Originally Posted by
redshift27
Various points and thoughts:
BA don't fly to ABZ any more from BHX, not since they sold it all to FlyBe.
You can check the airports at which Priority Pass have lounges on their website.
If you can cope with German, you can check FHR rates on this website:
http://amex.start.de/classes/smp.pro...mer_id=amex_cc, and click 'Hotel suchen' on the left and take it from there. Find the FHR hotels from the Amex website, and then look them up on the German one. Note that outside the USA, the FHR rate is often more expensive than the cheapest alternative (i.e. you pay extra for the amenity / upgrade potential). Nevertheless some of the FHRs represent very good deals. See the Amex forum here.
Being in F will give you all the status you need on a BA flight - apart from being able to pre-seat yourself into either of the front two seats. (Which is one benefit of booking an F award rather than CW - cannot preseat
at all before 24 hours to go without status for a CW award.)
Your Plat Charge Card will be of no value whatsoever on BA. Get out of your head this instant any idea that just waving it at people has any measurable effect.
(It does have a use on bmi though - the card itself gets you lounge access there, as with Eurostar.)
Timing of the 241 voucher is everything with Amex. E.g. if you want to travel in the summer, you need to be able to trigger the voucher in August or thereabouts. It is only valid for 365 days after issue, travel must begin by that time, and if you want the best award availability for many routes you need to be booking at a year's notice. If your Amex year starts too late (e.g. June) this can pose spending challenges. If your year starts too early, you have to hold back on spending, wasting some of the card potential. So choose carefully the time that you apply for the card.
Thanks, must remember to look out for those RED lines on the BA route map!(I think that just makes BRU the only BA option from BHX) can't see the line very clearly but it seems to have a BA flight code. Could be used a few times in the future to build tier points if/when i need to.
Hadn't thought about the implications of timing when applying for the card. If I apply now for the Plat Charge Card I have to wait 6 months before applying for the BA Amex PP- this takes us to November. In November I will get the remaining tesco vouchers to hit 150,000 and gain BAEC membership with the card to enable me to book the flight. The only issue with this strategy is that it may not give me enough advance notice to book a Sep 08 flight- 10 months not 12. Does there tend to be better availability when booking using miles only rather than 241? or is it the same?
I think a November start date would be ok for me on the BA AmexPP as i can include Christmas spending to reach the 10k target within 10 months rather than 12 to aim to travel in the Sep period that suits me the best for longer (3 weeks+) trips.
The FHR rates link is excellent- thanks guys. Sl1ppy, when back up hopefully can see in English too.
Raffles- The 6,000 bonus is mentioned on some pages on the amex website and not on others so it is a little confusing. Based on what i've said above i've probably got 6 months anyway for Amex to come up with a bonus miles offer to referral bonus anyway
Your guide to the charge card is excellent- I had found it prior to posting here, but has been useful to read again.
uk1- useful info, ok for myself but worth bearing in mind for anyone i may give a supp card to.
Thanks swissytrader- this is interesting as it means i could just give one card to my father to cover him and my mother, rather than a card each. Perhaps Raffles should consider adding this into his guide for future posts?
Really appreciate all your help so far!