Qatar Airways opens a new airport lounge at Singapore Changi, open for British Airways flights

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• BJ says:

  31 Jan31 January 11:30

  OT: Corona virus now confirmed in UK.
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51325192

  • Cat says:

    31 Jan31 January 11:42

    Enormous plastic water bottles at the ready…

    • Shoestring says:

      31 Jan31 January 11:43

      heh heh! not sure I will fit into the 5L version

      • BJ says:

        31 Jan31 January 11:51

        Lol

      • Aston100 says:

        31 Jan31 January 14:18

        Woah… I was expecting more denials from you Shoestring.

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jan31 January 14:30

          we’re setting up a blockade of the Tamar Bridge this Sunday

    • BJ says:

      31 Jan31 January 11:50

      Sit it out at a bothy in Locchinver 🙂

      • Cat says:

        31 Jan31 January 12:05

        Can I sit it out at a nice BnB in the Seychelles instead? At least until it’s a bit closer to bluebell season!

        • BJ says:

          31 Jan31 January 12:14

          Very mild in Lairig Ghru last weekend but I see what you mean 🙂

  • Anna says:

    31 Jan31 January 13:03

    Why are the repatriated Britons being quarantined in one of the most densely populated areas of the country, especially as they are apparently landing at Brize Norton?!

    • SimonW says:

      31 Jan31 January 13:11

      Because it is grim up north and there is an empty accommodation block ? And it is not one of the most densely populated areas of the country. And the virus cant travel more than a few meters in the air.

      • Alex M says:

        31 Jan31 January 14:10

        That’s the opening line of my favorite song…
        Hope Rob doesn’t mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agWubOKCP4A

      • Anna says:

        31 Jan31 January 16:41

        The North West is the most densely populated after the South East, Greater London and the West Midlands.

    • Lady London says:

      31 Jan31 January 13:18

      Slightly OT why would British people have been in Wuhan? Is it a tourist centre or known for a particular industry?

      • Rhys says:

        31 Jan31 January 13:21

        It’s not that many – only something like 150 on the repatriation flight, from a population of 10+ million!

      • Ricatti says:

        31 Jan31 January 21:11

        Each Chinese regional city is more like a megapolis of > 10 million, skyscrapers, schools, local universities, factories, banks, businesses.

    • BJ says:

      31 Jan31 January 18:27

      Because they will put them anywhere except London or the Home Counties.

  • Harry T says:

    31 Jan31 January 14:51

    @BJ
    I may or may not be in the same hospital as the coronavirus right now…

    • BJ says:

      31 Jan31 January 15:10

      That was my first thought when I read that they were taken to Newcastle. I’m not a million mm away from the relevant place at the WG in Edinburgh if it comes to that. Be professional, be diligent.

      • Yorkieflyer says:

        31 Jan31 January 16:33

        I’m five minutes walk from the Staycity hotel in York where they were staying, the co op next door has my paypoint custom!

      • Harry T says:

        31 Jan31 January 17:11

        @BJ
        Luckily I’m not going to be anywhere near the coronavirus patients. The Infectious Diseases team at the RVI are excellent – I trained under some of them briefly at med school.

      • Jill (Kinkell) says:

        31 Jan31 January 17:17

        I’m just glad I don’t work in respiratory / intensive care any more.

• Georg says:

  31 Jan31 January 13:15

  O/T and certainly a bit niche here… American Express Gold Card in Germany has currently a sign up bonus of 40000 MR points. Requires an address in Germany and probably a bank account there (but not sure about the latter). Cost is EUR 144.— per year in monthly instalments. First three months free, but bonus revoked if cancelled after less than 12 months. Conditions are slightly different to UK Amex cards but if criteria are met this should still be a no brainer. MR points convert 5:4 into a (different than UK) range of frequent flyer schemes, there is no lounge access but a discount on priority pass, foreign exchange fee is 2%

  • Pangolin says:

    31 Jan31 January 13:37

    But is it possible to transfer those MR to M&M or is it still blocked due to the court case?

    Miles and More tends to give better offers for Germany than the UK, so I just set my registered address to that of the Sheraton Leipzig 🙂 Not sure that will work as easily for the Amex!

    • BJ says:

      31 Jan31 January 14:17

      Thanks, I didn’t think of that so I’ll give it a try.

      • Pangolin says:

        31 Jan31 January 15:47

        Also useful if you want to take advantage of Family Pooling (only for DE, AT, CH).

        • BJ says:

          31 Jan31 January 18:32

          I think I’m just looking for a route out now with something for my remaining miles. Scrapping Bonvoy transfers was the final straw.

        • Lady London says:

          31 Jan31 January 21:39

          The LH gift card cash out route gives you a different selection of retailers depending on which country Miles & More country you say you are in when you log in. The voucher arrives electronically and very quickly.

          So if you log in to the UK you can take an Amazon voucher but when I looked in the German country options Amazon is not there. Around nov-dec they usually give you 10% off points cost of items in the Worldshop (IIRC higher status might get more) and if you really want to get rid of points some small electronic items are not ridiculous (they charge points as well for shipping).

          Depending how many LH miles you have to get rid of internal flights in the US in J were fair priced but availability hard to find. And watch out there is a sneaky additional procedure you have to do before it’s ticketed that is not obvious. So even finding the award seat s d getting it booked and the ticket ref. you could lose it (I did).

        • BJ says:

          1 Feb1 February 06:10

          The hig5card option is not available at the moment due to the legal action. I’m hoping a flight will pop up I can use, even if it means collecting a few more miles via hotels.

        • Lady London says:

          1 Feb1 February 14:29

          @BJ The giftcard option has defo still been available to those logging in and selecting UK site since the German court case. I used it to cash out to Amazon in that time.

    • Georg says:

      31 Jan31 January 14:57

      I don’t know, I haven’t tried myself. Blog I read suggested it’s possible but couldn’t verify on M&M or Amex websites. M&M site states only MR points from cards issued in Switzerland. So probably not currently possible.

      • Georg says:

        31 Jan31 January 14:59

        Should be in response to Pangolin

  • Charlieface says:

    31 Jan31 January 16:02

    N26 current account might be useful, I think you could open with a UK address and later change it to Germany. But I seem to remember something about having to verify ID in a German Post Office, but I could be wrong.

• ChrisC says:

  31 Jan31 January 14:05

  what a load of rubbish the VS website is

  Only offers Econmy flights. No way to select Premium or Upper.

  do they not think some people might want to travel in other cabins?

  Am off to expedia (other OTAs are available)

  • New Card says:

    31 Jan31 January 14:17

    errr

  • Rhys says:

    31 Jan31 January 14:22

    ….I suggest you look again, this is a problem on your end and not the virgin site

    • jc says:

      31 Jan31 January 17:51

      ^ This. Their website is great for comparing classes, shows all at once in a grid (or pick one from the outset).

    • ChrisC says:

      31 Jan31 January 20:41

      I may not have been clear – this was for the flight and hotel offer

      I’m familar with the flight only options and the way that it displays flights.

• Shoestring says:

  31 Jan31 January 14:43

  I’m logged into AerClub – where might I find AerClub’s version of Combine My Avios?

  • marcw says:

    31 Jan31 January 14:50

    Shoestring, you need to log-in in Avios with your username and password avios.com/eu/en. Once you’re in: Manage my Account –> Combine my Avios

    • Shoestring says:

      31 Jan31 January 15:03

      thanks, got it now

      • Alex M says:

        31 Jan31 January 15:25

        when i tried to pull avios from Iberia to aerclub using avios website, I got error message after typing in my Iberia credentials. I am sure they are correct – I can log in to my Iberia acct no problem. Could it be because Iberia put my last name into Personal details section twice (they have line for second surname)?

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jan31 January 16:04

          could be

          just did a test IB—>Avios.com—>BAEC and all easy for me, emptied out my IB a/c

          my email addresses are different avios.com vs the other 2/ but I guess my name is the same, 1 surname

          IB only ‘likes’ a numeric password 123456 – so if you have got anything else (@lex5!) – switch it to 6 numeric digits

        • SideshowBob says:

          31 Jan31 January 17:27

          Thanks SS, I couldn’t get it to work until I saw this numeric password hack. What a ridiculous IT system where their own computer generated alphanumeric PIN cannot work.

        • Shoestring says:

          31 Jan31 January 17:38

          Iberia IT has half the letters it needs for an accurate description of how good it is

• Harry T says:

  31 Jan31 January 17:28

  Another OT:
  I’ve not flown EasyJet before. Flying with them to Milan Malpensa in May, hand baggage only (cheap as chips).

  Is it worth paying the extra £20 per person for each leg to get the extra legroom seats with two cabin bags and priority boarding? Just wondering it makes the entire experience more tolerable. I’ve flown Ryanair before and detested it. Most of the time I fly flag carrier economy. Of relevance I’m 6’1”.

  • Harry T says:

    31 Jan31 January 17:29

    Should say I’m flying from Edinburgh.

    • Shoestring says:

      31 Jan31 January 17:44

      if you hated Ryanair so much, then yes, fork out the £20 x4

      I find both airlines perfectly OK in terms of price/ quality & I’m 6’2″, doesn’t bother me on a short journey as the tickets can be so cheap and, definitely from Bristol, convenient plus it’s about expectations

    • BJ says:

      31 Jan31 January 18:45

      That was my first ever trip with Easyjet too, about two years ago. Only paid for seat selection, nothing else, but we always travel HBO anyway. I like them better than BA based on my four flights to date. Only downside was no airbridges on any of our flights. Boarding in CPH always a shambles but other airports may be fine.

      • Chas says:

        31 Jan31 January 19:56

        I actually found boarding at CPH last year to be without incident. Although perhaps I’d had a few too many in the PP lounge beforehand to remember (funnily enough the staff in the PP lounge were clearly not used to having Easyjet customers there, as they looked at my boarding pass and asked me where LTN was….).

        And I find EasyJet way better than Ryanair in general, but for legroom it’s much of a muchness as far as I’m concerned (although I’m not as tall as Harry T).

        • BJ says:

          31 Jan31 January 20:47

          I think our experiences were the result of problems at the gates caused by Ryanair despite travelling Easyjet.

    • Harry T says:

      31 Jan31 January 20:53

      Thanks everyone for the advice. Will probably pay for seat allocation because I think a randomly alloctaed middle seat would be woeful.

• Russ says:

  31 Jan31 January 20:17

  Anyone one got any ideas regarding fees and exchange rate losses for canx China flights which are being refunded? Insured loss or man up moment.

• Shoestring says:

  31 Jan31 January 21:06

  O/T L&G over 50s life ins: got the request to choose our £100 giftcards today, that was after only 2-3 weeks of signing up/ 1st payment a day ago, gone for £100 Amazon gcs payable in 6 months

  it’s direct application if anybody interested, £5-6/ month for 6 months

  • BJ says:

    31 Jan31 January 21:11

    Good to hear, hopefully I’ll get mine next week. Also hoping we don’t need to wait 6 months for the giftcard but given what’s going on paying the policy for 6 months might not be a bad idea.

    • Shoestring says:

      31 Jan31 January 21:17

      I’m using my 65% Amazon discount to get double whammy cheap Melia points (for hotel rooms) next Black Friday when the 50% discount comes round again

      • BJ says:

        31 Jan31 January 21:32

        Might do the same as I’ve stashed quite a bit with the various opportunities. Latest is a £12 off £90 MOC from Tesco.

        Btw, @Cat just coined a new phrase you want to see 🙂

        • Cat says:

          31 Jan31 January 22:50

          😂🤣

• Sloth says:

  31 Jan31 January 22:39

  Gatwick South My Lounge…what is the breakfast like? Will be there with my dragon pass 🙂 or am I better going to the grain store with my lounge club? Will be early tomorrow so assuming I wouldn’t have an issue getting into my lounge but more concerned with having a decent breakfast

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