[Rich_A]

Hotel: Radisson Collection Bilbao
Upgraded: Yes. Basic to Junior Suite. They confirmed unprompted that it was the best they had available
Stay duration: 3 nights
Welcome gift: None
Late check out: Not requested
Breakfast: included as VIP, very decent.

Also included was spas access, though I didn’t use it. Nice hotel with great location

[Rich_A]

itsjoerack wrote:

New 20% Avios boost offer went live today. I got it as an Ultra customer, no idea if its for all or not.

I received it too, on the Standard plan.

[Rich_A]

Yeah, I had the same response from Hertz, after emailing the address that @EwanG gave. The 900 have already been added.

I have to say I’m impressed that it got done in a week over Christmas, with a single email.

[Rich_A]

Rob Burgess wrote:

Does the supplementary cardholder get their own Times subscription?

I have it on my supplementary Personal card.

[Rich_A]

Just read through the thread. That’s a baffling outcome!

Is there any way you can contact the ADR assessor? They might at least be able to speak to you – informally, and as a (theoretically) neutral party.

You should put the case that it’s absurd to say the children were correctly denied boarding. They were (obviously) only without an adult as a result of the airline’s error – which itself is acknowledged by the assessor!

[Rich_A]

That sounds poor. What location was that?

I also tend to rent Polestars for ridiculously cheap (I guess they overestimated demand for EVs? They were astonished when I brought mine back on 98%).

Which email do you use for Customer Service? Is it just the form on the web?

[Rich_A]

Aston100 wrote:

https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/2025/04/11/hertz-american-express-platinum-4-hour-grace-period/

This is the latest:
When you booked your prepaid reservation you selected the return time of 8pm on the <REDACTED>. Therefore, according to your AMEX benefit, you would have been allowed to return the vehicle within 4 hours of this time i.e. by 12am. This benefit does not allow you to make a reservation including an extra 4 hours without additional charges.

Clearly it does, because it did! I would just tell Hertz that you’re going to to a chargeback/ Section75 if they don’t honour the price in your reservation. You’ll win it.

My experience has always been the same as you and everybody else – that you add the 4 hours at the time of booking, confirm that it hasn’t charged you for an extra day, and that’s what is charged.

In fact I’ve had the opposite of what Hertz told you. When I’ve booked for a 24hour period, and brought it back after 27 hours, I have been charged.

[Rich_A]

Per the article

https://hfp2026mar.kinsta.cloud/2025/01/23/how-does-club-eurostar-work/

Spending doesn’t reset your clock. You need to earn something.

Transfer from a friend, or earn with a partner (Accor, Hertz, American Express).

If you can find a cheap cash ticket on continental route (not a London route) then that *should* credit even if you don’t take the trip.

[Rich_A]

Name: Prize by Radisson Vienna
Upgraded: No noticeable upgrade
Welcome gift: bottle of water and a chocolate bar
Breakfast: yes – for everyone I think
Notes: basic, but fine if you need a quick overnight near the station.

Name: Park Plaza Budapest
Upgraded: Allegedly yes, from a Superior to a Superior Parliament View.
Breakfast: yes
Welcome gift: fruit
Notes: I wouldn’t stay here again. Very dated rooms, zero upgrade, breakfast not good, and housekeeping kept missing me.

[Rich_A]

Is there any benefit to the OP just turning up early at MTY and asking airport staff if they can hop on the earlier flight?

It always used to be the case that US airlines tended to be more conducive to that than European ones, though perhaps not on an international flight.

[Rich_A]

Aston100 wrote:

I have a 5% statement credit offer with Avanti on a couple of Amex cards.
I reckon 5% Uber credit from regular Uber train bookings might be better if flexibility on cheap tickets is important.

Can anyone think of a good reason to choose the 5% Avanti statement credit over the 5% Uber credits + flexibility?

Amex is real cash; Uber is not. They’ll both probably credit without problem. You also have 1 Avios per £ from Uber. That might swing it.

[Rich_A]

Wikipedia is my usual source for quickly finding out who serves an airport.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palermo_Airport#Airlines_and_destinations

I don’t know what time of year you’re going, but it looks like the only year-round direct UK flight is Ryanair from Stansted.

I can’t recommend any specific hotel – I just picked a random no name on Booking. If you pick something near the centre of town near the Quattro Canti, you can’t go far wrong. Some people told me the city wasnt worth going to, but I loved it. Gritty in parts, but also a delight.

[Rich_A]

Harrier25 wrote:

Nope they’re attached to your account, not card. You just earn at a lesser rate to the £ if you drop down a subscription level.

Thanks, that’s what I thought.

[Rich_A]

Just checking in case I get a nasty surprise.

Revpoints expire 3 years from date of earning, correct? Nothing bad will happen to my points if/ when I drop from Metal?

[Rich_A]

Expect a lot of changes in the first few weeks. Individual borders are being given a lot of latitude to ramp up and down the number of people who get sent to EES. If there’s too much crowding, they’ll simply skip it during the implementation phase.

FRANCE (St Pancras)
Eurostar is starting out with Premier (formerly Business Premier) passengers and Carte Blanche / Etoile members on 12 October. They’ll be directed to register with EES, others won’t in the first instance.

https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/question/What-s-the-EU-s-Entry-Exit-System-EES

[Rich_A]

Yuff wrote:

Anyone have any tips on booking Eurostar?
Weekend prices seem a bit crazy!!!!

Uber sells Eurostar, too.

Otherwise, you can often buy Eurostar gift cards at a discount.

[Rich_A]

Omio/ Uber also do fee-free changes on Advance tickets, which with 10% cashback makes them very appealing if you might need to do that. The process is a bit of a pain – you have to book the new journey (same origin & destination) then message customer services, but you get a full refund for the original ticket.

[Rich_A]

Annual update time!

I’ve just been in touch with Barclays again via Live Chat, to get another year’s worth of refunds. The agent was very familiar with the problem “ah, I’ve seen this issue before”.

He’s also credited an extra six months into the future, so it doesn’t look like they’re confident of a fix any time soon!

The Avios have been mounting up, and I was getting a little concerned about claw back (which I assume they have every right to do) but the agent told me – unprompted – to ‘enjoy the Avios for your trouble’.

[Rich_A]

Name: Park Inn FRA Airport
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: No noticeable upgrade
Gift: None
Stay duration: 1 night
Comments: VIP status not acknowledged

Name: Park Plaza Nuremberg
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: Superior > Executive (not mentioned at check in)
Gift: welcome gift & letter in room.
Stay duration: 2 nights
Comments: VIP status not acknowledged at check in. 2pm checkout on request (not properly honoured: housekeeping barged into the room without knocking + 2 phone calls to hound me out!)

Name: Radisson Blu Prague
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: Standard Room to Duplex Suite (mentioned at check in)
Gift: Welcome drink
Stay duration: 2 nights
Comments: VIP status acknowledged at check in. 2pm checkout on request. Duplex suite sounds nice, but it was a very odd, spooky room at the top of the hotel, and could do with refurbishing.

Name: Park Inn Brussels Midi
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: Standard > Corner room with desk (not mentioned)
Gift: None
Stay duration: 1 nights
Comments: VIP status not acknowledged. Perfect location for a late/ early Eurostar. Barely 1 minute from the station.

Name: Radisson Viking Stockholm
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: Cosy Double > Premium (mentioned at check in)
Gift: chocolate bar and bottle of water
Stay duration: 1 night
Comments: VIP status acknowledged

Name: Radisson Blu Stockholm ARN Airport
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: Cosy Double > Premium (not mentioned at check in)
Gift: chocolate bar
Stay duration: 1 night
Comments: VIP status not acknowledged

Name: Park Inn Brussels Midi
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: no noticeable upgrade
Gift: None
Stay duration: 1 nights
Comments: VIP status not acknowledged. Hotel very much refurbished since my last stay.

Name: Park Plaza Amsterdam Vondelpark
Breakfast: Yes
Upgraded: Superior > Studio (I think)
Gift: bag of biscuits
Stay duration: 3 nights
Comments: VIP status not acknowledged. 10am check-in on request – they replied very quickly by email saying they would do their best to have an upgraded room available by 10. Lovely part of town, by Vondelpark and Oude Zuid, but only 3 min walk from tram into town.

[Rich_A]

Thanks. I guess I was expecting my existing card to just ‘become’ a basic one, which I could then switch back to the Plus in the future.

But from your post above it sounds more like they give a new card and number, and it could just as well be the cashback card or something else.

[Rich_A]

Just jumping on this – I need to go the other way and downgrade to the free one.

Is it just a case of going to ‘Card > Barclaycard Avios Plus > Change to a different card > Get Barclaycard Avios’?

Kinda feels like that’s applying for a new card, rather than downgrading. Or does it amount to the same thing.

[Rich_A]

We had East Coast Rewards (bizzarely generous) and Virgin gave miles when they ran Virgin West Coast I think? And as above, Virgin Ticketing (completely different company, I think) still does. LNER Perks is still going, effectively 2% cashback. Club Eurostar. Many rail companies were Nectar partners. I’m not sure how many still are.

I would certainly welcome something that rewards frequent users/ high spenders with the odd upgrade, lounge, or better flexibility terms. And, like a lot of people, I’d happily pay for a Swiss-style half-fare card, but that’s never going to happen here.

I’m not sure the industry really needs to reward loyalty?

[Rich_A]

There’s not a lot near there.

Apart from the Premier Inn, you have some Holiday Inns a tube/ Uber away in Camden, Finchley Road, or Henley’s Corner. None are great.

There’s not much else afaik.

[Rich_A]

As expected, Sixt’s back office have now realised they lost the chargeback and contacted me once again to tell me I owe them the money.

[Rich_A]

Thanks all. The H4P knowledgebase comes up trumps again!