Last chance to earn a 10,000 mile bonus:
Register on or before Thursday 31st January and book one Emirates round trip booking completing travel by 31st March 2013, in economy or business class.
And other tickets for travel in February and March will accrue double miles
For more information on the Emirates reward scheme, see my previous post here
Here’s an overview of the corporate reward scheme from Emirate Airlines.
Emirates has a rewards programme, “Business rewards” which accrues points for your company in addition to your traveller’s existing personal “Skywards” accounts.
Previously, only “online-direct” bookings were eligible but Emirates has now made the programme available for bookings made via agents too.
The standard earning rate is 1 mile or point per US$ spent.
Through February and March 2013 the airline is offering double points and a 10,000 bonus for registrations before 31st January 2013
London to Dubai return economy class costs 45,000 miles and business class costs 90,000 miles. An upgrade on the same route costs from 50-65,000 miles. So you’ll need to have booked approximately £30,000 of tickets for an economy flight and £60,000 for business. The business class redemption is by far the better deal, and equates to approximately 4% in cashback terms
This scheme is one of the most difficult to administer. Emirates seem to be paranoid about misuse so they have controls in place that limit you. For example:
For more information and to sign up, visit the Emirates page here
British Airways has teamed up with American Express foreign exchange service with this offer; Spend over £300 before 31 March 2012 and they’ll reward you with a bonus 1,000 Avios
We’ve compared the rates offered and if you only spend approximately £300 they appear to be marginally better than the Post office and Travelex. If you are spending in the region of £1,000 you may benefit from an extra 10 Euros from alternatives such as Travelex
For more information visit the BA American Express site here
Remember that it’s usually cheaper to purchase currency online rather than directly at UK airports. You can still benefit from lower rates even if you order for airport collection.
easyJet begin their daily Gatwick to Moscow services on Monday March 18 with fares of less than £120 return.
The airline is filling the gap left by BMI who used to fly the route and were taken over by British Airways, with prices of £47.49 outbound and £62.49 inbound, on sale from today.
British Airways return fares are in the region of £238
Flights depart early, from Gatwick at 07:00 arriving at 13:50 but from Monday 15th April there are two flights to choose between. The second departure is at 14:10 arriving 21:00
Return flights depart at 15:30 and from the 15th an additional 21:40 from Moscow
Moscow is only 3 hours 50 minutes flying time from London.
Unfortunately, visas still take considerably longer (allow several weeks). More information on visas is available on the VISA tab, above.
Starwood group, comprising Sheraton, Westin and Le Meridien amongst others, has a sale of European city stays, at over 250 hotels, for up to 72 hours at www.beatthetimer.com/
The prices are approximately 30% off their normal rates and appear to be available to everyone, not just Starwood Preferred Guest members.
For example, the Munich Westin Grand, normally EUR139 per night is reduced to EUR99.
The Hotel Kämp, Helsinki is priced at EUR145 and the lowest rate, prepaid and non refundable, is usually EUR179
Annoyingly, the prices do not include VAT so you may have to add typically 7 – 10 & to the above rates. The additional tax amounts are only displayed after you select the hotel and click on ‘Terms and Details’ or ‘Book’. Nevertheless, the rates still represent good value.
Here is the link to go direct to BeatTheTimer.com.
We now have until midnight on Tuesday to book and pay for sale fares with both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
For more general information, see my previous post here or search for flights using the British Airways link above
We’ve researched this question for a UK company that books several hundred room nights for their staff.
To date, they’ve used a travel agent but inefficiencies of booking procedures coupled with high agency fees have required that we review their purchasing habits.
Travelodge do not currently feature in our recommended hotel comparison and search engine.
They are bookable through travel agents reservation systems (GDSs) – and at the same price as priced online. But Travelodge do not pay travel agency commission, so you will probably pay a booking fee to the travel agent for the reservation and payment service.
Booking direct with Travelodge on their website will provide several advantages:
Booking for someone else:
After choosing a property (“book”) immediately under the Room Price you’ll need to tick the “I am booking on behalf of someone else and will not be staying”
If you book Travelodge frequently, you should open a business account and save 5% on all your bookings with centralised business account management and up to 6 weeks credit
Back in the 80’s and early 90’s when I worked for an Australia and New Zealand bucket shop, the airline code TN stood for Trans Australian Airlines domestic services
Now, TN is used by Air Tahiti Nui and they operate Paris – Los Angeles – Tahiti, amongst other routes.
The airline originated from UTA who used to operate from Paris to a range of interesting destinations in the African continent
According to the Etihad London Office 0845 608 1225 the new baggage allowance of 30kg (increased from 23kg) also applies to tickets purchased prior to the change (November 2012) when 23kg was the norm.
AND Golf Clubs, with a weight of up to 15kg are permitted in addition to the above allowance. They must be checked in i.e. they cannot be taken onboard.
As of January 2013, the Etihad website needs to be a little clearer in this respect
The economy airfare sale started around Christmas time but the First and Business Class sale begins today. Bookings must be made and ticketed by midnight on Tuesday.
Is the British Airways Sale applicable to business travel-bookings?
If you’re looking for economy fares within Europe then the answer is most certainly yes, providing that you can adhere to the airfare restrictions.
Sale fares are priced based on one way tickets rather than return. The airline has to do this in order to compete with the no-frills airlines who nearly always offer one way fares instead of return.
For all long haul travel in any class, and Club Europe, the sale fares require a Saturday Night stay. Most business travellers do not want to stay over a Saturday Night and the airline knows this.
Our suggestion; Ask the traveller if he’d like to stay longer. Throw in a decent hotel and the total price should still save your company money!