British Airways adds Grenoble and Lyon ski flights – wide open for Avios

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• yonasl says:

  14 Sep14 September 07:51

  Hope this helps … even if I will miss the random spam messages which made little if no sense …

  It is telling that the example used is:
  “ It is easier, instead of quoting an earlier post, to start your reply with ‘[Name of earlier poster], I’m not sure I agree’ or similar.”

  Are we really that mean to each other? 🤪

  • Froggee says:

    14 Sep14 September 08:11

    @yonasl, I’m sorry but I completely disagree with your above point.

• yonasl says:

  14 Sep14 September 08:15

  For those flying to Lyon, Avis cars there do not include winter tires do you need to add £50 per week for chains. (What Avis in France calls “all weather tires” are not proper winter tires anyway).

  I haven’t been able to find Flight+Car from Grenoble airport.

  Anyone with tips on how to go from LYS or Grenoble to the pistes would be appreciated!

  • Nick says:

    14 Sep14 September 09:13

    LYS has a railway station right outside the airport doors. Trains will take you to a lot of the french resorts, either direct or with one easy change.

    • A13 says:

      14 Sep14 September 09:38

      Out of interest, which resorts are linked by train from LYS? Never thought or known about this.

    • yonasl says:

      14 Sep14 September 13:11

      I knew about this but cannot find any information as schedules are not displayed atm … Jan 2023 is just 6 months away and you cannot check how much it will cost or how frequent trains are

  • Alex says:

    14 Sep14 September 09:34

    I don’t think Grenoble has much of a car rental offering.
    I always use Ben’s Bus for shared transfers (generally to Les Deux Alpes) from Grenoble. Never had an issue and good value.

  • aDifferentSimon says:

    14 Sep14 September 09:51

    Echo Ben bus – I’ve booked 4 nights in feb half term and then discovered that car hire was impossible. Oops.
    If you are going for 7 days then car hire seems possible.
    As for snow chains, the new long express cable car apparently saves you the last 10k on the way to Oz-en-Oisans (part of the wider Alpe d’Huez region), so you won’t need them.
    https://uk.oisans.com/resorts-and-villages/allemond/allemond-practical-info/eau-dolle-express-valley-lift/

• John Acca says:

  14 Sep14 September 08:54

  Sorry but did you just made a job advert (9h+ for GBP 100) payable in cash.
  I am not sure but as a reputable business you may want to do EVERYTHING by the book.
  Facilitating tax evasion is a big NO-NO.
  We are not in the 80s any more.

  I also doubt that any HfP reader will work for 10GBP/h.
  Your event manager/facilitater may want to rethink a bit.
  World calling Rob to come back to Earth.

  • Rob says:

    14 Sep14 September 08:59

    I’m not running this, just sourcing someone. I have an inbox full of volunteers – many from people who are smart enough to realise this is a good career opportunity given who they will meet.

    And don’t lecture me on tax. I could very easily pay zero tax, domiciling HfP in a zero tax country and paying myself a flat £40k salary which I could pay 100% into my pension to wipe my liability entirely. All I would need to do is keep the rest of the cash outside the UK which wouldn’t be an issue. Instead, I voluntarily – and it is voluntary – pay six figure sums each year.

    • LB says:

      14 Sep14 September 09:43

      Well done you Rob…

    • Londonsteve says:

      14 Sep14 September 10:39

      Rob, while I have no expertise in tax matters, nor are your affairs any of our business quite frankly, I am surprised this is even a possible structure for someone habitually resident in the UK. It seems that even the UK’s ‘onshore’ system is awash with loopholes that are easy to exploit by those seeking to minimise or even erase their tax bill altogether. Credit to you for ‘doing the decent thing’ and running HfP as a UK company, paying UK tax. Many wouldn’t, unfortunately.

      • Rob says:

        14 Sep14 September 10:42

        Of course it’s possible. I would imagine the majority of HfP readers work for companies with a parent outside the UK.

        • Londonsteve says:

          14 Sep14 September 11:18

          Course that’s normal practice. Large companies will also seek to minimise their tax bill by shifting profits around to low tax jurisdictions, I get that. I’m more surprised that a UK tax resident can operate a business overseas and not have to pay UK tax on the profits/dividends deriving from this business, for unless one is a non-dom resident, the principle is that one is taxed on one’s worldwide income if tax resident in the UK, subject to any double taxation treaties in force.

        • Rob says:

          14 Sep14 September 11:49

          There would be, if the money was taken out of the company. However, it could be kept in the company indefinitely as long as the money wasn’t needed.

        • Charlie T. says:

          14 Sep14 September 12:13

          You may want to familiarise yourself with the UK CFC rules…

        • Rob says:

          14 Sep14 September 12:24

          As long as I am paid a ‘reasonable’ salary, which I would be, it’s fine. Anyway, it’s not relevant because we’re not doing it … just making a point. I will continue to fund multiple nurses etc.

          You could get much the same effect without using an offshore structure, by keeping the money in a UK company shell – this would also avoid IHT with careful use of different share classes.

    • Backpacker says:

      14 Sep14 September 12:26

      Good answer Rob, well done.
      I always like your responses on how you run the business, and little gems of knowledge on business/websites. Keep it up!

    • Freddy says:

      14 Sep14 September 20:34

      A good career opportunity? Do execs normally recruit people on the registration desk. “You seem great at registering people into this conference, want a 80k job doing the same at my joint”

      • Rob says:

        14 Sep14 September 22:16

        If you’re looking for an internship or a helping hand applying for a graduate job, yes. I’d be more likely to consider someone if I’d seen them in action and got a feel for them.

        • Bob says:

          15 Sep15 September 09:14

          Amazing how some people think, even though it’s a website which tries to teach people how to think. I volunteered to work for a big corpo just to be able to hand my CV in person to the relevant person. Sometimes doesn’t matter if you are cleaner or working on registration desk, you are already recognisable. Also, these days it’s not only about knowledge but the attitude, which can clearly be shown even at lowest level of hierarchy .

        • Rob says:

          15 Sep15 September 10:47

          I’m stunned that this benefit wasn’t entirely obvious to all readers, but clearly I was wrong ….

          If someone called Eleanor pops up doing some writing on HfP at some point then you’ll know the technique works!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    14 Sep14 September 10:15

    Sounds to me more like a ‘paid volunteering’ role. Some people might have been convinced to do it for free just because of the people they could meet there and the people most likely to be interested would be students or others with time in their hands where £100 wouldn’t take them over their tax free allowance. Even if someone is in their higher rate tax band it’s up to them to declare it. It’s just like if you hand a plumber or taxi driver £100. It’s their responsibility to sort out any tax on it.

    I can’t see how else you’d do this. You’re not going to make someone an employee for one day and unless the person already has a limited company or a sole trader then creating an invoice seems overkill.

    • Lady London says:

      14 Sep14 September 15:59

      Lunch costs nearly that much near that venue and transport and other subsistence would eat up anything left so it’s barely expenses for the time helping out.

      Hope the organisers have event insurance that would cover a volunteer though

    • Alex Sm says:

      14 Sep14 September 20:05

      Well said, Save East Coast Rewards!

      The tax responsibility lies on the recipient, not the payer in this case. Not sure why such a thing caused a whole array of comments involving words like offshore or tax evasion.

      HfP readers are such a strange and weird gang…

  • Mike Hunt says:

    14 Sep14 September 10:43

    John – there would be people wiling to actually do it for nothing, or even pay £100 to the event organizers to do the job, due to the contacts they would make and potential for further paid work in that area. World calling John to come back to earth.

    • Londonsteve says:

      15 Sep15 September 15:07

      Is that not a bit much? I mean, if that were true then Goldman Sachs could *charge* people £100 a day to work on their reception desk for the chance they might be *noticed* by the right people and offered a 100k job. The reality is that they pay more like £15 an hour to attract good quality staff and the firewall in these places is so strong almost no hiring manager would dream of recruiting someone from the front desk, without the *right* education and social background. Meanwhile, those with the right education and social background don’t have to work front desks to get the right jobs, unless they’re still at uni and want to earn beer money. Things are changing, slowly, but 95% of the time this is how it is. I can imagine travel loyalty is a more open and meritocratic sort of place but it’s also not an industry famed for paying big bucks, other than (presumably) at very senior levels, no different from all other industries.

      • Rob says:

        15 Sep15 September 16:29

        How many posh charity auctions do you go to? I have seen 1-2 week internships at blue chip investment banks, advertising agencies etc sold off via charity auctions on multiple occasions, usually for high four figure sums.

        • Londonsteve says:

          15 Sep15 September 18:47

          Indeed, but those internships don’t involve time spent on the reception desk. These firewalls are strong; even back and middle office staff have great difficulty moving into front office roles because they’re not the ‘right fit’. The receptionist has no chance.

        • Rob says:

          15 Sep15 September 20:00

          In my old PE shop, a temporary secretary ended up as Head of HR.

  • Track says:

    14 Sep14 September 20:07

    Yes, not in 80es anymore.

    The way things are going, you will need to ask a waiter to fill-in an AML questionnaire before leaving a tip above 20 quid.

• Mike says:

  14 Sep14 September 09:49

  @John Acca, it’s perfectly acceptable to HMRC for someone like a student etc. to earn £100 cash in hand. In fact over a year they can earn £1000 that way without declaring. Though HMRC recommends that the person records what they earn in a spreadsheet etc. for later reference, if required. Obviously not tax advice for any readers, own due diligence and all that.

• BajiNahid says:

  14 Sep14 September 11:51

  Oh No Rob! I just seen your post now and have missed out :(. I am going to chance it anyway and drop an email to your inbox to add into the pile you’ve already received haha!

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