News & offers: ex UK business class from £1166, Curve card update, If it’s Boeing I ain’t going?

Ex UK business class fares

There are a few random business class fares from the UK which are good value if you take into account the money you spend positioning from the UK for an ex Eu flight. Here is a selection of some of the best:

Heathrow- Mahe, Seychelles £1704 (Qatar)

• Travel: Mon- Thursday. Blackout dates apply
• Minimum stay: 3 nights
• Maximum stay: 1 month
• Transfers: Unlimited
• Stopovers: 1 free allowed
• Refundable: For a fee
• Changeable: For a fee

You can book direct with Qatar Airways here.

TAP to US from £1161 return (one way also available)

• Manchester – New York £1166
• London – New York £1308
• London – Boston £1458
• Manchester to Miami £1449
• London to Toronto £1470

Some of the best deals recently to the US if you are not bothered about oneworld flights have been with TAP Air Portugal. TAP are rapidly expanding their routes to the US and have some fantastic new seats on their A330 neos. The good news is that you can use these fares one way as well which could be handy if you can’t get a mileage redemption both ways or have some other need for a one way. One way flights are normally very expensive.

Star Alliance member TAP has an impressive new business class product on their A330-900s but the catch is that at the moment some routes have their old business class product. This comes in a 2-2-2 configuration with angled lie-flat seats.

The routes that ave the new seats are:

• Lisbon–Miami five times weekly.
• Lisbon-San Francisco: Five services per week from 10^th June 2019
• Lisbon-New York (JFK): Twice weekly
• Lisbon-Toronto: Three times a week
• Lisbon-Boston: Six times a week from 7^th July 2019
• Lisbon-Newark: Three times a week

The rules are:

• Book by: no date but won’t last long!
• Travel: After 1 June 2019
• Transfers: Yes 6 free in Europe
• Stopovers: 1 free and 1 at €75
• Refundable: For a fee
• Changeable: For a fee

You can book direct with TAP or use Skyscanner to find the cheapest price online

If it’s Boeing I ain’t going?

Boeing seems to be lurching from one crisis to another at the moment. First came the B787 engine issues (although these were the fault of Rolls Royce the engine manufacturer rather than Boeing themselves, then the Boeing 737MAX crashes. At present, it looks like the MAX will be grounded until September 2019 at the earliest.

Now another potential defect has been found on the B787 with a switch that turns on fire extinguishers in the engines in the event of a fire. This switch has failed in a small number of instances. The switch also severs the fuel supply and the hydraulic fluid to prevent flames from spreading. The switch is prone to sticking after long term heating.

The FAA, the US Aviation regulator, has issued an airworthiness directive, (mandatory instructions to air operators) announcing that the problem is “likely to exist or develop in other products of the same design” and that “the potential exists for an airline fire to be uncontrollable”. Instead of grounding aircraft, they have ordered airlines to check the switch every 30 days.

Curve Card Update

Curve Card lost a lot of its appeal when Amex dropped them only a short period after Curve finally linked up with Amex again. After this, it was hard for some people to get any real benefit from it if your spend is primarily Amex based. Curve Card’s primary benefit for most people is the ability to link a number of Visa and Mastercards and not be charged foreign transaction fees when spending abroad or buying anything in foreign currency (like ex EU flights) most banks and credit card company charge fees of around 3% on foreign spending.

The ability to manage everything via the app is also useful as it will instantly show what you have spent in a transaction (handy when abroad) and if you lose your card you can instantly lock it from the app.

I have mine linked with both my Virgin AtlanticMastercard and my Lloyds Avios card. There are limits on foreign transactions for the basic card so you may need to do your sums and work out if the Metal or Black card are a better option as they offer unlimited fee-free foreign transactions. Both these cards carry a fee.

Curve now seems to be trying to make the card more appealing by offering 1% cashback with Curve cash. This offers 1% instant cashback at a selection of shops and retailers. Curve Cash introduces an extended list of 100+ retailers including Tesco, TFL, Uber, Amazon, Netflix, Pret a Manger, Carrefour, Aldi, Boots, McDonald’s and many, many more across the UK and Europe. The rewards are loaded instantly into your Curve Cash card and can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

This in part makes up for the hefty fee on the Black and Metal versions which many people signed up to thinking that they would use it with Amex.

It varies by the type of card you have (different rules apply if you had the card before Febraury 2018):

• Curve Blue (free): 1% instant cashback on up to three pre-selected retailers for 90 days.
• Curve Black: 1% instant cashback on up to three pre-selected retailers indefinitely
• Curve Metal: 1% instant cashback on up to six pre-selected retailers indefinitely

If you apply using the code VIMI4 you can get £5 of credit to spend as you wish on your first transaction with the card. You can find more details and apply on the Curve website here.