Bits: site speed, Royal Jordanian offering status buy back, Champions League hospitality deals

News in brief:

Our site speed issues should be fixed

Apologies to anyone who has been struggling with HfP running slowly in recent days. We have tracked down the problem to a rogue AI system in the US which was continually bombarding us with data requests. The situation should now be back to normal.

Royal Jordanian will let you buy back elite status

Many HfP readers matched their airline or hotel status to Royal Jordanian over the last year or so.

Why? Because Royal Jordanian is a oneworld alliance member, alongside British Airways, and so your Royal Jordanian status is valid on British Airways.

The current status match offer is here. You can only match hotel elite status to BA Bronze equivalent (Silver Jay status) whilst airline status can be matched up to BA Silver equivalent (Gold Sparrow).

If you did this match a year ago and did not requalify, Royal Jordanian is letting people buy back their status. You will have received a personalised email:

• you can buy back Silver Jay status (= BA Bronze) for $75 for 12 months

• you can buy back Gold Sparrow status (=BA Silver) for $350 for 12 months

I consider these deals to be great value and well worth considering. Your Silver Jay status will give you free seat selection on BA flights from seven days before departure – well worth $75.

Pay $350 to extend Gold Sparrow and you have British Airways lounge access, priority check-in, free seat selection at the time of booking etc locked in for another year.

What’s interesting is that Royal Jordanian clearly thinks it can make money selling Gold Sparrow for $350, even though I assume it is being billed whenever you access a oneworld lounge with your status.

Royal Jordanian seems to offer buy backs on a regular basis, so if you do a match to Gold Sparrow status now (see our article) there is a decent chance you will be able to extend it for a second year later on.

Good value Champions League hospitality tickets

This has nothing to do with miles and points, but Travelzoo has – alongside its hotel deals – a niche section offering VIP football packages. See here.

A surprisingly good value selection of UEFA Champions League and Carabao Cup games were added yesterday.

The packages below include food and drink or lounge access of some sort – details vary by ground and ticket type. The list was correct as of 8pm last night but games do sell out quickly.

• Arsenal vs Olympiakos for £234 (1st October)
• Arsenal vs Bayern Munich for £534 (26th November)
• Arsenal vs Kairat for £200 (28th January) 
• Chelsea vs Benfica for £157 (30th September)
• Manchester City vs Bayer Leverkusen for £112 (25th November)
• Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund for £120 (5th November)
• Manchester City vs Galatasaray for £120 (28th January)
• Tottenham Hotspur vs Copenhagen for £167 (4th November)
• Tottenham Hotspur vs Slavia Praha for £127 (9th December)
• Tottenham Hotspur vs Borussia Dortmund for £234 (20th January)

You can find out more on this page of the Travelzoo site.