News: save £50 on Addison Lee taxi bookings, get 6000 Avios with Tesco Pet Insurance

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• Boi says:

  10 Jan10 January 18:19

  OT: hoping someone would know….any advice on which frequent flyer program to join for someone who lives in South Africa and travels mainly around Southern Africa for work? Usually flies South African airways or air Botswana.

• maccymac says:

  10 Jan10 January 19:17

  OT received an email from Heathrow rewards may be useful to someone:

  “To celebrate the new decade, Malaysia Airlines has partnered with Heathrow Rewards to offer members an exclusive saving. You will receive up to 15% off flights, until 25 January 2020, by using the code ‘HEATHROW’ when you book. The code applies further reductions to current Malaysia Airlines promotions in Economy, Business Class and Business Suite classes.

  Malaysia Airlines flies twice daily on the state-of-the-art A350 from Heathrow Terminal 4 to Kuala Lumpur and onwards to amazing destinations in Malaysia, Southeast Asia and Australasia.”

• Harry T says:

  10 Jan10 January 20:21

  I’ve booked two business returns from London to Hong Kong with Swiss (via Zurich) in November for £1079 each.

  • Shoestring says:

    10 Jan10 January 20:23

    good time to book hotels

  • Lady London says:

    10 Jan10 January 21:39

    And before you ask, the answer is A3. Or possibly OZ or TK 🙂

    • Harry T says:

      10 Jan10 January 22:21

      Already been on wheretocredit, @Lady London ;). Thanks as always for your advice. Trying to figure out whether this could make serious headway towards any status.

      • Lady London says:

        10 Jan10 January 22:43

        See above, the order is not accidental. Might change if you want to keep *all* the miles as not every scheme has family acct or transferability.

    • BJ says:

      10 Jan10 January 23:06

      @LL & HT, not convinced about this. Harry is unlikely to do much with *A from NCL/EDI, even allowing for the fact LH is an option from both. *A probably always going to be third in line behind BA and VS. Hence, I would be looking for miles I could use, and also add to from sources other than SPG card. Therefore, I think SQ is worth considering as they have some sweet spots, have spontaneous awards, and are an amex MR and dollar card transfer partner.

      • Lady London says:

        10 Jan10 January 23:20

        Good point BJ.

        I was in SQ and found them Lufthansa-like in earning any miles to do very much at all was very hard graft. Some sweet spots as you say. I also have never used a card as a miles feeder. I came to this hobby many years after my claimable high work expenses & travelling jobs were complete, sadly. The Jade thing might give a head start I suppose. A3 has gone off a bit but still best for me as I have low expectations of flights that can be bought with miles.

      • Lady London says:

        10 Jan10 January 23:27

        PS agree *A is pretty much 3rd choice behind OneWorld and possibly VS(with KL? we don’t know yet) from the UK, however HT has bought the LX flight already so it’s more a question if where to stash the *A miles. IIRC A3 has a big bang in J on that route, a giant golden leap (bar a quick additional long weekend asap to some Greek Island via Athens), will be very pleased for HT if SQ can come close but doubtful.

      • Harry T says:

        10 Jan10 January 23:43

        @BJ
        Good point about *A – there’s few flights out of Newcastle and Edinburgh and I seem to recall redemptions are poor value within Europe.

        I’m a big fan of KrisFlyer – when I was in Australia, I used the majority of my Amex MR to fly LHR to Darwin in Business (95,000 SQ miles and about £100 of taxes I seem to recall) and for some short hops across to Singapore in SIlkAir Business. As I still have about 20k MR floating around in my UK Amex account, I could potentially build a balance again with KrisFlyer and do something useful.

      • Lady London says:

        10 Jan10 January 23:48

        PS make sure you only sign up to *A prog just before the flight unless you have another reason. Whatever the flight gets you should then be prompt and longlasting.

      • BJ says:

        10 Jan10 January 23:49

        Ok, makes sense. I didn’t really know what earnings were like on SQ but thought it would be worth a look. Apart from my unexciting and dormant LH balance I’ve never really looked at *A since the demise of BMI. I also missed out on the best of the game by not taking it seriously enough. I was a passive UA MP collector and banked millions of miles with 300% earnings and bonuses. I remember feeling quite chuffed with myself at the time only to groan later when I learned what it might have been if I credited all those flights to BMI DC.

    • Mark says:

      11 Jan11 January 13:05

      What fare class are they? We’ve got a Lufthansa P class booking to Hong Kong coming up from the last “two together” sale, but many partners don’t award anything for Lufthansa P class.

      After some research SQ looks like the best option… very unlikely we’ll get any status out of it, so just on the basis of what we’ll get in miles and the potential value of them in isolation (as we rarely fly *A). TBH at just under £1000 each for the fare I’m not expecting a lot, but it looks like Swiss might have been the better choice in that respect.

  • BJ says:

    10 Jan10 January 22:52

    So have you scrapped your 241 to TYO?

    • Harry T says:

      10 Jan10 January 23:38

      @BJ
      Yes, I scrapped the 241 after a discussion with my partner – we decided weren’t keen to spend most of our Avios in one go, especially as they are hard to earn for us now. I think we will end up using them on RFS from Edinburgh and Manchester, and regional flights in Asia and Australia. For Long Haul we are flexible enough to book sale fares.

      The decision was also heavily influenced by the fact that BA changed our tickets less than two hours after we booked the 241 and put us into Club World instead! It appears they changed the aircraft. We were not offered any form of compensation when emailed about the changes – not even a refund of the Avios difference between First and Club!

      With these excellent Swiss business fares, we have just over two weeks in Asia. The plan is to spend a few days in HKG and then explore Singapore and maybe KL as well. Looks like using Avios on Cathay and Malaysian is good value and easy. Open to your advice as I know you’re an experienced traveller in this area. It’s my partner’s first time in the East. I have been to Bangkok, Penang, Singapore and some of the Thai islands.

      • Lady London says:

        10 Jan10 January 23:42

        I hope you didn’t let BA deduct any cancellation fee after that HT. They don’t have a leg to stand on.

      • BJ says:

        11 Jan11 January 00:01

        I was going to say yesterday you might lose your F seats to Club Suites on the TYO trip. The good thing about RFS from NCL/EDI is that you can use for stopover in London. Then there is the weekend options from EDI and MAN. In Asia there are some great MH zone 1 redemptions. HKG to/from BKK in CX J is also a sweet spot.

      • Harry T says:

        11 Jan11 January 00:53

        @BJ
        Do you mean using RFS to fly to London and connect? Or do you mean adding it as part of a 241 long haul?

        I was thinking about J to Bangkok with Cathay so we get to experience their lounges at HKG. Availability looks wide open at present. Do you think we could do Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore justice in 16 days? Or would you focus on one or two cities?

      • Polly says:

        11 Jan11 January 01:41

        You might want to throw in a week in Bali. We hop bk and forth around those routes frequently, using CX and MAS. But equally, air Asia v good for short hops, as you probably have experienced. Use CUX J and get into the Pier or Wing in HKG, fabulous experience. And MAS have upgraded their golden lounges too.

      • Shoestring says:

        11 Jan11 January 06:18

        @HarryT – yes 16 days is enough for the 3 cities, you wouldn’t feel rushed if you enjoy the connecting flights and see them as part of the fun, conversely if you or your partner see the travelling as a chore you might want to concentrate on 2 ie Bangkok and HK (there is less to justify time in Singapore imv) – and even then I personally would want to see Bangkok quickly then get out to nearby coastal places etc after the chaotic city!

    • Harry T says:

      10 Jan10 January 23:46

      @LL they tried to charge a cancellation fee but I wasn’t having any of that! I was also still within 24 hours of booking, so I reminded them of their T&Cs.

      To their credit, the agent on the phone was polite and professional. I still haven’t actually got my 241 voucher back but the agent did manage to manually credit me back the 204k Avios immediately. The booking is still showing as a cancellation in progress, so I suspect the voucher will arrive back when the cancellation is finished. The change to the booking fare class appears to have made cancellation more tricky on the IT side. Allegedly my taxes and charges will be refunded within 7-10 days.

      • Lady London says:

        10 Jan10 January 23:56

        Cheeky *******s. Watch it like a hawk HT. Make sure you get everything you’re due. Coincidental eqot change? Really?

        Shows us BA hasn’t given up targeting 241’s for downgrades, just they will do it now only when there’s no compensation payable. The only decent thing BA did here (probably by accident) is let you know immediately.

        If you want to experience real First then BJ will know more about thus but if you’ve got 2 weeks is First on JL or CX from HKG to TOK too long? Japan is unique and I’d go back there in a heartbeat.

      • Harry T says:

        11 Jan11 January 01:16

        @LL
        Don’t worry, I’ll keep my eyes peeled.

        I’d love to visit Tokyo and I think we may have enough time. Partner wants to do Singapore though. Sadly can’t find any F availability between Tokyo and HKG with JAL or CX for these dates – I’d love to try their F.

      • Nick_C says:

        11 Jan11 January 03:29

        You won’t find F on JAL between HKG and TYO because the highest class on that route is J. I did it in Dec and it was superb. Its a short flight. Scheduled as 4 hours, but flying time is about 3.20

      • Lady London says:

        11 Jan11 January 11:52

        SIN is the one I’d dump off that. Its too easy to do some time there on another trip as many, many routes to there from everywhere even including USA, and end route to Oz., plus so many other routes you could be doing in future would naturally give you a stopover in SIN if you wanted one.

• JamesW says:

  10 Jan10 January 21:22

  I predict a sudden surge in deaths of previously young healthy house bound cats in about 35 days time

• bookish says:

  11 Jan11 January 13:48

  The cost of pet cover seems to have rocketed on the last day! £63 per annum to insure a 2 year old moggy.

  • Shoestring says:

    11 Jan11 January 13:54

    I can still get £2.90 – are you in London? where I guess more cats die on the roads but you should be saying indoor cat anyway

    • bookish says:

      11 Jan11 January 13:56

      No, and it’s odd as when I looked yesterday I had a quote similar to what you had reported. Have deleted cookies and no change.

• CB says:

  11 Jan11 January 20:27

  Well, the Addison Lee thing does not work with airport pickups and they charge for parking. So today I ended up paying £22.5 more than expected for an Addison Lee Heathrow pickup. Just saying…

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