[defender90]

6A climbs over 7B legs to get to aisle

[defender90]

Would highly recommend Mak for dinner, a modern and delicious take on classic Hungarian fare! If you fancy exploring Hungarian wine (actually a real quality product and not just Tokaj), then would recommend a tasting at the Faust wine cellars underneath the Hilton hotel

[defender90]

Afternoon,

Great idea to start the chat! I’ve managed to convince player 2 to come along with so there’ll be 2 of us there. I’ve been into the game for the past 7 years or so, rarely travel with work so for me it’s all about the golden nectar of Avios and 2-4-1 voucher for Club redemptions to long-haul destination. BA highlights:

-Return to Mexico City CW and a great road trip round the Yucatán peninsula
-Return to Cape Town CW and an amazing 3 weeks exploring South Africa and Zambia
-Return to Tokyo CW this April just gone exploring all the details that country has to offer for 3 weeks – tough tickets to get!
-Return to Singapore inc outbound leg in First before spending 2 weeks exploring SE Asia and my favourite lounge so far (Qatar lounge in Singapore)
– A few decent CE legs into Budapest, Turkey and Athens
-Upcoming CW return into Seattle and out of Austin for a 3-week family roadtrip round the US!

I’m currently making use of a BA Premium Card, Plat and Barclays avios plus which is working well, especially the 6-monthly bottle of Monkey 47 from the HN credit! Favourite redemption so far would be a recent work trip where I flew to India with Emirates and managed to upgrade one of those legs to first and experience that amazing product.

Favourite thing about points has got to be introducing others to the joy of premium long haul cabins without the big bills – although they quickly get addicted!!

See you Thursday!

Pete

[defender90]

Good news! I’ve just had a message through chat that the investigation has concluded and (surprise surprise) the HFP community was right and they will be posing the SUB!

Another case of inconsistent agent education and systems but the stated T&Cs win out.

Pete

[defender90]

zapato1060 wrote:

Not sure it’s of any use but my and P2 biz gold SUB hit the next day of spend. Biz plat the same.

Would you have been eligible under the ‘old’ rules also, or had held an amex business within the past 24 months?

[defender90]

Quite possibly, sounds like there could be a few of us. Anyone else in the same position currently?

Pete

[defender90]

Thanks Rob – exactly my understanding! I spent an hour on chat with 3 different agents this morning to no avail. Below are some direct excerpts:

‘I appreciate your effort on checking the terms, Peter. I can sense how much you value earning a welcome offer for a newly opened card.

Regarding the terms of business cards, I did some research and as of now, this is only an internal process for business cards. It is similar to how bonuses works on personal cards, for now, you may use the same terms as your reference where if you apply for the same card, you can only earn one welcome bonus for it.’

‘I completely understand where you’re coming from on this and I know you’re looking forward to the welcome offer. I’ve reviewed my resources and I can confirm there were no recent changes to Amex UK terms for welcome offers on personal and business card.

The link you shared does discuss the process in great detail, however, this information was not cascaded by Amex.

For any changes in Amex terms, Amex will always update our card members and send a formal communication through email and announce it at our website.’

‘Thanks for waiting, Peter.

Upon checking, since you have already earned the bonus when you applied for the Business Gold card, it means that you will no longer be eligible to get another welcome bonus offer when you applied for another Business Gold card, as they of the same product.

You will be eligible to get another Welcome Bonus if you may choose to apply for a different Amex Business card that you have not held before.’

‘The terms are not available online as it is an internal process we are following to prevent multiple bonuses applied on the same card product by cancelling the card product a re-opening new ones.’

[defender90]

Yep – exactly the one.

Amex chat have come back and told me no terms have changed, and ‘regarding the business cards, this is now only an internal process. It is similar to how bonuses work for personal cards and so for now you may use those terms for reference.’

I have pointed out that’s not how terms work….

[defender90]

We stayed here, ticks all your boxes and was a lovely location! Unsure on your dates and therefore availability:

https://www.norfolkhideaways.co.uk/blakeney-holt-surrounding-villages/salthouse-holiday-cottages/eastgate-cottage-and-hideaway

[defender90]

Agreed – glad it’s not just me! Checked a load of other long-haul destinations and couldn’t find much other than KUL

[defender90]

We cruised southbound from Luxor to Aswan last year on Oberoi Zahra – would heartily recommend!

The itinerary that we followed and worked well was:

1st night stay at the Old Winter Palace in Luxor
Transfer to boat for 6 day cruise
Get to Aswan and optional trip to Abu Simbel (very worthwhile!)
Fly Aswan to Cairo, night at Marriott Mena House with amazing view of the pyramids and a visit on final morning before flying. Definitely pay the extra to go inside the pyramids!

[defender90]

It must be my lucky day! Having had the current account since 15/3, and then signing up for the barcalycard plus on 24/6 (to recieve the 50k bonus) I was sure that I didn’t qualify for the offer. I did receive both the email, and following text that I would be getting 100k, and lo and behold this morning they have arrived in my account!

Overall I have ended up benefitting to the tune of 200k:

2/8: 25k for joining premier avios rewards using current account switch
2/8: 50k for getting the avios plus card and spending £3k in 3 months
16/10: Bonus 25k for being an early customer that a number of us got
24/3: 100k Bonus for holding both accounts

Anyone else had this luck?

[defender90]

Would highly recommend the Qatar lounge – when flying BA16 SIN-LHR we basically had the entire place to ourself for 2 hours. Lots of showers and the a la carte dining options are great!

[defender90]

I disagree and think they are incompatible, or at least confusing. A personalised email (I had the same) telling you that you’re eligible for an offer and all you have to do is keep accounts open until a certain date is pretty clear. Obviously they have all the relevant dates needed etc so why would this email have been sent otherwise, except in error?

Maybe Rob can provide some clarity?

[defender90]

@twiglet just stick it out on chat. Had this exact issue 2 weeks ago and had to go through 6 chat agents to finally get sorted. Each time when the agent said they weren’t able to for whatever reason you just need to exit the chat and start again. Worth it for 75000-100000 back!

[defender90]

Anyone else received the below from Barclays?

We really hope you’re enjoying Barclays Avios Rewards and Barclaycard Avios Plus. To say thanks for being one of the first people to sign up for both, we’d like to give you 25,000 Avios for free. We’ll automatically add them to your account by the end of October. Your Barclays team

[defender90]

Avios Cash Cash Equivalent
70,000 £150.00 £850.00
60,000 £260.00 £860.00
50,000 £350.00 £850.00
40,000 £500.00 £900.00
27,000 £550.00 £820.00
17,500 £600.00 £775.00

This is what I’m saying for an Economy flight to cape town for 2. Again the cheapest overall price is to take the lowest avios. £775 plays circa £1560 cash so I’m not complaining!

[defender90]

I’d read through that policy last night so messaged them and got the below back:

Thank you for the information.

As we’ve checked, the baggage can be checked through to the final destination with British Airways from Samui. But the passengers will not receive boarding passes from Singapore to Heathrow with us. In this case, the passengers have to check with BA whether they have the counter to receive boarding passes in transit or not.

[defender90]

NorthernLass wrote:

I think they were released in June last year (so not helpful for the first half of the next year!)
Core Easter holidays are likely to be the first 2 weeks in April with maybe a few days either side as some schools have longer than a fortnight. There are some very random off peak days this year which means you can grab a bargain even at peak period – for example December 14th this year is off peak so I managed to grab 2 F seats outbound to the US at 68k avios with a 241 for our Xmas road trip.

Exactly my logic – for example this year Monday 4th is off-peak but the first week of Easter hols, so maybe Monday 3rd would be this year! Might just have to take my chances….

[defender90]

Just had the same email for our F flights on 5th July – were you booked onto BA11? We have been moved onto BA15, the later evening departure.

[defender90]

laughingplace wrote:

defender90 wrote:

Another interesting datapoint – I took the card out in October 2021 and was offered 50k MR today when I asked to downgrade to gold. They did cite a relationship of a few years so I think that it’s not just time with platinum, but more time with Amex in general and spend history that counts

Was this via chat or phone?

This was via chat on the app

[defender90]

Another interesting datapoint – I took the card out in October 2021 and was offered 50k MR today when I asked to downgrade to gold. They did cite a relationship of a few years so I think that it’s not just time with platinum, but more time with Amex in general and spend history that counts

[defender90]

Potentially an increased sign-up/spend bonus coming down the tracks?

[defender90]

Definitely a full household member, this is the answer from support:

‘With this booking the household account has been changed since the booking was made. This is why the full amount has come from your account, as there is no way for us to deduct the avios from the other member.’

[defender90]

I did manage this earlier in the summer but just took perseverance and a number of calls. Do you hold status?