Save £750 on Business and First Class Etihad flights to Australia

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• Roger says:

  2 Oct2 October 05:11

  OT- MBNA Horizon

  Is everyone who has been switched over from Legacy air mile cards (AA, LH, UA, EY cards) received their new Horizon card?

  I received an email from MBNA telling old card will not be valid from 11-OCTOBER.
  I have however not received the new card yet.

  • ChrisC says:

    2 Oct2 October 05:23

    I received my Horizon card (prev VS Amex) in July so I’d chase them up!

  • jamie says:

    2 Oct2 October 05:25

    Yes, I used to have the Emirates card and now have received the Horizon card. A bit annoyed that they got rid of the airline cards!

  • Rob says:

    2 Oct2 October 09:41

    Yes, gone mine (from Lufthansa) about 6 weeks ago.

  • Fenny says:

    2 Oct2 October 19:13

    Mine arrived in July. Just cancelled it.

    • Alex Sm says:

      4 Oct4 October 11:25

      why? I used it extensively recently on my trips to SE Asia and to Madrid – very convenient, free ATM w/drawals and no FX commission, 100% acceptance rate. Better than Curve even.

• Roger says:

  2 Oct2 October 05:43

  With VS – Virgin Money card opening offer expiry at end of last month, are we expecting any better offers to turn up?

  • Alex W says:

    2 Oct2 October 13:38

    What were you waiting for, free lifetime gold status? Moon on a stick??

  • Ahop says:

    2 Oct2 October 16:57

    Did it actually say the closing date for the offer anywhere?

    • Alex W says:

      2 Oct2 October 19:33

      Yes 30 Sep was the deadline.

• Chris says:

  2 Oct2 October 06:19

  OT – SPG amex, I know some were saying that Amex said they’d get all of their points with the next transfer. My second lot of points have now transferred and so far neither months points have appeared in my SPG account. Any other info out there?

  • E says:

    2 Oct2 October 06:27

    Think everyone is still waiting for at least the last 2 months points. I’m waiting for 2 months with the 3rd about to transfer into the black hole shortly too. They keep saying it’ll be the next transfer/next few weeks but this sounds like a guess as I don’t think they know when the problem will be fixed.

  • Ian M says:

    2 Oct2 October 07:57

    I’ve not received any points for spend since 1st July. Been told many different things by Amex CS, they had promised me I would receive them between 20th-22nd September, then when that didn’t happen they promised me it would be on my next monthly transfer date. That is due in 3 days. If they don’t all transfer over I will have to cancel 2 x 5 night bookings for later this month which I don’t have enough points in my Marriott account for.

    Chris.. When did the the latest lot of points transfer out of your SPG Amex? Normally they would land in your Starwood/Marriott account the next day. Have you given Amex your new Marriott number (if you have a new number)?

    • Chris says:

      2 Oct2 October 08:33

      I haven’t merged my accounts but my spg account shows a “new” number which is the one Amex have. I’ve only had the card a few months and so far have got none of my nearly 90k points..

      • mike says:

        2 Oct2 October 10:04

        rob, you must have some sway with Marriott based on your joint promotion earlier in the week. is there anyway at all you could ask them to look into this specific issue please pretty please? I am not one for straw polls, but my guess is that 30 to 40 percent of the people who read HFP daily have the SPG Amex. So im thinking you probably have thousands of readers in the same position?

        • Rob says:

          2 Oct2 October 10:33

          It is a global issue between Amex and Marriott, unfortunately.

      • RakishDriver says:

        2 Oct2 October 12:03

        I combined my marriott & spg accounts and my ‘new’ number is the same marriott number (and this was confirmed by an spg rep – if that actually means anything..), never received any email or anything to suggest otherwise,

        This is all very inconsistent and worrying that a paid for spg amex card’s points & bonus are going to disappear into some marriott/spg/amex abyss, potentially wasting my time and spend on that card. Utter fluster-cuck.

  • Boo says:

    2 Oct2 October 12:05

    My Amex SPG account is not even showing points earned for the spend I’ve made this month

  • Darren says:

    2 Oct2 October 12:07

    This is turning into another Lloyds Avios transfer mess.

  • Relaxo says:

    2 Oct2 October 12:08

    Is the non transfer of points only an issue for those holding the SPG card through the merger? Or is it a problem even for those who have applied the card more recently post-August? My 6 months churn date is coming up so need to figure out if I should bother applying or hold off.

    • RakishDriver says:

      2 Oct2 October 12:26

      It has only been a month since I applied, first batch of points not posted, so yes, seems to be a problem regardless.

  • Stu N says:

    2 Oct2 October 12:57

    My September points left Amex last week but haven’t arrived in Marriott yet. My July transfer made it to SPG pre-merger but August transfer is still in limbo and September seems to be floating too. Amex said it would be sorted “mid September” then “with the September transfer”.

    Also told me they didn’t need my “new” Marriott number, it would all map across. So no Marriott points hit my account for spend since the end of July – wondering whether to stick with the card or work on accumulating Amex MRs instead. All v. disappointing as I was working towards some 60k redemptions for Q1 next year.

    • Lee says:

      2 Oct2 October 13:51

      Same boat here with missing points since July. Try to book a few high end cat 7 properties before it’s end.
      Stu, were you looking Marriott or SPG property? For Marriott you could still use advance points booking and hope the issue will be solved before then.

      • Stu N says:

        2 Oct2 October 14:36

        SPG, so I need the points at time of booking.

      • Ian M says:

        2 Oct2 October 14:47

        I took advance of the fact you don’t need the points in advance for 2 Ritz Carlton bookings, but sadly they are now due later this month and I’m doubting I’ll have the points by then. I’m due over a million!

    • Tilly says:

      2 Oct2 October 17:18

      I was told by amex CS that they dis need my new Marriott number after I combined my SPG/Marriott accounts. It’s now been updated so expecting next transfer to make it safely into my account.

      • Clive says:

        2 Oct2 October 17:49

        Unfortunately not the case. My transfer date is 22nd two week prior I called Amex CS and gave them my new number. My points left (Aug and Sept) but still have not arrived into my MR account. Pretty damn appalling.

• Roger says:

  2 Oct2 October 06:20

  OT- Curve vs Lloyds Avios

  Any advantage of using curve of Lloyds Avios card when I visit Singapore later this month?

  • David says:

    2 Oct2 October 08:25

    For purchases or ATM withdrawals? None I can think of for purchases, ATM will be a lottery.

  • pauldb says:

    2 Oct2 October 09:32

    Presuming your Lloyds is still 0%, that would seem an easier option than using Curve with a £500/month 0% limit and the 1.5% weekend FX charge on SGD.

    • Mikeact says:

      2 Oct2 October 16:58

      Just concentrate on using the Lloyds Amex card wherever possible. I used Curve just for ATM use…..didn’t need much cash anyway, as my hotel gave me cash back which was totally unexpected ,

• BJ says:

  2 Oct2 October 06:48

  I read someplace else that Norwegian are trying to sell the airbus jets they have on order. Not sure it will matter, I suspect Norwegian (and Etihad too) will be gone by this time next year.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    2 Oct2 October 07:18

    Dont Etihad have very deep pockets?

    • Roger says:

      2 Oct2 October 07:24

      Likely absorbed by EK or end up becoming a much smaller player like Oman Air or Gulf Air.

      Has cheap oil had its days?

    • BJ says:

      2 Oct2 October 07:37

      Seems not if they are offloading lounges. I agree with Tiger’s assessment. If egos get in the way they will become another Gulf, if not I imagine EK route is most likely.

    • Shoestring says:

      2 Oct2 October 07:51

      Very deep pockets but as the colossal losses mount up, even the wealthiest & most benign of Emirs start to take a very hard look at what they are trying to achieve. Yep – oil heading back to $100 must surely help. (Abu Dhabi holds 9% of the world’s proven oil reserves (98.2bn barrels) and almost 5% of the world’s natural gas (5.8 billion cubic metres or 200 billion cubic feet).

  • @mkcol says:

    2 Oct2 October 09:31

    @BJ You are correct, Norwegian are selling all their Airbuses & order slots.

• Doug M says:

  2 Oct2 October 07:13

  I find these small long haul operations very odd, they never work, yet someone else always tries again. I think there were two from Luton for a while, Silverjet, something like that. Why trust them, they’re not significantly cheaper given the additional risks, and have zero irrops capability. If you were flying in the next week you might book, but who’d give them money on trust for a flight in a few months given a substantial history of failure.

  • Roger says:

    2 Oct2 October 07:25

    There’s apparently a smaller aircraft making such route.

    IIRC, from PNQ in India to FRA (via a stopover)

  • BJ says:

    2 Oct2 October 07:46

    The story is always the same, they start up with little money and few aircraft, people get excited with the low fares, a plane goes tech or some other minor issue creates havoc with schedules, pax get mad, interest declines despite low fares, and within months to a year they are gone. You know what the say, if it seems to good to be true…

    • Tony says:

      2 Oct2 October 08:40

      Was the case with the original Ryanair before O’Leary took over.

      • BJ says:

        2 Oct2 October 12:28

        Ryanair is shorthaul only. The problem is longhaul.

    • Lumma says:

      2 Oct2 October 08:45

      Their fares weren’t that low to be fair. Roughly similar to basic economy on the legacy airlines. They had some decent fares one way but that still leaves you needing to find another way to get back

    • Jamie says:

      2 Oct2 October 14:02

      I assume financiers buy into the idea that there are high barriers to entry; and they expect the risks to be high and a lot of investment up front, but see this as a necessary step to get some competition into the market before stabilising.

  • Paul says:

    2 Oct2 October 08:58

    We were at Stansted a couple of weeks ago. The Primera flight from 5pm the evening before was showing as scheduled to depart at 8am, and when we taxied out to the runway at 7:30 the plane was still shutters up at a remote stand. I wonder what happened to those passengers – STN is not a great place to spend the night…

  • Mike P says:

    2 Oct2 October 09:10

    I think it was Silverjet and Eos that operated from LTN (or was it STN?).

    Both were all J if I remember right.

    • James says:

      2 Oct2 October 12:22

      As a manager of a wide body operator, the biggest issue with narrow body aircraft operating these routes is the lack of cargo uplift contributing to offsetting costs.

      I can send an aircraft with 70 passengers on an 8 hour sector, not ideal but with sales trends, this occurs in the down periods, but I can also carry 15+ tons of cargo which adds revenue to battle the costs.

      With narrow body aircraft, short of some mail perhaps, you cannot take any cargo. If you have 70 passengers, that is all that is generating the revenue. Extrapolate that out over the year and that is a big impact.

      It will work on certain routes for certain carriers, for example, BA *could* use an A321NEO LHR-JFK if it wanted to as they have the route network and operation to absorb it, but it wouldn’t work as a standalone for an airline the size that Primera was. It is a bit like the 757’s you see transatlantic from AA/DL/UA or the 737 MAX from AC.

      • BJ says:

        2 Oct2 October 12:42

        Thanks James, interesting insight to the business.

  • Dimitri says:

    2 Oct2 October 13:25

    I think it’s worth booking with them when you have travel insurance.

• Benylin says:

  2 Oct2 October 07:28

  OT: Re SPG Amex, given all the issues is it worth waiting before I get my first one? I am getting it just to churn one time, so would like to transfer the ~30k immediately and close up.

  Also what are Marriot rules on pooling points / transferring to other people? Can my dad book a hotel night for me?

  • Ian M says:

    2 Oct2 October 07:59

    Well at the moment points don’t transfer from SPG Amex to Marriott. They leave Amex and fall into a black void.

  • RakishDriver says:

    2 Oct2 October 12:04

    Save your self the grief till it’s all resolved (or not)

    • Darren says:

      2 Oct2 October 12:10

      +1

  • Luckyjim says:

    2 Oct2 October 17:39

    Get the card. The issues will be resolved eventually and you will not lose your points. There is a good chance the SPG card will be closed to new applicants without notice, You will never again get the chance to churn it.

• Thywillbedone says:

  2 Oct2 October 07:35

  O/T: the most basic of questions: I assume a Platinum holder can still use the refer-a-friend for a gold personal card? I recall having done this in the past but my sister (a plat holder) says she cannot find a referral link to Gold (to send to me) on her account page. (Did a google search but could not find the answer)

  Thanks!

  • Anna says:

    2 Oct2 October 07:46

    It seems to be a browser issue, try a different one, though they have been coming and going recently. Don’t forget your sister won’t get a sign up bonus for gold if she already has platinum.

    • Anna says:

      2 Oct2 October 07:47

      Sorry I didn’t read your post properly! Your sister just needs the general referral link halfway down the account summary page, it’s not card specific. You will see the other cards when you use the link (browser permitting!)

      • Thywillbedone says:

        2 Oct2 October 08:41

        Thanks – the referral link comes across as Plat but you can change the card you wish to apply for (other MR cards that is) at the bottom of the referral page. Obviously designed to encourage a Plat application!

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