Radisson launches a new Dream Deals hotel sale

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• Gordon says:

  7 Dec7 December 05:25

  The better world community fund will hopefully do well then judging by many posts over the last year or so, with people giving up on BA and moving on.

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

    7 Dec7 December 06:19

    They’ll just move them over to QR, IB or nectar!

    • Gordon says:

      7 Dec7 December 07:31

      Yes I know, But I didn’t want to make the post too complicated 😉

    • AJA says:

      7 Dec7 December 08:53

      The better community fund could do quite well converting donated Avios to Nectar and spending the points in Sainsbury’s on some cakes and pastries to share among the lonely in Devon.

      • Mikeact says:

        7 Dec7 December 11:05

        I don’t want to set up my own crowd funding page but would be happy to donate a chunk to somebody who has….

      • Lady London says:

        7 Dec7 December 19:14

        or even for the use of their management?

• Andy says:

  7 Dec7 December 06:19

  Yes it’s interesting whether there is any point collecting Avios anymore as the fees and charges mean the only real advantage is flexibility and the ability to start from your home base. Price wise it’s usually cheaper to fly on a better airline from Paris or Amsterdam on a promotional business ticket.

  We’ve now got 1m Avios and struggle to find a) any availability for places we want to go and b) somewhere where it’s not cheaper to buy the ticket yourself (once you factor in the 0.8p nectar conversion alternative)

  • Rob says:

    7 Dec7 December 07:49

    Nectar now 0.66p ….

  • Andrew J says:

    7 Dec7 December 07:51

    Yes agreed, the days of using Avios for flights are over.

    • JDB says:

      7 Dec7 December 08:46

      People have been saying that for years, but there is still excellent value to be had.

      • Rob says:

        7 Dec7 December 08:50

        People may change their tune next week.

        • AJA says:

          7 Dec7 December 08:54

          Oh no that’s ominous.

        • Gordon says:

          7 Dec7 December 09:43

          Rob has also been saying that for years..
          but I wait with baited breathe.

        • Rob says:

          7 Dec7 December 10:14

          Actually they have pulled it forward and just released it.

        • aDifferentSimon says:

          7 Dec7 December 11:26

          er, how come no one is jumping / ranting at this comment!? But who may change their tune? – those saying “the days of using avios for flights are over” or those saying “still excellent value to be had”?

        • Mikeact says:

          7 Dec7 December 11:28

          I just hope that the MultiCarrier awards are not ‘improved ‘. Annoyingly, I’ll have to patiently work on my booking the next few days and lock in…

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          7 Dec7 December 13:36

          aDifferentSimon: check your spam for a BA Email today….

          I did what I do with all such Emails – glanced at the headline, thought it looked interesting, then didn’t read any of it because I’ll wait for the HfP article to tell me all about it far better than BA ever will 🙂

        • Rob says:

          7 Dec7 December 13:40

          Ignore my ‘next week’ comment earlier. It was all brought foward to today.

      • points_worrier says:

        7 Dec7 December 09:33

        The changes will be insidious – you will likely only notice on retrospect. The last 24 months is the only time in the last 15 years I have spent *no* avios on BA whatsoever.

        • Mikeact says:

          7 Dec7 December 13:38

          My son has just WhatsApp me from the US with big news…

          ‘British Airways is reducing the surcharges attached to Avios, hugely ‘ He’ll update me later with examples.

          I guess we officially hear next week..

          Not sure if it’s April 1st over there…

        • Rob says:

          7 Dec7 December 13:40

          For US residents it IS substantially reduced. Not for you.

  • Harry T says:

    7 Dec7 December 08:26

    Just don’t use them on naff BA flights.

  • Doug M says:

    7 Dec7 December 08:44

    Avios remain great value on the short haul network, especially at busy times or if you need something at short notice. Long haul less so, and what I think is becoming less valuable is the Amex 241 voucher.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      7 Dec7 December 08:53

      Short haul is amazing. I can often book flights on the day and save hundreds with Avios

      • AJA says:

        7 Dec7 December 08:56

        As long as BA’s shoddy IT allows you to price up RFS flights. At the moment it’s pot luck whether it works or not.

        • meta says:

          7 Dec7 December 09:05

          As Rob alluded above and what we’ve been saying for the past week on the forum, it seems RFS is going away. This is why we can’t price it.

        • Rob says:

          7 Dec7 December 09:37

          No, RFS is going nowhere.

        • BJ says:

          7 Dec7 December 10:44

          So we may change our tune on value of avios reward flights but RFS not going. That at least suggests the nightmare scenario of revenue-based redemptions at 0.67ppa will not come to pass. Surcharges have been hiked a lot in past year and proved very unpopular so it seems more likely both the BA and partner airlines award charts will take the hit this time. Off-peak awards to disappear anybody … BA said they listened to what we wanted and we didn’t want higher prices at school holidays … so we kindly made them the same all year for you??Or both off-peak and peak to remain but at higher rates? Status-dependent access to premium cabins; would partly explain why they have been making status easier to obtain, to soften the impact? Abolition of the ‘free’ domestic connection to long-haul; they did it with short-haul so why not? I wonder if this hint from Rob is all the notice we’ll get; IAG did provide some notice of the new revenue-based earning but not much so perhaps we’ll only have until the end of the year at best. Whatever it is it will not be good but it cannot be so bad as to kill the Avios Group golden goose for Christmas just because there’s a shortage of turkeys!

        • Mikeact says:

          7 Dec7 December 11:12

          Must be me…just booked a couple of RFS bookings with no problem ..

      • points_worrier says:

        7 Dec7 December 09:36

        Remember it is only a saving if you would have spent it anyway. There are several times where I have just simply not traveled because of the cost.

      • Dubious says:

        7 Dec7 December 11:45

        Just be careful Using RFS on long haul flights. You might find it’s a stealth devaluation…reduced the cash but increase the Avios…

    • BlueThroughCrimp says:

      7 Dec7 December 09:08

      Now the Amex voucher is a 1-4-½ it’s much more valuable than before I find.

      • Alan says:

        7 Dec7 December 09:19

        RFS going away is a pain although not as much of a gamechanger – since they doubled the price for short haul flights from the regions connecting in LHR I’ve barely used them anyway!

        • points_worrier says:

          7 Dec7 December 09:26

          I am amazed at the level of reduction in benefits people seem to tolerate in mileage schemes they are invested in.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          7 Dec7 December 10:03

          It is a huge game changer! It’ll add £100 cash to a flight.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    7 Dec7 December 10:18

    I was like you, avois only good for shopping.

    Then I had a flight cancelled and so had to get to NZ rather than Tokyo.

    The new 241 availability have just saved me £1,000s with loads of seat Inverness-London-Sydney.

    And then Qatar J back from Auckland-Doha-Edinburgh for 90k Avios each and c£200.

    Me, a happy bunny!

    (And family in the states have just moved back, so worries about Avios value transatlantic!)

• vol says:

  7 Dec7 December 07:32

  The airport codes video is fab!

  Thanks for sharing 👍

  • points_worrier says:

    7 Dec7 December 09:28

    agree. Great watch.

  • Phil says:

    7 Dec7 December 10:11

    ditto

• Peggerz says:

  7 Dec7 December 07:45

  Great news about Westjet from Calgary into EDI in 2023 and the Toronto flight is no surprise as there was strong competition with Air Canada on this route this year and Westjet appear to be pulling other routes into the UK.
  In fact I had several clients from the South West and South Central USA connect through Toronto on Air Canada into Edinburgh. This may change in 2023 with the opening of the Atlanta – Edinburgh direct link.5 days a week.
  There was also a rumour that Emirates are gearing up to bring back their B777 into EDI from February 2023. Nothing confirmed yet, but they are also keen on getting back to Fort Lauderdale, Adelaide and Oporto too. Let’s see….

  • SamG says:

    7 Dec7 December 07:53

    I believe Westjet are strengthening Calgary as a hub so should offer some good connections

  • Andrew. says:

    7 Dec7 December 09:23

    It’s good news, but the prices are looking very toppy.

    Saturday 27th May – Friday 2nd June on Westjet HBO.

    LGW-YYC Return – £562
    EDI-YYC Return – £751

    • BJ says:

      7 Dec7 December 10:03

      Despite the shorter distances, and us always being told flights from Scotland to the Med were much more expensive than MAN or LGW simply because distances were longer.

    • AviosNovice says:

      7 Dec7 December 15:22

      When I searched the EDI-ATL flight, it was £1300 return in Y. Shocking.
      This was just after the announcement though, so maybe they’re more sensible now. I’d hope so.

  • jjoohhnn says:

    7 Dec7 December 12:59

    Yeah, the bigger news is that Westjet are dropping lots of European routes to Toronto and Halifax and doubling down on Calgary instead.

    Gone:
    YYZ – LGW
    YYZ – BCN
    YYZ – GLA
    YYZ – DUB
    YYZ – EDI
    YHZ – LGW
    YHZ – GLA
    YHZ – DUB
    YHZ – CDG

    LGW, LHR and CDG will be daily to Calgary for most of the summer season.

• mattnav_travel says:

  7 Dec7 December 08:17

  I’ve actually seen Flying Blue show WestJet redemptions options on their website fairly recently when I was searching between YYC and YYZ though it was definitely a toss-up between them and Delta SkyPesos in terms of who had the better pricing.

• nerock says:

  7 Dec7 December 09:46

  Off Topic: Christmas One Way car rentals became a rarity since Covid, Europcar has suspended the scheme for a while, Avis doesn’t have much downtown network anymore. However I accidently found Enterprise does have some deals available currently, I managed to book Gatwick > Bracknell for £5 for 2-JAN, assume there are more like that available. Unfortunately, I only found one for the leg coming back..

• Jeff says:

  7 Dec7 December 10:01

  OT: If I cancel my platinum card, can I keep £200 travel credit somehow or not?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    7 Dec7 December 10:03

    Only if you’ve already booked somewhere

• Gordon says:

  7 Dec7 December 17:33

  Just a heads up to anyone travelling over Xmas. Border force are striking for 8 days at most uk airports between 23rd Dec and NYE. The timing was thoughtful of them….

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