NEWS & OFFERS: Gatwick flight cap extended, SAS to join Skyteam and 100% IHG bonus

Gatwick flight cap extended

Last week I wrote about a cap on the number of flights departing from Gatwick due to a lack of Air Traffic Control staff. This cap will now be extended for a further two weeks until Sunday 15 October. This is likely to mean there will be some cancellation of flights as the number of flights per day is capped at 800, but usually there are up to 830 flights per day. Last week, more than 150 flights were cancelled owing to the cap on aircraft movements at the airport. However, the airport say that there are less flights scheduled during the two weeks to 15 October so they expect some days there will be no impact on existing flights. 

I would not be surprised if the cap continues until the end of half term, but it just depends on whether enough staff that are currently off sick return to work. 

SAS to join Skyteam

SAS has announced that they secured an investment in the reorganized SAS of $1,175 million from Castlelake, L.P., Air France-KLM, and Lind Invest together with the Danish state. 

In connection with this, the airline plans to eventually join the airline alliance SkyTeam, at which time it will exit Star Alliance. 

Nothing is changing as of now, as the airline still needs to obtain regulatory approvals and meet certain conditions to complete the investment transaction and change the alliance.

If you are a member of their loyalty program EuroBonus, nothing changes for the moment and you continue to get all the normal Star Alliance benefits for now. 

With the addition of Virgin Atlantic earlier in the year and now SAS, Skyteam is beginning to seem a more attractive alliance for those in the UK. SAS is not great on short haul with their semi-business class that has few differences to economy on board, but on long haul, they have good seats and decent service.

100% IHG buy bonus

IHG has launched a new buy bonus of 100% extra until 9 October 2023. You can buy up to 150,000 points in a calendar year meaning you can buy up to 300,000, including the bonus. The bonus is applicable when you buy a minimum of 11,000 points or more. With the current high prices of hotels, it is always worth looking at if it is cheaper to buy the points. Just make sure the hotel you want is available on points and book it immediately after you purchase the points.

You can find the buy points page here.