[Gary]

John wrote:

You must be “transiting” mainland China from country A to country B, with non-stop flights. HK, Macau and Taiwan are each counted as separate countries for the purposes of this “transit”..

Thank you and interesting from points perspective (as well as politically). Would you happen to have a link that refers to this?

[Gary]

Should one foresee any issues using the Abroad Dining Benefit on 2 Jan 26?

Only asking as it wasn’t available for some days after 1 Jan 25, but this was possibly due to Amex changing structure of UK/Abroad dining benefits then?

[Gary]

djj199 wrote:

Plat – Spend £800 or more with VA, get £100 back.

This Virgin Atlantic offer states “online only” for me. Has it worked for anyone when redeeming via their call centre? Asking as can’t do online for vouchers.

[Gary]

+1, the touch points were spot on and leaving some food for thought. Much appreciated.

[Gary]

These two places came to mind.

https://www.langansbrasserie.com/

https://www.cecconisrestaurants.com/mayfair

[Gary]

Would be grateful for advice around, I presume, some technicality. As mentioned above, VS agreed to re-route for May 26 as follows:

LHR TLV with BA in economy
TLV LHR with El Al in premium
VS/LY booking ref XXXXX
BA booking ref YYYYYY
Outbound & inbound all on one ticket.

VS agent attempted for the 3rd time to book the BA outbound two days ago. Each time the BA flight would show under booking ref YYYYYY in BA MMB, but it disappears after a few days (Oddly the El AL flight has consistently been visible under BA PNR YYYYY in MMB). Have received email confirmation with corresponding ticket numbers for the first two attempts. Not got it for the third attempt as it was just 2 days ago.

Any idea why the BA outbound kept on dropping off the PNR, leaving only the EL Al inbound. Hoping to steer VS agent in the right direction for our 4th attempt. Thanks.

[Gary]

@BBbetter Been checking out hotels with water parks/kids facilities, Centara Grand Mirage Pattaya looked interesting if you are open to Pattaya.

We have stayed at Kimpton Samui(when aged 6) and Melia Samui (aged 7). They were happy with both kids clubs and the various activities throughout the day. There are actually a few non-elaborate slides dotted around the lazy river at Melia, and they were popular with the kids (and adults!). Kimpton has ping pong table and football table right by the main pool but no slides.

The beach frontage at Kimpton is pretty small as most are dedicated to their beachfront pool villas in case this was important, otherwise it’s a solid choice.

[Gary]

@bobthebuilder Did it few months back, also noted some recent posts

https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/forums/topic/booking-return-leg-with-companion-voucher/page/71/

[Gary]

@bobthebuilder Yes you can do this.

[Gary]

https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/forums/topic/adding-child-to-household-account-technical-problem/

[Gary]

@JDB thanks for the helpful advice. Gave it a second go by ringing.

@Richie No attempts to re-route for May 25, & CSA did ask why I didn’t ring prior. I advised there was no reason to given the state of affairs until recently, hence Virgin kept on cancelling the route. CSA seemed amenable to the reasoning, and it was escalated.

Ended up with BA outbound in economy and El Al inbound in premium on exact dates. El Al usually has PE on day of the week from LHR, however, our date fell on Shavuot with only STN flight which has no PE.

I enquired re refunding the points/cash difference between PE and Economy for the outbound, CSA was unable to advise other than to email customer service.

Given ticket validity issue, Virgin dynamic pricing, and fear of more hopeless VS points being refunded, I went ahead despite the downgrade. Will deal with the refund if & when we get to travel.

[Gary]

danimal wrote:

Does the method of booking the outbound online at T-355 with a BARCLAYS voucher (NOT A CV) then booking the return online, also at t-355, then calling the next day to get the bookings combined and Avios refunded work the same as with a CV? Is it possible?

This is possible with BUV.

[Gary]

Yes Seat Spy notifications were pinging continuously. Saw 8/2/4 in Eco/prem/club seats to many SE Asia destinations for peak holiday dates. Booked online, payment taken, & e-tickets received with thanks.

[Gary]

You can booked Sri Lankan direct LHR CMB on both BA & QR websites with points but availabilities are not great.

[Gary]

In a nutshell, it seems like it is possible to make a booking with a reward voucher, without the voucher holder actually travelling on the booking.[/quote]

This is super interesting and thank you. Been advised for years person who earned the voucher would need to travel to utilise as a companion voucher. Will review T&Cs in case need to push back.

[Gary]

Did your log into your VS account to confirm your status? Sometimes their IT kindly gifts unexpected status upgrade and/or voucher!

[Gary]

You could chase via their call centre to have the avios returned straight away if needed.

[Gary]

EUR50, free cancellation within first 24 hours.

[Gary]

Recent DP for long haul. Discovered whilst looking at CC statement was charged £35 to split into PNR 1 & 2 and another £35 to cancel PNR 2. This was all done on one call with the same CS. Thought was taken for a ride.

[Gary]

Noted there is a BA voucher at play, but you may find benefit in securing seats at T-360 via QR/AY outweigh BA’s T-355 palpitation-inducing 1am scramble [possibly on consecutive nights & QR/AY seats would have been gone by then].

[Gary]

fella wrote:

they would waive the supposed £93 seat booking fee (never got a satisfactory answer on what this was exactly… but didn’t want to push my luck!).. Kind of crazy to be told this when my 3 year old is clearly not going to be sitting separate to us!

Count yourself lucky the fee was waived for 2 adults + 1 child.

BA refused to allocate the 2nd kid (no status) on separate PNR a seat near myself + 1st kid (seats picked at reservation). It was escalated and advised to either pay, try at T-24 (wrong advice as cannot online check in for standalone child PNR), or at airport check in.

Didn’t sweat & left it til the airport as although I was confident BA aims To Fly, To Serve but may just stop at providing childcare. We ended up together.

[Gary]

Michael C wrote:

@sinc100 – we are the same combo as you: 2 adults + 1 child, using 241+Barclays.

Last summer, we rang BA and they “made a note” that the two different bookings were
linked, and we did indeed get placed next to each other in the end. Might have just
been lucky, of course, but maybe worth doing anyway.

+1.

Had manual linking of our 241+BUV PRNs & surprisingly we ended up sitting together as thought no one reads manual notes. Not sure it made any difference, but stressed the child is alone on BUV PNR & would become unaccompanied if sat in different parts of the cabin.

[Gary]

When does Finnair release its guaranteed Avios seats & at what time?

Is it actually at T-360 (like BA at T-355) as not seeing any seats one way from HKG, SIN, TYO back to HEL being released in all cabin classes from approx 28 Mar 26 onwards? Or maybe all being booked up already?

ps Plenty of JAL seats available in case of any interest to anyone.

[Gary]

If you call to add, you would only be charged avios that’s due after taking the voucher into account.

[Gary]

The issue being EVA expectedly set your expectations, but BA sadly didn’t quite manage to manage your expectations.