[memesweeper]

I’d ditch the Amex and keep the Barclays as there’s slightly more places that take mastercard than Amex. If/when you anticipate wanting a new voucher reconsider.

I’ve just closed my Virgin card down. It could take a very long time to earn the points required for a Korea trip, even as a high spender, as they cap monthly points earnings to your credit limit, but do your own sums and then decide.

[memesweeper]

Unless you have a specific reason for wanting to credit to one of those three, I’d go with Virgin because

– they have a UK credit card you can use to earn more miles with
– you might manage to contribute to your status with a redemption
– their “5 years of flying” scheme is unique and potentially useful

All three have sucky dynamic redemption schemes though— ironically I’ve found redeeming on AF and KLM better with Virgin miles than their own currency (and the reverse may be true too). I cleared out my AF balance with a partner redemption.

[memesweeper]

You need to search both with and without the companion voucher selected to see all the options. Companion Voucher provides better availability on BA in business but rules out partner airlines.

[memesweeper]

seats.aero does alerts for oneworld availability which should trigger for finnair. One exception I noticed was premium economy, which seemed to be available on finnair’s website only when I was last checking regularly.

[memesweeper]

I’ve flown precisely once on BA in F, JFK to LHR, so my experience is limited! Our plane went tech, so we were very late departing. Bearing in mind this possibility I wouldn’t be too early for my flight, even for a honeymoon. Lounge in JFK was great, and mainly slept on the plane. Crew were fantastic, and we didn’t mention a honeymoon or first time flying in First – they clearly just made a fuss of everyone. One thing to remember, seat selection is free in F (or at least was when I did it) so get your seat booked now. Look forward to a lovely flight.

[memesweeper]

Fantastic read. Thanks for posting.

[memesweeper]

For my next holiday of interest I’m seeing

£97 off with 10970 Avios
£224 off with 34180 Avios
£418 off with 78375 Avios
£578 off with 108375 Avios
£739 off with 138565 Avios
£1,029 off with 192940 Avios
£1,350 off with 253125 Avios
£1,704 off with 319500 Avios
£2,058 off with 385903 Avios

even the best is only 0.88p

[memesweeper]

cats_are_best wrote:

Unlike, say, a home wifi router that uses WPA2/3 with a passphrase and encrypts all the wifi traffic.

It does, but other network users can (if suitably skilled and equipped) see all the traffic, so when using a network where lots of people know the wifi password, it is effectively open to attackers/snoopers.

Corporate wifi doesn’t usually suffer from this deficiency, and a rare example of a publicly accessible guest network that does good encryption for each user is govwifi.

[memesweeper]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

Never had a problem with it. As long as the plane is equipped with wifi that is.

+1 — always “just worked” for me

[memesweeper]

joshmcr wrote:

I’m trying to make a “Pay Now” booking at Amex FHR using my Platinum card – I am a supplementary card holder

Dare I ask why? as in why not book and pay on checkout (as I always do for FHR) or ask the primary card holder to book if there is a good reason to pre-pay?

[memesweeper]

Ant M wrote:

For the average traveller though, I’d argue that the Amex 2-4-1 voucher is getting worth less. If they can’t get decent avios flights because they’ve all been hoovered up by users of sites like this and flyertalk then what’s the point of having it?

The proportion of Avios seats “hoovered up” as soon as they go on sale is a very, very small percentage of the total sold. Most people don’t book a year ahead of time.

I do think the current system is broken though. My sister wanted to book a popular route a year ahead of time, called three times (around two weeks ago) and was told three conflicting pieces of wrong information by different call centre agents. She is now booked on the correct day, but not in the classes of travel she wanted. I’ve subsequently given her the link to the long thread here on how to book at T-355, and set my brother-in-law up with a US SIM.

The simplest fix would be to operate the UK number 24/7, or open it at 2345 for two hours each night. Even a queuing system or lottery for online bookings won’t really help those looking to book returns and get a 50% refund unless they have sufficient Avios to book first and call later, which really isn’t fair on most Avios collectors.

There are some better alternatives, but they require complex IT work, which BA has no incentive to fund. However, the current system is so poor it is “brand damaging” when people have the experience my sister just did, and BA should do something to address it. I’ve told her she really ought to complain in writing about the call centre information if nothing else.

[memesweeper]

The upgrade from Gold to Platinum is an occasional offer which you may never see again.

Downgrade is sometimes offered on the phone if you call to cancel, and I guess there’s no reason why you can’t proactively ask for it. However, there’s nothing to stop you applying for Gold online (first year will be free) and then calling to cancel Platinum.

[memesweeper]

Assuming you can wait until the flight, this can also be done at check in, or at Heathrow, in the lounge or T5 customer services.

[memesweeper]

masaccio wrote:

I don’t know if Cathay is new to MR transfers as I’d not seen it before but the rate is 1:1.

Cathay is a long standing partner, I’ve used them for BA and JAL bookings.

[memesweeper]

TJ wrote:

Any recent recommendations would be appreciated.

my not very recent advice would be do not drive in the dark! -— otherwise I found Hertz trouble free despite the sort of vehicle damage which other car hire companies would have taken me to the cleaners for

[memesweeper]

One small negative thing, if you’ve read other reviews before booking they mention a highend wine bar, sadly this seems to have closed. Vagabond by Battersea Power Station is a walkable alternative.

[memesweeper]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Pre-paid FHR bookings will now count. If they don’t, appeal and it will go through.

Excellent news — booked

[memesweeper]

John wrote:

Skywalker wrote:

I honestly did not realise there was this character limit issue in some airline systems until I’d seen this thread. I suppose it might go the other way too with people who have very short names when Latinised (Chinese names for example) – maybe the systems might not recognise such a short name and refuse to register.

2-letter surnames are never a problem. One-letter surnames are not recognised by airline systems, but the universally accepted solution is to duplicate the letter.

My mothers maiden name is so short it fails the length requirement for some website’s security 🙄

[memesweeper]

squawk wrote:

I’ve just had similar, but Bronze (down from Silver a year ago) to Blue. I thought I’d stick around on Bronze until April 2026. And a trip early next year would have (I thought) to get back into Silver. Bummer. It’s way too complicated!

I also just dropped Silver -> Bronze. Been Silver for what seems like forever, and very unlikely to get it back.

[memesweeper]

JDB wrote:

As ever, there are probably a relatively small % of people caning the benefit that means it needs to be curtailed for all.

Does it though? I used to cane the benefit as I was in and out of airports all the time for work. Now I’m not, thus I’ve not used it this year at all. Some folks will use some plat benefits more than others, I’ve never made an insurance claim for instance, Amex should structure the product to take the rough with the smooth, so to speak.

@JDB I think you’ve suggested Amex need to rethink it, and I agree. If it is supposed to be a premium travel product then I’d expect things like no FX fees, great travel insurance, and open lounge access. If it is a premium lifestyle product — which increasingly it feels like it is trying to be — then the package should be different. Right now it’s a lousy compromise, and mine is about to get cancelled.

[memesweeper]

I’ve been unable to make sense of Airtime UP myself, nor find a review online. Does anyone rate it as worthwhile?

[memesweeper]

Unfortunately you just missed the boat on the Marriott bonus for transfers, which was pretty attractive for “holding” while thinking. As it stands, you need to keep another MR earning Amex card open (eg Gold or ARCC) or transfer to Virgin now (which I definitely wouldn’t do “speculatively” given the extreme fluctuations in the value different people get from the miles).

[memesweeper]

slidey wrote:

Only the highest bidder wins, they only release two seats.

ah… expectations set accordingly then!

[memesweeper]

I’ve flown both Finnair new Business and Virgin old Upper in the last twelve months. I really like the Finnair seat, but would take the direct routing in a heartbeat. The Virgin seat isn’t awful, in fact it’s great if you actually want to sleep. You also get the bar, a Virgin crew, and status credit for flying on a redemption.

[memesweeper]

mrtibbs1999 wrote:

This is exactly the issue I’m talking about. It’s incredibly frustrating. Have you found a way around it?

I use seats.aero for pretty much all my searching. Although it doesn’t cover all airlines by any means, if you see (for instance) a oneworld flight bookable with AA and Cathay it’s a racing certainty it’s bookable with BA, QR et al.