[Gavin454]

Has anyone found a relatively easy way to earn Iberia partner elite points? Other than actual hotel stays. I miscalculated and I’m going to be 348 points short of the 7500 I need by the end of March. Nearly all from flights. I did a one night Meliá stay which got me 40 points, and I thought perhaps I can buy some Meliá points there and transfer them to top up my elite points – however it seems transfers don’t get elite points. Only actual stays.

I may have to just do a short city break in March to get the points via BA Club Europe.

[Gavin454]

It’s definitely an additional checked bag (23kg). I noticed Finnair has size restrictions that are more strict than BA though – I had to purchase an additional bag as sports equipment for my skis, whereas on BA they’re counted as a standard bag.

[Gavin454]

kebeliever wrote:

Hi all,

Off to Japan this winter for the first time over new year, to spend some time in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto before skiing for a week. Currently, I’m booked in Y with JAL outbound from LHR on Boxing Day, and returning in J class with Iberia to MAD on Jan 12th (both Avios redemptions – a grand total of around 60k Avios with about £500 in taxes and fees, so great value!).

However, I’m not keen on the economy outbound flight and would love to find a reward seat in W, J or F. I’ve had a good search from various different starting points (e.g. HEL, FCO, CDG, AMS) but not found anything yet.

Obviously far too late for initial availability, and potentially too early for last-minute availability. However, for those more experienced with redemptions to Japan, I’d love any tips or particular routes/combos to keep an eye on or anything else I can do to increase my chances (have SeatSpy alerts set for BA and IB).

I’d need to depart December 26th or 27th. Thanks in advance!

Qatar has a lot of potential starting points and seem to vary availability on the second leg (Doha to Tokyo) depending on starting point in Europe. But searching for the normal priced redemptions takes ages. Maybe there’s a tool for it, I don’t know. I’ve done redemptions on Finnair via Helsinki before too. Since you’re willing to do ex-EU, it’s probably worth keeping an eye on cash fares too. If you catch a good sale it might work out cheaper than a redemption.

[Gavin454]

Rosalita wrote:

I now want to cancel my internal ITM-HND flights as I have just found out I can pay around half the price in cash against what I paid in avios…

however my question is, if i cancel will I get a full refund of avios as you do for BA flights? I paid avios only, and no cash. BA helpline are not confident and when I try to canx online I Have to fill out a form and commit to the canx, but with no clear indication of what I will get back. Hoping someone may have experience of this?

thanks

**ignore – they have food out they can canx…**

You’ll get all the Avios back. You would lose the cash element (up to £35) but since you didn’t pay any cash, you don’t lose anything. Strange that the BA helpline don’t know the answer to this.

[Gavin454]

NorthernLass wrote:

Wasn’t it cloudy in Cornwall that day?! I have a vague memory of the weather being ironically better in the north and we got a pretty good view of our partial eclipse!

It was cloudy in general that day, but the clouds cleared a few minutes before the total eclipse happened so we got a good view of the Corona from our location (one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen!). The clouds clearing was a feature of the eclipse, the shadow can cause thin cloud to dissipate.

[Gavin454]

I saw my first total eclipse in Cornwall in 1999 and it blew my mind. More recently I’ve been planning holidays around total eclipses – I was lucky enough to see the 2017 one in Oregon and the 2024 eclipse near Montréal both in clear skies. I’ll definitely try to get to see the Spain eclipse in 2026 and probably the 2027 eclipse too.

You 100% have to be in the path of totality, a 99.9% eclipse might as well be nothing compared to being in totality. You need to be a good few miles inside the totality band, preferably towards the middle to maximise your eclipse time and surrounding darkness.

One common thread between all 3 eclipses I saw was that they all had predictions of traffic apocalypse and gridlock before the event. But I had no trouble with crowds or traffic at any of them, and all of them I was at locations right in the middle of totality that you’d think would be popular!

[Gavin454]

rtho782 wrote:

if I get more refunded it will, according to Octopus, continue to go to Amex, as, in their opinion, Amex is the “Source of funds”. I’m also worried Amex will consider this MS.

Refunds are not spending. This is the opposite of manufactured spending. You’re actively losing points with each refund, but it doesn’t sound like it’s worth the hassle of closing the card over the relatively small amount of points you’ll be losing. Amex won’t care about the refunds at all.

An example of manufactured spending, if it were possible, would be to pay £1000 every month into Octopus and then have them refund it to your bank account. Then it goes from your bank account to Amex, and back to Octopus again, etc etc.

Amex might claw back the 90k bonus you mentioned though if you go under the threshold, if you think that’s a risk you should perhaps put some other spending on the card to keep it over the threshold (such as loading up an Amazon account, or buying Sainsbury’s vouchers, etc)

[Gavin454]

SBIre wrote:

I’ve never been to Phuket, but I’ve been to Bangkok and had dinner and drinks at the bar and restaurant that was featured in one of the Hangover movies -the Sky bar at the top of the Lebua. It was easy to get to from the MO, the views were great and the people watching was hilarious. I took my mum and she was fascinated. My main tips were to watch the weather as it is mostly outdoor (I think they would shelter restaurant goers, but not bar patrons) and obviously go in good time for the sunset if you can.

I’d recommend against the Lebua rooftop bar tbh. I’ve been to several and it’s the only one that felt like an outright tourist trap. The service is overbearing, and the drinks are more than double the cost of most rooftop bars (1200 for a basic cocktail at Lebua, vs. 490 at Octave for example, both December 2024).

Vertigo and Octave are both pretty good. I also enjoyed “Above 11” but it’s not particularly high.

[Gavin454]

Finnair have a UK company with a UK address in London, you can file a MCOL claim against them there. It might not be a straightforward process though, or the best way to get the compensation due. I found a Flyertalk thread saying that someone successfully won a MCOL case against them due to them not replying, but were also unable to get compensation due for the same reason (the thread from 2022 didn’t come to any conclusion)

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finnair-finnair-plus/2105872-finnair-uk-address.html

[Gavin454]

Bumping with a Marrakesh question rather than making a new thread.

I’m planning on doing a 5-day self organised cycle tour from Marrakesh next month with a friend, with just the final night actually in Marrakesh. We are hoping to find accomodation in Marrakesh that 1) has enough room for our bicycles and 2) will be OK with us leaving our bike bags there 5 nights in advance of our stay while we are on our tour.

We’ll have to ask them about point 2 of course, but does anyone have any potential recommendations for somewhere easily accessible by bicycle and would have enough space?

Also, any advice from anyone who’s been cycling in Morocco is very welcome!

[Gavin454]

Interesting write up, thanks! I really enjoyed a trip to Samarkand / Bukhara / Tashkent in 2013. When I went, the black market exchange rate was significantly different to the official one, and everyone would exchange cash at unofficial money exchange offices (or ask around for someone at the market). Couldn’t use card to pay for anything due to the big difference in rate. We ended up having to carry around big wads of cash everywhere! Is this still the case?

[Gavin454]

I bought an Otty mattress several years ago via BA Avios estore, and had a not insignificant number of Avios from the transaction (something like 7000). They tracked fine, went into my BAEC account, but were clawed back more than a year later for no reason. It was so late, that opening a query was not possible via the estore because the transaction was more than a year ago, and in the end I gave up trying to find a solution, it was really hard to contact anyone who could do anything.

Since then I’ve always stuck with TCB and Quidco. At least with them, when you’ve got the cashback it’s final. It can’t be clawed back. With the BA Avios estore, you never really know if they’re going to claw it back (unless say 2+ years have passed!)

[Gavin454]

Hokkaido will be OK in summer (but still potentially hot), however most of the rest of Japan will be unbearable.

Since you’re starting from zero points, and booking less than 1 year ahead, personally I would just look to pay cash in that situation. Keep an eye open for sales, companion fares etc. Potentially consider flying to another Asian city and connecting to Japan on separate flights.

[Gavin454]

Simey wrote:

I am not too sure how soon is too soon, but I also don’t want to me flagged as a serial complainer and I do believe others are a bit more brave than I am to attempt this any more than once every 12 months..

Depends how much time passed from you having the card, spend, etc.

In my case at least, it seems to be only one per year exactly. My first retention bonus was in July 2021, and I’ve had to wait one year in between each one, having now received four in total. I’ve tried twice just two weeks before the year is up (including this year), to be told nothing is available on my account.

[Gavin454]

Went on chat today and was offered 50k MR points when I said I was considering cancelling, didn’t even have to ask about a retention offer. All sorted within 2 minutes.

This is my 4th retention offer on this card. Previous offers were 35k, 50k, and 35k.

Just over a 1 year gap between each retention offer (this time, 1 year and 2 days).

For me, it’s worth keeping this card with the continued retention offers. But the benefits don’t stack up without it.

[Gavin454]

Personally I would boost them, as I like to keep a balance of 200k+ Avios just in case an unexpected redemption opportunity comes up, and I usually need to use boosts to keep my balance that high as I don’t earn many Avios from flying or directly from credit card spend. The majority of my Avios come from SUBs, boosting, and buying through other avenues, and I aim for less than 1p per point.

[Gavin454]

can2 wrote:

I mean, if such an MS route existed, we’d abuse it in such a way that HL would shut it down in two days, and then we’d open up a thread here and create 86 pages of a discussion!

I use Curve without fronted to fund my Interactive Investor account and have done for the past 3 or 4 financial years (to the £20k ISA limit). A few years ago I funded significantly beyond that when I wanted to make some purchases outside the ISA. It’s not manufactured spend though, it’s simply using Curve for spend that I would otherwise do with a debit card. I’ve never withdrawn from Interactive Investor.

[Gavin454]

If they’re refusing to engage any further, then I’d probably do MCOL for the GBP value of 132k Avios (whatever BA sells them for on their website)

[Gavin454]

I thought the Air France lounge had a much better and more varied food selection than the Oman Air lounge.

[Gavin454]

Alex G wrote:

The system seems cumbersome, and the process took longer than on previous visits. Nevertheless, I was on the Narita Express an hour after landing.

Very typical of Japan!

I’ve used the new system 3 times now, it works OK but it’s definitely slower and more hassle than before.

Japan in general seems to love making (potentially) simple things complicated.

Alex G wrote:

so there is no longer a need to carry your passport when shopping.

Apart from the fact that tourists are legally required to carry their passport at all times. It’s not unusual to ‘randomly’ be asked to show your passport to police as a foreigner, and it’ll be a big time-consuming hassle if you don’t have it with you.

[Gavin454]

I wasn’t particularly impressed with the Crowne Plaza HY36 Midtown Manhattan recently. Booked on points. Room and corridors felt old and worn out. Door handle was loose/falling off. The ventilation ducts allow you to hear anything above small volume coming from neighbouring rooms, channelling it through like some kind of sound tube – and I had a very noisy person in the opposite room the first night. Hotel sold out so there was nothing they could do (apart from telling them to keep the noise down which didn’t really work!). “free breakfast” for me as a Diamond was very limited, could choose one item plus one drink from the a la carte breakfast menu in the hotel restaurant. Wasn’t sure about the etiquette of tipping (or not) given that I was being served in a restaurant setting but wasn’t presented with a bill.

No resort fees charged on the redemption though.

[Gavin454]

byt411 wrote:

mercexe wrote:

sijt wrote:

Is anyone else having issues with the website when making a claim? I’m trying to claim for damage to a hire car in France and I’ve completed all the details up until it gets to step 4 “What type of purchases are you claiming for?”. The page just doesn’t seem to load properly. Where, on previous pages, there’s been a form to complete (i.e. a series of questions with either options or a text box) there’s just an empty white box. Not an empty text box I can type in to, just an empty box with nothing in it. I can’t proceed with the claim without completing this page (aside, what are the purchases I’m claiming for when it’s a charge on a hire car?? That’s very odd phrasing). I’ve tried the usual like changing browsers, turning off ad blockers. I’ve ever tried on a completely different machine but it’s all the same.

Is this a common thing? Or just me? Anyone got any ideas? I’ve emailed their contact address but not expecting a speedy response.

Did you manage to resolve this? I am having the EXACT same problem – have tried countless browsers, clearing cookies and even using my work network and PC. Same problem every time with the “What type of purchases are you claiming for?” page not allowing any entry. I tried calling and they were useless.

Same problem here. Considered calling, have emailed onlineclaimsEN@axa-travel-insurance.com meanwhile. Did anyone else manage to figure it out?

Did any of you manage to resolve the problem?

I’m currently unable to submit a car rental excess claim due to exactly the same issue:

[Gavin454]

My o2 SIM only contract (£8 per month) includes roaming in Europe + various other countries. Had a good experience when in the US and Canada recently, very fast speeds with free roaming on 5G in both countries.

https://www.o2.co.uk/international/travel-inclusive-zone

[Gavin454]

Paul wrote:

It’s driven by status then age of issue. A GGL or gold can probably see a resolution in a week or so. My son with no status is now at 6 weeks and we get the weekly reminder that we are of no importance to BA. It will go to CEDR at week 8. It’s truly dreadful service and their failure to comply with any aspect of U.K. 261 is shocking

As a long-time Silver my last claim was never responded to by BA directly (just the occasional automated “sorry we are so busy”). I went to CEDR after 8 weeks and full payment was agreed via CEDR after 5 months. It was a very simple cancelled flight compensation + airport hotel claim.

[Gavin454]

Caps44 wrote:

Harvey Nichols and the UK dining credit are great, it’s basically £250.
So fee is reduced to £400.
Next year we would be able to use the foreign dining credit, so fee effectively £250.

If the HN and dining credits are stopped them likely have to cancel.

For most people the credits are probably worth somewhat less than face value. I would never normally shop at HN and have used the credit to get consumable gifts from the gift shop/alcohol section the past 3 periods. But I’d say I’m getting maybe £30 of value from the £50.

The dining credit is at restaurants that I’d not be visiting at full price. I’ve had some nice meals, but the value here is hard to calculate because I’d never have spent that much without the credit. Perhaps £75 value per £150 credit for me. Meaning that for example, eating at The Ivy might come to £100, but I could eat somewhere else of my own choice just as good and just as filling for only £50.