Bits: Virgin redemptions with infants, Qatar increasing Scandi frequencies, Amex and Ryanair

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• Anna says:

  29 Nov29 November 07:24

  I didn’t know Ryanair accepted Amex, going to check my accounts for this offer. As another poster pointed out, when you need an economy flight from the regions, why would you want to go via Heathrow?

  • Bob says:

    29 Nov29 November 08:38

    Because for a majority of worldwide destinations, whether business or economy, the main alternatives are transiting in AMS or CDG. Or finding a direct route from MAN, BHX or EDI. Why would I want to go to MAN, BHX or EDI when it is quicker to travel to LHR instead? From Northumberland, anyway. And much of the south-west too. Plus Scotland. And the south-east.

    • Anna says:

      29 Nov29 November 09:52

      Well obviously I was speaking from the point of view of travellers whose local airport is (for example) Manchester or Liverpool. And Ryanair doesn’t fly worldwide so that comparison isn’t valid.

      • Peter says:

        29 Nov29 November 10:34

        Absolutely agree Anna. That struck me as a particularly London centric comment. Board any Ryanair flight in the regions and you’ll notice – aside from stag do’s – that it is generally full of middle class families flying direct to holiday homes (be they owned or rented) in Europe. They are very much Amex target customers. BA may have decided they are not interested in this market but easyJet and Ryanair certainly are – and very successfully too.

      • Bob says:

        29 Nov29 November 19:43

        Not a London centric comment at all. If you’re in the Liverpool to Leeds corridor, then it is quite easy to get to MAN. And MAN does have a wide range of destinations. But if your local airport is Teeside, or Newcastle, or Bristol, or Cardiff – then LHR does play a big role. It is easier for me to get to LHR than it is MAN or LGW or BHX. So when you need an economy flight from MOST of the regions, LHR/AMS/CDG and to a lesser extent FRA play a big role.

• Egg says:

  29 Nov29 November 07:24

  it can be difficult to spend £80 on a ryanair flight.
  I have no problem with the airline. Buses with Wings.
  The biggest issue with RyanAir is the passengers who do not understand their rules.
  Play by RyanAir rules & there is no problem.
  I love how I can choose what I want to pay for & what I do not.

  To keep prices low, they have to find new ways of charging for things.
  People will just huff & puff about it, but would also moan if the ticket went up £10 – instead, I can save the £10 & choose if I want to pay to be seated next to another travelling companion or not.

  • the real harry1 says:

    29 Nov29 November 07:42

    not for us – quite tricky to get under £80 EW (esp school hols) as they have a bit of a monopoly on our local airport/ route to place in the sun combo & don’t fly every day

    for some hols, I’d much rather fly them than BA tbh as it’s much less stressful going local-ish/ saving the journey up to LHR – unfortunately we can’t usually make the cost & convenient timing stack up against BA on points/ frequency

• filipino_chino says:

  29 Nov29 November 07:42

  If i got the offer for Ryanair i would use it…

  TBH If you just want to get from a to b and you follow their rules, you cannot do it cheaper… For short flights it’s fine.

  OT – this was targeted, but seems to work for anyone who has an amex card:

  americanexpress.co.uk/goldcomp

  Get the gold Credit Card from the above link, spend 500pounds and get 5000 membership reward points, no fee for the card. Offer was too good to pass up, card turned up yesterday for 3 members of my family.

  • Alan says:

    29 Nov29 November 08:16

    Thanks for that – it looks interesting. Might already have too many cards at the moment though!

  • TripRep says:

    29 Nov29 November 09:46

    Any links/offers for adding a supplementary card (had my account >3 months now)

    • Anna says:

      29 Nov29 November 09:55

      There’s onw which pops up on Facebook offering 3000 MR points for adding a card, however Amex now seem to charge £45 for this so it’s not such a good deal.

      • Genghis says:

        29 Nov29 November 10:06

        Only get one free supp on the MR cards. For a second supp on the Gold it’s £45, £170 on Plat but no such charges on BAPP.

  • JP says:

    29 Nov29 November 11:53

    Thanks for the reminder, I had forgotten about the companion credit cards. I have had them before, but I think it was only 3000 for £500 last time I had one.

    • Lawro says:

      29 Nov29 November 11:58

      @Genghis 10:06

      That’s not strictly true. You only get 1 free supp on the Gold card before being charged £45 for additional ones.

      On the Plat however, you get 5 free supp cards, but only one can be a Plat. Further Plats would incur the £170 charge. You can get an additional 4 Gold/Green supps for free.

      • Genghis says:

        29 Nov29 November 12:17

        Thanks for the clarity.

      • xcalx says:

        29 Nov29 November 19:28

        Re the Plat sups, after the 1st plat sup the gold card sups also get full plat insurance benefits.

• Alan says:

  29 Nov29 November 08:14

  WE are AMEX customers and we have flown Ryanair in the past. Not my favourite airline but they (usually) get the job done.

  I always try and pay with the method that has the lowest charges though, so I’ve never used my AMEX card with them. To be honest, as posted by someone else already, I didn’t realise they accepted AMEX

• Carl says:

  29 Nov29 November 08:28

  Didn’t get targeted for the offer. I try to avoid them if I can but do occasionally end up flying them as they can often just be a lot more convenient. I think my last flight for my OH and me came to just under £80 total so wouldn’t quite have qualified.

• Mikeact says:

  29 Nov29 November 08:28

  I guess from January there won’t be any more Credit Card fees applied thank goodness.

• Tom C says:

  29 Nov29 November 08:38

  I’m Platinum (was offered Centurion, but turned it down) and I’ve used RyanAir more than any other airline this year. Why? Because I live 25 minutes from Stansted. Getting the 6:30am flight to Marrakech last week involved leaving at 5, getting there before 5:30, straight through FastTrack, grab a bacon roll in the lounge and then head to the gate. The same at LGW with BA would have meant leaving around 2am for a worst experience.

  I always pay for 1F so have more legroom than any seat in Club Europe, except maybe 1A, which is often unavailable to book anyway. I used to avoid RyanAir like the plague and go to Heathrow, but after realising I was wasting half a day, I gave in, tried them and found them nowhere near as bad as I thought.

  • Tilly says:

    29 Nov29 November 11:56

    I’m also around 25 mins from Stansted but always avoided Ryan Air, especially since they seem to mess around flights for people i know including cancelling one of my husband’s return legs which was a nightmare for him to try and rebook into another. Easy Jet are ok.

    If i had the offer i may give them a go but would end up paying for so many extras that it would probably cost the same as flying BA.

• Czechoslovakia says:

  29 Nov29 November 08:42

  Re Ryanair, only ever had trouble with them. They cancelled 1st “leg” and refused to refund 2nd or even reschedule. Understaffed check-in, last minute schedule changes and i don’t have a good experience with punctuality with them either. Maybe I’ve been unlucky? But never had a problem with BMIbaby, easyJet, WiZZ, smartwings or SKYeurope over the years. And as for the recent crew holiday farce…. Afraid it would have to be 20,000 MR points on an £80 spend before I’d go on O’Learyjet again – seriously.

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