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BBbetter wrote:

From MLE, I hope you have J tickets. The regular queue for exit emigration checks is long, open air for a part, hot and humid.
I don’t know if the new airport has commenced service, hope it’s better there.

Yes it’s open. If you arrive too early, you won’t be allowed in the terminal but business class and Priority Pass holders can use the landslide lounge in the old terminal before check-in opens. It’s basically the old lounge.

Immigration exit queue was long but we bypassed it with fast track (OH has a walking stick), but it’s in AC so not much bother.

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My OH actually preferred the Virgin seats!

https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/forums/topic/a-different-viewpoint-on-coffin-seats/

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Calabash or Spice Island in Grenada both have excellent restaurants. They are quite different but I think both are excellent. If you are struggling to find flights, there are quite a few options via other islands like BGI.

Just looking at SeatSpy, there are two seats in WTP to SIN March 3-17. It seems broken for US and Caribbean though as it’s showing nothing in any class which seems very unlikely.

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You will need to do the midnight call thing to stand a hope of LHR-MLE. You should consider alternatives like KUL a which will give you options for Oz too, and BA availability to KL is not terrible. A slightly more involved route is through India but you need to clear immigration. I’ve done that twice recently and written about it here.

If you didn’t already know, resorts in the Maldives arrange seaplanes/speedboats for you and so you should compare cross booking direct and online travel agents. You can obviously go to Kuoni, Audley, etc. but they add very little value in the Maldives versus what the resort does anyway. Personally, I’ve booked through Destination2 the past 3 years and been very happy. Obviously you miss out on points and benefits like a miserable buffet breakfast with your fellow status holders 😝

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I’d rank them neutrally.

We have been our allowance a few times with them and get a mix of can’t be bothered to process payment or very strict on payment. We once picked the wrong check-in desk (they all have silly names and we were tired) and after being issued boarding passes, the agent demanded payment. We didn’t end up paying.

Food on board is miserable and certainly not worth paying for, though the half-bulkhead front row does have more legroom.

I’d also recommend paying for front row to be ahead of the plane for MLE immigration.

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BH wrote:

I don’t know why they don’t use the same technology as US Global Entry. Once registered and biometrics have been captured, it just needs a facial photo at the border without even scanning the passport. I suppose the overall group size is relatively small compared to that for EU EES, but – given how paranoid the USA is – it must’ve been proven to work.

And in airports where they don’t have the facial recognition I’ve used the app on my phone to scan my face and generate a QR code.

As much as I find a lot of public infrastructure in the US to be very clunky, I agree that GE is an excellent example of a customer first system.

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Great tips, thanks @davefl. Did you try Careem for taxis at all? I downloaded it just now and a trial booking from the airport suggested Apple Pay would work.

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NorthernLass wrote:

Welcome back, @massacio. How was the diving?
Is Amilla a good redemption? It’s coming up 180k pn when I look!

Diving was great – Maaya Thila night dive was bonkers.

Amilla to be about a grand a night for a pool water villa HB and it does look an amazing place. House reef is supposedly superb.

We went best room in lower class of resort this time which was a nice change. Certainly not Amilla standard!

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On the way back, we wasted our money on seats that were barely different from economy because we wanted to maximise Virgin’s profits (that’s why people fly PE right?)

Anyway, just adding for the record that we thought Virgin Premium was a very slightly better product than BA’s WTP. Crew were a bit more mixed in service but still better than BA. Food was significantly better, though the seat was very similar to BAs as far as I could tell.

I was ‘welcomed back’ for my newly minted Gold status which got us OK bubbles and then once again with dinner. The same status got us into the decent airside lounge while Amex Priority Pass got us into the old international lounge that had been converted into a landside lounge for people waiting to checkin for their flight (seaplanes can get you to the airport quite early).

A couple of nice freebies courtesy of HfP.

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Any of the COCO-MAT hotels. Very modern with a superb sleep comfort (they sell beds) and a good breakfast.

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I’m not going to fess up the details of some of my recent credits, but it’s obvious that BA could do with auditing their automated and manual processes to iron out some kinks that must be costing them money in over-allocated credit, or costing customers in under-allocated credit. I’m not surprised nTPs are a mess too.

FWIW, Virgin live chat quoted me a massively wrong points upgrade amount for a recent flight. I’d have pushed it but I needed to change the day too and that was expensive.

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Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

One of the reasons I picked Amilla (along with the ability to use Hilton points to lower the excruciating price) is that the house reef is supposed to be one of the best for snorkelling 🤞 Also it is close to Hanifaru Bay, for manta and whale shark encounters, although we’re out of season for those.

Amilla is just near Dusit Thani where I really enjoyed the diving. Good luck with the big critters.

Absolutely diving @NorthernLass. Last trip like this for a little while for us while.

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Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

Good mini-review @masaccio – I tend to agree with your OH – the VS upper experience in the ‘old’ style seats is still miles better than PE! If we can get availability then we are happy to fly VS and often find as you did that the staff make the experience.

How is the weather for you at Nika ? We are going to be at Amilla Fushi, 70-odd miles north of you, from Saturday… can’t wait 😎

Very pleasant 30°C if a little windy. No rain forecast but I don’t think forecasts here are worth much. Must be unusually windy as first dive tomorrow is inside the atoll rather than on the edge.

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Gillian S wrote:

Hi – I’m testing out a variety of options for 2 business class flights using a companion voucher and can see zero dates available. I’ve looked at Vietnam, Buenos Aires, Bangkok and Nashville. And I’ve looked at multiple months. Zip. Nada. I’ve been flying, mainly to the states, for years with Avios and Companion Vouchers but never seen such poor availability. Is it me? Is there a tech issue? Or is it just increased demand?

I didn’t see when you wanted to fly but LHR-KUL has reasonable availability in CW in September and October. Bit of a detour for Vietnam, but less so for Thailand.

Nashville indeed has little unless you fancy November. September to Atlanta in terms of availability would be an alternative though and you can drive to Nashville from there.

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SSS surely unless you think our forum regular is a secret squirrel?

SSSS is a different kettle of fish and a poor start to a flight 😉

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No Longer Entitled wrote:

I stand corrected.

Shame, I loath Barclaycard and can’t wait to cancel.

Why? I hate the bank too but despite telling myself and others the vouchers are worthless, I’ve actually ended up always using them. Most recently with CE to Jordan this March.

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What was the total trip duration and did it feel right for the long journey?

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I hope you’re not limiting yourself to just Shanghai. I agree it’s worth a visit but you really should try and see more of the country.

If hedging with the TWOV, if it wasn’t obvious, HKG counts as a third country. There are good connections to get you to HKG in time for the various midnight-ish flights back to the UK, and transfers at HKIA are superbly efficient.

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Ignoring the pointless debate about political figures.

Personally I don’t want it or need it. But much like 4G on the Tube, if it’s there and free, I will most likely use it. Will I stream TV or films? Probably not: I get annoyed enough with IFE pausing for announcements, so I am unlikely to put up with the inevitable brownouts and loss of service where satellite coverage is patchy.

Will I pay for it? No, not even for the quid a time that Mr O’Leary passed on. I went decades without internet access, so I figure I can manage 10 hours. I miss the days when a remote destination meant no contact with the outside world.

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Oopsie @JDB, I missed that. Silly me thinking *everyone* used Avios for premium cabins.

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The other source of pricing trends is Google Flights (https://www.google.com/travel/flights/) which has both price history with a rating of whether your chosen dates are low/medium/high and a future price chart.

My experience is also that for the first couple of weeks a flight is available, prices are high and you can see that in the charts. The typical price for CW to PUJ looking ahead is £2515, but there are a couple of dates where it’s a quite decent £1796. Makes 200k Avios plus about 500 quid in taxes and fees look less exciting, unless you’re particularly Avios rich.

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Desktop browsers are often harder to track, yes. That’s why organisations love apps as they can snarf up lots of yummy privacy-violating information about you from your mobile device.

But they are not more secure really. They do prevent spoofing of the bank’s website by bad actors phishing customers, which is helpful for people who struggle to recognise fraud. But fake apps, especially with the trend of allowing sideloading of apps outside the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, are basically the same risk.

I just call it rubbish customer service which is a Barclays speciality after all. If the mobile app had feature parity with the website, I’d be less bothered by the speculated-about changes.

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We went transatlantic with Cunard a few months back and in a behind the scenes tour, the Chief Medical Officer explained that they tended not to get very serious cases or death as insurance wheedles out the people who might fall ill. Not quite as remote as these cruises, but nevertheless, medical evacuation is impossible for several days transatlantic.

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Speaking of HX, they made a shortish video with the Daily Mail*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY3w523NJsI

*I know, I know.

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Man of Kent wrote:

My heating oil supplier Boiler Juice used to accept Amex but unfortunately no longer.

I find they are rarely the cheapest these days, but I’ve not seen that any of the other cheaper options (NRG, Fueltool, HFD). And no PayPal route either.