News: BA adds to Accra, luxury Fairmont hotel coming to Cheshire, Lufthansa grows Glasgow

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• No longer Entitled says:

  26 May26 May 05:18

  Excellent news regarding The Mere and only 15 minutes from me. This one feels like a Rob review. I look forward to meeting for a drink when it opens.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    26 May26 May 09:21

    It’s going to need a lot of work to bring it up to Fairmont standard

    • Rob says:

      26 May26 May 09:23

      Depends what you consider ‘Fairmont standard’ to be …. some of their hotels are in a pretty desperate state.

  • AL says:

    26 May26 May 10:19

    Indeed – a pleasing surprise!

• sherlockholmes says:

  26 May26 May 05:29

  Having lived in Accra I can tell you that the Heathrow flights were always full, almost all of them doing a 1 leg journey (no connection in LHR).

• BJ says:

  26 May26 May 08:15

  Is GLA-MUC new? I thought Lufty used to operate that route briefly pre-pandemic, EDI and NCL too. EDI-MUC is certainly still operating.

  • Rob says:

    26 May26 May 08:24

    ‘New’ is always a flexible term in this industry. Few routes which have never been tried before.

    • Jonathan says:

      26 May26 May 12:37

      I’m surprised it’s not a route they’re already doing, especially since MUC is one of two major hubs, and having connections from Scotland (I don’t know about Edinburgh) would definitely make them stronger for their long haul network

• Ryan says:

  26 May26 May 08:56

  Is there a review of the Fairmont St Andrews anywhere?

  • Rob says:

    26 May26 May 09:02

    No, didn’t do one as it was a family holiday. Was there for 5 nights though. Got a ludicrously huge suite – probably the biggest single room suite ever – as a top tier Accor member,

    Bottom line – nowhere near as pleasant as Gleneagles or Turnberry, mainly because it is a US style conference hotel, new build, plonked on a cliffside golf course.

    However, clearly it is a totally different part of Scotland to Turnberry or Gleneagles, so if it where you want to be then its totally fine – but if you’ve been to Turnberry or Gleneagles you’ll feel a bit deflated. Price reflects this to be fair.

    • Mike says:

      26 May26 May 09:23

      Hi Rob,

      How top tier? Platinum or Diamond?

      Cheers

      • Rob says:

        26 May26 May 10:09

        I was Diamond at the time. I had booked a Junior Suite though, it’s not as if I got their top suite as an ugprade from a standard room. Suite had no view either 🙂

        I won’t even begin to tell you how much trouble I had getting the bill and the Accor points fixed for this stay. I tried to redeem my €100 of Accor F&B credits which went horribly wrong and then there were huge issues over the hotel trying to get out of awarding points for certain things such as the NYE dinner. Got sorted in the end and, because it was retro claimed, it all posted as 2023 despite three nights being in 2022 so I had my Platinum status locked in for 2024 by mid Jan!

        • Mike says:

          26 May26 May 10:50

          Very nice.

          I’m current trying Accor out this year, hit Platinum so far. Currently IHG Diamond, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium and whatever the lowest earned tier of Hyatt (from a couple of gambling trips in MGM properties). All except Accor were from stays last year so trying to decide who I should keep my business with because I reckon I can only keep reasonably top tier with one maybe two chains per year. I’m thinking maybe time to get a AMEX again, get a couple of mid-tiers through that and earn another one.

        • Rob says:

          26 May26 May 11:47

          The general view – although I don’t do enough stays to comment – is that Accor is better for upgrades, even at lower levels, because there are fewer elites. There aren’t (as you get with Hilton, IHG and Marriott) 500,000 people globally walking around with top tier cards purely because they have the right credit card. If you’ve got Accor status then you earned it.

• Nick says:

  26 May26 May 09:22

  Ghana flights are booming, the beautiful country is a major growth market. The daily flight is remaining at LHR for US connections (loads of them), but LGW has more spare capacity than LHR for the new one. Also benefits from appealing to the Ghanaian-heritage communities in south London, where LGW is easy to access.

• zapato1060 says:

  26 May26 May 09:23

  Is there a reasonably affordable estate hotel like this in the UK I could visit? 150-200 pn? been telling myself I must visit but always end up abroad. Thanks

  • Rob says:

    26 May26 May 10:09

    Given you won’t find a Holiday Inn Express for £150 in the UK this summer, I imagine, the answer is likely to be no!

    Not sure what it could cost to buy World of Hyatt points for their new Scottish estate hotel, SCHLOSS Roxburghe. This may come into budget via bought points during a bonus promo.

  • Gordon says:

    26 May26 May 18:41

    I’m sure a Britannia hotel would fit that budget If you could stomach one lol.

  • tony says:

    26 May26 May 20:05

    Depends what you’re looking for but Slayley Hall in Northumberland is in that range for some dates in June (15th-17th, £128/nt incl breakfast).

    There are dozens of places like this, it’s just they’re typically independents or members of some esoteric chain you’ve never heard of. And you risk ending up captive when it comes to dinner unless you have a car.

• dave says:

  26 May26 May 09:23

  Why aren’t Lufthansa coming back to southampton for the Munich route, I’m holding off on a job transfer as the flight times out of heathrow do not suit a 90 minute airport commute on top

• KP says:

  26 May26 May 11:22

  Have you seen the amount of luggage people take on the Ghana flights? Its crazy. BA must be making a lot of money on excess luggage !

  • Jonathan says:

    26 May26 May 12:44

    They allow 2x 23kg bags for just about anyone who opts for checked baggage, and there’s not likely to be many on light tickets

  • zapato1060 says:

    26 May26 May 17:31

    I also feel like I’m myself the trick. When going though Addis Ababa and I was the only one without 3-4 bags of 32kg shrink wrapped.

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