St Pancras Renaissance Hotel London to rebrand

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• Ash says:

  20 May20 May 03:39

  Ah yes, Abu Dhabi – the destination to go to during the cool summer months of the UAE

  • Alex G says:

    20 May20 May 05:15

    Well most people in London don’t have air con, but Abu Dhabi do!

    • Manya says:

      20 May20 May 14:37

      London also doesn’t have the Flinstones but Abu Dhabi Dooooo

      • Alex G says:

        20 May20 May 15:48

        Thank you!

• Dominic says:

  20 May20 May 05:00

  Meanwhile, Manchester to Abu Dhabi (i.e., without going further) is a mere GBP 3,000…

  • Lumma says:

    20 May20 May 05:34

    You always pay a premium for direct flights.
    I’d guess Qatar would be same for a flight to Doha

    • Dominic says:

      20 May20 May 06:13

      Indeed, sadly they have a hold on the market. Almost GBP 4k for Etihad Abu Dhabi to London return – even economy is touching GBP 900 most of the time.

      Dubai has a few more options:
      Emirates: GBP 4k (almost as those them and Etihad are in alignment…)
      Royal Brunei (direct!): GBP 2k
      BA: occasionally available at GBP 3k

      • Bagoly says:

        20 May20 May 09:03

        Somebody did suggest yesterday adding Direct v Nonstop to the glossary. 🙂

  • JDB says:

    20 May20 May 06:01

    The seats to Abu Dhabi are highly priced to protect them for connecting passengers. You either pay a premium or they get to keep them to sell as part of longer routings.

    • Dominic says:

      20 May20 May 06:14

      Genuine question – what’s the benefit of that to them? Given that the longer routings are frequently cheaper than just stopping in AD? I’d get it if there was increased revenue, but they actually (on the face of it) take less money on the longer routings (ofc with way more competition)

      • JDB says:

        20 May20 May 06:29

        There are a few studies on this, but essentially it’s modelling the probability that removing that seat from inventory will displace a passenger from a routing ex-AUH so aiming either to collect some of the potentially forgone revenue or keep the seat for an actual connecting passenger. There are obviously a lot more fares to more distant destinations sold than just the tempting ones you see!

      • AJA says:

        20 May20 May 06:30

        I’d guess it allows them to compete on the longhaul routes. Not going to help gain customers if every time someone tries to book to South East Asia via Abu Dhabi and finds they can’t get flights because the first sector is sold out.

        • Dude says:

          20 May20 May 07:15

          Also, far more passengers are likely to holiday utilising a LHR-AUH-BKK ticket for example, than holiday using a LHR-AUH ticket.

          If EK for example are offering decent through fares with lots of availability via DXB, then not only do they potentially lose the BKK passenger, they lose the AUH passenger too.

      • BBbetter says:

        20 May20 May 09:44

        Simple. Competition. Plenty of options for one stop journeys, so any airline has to cut prices to compete in these markets. While non-stop routes will usually have 2 airlines based in the countries on either end, so very little competition and airlines dont have to leave anything on the table. They wont be able to sell 100% tickets as non-stop.

  • Throwawayname says:

    20 May20 May 14:16

    I know that different people have different preferences, and I am absolutely fine with that, but I can’t think of many things that are more wasteful than dropping 3-4 grand on a business class ticket between the UK and the UAE. In my experience of medium -haul flights (just had one arriving this morning actually), you need some kind of superpower in order to be able to grab more than 3.5 hours of sleep each way on such a journey. It’s understandable that banks etc are happy to pay that sort of money in order to get away with sending people to meetings without a proper night’s sleep, but I am not totally convinced they’d be at their best during that important meeting. If I’m travelling on my own time and money, I would much rather fly Aegean or TK in economy with a stop in the middle for a shower and some snacks in the lounge and spend the night (and possibly the following morning) in an hotel bed.

  • Thomas says:

    20 May20 May 17:18

    Fly to bahrein from Paris on Etihad. Next month to have for £1008 in J. Book Gulfair Y for the 45 min flight to AUH, DXB, or DOH at 30 min hop. Just did this last week and I paid £2200 for 2 tickets on etihad. And Paris positioning was turned into a 2 night city break!! Bahrein has constanly low fares.

• Bob says:

  20 May20 May 06:44

  Just don’t leave any Etihad points in your account. With Etihad’s poor level of security on accounts (no 2FA) you’re bound to be hacked.

  • Dominic says:

    20 May20 May 07:16

    They do have 2FA? I literally have it on my account right now (email form, admittedly… not very helpful if your email is hacked)

• Matt says:

  20 May20 May 07:17

  The Chambers executive lounge was VERY high quality, IMHO the best executive lounge in Europe. Excellent food. Very sad to see it closed

  • TGLoyalty says:

    20 May20 May 19:54

    Having visited a few times since 2020 I thought it was pretty average.

    IC Park Lane far superior.

• Jonathan says:

  20 May20 May 10:02

  There should probably be a warning to think very carefully about collecting points for Etihad Guest, and not due to the program’s expiry policy, but due to an unrelated matter explained in another post that was also published today…

  (the expiry policy is just icing on the cake for those who don’t regularly use Etihad and or their airline partner agreements

• SGJ says:

  20 May20 May 10:36

  Have had access to the Chambers Club as a Platinum on multiple occasions – and have only twice stayed in the Chambers wing. Agree it is a good lounge (although there were numerous mice present this weekend)

• Phillip says:

  20 May20 May 11:01

  Autograph Collection feels more appropriate than Renaissance to me.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    20 May20 May 19:56

    Agree I also look forward to the refurb because it needs it

    Usually stop by Booking Office before getting the train home from Euston if I have some time as I think it’s a lovely space I can’t believe that will need much refurbishment

• Robert Harper says:

  20 May20 May 11:06

  I prefer Etihad, as the monarchy in Dubai no longer allow The Flintstones on the big screen whereas the ones in Abu Dhabi Dooooo🤪

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