My Review of the Lufthansa Senator Lounge, Munich T2
Finally a chance to utilise my matched TAP Portugal Gold status! Having an early evening flight back to London, I decided to come to the airport a bit early to try out the Lufthansa lounge.
Being one of the two hubs, Munich has a total of 11 Lufthansa lounges, which is very impressive! For comparison, BA has “only” 7 departure lounges between T3 and T5 at Heathrow.
However, due to the current situation only three of them are open: one business lounge and one Senator lounge, which are next to each other; and the Senator cafe. All three are in the Schengen departure area, so do not cross the border too early if you are flying to the UK!
The two lounges are close to gate G28, which is a short walk from the security check.
After showing my boarding pass, I’m guided to the left-hand side leading to the Senator section, reserved for Star Gold members. The concept of Senator lounges is a nice touch from Lufthansa, as they are usually slightly better than the business counterpart and convey the airline’s appreciation of loyal customers.
The inside area is not huge – on the left there’s a dining area, and on the right there’s a semi-enclosed, and quieter room if you need some space to yourself.
Further down there are some work desks, and a few lounge chairs for you to lie down.
In terms of food, there are two options on offer: chicken drumsticks and potato stew. I find the quality excellent, especially the former – I’d probably rank it as one of the most tasty food I’ve had in any airport lounge!
The food station and bar are staff-serviced. You can also help yourself to snacks and desserts – the chocolate with cream toppings is also very nice.
I like the interior design of this lounge. It feels different to the other Lufthansa lounges I’ve been to, probably as I don’t see much dark grey or brown colours here, and the overall theme is a lot brighter. All in all, I really enjoyed my experience here, and thank you TAP Portugal 😉!
500 Flying Blue miles for using their shopping portal
Flying Blue, the loyalty programme of Air France and KLM, has an online shopping portal called Shop for Miles.
Similar to BA eStore and Topcashback, it’s a cashback-style website where you earn a rebate for purchases referred by them.
As a new customer, you also earn 500 bonus miles for your first purchase, on top of your regular rebate. 500 miles is not much, but may be handy if you are a few miles short for an award redemption. It should also extend the expiry of your miles.
1,500 free Marriott points for linking your Emirates account
Marriott is known to have reciprocal programmes with airlines, if you have both accounts linked, being elite member with one of them entitles you to some benefits when flying or staying with the other.
I have never participated in any of these programmes, and just received a nice offer by email.
By enrolling in the Your World Rewards programme, which is the Emirates version, I get 1,500 Marriott points straightaway.
It’s very unlikely that I’ll fly Emirates anytime soon, however I wouldn’t say no to 1,500 points in just a few clicks. The t&c however, suggests that only recipients of the email are eligible, so it could be a targeted offer.
NYX London Hotel opening offer, 2 nights + breakfast + £50 credit=£229
Jurys Inn / Leonardo Hotels is a local hotel chain which can be seen in many UK cities. They have just launched a new brand – NYX – by opening the first hotel in central London (Holborn).
The hotel is not really new – it’s a former Grange Hotel and the reviews were not very good, so hopefully the re-branding rejuvenates the property. They are having an opening offer at the moment, by paying £229 you get:
- 2-night accommodation, with breakfast included
- £50 dining credit
- Early check-in at 12pm
- Late check-out at 2pm
- 20% off spa treatment
Unsurprisingly availability is excellent at the moment so no need to rush to any booking. To be honest, even with the breakfast and £50 credit, £229 for 2 nights in a 4* hotel is not really that eye-catching, as many hotels in the same league are in the £70-a-night range.
What I do find interesting is that you can pay £30 more for a Double King room:
I think it’s the first time I see a hotel offer this sort of room type (only seen Double Queen before)! If you travel in four and need a room in central London, this can be a good deal. Although I’m not sure if the free breakfast is for four or only two people…
If you decide to book, you could also join the Jury Rewards loyal programme to earn a few points.
Double dip on the Amex Leading Hotels of the World offer
American Express has added quite a few hotel offers recently, including Marriott, Hilton and IHG. I have very happily saved all of them, but today I’d like to talk about a different hotel group.
You may have this offer appearing on your card account:
Maybe you’ve never heard of the name Leading Hotels of the World, but don’t just close the tab yet! Similar to GHA Discovery or Small Luxury Hotels, LHW is a soft-branded hotel alliance for high-end independent hotels, therefore you can expect some very good properties here.
The full list of participating hotels is here, covering UK and some European countries. Interestingly, the following hotels are affiliated with another hotel group too:
- Hotel Kamp, Helsinki (Nordic Choice)
- Royal Monceau Raffles, Paris (Accor)
- Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, Hamburg (Accor)
- Hotel Adlon Kempinski, Berlin (GHA)
- Gran Melia Fenix, Madrid (Melia)
- Gran Melia Colon, Seville (Melia)
- Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, Tenerife (Melia)
- ME Ibiza, Ibiza (Melia)
- 7Pines Kempinski, Ibiza (GHA)
- Gran Melia Hotel de Mar, Mallorca (Melia)
So you could book via the respective group, enjoy elite benefits and earn points, and also get the Amex cashback!
You must ensure that you get charged directly by the hotel though, not by the hotel group or any third-party aggregator. If you pay at check-out it’s definitely fine (no matter through what website you booked), but for prepaid rates you should be careful – I vaguely remember that my Melia booking was charged by the group instead of hotel once, but I may be wrong.
Best advantages for having British Airways Silver
Living in the UK, British Airways is many people’s first choice when it comes to flying. Before successfully hitting BA Gold last year, I had been BA Silver for a few years and really liked its benefits already. In this article I’ll try to explain these benefits and place them in a priority order.
You could see the list of Silver benefits on BA’s page here. To become Silver, you need to meet one of the following two conditions:
- Fly fifty eligible segments
- Fly four eligible segments and earn 600 tier points
An eligible segment is a BA-operated or -coded flight, or an IB-operated and -coded flight. It must be on a paid ticket, i.e. award ticket doesn’t count.
All the following benefits apply to any Oneworld Sapphire equivalent membership.
1. Free Seat Selection
Although there are no written-down rules, Oneworld airlines are usually the most generous in terms of seat selection benefits for elite members.
Being BA Silver, you can select your seat for free at the time of booking, almost in any cases. The only exception is exit row seats in World Traveller, i.e. long-haul economy class.
It applies to all your travel companions as well, as long as your tickets are on the same booking.
Remember that with BA, you have to pay for seat selection until check-in opens, unless you travel in First. Such stringent rule makes this benefit more valuable.
2. Fast Track Immigration
I do not have a UK or EU passport, so when entering the UK I can’t use the e-gate and must queue for manual checks. Heathrow’s immigration is always busy and, well not the most efficient, so one-hour waiting time or longer isn’t unusual at all.
BA Silver entitles you to the fast track lanes at T3 and T5. For T5 you just need to show your boarding pass or the membership card, for T5 you must ask for a voucher from a flight attendant on board.
The fast track lane is A LOT faster, which usually takes me less than 10 minutes to go through. I remember once it was super busy at T5 and it took me half an hour to clear, however it could’ve easily been two or three hours should I took the regular lane instead.
BA has no such arrangement at Gatwick, not that it’s resuming LGW flights anytime soon…
3. Business Class Lounge Access
I don’t think I need to explain this one. As a Silver member you have access to (almost) any Oneworld business class lounge worldwide, which usually equals to free food, drinks and booze! You could also bring a companion for free, as long as he/she is also on a Oneworld flight.
The reason I rank it only third is I’ve also got a Priority Pass membership as well, courtesy of Amex Platinum. Priority Pass has a very decent coverage of airport lounges itself, sometimes even better than the ones BA Silver offers – for example, Plaza Premium Lounge at LHR T5.
4. Priority Boarding
More and more airlines are adopting the idea of boarding groups nowadays. When flying BA, Silver is placed in Group 2. It’s a very high priority which means you board only after Gold and passengers from the highest cabin available for that flight.
I find it especially useful when I fly Euro Traveller on a busy flight. Being able to board sooner means I don’t have to worry about finding storage space for my luggage.
5. Business Class Desk Check-in
It may not appeal if you travel from T5 – BA has so many check-in counters here, which are rarely busy, so I’m not sure you want to drag your bags all the way just for the “privilege”. Not to mention that with mobile boarding pass you don’t even need to visit the counter if have no luggage to check in.
However, it does save you a lot of queueing time at outstations.
6. Fast Track Security
Not a very important benefit in my opinion, as most airports I’ve been to run efficient security checks, more or less. I’ve even seen the fast track lanes at T3 / T5 being slower than the regular ones.
7. Extra Luggage Allowance
When flying economy class you can carry two bags up to 32kg each, which could save you a lot of fees if you have many things to take. However I’ve never used this benefit at all – I always bring no more than one luggage to check in, even when travelling long-haul.
Unfortunately it doesn’t apply to hand-baggage-only fares, otherwise it would be a lot more useful!
Fly BA in flat bed to Athens and Larnaca!
We talked about BA’s ludicrous sale a week ago, and a new trick has just emerged which you could use in combination.
We know that BA (and other airlines) sometimes flies wide-bodies in short-haul routes, most notably between London and Madrid for cargo reasons. It appears that BA’s Athens and Larnaca routes are also on 787 rotation at the moment, for the following dates:
- Heathrow – Athens BA632 2/9/16/23 October 12:40-18:25
- Athens – Heathrow BA633 2/9/16/23 October 19:55-21:45
- Heathrow – Larnaca BA662 1/8/15/22 October 11:15-17:55
- Larnaca – Heathrow BA663 1/8/15/22 October 19:25-22:15
You can tell they are operated by 787, clicking the flight details:
Selecting business class, you are presented an unusual seat map: not 2-2 (Club Europe) or 2-4-2 (Club World), but 2-3-2 instead. So it looks like you’ll sit in the World Traveller Plus cabin, i.e. premium economy instead.
If you are lucky enough, they may open the Club World cabin on the day so you’ll have a proper flat bed; but anyway flying a wide-body is usually a much more pleasure experience than on a narrow one. However, remember that the aircraft type is not guaranteed, therefore it could be switched at last minute.
Both Athens and Larnaca are on the 160-TP list, so you only need three roundtrips to hit BA silver. You have until 30 September to book.
IHG Europe flash sale, save at least 30%!
IHG has just extended its More to See promotion, but changed the format slightly this time.
- Valid for hotels in the UK and Europe
- Book by 14 October
- Stay by 11 April 2021
- Save at least 30% off Best Flexible Rate
- Minimum 3 days advance booking
- Refundable up to 14 days in advance
Compared to the previous edition, there is no longer three-night minimum stay required, which is good news.
The rate plan doesn’t appear to have a special name – it’s just shown as the regular advance purchase rate:
Here are some (good) rates that I’ve found:
- Crowne Plaza London – City £78
- Crowne Plaza London – Kensington £69
- Hotel Indigo London – Kensington £65
- InterContinental London O2 £117
- Hotel Indigo Edinburgh £67
- Kimpton Clocktower Hotel Manchester £79
- Crowne Plaza Manchester City Centre £44
- InterContinental Berlin €88
- Hotel Indigo Berlin – Ku’damm €59
- Crowne Plaza Frankfurt Congress Hotel €45
- Crowne Plaza Rome – St. Peter’s €88
- Hotel Indigo Milan – Corso Monforte €114
Beware that full payment is taken at the time of booking (although it may not be the case in practice), and two weeks’ notice for cancellation isn’t really generous. Due to the current IHG waiver though, you are free to cancel your booking as long as the stay is before 30 September, and hopefully it gets extended.