Bits: win with The Times and The Telegraph travel awards, no more Nectar points on easyJet

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• Save EC Rewards says:

  30 Jul30 July 04:50

  Could this mean easyJet are thinking of introducing a proper frequent traveller scheme? I know they have Flight Club but they have nothing where you can redeem points for flights.

  This is a loss of a relatively minor partner for Nectar. easyJet don’t actively promote Nectar (presumably because it’s meaningless to non-UK residents), so it’s just an extra bonus for dedicated Nectar collectors (is there such a thing?) to get a few points. I can’t see it affecting anyone’s choice of airline.

  No one seems to have noticed that Hull Trains is no longer a Nectar partner! It does seem odd that Hull Trains drops out but other FirstGroup companies remain in the scheme, will they follow?

• JamesB says:

  30 Jul30 July 06:27

  OT: Rob, you’ve mentioned a few times that one of your favourite uses of MR points are rooms at Park Plaza for visiting family and friends. How are you finding points or points and cash availability? Of all the hotel chains I find ClubCarlson the most difficult to use with premium brands in major European cities rarely ever having rooms available for Points.

  • Rob says:

    30 Jul30 July 09:10

    Never had a problem but I tend to only look at specific times (weekends, summer).

    • JamesB says:

      30 Jul30 July 10:37

      Thanks, I’ll havs a more detailed look but so far little joy.

    • JamesB says:

      30 Jul30 July 16:40

      It seems I was trying to book too far in advance. Good availability next few months,

• mark2 says:

  30 Jul30 July 08:58

  re competitions.
  They always say that you have to take the prize as described. Has anyone ever managed to negotiate a change with the travel company which is actually organising it?

  • Rob says:

    30 Jul30 July 09:06

    These things are rarely set in stone but it depends how each company is structured. When we do a comp we are dealing directly with the decision maker at the sponsor and it is easy to discuss any tweaks. The bigger the company and the more agencies etc in the mix the harder it gets.

• The Original Nick. says:

  30 Jul30 July 09:11

  Slightly O:T, I’ve just received the September Times Travel Magazine from the 4500 Avios promo from last year. I cancelled my DD a few months ago. Will this be the last issue did anyone know?

  • Genghis says:

    30 Jul30 July 09:16

    If you ordered same time as me then yes. I diarised that this would be the last one

    • The Original Nick says:

      30 Jul30 July 10:08

      Thanks. No final call note for me though.

  • james says:

    30 Jul30 July 09:53

    When I received the September issue, right above the address, there was a very clear message saying Final Call, this is the last copy of your current subscription. I was quite impressed with that.

  • JamesB says:

    30 Jul30 July 10:44

    September final issue for me, I informed them by email I did not want to renew and got an explicitly clear email in response confirming this and which issue would be the last. No hassle at all from them.

• Mark LLL says:

  30 Jul30 July 11:41

  Times travel competition, there may be multiple votes but there is only a single draw entry.

  Sorry Best Country, I lost my chance of voting in other categories by submitting the entry form straight after Best Airline.

  I should’ve exhausted all the voting options before submitting the form, oops.

• Yuff says:

  30 Jul30 July 12:12

  OT: my 40k HSBC points, for elite MasterCard, posted this month. Annual fee got taken from my last statement 😉

• Save EC Rewards says:

  30 Jul30 July 12:12

  OT: but they’re a Nectar partner, so semi relevant
  I’ve noticed Virgin Trains East Coast now have issued their staff with an iOS app that identifies customers on-board that they want to ‘surprise and delight’ this is usually in the form on a free prosecco (mini bottle usually, but full size not unheard of) or an upgrade if in standard class.

  Here’s what I know: http://saveecrewards.co.uk/blog/vtec-surprise-delight-rewards

  The problem is although gestures like this create some goodwill they can’t encourage new customers using this method and getting a small gift every so often isn’t going to encourage people to stay (particularly as champagne is free to everyone in Club Europe),

  • Barnaby100 says:

    30 Jul30 July 15:47

    Spend £30k ish a year between us on east coast but never received anything. As people seat hop not sure how this would work anyway

  • Barnaby100 says:

    30 Jul30 July 15:55

    I would just like wifi that works, electricity that works and the advertised food offer. The breakfast service has been unavailable on almost every service recently due to staff absence and curry Thursday may as well be called no curry Thursday as they have run out or have no catering crew on board. That said have had very few delay repays in past 12 months.

    • Rob says:

      30 Jul30 July 17:00

      I got an East Coast delay repay on Friday! On an early morning York train tomorrow so will see that they are doing for breakfast.

      Booked Economy up to York on Friday lunchtime due to cost (very short notice booking) and then got sent a £20 upgrade voucher by email. I managed to get them to waive the £20 for my daughter so that worked out well. No food of any sort, apart from cake, on the way back but the refund will clearly soften the blow (and I had a huge lunch at the Royal York hotel!).

      • Alan says:

        30 Jul30 July 21:02

        I’ve found VTEC to be very proactive re delay/repay, telling customers and handing out cards.

  • Crafty says:

    30 Jul30 July 21:09

    They emailed me a gift of free lounge access, anytime even if not taking a train, for 3 months.

    Not that useful to me really, but at least they are experimenting.

• zsalya says:

  30 Jul30 July 12:14

  Most of the Times prizes exclude flights from the UK.

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