A short time to book but a long time to travel!

Conditions for this offer

• Purchase by: 14.11.2012
• Departure period: 20.12.2012-05.04.2013
• Return period: 23.12.2012-04.07.2013
• Minimum stay : 3 days.
• Maximum stay : 3 months.

Fares below:

• Abu Dhabi from £1,199*
• Bengaluru – Bangalore from £1,449*
• Beijing  from£1,599*
• Bogotá from  £1,769*
• Mumbai/Bombay  from £1,449*
• Buenos Aires  from  £1,769*
• Busan from £1,699*
• Cape Town from £1,599*
• Caracas from £1,769*
• New Delhi from £1,449*
• Dubai from £1,199*
• Hong Kong from £1,599*
• Johannesburg from £1,599*
• Lagos from £1,849*
• Malabo from £1,769*
• Muscat from £1,199*
• Osaka from £1,849*
• Nagoya from £1,929*
• Rio de Janeiro from £1,699*
• Sao Paulo from £1,769*
• Seoul from £1,699*
• Shanghai from £1,599*
• Tokyo from £1,849*

As I mentioned in my post I contacted Groundlink after I posted about the issue I found with using their fixed price voucher from JFK.

I received a reply from one of their team, informing me that I was at fault as the address I had entered was incomplete. This is possible, although I cut and pasted it from the Andaz Wall Street web site.

Separately, another member of the Groundlink team posted a comment against the original blog post offering to make things right for people, and saying that there was an exclusion missed off the Jetsetter promo details – namely trips below Houston attract an additional charge.

Anyone having the same problem as myself is urged to contact them to fix things.

I’ve done this and will update with the outcome.

BA are offering discounts to Exec Club holders to select destinations in Europe, for Ski trips it appears.

Details:

As an Executive Club member you are invited to benefit from an exclusive
discount on selected ski destinations.
10% off economy  class.
25% off business class.

Using your voucher

This offer is valid for bookings made here on ba.com between 06  January 2012 and 09 January 2012, for travel between  6 January 2012 and 31 March 2012.

To benefit from the 10% economy discount, simply enter promotional code  SKIJAN12ET into the marked box on the “Price” page (step 3 of  the booking process).

To benefit from the 25% business class discount, simply enter promotional  code SKIJAN12CE into the marked box on the “Price” page (step 3  of the booking process).

Destinations on offer:
• Geneva
• Innsbruck
• Lyon
• Munich
• Salzburg
• Turin
• Verona
• Zurich

Cheapest Club Europe Fares found (80 BA Tier Points per roundtrip)

• Geneva – £213.68
• Zurich – £258.23
• Turin – £279.98
• Verona – £295.28
• Lyon – £310.80
• Salzburg – £336.15
• Innsbruck – £376.50

(some flights are from Gatwick)

Commentary – Not a bad deal if you want to collect a few more Tier Points – I need 40 to my next Gold Upgrade Voucher so Zurich or Geneva sound appealing!

Seems that Hilton wants to get a off to a good money saving start for customer wishing to book weekends for the whole of 2012 (well after about 16th Jan from what I can see). Rate do seem pretty good:

http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/promotions/hi_hhonors_JanuarySaleEN_1/index.jhtml

Rates for London:

Central and Northern Europe:

A random check on the Hilton Brussels City shows a good discount on the ordinary Pre-Paid rate for the Deluxe Room of EUR61.

There is no list of North American hotels but you are encouraged to search. A choice in April, for 1 weekend night at the Hilton New York yielded a saving of $101 per night

SUMMARY:

If you know your travel plans in advance these rates do represent a very good deal across a wide range of cities for a large part of 2012.

Following up on my post on cheap tickets from London, it seems that there is now a sale going on TO London.

SFO-LHR - $536 excl taxes

Total comes to just around $2,100 when you add the return and the taxes.

So after posting all about the BA 4 day sale on Business Class tickets from London, I decided to press the button and book one. Other airlines matched within 24 hours and so I had a look at what American Airlines could offer. Surrendering the BA shareholder discount and cashback that I would have received, I did find some very nice twists in using AmericanAirlines.co.uk web site.

• On the BA web site the BA flight from London City to JFK was £500 more expensive than the flights from Heathrow. It was the same price when booked as an AA codeshare on their UK Site.
• Although the fare books in to an I fare, AA allowed tickets to be issued in First on their three class JFK-LAX/SFO flights
• The domestic US sections book in to First Class – earning more tier points than when booked on BA when they only booked in to Business Class. So I have a segment in First Class from JFK to LAX on a three class aircraft, and a segment in First Class from San Francisco back to JFK on a two class 767-300.

This means that my travel (out just after Christmas/ back 1 January 2012) from  London City to San Francisco (and back to Heathrow), earns 830 BA Tier Points (enough for Silver status – just requires the 4 BA flights per-requisite). Now on to book the hotels.

 These offers only exist for one more day.

It seems as if other airlines have moved to match the BA sale fare I reported yesterday.

For example United has a fare from LHR to SFO of £997.10 (a few pounds cheaper than BA) for Business class! Books in Z class (or A for the domestics)

When booking on the UA web site be careful of the cheapest fares as they often include Coach/Economy sectors.

From what I see – Virgin, KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, Delta, Air Canada, Continental, Swiss and bmi have all matched – check Expedia for booking and of course to earn Nectar points.

There are a couple of BA offers launched this week – for a very short time – that are worth noting.

• BA are offering Club tickets to New York, Tokyo, Beijing and Mexico City over the Christmas and New Year period for £1002. For New York there appears to be no minimum stay:

BA Shareholder discount applies – takes the fare to about £475 each way. I am very tempted indeed.

• There is also an offer for 2 passengers to travel to many parts of the world (pretty much everywhere except Australia on BA) for £2012 TOTAL. £1006 per person including taxes.

This offer seems – oddly t0 price out if you only book one person and even on BA Codeshares on AA. I found this price to/from LAX:

These might even be useful when I look for my OneWorld MegaDo 20k AA miles to Executive Platinum, but also enable me to requalify as BA Gold for 2012-2013 once I have the rest of my flights booked. I cannot see where the T&C say you MUST have two passengers travelling.

Decisions, Decisions……

Click for Terms and Conditions key terms….

• Flights must be booked between 10:00 GMT 1 December 2011 and 23:59 GMT
  5 December 2011. Travel from London Heathrow to longhaul destinations (excluding
  Sydney, Bangkok, Miami, Buenos Aires, Luanda, Jeddah, Nassau, Grand Cayman and
  Providenciales), and from Manchester to New York (JFK) and Chicago (O’Hare), is
  available for selected outbound travel dates between 20 December 2011 and
  31 December 2011. All travel periods for all destinations are shown in the table
  at Ba.com/flashsale.
• All travel, excluding travel to the United States of America, must include a
  Saturday night stay. For flights to all destinations, all travel must be
  completed by 12 January 2012.

So in nearly done in the round up of UK earning credit cards I am covering two less well airline earning options.

FLYBE

Offer being run at the moment which is supposed to end in November which allows you to activate the card and earn a return flight.

flybe uses 4allpoints as their measure of earning. You earn one for each £250 spend.

0% for 9 months on balance transfer within 90 days. 18.9% APR

Measure

Using the £12,000 per annum spend = 48 reward points.

A little hard to compare exactly with BA/bmi/LH but table below shows 2 round-trips from the UK to Europe (except Spain, Portugal or Croatia) – so better than LH by a long way.

UNITED AIRLINES – UK CREDIT CARD

With hundreds of thousands of United miles on offer from credit cards in the US, it’s a little disappointing to see their dismal efforts in the UK. May I present the MBNA American Express card.

15,000 miles for £750 spent in 90 days

1 mile for each £1 spent

0% on balance transfers (in 90 days – 3% fee), card purchases (90 days), and money transfers (in 90 days – 4% fee)

16.9% APR

Measure

£12,000 = 27,000 miles earned. No Status miles.

Earns enough for one Economy round-trip within Europe, although that would take you as far as Turkey.

Summary

Neither of these cards are especially good way to earn miles in comparison to the other reviewed – Lufthansa and BA/bmi

A good promotion has been published for people looking for a nice dinner in London, at a reasonable price.

Basically you buy a coupon from Travelzoo, and then make a reservation at the restaurant until April.

Details:

Highlights

• Only £49 for a 3-course dinner for two with champagne — usually up to £100
• Includes your choice of any three courses from the à la carte menu, with tempting dishes like foie gras to start, steak for mains and chocolate fondant for pudding
• The Rockwell bar and restaurant is part of The Trafalgar, a stylish Hilton hotel located right on Trafalgar Square
• Hotel boasts a fabulous roof terrace bar with views over London — perfect for a pre- or post-dinner cocktail

The Small Print

This offer is for two people and must be used in one visit. Any additional items ordered will be charged at their usual value. Multiple vouchers may be purchased per person or as gifts for others. Reservations are required. Valid for dinner seven days a week until 10 April, 2012, subject to availability. There is no limit to the number of vouchers that may be used per table. Cannot be combined with any other offer. No cash value or cash back. Menu is subject to change. Service charge of 12.5% will be charged.