[Misc] How drunk do you get when flying?

[Bozza]

Not as much as this chap, hopefully, who got a bit upset when he wasn't served any more booze en route to Jamaica.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ZR_sSZR1g

 

[whitelion]

Lot of flying threads appearing.

You off on your hols soon?

 

[Bozza]

Lot of flying threads appearing.

You off on your hols soon?

The tidy/messy one is an old one that has just been bounced...

...which reminded me of this video I saw just last night.

 

[kingcole]

I proper get into it.

I'm a self certified air miles whore which means I can often travel in the front on the plane and the use First Class lounges with minimal expense.

There is nothing like spending £17.50 on tax and spending airmiles earned just on a monthly shop at Tesco and a few quid spent on the right credit card. And then guzzling down £100 worth of champagne before you board!

 

[Bozza]

I proper get into it.

I'm a self certified air miles whore which means I can often travel in the front on the plane and the use First Class lounges with minimal expense.

There is nothing like spending £17.50 on tax and spending airmiles earned just on a monthly shop at Tesco and a few quid spent on the right credit card. And then guzzling down £100 worth of champagne before you board!

I do likewise with Virgin, primarily through...

1. Using the Virgin black Amex/Visa cards for EVERYTHING we buy
2. Doing all groceries and petrol shopping at Tesco, and converting Clubcard Points to Virgin miles when they have a boost on the conversion rate

...which has saved us many thousands on flights. In fact, that's not strictly true, as I couldn't see me paying cash for the whole family to fly Upper Class, so it allows us to travel in a way that we otherwise wouldn't.

I know there are various sites dedicated to this stuff, but a thread on NSC might be useful to help others become miles whores.

(£17.50 on tax? Where the hell are you flying - can't be long haul as the APD for non-economy fares is in 3 figures for a start!)

 

[dazzer6666]

I proper get into it.

I'm a self certified air miles whore which means I can often travel in the front on the plane and the use First Class lounges with minimal expense.

There is nothing like spending £17.50 on tax and spending airmiles earned just on a monthly shop at Tesco and a few quid spent on the right credit card. And then guzzling down £100 worth of champagne before you board!

Usually this for me too, although depending on arrival time and work requirements when I get there. Typically travel for work trips on Saturday or Sunday afternoon/evening (whether East or West) and almost always long haul so a couple of hours in the fantastic T5 BA First lounge on the champagne, then more on the plane, watch a film or two then sleep for the rest of the flight (pop a melatonin tablet). Never been drunk though, just pleasantly 'relaxed'.

Not sure how you spend £17.50 on tax though ? Typically £250 or more on top of the Avios for a long haul flight ?

BA Amex card is brilliant for collecting airmiles, and you get a free companion ticket every year providing you spend enough on it. This, coupled with the Avios I get from my work trips mean I can usually get business/first flights for holiday trips too.

 

[PWA]

I like to drink in the terminal and always have a beer to hand on the flight.
Relaxes me.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

With people seeming more confrontational these days, the stress additional security seems to put people under and more people getting p1ssed I just don't bother, I couldn't handle Shazzer and Kev Babes singing "Who let the dogs out" on a flight to Tenerife if I'd already had a few pints

 

[Ernest]

The way the airlines are cutting back especially in economy with free ale I doubt the days of getting legless and being carried off a plane will last much longer, even some airlines are now cutting back on the freebies for first and biz class passengers

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Normally I just have a beer and/or red wine. Craft is now appearing on flights. I did get accidentally shitted on a flight to Tokyo a few years ago though. Immigration was amusing..... "can you lift your sunglasses and look into the camera please Sir" And Tokyo isn't a city you want to arrive in drunk.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

On long haul my default position is to get quietly, gently pissed. A couple of gin and tonics and then 2 or 3 of those little bottles of wine usually does the trick.

 

[happypig]

not a drop. I usually drive to the airport and hire a car on holiday.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I try not to drink on a flight now after getting waaaay to drunk on a flight to LA sitting at the bar with [MENTION=6625]Badger[/MENTION].

Ended up throwing up numerous times opposite a British Olympian who didn't look happy - then had the suffer a 6 hour drive when landed.

 

[kingcole]

Usually this for me too, although depending on arrival time and work requirements when I get there. Typically travel for work trips on Saturday or Sunday afternoon/evening (whether East or West) and almost always long haul so a couple of hours in the fantastic T5 BA First lounge on the champagne, then more on the plane, watch a film or two then sleep for the rest of the flight (pop a melatonin tablet). Never been drunk though, just pleasantly 'relaxed'.

Not sure how you spend £17.50 on tax though ? Typically £250 or more on top of the Avios for a long haul flight ?

BA Amex card is brilliant for collecting airmiles, and you get a free companion ticket every year providing you spend enough on it. This, coupled with the Avios I get from my work trips mean I can usually get business/first flights for holiday trips too.

£17.50 is the one way tax for something they call reward flight saver. For domestic or Euro flights.

I forgot who we were playing but a couple of years ago we flew to Mancheter. Got sozzled in the first lounge. Just paid £17.50 each way plus 4500 miles.

On the way back we was delayed over 2 hours, so drunk loads more in the lounge coming home and got 250 in compensation!

I collect in the following ways...

BA Black Amex x 2 (gives 1.5 miles per £1 spent or 3 miles spent on BA plus a companion flight each year as long as you spend £10k on the card). £195 annual fee per card. We have 2 cards and me and misses.

Lloyds Avios Duo x 2. These just have a £28 annual fee but are great for abroad as no foreign currency fees. If you use the Amex card you get 1.25 miles per pound. If you use the Mastercard you only get 1.25 miles per £10. But this beauty comes with an upgrade voucher each year as long as you spend £7. This reduced the miles require for a flight to say Bangkok in business to about 90k down from 165k.

Tesco bank account. This one is handy as it's the only one I know of where you can earn points (via clubcard) on debit card spends. It's a measly 1 club card point for an £8 spend but they can mount up rapid if you may things like self assesment taxes and VAT on it.

Business Gold Amex: Between £5k and £10k a month goes on this and these convert at £1/ Point which also convert at the same rate to airline milage prgorams. Again, save them unless you need them for a speical promo

Tesco: Don't do the auto convert. You can convert to BA or as Bozza said to Virgin, but this advise if for both. As now and again there are special offers. So hoard your clubcard vouchers until such an offer comes along.

Buying online. Bit like the better know cash back sites but instead of cash, you earn miles. The BA one is called gate 365 and Virgin is called Shops Away. You access them both by logging into your relevant airline. All the big stores are on there. In fact I don't buy online unless it's via one of these. The earning rates can vary from 2-20 miles per £1 spent.

Hotel Spend: I try and use Hilton or Raddison as I have climbed the status ladder with these two. If you don't use your points for free hotel stays they can be converted to miles. Hilton don't have to be posh. For away footy games I try and find a Hilton Hampton. They are about the same price as a Premier Inn, usually in great locations and always have a free breakfast.
If I can stay at a Hilton or Raddison I book through booking.com but always access via Virgin's Shops away for additonal earning.

There are plenty of multi earning opportunities too. For example, Tesco Direct is also on both BA's and Virgin's portal. Earn from clicking through. Also earn your clulbcard points and earn again by paying with the right credit card.

Finally, there is the flying!

Airlines reward you in two ways. The first is status (BA is Blue, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Virgin is Red, Silver, Gold).

Each time you take a flight you will earn tier points that give you status. These expire after a set period. Usually a year. You also earn miles (or Avios as BA call them) which are you currency to spend on flights.

In addition. Both BA and Virgin have a program for businesses who can earn business miles. BA's is called On Business.

Status gets you a number of perks. I'm in the BA camp. Silver gets you access to business class lounges and you can select your seat at the time of booking without a fee.

Gold also gets you into First Class lounges and has additonal reward availability when looking to redeem some miles.

All tiers earn you extra miles when you travel. There are other token benefits but not worth mentioning.

You don't earn tier points on reward seats so the only way to climb the ladder is by buying a flight, which can look frightenting cost wise. But there are ways to make it a whole lot cheaper.

For example. Log onto BA or Virgin and price up a business class ticket to LA. At the wrong time it will cost around £5000. If you actually stumped this up you would earn 280 tier points on BA (you need 1500 for gold and 600 for silver) and will earn you between about 20,000 and 35000 miles depending on your status. Mental money.

Now go and book an itinary from somewhere close by in Europe when they have a sale on. Amsterdam and Dublin are great for this.

Instead of booking (forgive the use of airport codes) LHR to LAX. Book AMS to LHR to JFK to PHX to LAX. And the same on the way back.

I've booked an iteinary like this many times for less than £1000 (harder now due to the weak euro but £1200 is still very possible)

This itinary would earn you 720 tier points. As you awarded tier points based on the distance of each leg flown. Crudly it's 40 tier points for under 2000 miles and 140 for over 2000. If you are changing in the USA for the West coast you need to ensure the you get a 2000 leg in otherwise you lose out. Don't for example stop in Chicago on the way to LA as ORD to LAX in under £2k miles.

So one trip like this will get you to silver in one hit. Do it twice and have a jolly to somewhere on the continent and you are gold.

I then spend my miles on trips to europe where the £17,50 one way taxes apply. Coupled with silver or gold status this bargain price not only gets you away, you will have fast track security, lounge access, free seat selection, free baggage and use of first/buisness class check even when in the back of the plane.

For my long haul when travelling with someone I always use one of our companion vouchers. This means you only pay the miles for one person. I always try and go First rather than business on these to get the biggest bang for my buck.

Did Rio last year with a companion voucher. Instead of 480,000 Avios it only cost 240,000.

What you are saving is hard to calculate as I would never be paying for a first class ticket on this route anyhow. But it can cost nearly £10k in some instances.

FWIW I value my Avios as 1p each, but you can get much more value, like in the above example if they are used well.

Finally, I'm on the other side of the coin to [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]. He sounds like he's in camp Virgin and I'm BA.

Personally, I prefer Virgin's Upper over BA's business (In fact I prefer nearly any airline's business over BA's) but with BA they are part of One World and you can get to a zillion more places with partner airlines and of course all of europe.

The partner airlines also make is easier to get the tier points. On the aforementioned trip to Rio we done a few internal flights in Brazil on LAM. Part of One World so earned miles and Tier Points.

Until recently I had family in Thailand. Instead of flying BA I prefer QATAR. Honestly, their Business is better than BA's First. And then there is the huge bar on some planes! But, by changing in Doha you are flying 4 x 2000 mile + legs instead of 2, so you get twice as many tier points. And they are usually cheaper too!

So sorry to hijack this thread with what might be my longest post. I'm quite passionate about flying. If anyone wants any advice, feel free to drop me a PM.

 

[dadams2k11]

£17.50 is the one way tax for something they call reward flight saver. For domestic or Euro flights.

I forgot who we were playing but a couple of years ago we flew to Mancheter. Got sozzled in the first lounge. Just paid £17.50 each way plus 4500 miles.

On the way back we was delayed over 2 hours, so drunk loads more in the lounge coming home and got 250 in compensation!

I collect in the following ways...

BA Black Amex x 2 (gives 1.5 miles per £1 spent or 3 miles spent on BA plus a companion flight each year as long as you spend £10k on the card). £195 annual fee per card. We have 2 cards and me and misses.

Lloyds Avios Duo x 2. These just have a £28 annual fee but are great for abroad as no foreign currency fees. If you use the Amex card you get 1.25 miles per pound. If you use the Mastercard you only get 1.25 miles per £10. But this beauty comes with an upgrade voucher each year as long as you spend £7. This reduced the miles require for a flight to say Bangkok in business to about 90k down from 165k.

Tesco bank account. This one is handy as it's the only one I know of where you can earn points (via clubcard) on debit card spends. It's a measly 1 club card point for an £8 spend but they can mount up rapid if you may things like self assesment taxes and VAT on it.

Business Gold Amex: Between £5k and £10k a month goes on this and these convert at £1/ Point which also convert at the same rate to airline milage prgorams. Again, save them unless you need them for a speical promo

Tesco: Don't do the auto convert. You can convert to BA or as Bozza said to Virgin, but this advise if for both. As now and again there are special offers. So hoard your clubcard vouchers until such an offer comes along.

Buying online. Bit like the better know cash back sites but instead of cash, you earn miles. The BA one is called gate 365 and Virgin is called Shops Away. You access them both by logging into your relevant airline. All the big stores are on there. In fact I don't buy online unless it's via one of these. The earning rates can vary from 2-20 miles per £1 spent.

Hotel Spend: I try and use Hilton or Raddison as I have climbed the status ladder with these two. If you don't use your points for free hotel stays they can be converted to miles. Hilton don't have to be posh. For away footy games I try and find a Hilton Hampton. They are about the same price as a Premier Inn, usually in great locations and always have a free breakfast.
If I can stay at a Hilton or Raddison I book through booking.com but always access via Virgin's Shops away for additonal earning.

There are plenty of multi earning opportunities too. For example, Tesco Direct is also on both BA's and Virgin's portal. Earn from clicking through. Also earn your clulbcard points and earn again by paying with the right credit card.

Finally, there is the flying!

Airlines reward you in two ways. The first is status (BA is Blue, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Virgin is Red, Silver, Gold).

Each time you take a flight you will earn tier points that give you status. These expire after a set period. Usually a year. You also earn miles (or Avios as BA call them) which are you currency to spend on flights.

In addition. Both BA and Virgin have a program for businesses who can earn business miles. BA's is called On Business.

Status gets you a number of perks. I'm in the BA camp. Silver gets you access to business class lounges and you can select your seat at the time of booking without a fee.

Gold also gets you into First Class lounges and has additonal reward availability when looking to redeem some miles.

All tiers earn you extra miles when you travel. There are other token benefits but not worth mentioning.

You don't earn tier points on reward seats so the only way to climb the ladder is by buying a flight, which can look frightenting cost wise. But there are ways to make it a whole lot cheaper.

For example. Log onto BA or Virgin and price up a business class ticket to LA. At the wrong time it will cost around £5000. If you actually stumped this up you would earn 280 tier points on BA (you need 1500 for gold and 600 for silver) and will earn you between about 20,000 and 35000 miles depending on your status. Mental money.

Now go and book an itinary from somewhere close by in Europe when they have a sale on. Amsterdam and Dublin are great for this.

Instead of booking (forgive the use of airport codes) LHR to LAX. Book AMS to LHR to JFK to PHX to LAX. And the same on the way back.

I've booked an iteinary like this many times for less than £1000 (harder now due to the weak euro but £1200 is still very possible)

This itinary would earn you 720 tier points. As you awarded tier points based on the distance of each leg flown. Crudly it's 40 tier points for under 2000 miles and 140 for over 2000. If you are changing in the USA for the West coast you need to ensure the you get a 2000 leg in otherwise you lose out. Don't for example stop in Chicago on the way to LA as ORD to LAX in under £2k miles.

So one trip like this will get you to silver in one hit. Do it twice and have a jolly to somewhere on the continent and you are gold.

I then spend my miles on trips to europe where the £17,50 one way taxes apply. Coupled with silver or gold status this bargain price not only gets you away, you will have fast track security, lounge access, free seat selection, free baggage and use of first/buisness class check even when in the back of the plane.

For my long haul when travelling with someone I always use one of our companion vouchers. This means you only pay the miles for one person. I always try and go First rather than business on these to get the biggest bang for my buck.

Did Rio last year with a companion voucher. Instead of 480,000 Avios it only cost 240,000.

What you are saving is hard to calculate as I would never be paying for a first class ticket on this route anyhow. But it can cost nearly £10k in some instances.

FWIW I value my Avios as 1p each, but you can get much more value, like in the above example if they are used well.

Finally, I'm on the other side of the coin to [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]. He sounds like he's in camp Virgin and I'm BA.

Personally, I prefer Virgin's Upper over BA's business (In fact I prefer nearly any airline's business over BA's) but with BA they are part of One World and you can get to a zillion more places with partner airlines and of course all of europe.

The partner airlines also make is easier to get the tier points. On the aforementioned trip to Rio we done a few internal flights in Brazil on LAM. Part of One World so earned miles and Tier Points.

Until recently I had family in Thailand. Instead of flying BA I prefer QATAR. Honestly, their Business is better than BA's First. And then there is the huge bar on some planes! But, by changing in Doha you are flying 4 x 2000 mile + legs instead of 2, so you get twice as many tier points. And they are usually cheaper too!

So sorry to hijack this thread with what might be my longest post. I'm quite passionate about flying. If anyone wants any advice, feel free to drop me a PM.

My god, I wasn't aware of any of this. Thanks for the Info, think me and the Mrs will be sitting down with a bottle of red doing some research tonight. I think this post needs a thread if it's own [emoji112]

 

[Bozza]

My god, I wasn't aware of any of this. Thanks for the Info, think me and the Mrs will be sitting down with a bottle of red doing some research tonight. I think this post needs a thread if it's own [emoji112]

[MENTION=15277]kingcole[/MENTION] clearly works hard at this and is a different level from me, but even using a Virgin Atlantic Amex card and buying groceries and fuel from Tesco can equate to Premium or Upper flights pretty regularly, particularly if you are able to travel outside of school holidays.

I imagine the same is true for Avios / BA also, but Virgin suits us for the trips we typically take as a family right now.

Last Summer, for example we all went to Florida Upper Class, which included my Mum as a 70th birthday present to her. The drive-through checkin at Heathrow and Virgin's Clubhouse are a very nice way to start a holiday!

 

[LamieRobertson]

I'd need to be drunk to get on a plane in the first place ....I don't fly anywhere

 

[dazzer6666]

£17.50 is the one way tax for something they call reward flight saver. For domestic or Euro flights.

I forgot who we were playing but a couple of years ago we flew to Mancheter. Got sozzled in the first lounge. Just paid £17.50 each way plus 4500 miles.

On the way back we was delayed over 2 hours, so drunk loads more in the lounge coming home and got 250 in compensation!

I collect in the following ways...

BA Black Amex x 2 (gives 1.5 miles per £1 spent or 3 miles spent on BA plus a companion flight each year as long as you spend £10k on the card). £195 annual fee per card. We have 2 cards and me and misses.

Lloyds Avios Duo x 2. These just have a £28 annual fee but are great for abroad as no foreign currency fees. If you use the Amex card you get 1.25 miles per pound. If you use the Mastercard you only get 1.25 miles per £10. But this beauty comes with an upgrade voucher each year as long as you spend £7. This reduced the miles require for a flight to say Bangkok in business to about 90k down from 165k.

Tesco bank account. This one is handy as it's the only one I know of where you can earn points (via clubcard) on debit card spends. It's a measly 1 club card point for an £8 spend but they can mount up rapid if you may things like self assesment taxes and VAT on it.

Business Gold Amex: Between £5k and £10k a month goes on this and these convert at £1/ Point which also convert at the same rate to airline milage prgorams. Again, save them unless you need them for a speical promo

Tesco: Don't do the auto convert. You can convert to BA or as Bozza said to Virgin, but this advise if for both. As now and again there are special offers. So hoard your clubcard vouchers until such an offer comes along.

Buying online. Bit like the better know cash back sites but instead of cash, you earn miles. The BA one is called gate 365 and Virgin is called Shops Away. You access them both by logging into your relevant airline. All the big stores are on there. In fact I don't buy online unless it's via one of these. The earning rates can vary from 2-20 miles per £1 spent.

Hotel Spend: I try and use Hilton or Raddison as I have climbed the status ladder with these two. If you don't use your points for free hotel stays they can be converted to miles. Hilton don't have to be posh. For away footy games I try and find a Hilton Hampton. They are about the same price as a Premier Inn, usually in great locations and always have a free breakfast.
If I can stay at a Hilton or Raddison I book through booking.com but always access via Virgin's Shops away for additonal earning.

There are plenty of multi earning opportunities too. For example, Tesco Direct is also on both BA's and Virgin's portal. Earn from clicking through. Also earn your clulbcard points and earn again by paying with the right credit card.

Finally, there is the flying!

Airlines reward you in two ways. The first is status (BA is Blue, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Virgin is Red, Silver, Gold).

Each time you take a flight you will earn tier points that give you status. These expire after a set period. Usually a year. You also earn miles (or Avios as BA call them) which are you currency to spend on flights.

In addition. Both BA and Virgin have a program for businesses who can earn business miles. BA's is called On Business.

Status gets you a number of perks. I'm in the BA camp. Silver gets you access to business class lounges and you can select your seat at the time of booking without a fee.

Gold also gets you into First Class lounges and has additonal reward availability when looking to redeem some miles.

All tiers earn you extra miles when you travel. There are other token benefits but not worth mentioning.

You don't earn tier points on reward seats so the only way to climb the ladder is by buying a flight, which can look frightenting cost wise. But there are ways to make it a whole lot cheaper.

For example. Log onto BA or Virgin and price up a business class ticket to LA. At the wrong time it will cost around £5000. If you actually stumped this up you would earn 280 tier points on BA (you need 1500 for gold and 600 for silver) and will earn you between about 20,000 and 35000 miles depending on your status. Mental money.

Now go and book an itinary from somewhere close by in Europe when they have a sale on. Amsterdam and Dublin are great for this.

Instead of booking (forgive the use of airport codes) LHR to LAX. Book AMS to LHR to JFK to PHX to LAX. And the same on the way back.

I've booked an iteinary like this many times for less than £1000 (harder now due to the weak euro but £1200 is still very possible)

This itinary would earn you 720 tier points. As you awarded tier points based on the distance of each leg flown. Crudly it's 40 tier points for under 2000 miles and 140 for over 2000. If you are changing in the USA for the West coast you need to ensure the you get a 2000 leg in otherwise you lose out. Don't for example stop in Chicago on the way to LA as ORD to LAX in under £2k miles.

So one trip like this will get you to silver in one hit. Do it twice and have a jolly to somewhere on the continent and you are gold.

I then spend my miles on trips to europe where the £17,50 one way taxes apply. Coupled with silver or gold status this bargain price not only gets you away, you will have fast track security, lounge access, free seat selection, free baggage and use of first/buisness class check even when in the back of the plane.

For my long haul when travelling with someone I always use one of our companion vouchers. This means you only pay the miles for one person. I always try and go First rather than business on these to get the biggest bang for my buck.

Did Rio last year with a companion voucher. Instead of 480,000 Avios it only cost 240,000.

What you are saving is hard to calculate as I would never be paying for a first class ticket on this route anyhow. But it can cost nearly £10k in some instances.

FWIW I value my Avios as 1p each, but you can get much more value, like in the above example if they are used well.

Finally, I'm on the other side of the coin to [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION]. He sounds like he's in camp Virgin and I'm BA.

Personally, I prefer Virgin's Upper over BA's business (In fact I prefer nearly any airline's business over BA's) but with BA they are part of One World and you can get to a zillion more places with partner airlines and of course all of europe.

The partner airlines also make is easier to get the tier points. On the aforementioned trip to Rio we done a few internal flights in Brazil on LAM. Part of One World so earned miles and Tier Points.

Until recently I had family in Thailand. Instead of flying BA I prefer QATAR. Honestly, their Business is better than BA's First. And then there is the huge bar on some planes! But, by changing in Doha you are flying 4 x 2000 mile + legs instead of 2, so you get twice as many tier points. And they are usually cheaper too!

So sorry to hijack this thread with what might be my longest post. I'm quite passionate about flying. If anyone wants any advice, feel free to drop me a PM.

Some great tips there. Do you think you'd get a LAX ticket for £1200 in business though going via Amsterdam ? If so that type of routing well worth considering.

I'm in camp BA rather than Virgin too, but only because I try to stick to one airline (or oneworld partners) if I can as it's little use having miles/points spread around. Singapore, Virgin, Emirates, Air Canada plus others all arguably better in-flight in business class and if cheaper I'll use them (company policy).

I've got a BA Amex card for the points/companion voucher and we try to put as much spending as we can through it, a Hilton branded Barclaycard (points, plus instant Gold status with Hilton Honors, meaning almost guaranteed upgrades at Hilton hotels even on reward stays, free breakfast, lounge access, free wifi, late checkout etc) and a BA Gold Card (for now anyway) which significantly bumps up the miles collected on non-reward flights and gets me into First lounges at most airports.

Best use (or value) of miles always seems to be for first or business class long haul or business class europe, particularly if you have a companion voucher.

 

[ManOfSussex]

I always did get properly on it then an alcohol disaster, totally self inflicted and fully deserved, hit me whilst in transit 5 years back and I was refused entry to my connecting flight and slept rough in departures until the following morning. It wasn't pleasant to say the least. Suffice to say I have never drunk a drop on a flight since, though as I haven't flown for a couple of years it doesn't matter too much.

 

[dadams2k11]

[MENTION=15277]kingcole[/MENTION] clearly works hard at this and is a different level from me, but even using a Virgin Atlantic Amex card and buying groceries and fuel from Tesco can equate to Premium or Upper flights pretty regularly, particularly if you are able to travel outside of school holidays.

I imagine the same is true for Avios / BA also, but Virgin suits us for the trips we typically take as a family right now.

Last Summer, for example we all went to Florida Upper Class, which included my Mum as a 70th birthday present to her. The drive-through checkin at Heathrow and Virgin's Clubhouse are a very nice way to start a holiday!

I will have to look Into this, I was not even aware this went on. All I need to do is get a Virgin Atlantic Amex card, do my groceries shopping and petrol at Tesco. I assume if the Mrs does the same it doubles?