[dst87]

Good call! I hadn’t considered using the shopping portal on Aerclub!

When I booked my TUI holiday last year I use Topcashback… a measly 1% at the time (though right now they have 4% listed, so that’s comparable to the 4 Avios and maybe better if you value cash more highly).

[dst87]

The generosity is drying up, at least for me. Previously had 50k, 30k, and 30k. This years offer: 10k MR points for spending £1k in 3 months.

It makes sense! I’ll take it and make a decision. Curious to see if anything replaces the Harvey Nichols credit or if they consider the changes to the dining credit to be the replacement.

[dst87]

Thanks for the report. We visited Japan last November / December and had an incredible time – your trip report is making me want to go back!

I agree on Tokyo – I found it a little bit too busy for me, but we also chose to stay in Shibuya so that was probably an own-goal. We enjoyed Kyoto much more.

Interesting that you chose to fly from Tokyo to Osaka instead of taking the train – I’d have thought it might overall take longer. Did you consider the train? I found the Tokaido Shinkansen line to be fantastic when we used it between Tokyo and Kyoto.

How was driving in Japan? I think I’d have been a little nervous to do it, but perhaps outside of the larger cities it would be fine and maybe a little easier to access some of the more remote areas.

Sounds like you had a fantastic time and you’ve given me some thoughts for our next trip, whenever that may be!

[dst87]

Kenobi wrote:

For the upgrade do you call beforehand or just ask for it on arrival?

When I tried this for the first time staying at Park Plaza Nottingham, I called a couple of days beforehand to ask how it worked and if I can upgrade on arrival, and they did it over the phone. So I never found out whether you just ask at the desk on arrival.

It should just happen automatically on arrival, at least that’s how I think it’s supposed to work, and how it worked for me a week or do in Krakow… speaking of which…

Hotel: Radisson RED Hotel Krakow
City: Krakow, Poland
Room Booked: 2 x Standard room – 1 King
Duration: 4 nights (Mon – Fri)
Upgraded: Both rooms upgraded to (I think) a Corner Premium Room. Not the top room available as far as I could tell. They have a special Radisson Rewards floor which the upgraded room was on.
Breakfast: Yes, for both rooms (4 people in total)
Lounge Access: N/A – No lounge available
Welcome Gift: Small plate of macarons in both rooms

Breakfast was decent, but the space was a little cramped when it was busy. Overall the hotel, being a new build, was fresh and comfortable. Water pressure was not great though – only just tolerable – and it might put me off staying here again.

The hotel has two parts, the hotel and the apartments. I think they’re in different buildings, and I wouldn’t have expected to be upgraded from a hotel room to an apartment but I think there were more premium rooms in the hotel side available for our stay. I was pretty happy either way!

[dst87]

Couple of questions about this as new to Radisson… do you tend to see upgrades on your booking in advance (how far in advance), and does the free breakfast tend to apply to all rooms in the booking? Just at the whim of the hotel, I guess? I see a lot of people talking about multiple rooms getting upgraded, but I wasn’t sure about the other perks.

I’ve booked two rooms at the Radisson RED in Kraków and I’m curious what to expect as VIP!

[dst87]

I can second William Curley. I’ve ordered online from them and was very impressed.

Agree that Hotel Chocolat is pretty mainstream. I quite like some of their stuff, but I wouldn’t describe them as fancy.

I got a box of Harrods own chocolates recently after someone recommended them and the flavours and presentation are very good.

As a student I worked for a fantastic chocolatier based in Edinburgh called Plaisir du Chocolat. They had expanded to Selfridges in Manchester and perhaps London too and closed not long after. Great shame, as I’m still chasing the high of their beautiful chocolates. I haven’t had anything quite as good or interesting since.

[dst87]

danimal wrote:

Mine is £500 in FX then an additional entry for each additional £100 spent! Having just paid for a Club World ticket in Euros I have at least 12 entries!

This is why I’m curious if there’s a single shared prize among all competitions of if they’re truly separate. If I’d had the FX one I’d have loads of entries because I’m just back from Japan. As it stands I might get a few entries at £5k + £500 each addition entry but not gonna go far!

[dst87]

Curious. I wonder if they’re completely separate competitions with separate prizes or if it’s a single prize for all of these.

[dst87]

Interesting that there are different offers there… mine is definitely spend £5,000 to quality, and get an additional entry for each additional £500 you spend. No mention of FX spend at all.

It’s a bit misleading to have different variations of the same competition with different requirements for different people. I am linked to these T&C:

https://curve.com/en-gb/legal/tier-3-curve-commercial-prize-draw-terms/

But it seems that there are tier 1, 2, and 4 terms too with slightly different prizes and spend thresholds. I wonder if the other terms are for the non-commercial card?

Interesting that none of those are listed on the main legal hub which I’d imagine should link to all relevant terms:

https://curve.com/en-gb/legal/

Starting to smell a bit fishy to me!

[dst87]

kgmalc wrote:

Is this what I get – 20,000 extra MR, if I get a Platinum card member to refer me?

Yes, the current rate is 80,000 MR points when applying online directly but the referral offer gives 100,000 MR points = 20,000 extra.

While I’d be happy to refer you, I believe the standing etiquette is to let @Rob do the referrals as a way of paying for our membership to the site. Perhaps he or @Rhys can arrange a link for you if you want to go that route!

[dst87]

I see TCP as offering only £50 for the Platinum card but maybe you have a different offer. Assuming it tracks correctly (always a risk, never guaranteed) then whatever cash back is on offer can be considered the amount you’re “paying” for whatever additional bonus MR points you get by going down the referral route.

Sounds like if your wife refers you then you get a total of 10,000 additional points (4k Avios + 6k MR), so you’d be “paying” about 0.5p per point – pretty reasonable!

Even then, though, getting a referral from someone else gives you 100,000 MR points, or 20,000 more than the current normal rate, so that still seems like the better option rather than being referred by your wife.

[dst87]

Thanks @meta! That restaurant is indeed still available so I’ll check it out.

[dst87]

I was never going to book dinner three months in advance. Even now there’s an overwhelming amount of availability in that app so I’m sure I’ll get something pretty great, even if I’m going to miss out on some of the most in demand places.

[dst87]

Well, I got a letter through telling me they were unable to open the account because they need more identification. I’m not sure why it took them almost 2 weeks to work that out, but OK. I’m glad I have a path forward now. We’ll make an appointment to go into the branch and open the account where hopefully it’ll be much quicker!

What’s odd is that they seem to require me to apply in full in a branch, rather than putting the application on hold and having us pop into a branch to show ID. That would be much quicker than having to make an appointment to go thought the whole account opening rigmarole!

R76 wrote:

To answer your original question, if and when things are set up and working, I don’t think you’ll be frustrated by the app. I can do everything I want to do in it, and although there are a couple of unintuitive elements, once you’ve learned where everything is it’s pretty efficient to use. You see transactions in the app as soon as they’re made.

Given your stated objective of avoiding crap and slow service, though, I’d question your choice of Barclays. They’re generally in the lower half of customer satisfaction surveys.

Good to know about the app. I rarely use the debit card anyway so I’m not too worried about about spend tracking etc. It would be nice if they offered push notifications for new transactions, but it’s not a deal-breaker. I know they have cheque imaging which I prefer (my health insurance provider still pays out by cheque) and I suspect I’ll just have to see for myself how “nice” the app feels to use.

Avoiding crap service is sort of the goal. I mostly just want to be able to pick up the phone or pop in to a branch and see a person if I ever need that. Monzo are becoming harder and harder to contact and it makes me uneasy, even though so far I’ve never actually need them for anything important.

The benefit of the Avios package is also a draw to Barclays. If I wanted to entirely prioritise service I’d probably go with Nationwide or First Direct.

[dst87]

I managed to fairly easily get 2-4-1 availability to Tokyo this year without much drama – booked once and then moved the booking to different dates earlier this year (travelling next month). I also noticed that there’s effectively no availability at all booking from Edinburgh for the next year. I think we got exceptionally lucky with when we just happened to decide we wanted to visit Japan!

[dst87]

@soo interesting, thanks! I might pop into a branch when I’m passing and see if anyone can give me more information. I’m away for work from Saturday for a week so I suppose I’ll see if anything arrives while I’m away and go from there.

If I look on my Clearscore report I see a soft search from Barclays on the day I applied. I applied online, and I suppose this is expected because as part of the identity verification check they asked me about things on the report (the usual “Who is your mortgage with” and “what was the opening balance of your mortgage” stuff).

I have a feeling we’re falling between the same cracks in the system as your OH. 😒. I have the Avios Barclaycard already, so it’s not like we’re completely new to them.

[dst87]

soo wrote:

@dst87 I hope you get your account opened eventually.

When there was a promotion 1+ years ago my OH tried to sign up to Barclays Premier, long story short after 3 attempts, calls, help from branch manager who was as perplexed, we gave up. Something behind their concrete wall that even branch staff could not access didn’t like the details. Like you the worrisome part was lack of communication, there was no declined notice, nothing after ‘we’ll let you know’.

All our other bank accounts opened fine.

Good luck!

Thanks for sharing your experience! I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s had trouble. When you say you gave up… is that where you left things?

I’m tempted to pop into the branch and see if I can speak to someone, but given they seem to say you need an appointment I’m not sure it’ll help. May be worth a shot though, even if just to try and get some information.

It sounds like in your case nobody could even see the application, is that right? It’s a bizarre state of affairs. 😕

[dst87]

@JDB That’s totally fair, and I can appreciate an account taking a little while to open… what I find less acceptable is the lack of communication. Besides the initial email that they’d received the application, I have heard nothing. One of the people I spoke to by phone told me I should apply for a sole account first then upgrade to a joint account, and then upgrade to Premier… even though the website shows that is not necessary and they seem to have acknowledged by direct joint Premier account application.

I also couldn’t get a straight answer about what the status of the application was – I don’t know if she couldn’t see it (but if she couldn’t, why tell me to make another application online?) or if she saw something and couldn’t / wouldn’t tell me what she saw… but it’s left me a bit confused.

I’d pop into a branch but the next available time to make a “new account opening” appointment is a month away and I’m not even sure it’s what I need to do. Has my application just died? Will they ever actually tell me that there’s a problem?

It’s the poor communication that I find most frustrating. At this point I’m just going to forget about it and I suppose if a letter declining the application eventually turns up (or, I suppose, some debit cards) then… I guess everything will be (very very very slowly) worked as intended.

[dst87]

Well this is incredibly frustrating. I applied online last Saturday and have heard absolutely nothing since. I called the Premier helpline today and was told I wasn’t showing as a Premier customer yet and to call back on the retail line. The woman I spoke to at retail this afternoon was talking about having to apply for a regular account in the app and then upgrade later… contrary to anything listed online.

This is starting to feel impossible! To be fair the guy from Premier Banking answered the phone immediately this morning and was really friendly, but I’m left a bit confused about how to actually open an account. I contemplated going into a branch but the earliest appointment is the end of November. 🤯

When I opened my Monzo and Starling accounts years ago I did it within a few minutes in the app, got a debit card in Apple Wallet immediately, and received the physical card the next working day.

If the person on the Premier Banking line hadn’t been so quick and friendly this morning I think I may be ready to abandon the whole endeavour!

[dst87]

I’m also starting to get frustrating with the Monzo app because they keep advertising accounts that I can’t actually use (because all of their premium accounts don’t actually apply to the joint account) and they just don’t seem to cater as well for the joint-account-first customer. I don’t use my personal account at all.

But the app itself is quite performant and nice to use for the most part.

[dst87]

That’s generally the reason I want to move to Barclays Premier. We currently bank with Monzo and while they’ve been great and I love the app I don’t have high confidence that if something goes wrong I’ll be able to speak to someone quickly and easily.

As I’m getting older and have more money but less time (that I want to spend on boring crap) I’m probably happy to make that trade off. At least I hope that’s the trade-off I’m making! I suppose Barclays could have crap or slow service too.

I can always switch away in the future if I’m not impressed so I’m not too worried.

[dst87]

I’ve found it very possible to spend in Harvey Nichols with fragrance; with a few fragrance brands I’ve been unable to find them cheaper anywhere, so buying from HN has been fine.

Agree with the clothing though; much of the brands they sell are really young streetwear brands that just aren’t “me” at all (and… much more than I’m going to spend!) but I have bought a nice Paul Smith hoody which is fairly simple / decent quality. I also really like Colourful Standard stuff which is all unbranded, simple, and high quality (and not particularly expensive).

[dst87]

The Hilton guidance on this seem fairly clearly written here: https://help.hilton.com/s/article/How-do-I-become-a-Lifetime-Diamond-Member

To be a Lifetime Diamond Member, you must earn Hilton Diamond status for 10 (non-consecutive) years and complete 1 additional milestone:

* Complete stays totaling 1,000 paid and reward nights
* Earn 2 million base Points

[dst87]

Yeah, I don’t intend to since the Diamond loophole was closed (though I was somewhat tempted to give it a go… just in case I get lucky?)

I’ve cleared my points balance with a 4 night reward stay at the Hotel Indigo in Shibuya, Tokyo where I should get my final set of Diamond breakfasts.

[dst87]

I had an early-ish Tesla Model 3 for just under 5 years which I’ve just sold and replaced with a Polestar 2. The outgoing Tesla was still a fantastic car but I fancied a change and keen to shed the association with Elon Musk.

I couldn’t imagine going back to an ICE now. An EV is, to me, much nicer to drive. It’s fantastic waking up knowing the car has a “full tank”.

We’ve done a couple of longer drives from central Scotland to north Wales (in both cars). The Tesla Supercharger network used to be a massive advantage but the gap is smaller now. Many of the superchargers can be used by any car and other charger networks are becoming more and more common. Even on those longer journeys I’ve never felt I was waiting around because I tend to want to stop to eat anyway.

In terms of reliability our Tesla Model 3 had done 50-something thousand miles and the range had dropped fairly minimally. Seems that there’s an initial drop after the first few tens of thousands of miles which levels off thereafter. The worry of costly battery replacements on modern EVs seems to be a non-issue.

No other issues at all with our Tesla. The build quality was fine… not amazing compared to the cost, but I’ve used a new Model 3 (the new 2024 model) and they’ve improved things drastically. (They’ve also got rid of the indicator stalks which was a step too far for me!)

If I couldn’t charge at home I’d need to think carefully about it, but would definitely try to make it work. Any time I’m driving a non-EV reminds me of how much more pleasurable driving an EV is!