Home » Airline Groups » Oneworld
Category Archives: Oneworld
HK Express Full Miles offer, redemption from 2,000 Cathay miles
Hong Kong Express, a budget airline which is now a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific, has a regular-ish promotion named Full Miles, where you can redeem award tickets at a very low cost.
A new iteration just came live:
- Valid between Hong Kong and Beijing / Ningbo (China)
- One-way redemption costs 3,500 miles / 2,000 miles respectively
- Book by February 22
- Travel between March 12 and July 11
You’ll need to pay ~400 HKD in fees per way. Availability is decent:
To book, create a new HK express account by linking your Cathay Pacific account, so that it has access to your Cathay miles.
It is not a continuous promotion, and I’m not sure when the next round will start, but probably in one or two months. If I remember correctly they included some routes to Southeast Asia (Thailand?) last time.
The catch is, as it’s a budget airline no baggage allowance is included. Your Oneworld benefits also won’t apply.
My review of Royal Jordanian’s A321 business class
I’m going to Jordan to see the Dead Sea! I did my homework, and decided to travel on Royal Jordanian from Frankfurt. Cost-wise it’s only 22,000 Avios + £179 (business class), comparing to 38,750 Avios + £312 from London. Don’t even get me started on BA: for this 6-hour flight they operate a narrow-body, so expect the pathetic Club Europe seats if you paid for business class!
I arrived into Frankfurt (on BA) the night before, but not my bag. Frankfurt might somehow be my nemesis – in 2018 I was also here to transfer before Christmas, and my RJ flight was cancelled due to poor weather conditions in Amman. They rebooked me to Qatar’s QSuite though, so some silver lining there.
The check-in desk was opened three hours before departure, where I got my boarding pass and lounge invitation.
All passengers at Frankfurt T2 pass emigration first, and security check is near the boarding gates. The only Oneworld Lounge here is Japans Airlines’ Sakura Lounge, which is small but decent. The Goulash and Japanese Katsu Curry are quite good, but forgive my camera shot…
Time to board:
It is also a narrow-body (A321), but they’ve installed proper incliner seats in business class unlike the European airlines. There are 20 seats in five rows.
I’ve got the 1A seat.
The cushion and throw are already set up, and the leather seat is comfortable. Amenity bag:
Not too shabby for a short four-hour flight. I didn’t get a chance to take a proper photo of the recliner mode, but here it is:
As you may have noticed, there’s no IFE at the back of the seat. Each business class passenger is handed an iPad instead.
You can also connect to the in-flight wifi to access the same entertainment system. The wifi is only an Intranet, so you can’t really browse other things.
Let’s check out the menu, which has got a festive design for Christmas.
There are traditional local specialties such as Mansaf, but also Asian cuisine including rice curry and chow mien. Curiously there’s no pasta or steak, which are probably the most common dishes you see on an airplane.
How they serve the food is true novelty – from starter to dessert everything is served out of a trolley, and you basically mix and match whatever you want. I saw a trolley on Gulf Air too but it was only for dessert.
It is quite interesting, and convenient if you want to try a bit of everything. I had the Mansaf (lamb with yellow rice) but it’s quite different to what I had in my mind.
In all honesty, food quality is below average to my preference although I like the dessert and cheese. But they’ve really put their heart into serving the food, and the whole “ritual” took one hour and a half, a big chunk of the flight time.
There’s no fast track for premium passengers on arrival, but there were very few foreigners passing immigration anyway. Landing visa costs 40 dirhams, and the staff picked DCC without my consent so be wary. I booked airport pickup via Royal Jordanian, very reasonable at 19 dirhams.
Although it is a short flight and there’s no lie-flat seat, it is a very wholesome experience and definitely in a totally different league with BA’s alternative.
My review of Goldair and Skyserv Lounges Athens, and a BA upgrade
After a nice week in Athens I’m setting off to the cold London. I used my Avios for an economy flight, and thanks to my BA status I could still use the fast track facility.
All non-Schengen flights depart from Hall A, and you pass border control first followed by the security check. Massive queue for non-EU passport, but I went through fast track in a breeze!
There are a few lounge options, all next to each other.
Aegean operates their own (Star-Alliance) lounge, and other airlines work with one of the three third-party lounges. British Airways partners with Skyserv, but after having read some reviews I decided to try out the Goldair Handling Lounge instead.
The lounge is a massive hall itself.
It is quite bright. There appears to be an outdoor area but that’s for emergency exit only. Here is the working zone:
And let’s have a look at the food and drinks:
Hot food of the day include:
- Orzo with mushrooms
- Turkish meatballs
- Vegetable soup
- Rice
Desserts look quite tasty.
I’m quite impressed by the fact that they have a dedicated shower & bathroom facility right across the alley. To be honest it looks even fancier than the lounge itself.
As I had enough time, I went for a sneak peek into the Skyserv Lounge as well. They do accept both Priority Pass and Dragonpass too.
A few random pictures:
It’s actually more beautiful than the Goldair – the different tones of blue and wavy decorations make you feel like in the Aegean sea. It is however a lot busier, probably because of its broader range of airline partners.
The buffet area is a quite small selection, with the following hot items:
- Turkish burger
- Veal with peas
- Rice
Having visited both lounges I made my way to the gate. The flight was slightly delayed so I checked BA’s app again to make sure. At this point I noticed a change to my assigned seat – I got upgraded to Club Europe!
It was a pretty full flight, so the upgrade made sense. But in case you didn’t know, the business class setup on intra-Europe flights is laughable – it’s basically exactly the same seat, but with the middle seat blocked.
There are *12* rows of business class on this flight, and I’m seated at row 7. My original seat at the exit row would have been better.
Good news is I’ve got free food and drinks for this four-hour journey. BA’s upgrade strategy is intriguing: I have been upgraded three times (the previous two on long-hauls) as Silver and Bronze, but never once whilst being Gold!
Accor: bonus points with Qatar and great hotel redemption deals
[Qatar Airways]
Accor has had a partnership with Qatar Airways since 2022, which allows Accor elite members to acquire Qatar’s status, as high as Oneworld Emerald, after only one flight. You should consider this fast track offer if you are qualified.
They have also just launched a new offer for account linking:
- Link your Accor and QR accounts by Feb 29th
- Fly once with Qatar Airways by March 31st for 1,000 bonus Avios
- Stay once with Accor by March 31st for 1,000 bonus points
Accor has a similar reciprocal scheme with Flying Blue and Qantas. I think you can switch every 12 months.
[Limitless Experiences]
Similar to Marriott and Hilton, Accor has an auction / redemption platform named Limitless Experiences, where you can exchange or bid for experiences including hotel stays and events.
I’ve being paying attention since I’ve accrued 10k+ points from the All Signature promotion last year, and it seems that they are finally offering something interesting. There are discounted redemptions for hotel stays in Asia, Africa and Middle East.
Here are some examples:
- Japan, Grand Mercure Ise-shima Resort & Spa (half-board) 7,000 points
- Japan, Mercure Kyoto Miyazu Resort & Spa (half-board) 5,000 points
- Abu Dhabi, Fairmont Bab Al Bahr (breakfast) 4,000 points
- Bahrain, Mövenpick Hotel Bahrain (breakfast) 4,400 points
- Qatar, Pullman Doha West Bay (breakfast) 4,000 points
- Kenya, Fairmont Mount Kenya Safari Club (two nights all-inclusive) 20,000 points
- South Africa, Mercure Hotel Midrand (two-nights breakfast) 2,000 points
They will contact you with further details within 14 days of redemption, and be careful as there are various stay dates requirement. There are many cheap options in South Africa and India – paying only 2,000 points (€40) for two nights is insane.
The Fairmont hotel in Abu Dhabi is also a great bargain, as it can cost as much as €300 on some days in February. You must stay by the end of March though, and it doesn’t work me unfortunately.
In addition there are some other on-property experiences available, such as:
- Dubai, Pullman Dubai Jumeirah Lakes Towers, 30 minutes’ PT – 200 points
- Jordan, Mövenpick Resort & Residences Aqaba, buffer dinner for 2 – 1,500 points
- Jordan, Mövenpick Resort & Spa Tala Bay, underwater discovery – 700 points
- Bahrain, Mövenpick Hotel Bahrain, dinner for 2 – 1,500 points
- Saudia, Mövenpick Hotel Al Khobar, seafood buffer for 2 – 3,000 points
- Maldives, Raffles Maldives, sunken dinner for 2 – 10,000 points
My extraordinary 4.5-hour flight delay with Storm Isha!
After I booked my return flight to LGW from Seville I realised there’s no train from Gatwick on that day (Jan 21st) due to engineering work. I was a bit annoyed, but the whole trip turned out to be much more complicated and dramatic than that!
I have vaguely heard about Storm Isha, and received an email from BA that my flight might be delayed because of it the day before. And it turns out to be the case, as I woke up on the day to a notification that my flight has an estimated delay of 1.5 hours due to late arrival of the aircraft.
It means that we would land at Gatwick at around 8pm, which isn’t too big a deal. The delay goes back and forth during the day though and I keep receiving emails / push notifications from Tripcase / Google. It is quite upsetting, and right before I was going to leave the lounge I saw the estimated arrival changed to 10.30pm. At this point I’ve finally made up my mind to book an overnight stay instead, and Courtyard Gatwick Airport is my choice.
It’s a very full flight, and we waited quite a while before the pushback started. According to the captain there’s some “computer error” following the late arrival which caused further delays.
After we are on the runway, another 30-odd minutes passed but we are not taking off. Passengers are getting noticeably irritated and the captain finally spoke again: Gatwick mistakenly stroke out our flight record, and although they are working hard to resume it, it might take another 1 hour and 40 minutes!
You can only imagine how everyone is feeling on this plane. Fortunately it didn’t take that long before they sorted it out – we took off after about another half an hour, some people applauded, and it’s an uneventful flight for the most part.
Until we got to the UK and started descending, and the very apparent turbulence came into play. It was windy and rainy, but we were approaching the land slowly, but the very second before we touched down they pulled up again. The runway’s condition is to risky for landing.
The aircraft circled for another half an hour and it’s the worst time I’ve ever had on any plane. The plane is visibly swinging all the time and I for the very first time have got motion sick in the sky. I’m sweating a lot and having a stomach ache, but luckily I haven’t eaten anything for almost half a day.
The woman sitting next to me was on Whatsapp and I had to tell her off. I can see some others who are undergoing a worse pain than I am. Fortunately, the second landing attempt is successful, and the nightmare is over.
It was an eventful evening and many flights were affected by the extreme weather conditions just like us. I should count myself very lucky as most of these flights were cancelled or, maybe worse, diverted. One reader @SBS2813J’s London-bound flight was diverted to Paris, followed by a whole night of buses and ferry to Gatwick. He went straight to work from Gatwick!
@X’s Wizz Air flight was diverted to Brussels and then heading back to Milan. Passengers who wished to offload at Brussels must sign a waiver as Wizz Air refused to cover their transport cost from Brussels to London.
It’s almost midnight at Gatwick and many passengers are stranded because of the storm. There’s a big queue in front of the taxi desk, and I got a quote of £50+ on Uber for a half-mile ride to the Courtyard! I’ll walk instead.
Booking the Courtyard is the best decision I’ve made this year so far. I even got an upgrade to the Junior Suite.
It’s a very basic and dated room, but I won’t complain. The hotel is overbooked, and there are a few guests at the front desk who paid but couldn’t get a room. I feel very sorry for them and can only imagine how desperate they must be.
[Compensation]
Well here it is – AirHelp comes to my rescue again! Since my flight is delayed by more than three hours (4 hour and 39 minutes), I’m entitled to a €100 payout from AirHelp Plus no matter what the cause is.
Their help page suggests 26 hours before I receive a confirmation, which is more or less the case.
After uploading the boarding pass and my passport, I received the payment in a couple of days.
I purchased AirHelp Plus Complete in November and now I’ve got the lounge pass, delayed bag compensation and the flight delay compensation – is it lucky or unlucky? The €250 compensation I’ve got more than quintuples what I paid already.
Sadly they devalued AirHelp Plus Complete on January 12th, and you can only register 7 trips per plan year now. It might still make sense, as you’ll get more than the cost back as long as one flight delay or one bag delay happens.
If you are interested, enter our unique promo code AHVERYL8 for 8% discount. Prices of the Essential / Complete plans are reduced to €22.99 / €45.99 respectively.
I submitted my claim to BA as well, in less hope as I know the delay is probably mostly attributed to the weather. To my surprise, BA responded in less than two weeks (much sooner than my previous experiences) with a positive outcome:
The total amount of compensation you’re due is £350.00 as there’s only one passenger included in your claim. We are happy to settle your claim for the expenses. We have managed to investigate your claim for your expenses for which the approved amount is £120.20 for your expenses incurred due to the disruption.
So it’s £350 compensation plus £120.20 for my hotel+train expense. I’m a happy man again!
Use BA’s companion voucher on Iberia flights
I was never a fan of the British Airways Premium Plus Amex card, mainly because I was, for the most time, a solo traveller. Its companion voucher went through a major overhaul in 2022 though which made it much more appealing, and I will take a close look it today.
The Travel Together Ticket issued by the Chase British Airways Visa Signature card is, as far as I know, exactly the same, so the following discussions hold for both.
To earn the companion voucher, you need to spend £10,000 in a card year. The voucher is issued right after you’ve met the spending criteria, and valid for two years from that date.
- Applies to redemption tickets on BA, EI and IB metal
- The cardholder must travel
- The origin can be anywhere
- Works on one-way, return and open-jaw itineraries
- Works on all cabin classes
- Save 50% in Avios for one or two persons
- Full taxes and charges are still payable
There are two major improvements: firstly, solo travellers can use it for 50% discount; secondly, it’s extended to Iberia and Aer Lingus flights too.
Unfortunately due to the constant efforts of BA to devalue Avios, long-haul redemptions are, very often, no longer very good in value even when the voucher is applied. For short-haul redemptions the math works out better, but in absolute terms you aren’t saving a lot.
The best way to use this voucher lies with Iberia, as they have a very generous redemption chart.
A one-way flight from Madrid to New York, in business class, costs only 34,000 Avios. For South America it’s 42,500 or 51,000 Avios. This is incredibly cheap compared to BA.
Taxes and fees are also very reasonable. For Madrid – Buenos Aires return it costs 102,000 Avios + £236.30 – superb value! Note that the chart above is for off-peak dates, and it will cost more in peak season.
With the companion voucher applied, departing from Madrid in off-peak season, you will pay the following figures for a return trip per person:
- New York – 34,000 Avios + £215.60
- Bogota – 42,500 Avios + £224.20
- Buenos Aires – 51,000 Avios + £236.30
Note that you need to book on ba.com rather than iberia.com to use the voucher. You could add your positioning flight to / from Madrid in the same booking with the 50% discount applied too. However:
- Don’t add London – Madrid to the same booking, otherwise it incurs the hefty APD
- Don’t mix with BA flights, otherwise it increases the cost significantly
My recommendation is to book e.g. Madrid – New York – Madrid – London using the voucher, and then sort out London – Madrid separately. Here’s my trip to Bogota:
It costs 48,875 Avios + £244. As it’s an open-jaw booking, it’s not possible to do it online – confirm online that there’s availability and then call BA to book it, mentioning that you want to use the companion voucher.
Flash deals: BA 25% off and Virgin Atlantic £60 discount
Two good flights deals here, but they will both finish soon!
[British Airways]
BA is offering a 25% discount on all economy fares from London Gatwick to any European destination. You must book by December 9.
[Virgin Atlantic]
Trip.com has a very good coupon for Virgin Atlantic flights.
- One £60 voucher per customer
- UK departure only
- Valid on all routes and cabin classes
- Book by December 10th
- Travel by September 30
It stacks with the £10 app-exclusive discount so it takes £70 off your airfare.
It is a genuine and decent offer especially for economy and premium economy tickets.
Earn 250 Avios and more with Red by Dufry
We wrote about Red by Dufry before, which is a loyalty program that gives you discount at duty free stores and other perks at airports worldwide.
In the Red by Dufry app, go to My Profile, scroll down to the bottom where you have the option to add a partner account. If you link your Iberia Plus account, you will 1 Avios per £1 / €1 spent at Dufry stores, and 250 bonus Avios on your first purchase.
It seems that British Airways is also a partner and the same earning rate / promotion applies. My account was already linked to Iberia Plus. I was trying to unlink and relink but I couldn’t see either Iberia or BA in the partner dropdown list anymore.
Historically Red by Dufry had some promo codes that gave away points or even Platinum status. Give them a try but I doubt any of them work anymore:
- RED300POINTS
- HAPPYBIRTHDAY2020
- REDPLATSMART0821
- AegeanMilesPlatinum
As a Red by Dufry member you get a guaranteed discount at many duty free shops and earn Avios with every purchase, so it makes sense to create an account.