[Roberto]

Boarding pass should trump card. Some places won’t have heard of Golden Sparrow, other won’t accept non-pysical cards.

[Roberto]

We had a couple of nights at the Hilton Disney Springs, rather old but near enough the walk to the MK, small pool but perfectly acceptable for our needs. Big rooms , great staff and from what I remember a less expensive points cost that others with the chain.

[Roberto]

I would guess that using one key cash negates any cash back options from TCB and the like. Only a guess mind but I am a cynical old fart and the toast always lands butter side down.

[Roberto]

7am flight, 5am check in ? Sofitel…..

[Roberto]

My VS gold status match dropped me like a falling anvil to the bottom of the pecking order the day after it expired. No soft landing.

[Roberto]

jj wrote:

r, there is no way I could justify £119 extra to save me 30 mins

It’s not £119, though, as you haven’t included the 10% ALL discount, the usual 10% TopCashback refund, and the bus fare for two. You also have to factor contingency into any bus journey, and, if you use the Sofitel car park, the time saving is in both directions. I also value my wife’s time as much as mine. Putting it all together, the Sofitel ends up about £20 per person per journey – well worth it in my view if, like me, you have a few hours drive to get home once you get to the car.

You’re right but I see it differently. I have a free 60+ plus bus pass so there is no cost other than time.

I generally use T5 to connect so the car park is irrelevant, for me it’s the cost of the night stop. That’s the hotel plus food and drink, and unless I am on a really early flight the next morning I will choose to stay elsewhere.

The £159 v £50 is a deal breaker for me ,for others it’s not – that’s why the sofitel is nearly always full.

[Roberto]

TGLoyalty wrote:

@Roberto I guess so but if it’s a proper holiday what’s a few more £ there’s also easy access to airside with a few cheaper bites or the underground into Hayes etc if you have more time, some great food to be found.

I stayed at T4 CP recently and honestly unless the flight was post 10-11 I would stick to Sofitel unless you are twilight checking luggage.

I totally agree.. I must have done the 06:45 flight to Malaga 30 times and generally stump up the extra for the sofitel but for a later flight I will vote with my wallet. Its not only the £169 headline rate but the cost of drinks at the bar too that puts the damper of staying there.

It is a lovley hotel but the PI is often £50 a night or so and that’s enough to get me on a bus. My next LH goes at 4pm or something similar, there is no way I could justify £119 extra to save me 30 mins. I would rather spend that in Vegas…

[Roberto]

Sofitel is expensive but convenient for an early morning T5 flight. Its expensive to eat and drink there too so factor that in as well.

If you’re travelling in the afternoon and or from T3 I would recommend you look at other options. Personally my last 2 or 3 nightstops at LHR have been at the PremierInn at T4. Its a fraction of the price and whilst not as convenient at the Sofitel it’s only really about 30 mins door to door on a cheap (free from me as 60+) bus.

[Roberto]

@AlanMac , plenty of people will say stay away from Times Square. The two posts above me allude to that but they were staying for 6 or 7 days and you’re looking at just 3 and it’s you’re first time in the big apple..

So yeah , stay in the center of it. Stay where the atmosphere is and where the tourists throng to.. NYC is a big place but for your first visit you should step slap bang into the mayhem of Manhatten that is Times Square. Next time you can choose downtown, the upper east, Queens or wherever. But your first time I would reccomend somewhere in or about TS.

There are plenty of Hotels from all the big brands and it won’t really matter which you choose, they are all near the action and you won’t be there too much anyway. Take some comfortable shoes because there is plenty to do and see in NYC for the three short days you will be there. Be led by price and availability, Hiltons abound and there is not really a bad one so I am sure you will be happy with your choice.

Have a great trip.

[Roberto]

I would say its the OP fault, they should have checked and seeking some compo on the back of their lack of planning is a joke.

People need to take responsibility for their own lives and actions.

[Roberto]

My daughter has never changed her passport despite being married and thus her two kids have a different surname to her on their passports. It’s much more common than you think..

She had a notorised letter from the father just in case that was never required.

[Roberto]

Duty of care. Either (a) claim for the extra night in the hotel plus any car hire/food retrospectively when you get home or (b) ask to be rerouted on another one world carrier via Madrid or similar before you go.

Choose which you prefer.

[Roberto]

FWIW we went to Borneo for a couple of weeks about 20 years ago with our kids and had no jabs. I can’t say if it was wise or foolish – it’s just what we did.

Your GP would have a far better understanding today than I did back then but post covid I like you would rather not load up on vaccinations.

Keep researching…

[Roberto]

Yes we HBO and have no interest in queuing up in Malaga tomorrow just to get a boarding pass..

Talking of Malaga we have a yellow alert for high temperatures tomorrow with 40° on the cards. All airports in Spain will have the air-conditioning turned down (up) to save energy – it’s gonna be bleeding boiling in the airports this weekend.

[Roberto]

Had this today.
Downloaded them on my PC in the end as the app did as you outlined.
Even printed them off – old school….

[Roberto]

Nope , it’s not you…
It’s $50 for two “meal deals” in most fast food places now and you you want to sit down at basic restaurant it’s $100 $200 with tablecloths…

Hotels in big cities are often $500 a night plus parking and breakfast. Nothing is cheap anymore.

[Roberto]

Conrad Algarve

[Roberto]

Durring take off/landing and when the seat belts are on for turbulence you won’t be able to comfort or even possibly touch the child in a CS seat even if it’s next to you.

This is the issue , if they will sit there and scream its bad enough but much better than wriggling out of the seat and running around the cabin in a blind panic, I have seen both and the latter is really rather scary.

You know your child and as others have said the old club seats work better but PE or Economy might be the way forward for the next 24 months.

[Roberto]

@BH and @MF176 – you’re both right , it’s SkyServe not ServiceAir!!

I was there on the 19th of last month , I stand by my comments , it’s a dire lounge by comparison to many, not enough seats, light and food/drink options…

[Roberto]

It’s the serviceair lounge.

It’s a little meh , crowded and poorly lit with not exactly a great selection of food and drink. Don’t get me wrong it’s not exactly bad , more poor – like a 2 out of five kind of lounge.

[Roberto]

We arrived at a remote stand and the doors opened 3 mins inside 3 hours but we had to wait 5 mins for a bus – Claimed and was paid appropriately…

[Roberto]

We got off one last week in Athens. Was quite care free and simple , you supposed to book a departure time but I assume you want to be first off and can’t see any issues.

If you’re taking your own bag off rather than picking it up in the terminal I would guess you are gonna be looking at something like 7:30 by the time customs and the port paperwork is sorted.

I did get a message for a fellow passenger that they were sat in the lounge at 08:30. The journey is 40 mins away so they must have been off pretty early.

There was a line of cabs a mile long at Athens port.

Barcelona is pretty similar , cabs a plenty and a fast trip to the airport.

[Roberto]

pbcold wrote:

Roberto wrote:

Regarding status match…

Up until the end of last year there was a wide open program that got hammered with people matching from anywhere. The popular route was matching MSC to a hotel program and then using the MCS to match on virgin to get “Deep Blue Extra”.

That stopped 1st Jan. However there was a brief 2 day status match last month that matched to a lesser field of play (not MSC) and was only available on new cruises and not existing bookings. The match gave you “Blue Extras” not Deep Blue..

I matched HH to MCS to VV in June 2023, have just booked my 3rd cruise and can see the Deep Blue Extra benefits have been applied; apparently the status match is vaild until 2026 which seems most generous.

Yes indeed, your thoughts echo mine.
Joining the Resilient Lady in Athens on Thursday…

[Roberto]

lordy wrote:

I’ve recently done a status match to VV, who gave me Blue perks, is there any advantage of us both status matching or is one enough.

Seems like they no longer give Deep Blue Perks as status match.

To confirm its for use on a cash not points cruise. Thanks

We both matched.. we both got the $100 and we both got the free coffees however we only got one bag of laundry.

We did match to DBE before Xmas.

[Roberto]

On a busy route flying economy and choosing the extra leg room seat as a gold means you get the middle seat blocked (until checkin when someone else asks for it)…

I dropped to silver on the 1st and flying four times in the next two weeks all in row one with my good lady. I appreciate things could change and I get booted out of row 1 but I am starting to think that 1C is not a good seat anyways. Sure there is a little extra leg room but your constantly bashed as backpackers get on , there is often nowhere to put your bag, you get the crew gassing away most of the flight , the curtain ends up on your leg and there is often someone hovering around wait for the lavatory.

I would rather be gold but silver is the sweet spot and I am not angry …