[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Dear HT

It was very clear from your post @ 15:47 that you were referring to BA.

In any case, I have had it up to here with BA for a single reason.

I hope you had a good holiday?

Best regards

[pdtraveller]

You can get 600 points via a tier point run in the USA for well under £600. You could get almost 1500 tier points with. HNL SJU HNL run in first for around £900. You have to get there of course and you need 4 BA sectors. But for around £1500 and a lot of jet lag it could be done.

Ex EU fares also provide some cheap routes to silver especially IST with 80 point each way in club. Start a trip to Asia via LHR and HKG and silver in one journey for around £2000.

Better still use Royal Jordanian to HKG and you would be at 480 points for just £1100.

£700 for silver is doable but not from London……..

[Raffles99]

I should have added above that Amex does NOT list the Cathay card as a benefit of Amex Plat on its website. This is to avoid annoying BA and risking the BA / Amex relationship. It absolutely 100% is still there as a benefit though.

This is my full review of Amex Plat from Head for Points (disclaimer: other UK miles and points blogs may be available, etc etc)

http://www.headforpoints.com/2013/03/26/review-of-american-express-platinum-charge-card/

[handbag]

Raffles99 – 06/06/2013 14:12 GMT

Take out Amex Platinum (£450 fee), use the link at Quidco for £50 cashback

Claim your Cathay Pacific Gold card which gives almost all the benefits of BA Silver inc lounge access for a year

Cancel Amex Plat and get your £450 back, so you are £50 up as well? Your Cathay Gold remains valid for the full year.

There is an optional stage whereby you spend £2000 on the card before cancelling and get 3o,ooo Membership Rewards points as well

Hi

You mentioned the Cathay would remain valid for a year even if Amex is cancelled. Do you know if the Priority Points Card would remain valid? I am presuming not.

[BA744fan]

Suppose I have an existing long haul booking on BA and have yet to pay for the seats.

If I signed up to Amex platinum, are you suggesting I could add the CX Gold Card to the booking in MMB and save my £130?

Sounds like a good deal to me, especially if I can also get 35k BA miles for spending £2k in the first 3 months.

[tangey1]

Yes, that’s correct. You can’t do it directly on the ba.com website. However you can enter your CX FF number onto your ba booking on the finnair site.

You can then go back to the ba.com site and it will provide you the option to select your seats for free.

If your flights are booked by redemption, then you are not bothered that your ba number is not on the flight. If however you have paid for the flights, then you need to get your BA FF back onto the booking so as you can get your miles. You should be able to go back to the finnair site and reinsert your BA FF number.

[openfly]

Thanks so much tangey1.

That is fascinating…will have to do it!

[Raffles99]

Handbag – no, Priority Pass is cancelled. This is because it is directly linked to your Amex, as additional guests (after the first free one) are charged directly to your Amex.

Cathay Gold, SPG Gold, Accor Plat, Carlson Gold all stay active for the full year.

[handbag]

Raffles

Thanks. That is what I thought. I may well open up a card in my partners name to get the referral points and then canx shortly after. Will at least get the Cathay for a year plus the points.

We have always been lucky on previous years, that through our spend, we have had a free card. As it is now £450 will not be renewing.

As the lounges are the only thing we use, will be looking around for another card with lounge access or to just pay for Priority Pass.

[Author]

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