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1,000 Jumeirah One points (or 500 Emirates miles) for updating your profile
If you have a Jumeirah One membership account, you can earn 1,000 bonus points for under one minute. Just log into your account and you’ll see the following banner:
Follow through to see the offer details. Basically Jumeirah One added a new Interests section to the profile page, and you just need to tick a few boxes to complete the task. You have until December 31 to do it, and 1,000 bonus points will be deposited into your account within two weeks.
I have never stayed at a Jumeirah hotel and doubt I ever will. 1,000 points is not enough for you to redeem a free night, however, you can:
- Use the Pay with Points feature to part-pay your bill, possibly including restaurant bills even when not staying with them. 1,000 points is worth £15 / 67 AED
- Transfer the points into 500 Emirates Skywards miles
(H.T. headforpoints)
Good offer: Virgin Atlantic selling points at 89p
Virgin Atlantic is selling their points at a historically low price, which may be worth visiting. You need to be a Silver or Gold member to get the best deal though.
Until November 18, you get a staggered bonus when purchasing Virgin points:
- 5,000 – 24,000 points: 15% / 20% bonus
- 25,000 – 69,000 points: 20% / 30% bonus
- 70,000 – 119,000 points: 40% / 50% bonus
- 120,000 points or more: 60% / 70% bonus
The second number is for Silver and Gold members, whereas the first is for everyone else. They’ve also increased the cap, so you can buy up to 200K points every year.
Virgin charges a flat £15 rate for every 1,000 points, and there’s a £15 handling fee per transaction. On the very top end you’ll be paying £3,015 for 340K points, which amounts to 0.887 per point.
Barring the occasional Miles Booster promotions (which isn’t on this time), this is the cheapest you can get for Virgin point. If you earn in a non-Sterling currency, for example USD, the deal is even more attractive given the recent GBP slump.
Virgin Atlantic is set to join Skyteam in the upcoming months so their point will potentially be worth more. However I wouldn’t take a punt right now, and will only purchase any points if I know where to spend them.
How to redeem Etihad Guest miles on Air Serbia
Etihad doesn’t belong to any airline alliance, however they’ve got quite a few airline partners and some of the partner redemptions are great in value. I accrued some Etihad miles when flying with Philippine Airlines a few years back, and I’ve always wanted to visit Belgrade, so why not book an award ticket on Air Serbia?
Although I managed it in the end, the process was far from pain-free and there’s very little up-to-date information on the Internet, so I’ll try to give some detailed tips today. First of all, although you are using Etihad Guest miles, you don’t talk to Etihad at all for the booking – the whole process involves Air Serbia only!
[Pricing]
You can find all information on Air Serbia’s website here. As you can see, you could redeem Etihad Guest miles on:
- Award ticket
- Cabin upgrade
- Air Serbia Premium Lounge access
- Additional luggage allowance
Booking an award ticket in business class is the best option. A one-way ticket between London and Belgrade costs 10410 miles in Economy and 14834 in Business, whereas cash prices are usually £150+ and £300+ respectively!
Air Serbia flies to many other major European cities such as Berlin, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Stockholm. Their only long-haul destination at the moment is New York, which costs 44970 / 64082 miles.
Obviously you still need to pay taxes and charges. For London – Belgrade in business class it’s €94.64 (!!), and for Belgrade – London it’s only €22.59.
[Transferring Miles]
Even if you don’t have any Etihad Guest miles, it’s very easy to acquire some. They are a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, so you can transfer your MR points to Etihad Guest miles at the ratio of 1:1.
Although Amex’s website quotes a 48-hour lead time, the transfer is actually instant, which is very useful.
[Ticket Rules]
As explained in their conditions:
- You must book at least 24 hours in advance
- You can change for a €25 fee
- You can cancel for a full refund, less 10% of the Etihad Guest miles
I booked my London – Belgrade trip in business class, and it’s in the I fare bucket. I’m not sure how many award tickets Air Serbia releases per flight, but it seems to be on the generous side.
For my Belgrade – London flight the business cabin had already sold out when I called to redeem, but they somehow still managed to fit me in. A couple of days later they told me it was a mistake and downgraded me to economy instead, alas…
Economy award ticket is booked into the N bucket, which comes with a free 23kg checked bag. You can pay for seat selection and other services, for example:
- Seat selection: RSD 902 – 1578
- Seat selection + priority boarding: RSD 1167
- Sear selection + fast track: RSD 1173
- Premium lounge + fast track: RSD 2322
I paid for seat selection + fast track (€9.99), which lets me select any seat including front / exit row, so apparently a good deal. I can access the premium lounge with my Priority Pass already.
[Contacting Air Serbia]
Once you are ready and have sufficient Etihad Guest miles, you can find your local contact number and call them. All calls are handled by the call centre in Serbia, and they operate long hours. I used the UK number 020 37 695 856.
All the representatives I talked with (and believe me there are many…) are very familiar with the award ticket booking process. Here is what it usually looks like:
- Provide your name, contact information, flight details and Etihad Guest membership number
- Air Serbia has a dedicated back office that checks availability and your Etihad Guest account information
- You’ll be asked to call back in a few hours or the next day
- If everything’s good, they’ll take your credit card details and issue the ticket
So it takes two phone calls and potentially a day to redeem an award ticket, which isn’t the simplest, but not too bad either. I had a nightmare when booking my first ticket though, as my Etihad Guest account turned out to be locked for some reason so I had to sort it out first; then Air Serbia’s back office was unavailable so I had to wait a few more days. But in general, their call centre staff know what they are doing and are very helpful.
I hope you find this article useful!
TAP Portugal business class sale: UK to Brazil / Mexico / US from £1200
TAP Portugal has brought back its attractive business class (Executive) sale to the Americas. The price isn’t as good as the last time but it’s still a decent deal.
You can check out the offer page here. Here’s a summary:
- Book by October 2
- Travel between September 19 and June 30, 2023
- Christmas / New York / Easter periods are excluded
- Depart from London or Manchester
The deal is valid for departures from mainland Europe as well, for example Spain, France and Germany. Spain had some very cheap fares (€999) in the last promotion, but I didn’t see anything particularly attractive this time.
These are the headline fares:
- From £1249 – Cancun
- From £1249 – Brazil (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia etc)
- From £1359 – US and Canada
There are two kinds of business class fares – Executive and Top Executive. The latter is more expensive, but flexible and accumulates more miles.
Here are some examples:
London – Cancun October 2 – October 8 (link)
London – Rio de Janeiro January 19 – January 29 (link)
London – Toronto December 8 – December 12 (link)
You can add a stopover in Lisbon or Porto, which will affect the final price. Buying from an online agency is usually slighter cheaper than from TAP Portugal directly, but that would potentially lead to a headache if the flight schedule changes, so it’s your call.
Double Avios with Qatar Airways and Iberia
If you are flying with Qatar Airways or Iberia in the next three months, there’s a double Avios reciprocal offer between Qatar Airways and Iberia which may apply.
You can view the Qatar Airways offer here.
- Book between August 15 and November 30
- Fly between September 1 and November 30
- The flight must be operated by Iberia, and IB or QR coded
- Eligible flights credited to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club receive double Avios
The same offer from Iberia doesn’t have a landing page, but I’ve received email communication on this. If you fly on Qatar Airways and it’s QR or IB coded, you receive double Avios if credited to Iberia Plus.
It’s a weird offer as you must credit your flight to the other program to benefit. Anyway it’s worth keeping in mind, although beware that the two programs may have different accrual ratios, and the tier points are not shared between them.
Book Virgin Chauffeur service for 17,500 points
Like many other airlines that wanted to impress their premium passengers onboard and off the plane, Virgin Atlantic used to offer free chauffeur service to Upper Class customers. The service has died down over the years though, and they no longer offer it in-house, but have partnered with a third-party provider and it is not to free to anyone anymore.
However, it is still possible to book the chauffeur service with Virgin points. It has a very limited audience though: only Upper Class reward tickets (booking class G) are eligible, although upgrade from paid Premium tickets are booked in the same class so I believe they qualify too.
You can read about the benefit here.
- It’s available at UK and US airports
- You pay 17,500 points per way
- It covers a 75-mile radius from the airport
- In the US it’s possible to pay $3.5 per mile if your travel distance exceeds 75 miles
I live near Heathrow, so Uber or Bolt costs me only £30 therefore the benefit doesn’t really apply. However, if you live further away it might start to make sense.
As you can see, the 75-mile radius covers almost the entire Southeast, as well as many other counties around London (I never realised England was so small).
If you already have a Virgin ticket, you could make a dummy chauffeur booking online to see what kind of car and service to expect. If I remember correctly their partner is Tristar, which was acquired by Addison Lee in 2020.
17,500 points isn’t cheap, but if you travel from far and especially with many bags, it may be a great redemption choice.
My review of Delta Premium Select on Boeing 767
I’m booked on Premium Select with Delta for coming back to London from Seattle. I don’t really collect Delta miles, and although they’ve partnered heavily with Virgin Atlantic you can’t use VS miles to upgrade Delta flights, so I’m stuck with no upgrade 😛
VS Gold is given Sky Priority status on Delta flights, which entitles me to the fast track lane at Seattle airport. But the airport is very quiet on this Tuesday so I didn’t take advantage of it.
Having spent some time in the Sky Club and Centurion Lounge, I take the shuttle train to terminal S to board my flight. Compared to many other airlines Delta appears to value premium passengers more, at least when it comes to boarding: Premium Select passengers board after Delta One and Diamond, but before Platinum and Sky Priority.
Pretty nice logo:
Turn right and it’s our destination: the Premium Select cabin.
Premium Select, or in more common terminology Premium Economy is a relatively new concept to Delta. If I remember correctly many of their long haul planes don’t even feature this cabin yet, but a so-called Comfort Plus which is essentially still Economy.
Premium Select is generally well regarded by the aviation enthusiasts, and some even call it Business Minus instead. My colleague was also quite jealous that I’ve got the chance to try it out, so I had high expectations.
The first impression is indeed quite positive. Boeing 767 is narrower than other wide-body planes, which means there are fewer seats in a row. In the case of Premium Select, there are two seats on the left, right and in the middle respectively, so only six seats in a row.
Although the seats are not necessarily wider, it does feel much nicer and more relaxed than the eight-seat across Premium Economy cabin on other aircrafts.
My first-row seat has two windows and HUGE legroom.
Cushion, blanket and headphone are available which is pretty standard. There’s also a very basic travel kit which is the same as what’s offered in the Main Cabin (Economy). The earbuds and eye mask look very cheap and you may prefer to bring your own.
A moment later we are up in the sky.
The dining tray pops up automatically from the left armrest with a button pressed. The control panel below the right armrest is used to adjust the seat and footrest. USB sockets are also available. The seat looks very new.
The IFE doesn’t contain that many latest blockbusters, but is super abundant and diverse. For example, all episodes of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and The Matrix are included. Usually IFEs are lacking in horrors and thrillers, but they’ve got Malignant, Old and Last Night in Soho here. I’m genuinely impressed by their offer.
Unfortunately the dinner is a U-turn. It is basically a “chicken or fish” situation with no dedicated menu, and I believe it’s the same food as in Main Cabin. The only difference is free alcohol drinks.
Breakfast is a bagel and fruit bowl.
This is how the seat looks like with max inclination.
I’m bad at taking photos, and the picture above doesn’t do the seat justice. One objective fact is, I slept for full five hours after taking a melatonin pill, which is probably a personal record.
Going to the bathroom is the worst experience of this trip. There are only four bathrooms in the middle of the aircraft which are shared by all Premium Select and many Main Cabin passengers. You can imagine how the queue is like after dinner.
I think very highly of the cabin, seat and IFE of Premium Select, but they could definitely make more effort in improving the food and other soft amenities. My overall experience is better than when I flew with BA or Virgin, so I’d recommend it if it falls within your budget.
My review of Delta Sky Club, Seattle
I’m finished with my Seattle trip, and will be flying with Delta for the first time. I read some good things about the Sky Club at Seattle and I’m very excited in trying it out.
The Sky Club is located at Concourse A and hard to miss. All concourses are connected post-security, so although my flight departs from Concourse S it doesn’t stop me from visiting the lounges.
According to Virgin Atlantic’s website, I’m entitled to Sky Club access automatically when flying back to the UK on Delta as a Flying Club Gold member. My boarding pass fails the scanner though, then the staff go on a little discussion before telling me Delta’s partnership with Virgin has terminated a couple of days ago?!
I’m so astonished and know that’s impossible. After exchanging a few words I realise that they are talking about Virgin Australia. Anyway they don’t seem well trained on the reciprocal benefits, and I decide to just flash my Amex Platinum instead. This time it works like a charm.
An array of lenticular cards by the entrance.
The Seattle lounge is generally regarded as the best Sky Club that Delta has. The lounge is huge with two floors, and leaves a very good first impression on me.
Seattle is one of Delta’s main hubs, but the lounge is not as busy as I thought.
Further down the line is more workspace.
A view of Delta aircrafts.
Some memorabilia of Seattle SeaHawks, an American Football team sponsored by Delta.
The second (first) floor:
The upper floor is quieter, but food is only offered downstairs.
The following hot food is on offer:
- Ivar’s clam chowder with bacon
- Spicy tofu stir fry
- Steamed brown rice
- Roasted green beans
- Teriyaki chicken
If you haven’t got to taste Seattle’s specialty Clam Chowder yet, there is one last chance! The Teriyaki chicken isn’t cooked right and tastes salty instead of sweet, but I actually prefer it this way.
A limited selection of beer and wine is complimentary, but most alcoholic drinks are payable. I read somewhere that redeeming Delta miles on Champagne is a good idea, but I didn’t check.
Desserts:
The chewy marshmallow looks very similar to a Chinese snack that I liked when I was a kid.
The bathroom might have been inspired by a few horror movies…
I want to take a look at the Amex Centurion lounge as well so didn’t spend all the time here. The Seattle Sky Club didn’t disappoint me, and is well worth a couple of hours before your flight.