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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.
Morning I have a question about the Chinese Visa
Booked to Shanghai on BA. Flying out on China Eastern from Shanghai to Tokyo.
On the China Eastern booking using Flying club points there are two typo errors on my daughters first name. Do i need to have it amended.As no one seems to be bothered on First name typo unlinke Surname and DOB.
Second. One of the condition for the Chinese 144 hr Visa is that we have allocated seats on the Chinese eastern flight. But China Eastern doesnt recognise the booking reference given by VA.I cannot purchase seat allocation now.Suggestions please.
144 hour transit without visa (which is not a visa) doesn’t require seat assignments or seat numbers. It just means that you must have a confirmed onward ticket, and standby/waitlist is strictly not allowed.
Is lastminute.com still relatively reputable by OTA standards? Looking to book a CI flight. Normally I’d book directly with an airline but CI’s website prices up several hundred pounds more for the itinerary I want (and, oddly, more than what I see on ITA Matrix) – by contrast LM shows the ITA Matrix fare with a small discount applied. Anything to worry about beyond the usual hazard warning that comes with OTAs (which I feel is priced in in this case)?
@Mankhool – I cannot answer the trickier questions but when you make a redemption with Virgin they tend to give you their own PNR for the booking. You can call and ask for the China Eastern PNR which Virgin can see but you cannot.
Have I had a sheltered life? A first for us in Helsinki – a TV actually built into the bathroom mirror in the Radisson Blu next to the train station!
Upgraded to business room with lounge access, but never used the lounge / too busy making up for a lost day due to Fridays airport worker strike.
Off to Japan this afternoon.
Ps How to remember the Finnish for Thank You? Think of a Finnish summer …. mosquitoes!
Thank You in Finnish is Kiitoes – as in mosquitoes!
Credit to the waitress last night.
Is lastminute.com still relatively reputable by OTA standards? Looking to book a CI flight. Normally I’d book directly with an airline but CI’s website prices up several hundred pounds more for the itinerary I want (and, oddly, more than what I see on ITA Matrix) – by contrast LM shows the ITA Matrix fare with a small discount applied. Anything to worry about beyond the usual hazard warning that comes with OTAs (which I feel is priced in in this case)?
See this whole thread but particularly this post; if somebody with the knowledge, resources and influence of Simon Calder struggles in the event of issues, how do you think you would get on…?
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/shocker-with-lastminute-com/page/2/#post-455671
Is lastminute.com still relatively reputable by OTA standards? Looking to book a CI flight. Normally I’d book directly with an airline but CI’s website prices up several hundred pounds more for the itinerary I want (and, oddly, more than what I see on ITA Matrix) – by contrast LM shows the ITA Matrix fare with a small discount applied. Anything to worry about beyond the usual hazard warning that comes with OTAs (which I feel is priced in in this case)?
I can’t comment on LM however have you tried this.
Use ITA to get fare copy as JSON and use power tools to book.
If you simply want ITA for fare then on separate tab use Google flights. If fare is the same then follow the links provided by Google flights to book. They generally provide a link to a number of OTAs as well as the airline.
Power tool can be a bit hit and miss but Google flights was excellent for me recently. After much research on ITA I was about to buy a QR P fare with no lounge or seat selection and just 75% of mileage to the AY.+ programme. When clicking through from Google flights it offered IBERIA but with a small price difference on the QR fare. I used the link and it took me to Iberia’s site and displayed my itinerary with the correct price. This optima fare provides lounge but not seat selection but critically 150% of mileage on AY+ I booked paid and then discovered that my BA gold card lets me book seats.
So while QR wanted around €350 pp extra for lounge and seats, IB was about €110.
Morning all. Some help needed please – Mrs Degsy and I are due to travel around SA later this month and have a number of Airlink flights booked as part of this.
I see from HfP articles I can credit these to Qatar, but I’ve looked and it’s really not obvious how to. Do I need to do this from our Airlink Skybucks accounts or from our Qatar Privilege accounts?
And do I need to have set it up in advance or is it something I can do retrospectively?
TY!It’s really best to get the right programme in there from the start.
If you can’t do it via the Airlink MMB then you’d need to call to have your QR number added or to do it at the airport before you fly.
Changing it after you’ve flown is more complex as once the points have posted in your Airlink account you need them to cancel the transaction and once that’s done apply to QR for retro credit. And that assumes Airlink will reverse the transaction in the first place.
Good luck.
Is lastminute.com still relatively reputable by OTA standards? Looking to book a CI flight. Normally I’d book directly with an airline but CI’s website prices up several hundred pounds more for the itinerary I want (and, oddly, more than what I see on ITA Matrix) – by contrast LM shows the ITA Matrix fare with a small discount applied. Anything to worry about beyond the usual hazard warning that comes with OTAs (which I feel is priced in in this case)?
See this whole thread but particularly this post; if somebody with the knowledge, resources and influence of Simon Calder struggles in the event of issues, how do you think you would get on…?
https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/shocker-with-lastminute-com/page/2/#post-455671
Lots of people book with OTAs with no issues.
The problems come if there are large schedule changes or cancellations. The larger ones do seem to be pretty good but some of the smaller ones less so. And some of the cancellation issues are relating to the OTA taking their fee (as per their T&Cs) so the passenger doesn’t get a full refund.
Whilst LM clearly does have issues the one mentioned in the thread was particularly complex and out of the ordinary. But in general from posts on here I don’t recall seeing many issues involving LM.
For a simple return flight (or holiday) in the fairly near future then I’d have no designation in using an OTA but for a multi hop multi hotel trip with scope for lots of changes I’d have a different view.
Booking CI – have you tried pricing it up from another SkyTeam airline website? KLM, Delta, Virgin etc. It would have to be a huge saving for me to use an OTA.
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