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

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• jtz says:

  3 Jan3 January 09:23

  OT: gold card coming up for renewal and wanted to upgrade to plat quickly, we have car payments that need to be made, but they don’t take amex, is there a way I can use amex to do this via another card or another way?
  Thanks so much

  • BJ says:

    3 Jan3 January 09:37

    Monese.

    • jtz says:

      3 Jan3 January 14:50

      Thanks all, I thought that was it…but wasn’t sure if it was still running. Will try it! Thanks loads!

  • ashish says:

    3 Jan3 January 10:01

    Will need a trip to a Pay Point station, Post Office should have one.

    Max it out while you can because don’t think it will last much longer.

    • RK says:

      3 Jan3 January 11:15

      @ Ashish, exclude my ignorance, but do you not need a paypoint card for your Monese a/c to use this method?

      • BJ says:

        3 Jan3 January 12:14

        No, they just swipe monese card.

        • RK says:

          3 Jan3 January 12:59

          And you can use your Amex card at Post Office?

      • ash says:

        3 Jan3 January 14:05

        yes, its what everyone is doing.

        You are late to the party my friend…

        Only issues I have is what to use Curve for now?

        • Chas says:

          3 Jan3 January 18:02

          At the risk of appearing even more slow…. So you just take your Monese card to the PO and ask to top it up? Then put your Amex in the card machine? It sounds too easy! What are the limits? I’ve figured out that you need to be on the Premium card (using the codes which Boi shared yesterday), so I’m slowly catching up…..

  • Anna says:

    3 Jan3 January 11:27

    Billhop is an option if you don’t mind paying the fee – some car finance companies (e.g. VW) accept Billhop payments, though others (e.g. Santander), don’t so it also depends on who your agreement is with.

    • Anna says:

      3 Jan3 January 11:30

      To clarify, Amex will allow payments to go to some companies but not others, I have no idea how they decide!

      • jtz says:

        3 Jan3 January 16:18

        Thanks, its with Santander unfortunately

• Simon D says:

  3 Jan3 January 11:32

  Very OT. Has anyone logged into their IHG account yet this year? It appears that I haven’t been credited with my 10+ elite rollover nights. Interested to hear if anyone else has the same issue? Also I guess that everyone is aware that the IHG 4x promotion seems to have been extended into January?

  • TripRep says:

    3 Jan3 January 12:07

    It’s this time of year where we hold our breath and hope IT systems have been correctly updated.

    Waiting for my HH Gold renewal right now…

    • BJ says:

      3 Jan3 January 12:17

      Or incorrectly in some cases 🙂
      Already had one result, hoping for another.

    • thehornets says:

      3 Jan3 January 15:37

      My Hilton app appears to be updated. It says 2020 progress, has ‘Gold’ in big letters with a message ‘Hang tight whilst we update the rest of the meter for the upcoming year’

      • BJ says:

        3 Jan3 January 17:24

        Gold is your current status through 31 March. Once the site updades it will tell you what your new status will be effective 1 April.

  • Steve-B says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:57

    Yes, no roll over nights for Spire. Also noticed that I didn’t get credited 4x for my last stay in December, which I’ve emailed them about.

    • Lynx says:

      3 Jan3 January 17:26

      My IHG nights have rolled over, all 130 of them. 😀

      • Rob says:

        3 Jan3 January 18:42

        Blimey.

• BJ says:

  3 Jan3 January 12:38

  OT: BAEC award search is not giving me any BA options at all today but still showing partner flights. Same for others? I have found the search a bit temperamental over the past week and wondering if they are trying to fix it, or if something new might be coming given it’s start of the new year.

• AndyF says:

  3 Jan3 January 12:59

  I am looking to book flights to either San Fran or Los Angles at the end of August/ September. It’s really odd when I look at availability its plenty of availability flying outbound from London but its absolutely nothing on the return leg. For example San Fran (SanJose) Airport 31 outbound 1 inbound. in business and Los Angles 18 outbound 0 inbound. I’m finding this quite strange any ideas?

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:14

    People will flow Econ/PE outbound in the day but pay for a flat-bed for the night return; therefore premium cabins are fuller flying east. More premium redemptions are made and fewer reward seats in premiumcabins are released?

    • Anna says:

      3 Jan3 January 15:28

      Yes this is really common. If you desperately want to fly home in J you can always book the return leg from another airport with more availability and get a domestic connection. Also, we sometimes fly home in Y and book exit seats; sleep quality isn’t compromised that much and we wouldn’t be eating or drinking much anyway.

  • BJ says:

    3 Jan3 January 13:21

    Lock something in on that new flight from Portland so that it’s always there if you need it. Very cheap to get there from LAX and SFO, and worth a visit if you have time to spare.

• SimonW says:

  3 Jan3 January 13:08

  O/T Data Point – referred wife for Green card on 1st Jan, referral points hit my account today. Not sure if card even turned up yet…. What an odd system that gives out 12k for referrals but has a 90k cap that isnt even a multiple of 12k….

• Martha says:

  3 Jan3 January 15:13

  Rome inspiration Please.
  I’ve booked 5 days at WA Rome in quiet Feb. looking for hidden secrets in the city or hotel. TY

  • Shoestring says:

    3 Jan3 January 15:25

    depends what you want out of Rome

    my wife, son and daughter were only interested in central, historic Rome and went for a smaller family owned hotel that gave them the perfect location, admittedly with a lack of modern chain advantages – and said the hotel was great (plus a lot cheaper than you’d pay for the chain hotels in August/ Rome)

    they did the same in Sevilla (and loved the apartment/ location/ historic centre) – and wanted the same for Malaga (coming up in a few weeks – will report!)

    obvs it’s quite comfortable to pay a bit more & roll up at one of the familiar chains, knowing you’ll get certain standards – but they tend not to have the best locations in historic centres/ old Europe

  • Peter K says:

    3 Jan3 January 16:37

    The Pantheon was very interesting. Just walk around a bit and enjoy looking is my best advice.
    Top tip of going to the Colosseum is to go to Palatine Hill just up the road. No queues (and worth a look in it’s own right) but the ticket gets you into the Colosseum where you can just walk past those queuing for tickets there!

    • Chas says:

      3 Jan3 January 18:10

      But if you have any interest in going to parts of the Colosseum which aren’t open to everyone (eg the subterranean areas), you will probably end a separate ticket which often sell out early. We were in Rome this time last year, and the subterranean tours had unfortunately sold out when we looked to get them.

      • Chas says:

        3 Jan3 January 18:11

        *need a separate ticket

  • Lady London says:

    5 Jan5 January 15:12

    Aviator had good private guides bookable when I had to book for a similar request a few years back. They turned out to be students who got on well with the family including late teens.early 20’s children. I think they do their best to match if you call them and say what you are looking for. Got amazing feedback both times. Not at all expensive for the customisation and knowledge provided. YMMV.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Jan5 January 15:13

      V-i-a-t-o-r. Even now the bl****d text editor is trying yo make it aviator.

• Jason says:

  3 Jan3 January 15:14

  OT has anyone received the 25k avios for swtiching to Barclays Premier?

  • Kai says:

    3 Jan3 January 16:27

    Email premierrelationship_bankingteam@barclays.com if you haven’t. They are fast to sort it out.

• Son374737 says:

  3 Jan3 January 15:18

  O/T

  Does anyone know if the Amex Plat insurance covers a BA Holiday (flight + car) if used for partial payment? i.e. I paid the deposit with the Amex Plat, but want to use a different card for the remainder….do I forgo any travel delay / car excess waiver / etc. insurance if the FULL trip is not paid with Amex Plat?

  Thanks

  S

  • the_real_a says:

    3 Jan3 January 17:04

    You still get the medical and car hire insurance, but because you have not paid for you “trip” with the card then you will forgo the “travel inconvenience” and missed departure insurance. Its up for interpretation but i wouldn’t consider part payment to meet the terms of “paid”.

    I’m not sure if you are confusing S75 cover which requires just £1 part-payment to receive “full” loss and consequential loss for bankruptcy or breach of contract. Since Plat card is a charge card you cannot avail of S75… If you have an AMEX credit card then you DO get S75 coverage. AMEX claim to give you equivalent S75 on charge cards but this isn’t true since they do not consider consequential loss. Since AMEX plat insurance allows you to pay with any AMEX to satisfy its clause of “paid for the trip” then its wise to pay for travel with any AMEX credit (not charge) card you hold in addition to the plat card.

    • the_real_a says:

      3 Jan3 January 17:10

      * In addition you would also forgo any loss or theft to luggage which if i remember correctly also has the clause that the trip must be paid for by the card.

      • Shoestring says:

        3 Jan3 January 17:25

        I would agree with your earlier comment (I think) that S75 protection is generally superior to using an Amex charge card, if you mainly want insurance for travel purposes

        Amex Plat (charge card) insurance has different benefits – the ideal would be to get both for the same trip, eg by splitting payments over 2 cards, one Plat, the other an Amex credit card

        As I don’t have Plat, I just have to choose between my Gold Amex (charge card, in my case) and a credit card – and credit card wins every time when booking travel – I try not to make the same mistake too often! (thinking of my BA flights booked on Gold Amex when the strikes were on – ie not covered by S75 as charge card in my case) & you would indeed be slightly insane to deliberately miss out on the benefits of S75 cover where travel is concerned, the cover is very advantageous to the cardholder/ unfair on the credit card co in individual cases

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