Save an extra 10% on Qatar Airways sale flights TODAY ONLY

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• Shoestring says:

  7 Jan7 January 15:06

  The race is on. I’m trying to beat the current UK passport renewal time, currently 12 days (child renewal)
  https://www.passportwaitingtime.co.uk

  Submitted online 10pm last night, old passport on next day 1pm delivery service (£6.80 with tracking).

  When I renewed our 2 lads’ passports (both sent together) a few years ago, also in January, they came back in under 10 days, I think it was more like 8 days – just wondering if some people are already worrying about the 2 new rules for visiting Europe and acting now as well:
  – you need at least 6 months’ passport validity to enter EU
  – extra months don’t count any more and will be disregarded by EU when calculating your 6 months (UK used to add on spare extra months to your 5/10 years’ validity

  • Andrew says:

    7 Jan7 January 16:22

    Had experience of this last week.
    Friday 27 December: Submitted child renewal online and contact certified photograph online. Posted old passport to HMPO.
    Monday 30 December: Passport received at HMPO
    Tuesday 31 December: no news
    Wednesday 1 January: bank holiday
    Thursday 2 January: application approved, passport printed and posted.
    Saturday 4 January: new passport received.

    Overall – very impressed

  • Neil says:

    7 Jan7 January 16:28

    Wife had to renew hers so did the online bit weekend after Christmas and posted the old one Monday 30th – new passport arrived on Friday 03. Didn’t look at waiting times before we sent but impressed with the turnaround

  • Anna says:

    7 Jan7 January 17:15

    I thought those rules were only going to apply if we crashed out without a deal? I was sent a renewal reminder last year “in case” of this scenario, which hasn’t actually come to pass. A bit miffed that I renewed 7 months early but at least it’s done for another 10 years!

    • Shoestring says:

      7 Jan7 January 17:26

      @Anna – it could all turn out nicely but worth playing it cautious – Passport Office advice is currently exactly as I posted above – 1. you need 6 months’ validity 2. the ‘extra’ months don’t count any more

      All true as of 1st February unless EU & UK agree otherwise, not dependent on crashing/ not crashing out of EU AFAIK but dependent on agreeing a transition standard re: passports/ ID documents

• Ian says:

  7 Jan7 January 15:13

  I posted this previously, but had no response, so thought I would try again.

  Not sure if I am remembering something that never existed, but did BA ever include UK transfers at no extra cost when booking long haul from London. I.e. LHR – JFK would be the same price as MAN – JFK via LHR?

  • Shoestring says:

    7 Jan7 January 15:41

    that’s still true on points redemptions – the extra flight doesn’t cost any points to get to LHR but you do pay taxes/ fees

  • Anna says:

    7 Jan7 January 17:19

    I must have missed this as I would definitely have answered! But yes, you don’t pay any extra avios IF booked on one PNR, but you do have to pay the taxes for the relevant cabin. You can get round this if you’re happy to do the connection in economy (and only pay economy fees) by using the “stopover” option when booking. You don’t actually have to stopover anywhere but you can then pick the cabin individually for each leg.

• Craig says:

  7 Jan7 January 15:28

  Virgin Atlantic credit card points cap – is this applicable to every cardholder? I’ve recently opened the card in December and I’ve had no notification of this new cap. I can’t find a reference to it on the website or in the T&C’s.

  • Rob says:

    7 Jan7 January 15:56

    You are not meant to churn your credit limit, in theory, so it isn’t covered in the T&Cs. You are meant to assume you shouldn’t do it – Virgin doesn’t need to specifically tell you that you can’t do something you shouldn’t be doing anyway!

    • Genghis says:

      7 Jan7 January 17:32

      Why? If I have a credit card with a £5k limit, the company are agreeing to effectively lend me £5k at any one time. If I pay them back intra-month, then I’m not breaking the limit. If something isn’t documented as agreed then it doesn’t exist.

      • memesweeper says:

        7 Jan7 January 18:10

        As Rob says, many card companies just assume you won’t do this.

        It’s not just points earning that can be impacted. Interest free amounts can get messed up if you pay ‘too early’. The IT just isn’t geared up to deal with this correctly, presumably because the banks don’t expect users to behave that way. You can get these things fixed up afterwards, but it will involve a manual intervention.

      • Sussex bantam says:

        7 Jan7 January 18:12

        Plus if I pay back mid month my “available to spend” amount goes back up again. How should I guess that I’m not supposed to spend it ??

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        7 Jan7 January 19:23

        “You are not meant to churn your credit limit” Eh? I agree with Genghis. If you’re not supposed to repay mid-month and then spend more then why have the card companies added a feature that is specifically designed to let you … er …. repay mid-month and then spend more!

        • Munch says:

          7 Jan7 January 20:54

          Had anyone had problems “churning their credit limit” on the IHG card. Always done it on my Virgin card but never tried it on IHG.

        • Paul Pogba says:

          7 Jan7 January 22:10

          I did this last Feb to pay my corp tax with no problems, earnt points – no issues.

    • BJ says:

      7 Jan7 January 20:40

      My dad has settled all his card balances weekly forever without any grief from any of the card providers, many of which he has outlived.

      • Rob says:

        7 Jan7 January 21:52

        That’s not the same as necessarily spending his full limit each week. Amex, I thought, specically does not like this.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    7 Jan7 January 20:59

    https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/credit-card.html#tsandcs

    This is the Terms & Conditions which lists it.

    • Lev441 says:

      7 Jan7 January 21:38

      That has changed! Wasn’t there this time last week…

      • Shoestring says:

        7 Jan7 January 21:53

        https://headforpoints.com/2019/12/14/more-a350-club-suite-routes-revealed/
        [The spending on which you can earn miles per month is now capped at your monthly credit limit.
        What this means is that you cannot cycle your credit limit mid-month. Well, you can, but you won’t earn any miles if you do.]

        • EwanG says:

          7 Jan7 January 22:36

          The thing is this is not enforceable unless they contact customers using a Notice of Variation to advise them that the T&Cs have changed. The also need to give adequate notice too, in line with what the T&Cs say (2 months according to what was mentioned when this came up last week) so if anyone falls foul of this just now without having received an email or letter bringing this change to their attention, they have sufficient grounds to go back to Virgin Money to challenge it.

• Zone4a says:

  7 Jan7 January 19:22

  Bits

  LHR to MIA: Which airline provides the least painful / most comfortable ECONOMY seat of those servicing this route?

  Very long story but I have an Economy flight coming up to MIA. For the dates I’m seeing, there are 3 airlines servicing the route, and my travel agent has helpfully included the (apparent) airplane (if anyone knows otherwise that would be helpful):
  1) Virgin – Airbus 330-300
  2) AA – BOEING 777-300ER
  3) BA – 747-400

  My gut feel is to run away from BA as I’ve had the misfortune of flying those old 747s and would rather not…Not sure between Virgin or AA.

  Any thoughts appreciated!

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    7 Jan7 January 19:31

    Having flown both transatlantic in economy, I’d say Virgin, particularly if you can go for the economy delight, with the bonus – as Rob has pointed out – that it is particularly generous in terms of mile-earning. But there’s not a profound difference; so if you’re desparate for Avios and TPs then have at it with AA. To be honest, which is cheaper and more convenient?

    • Zone4a says:

      7 Jan7 January 19:41

      Thanks for the reply.

      Virgin and AA are roughly the same price, as well as schedules….no massive difference there. TP / Avios don’t really matter to me as I just scraped Silver and certainly won’t be making it next year. I’ve got some orphan miles with Virgin but no chance at status either.

      I think I’m leaning towards Virgin as well…I just can’t stand another shoddy BA experience on an old plane, though I think AA wouldn’t be as bad.

      • BJ says:

        7 Jan7 January 20:28

        I would also choose Virgin as the a330 is second only to the a380 for longhaul economy.

  • Anna says:

    7 Jan7 January 21:18

    BA 209 which we’re taking to MIA is an A380, or it was last time I looked!

• Spurs Debs says:

  7 Jan7 January 19:52

  I received my 2000 bonus points for my “ stay” on Sunday night from Hilton. I should of got 5000 as my second stay of the 7500 promotion which runs till end of January. I’ll have to call them to sort it out.

  • BJ says:

    7 Jan7 January 20:45

    Your infamous MK one?

    • Spurs Debs says:

      8 Jan8 January 07:12

      BJ,As it turned out I had to take my Mum to MK hospital on Sunday for an appointment and it’s 5 mins away from MK doubletree so popped in after checked in,got my cookie for grandson and went back home. All worked out just fine. Now wondering if these offers will stack🤔

• Spurs Debs says:

  7 Jan7 January 19:55

  O/T new promo from Tesco home and buildings insurance runs till 28/2 use code HOM20.

  • EwanG says:

    7 Jan7 January 22:38

    What’s the promo? 20% off?

• Spurs Debs says:

  8 Jan8 January 07:08

  Sorry 2500 extra points !

• Luca R says:

  8 Jan8 January 14:11

  OT, does anyone know if IHG will run another Accelerate campaign? I would have expected for them to have launched it by now!

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