British Airways trialling short-haul food pre-ordering in Europe

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• Adam says:

  28 Jan28 January 12:13

  OT: Revolut top-up from Virgin email:

  We need to let you know that Mastercard have recently changed the way they treat top-ups to your Revolut account from your Virgin Atlantic Credit Card. From 17 January, using your Virgin Atlantic Credit Card to top up your Revolut card will be classed as a cash advance. This means there’s a fee for doing it.

  We’ve only just been told this and couldn’t pass on the info any earlier. If you’ve made a Revolut top-up recently, you may spot a cash advance fee in your transactions. Don’t fret. We’ll be refunding that fee and we won’t charge any interest on that Revolut transaction. So you won’t lose out.

  But it’s worth making a mental note that from now on future Revolut top-ups will be treated as cash advances, with a fee for doing them.

  Kind regards

  The Virgin Atlantic Credit Card Team

  • Simon says:

    28 Jan28 January 12:47

    The game is up with Mastercard then. Make the most of the time until Visa do the same I guess. Are top ups to Revolut with the Hilton Visa still fee free?

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      28 Jan28 January 12:50

      Visa Revolut top ups also effected.

      • Don says:

        28 Jan28 January 13:24

        Yes, its true but Revolut have told me several times now they are working on getting Visa fixed but MC will not be back.

        I am still fighting Barclaycard on the fees charges. Very impressive that Virgin have been in touch. Barclaycard are absolutely useless.

        • Jonathan says:

          28 Jan28 January 14:23

          Surely this effectively kills Revolut’s business model – whats the point of it now?

        • Don says:

          28 Jan28 January 14:34

          Whats the business model of Revolut or Curve? You’d be mad to use Revolut as a daily account. They’ve just been covering my fx fees for a few years and churning HH points.

        • Jonathan says:

          28 Jan28 January 14:38

          Until now i’ve just basically put everyone one of my business BACs transfers through Revolut to pickup free points. I have MBNA Horizon for FX so Revolut is totally useless now IMO and from their perspective MC have killed their business.

        • Liz says:

          28 Jan28 January 16:29

          I was using Curve to pay in to my daughter’s Building Society accounts every month. As of yesterday it says invalid card. Used it on 22/1 ok but no more – that was my route to Spire Elite. Will just have to stick with Platinum level with IHG card from next year and keep gold with Hilton via the Barclaycard – for however long that lasts.

• Coucou says:

  28 Jan28 January 12:55

  OT: Booking a Hotel only from the BA website – does it qualify for the AMEX 3000 avios bonus for £300 BA spend?

  • MattB says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:20

    I hope so I spent £600 on a hotel booking on Sunday.

• paulm says:

  28 Jan28 January 13:43

  On the subject of Heathrow rewards, this may be old news but not something I had seen. You can now transfer points to miles and more again, just did it over the weekend

  • Rob says:

    28 Jan28 January 15:11

    Thanks

  • Bagoly says:

    28 Jan28 January 21:20

    Thank you so much for this.
    I was worried it would be off for years.
    Has the court case in Germany finished?

• Graham says:

  28 Jan28 January 14:53

  OT re Curve

  I have read in the comments that folks use Curve to pay Brighton. I seemed to have missed that but wondered if it’s still doable. I’m reading the latest with Revolut so want to proceed with caution.

  Have a Virgin and Hilton Barclaycard at our disposal and wondered if this was still a viable option? Many thanks.

  • Doug M says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:56

    I think the card Curve is linked to is a big factor. Do a £100 and see what happens?

    • Anup says:

      28 Jan28 January 15:44

      I understand that the VS card shows cash advance fees straight away when the transaction is made (if applicable) so should be easy to test.

  • Tom says:

    28 Jan28 January 14:56

    There is still 1 place in Brighton that accepts Curve cards that are backed with a CC…

    • Graham says:

      28 Jan28 January 22:45

      Thanks!

  • ash says:

    28 Jan28 January 16:23

    Yes, you can pay Amex, so pay with Amex and then double dip with Curve and IHG or Hilton is best

  • Aston100 says:

    28 Jan28 January 18:29

    I never properly understood the whole manufactured spend thing, nor it’s viability let alone the moral ambiguity surrounding it.

    • Rob says:

      28 Jan28 January 19:35

      Load £500 per day from points credit card to Revolut, withdraw £500 per day from Revolut to bank account ….

      • Brighton Belle says:

        28 Jan28 January 20:06

        Then get warned off and shut down

        • Don says:

          28 Jan28 January 21:18

          But who cares? What is there to miss about Revolut? What does it do that isn’t replicated elsewhere and by a bank or FinTech that isn’t as shady as they are?

          The only people complaining are those who missed the manufactured spend party.

        • Rob says:

          28 Jan28 January 21:30

          After doing £150,000+ …. (not me, but people I know)

        • Grant says:

          28 Jan28 January 21:56

          What would replicate Revolut’s payment facility, effectively being able to send a bank transfer with funds topped up by credit card?

    • Graham says:

      28 Jan28 January 22:45

      Not really bothered with morality when it comes to paying a financial institution with another financial institution. They will all be paid. Apparently quite normal in the US.

    • The Urbanite says:

      29 Jan29 January 00:11

      It’s a game of cat and mouse really. It’s only viable as a long term strategy if you can innovate and continue to find new routes when existing ones get shut down, which happens regularly.

• Doug M says:

  28 Jan28 January 15:01

  Michael O’L digging in. Fair dues I say, the FlyBe thing stinks. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51278495

  • marcw says:

    28 Jan28 January 15:18

    It’s a zombie airline… essentially.

    • BJ says:

      28 Jan28 January 17:39

      What I don’t get is why the model doesn’t work, instinctively the feeling us that the concept is fine. Is it just down to repeated bad management, or just failing efforts to dig it out of a hole? Now seems best just to let it go and open the door for others to start from scratch.

      • Shoestring says:

        28 Jan28 January 17:47

        not enough money coming in, would be the first point – is the overhead covered x times?

        capacity/ demand/ pricing & profitability: are the planes big enough? is there enough demand for the chosen routes at the typical pricepoint (esp vs alternatives)?

    • Brian W says:

      29 Jan29 January 01:53

      Please stop using this phrase. It’s pathetic and you’ve said it about 10 times already.

      • Lady London says:

        29 Jan29 January 22:36

        It’s a zombie airline.

        That finance industry phrase was invented for this.

        Having said that, transport from the regions, especially Exeter, would be more improved by tossing money at Flybe than by HS2.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    28 Jan28 January 16:44

    one thing i do agree with “He went on to say that if the government seriously wanted to “level up all regions in the UK” then it should reduce APD for all airlines and passengers who use regional airports, not only for one.” (or two as INV isn’t the only one is it)

    To be honest I’d get rid of APD altogether but the revenue gap will need to be filled somewhere else. Perhaps a half way house is to reduce the APD per fight but to end the exception that anyone using the UK for transit (less than 24hrs) is exempt.

    • BJ says:

      28 Jan28 January 17:31

      And you know where it would go…a whopping FF tax. I suspect that is now just a matter of time, in one form or another because momentum for it is growing and it looks good.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Jan28 January 18:56

        I’ll be sure to start my LH trips from mainland Europe if that’s where it goes.

        • Doug M says:

          28 Jan28 January 19:02

          Which is why it needs to be an EU thing to be effective, and not a UK thing.

        • BJ says:

          28 Jan28 January 19:50

          I doubt there will be any escape via EU if it comes to that. While I want to see them do something about GW, I don’t see taxation as a means to changing behaviour as being a sensible way forward. Improving technology and changing minds works better.

        • Doug M says:

          28 Jan28 January 20:00

          Adding a few hundred £ to a flight cost changes minds

• DW says:

  28 Jan28 January 15:02

  The 1810 AY flight was actually an A350 when I took it on Sunday night. Very last minute change since the seat map earlier in the day was definitely the 1/2-2-1 configuration of the A330. Sadly the onward flight from HEL was an old A330…

  • riku2 says:

    28 Jan28 January 23:35

    The A350/A330 are used for HEL-LHR because they would otherwise sit at HEL between flights to Asia. But if the flight back from Asia is late then they swap the aircraft for a different one to avoid delaying the HEL-LHR flight.
    But this means the equipment can change at the last minute from A350 -> A330 or VV.

• Joe Green says:

  28 Jan28 January 15:22

  OT: Revolut situation.
  If MCC code is now wire transfer can I use my Curve Debit card backed with Virgin CC and avoid the cash advance or will Curve now be passing on the MCC code of wire transfer so will still be treated as a cash advance?

  • Grant says:

    28 Jan28 January 15:53

    Hitherto known as ‘double bagging’ 🙂

  • TGLoyalty says:

    28 Jan28 January 16:37

    Curve know the MCC from the original source so makes no difference.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      28 Jan28 January 16:38

      meant to say

      “Curve know the MCC from the original source and pass it on to the underlying card so makes no difference.”

• ADS says:

  28 Jan28 January 15:35

  Food pre-ordering

  Years ago I pre-ordered a breakfast on Aer Lingus (i’d had it before and it was really good)
  On my flight they unfortunately didn’t have it in stock
  It took me about 3 years to get a refund
  I will never pre order food on a short haul flight again – with any airline !

  • Alex M says:

    28 Jan28 January 15:50

    3 yrs? LOL. How much time did you spend on this – 20 hours in total?

    • Shoestring says:

      28 Jan28 January 16:14

      it’s the principle

      I spent about 5hrs or something like that fighting some seller on Amazon who only sent me 1 duvet set in a package when I’d ordered 2. He was adamant there were 2 in the package, I knew it was only 1.

      He’d even paid the postage weight of 2 duvets, so I imagine one of his staff pinched one of them before sealing the package (it wasn’t tampered with on arrival). He couldn’t bring himself to believe there was a fault his end of the operation so that was a long fight, which I won in the end 🙂

    • ADS says:

      29 Jan29 January 16:12

      probably not quite that much time – i would forget about it for six months, and then send another email demanding refund !

      but yes, i did eventually get to the stage when i felt that they needed to be punished !!

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