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New BA lounges
One of the things that has long irritated me with BA has been the lack of lounges in some locations. BA have recently started to address the issue and have already added a number of new third party lounges.
BA have just announced more airports that will give BA customers use of third-party owned partner* lounges, for customers travelling in Club Europe and eligible cardholders. The lounges will be introduced for customers travelling throughout summer 2019.
Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ Director of Brand and Customer Experience, said: “We know how important it is to our customers to have access to a lounge before they fly. We’ve expanded our partnerships so whether travelling for business or pleasure, more of our customers can now enjoy a calm lounge, wi-fi and complimentary food and drink when they fly with us this summer.”
Hawaii business class offers
If you are after cheap tier points this offer is not for you, but if you after reasonably priced flights for a holiday to Hawaii then this is worth a look. The prices for the tier point runs are generally lowest in July and August and are usually around £15-1600. This one is more expensive but this is a reasonable price for the winter season. I have been to Hawaii 3 times, once in October, once in January and once in July. My favourite time was definitely autumn as the weather is still good but the hotels are less crowded and a bit cheaper.
There are three offers available both from Gothenburg in Sweden.
The first is with Star Alliance and allows you to fly with multiple airlines such as Air Canada, United, Lufthansa or Swiss. The tickets cost from £1765 and the rules are:
- Book by: 21-day advance purchase
- Travel: Permitted 18 Nov through 24 Nov or 22 Dec through 1 Jan or 12 Apr through 22 Apr or 27 Jun through 4 Sep for each transatlantic sector.
- Minimum stay: 6 nights or a Saturday night
- Maximum stay: 12 months
- Transfers: 5 in each direction
- Stopovers: 1 free and 1 at €600
- Refundable: No
- Changeable: Yes for a fee
You can book direct with Air Canada here or find the cheapest online travel agent price with Skyscanner.
The next offer is with BA and American from £1860 to Honolulu.
- Book by: 90 days before departure
- Travel:
- Outbound: permitted Mon through Wed on each transatlantic sector.
- Inbound: permitted Tue through Fri on each transatlantic sector.
- Minimum stay: 7 nights
- Maximum stay: 12 months
- Transfers: Permitted
- Stopovers: Unlimited for a fee
- Refundable: No
- Changeable: For a fee
You can book direct with American Airlines here or find the cheapest online travel agent price with Skyscanner.
I have also previously covered a similar offer with Skyteam which includes Delta, KLM and Air France for £1774 to either Honolulu, Kauai (LIH) or Maui (OGG).
Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5 from £103 per night
If you want to stay close to Terminal 5 then my choice is usually the Sofitel for its ease of access, comfortable quiet rooms and good facilities. It is connected by walkway to Terminal 5 and has two restaurants, two bars and a spa. You can read my review of it here.
Unfortunately, you pay for the convenience and the hotel is often very expensive at over £200. There are a couple of ways to bring this down. Firstly, TopCashback and Quidco often do cashback of around 15% which makes a difference. The other way is to keep an eye out for the hotel appearing on Top Secret Hotels on lastminute.com.
So how do you know which hotel it is, if it’s secret? There are a couple of clues. It says its a 5* hotel at Heathrow with great links to London. The only other two 5* hotels listed do not have links to London. It also lists the distance as 0.56 from the airport and has the same rating as the Sofitel on reviews.
I recently booked this hotel and got the Sofitel for £138. I also used Topcashback to get another 6% off with lastminute.com
Luxury Hotel offering unforgettable stays at Heathrow Hotel
With ease of access to the airport, whilst having great links to central London. You will be impressed by the modern, elegant bedrooms. Dine in either of the restaurants or bars, or relax in the comfort of your own room and order from the 24hr room service menu. For the more active there is a fully equipped state of the art gym. The hotel offers the highest level of service, attending to your every need.
I have found availability for a variety of dates starting from just over £100.
You can find the lastminute page for the hotel here.
3 comments
The Sofitel is superb and we have been staying here since it opened irrespective of which terminal we are flying from. In fact my platinum status for Accor has come entirely from stays at the T5 Sofitel in 2018!!
……I also wanted to add the issue of parking. You do have to factor in the cost of on site underground parking which pumps the price up – unless you have contacts!!
I always used the Sofitel when I had lounge access through my Amex Platinum. Now I use the Premier Inn at Terminal 4 which usually costs £29.50 if booked in advance. You can easily access any Terminal for free.
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