NEWS & OFFERS: Seat Spy new airlines & offers, 7 nights all inc Maldives £549pp, Testing details for home quarantine

Seat Spy

Finding redemption space is hard, so having the right tools to make it easier are essential. The glut of redemption availability seems to have disappeared which hopefully signals that airlines are expecting a return to travel. A website called Seat Spy was launched at the end of 2019 which looks set to be the leading way to find many airline redemptions.

You can either go to the SeatSpy website or use our widget on the right-hand side of this page. I really like that you could search for all classes of travel at once over a year. Here are is an example of results for that Holy Grail, London to Sydney. The fact that you can also search two segments for Sydney at once is very useful.

By hovering over the dates it will show you the number of seats available and in which class.

If there is no availability for what you want, you can set up an alert for seats being released, providing you have signed up for an account. They have now introduced What’s app notifications as well as text or email for seat alerts. 

Seatspy have now officially completed their beta testing of American & United Airlines so these two new airlines are now accessible to anyone looking to find award seats on either of these carriers. This is in addition to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, KLM and Air France. 

To celebrate their entry into North America SeatSpy are launching our founder member offer specifically for new North American members. This means that anyone who signs up to one of the membership packages will receive a lifetime discount for their chosen subscription. 

For UK members, if you are not a member, they have made it slightly cheaper if you pay annually. Seat Spy have now introduced Annual Payments where members can now choose to pay for their subscriptions upfront and enjoy 2 months free (compared to monthly plans) for doing so. 

Here is the new pricing and the benefits for each tier.

You can find more information or sign up for a Seat Spy account here.

Testing details for home quarantine

Everyone who arrives from a non-red list country must book a travel test package – this costs £210. You must take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 for variant surveillance and a test on or after day 8 to check that you do not have COVID-19. You will be able to book this online here when the portal is actually working! You also need to book this online before you leave for the UK. 

You can also use Test to Release to take a test on day 5 and be released from quarantine when you get a negative result. You still need to then take the day 8 test. This will be at an additional cost with prices from £80 depending on the provider. You can read more about how it works in practice here. 

7 nights all inc Maldives £549pp for stays until October 22

The Maldives appears to be one of the most discounted places to buy vouchers for, from previously being the most expensive! There are two new offers which present great value.

The first is through Travelzoo, a free to join travel offers club. I have used them several times and not had any issues. The offer is for 7 nights at the ROBINSON Club Maldives & ROBINSON Club Noonu. Even those the name makes me think it might be a bit tacky, it actually gets great reviews on TripAdvisor with 4.5 out of 5. You choose from a private-island escape at the adults-only ROBINSON Club Maldives, or the 5-star ROBINSON Club Noonu for a family-friendly break. This deal, which starts from £1098 (£549 per person), is available for stays until October, 2022. Flights and transfers are not included

You are purchasing a fully refundable voucher. Once you get the voucher, then you contact the hotel to book. So it’s probably worth just seeing what availability looks like on their website before buying if you are tied to specific dates. If your plans change, you can get a refund and have your money back within five days. If you have already used the voucher to book, you must cancel 14 days in advance to get a full refund. You can combine vouchers together for a longer stay as well. 

Here is what is included and the price: 

• ROBINSON Club Maldives:
  • £1098… seven nights’ accommodation in a Garden Villa for two adults
  • £2050… seven nights’ accommodation in a Lagoon Villa with Private Pool for two adults
  • Daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner served in the main restaurant (buffet)
  • Unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (served one glass at a time)
  • Free use of the snorkelling equipment
  • Guided snorkelling at the House Reef twice a day
  • 15% off spa treatments
  • 15% off watersports and excursions

• ROBINSON Club Noonu:
  • £1098… seven nights’ accommodation in a Sea View Room for two adults and one child (aged 17 and under)
  • £2050… seven nights’ accommodation in a Water Bungalow with Pool for two adults and one child (aged 17 and under)
  • Daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner served in the main restaurant (buffet)
  • Unlimited alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages (served one glass at a time)
  • Free use of the snorkelling equipment
  • Daily free sauna infusion
  • One set-menu Gala dinner
  • A complimentary Gala aperitif with selected finger foods every Saturday
  • Free participation at selected fitness and Wellfit classes
  • 15% off spa treatments
  • 15% off watersports and excursions

• A supplement of US$43 (approximately £31) per room, per night, applies to the following dates: 28 March-10 April; 23-31 December, 2021; 1-6 January; 5-19 April, 2022 (payable directly to the resort)

The only real drawback is the very expensive internal flights and transfers which cost about £320 per person return. 

You can find the offer page here.