Save an extra 10% on Qatar Airways sale flights – today only

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• Chris says:

  7 Jan7 January 08:53

  OT
  I’ve booked a stay at Gran Melia Colon in Seville later this month. I have Melia Rewards Gold account (from Amex Plat) and currently have my account set to credit to BA EC Avios.

  I just got an email saying I will receive an additional 15,500 Melia points (worth £50 if transferred to Amazon) as part of their January promotion for booking. I’m a novice at Melia and wondered if anyone where the 15,500 points will credit? Will they go directly to Avios like hotel stay credits, or stay as Melia points. If so, can I transfer to Avios later? Unlikely to get value from them as Melia points so I guess either Avios or Amazon credit are more useful to me.

  TIA for any wisdom.

  • Stu_N says:

    7 Jan7 January 09:03

    I’d expect they will appear as Melia Rewards on your account. You can transfer Melia points to BA or Iberia at 10:3 exchange rate so you’d get approx. 46k Avios.

    If you think there’s any chance you’d make another Melia booking in the next 12 months, it’s worth leaving 2,000 points behind as they often have very good deals if you use 2k points to part-pay a stay, you can often save €30-€50.

    • Chris says:

      7 Jan7 January 09:07

      Thanks Stu. I assume that’s 4.6k Avios….not 46k. I got excited there 🙂

      Good tip on leaving the 2k – cheers.

      • Stu N says:

        7 Jan7 January 10:19

        Sorry yes should be 4,600ish.

• Nick says:

  7 Jan7 January 09:06

  AWESOME!! Just booked myself a week’s trip to Cape Town from Oslo in November… for just £1325, thank you very much!
  Going from Stockholm next month, which cost me £1850 in last year’s sale, but a saving of over £500 was never going to be sniffed at.

• Tom1 says:

  7 Jan7 January 09:26

  KrisFlyer gold flying virgin
  I am Singapore gold via the amex/Shangri-La arrangement.

  If I fly Virgin economy I believe I get free bags, and free virgin club lounge access at lhr and jfk.

  How do I prove my status? Just show the app? Or do I need to add my sq details to the virgin booking somehow?

  • Charlieface says:

    7 Jan7 January 09:49

    Yes add to the booking but best to also bring your card to the airport just in case

    • Tom1 says:

      7 Jan7 January 10:00

      Thanks – so it will credit the miles to sq instead of vs?

      • Charlieface says:

        7 Jan7 January 14:24

        If you want the points in VS then technically there are two different places in the booking to enter the number: one for points and one for status. Almost no airline shows this on the manage booking page, and most don’t have their IT set up correctly anyway.
        Instead enter your VS number, at check-in and lounge show your SQ card, what may happen is they change your booking, so check just before boarding to make sure the correct one is still entered.

  • Tom says:

    7 Jan7 January 09:53

    What is this arrangement that you mention? Tell more 🙂

    • Tom1 says:

      7 Jan7 January 10:00

      Infinite journeys – there is an article.
      Requires Amex plat to get Shangri-La jade. Then three sq flights

    • Pangolin says:

      7 Jan7 January 12:22

      You will get Silver status upon signing up as a Shangri-La Jade, and then you have 4 months to fly 3 segments on SingaporeAir or Silk Air. After that you will be upgraded to Kris Flyer Gold for a year.

      These must be cash bookings, not redemptions.

      • Craig says:

        7 Jan7 January 15:22

        I did just this for a trip from DaNang to Singapore. I won’t fly the 4 flights but it allowed me to select seats for free as silver.

        • Tom1 says:

          7 Jan7 January 20:24

          It’s only three flights (segments) so still chance yet!

• MrT says:

  7 Jan7 January 09:39

  Qatar 10% discount – or not? I was looking at business class returns last night LHR – WDH so when I saw this 10% discount today I went to check the new price. Strangely the undiscounted prices had all increased overnight and new discounted price was within £50 of the original £3,800 fare! Sharp practice?

  • Chris Hyatt says:

    7 Jan7 January 10:48

    Mr T, I’m seeing the same thing. Was playing with Google flights looking at Qatar Business Class Ex UK and Ex EU pretty much exclusively for the last week, and from what I’m seeing today, there’s no change?

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      7 Jan7 January 14:55

      Some decent Scandinavian fares to Aus destinations around April. Although I can’t see any to Perth for £800 which is what the Qatar advert on this site is showing just to the right as I type this….

• Carl says:

  7 Jan7 January 09:45

  O/T. A friend of mine has asked if I can help find a catered ski chalet for 5th March for 4 nights with minimum of 3 bedrooms. I told him I doubt he’ll find anywhere at this short notice but thought I’d check here to see if anyone had any suggestions.

  Dates aren’t flexible, location is but should be within a reasonable flying distance from LHR, so Europe basically.

  Thanks

  • Matthew says:

    7 Jan7 January 10:52

    Post the request in the solutions room of Chalets Direct website and you’ll get some good offers…

  • Gavin says:

    7 Jan7 January 12:27

    It might be better at this stage to book something last minute (like the week before). You can often pick up some good bargains off-peak by doing this.

• Princess says:

  7 Jan7 January 09:56

  OT for Ammar
  Sorry, I was really busy these days so I’m catching up with the latest articles and comments. A few days ago Ammar asked about Conrad Maldives: I was there mid December.
  Before going I read some negative comments: I tried to be open minded and, to be honest, for a first time guest it was lovely. Yes I was probably expecting a bit more in terms of service, but we haven’t had any issues. Once a mistake with our drinks order at breakfast but that’s it.
  What I noticed was that the majority of staff were really young and the 3/4 guys I spoke with have been there for only 4/6 months and some of them were there as part of a Hilton training programme.
  Our villa (330) was lovely, didn’t look dated and the position was good.
  We had the same flight as you at 11:45. It always depends on the seaplane schedule but, if they do the same as with us, they will ask you to settle the bill at 9am and the flight will be scheduled for 10-10:15am.
  So plenty of time for breakfast.
  My little ones are now 3 and a half years old and packing/unpacking is easier. When they were babies packing/unpacking was the thing I hated the most (didn’t stop me to always move every 3/4 days, but still really annoying)
  One night at the Conrad is really points expensive but maybe it is worth it for a relaxing ending to the trip!
  Enjoy

  • TripRep says:

    7 Jan7 January 11:55

    Thanks for the info, shame about Afternoon tea being retired for good and limited nibbles with downgraded happy hour.

    Still haven’t decided if I will return or not.

    • lebron 23 says:

      7 Jan7 January 13:16

      the hfp community will be praying not, so your mentions of the place will cease.

      • TripRep says:

        7 Jan7 January 15:21

        Lol, I was just responding to others :-p

        #triggered

    • Princess says:

      7 Jan7 January 13:19

      Nibbles are real limited but drinks seem free flow now!

  • Ammar says:

    7 Jan7 January 23:03

    Thank you for the update, very helpful indeed.i have cancelled the last night and made arrangements to stay in male for the last night before travelling back. Hopefully as a first timer I won’t be too disappointed….even if afternoon tea etc has been retired. Sounds like resort is falling below expected standards especially from people that have been many times…but I think I will survive!

    • TripRep says:

      8 Jan8 January 07:48

      Ammar, focus on the views and adjust to the slow pace. Hope you enjoy unwinding.

• jc says:

  7 Jan7 January 10:07

  OT: Am I right in saying that on a small business Amex (3 directors/cardholders) all the MR points go to one person’s MR account, and there’s no way to transfer those to travel reward programmes in the other directors’ names?

  If so, what point-earning cards are there, if any, for a company where 3 directors should all equally benefit?

  • Rob says:

    7 Jan7 January 10:53

    To be honest I have never got to the bottom of how this works. In the US, any supplementary cardholder is a valid transfer partner.

    This is how mileage brokers work. If you agree to buy 100,000 Avios from a dodgy source, that dodgy source is working with a small business in the US which is charging six figures per month to an Amex. The company adds you as a supplementary cardholder (you are never aware of this) which allows them to transfer MR points directly into your Avios account without any security blocks.

    • Lawro says:

      7 Jan7 January 11:13

      This is changing though. Amex US changed their rules in September and now require a supplementary cardholder to have been added for 90 days before being eligible for points transfers to their own loyalty accounts.

• Shoestring says:

  7 Jan7 January 10:21

  T-C-B – the 25% Avios bonus that didn’t get paid – was time to follow up yesterday – the critical period missing for our family a/cs was after 15th Nov onwards, before then 25% got paid fine. We actually got paid less than normal +5% (Premium), ie somebody appears to have got the math wrong resulting in small underpayment in Avios compared to normal and a lot less than +25%.

  No big beans for us in that period but still a few hundred Avios each – so we asked for correct 25% amounts to be paid plus perhaps a small gesture for the inconvenience, let’s see how that goes but I imagine they will be perfectly happy to set us straight.

  If you do it now, most of the missed 25% bonuses should be in the top 20 transactions in your BAEC a/c – plus as I mentioned, check you weren’t actually *underpaid* vs normal.

  • meta says:

    7 Jan7 January 11:43

    I submitted my claims straight away. Got the missing points as a credit to account within 2-3 days which immediately became payable and then transferred out again with 5% bonus. It wasn’t much, but good result.

    • Rui N. says:

      7 Jan7 January 12:09

      They did the same for me.

  • Chas says:

    7 Jan7 January 13:25

    I still haven’t received the c5k Avios which I transferred on 26 Nov. On 8 they replied to my support ticket saying “allow 10 working days”, and since then they have been ignoring my follow ups. Any advice?

    • Shoestring says:

      7 Jan7 January 16:00

      they’re sometimes a bit slow on support tickets but pretty helpful in giving you a good resolution

      we must have used over 50 support tickets over the past few years and never got rebuffed/ turned down (the free £2.50 promo used to be very poorly tracked on Ebay baskets)

      you could send a nudge but keep it pleasant not shirty

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