Hertz to become the first non-airline member of the SkyTeam alliance

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• faithy says:

  15 Oct15 October 11:54

  OT.
  LHR to AMS in CE. Which lounge is advisable? Which is likely to be closest to boarding? ty

  • Lumma says:

    15 Oct15 October 12:15

    Unless it says “Will depart from B or C gates” on the departures board, which is unlikely, it’ll be one of the two lounges in the main A terminal. The South lounge is bigger and further from security so will probably be less crowded than the north one. You wont find out which side your flight will depart from until closer to departure.

• Rob says:

  15 Oct15 October 12:38

  That has been there for a while.

• Maciek says:

  15 Oct15 October 12:45

  OT – has anybody who applied for M&M DC card actually received it or any communication? It’s been a while and there’s no sign of the card or any letter or email relating to the application.

• Tracy says:

  15 Oct15 October 12:50

  O/T question re. Iberia redemption flight. I can see availabilty for start of October on BA website but Iberia website only has availability until mid Sep loaded for an Iberia flight. If an Iberia flight is bookable on BA, can I call Iberia to book it or do I need to wait until it is available on Iberia website?

  • Roberto says:

    15 Oct15 October 12:57

    I looked to do the same but had to wait the 23 extra days in the end.

    • Tracy says:

      15 Oct15 October 13:01

      If thats the case, surely most of the reward flights will have gone by the time they are bookable on Iberia…..

      • marcw says:

        15 Oct15 October 13:22

        Except that redemption surcharges are much lower on IB if booked in IbPlus instead of BAEC

      • Tracy says:

        15 Oct15 October 13:29

        Yes, that’s why I’m hoping the flights will still be available when they are bookable on Iberia..

  • xcalx says:

    15 Oct15 October 15:33

    A couple of years ago I had the dreaded wait until LAX-MAD became available on IB, I was shocked at how many award flights vanished, presumably booked with BA before they became available on IB

    • Tracy says:

      15 Oct15 October 19:05

      I’m hoping as its MAD to JFK, it will still be there in a couple of weeks. Seems strange to have it bookable on BA first….

• AndyGWP says:

  15 Oct15 October 13:26

  OT – Anyone had any joy doing a “Starwood Preferred Guest® Gold Elite Status” request from Amex Plat since the merger?

  Made a request on 9th September… still silver (and Plat says I’ve enrolled!)

  • paulm says:

    15 Oct15 October 13:40

    Yes I did just after the merger. If it says your enrolled it’s likely Marriott have created another account which they did for me despite giving them my existing account details. The Amex page should show what account number they have used.

    • AndyGWP says:

      15 Oct15 October 16:34

      Good shout – thanks – I’ll investigate! 🙂

• nick says:

  15 Oct15 October 13:34

  Flying out of Stansted Airport later this week,

  Have priority pass and a plat card – is the Escape Lounge my only option? Any other tips for flying out of this airport (with young kids)?

  Many thanks

  • marcw says:

    15 Oct15 October 13:57

    that´s the only Lounge available. I´m not sure whether you can reserve/book online (I doubt it), but it may be the case the they restric PP access, especially during the early hours,

    Go through security ASAP, then try lounge access, and if you fail, good luck with finding a place where to sit.

    • Lumma says:

      15 Oct15 October 14:14

      I flew out of Stansted last Sunday. I was through security quite early (Stansted express was off so got an early bus to the airport) and escape lounge wasn’t accepting priority pass/lounge club at that time (5.30am) but was around an hour later.

      Personally I’d recommend trying to time it so you have as little time as possible in the main airside area so you can just walk or get the transit to your gate, as it’s horrendously overcrowded, but you do need a bit of time to get through security and possibly the longest duty free shop in the world that you can’t bypass.

      I try to avoid flying out of Stansted whenever possible as it’s not a nice experience but I don’t mind arriving as it’s pretty much the same time to get home to E1 as Heathrow or Gatwick

  • fivebobbill says:

    15 Oct15 October 15:26

    Take a bicycle..!

  • Lady London says:

    15 Oct15 October 23:05

    Stansted only has the Escape lounge. Pret is mobbed but OK and there are a few other fast food or coffee type outlets.

    I’d like to see another lounge at Stansted and also at Luton as each had only one lounge in the whole airport, there’s definitely enough business and each of these airports is truly hell to fly out of due to massive overcrowding too much of the time. Landing at STN can be hell too but the passport machines (to the extent they are operating as it seems about 50% of them are closed a lot of the time) have slightly improved things.

• Tom says:

  15 Oct15 October 13:45

  The irony of an ex-US award flight in First costing about $2,000 in fees is that you can often buy a round-trip paid fare in First for maybe $2,500, when BA has its periodic sales.

  Even so if you want to travel at short notice AND there is availability, a round-trip in First for $2,000 isn’t bad.

  • Alex W says:

    15 Oct15 October 17:23

    Maybe acceptable as cash portion alone but $2000 PLUS 136,000 Avios, which I would value at least £1360, is pathetic.

  • Bob Snout says:

    16 Oct16 October 00:53

    “you can often buy a round-trip paid fare in First for maybe $2,500, when BA has its periodic sales.”

    Ex-US? You’re dreaming. BA haven’t had a significant CW/F sale ex-US for several years, and certainly nothing like $2.5k in F.

    JFK-LHR rtn in BA F is typically ~$5k

• Anna says:

  15 Oct15 October 14:19

  OT – Tesco 10p off per litre of fuel with £60 spend is back. Not the most exciting, but you’ve got to get what you can with Tesco now!

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