A Club Aspire airport lounge is to open at London Gatwick’s North Terminal

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• BrotherBear says:

  1 May1 May 09:26

  OT:

  Booked 2 flights to Bahamas (Nassau) next year the other day to take advantage of my 2 for 1 voucher. Was surprised by the cost of the tickets as have paid £375 each for the outbound and then it looks like it will be a similar cost for the return also. Pricing as a return will be about £615pp. Is this normal? On previous business returns to Singapore, Hong Kong, USA I’m sure the returns are about £450 pp.

  Also – to add the voucher to the booking which I haven’t done so far – do I need to book the inbound flights as one-way and then call up to get them to combine the bookings and add the voucher?

  Was nearly caught out by the flights being released at 1am UK time rather than midnight but luckily they were still available in the morning.

  Cheers

  • Anna says:

    1 May1 May 10:29

    We use that route going to GCM and taxes are high! GCM departure tax is nearly as bad as UK APD, so Bahamas might be similar. It’s a pricey route though, so you’re still getting a bargain in CW.

    I think you can do either – book 2 x inbound then call to adjust or just do it over the phone. Depends when you’re going though, as they get snapped up quickly at peak times as there are only 4 flights per week.

• Smith says:

  1 May1 May 09:41

  OT: Does anyone know if I can use Amex Platinum/Gold or Priority Pass to access the Clubrooms at Gatwick South?

  • Rob says:

    1 May1 May 13:29

    I think you can pay extra on top (£10?) when you go in, but you can’t do it for free. I am not a big fan of the layout – it is, well, a series of dark rooms, mainly designed for people who want to pay a good sum to book an exclusive room for their family – whilst the main lounge is open plan and very light.

  • Leo says:

    1 May1 May 14:20

    I paid the PP supplement at LGW North in October. You can do this on tbe website so the cost is there for you to see. I think it was £15 but that might have been the reservation fee too….Nice enough, bit more of a buzz in the main lounges though. I “over drank” a bit as a consequence of shelling out the extra. Might not repeat the experience.

  • Jemmers says:

    1 May1 May 17:07

    It’s £15 on the door (did it two weeks ago) or £20 in advance which “guarantees you a space”.

    There was no one else in the Clubrooms when me and my guest went in although admittedly it was 6AM but still. Just pay on the door.

    Worth it IMO as the other lounge, forget the name, was poor in terms of food / bar service so we left.

    Clubrooms has no natural light but is well kitted out and offers table service, coffee, mineral water, fresh juice all very good. Then of course a couple of glasses of Champagne. Food not brilliant to be honest but I felt the £15 was worth it, even for a relatively quick visit.

• N says:

  1 May1 May 09:44

  OT: Sixt Mydriver.

  Bit of a headache. Booked a cab from TXL to central Berlin the other week under the offer. 9.99EUR one way using the 19.99EUR pricing combined with the 10EUR voucher. Used my Curve for payment. Two days ago, my card got charged four times (charges have hit the underlying card too), then last night I got a booking cancellation email. Just phoned Mydriver and a particularly useless phone agent said that the booking’s been cancelled and there was nothing he could do about it. The only way to reinstate the booking was to create a new one, and there’s no way to replicate the offer.

  A bit… crap.

  • David says:

    1 May1 May 10:10

    They rang me within half an hour of my Brighton-LHR transfer last week (for 241 F Tokyo trip 🙂 ) and said that despite my 11.40 reservation, my driver was stuck in traffic ‘North of London’ and it’d be 1pm before they could get to me. Utterly appalling service.

    • john says:

      1 May1 May 10:18

      At least they called!

  • Delbert says:

    1 May1 May 10:19

    I was tempted by the Sixt mydriver offer but had a gander at various reviews before taking the plunge and really couldn’t find too many positive reviews so decided against it. Ended up booking a local airport transfer company instead.

    • Rob says:

      1 May1 May 10:25

      Blacklane cancelled on Anika in Jo’burg the other week, but they sent her a £50 voucher as compensation. As it was from the hotel it wasn’t a major strain to get a taxi outside the door instead. She would have been less happy if it happened from the airport. (She was very happy with the car and service she got after landing.)

      • Delbert says:

        1 May1 May 10:35

        That’s good service and highly likely to encourage repeat custom, Rob.

• Luthar says:

  1 May1 May 10:18

  OT – I have a £10k bill to pay that can only be paid on Visa/MasterCard. I have both the Lloyd’s Avios MasterCard and the Hilton Honors card. I’m sure which card is best in this situation. Will Lloyd’s continue to honor the upgrade voucher if it’s earned after the closure of the avios site? Or am I better off spending it on the Hilton Honors card and getting gold status and the points?

  • Anna says:

    1 May1 May 10:31

    Nothing is changing with the upgrade voucher, it’ll just appear on BA.com (and you’ll have to redeem it by phone). Why don’t you complete the £7k spend to trigger the Lloyds voucher then put the rest on the HH visa?

    • Mikee says:

      1 May1 May 11:15

      Spent over 7k on my Lloyds card 3 weeks ago but can’t see any voucher on BA.com – do I need to call Lloyds to get it added? I don’t remember adding my Avios account details during the credit card sign up proces either so not sure how they will link my account.

      • Anna says:

        1 May1 May 11:29

        It should still go to avios.com at this stage, but if it’s not showing on your account ring Lloyds customer service and ask where it is. Where have your avios from the card been going up till now? The voucher will show in the same account.

      • Anna says:

        1 May1 May 11:34

        Just further to this, AFAIK the voucher gets posted on your next statement date so this may be the issue. Have you only just got the card? They will find your avios account but it’s still worth calling and checking, especially while the avios-BA move is underway!

      • Mikee says:

        1 May1 May 15:28

        Thanks Anna, have just found it in my Avios account along with the miles!

      • The Original Nick says:

        1 May1 May 20:53

        Mikee, it should show on AW if you use it.

• Graeme says:

  1 May1 May 11:05

  OT – how much success have others had with convincing Virgin to pool points for redemptions? I need 190k for a redemption, but we have 140k in my account and 50k in my girlfriend’s. The person I spoke to yesterday said that’d cost well over £300, which just isn’t worth it.

  • Rob says:

    1 May1 May 11:45

    Virgin themselves told me, during discussions over the credit card, that the call centre does this if both travel and other readers have confirmed.

    • Ben says:

      1 May1 May 12:09

      I booked a flight last week and the lady on the other end of the phone wouldnt just let me join miles, I had to transfer the 3000 over to my OH (only cost me £30 or something) but just the pain of hanging up loggin into both accounts and then transfering only to call back up again was painful. (especially since I was worried the flights would go in the half hour it took me to do all that)

    • Graeme says:

      1 May1 May 12:57

      Which is what I’d read on here and was hopeful I’d be able to do, Rob – but she wasn’t budging. I’ll call back – thanks.

  • Nick M says:

    1 May1 May 13:05

    I haven’t actually made a booking as yet, but when researching a Virgin agent told that they could only combine them in sectors – i.e. I have sufficient miles for 3 singles, my wife has enough for 1 single… we combine them into 2 returns.

    They did seem very helpful, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were able to be a bit more flexible

  • Graham Walsh says:

    1 May1 May 14:47

    I did this the other week when using the Economy to PE upgrade vouchers to DXB in October. Used 25k of my points and asked them to take 25k from my g/f’s account. Just put the phone and speaker and she said yes to the transfer. Wasn’t told of any cost.

• Jonathan says:

  1 May1 May 11:16

  Afternoon,
  Thanks HFP for all your education over the past few years – I’m on the final stint of my honeymoon flying back First using a 2-4-1 from KUL to LHR in a couple of hours.

  Quick question – struggling to find a glimpse of the BA First menu online, what champagne / wine / spirits are special to first class that you’d recommend? Thanks.

  • Sam says:

    1 May1 May 12:03

    LP GS!

    • Crafty says:

      1 May1 May 13:47

      There was no L.P. GS on my First class flight JFK to LHR the other day, nor in the Concorde Room beforehand.

      Given how much people go on about it here, I was rather disappointed!

      I was even served an unannounced alternative on the flight having specified my order by name. (She brought me an entirely different product without telling me it wasn’t what I’d asked for.)

  • Crafty says:

    1 May1 May 13:48

    They do have an excellent Riesling (Sonnenberg I think it’s called), but unfortunately this wasn’t available on my flight and had been subbed for something entirely different. It’s a very good Riesling – if available on yours…

  • Crafty says:

    1 May1 May 13:51

    The gin is Tanqueray 10, which is excellent, though I’m sure you already know whether or not you like this.

    The vodka is Ciroc, which on the one hand is delicious, but on the other is regularly on deal at Bargain Booze…

• JamesB says:

  1 May1 May 11:21

  Is this adblocking issue an Apple thing? I don’t experience any issues at all, and never have done, using google with either my android phone (S7) or tablet (TabS). I am contemplating upgrading my TabS to an ipad but if this ad issue is seriously anniying on HfP and elsewhere I might just get a TabS3 instead..

• Anna says:

  1 May1 May 11:31

  Is anyone having issues with Curve? My card seems to have stopped working this morning after one successful online transaction. Only way to contact them seems to be email or social media. I know someone on here said they’d been contacted about fraud recently but I’ve not heard anything from them.

  • Graham Walsh says:

    1 May1 May 14:48

    No issues. I’m over in Spain and it’s workkng fine.

    • Peter K says:

      1 May1 May 18:43

      Two cards working fine for us.

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