Chat thread – Monday 16th September

[Rob]

This is today’s chat thread.

If you have specific questions about Avios, hotels or credit cards, please ask them in the appropriate forum and not here. This thread is a good place to post interesting deals you have spotted or your general thoughts on travel and all things miles and points. Thank you for contributing.

[philuk]

Morning everyone! I’m having trouble logging into the Melia App. It logged me out yesterday and when I try to type a password it shows an error. Does anyone else have the same problem?

[Niall]

philuk wrote:

Morning everyone! I’m having trouble logging into the Melia App. It logged me out yesterday and when I try to type a password it shows an error. Does anyone else have the same problem?

The same is happening for me.

[BSI1978]

Cancelled my Amex Plat a little while ago and looking for some replacement travel insurance. I thought that there might be an existing thread on this but couldn’t find anything that obviously fits the bill.

No existing medical issues, just really looking for some bog standard worldwide cover – any recommendations gratefully received!

[philuk]

Thanks @Niall that’s reassuring

[JDB]

BSI1978 wrote:

Cancelled my Amex Plat a little while ago and looking for some replacement travel insurance. I thought that there might be an existing thread on this but couldn’t find anything that obviously fits the bill.

No existing medical issues, just really looking for some bog standard worldwide cover – any recommendations gratefully received!

It is really difficult to recommend anything without knowing your specific needs, but in general the travel insurance that comes with packaged bank accounts can offer very good value vs standalone travel policies (particularly for older people) – NatWest Black, Lloyds Premier, Nationwide FlexPlus, Virgin Club M and others all offer travel insurance and some include things like breakdown cover, mobile/gadget cover which you may or may not need. Unfortunately there’s a bit of work looking at the policies (the IPID summary for each product is a good starting place for each products as it sets out in the simplest/broadest terms what is/isn’t covered) but you will only need to do that once.

[Michael C]

(sorry if this reappears but original comment seems to be Lost In Space!)

Just a comment on the concept of chasing TPs.
I had a last-gasp day-trip to Tirana for GBP180.
Became silver so could then reserve 2 x economy twin seats
on a Pacific NW return, which would have cost GBP320.

Incidentally, the Silver took a couple of days to appear
after the year-end date. The flights (which had been bought
previously) still appeared as “You can pay to reserve a seat”.
A day later it was “Reserve for free”, followed by a “Sorry…” screen.
And the next day, all fine!

[NorthernLass]

Classic series, @Michael, I remember watching re-runs of the original black and white episodes on hungover Sunday afternoons at uni 😂

I’ve now dropped to Bronze, and also re-qualified for Bronze, which was a teeny bit of an anti-climax, but hopefully the second lot of TPs for this recent trip will post within the next couple of weeks and I will once again be a Silver surfer (though definitely more internet surfing than 🏄‍♂️)!

[Paul]

There is an offer on the Platinum card offering a saving if your spend £300 at Amex travel.

Most people here will know that the Amex travel site is frequently more expensive that buying direct but here is a specific example

LHR DUS LHR 4th Dec return 7th Dec on BA.

BA946 outbound and BA945 return in Club Europe. BA price £462 Amex Price £514. This wipes out any saving.

[executiveclubber]

Paul wrote:

Most people here will know that the Amex travel site is frequently more expensive that buying direct

Yes, so best to spend this on hotels. There is a subset of Amex customers who believe that redeeming MR points via Amex Travel is how to fly business class, thus wiping out their balance in one fell swoop. It pains me to think about!

[tiberius]

executiveclubber wrote:

Paul wrote:

Most people here will know that the Amex travel site is frequently more expensive that buying direct

Yes, so best to spend this on hotels. There is a subset of Amex customers who believe that redeeming MR points via Amex Travel is how to fly business class, thus wiping out their balance in one fell swoop. It pains me to think about!

I saw a post on facebook last week from someone who used 600,000 MR to get a £1k discount on a holiday to San Diego. She kept insisting in the comments it was great value as she really enjoyed the trip – incredible

[NorthernLass]

My immediate reaction is slightly despairing, but on balance I think it’s not altogether a bad thing that there are seemingly plenty of people who take this attitude to their loyalty points 😂

[TGLoyalty]

An element of schadenfreude 🙂 because these people wasting points leaves more opportunities for the rest of us to get real value.

But I don’t even understand how the maths works as a statement credit gets 0.45p so 600k is £2,700

[can2]

tiberius wrote:

executiveclubber wrote:

Paul wrote:

Most people here will know that the Amex travel site is frequently more expensive that buying direct

Yes, so best to spend this on hotels. There is a subset of Amex customers who believe that redeeming MR points via Amex Travel is how to fly business class, thus wiping out their balance in one fell swoop. It pains me to think about!

I saw a post on facebook last week from someone who used 600,000 MR to get a £1k discount on a holiday to San Diego. She kept insisting in the comments it was great value as she really enjoyed the trip – incredible

Good for her!

[NorthernLass]

Not sure if it’s worth starting a new thread – OH needs one more night by the end of the year (on top of current bookings) to get the IHG suite upgrade award so we’ll probably have a quick night away in Manchester between Xmas and New Year when prices are low. Has anyone stayed at both the Crowne Plaza and the new Voco? The Voco looks nicer but several reviews mention it being quite noisy.

Points price is priority here and these are the 2 lowest so it will be one of them, plus fancy a change from the Kimpton and Indigo.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Stayed at both.

Didn’t think the voco was particularly noisy to be honest. I was on the 6th floor IIRC.

CP has a lounge if that matters.

Breakfasts were similar as well as both offering buffet as well as an a la carte item like eggs royale.

[NorthernLass]

Thanks Flyer/Stayer – was the a la carte included as the diamond breakfast amenity (it will probably be our last freebie for the foreseeable!)

Though I’ve just looked again and the Indigo has done that thing of offering premium rooms for the same points price as standard so that’s now back in consideration! £155 room for 22k points is tempting …

*Also, the Indigo is a VERY short walk from the station 😂

[buchanan101]

BSI1978 wrote:

Cancelled my Amex Plat a little while ago and looking for some replacement travel insurance. I thought that there might be an existing thread on this but couldn’t find anything that obviously fits the bill.

No existing medical issues, just really looking for some bog standard worldwide cover – any recommendations gratefully received!

I use Staysure – with a pre-existing condition and they pay out; had a reoccurrence of it on the day getting off QM2 in NYC with a day in Mount Sinai ER fully covered. There are always 20% off vouchers floating around

[LD27]

@BSI1978. As @JDB says, it’s very difficult to recommend travel insurance as everyone’s individual circumstances are different. I suggest you start by listing what you actually need. We use my husband’s NatWest Black Account travel insurance. You can pay extra for pre-existing conditions and very few policies we have looked at cover for 90 days for one trip. It also covered our kids when they were younger/studying.

[LD27]

@buchanan101. So pleased to hear you were well looked after in Mount Sinai ER and made a full recovery. Yet again an example of why one should always travel with good medical insurance.

[strickers]

Safely in the lounge at Heathrow B gates with a glass of champers. Mrs S decided she needed new shoes for the trip, we traipsed round several stores in Kingston and apparently ‘we’ were unsuccessful. I can highly recommend the White Hart in Kingston, 30 mins from Heathrow with free parking and an excellent breakfast.

[Lyn]

@strickers, hope you both have a good flight and that Mrs S finds a new pair of comfortable shoes she loves in Vancouver or Vancouver Island, hopefully without too much traipsing around.

[ExpatInBerlin]

@strickers I’ve booked 2.5 weeks in Canada in July including Vancouver Island so looking forward to a trip report/recommendations please as so far only have flights booked! Safe travels 🙂

[strickers]

Thanks both.

@ExpatInBerlin Hotel prices have only gone up since we booked them about 8 months ago so if you have somewhere in mind then book a flexible rate now. Also, keep an eye on ferry times and availability, you should be OK a month before but some of the prime slots book up quickly.

[SR]

Does anyone know if a hard credit check is carried out on the director when applying for the Amex Business card?