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We had a great pre-concert family meal at the Ivy, Birmingham last week. Excellent service, great food and the credit posted 3 days later. When does dining credit re-set, is it membership anniversary?

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I can’t help you with your query but where did you get this offer from please?

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I snaffled a companion voucher booking both ways in 2019. Was flexible in my dates and called US number at midnight UK on the relevant days. Easy as that!

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Thank Al, we haven’t flown yet. Thanks for the information.

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If your typical annual spending is around £10k and not all of it can be Amex, I suggest you should stay clear of Amex and focus on Barclaycard. If you’re not doing spend enough to trigger the key benefit of the card, there is little point to it for most people. Also, with an annual spend of £10k, you’re unlikely to earn enough for an Amex companion voucher so the Barclaycard voucher, which works better for single redemptions, is probably better as you can upgrade a cash flight so don’t need thousands of miles to make it worth it. An alternative worth looking at is the Virgin Atlantic card. I have a spreadsheet to work out what options are best to optimise spend and redemptions, it makes it clear to me what the best options are. If I have any of this wrong, I am sure others will correct me! Key questions for me 1. Can you trigger the bonus 2. Can you trigger the key benefit e.g. upgrade/companion voucher 3. Will I have enough miles to take advantage of the voucher 4. Are there any other card benefits which might tip the decision. Hope this helps!

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CarpalTravel wrote:

BJ wrote:

Loyalty schemes can be hugely profitable. Large numbers of partners from amex to Sainsburys pay for them to reward customers. Many customers who end up with them then use them unwisely or not at all to the benefit of airlines selling them. Despite the vast number of page views HfP gets, it remains only a fraction of the numbers holding and using loyalty points so most are not as clued in as HfP readers.

I know others have already confirmed this, but in my experience it is so entirely true that I want to repeat on it. This site can be a bit of an echo chamber for avios earning; it is easy to think that everyone, everywhere, are doing the same and really optimising their usage.

The truth is though that despite my best efforts, none of the people I have ever tried to help have come anywhere close to making good use of their opportunities. An Amex Plat here (never using any of the Amex offers), a Capital on Tap card there (using it for no more than the odd purchase), these businesses are benefitting from the enticements they are “giving” away. The card firms win and BA wins as ultimately, the Avios they sold don’t get taken advantage of. I even know someone who has almost 160k Avios and it is almost certain they will never, ever use them.

Beyond signup bonuses, it seems very few people can be bothered to max out their earning opportunities or simply make good use of them.

Of course that all said, maybe I am just a very poor teacher!

I’ve tried with my friends too. The reality is that most people just can’t be bothered to spend a bit of effort to maximise the return on every pound they spend. I find that attitude weird because it’s both enormously financially beneficial and can also be a lot of fun. What better hobby can you have that results in free/very discounted travel? Still, I am happy for loads of people to squander the opportunities as it means I probably have more opportunities, as a result of their apathy and disorganisation.

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Gary_Dexter wrote:

Decreasing your credit limit is never a good idea, despite what Amex tells you.

Other lenders will see the limit decrease when you apply for other credit products elsewhere, and a decrease in credit limit could be a sign that you can’t manage/be trusted with higher limits.

Are you sure that is the case. In the past, my credit report has often stated that one of tasks I could do is reduce the total amount of unused credit on my cards either by cancelling cards or reducing credit limits to improve chances of being accepted by some credit cards?

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I just got refused for the Platinum despite having a perfect credit score, a current BA PP and a long history with Amex. I called them but the agent couldn’t offer an explanation. Anyone else had this experience? I thought I’d read somewhere about someone being refused but after reducing the credit limit on their other Amex card they were accepted. Any help would be appreciated.

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Has BA said anything about the Gatwick fleet or will they become ‘second class’ compared to the Heathrow fleet for some time after the Heathrow fleet is done?

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We’re going CW in January so any hints and tips are appreciated. We’ve hired a car the whole two weeks and are staying at the mid-range SALT at Palmar and Veranda Tamarin. We like smaller hotels.

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Retire as early as you can afford to. I’ve talked to many newly retired people and very very few say they retired too early, most say they left it too long. Most newly retired people don’t spend enough during the early years it seems, heard that from multiple people. I’m going to retire at 56 in 3 months time. I won’t be rich in terms of money but much richer in terms of life and have enough for a comfortable life. I know I’m fortunate, but I planned this for a long time.

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Increases to faxes and charges for business class flights on BA and Virgin are unfortunate but cash prices also seem to have increased. So, especially if you’re making extensive use of companion vouchers like a lot of us, we’re just going to have to suck it up. It’s still a great way of getting premium cabins for a lot less. I’m about to retire soon, so the new Barclaycard will give me a much better chance of securing enough Avios to make use of future companion vouchers as well as have having new options. I do wonder whether upgrade vouchers might start to make more sense than companion vouchers though.

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My wife and I are going Virgin Upper for the very first time in October and then BA to Mauritius in January. I am looking forward to the comparison having heard so much about the Virgin clubhouse and on board hard and soft product, We have flown BA CW many times and for the majority of the time it’s been very good. Service good, food good, comfort good and therefore struggled to understand all the negativity about BA CW, but that might be that we haven’t tried Virgin yet. Aer Lingus and Emirates were a bit better than BA in some ways, but not by a huge amount.

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I too, found that statement rather odd and unnecessary but to raise thread about ‘Sexism in articles’, the plural, based on this single example, would seem to be a slight over-reaction? Are there other examples?

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When I booked my Australia tickets, I called the US number just after midnight UK time to get them. There are other international numbers that are available before UK start time, that’s how most people do it for in demand routes.

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I was told I was approved and that’s it, nothing more yet, not even an email! I have some spend I’d really like to put on it ASAP too!

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And FlyerTalk seems very US centric, not much on UK or Europe. Plus one place fewer to look! And HfP is better of course.

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Thanks, I may have a good use for US domestic flights coming up, so that looks promising.

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Going back to the Mauritius accommodation discussion. Even a cursory look on Tripadvisor, VRBO or AirBnB will show a large choice of good quality accommodation for all budgets. For next January, we’re got a very well reviewed studio apartment with shared pool overlooking the beach for about £50 a night, another more upscale direct beach access villa for about £150 a night and finally a boutique, beach front, adults only hotel, half board, for £250 a night. That’s great value IMHO. It reminds me of some of the larger Caribbean islands for choice. Also plenty of places to eat out at all price points. Mauritius also has loads to do.

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It sounds like you’re some way off getting enough Avios to use a Companion Voucher yet. When you do, you can only use it on British Airways ‘metal’ so cannot use it on Iberia. Not sure about the Barclays upgrade voucher though. When you do have enough though, I thought, compared to cash prices, Mauritius is a good option. CW tickets often £3k and above, Avios only £150k return with companion voucher. Alternatively, as has been said above, the Caribbean or Florida are best bets for sun, see and sand. For your Virgin miles, I recently used 2 vouchers to get two of us to Orlando, which worked out quite well. I understand that there are also good redemption opportunities to Virgin partners, but again can’t use the vouchers on partners.

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When I came to book outbound flights using the one voucher I thought I had, the Virgin Atlantic agent, caught me by surprise and said I had 2! I did check and lo and behold I was issued a second one about a week before. She told me exactly how to use them to get the best deal, I was very happy! Two returns to Orlando in Upper Class, for 95k miles and taxes. Thanks Virgin!

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I had the same situation and in the end was advised that the best option was option 3 for a trip to Orlando in October. Total cost – £1373 plus 95k points to upgrade from Premium to Upper for 2 people. I am hoping this was the best use. The Virgin Flying Club website is definitely not as helpful re redemptions as BA IMHO.

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I only use it for directing debit card transactions plus spending and cash abroad to my Virgin points card. Had the occasional issue with declines but normally works absolutely fine.

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I’ve flown CW many times, usually using a companion voucher, most recently to/from Orlando. For us, it’s a bargain when using a companion voucher. What it does, it does well and the service is usually very good. I have limited experience comparing it to other airlines long haul business class (Aer Lingus – better, Emirates – hard product better, soft not as good) though and if I was paying cash for CW I might be a little pickier.