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500 miles and prize draw for Cathay Pacific new sign-ups
Cathay Pacific ran a campaign that gave away 1,500 miles for new sign-ups recently. If you missed it, there’s now a new initiative which isn’t bad either.
- Sign up as a new Cathay Pacific member by January 31st
- During registration, enter your referrer’s membership number on the referral page
- Both the referrer and referee will earn 500 miles, plus one entry into the prize draw
If lucky enough, you will win between 5,000 and 500,000 miles and the result is announced on February 15th. Nonetheless you are guaranteed 500 miles which isn’t too bad. For your information, my membership number is 1683490941 😉
My review of Alaska Lounge, Los Angeles Terminal 6
I need to fly to Seattle from Los Angeles, and my original plan was to spend my United Travelbank credit. However, I spotted redemption availability on ba.com for Alaska Air, and it’s really difficult to say no to its attractive price (9,000 Avios + £5).
Travelling on Alaska Air also opens up great opportunities for me to try out the Oneworld lounges at Los Angeles airport, thanks to my British Airways Gold status. From what I understand the following three are the best options:
- American Airlines Flagship Lounge
- Oneworld Business Lounge
- Qantas First Lounge
I didn’t get to visit the Flagship Lounge this time but managed the other two, which are both truly impressive. However, as I’m flying Alaska I decided to give their lounge a chance too.
Alaska uses Terminal 6 of the Los Angeles airport, and the Alaska Lounge is next to Gate 64B which happens to be where my boarding is.
You need to take the lift up to enter the lounge.
Similar to most other (if not all) US airlines, travelling on Alaska Air’s First class or being their elite member doesn’t necessitate lounge access. However, if you hold Emerald or Sapphire status with any other program than Alaska and American (in my case British Airways), then you can access the Alaska Lounge as long as you are travelling on an Oneworld flight.
The lounge is quite small. In fact upon entering I can almost see its entirety.
There are some long sofas as well as semi-private padded seats. They all feature a small table.
A couple of long standing desks suitable as a temporary workstation.
And also a bar.
It’s 10am in the morning. Oatmeal, scrambled eggs and some other breakfast snacks are served.
There’s a pancake machine which from what I heard is a signature of Alaska Air’s lounges.
The lounge is quite busy and I didn’t stay long before moving on. It’s not a terrible place let me be clear, however as long as you have enough time you should definitely use the Oneworld Business Lounge instead which is a totally different level.
TAP Portugal sale: London to Cancun and Brazil for £1,100
TAP Portugal’s sale has returned, which includes some bargains if you are looking to travel to Cancun or Brazil.
The offer page for UK departure is here. There are similar deals for departures from Portugal, Spain and France etc, so if you are based in those countries you may want to check it out too.
The most attractive deals listed on the page are (ex-London or -Manchester, business class return):
- Cancun £1,262
- Rio de Janeiro £1,333
- Sao Paolo £1,334
Cancun is wide open from April, however for Brazil in order to get the cheap fare you have to depart in October and beyond. Here are a couple of examples:
London – Cancun April 18 – 22
London – Sao Paolo November 17 – 26
Remember, you can always add a stopover in Lisbon / Porto for over 24 hours, which helps you escape from UK’s ridiculous APD. You can expect to save about £150:
Ticket is refundable at a penalty of €165. From what I can see travel agencies are only slightly cheaper than TAP Portugal, so I recommend booking direct, which makes your life much easier if there’s a flight schedule change or you want to cancel your flight.
The booking class is J, and you will earn between 125% and 200% with TAP Portugal’s partners.
My review of Qantas First Lounge, Los Angeles
My Oneworld Emerald (BA Gold) is expiring in a month’s time, and I’m glad to check off another Oneworld first lounge before then. After cruising in the LAX Oneworld Business Lounge, I’m trying out thr Qantas First Lounge which is just about 20 meters away.
As long as your Oneworld Emerald status is not from American or Alaska, you can access the lounge before your flight with any Oneworld airline.
Unlike the business lounge, the first lounge is one big block that’s square-shaped with no apparent segregation between different function areas. There are a few “sunloungers” on the left facing the interior of the building.
On the right-hand side there are arrays of one-seat sofas.
The lounge is fully open-plan, and I feel intimacy and cosiness are missing.
There are a few self-service stations for alcohol. It’s too early to drink so I didn’t pay attention to the wine choices.
The bar, dining zone and kitchen are at the end of the lounge.
Unlike in the business lounge, there’s no buffet here and you order from a menu instead.
I don’t find the menu appealing, and only ordered a pancake. They served it to my adjacent seat by mistake and I didn’t realise until half an hour later…
Lunch is available from 12pm, but my flight won’t wait for me. I searched online for the lunch menu afterwards, and it doesn’t look especially good either.
In contrast with the business lounge, I find the first lounge uninspiring and lacking in its own soul. Unless you really desire a proper dining experience with a menu to order from, I think the business lounge is a better option.
Great Eithad first class reward availability from London and other cities
Etihad has opened up a lot of reward space on its first class route, and it’s a good opportunity if you are in for the experience.
First of all you could perform your searches on Etihad’s website which will give you a 7-day calendar view at a time. In the following example, the 88,024 miles price on March 18th indicates standard award availability, which doesn’t exist on other days.
Once you find your desired flight you could book using your Etihad Guest miles, which can be converted from Amex membership rewards points. You’d be overpaying (by a large margin) though, and the best way to redeem an Etihad ticket is to use Aeroplan instead.
A one-way ticket from Abu Dhabi to London in first class costs only 65,000 points and 84 CAD. Charges will be higher for the other way around because of UK’s APD. Aeroplan doesn’t have a promotion on point purchase right now, but you can still get their points by transferring from:
- Amex membership rewards in US / Canada, which is instant
- Marriott Bonvoy, but it might take quite a few days
Etihad flies to London and Geneva in Europe, as well as Washing DC in the States.
This is how Etihad’s first class on Boeing 787 looks like:
Which is, unfortunately, not comparable to Emirates’ first class suite that I was in a few days ago.
Hopefully their A380 fleet will return soon, and I can’t wait to sit in the first apartment!
Buy British Airways Silver Card for £600 in their sale
British Airways has announced yet another sale, and as usual it offers an opportunity to earn cheap tier points and thus elite statuses.
The easiest way to view all rates is via their Low Fare Finder. From the tier-point perspective, it’s most cost-efficient to fly Club Europe (short-haul European flights in business class) and here are some headline prices (return trip):
- Belfast £156
- Catania £264
- Dublin £166
- Edinburgh £152
- Glasgow £146
- Istanbul £300
- Luxembourg £136
- Reykjavik £292
- Sofia £240
- Tirana £278
Destinations in bold earn you 80 TP per way, otherwise it’s 40 TP only. Note that there will no longer be any qualification discount in 2023, plus airfares are getting more expensive now so it’s not as cheap to earn status as in the last two years. You can earn BA Silver (Oneworld Sapphire), which requires 600 TP, in four trips to Sofia which will cost you almost a thousand pound.
There’s a way to reduce your cost though, as BA Holidays has extended their double tier points offer till the end of 2023. All flight+hotel and flight+rental bookings earn double tier points, which means you only need two return trips (instead of four) to earn your Silver card.
For a two-night trip to Sofia, the minimum cost is just over £300 pp for two people, which is a great deal. (EDIT: apologies that my calculations were wrong. You need 5 nights minimum to earn double tier points – car rental should be cheaper).
My Gold card is expiring soon but thanks to the soft landing policy I’ll remain Silver for one more year, so I’m not rushing to any mileage run right now. But if you are interested you should considering booking some flights or holidays.
My review of Oneworld Business Lounge, Los Angeles
In my last post I briefly reviewed the Alaska Air Lounge, which as I had suspected had nothing to write home about. In just three minutes I started making my way to the Oneworld Business Lounge, and I’m really excited!
The Oneworld Business Lounge is located inside the Tom Bradley International Terminal. It’s connected to all other terminals airside though so it’s possible to visit it no matter which terminal you fly from. But from Terminal 2 or 3 you need to take a shuttle.
Alaska is based in Terminal 6, and it took me, a fast-walker a good ten minutes to reach the lounge. Terminal 4 is right next to Tom Bradley but all other terminals require a long connection.
It’s the first time I see a lounge named after the Oneworld alliance. You can see the names of Qantas, Cathay Pacific and British Airways inscribed on the wall which presumably are the main sponsors of the lounge. I’m surprised that American Airlines isn’t one of them.
As a reminder, you cannot access the lounge by being an elite member or flying business / first class with American or Alaska, with the exception of select long-haul flights. However, if you are a Sapphire or Emerald member with any other Oneworld airlines (in my case BA), you can enter the lounge as long as you are on a Oneworld flight.
A very long sofa is behind the entrance. On the left-hand side there’s a business area, with armchairs, hot desks and a printer.
The bar shares the same design with the one in Qantas Lounge at Heathrow. You can help yourself to the wines and beers, but champagne is not offered.
A nice, warm circular bar lounge is further down the aisle.
In the dining area there are many dining tables and buffet counters.
It’s about 10am so breakfast is served. In addition to the traditional English breakfast there are some unusual options such as noodles with cheese, red bean curry and ratatouille.
The biggest impression on me is how huge the lounge is. There are a lot of atrium-facing seats available if you fancy more light.
The best Oneworld airline lounge I’ve visited is the Al Mourjan Lounge at Doha, without any doubt. The Oneworld Business Lounge at LAX is probably the (not-so-close) second, beating Cathay’s The Wing at HKG and BA’s Galleries First at LHR.
If you depart from LAX and have sufficient time, skip the Alaska Lounge and Admirals Club and come straight to the Qantas lounge, as it’s at a totally different level!
Claim your free flight from Bamboo Airways
Bamboo Airways, a Vietnamese airline, is giving away their loyalty points which you can redeem for free flights.
You can view the offer details here. Until March 31, you earn 50 Bamboo Club points for taking any of the following actions:
- Log in on the website
- Log in on the app
- Open a promotional email
You can earn the bonus once per platform per day, so max. 150 points a day. During the promotional period your earning is capped at 4,000 points – if you don’t want to receive their emails, you need to log in on their website and app for 40 days to reach the cap.
4,000 points is enough for a one-way off-peak domestic flight under 460 miles. Some city pairs are:
- Ho Chi Minh City – Phu Quoc / Da Nang / Nha Trang
- Hanoi – Da Nang
You still need to pay the taxes and charges, which is about $20.
If you may visit Vietnam in the next year or so, consider sparing a few seconds every day to win your ticket.