American Express pushing a ‘buy Avios’ bonus – worth it?

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• James F says:

  10 Jul10 July 10:22

  Can an Amex priority pass be used multiple times per day at the same lounge or restaurant (grain store)

  Ie can you get £15 credit at grain store at 11am. Then go back again at 1pm and get another £15 credit?

  • Rob says:

    10 Jul10 July 10:24

    No, you can’t do that. You can visit other lounges. There is now a rule, either 24 hour window or same day window.

• Joanne says:

  10 Jul10 July 11:12

  Have BA stopped the annual ‘kids fly free’ (on selected domestic routes) offer during summer?

  • Rob says:

    10 Jul10 July 11:24

    Not seen it this year.

  • sloth says:

    10 Jul10 July 12:04

    probably little point in running it if they are going to be on strike over the summer…

• N says:

  10 Jul10 July 11:20

  OT – is there any way at all to get a new Hilton card? I am paying for multiple 5 figure stays over the next 2 months for someone else, and could do with the points!

  • N says:

    10 Jul10 July 11:50

    Was hoping for 3 points per £1!

    Have put them through my Plat instead.

• Toppcat says:

  10 Jul10 July 11:57

  OT (very) – does anyone know how I can find out my BAEC balance at a specific point in time? The BA page shows transactions, but not the balance after each transaction. Thanks!

  • Ian says:

    10 Jul10 July 12:25

    Addition/subtraction of the transaction amounts from your current balance…?

    • Toppcat says:

      10 Jul10 July 20:51

      Yup, I think that is going to have to be the answer. Quite a lot of transactions though…

  • AndyGWP says:

    10 Jul10 July 13:25

    Awardwallet keeps a history – not sure how far back it goes and obviously this will only be for when it’s checked your BAEC account (so not necessarily every discreet change in your balance)

    And if you don’t have AwardWallet then it won’t start capturing info until you get it and from that date onwards

    • Toppcat says:

      10 Jul10 July 20:55

      That’s interesting – I just looked at AW and couldn’t see how to do that. How can I see the historic balances? Thanks

• Andrew says:

  10 Jul10 July 12:17

  There is a lot of dodgy data out there, with some of it being bought by FTSE listed companies who are prepared to turn a blind eye to the opaque sources.

  Equiniti PLC, for example, do their level best not to engage with data subjects. Giving me the details of the 6 companies they buy data from when I sought the point of consent for marketing emails. Those companies in turn source from further companies.

  Following one path, it’s clear that Cardiff based Ideal Media Group, who supply Equiniti, have been laundering dodgy data through a Philippines based subsidiary in the “Ideal Media Partnership”, attributing faked IP addresses, based on the local numbering range of Virgin Media in a bid to authenticate it.

  How do I know they are faked? Well VM aren’t my supplier, I don’t do insurance searches at 4am on a Winter’s Saturday morning on dodgy looking sites when I have no insurance renewals due, and they were careless enough to supply the ICO with one IP address and me with a different one…

  Now I just have to go through the expense to get a court order for Virgin Media to disclose the physical addresses in order to provide the ICO with evidence of the fraud. It’s a farce.

• Stu N says:

  10 Jul10 July 12:22

  On the BA strikes, is this BA mainline (LHR/LGW operations) or does it cover Cityflier out of LCY as well?

• Andrew says:

  10 Jul10 July 13:39

  So I have business class flights to Tenerife and back 9 and 23rd August for the family. Accommodation non-refundable, but travel insurance and bought on BA Amex.

  Am I right that the best way to make sure we can have the holiday is to pick up some fully flexible (which would include refundable?) tickets on Iberia now? If BA fly we can ditch them, if we can get cheaper later or get sorted by BA we can ditch them – if not we’re guaranteed flights at what will be (at the time) the best available price and then just s75 the cost?

  • roberto says:

    10 Jul10 July 13:51

    If you really want to make sure of you trip you could cancel the BA outbound and book with another carrier going out. Leave the return as is. Flights will be £150 or so per person. However thats your cost , nothing has been decided yet. The strike might not affect you and you have just burned cash for no reason. Refundable flights cost a fortune , certainly more than a basicone way easyjet or other wise.

    Did you book the inbound/outbound legs on different bookings or just one? Is its a 241?

    • Andrew says:

      10 Jul10 July 14:09

      Straight booking but as a return and non-flexible so I don’t think I can pro-actively cancel one side. I’m also concerned about the avalanche once it goes official.

      • roberto says:

        10 Jul10 July 15:06

        Booking as 2 x 1 one flights would have been better as you could have cancelled the outbound and left the inbound alone. It may have also been cheaper but that ship has sailed.

        Your only real options are (1) wait and see or (2) cancel and rebook flights with another carrier. Personally I am in the (1) camp currently and like you there wont be a lot of spare capacity to my destination. If I was going somewhere with multiple flights a day I would be feeling much more comfortable.

        We dont know when (if at all) these strikes will happen so there is not much else to do until then.

  • Anna says:

    10 Jul10 July 14:00

    Would s75 (or insurance) cover you for replacement flights booked before your original ones were cancelled? I wouldn’t like to risk it.

    • Andrew says:

      10 Jul10 July 14:11

      They should cover whatever is the cheapest option for me. If there is a cheaper alternative I couldn’t go beyond that but I’m pretty sure it will cover me if the tickets are the only way of making the flight (s75 is very pro-Consumer).

• roberto says:

  10 Jul10 July 13:41

  Ba will proactively source you another flight. They are well used to this type of situations as planes go tech every day so that will happen as soon as the dates are announced.

  You cant book elsewhere and bill BA no. If there are no other options you are happy with then you should be able to cancel the BA flight(s), get you money back, re-book elsewhere at your expense and claim the difference via your travel insurer/creditcard or perhaps under EU261.

  But dont get ahead of your self just yet. Look at a plan (b) and (c) and be ready if and when the you know what hits the fan.

  • Rob says:

    10 Jul10 July 13:48

    How much spare capacity do you think there is in August to these places? Nil, in reality.

    • roberto says:

      10 Jul10 July 14:00

      True , Larnaca will not have the spare capacity of say NYC or LAX as there are far fewer flights ( see my previous post on the page before about posters flying there ) that why its important to look ahead of time and try to find a back up plan.

      BA will however try to accommodate as many people as possible. Once the dates are announced everybody will know more.

      I fly to the UK on the 13th ( from Malaga ) and to Mahe on the 14th.

      • Gavin says:

        10 Jul10 July 15:51

        Larnaca (as far as I remember) is rarely cancelled due to only 2 flights a day, which are usually full, also cargo and a lot of US connections from Cyprus. It’s 3 years since I was flying there every week but never seen it cancelled during previous (cabin crew) strikes

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