past, to earn a few thousand/ million whatsits – they now sometimes claim that sort of thing is beneath them/ not worth their time – but they did it themselves not so long ago so possibly shouldn’t be so quick to berate others/ call it infra dig for others finding modern day ways of doing pretty much the same thing

        • Rob says:

          3 Jan3 January 16:53

          Fair comment. Loads of stuff I did when younger which I wouldn’t do now, although that is partly due to stuff like family commitments.

          Back when Travelex was offering 3 BA Miles per £1 on Sterling Travellers Cheques, I’d go to the bank at lunchtime, get £3k in cash, get the tube to Heathrow after work, buy 3 x £1k of STC’s from different Travelex, go to the bank the next day and pay the TC’s in. 9k Avios. Could / would I do that now, even if it were possible (which it isn’t)? No. Not entirely sure I’d buy a pile of £10 Nokia phones in Tesco with 1,000 points on each and then try to ebay them all etc etc either.

          Purely down to practicality though. If someone brought back 25 Avios per £1 of overseas credit card spend, as Lloyds offered once, I would be manufacturing another £40k of spend like I did 5 years ago ….

      • BJ says:

        3 Jan3 January 14:36

        No, not me, nowhere near it. My hobby has boundaries that reflect reasonable goals. I would find it totally demoralising if the game simply revolved around online banking and never ending trips to ATM and the co-op or PO in an effort to maximise avios. Must be like playing draughts; personally I’d rather play chess, it’s much more fun.

• krys_k says:

  3 Jan3 January 08:13

  OT. I posted before Xmas about being downgraded from Club to Economy on a redemption flight from WWA to LHR. At the time I asked on HFP what compensation, if any, I might be entitled to (unofficially, I was given an extra leg room row to myself and comped drinks and food from the M&S menu). There were quite a few different replies so perhaps folks will be interested in an update –

  At the time, I had paid circa £80 and 6500 Avios for the flight (I chose the option to pay most cash and least Avios). I’m silver.

  I ended up receiving –

  4500 avios (so the flight cost me 2000) – this was an automatically calculated amount
  No cash rebate
  10,000 avios ex gratia – I’d been told I’d get the compensation within 10 days, and when I didn’t, I called up to chase, was given an apology and offered the avios.

  Perhaps an interesting data point for others in a similar situation in the future.

  • BJ says:

    3 Jan3 January 08:31

    Wouldn’t buy this either. Others like Harry know better but I thin you are entitled to 75% for involuntary downgrade so should have been £60 plus 5000 avios I would have thought. You might see that 10k ex gratis as making up for that but personally I wouldn’t. I’d see that as a separate goodwill gesture. I think they should be forced to get the basics right if they have not done so. Two years ago my partner had a similar downgrade on a cash flight with AF. Took him nine months and endless calls and emails to get it fixed properly. They used every trick in the book to calculate refund in their favour at every turn. In some ways it is a good outcome overall but really down to you whether you think it worth they hassle if others advise you BA are still not playing fair.

    • Shoestring says:

      3 Jan3 January 09:35

      just proves what you often seen on the FT BA compo thread – BA are not very good at calculating the compo!

      yep, involuntary downgrade compo = 75% of the cost of that leg minus some adjustments for taxes

      in general, it should be cash compensation, even if you paid partly/ mostly in points – usually calculated using the lowest fare class in (say) Business

      @krys_k seems to have done OK out of it & be happy with the result, it looks OK to me, taking the extra 10K Avios into account – which redresses the unfairness/ low nature of the first offer

      WWA has got me confused – was it Warsaw WAW? – where Business fares to LHR can often be £120 or so – 75% of this minus some taxes might be £75-80 – so 14,500 Avios looks OK (but 4,500 would have been very mean)

      • Marcw says:

        3 Jan3 January 10:53

        Isn’t the % based on distance? I believe SH is 30%, MH about 50% and LH 75%

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Jan3 January 11:00

          yep I was forgetting SH, MH and LH have different %s

          which makes the 14,500 quite generous and could explain the first offer, which on second thoughts wasn’t so bad

        • Lady London says:

          3 Jan3 January 13:27

          Yes and its % of the cash value of the ticket, not of the number of avios that you paid. You can claim the cash value is the value they sold the last ticket at in the class you were booted our of – that’s got a good chance of being why OP was booted out if the class he’d paid for anyway.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      3 Jan3 January 09:55

      @BJ I’d be very happy with 14,500 Avios and minimal hassle in getting it for a downgrade on this route.

      Like Harry says we calculated the compo due to to be under £100.

      • BJ says:

        3 Jan3 January 10:08

        Ok guys, probably the right call. My partner was driven crazy by AF and ended up with just the 75% due plus 4k FB miles. Probably makes a lot of sense just to cut and run as soon as we feel happy losses are covered in most cases.

    • Lady London says:

      3 Jan3 January 13:23

      +1
      Especially do not sign anything at the time or afterwards that could indicate you accept whatever, as a final settlement.

      If they want to hand you.Avios I’d probably even say to them I’ll accept this only on exbgratia basis and will still be requiring the statutory amounts of cash due to me in addition.

      Remember Avios is funny money that remains in the control of BA and that is why.the statute EU261 provides you the right to be compensated in full in cash. Not in some airline’s funny money.

      • Lady London says:

        3 Jan3 January 13:29

        However I do agree OP may be happy with this as they did better than they might have.

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Jan3 January 15:14

          yes – very much indeed – when you get bumped or downgraded, accept very willingly whatever you are offered at the time in points or cash equivalent against future flights (ie a credit of some description) & of course the duty of care

          don’t mention compo at this stage

          you then have 6 years to get your EC/261 compo in cash, which will be on top of whatever points/ credit ‘gesture’ you were given earlier

        • krys_k says:

          3 Jan3 January 15:44

          To be honest I’m ok with 14k avios provided with minimum fuss by BA. I can also forgo the cash element as I imagine I would quickly eat up the £40 that I’m entitled to with the time spent to write an email or make a call (based on past experience with BA it would become a drawn out matter of principal where I’m actually loosing money dealing with them). On top of everything I had exactly the drinks and snacks I wanted and more leg room than Club – so actually I had a better journey. Dare I say it, on the journey from Warsaw, I wouldn’t mind this happening again as long as it came with the same benefits (on board comps and avios) !

        • Shoestring says:

          3 Jan3 January 15:54

          exactly – the golden ticket is getting downgraded First to Business on LH flying east eg USA/ Caribbean-UK – your 75% compo should be well worth banking and you probably slept most of the way in very comfortable seats

• Sussex Bantam says:

  3 Jan3 January 08:31

  Wildly OT

  Given the forthcoming downgrade of the NatWest Rewards offer I’m looking to close that account and move elsewhere. I can move all my standard DD’s but my salary will continue to be paid into my First Direct account.

  Any advice for the best benefits on a second bank account ?

  • BJ says:

    3 Jan3 January 08:44

    £175 switching bonus to HSBC Advance or Premier if you have not held an account with them since 1 January 2017. I’ve been waiting patiently for this to change to 2017 to get back in with a bonus 🙂 Generally banks have been reducing benefits this past year so there is nothing left worth getting excited about. HSBC Premier best option if you meet the criteria. If not, you might want to take the bonus for Advance. Could also be used to park your account in hope of something else from Barclays and avios or another bonus from Club Lloyd’s down the road. Get referred by me (if Rob doesn’t mind) or better a friend with a Nationwide account for Flex Direct to get £100 each and 5% interest on £2500 for a year.

  • Andrew says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:05

    It really depends on what you are looking for. The initial cash enticements to transfer are always good.

    Ongoing though, I’m rather fond of the LBG “Everyday Offers”. For December:-

    Princess Cruise – £50 on £1000 settlement
    LNER – £30 on £600 of LNER vouchers (valid for a year).
    Spar – £25 on Council Tax and Gift Cards
    Pret a Manger – £10 on Gift Card purchase

    Then there’s been the Morrison’s, Coop, Sazbo’s and Waitrose offers over the year – Between LBG & Amex I don’t think I paid full price for groceries throughout 2010.

    • Andrew says:

      3 Jan3 January 09:06

      Typo. 2019

    • Sussex Bantam says:

      3 Jan3 January 12:12

      Thanks all – I’m going to take the cash and get the Advance deal. Appreciate the input

  • Nick_C says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:14

    Second bank account? Why stop at two? I have 8 current accounts (not counting FinTechs).

    Ongoing benefits; Club Lloyds (6 free cinema tickets each year, and 1% interest), TSB Classic Plus (two accounts, 3% monthly interest on £1500 * 2), Santander 123 Lite (money back on Direct Debits), Tesco (use a tesco Debit Card in Tesco or Tesco Filling Stations for a total of 2 CCP/£ [4.8 Avios, 5 VFC Miles])

    • Nick_C says:

      3 Jan3 January 13:16

      Forgot to add, you can meet funding requirements with STOs, and create some additional DDs from Post Office Savings or Birmingham Midshires if needed).

  • Dawn says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:50

    We’ve been with Nationwide for about 30 years and wouldn’t change it for anything else. We have 3 accounts there – the one to get is the Flex Direct which includes the travel insurance, breakdown etc plus you can get the 5% savings account which you can both have on a joint account. You pay a small monthly amount. The travel insurance is excellent which we have upgraded as we are abroad a lot, plus my husband is now over 70. It has paid out on the couple of claims we had to make. In addition we have a First Direct and I have a M&S account. I have HSBC for business for various reasons but I don’t like them as a bank.

    • Roger* says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:00

      Yes, we wouldn’t dream of leaving Nationwide for the reasons you outline. Sadly the 5% savings is no more, and we can no longer offset the interest against the monthly fee. Still a great deal.

• John says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:08

  O/T I’ve been trying to book an redemption return flight using the Lloyds upgrade voucher which expires in a few days. BA advised me to call 0344 493 3349 (Avios) but I’ve been on hold for an hour then it disconnects. This has happened several times. Anyone had any success recently?!

  • BJ says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:30

    Call BA, choose the option for changes and ask the CSA to put you through to the team that can make changes to a booking using the Lloyd’s voucher. They never made an effort to give me number, they just put me through and calls were answered quickly. This was 6 months ago but maybe still worth a try. I am guessing it is the same team that does everything avios.

  • CDB says:

    3 Jan3 January 19:22

    I used that number on 31 Dec (voucher expired that day!) and all was easy enough

• Lumma says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:15

  OT – next month I’m flying Japan Airlines domestic business – the ticket type is TOKUBIN21 TypeE Advanced Purchase Fare – when I put the reservation number into the BA site it says I’ll get 40 tier points but no avios. Anyone know if this is correct or will I have to chase afterwards?

  • Charlieface says:

    3 Jan3 January 15:20

    Looks like that’s correct from wheretocredit.com for T class

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