[VinZ]

Kuestrian wrote:

I was wavering about giving up my BAPP but this seems to be the deciding factor.

Yes please, do. So we have less competition when trying to book. 🙂 thank you!

[VinZ]

I don’t think so. Nothing is changing until the acquisition is given the green light. After that, it’ll be the end of it, I’m pretty sure.

[VinZ]

Guernsey Globetrotter wrote:

You can also buy Finnair TPs for Avios at a rate of 1:3. A gold member can buy up to 22.5k TPs (cost 67.5k Avios) in a year so if you did this after you’d achieved gold status from your Oz trip you need less spend to hit platinum.

Also, once platinum you can buy up to 40k TPs in a year this way (which is 50% of the TPs needed to renew platinum.

Is this still an option? How does one go about it? I can’t find it anywhere on the AY website.

[VinZ]

Apologies as I could’ve done a bit of research beforehand. I’ve asked AI as I couldn’t find an answer on the T&C’s on the website, and I found out that

How Curve Fronted & “Go Back in Time” Work Together
• Curve Fronted is designed for certain payments (like tax bills or HMRC payments) typically not accepted by credit cards, allowing you to route them through Curve, with a free allowance per month (often £1000 for Curve Metal, less for other tiers) .
• When you first make a Fronted transaction, it counts against your monthly allowance.
• If you “Go Back in Time” on a Fronted transaction and switch it to another credit card, Curve treats the new transaction as a Fronted transaction as well, if the underlying new card qualifies .
• This means the original Fronted transaction is reversed and a new one is created in its place.

Which means going back in time would go beyond the fee-free fronted limit for the month, hence I would be charged.

[VinZ]

Ah, checked their T&C’s and no, there’s no SUB, but I’m right in thinking that counter will reset and I can get another voucher if I hit the spending target on the new card, correct?

[VinZ]

I have also reached the threshold for the voucher but rather than cancelling I was thinking of upgrading to the premium one, which I see is available in my account. Is there a SUB for doing so?

[VinZ]

Cilento. I love Pisciotta. Book Marulivo and from there explore the area. Lots of beaches and very little tourism.

[VinZ]

Thanks for the tip. I used Firefox and it worked fine. I was struggling too…

[VinZ]

So I guess I’ll pay a visit at the Flagship lounge then.

As for the layout I was told I’ll be on this https://www.aerolopa.com/aa-772-1 but who knows…

[VinZ]

I seem to understand you can actually move between terminals at LAX? So I could spend some time in the F Qantas lounge then walk to T4? I see the AA flagship lounge is also open to BA silver members too so what’s the difference with Admirals?

[VinZ]

They were actually quicker than expected. All done. They told me to claim with Finnair directly.

[VinZ]

Do you have an idea on how long it may take them to reverse the transaction?

[VinZ]

It’s always better to cancel and rebook. You can’t cancel online so you have to ring them up, which means you get everything back (points and taxes ) as they can’t charge a service fee. That’s what I do. Then I book again from the website.

Asking them to change date and time will incur a fee.

[VinZ]

Flew out of and into LGW at the beginning of July to/from RAK. It took them a week to credit the miles but I’m almost gold. Flying to LAX in W next week and return in J in August. Another step closer to Platinum. I may not need to buy miles with Avios which is great.

The only annoying thing of this little game is that I get my BA FF removed as soon as I select a seat (1D/1F) which then leads to being bumped off those seats a few days later… so annoying but I don’t want to have to deal with BA CS at the airport… I guess there’s no other solution than sucking it up until I’m at least Plat with AY right? I don’t have Twitter, I don’t use social media. Should I get my FF number removed by online chat when in the lounge? But sometimes I’m in the middle of work, meetings etc. and don’t really have the mind space to deal with this.

Anyway, first world (or class?) problems.

[VinZ]

I used this website to book all my shinkansen tickets https://smart-ex.jp/en/index.php

I could easily change tickets last-minute at no extra cost.

Also, use this https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/ to work out whether it’s worth buying single tickets or a rail pass, but keep in mind that with a rail pass I don’t think you can buy green car tickets and there’s some extra steps to actually get a ticket for a specific train with a rail pass.

And careful with those lockers – we didn’t realise there was a 72h limit on them and we ended up spending more than an hour at Tokyo station trying to find out where our bags were. We still laugh about it but then and there, it wasn’t super fun! 🙂

[VinZ]

Ok, so I managed to also book an earlier flight from DOH-LHR in J with QR and that cost me almost half avios compared to what QR charges. I noticed though that the aircraft is an A380-800 which has a first cabin and the J cabin is made of Diamond seats, not Q-suite.

Question now is: should I stick to the QR booking in the Q-suite, or Diamond seat is absolutely fine and if a F class eat opens up, snatch that?

Thank you!

[VinZ]

Yes, that’s what the fare conditions said. So what should I fo? Call up, tell them that I’m BA gold (even though I’m not able to change the QR FF number in my booking) so I can get the flights cancelled for free?

[VinZ]

Thanks Zapato – the thing is I’m avios rich so I’m a little reluctant about spending hard cash when I have so many points. But if I can maximise their use and potential, it’s better. 🙂

[VinZ]

I think I managed to book all I had to book except for CMB-KUL which I had to book in economy. Am I right in thinking that BA will charge the usual £35 cancellation fee if I were to cancel this booking when/if a J seat shows up?

[VinZ]

VinZ wrote:

strickers wrote:

Sorry, late to the party. I’ve booked LHR-BOM in J with BA then BOM-CMB with SriLankan using Avios through the BA website. I don’t think there are any direct flights CMB-HKT, you might find CMB-BKK with SriLankan and then a cash flight from there?

Sri Lankan doesn’t use avios – is there a way around this? I guess it’s the same with Malaysian too? They use another currency…

Ignore. I can see the flight on BA but no J available. Will keep looking. Thank you!

[VinZ]

strickers wrote:

Sorry, late to the party. I’ve booked LHR-BOM in J with BA then BOM-CMB with SriLankan using Avios through the BA website. I don’t think there are any direct flights CMB-HKT, you might find CMB-BKK with SriLankan and then a cash flight from there?

Sri Lankan doesn’t use avios – is there a way around this? I guess it’s the same with Malaysian too? They use another currency…

[VinZ]

Joecooljoe wrote:

Just to add, we found LHRCMB ret direct with sri lankan on avios in Y to be much cheaper booked thru QR and as two one ways than at ba.com (or ib)

Yes it was very cheap. On the contrary, HKT-LHR via DOH booked on QR was ridiculously spenny. 150,000 avios, I got less than 1p per avios… the worst redemption value in the last couple of years.

[VinZ]

AJA wrote:

Alternatively if you have a QR Privelege account linked to BAC try booking on Qatar. You may have to transfer Avios to QR first though it is technically possible for QR to draw the Avios directly from BAC.

Yes, it gets the points directly from BA as my accounts are linked! 🙂

[VinZ]

Thanks all. I’ve actually managed to easily find a flight in J to CMB on QR for 77,700 avios + taxes; and return from HKT via DOH on a very spenny 150,000 avios flight but in Q-suite (maybe!) + taxes.

Now I need to find a CMB-HKT flight but I don’t think I can book it with points as Malaysian doesn’t use avios and Thai neither… unless there’s a trick?

Thank you very much for your amazing tips!

[VinZ]

Thanks all – will call BA and check with them directly. Thanks again!