Monthly Archives: October 2012

How to extend Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles expiry date

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A traveller friend of mine has some 36,000 miles and a silver status about to expire because she hasn’t flown recently.

I telephoned Virgin Atlantic yesterday to check, because their website isn’t 100% clear regarding extension of miles.

Please note that we’re discussing miles here, not status. There’s nothing you can do about your status.

The cheapest and most effective way to extend the life of your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles is to logon to your account and DONATE 1,000 miles to “Free the Children”

Yes, that’s correct, not “save” the children but “free” the children!

Such activity will renew your account for another 3 years.

There are alternatives. You can buy miles but at £30 for 1,000 that’s very poor value. Or you can spend miles at Virgin Wine for example – 12,500 miles provides a £50 voucher

But we believe that the donation avenue is the most cost effective.

STOP PRESS!
If you travel Premium economy or Upper class with Virgin we have access to fares that may be cheaper than online. Contact us.

Single fare Milan-London £500. Is this the most expensive easyJet fare ever?

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A company has contacted us to ask to verify the unbelievable.

Yes, it’s Friday and they’re arranging flights for travel on Monday so it’s at short notice.

London to Venice on Monday and Milan to London on Wednesday

The cheapest outbound flight is with British Airways, at £340 which is high, but not ludicrously high, unlike the only option on the return, which is with easyJet at £500! Or EUR591 plus a booking fee plus a checked in baggage fee of 15 Euros for 20kg

Two suggestions from this rant!

1. ALWAYS book as far in advance as you can – I have never seen a “last-minute” bargain on any of the no-frills or full service airlines.

2. Don’t call no-frills airlines or web-airlines “low-cost” airlines, because they’re not low-cost when you need them. They’ll charge as much as they can. They’re in business to make a profit. Yes they may dump some seats at £9.99 in advance but that shouldn’t earn them the “low-cost” badge.

How to find the lowest fares on British Airways

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We have provided booking tips on the British Airways booking page that will help you to find the lowest air fares when booking specific dates.

But if you are flexible with your travel dates, British Airways has an excellent calendar display that will help you find the cheapest dates at a glance.

Although this function is aimed at leisure travellers, bookers of business travel may find it useful when planning meetings well in advance

Visit the We have provided booking tips on the British Airways booking page that will help you to find the lowest air fares when booking specific dates.

But if you are flexible with your travel dates, British Airways has an excellent calendar display that will help you find the cheapest dates at a glance.

Although this function is aimed at leisure travellers, bookers of business travel may find it useful when planning meetings well in advance

Visit the Lowest Fare Finder here

We also recommend that you price flight+hotel and compare against the hotel prices offered on our hotel comparison page

Ramada Hotels just £20 per night Book by Sunday 21 October

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The Independent newspaper is offering a promotion at 35 Ramada hotels including the Docklands in London.

See the article here

Stay anytime between 8 November 2012 and 7 November 2013

You’ll need to print out a token to present upon arrival.

A dropdown list of hotels and the availability is available here

www.ramada.co.uk/£20

Maximum 3 bookings per person!

Hilton Sale – Book by Midnight Wednesday 17th October

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A flash sale by Hilton group including Waldorf Astoria and Conrad has been announced

For Europe, it is only available for weekend stays (Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights) but for other destinations, any day of the week.

Valid for dates up to 29th December, discounts of up to 40%

Book directly through Hilton.com but remember to also compare rates via our comparison site.

Roomkey hotel booking site

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Roomkey is an online hotel booking engine.

It has been created by a collaboration of the following hotel chains:

Hilton
Hyatt
Intercontinental
Wyndham
Marriott
Choice hotels

And Roomkey recently signed up agreements with:
La Quinta
Millenium Hotels & Resorts
Leading Hotels of the World

It’s important to recognise that Roomkey is not a hotel comparison site. All it does is drive visitors to the above hotel’s websites.

It attracts visitors by popping up if you close your browser on one of the above hotels without having made or completed the booking

And it tries to entice you back, to one of the above properties

So whilst Roomkey is an innovative produce we do not recommend using it for hotel price search as you’ll only be provided with the rates as advertised on the hotel’s own websites.

Our hotel comparison site however, compares these rates with hundreds of others so you can rest assured that you’ve got the best deal.

Heathrow Express Discount October 2012

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We compare the lowest prices on Heathrow Express every month.

The normal online price is a steep £34 return and £18 single.

ANA All Nippon Airlines has the best discounted fare:

£30.60 return and £16.20 single.

… beating the price offered by Virgin and British Airways (£32.30 return and £17.10 single) !

Use the ANA link here. You’ll still be booking direct with Heathrow Express – simply at a discount.

We earn nothing from providing this advice.

We also help with flights and hotels, using the best search technology available, so please peruse or come back and visit when you next need to arrange travel.