Is Etihad dropping its flights from Edinburgh?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  5 Apr5 April 08:44

  Unless you’re getting more than the base value of half a pence (usually advertised has 500 points = £2.50) you might as well redeem the points in-store and then use the cash that you saved at Sainsbury’s to spend on flights.

  Last time I looked (admittedly a while back) Expedia and eBay only gave redemptions at base value. So if you want to redeem at the base value and not look for a better option to come round then redeeming at Sainsbury’s and stick the money you would have spent somewhere separate. It’s a lot easier than messing about with the other options assuming you still shop there.

  • Liz says:

    5 Apr5 April 09:20

    That’s what I am doing – reducing our £300+ points value by buying petrol. Then using the money I would have spent on fuel to pay for our flights to Iceland and the rest goes in the holiday savings pot towards flight taxes and surcharges. Rather do this than run a large pts balance.

    • johnny_c-l says:

      5 Apr5 April 11:30

      I think I may do the same; also have a > £300 balance I don’t know what to do with.

      I tried to redeem some with Expedia last month but it was a complete hassle and wouldn’t work on the website and different customer service agents gave me different answers. I ended up getting them to send the points back to Nectar.

• Kathy says:

  5 Apr5 April 08:47

  The Nectar changes are very interesting to me because Sainsburys is only 5 minutes walk away so I end up in there a lot – even though I’m trying to collect Clubcard points – because it’s so much more convenient than Tesco (which I go to about once a month). Cumulatively I must spend more at Sainsbury’s than Tesco although I will only typically spend around £10-£15 per trip there compared to £50-odd a time in Tesco.

  Having said that, the offer coupons I have always found a pain to use – they usually expire before I manage to use most of them. So we shall see.

• Nick says:

  5 Apr5 April 09:09

  This is interesting to me… I DO spend most of my supermarket shop in Sainsbury’s… but it’s a relatively low amount because I live alone, am not wasteful, and don’t have particularly expensive tastes. In theory – if the algorithms work – I should benefit from this. But the cynic in me says they rarely do work properly, and I’ll probably lose out. Along with the loss of Waitrose PYO (which I used cleverly for certain regular but more expensive items!), the supermarket loyalty sphere is being shaken up fairly radically really.

• RussellH says:

  5 Apr5 April 09:12

  To repeat what I posted yesterday in the other place:
  We seldom go shopping with a plan – rather we like to see what is really cheap at the time – usually reduced-to-clear and buy that.
  Oh, and Lidl are currently building opposite Sainsbury’s (yes, Sainsbury’s did object, yes, the council rejected their complaint).
  Sainsbury’s can tell just by looking at my Nectar card how long I have had it – they just do not make them like that anymore!
  And no, I neither have, nor want what my little brother calls a smartarse phone.

  • lumma says:

    5 Apr5 April 11:40

    I wish I still had my old style nectar card, it was practically indestructible. With the new style ones the barcode seems to rub off after a couple of months

• mark2 says:

  5 Apr5 April 09:26

  It would be interesting to see what Sainsbury’s make of an analysis of my purchases there. Every six weeks or so I buy a load of coffee and some compostable food waste bin liners.

• Andrew says:

  5 Apr5 April 09:45

  “Someone who spends all of their £30 weekly food budget at Sainsbury’s should be treated better than someone who spends 30% of a £200 budget”

  Isn’t this missing rather an important aspect of loyalty schemes? Offer lots of bonus offers to the £30 spend customer and the best return you’re ever going to get is £30. Offer bonuses to the 30% of £200 customer and you can potentially capture the other 70%. While I can understand the good intentions behind the approach I can see it being tossed aside as soon as someone runs the numbers.

  • Rob says:

    5 Apr5 April 09:56

    Yes. From that point of view they are approaching it differently to Tesco, who tend believe that their Gold should be to get a little bit more from EVERY customer.

    This should, of course, also be the BA perspective. If every Blue member of BAEC spent an extra 10% with BA it would dwarf the impact of throwing a few extra Avios to fully flex ticket holders. They have this obsession with courting investment bankers whose fully-flex tickets are bought on an airline they can’t choose anyway due to a corporate deal …. (I was such a person for a long time, nothing against bankers in general!).

    • Kris says:

      5 Apr5 April 14:27

      We have the opposite policy……we can book pretty much any airline except BA (Need to get special clearance to fly BA). Will make do with the very good ANA service when I am off to Tokyo on Saturday.

      The policy does provide good opportunity to sample some of the offerings on airlines that I would not otherwise fly (e.g. Jet Airways, Garuda), but not so helpful with Avios collection.

• AlanC says:

  5 Apr5 April 09:46

  I see that Norwegian also making cutbacks at EDI on US flights according to the Edinbrgh Evening News.
  O/T IHG
  Will food and beverage spend on a non qualifying points stay count towards a $40 Accelerate challenge?

  • Roger I* says:

    5 Apr5 April 14:30

    Not in my case.

    We stayed at the Helsinki airport H Inn on a Pointbreak stay a week ago, bought dinner and breakfast, but so far only the 500 points welcome has posted and the Accelerate score is unchanged.

• Will says:

  5 Apr5 April 09:55

  I hope the Sainsbury’s changes don’t happen. I’ve just moved my weekly shop business there from Waitrose because Waitrose ended the PYO scheme which worked well for me. I didn’t want the faff of using coupons. Similarly, there is no way I am going to be wasting time clicking through weekly offers on an app.

  • Tim W says:

    5 Apr5 April 10:09

    Just shows what works for some doesn’t for others. I didn’t like the faff of Waitrose PYO so never used it. However the vouchers received since they scrapped the PYO have already saved over £100.

    • Fenny says:

      5 Apr5 April 12:16

      I’ve not had any Waitrose vouchers in the post since last September. I’ve had a couple of till spits, which were valid for less than a week. £4 off £40 expiring midweek 3 days hence is of no use to me, as I’m not carting £40 of shopping home from work.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.