[PaulB]

Thanks for all the replies – much appreciated. I think I conclude that it’s not crazy, but will definitely look at options to venture more northwards. Sendai looks interesting.

[PaulB]

I can recommend the Mainport hotel. Enjoyed a mooch round Rotterdam, nice enough little city.

[PaulB]

I can’t comment on the Parmelia, I’m afraid, but also wanted to mention the Doubletree in Perth. I loved my stay there – was given a nice room upgrade as Gold, spacious room, modern decor, and fab location down by the harbour. Might be worth a look.

[PaulB]

Also keen to get a Wheely code if anyone’s got one to share, please. Thanks!

[PaulB]

Appreciate the input, thanks folks. I’ll give them a call and report back in due course.

[PaulB]

Data point: just offered 20k retention bonus via online chat which I gratefully accepted. For context it’s a week after annual fee was taken, and I’ve held the card for about a decade with roughly £20k/yr spend. Pleased with the outcome which was better than I expected.

[PaulB]

Not all points activity seems to show on the Flying club website or app any more, defo worth checking Virgin Red activity.

When I used my credit card upgrade voucher I could see a £0 “VS credit card upgrade redemption” in Virgin Red activity. You could check but I think it’s unlikely they’ve used that without talking about it.

I really wouldn’t call or draw this to their attention, if the points really haven’t been taken it’s highly likely a simple human oversight when processing the upgrade which is quite clearly in your favour.

[PaulB]

Anyone know if foreign spend is permitted to contribute to the required £4k spend for the upgrade bonus? I guess few will have tangible experience of exactly this but presume it’s the same as for regular sign up bonuses.

[PaulB]

Curve will block you without fronted on. With fronted on Curve will allow the transaction but pass through the genuine MCC of the transaction so your underlying card may block / charge / etc

[PaulB]

Steve, if you’re not aware BA will reserve row 1 for Gold exec club members. That can mean it’s not available as bookable to you (indistinguishable from booked by another passenger in BA’s app) but will become bookable by anyone (if it’s still vacant) at check-in time. You can see if it’s blocked rather than taken using online tools such as ExpertFlyer. So it could be that they don’t need to move the curtain, and there’s still room for all (or of course they could expand the cabin, as you say).

[PaulB]

Officially you need to travel on at least the outbound sector of a return booking before the 2 year expiry. In reality, I was able to book recently and a kind customer service agent was willing to book for travel entirely after the voucher expiry (but obviously booked before expiry), though she acknowledged that’s not the official rule and shouldn’t be relied on in future.

[PaulB]

I know it’s easier said than done at the moment, but if you call Flying club (and can actually get through to them!) then they’ll be happy to confirm exactly what vouchers are on your account. When I rang a few weeks back they kindly emailed me a summary of vouchers and expiry dates and I was delighted to find that I had more than I thought since those due to expire during Covid had been extended.

I don’t think there’s a single place you can see vouchers listed online which is super annoying, though you should see an entry in your Flying club transactions on the date each voucher was earned.

[PaulB]

You would need both Upper class availability (check online, in a dummy booking, if there’s availability to book in Upper with miles) _and_ for your current economy ticket to be booked into an ‘upgradeable’ fare code. Typically that means it can’t be the cheapest economy tickets. If you can find your booking class e.g. on a booking confirmation email then check it against this list: https://v-flyer.com/toolbox_fare_codes.php (M,L,R,B,Y is what you want).

[PaulB]

Yep, I’m afraid you’ll need to phone to book. Check the availability first online, as you say, and expect to pay the full amount of £ charges quoted, but only half the miles. I’ve done a couple bookings recently, both times super friendly sales agents able to book exactly what I wanted, but long wait times to get through unfortunately. Great shame there’s no way to use the voucher online.

[PaulB]

If you login to your HMRC account and click to ‘Pay Now’ you’ll be prompted to enter an amount. Within reason HMRC will have no problem with you entering multiple smaller amounts over successive occasions that sum to the total you owe. Obviously you do need to clear the balance by the due date to avoid a fine. Limit concerns aside, the payment on account for next year’s bill can be paid in exactly the same way. No need to ‘notify HMRC’ about any of this; you’ll see the individual payments you make show separately offset towards the amount you owe within a few days.

You’re right that ideally you’d have started this sooner – the big issue is going to be the Curve limits. Do remember that the Curve metal £10k is supposedly per calendar (not rolling) month; although I’m not sure that’s been everyone’s experience of late. So you might want to sign up today to at least take advantage of whatever your day limit is to make a payment, in the hope that the monthly £10k is then reset from tomorrow for subsequent payments in January.

[PaulB]

Somewhat to my surprise, despite my original flight not being cancelled (albeit falling at a time most Brits wouldn’t have been permitted into the US) VS did allow me to move my booking – same destination, but offpeak->peak dates, with no mileage availability showing, exactly as I requested and without any payment of further £ or miles. I was impressed. I used the online rebooking form as someone on here kindly recommended.

[PaulB]

rams wrote:

Did anyone who was charged hear back from curve? Is the only way to hear back quickly from them to contact via Twitter? Chat function appears to be a waste of time. Will be cancelling shortly as if they can’t respond within a week I don’t want to give them my business.

In fairness to them (and far be it from me to stand up for Curve’s customer support which has always unimpressed me) but do remember that today is only the second working day in the last week given all the bank holidays…

[PaulB]

trader363 wrote:

60k landed in my BA acc within 3 weeks of me hitting the spend. I’d call them to make sure it’s on it’s way

thanks! will contact Amex