There are some lovers and someā¦ not lovers On here.
I love it. Pay for it. Use it all the time.
2025 was a slow down year for me:
But still slowly pushing to get to the 1 million km mark!
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Just got back from a fab 3000 mile road trip. We drove from Nottingham to Stockholm and back, the aim being to drive to the ABBA Museum.
Chunnel > Antwerp (2 nights) > Usedom (7) > Ferry Rostock to Trelleborg > Karlskrona (2) > Stockholm (5) > Lund (2) > Ćresund crossing > Copenhagen (3) > Great Belt and Little Belt crossings > OsnabrĆ¼ck (1) > Amsterdam (3) > Ferry Hook of Holland to Harwich.
Highlights were:
Antwerp - hadnāt visited since 1988 and I wonāt leave it so long next time.
PeenemĆ¼nde (V2 rocket development) and Prora (āStrength through Joyā holiday resort - though the place had an oppressive feel to it).
ABBA Museum (including sitting in the Arrival helicopter) and Vasa Museum in Stockholm, and the Stockholm Tunnelbana art trail. Plus the Ā£39 bill for two pints of pale ale in a bar with sexually explicit murals. Weāll go back, but fly for a long weekend.
Ā£350 of parking fines in a car park Iād prepaid, because the parking warden couldnāt tell the difference between the one O and the three 0s on my number plate.
Lund - lovely city, considering another visit (fly to Copenhagen and take a direct train over the Ćresund crossing).
Copenhagen - Tivoli Gardens were unexpectedly gorgeous in the sun.
Paying 250.9 Euro cent for unleaded.
Amsterdam - the amusing Museum of Sex, and the roof terrace at Nemo.
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The main question: what card did you use for purchases etc while abroad?
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I did. Iāll spare you the video though 
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The automated flagging of posts for approval on this forum is ludicrous.
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Weāre heading to Disneyland Paris next month.
Iām ruined financially, so to make the most of it, has anyone any recommendations or tips for while weāre there?
Iām going to look at booking some restaurants soon as I believe they get filled very quickly.
Arrived in Majorca today and we are on the south of the island in a place called Colonia Sant Jordi which is a small resort compared with the rest of the island. Seems a nice and relaxing place 
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Weāre off to St Lucia tomorrow, via London. This has been not helped by the fact that I was, in London, for work this week 
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Apparently Iām not allowed to tell you @Carlo1460
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My sister goes to Japan for her honeymoon later this year and Iām wondering what wedding gifts I can get to make it amazing for her.
Any small cute gestures folks know of thatāll make her trip that bit extra?
A bag full of Yen.
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Itās amazing. Iāve done Tokyo to Kyoto & back a few times. Highly recommended to see the Japanese scenery from the comfy seat of a high speed train. Itās about Ā£100 per seat.
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Iām not sure Tokyo is on their list, Kyoto sounds familiar, they want scenery and traditional stuff.
I did see some furoshiki online so whatever I do gift, will be wrapped in one of these.
Japan House in London has a beautiful shop, with some stuff available online if you donāt want to make the trip.
If she likes poetry and especially if theyāre heading out into the countryside, perhaps something to read on the flight.
One Robe, One Bowl and Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf are two really nice anthologies of the poetry of Zen master Ryokan.
Sky Above, Great Wind is a very readable biography.
All reasonably priced on Amazon.
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Not a direct answer to your question, but you should strongly consider going via Madrid and redeeming via Iberia. I think some of the other Oneworld partners have redemption options too that would be more favourable than BA.
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I think if you look at reward flights with the origin being the UK youāll still be hit with UK taxes and charges. (Donāt quote me on that though!)
I believe the way to do it is to book each leg separately. Iām off to Costa Rica via Madrid in a couple of months. The redemption via Madrid was so much cheaper - even with having to pay for a flight from the UK to Spain.
Oh you donāt need to use the Iberia website at all and thatās a good thing because itās kind of like the BA website, but somehow slightly worse!
I assume your Avios sit in the BA Club right? In which case youād use the BA booking process to book your tickets. Just select Madrid, Helsinki etc. as the departure location.
And of course make sure youāre going via Book > Book a Flight with Avios and not via the cash fare route.
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Try planepoints app on iOS. Worked well for me.
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The Avios app is decent, and you can set alerts now. Although the app will only show BA metal flights.
For partner availability, youāll need to check via the BA website (Book > Book with Avios).
Japan is a very popular route and usually gets booked up as soon as flights are loaded.
For London>Tokyo, thereās currently zero Club World flights available in December on BA mettle. Thereās premium economy on 1st/3rd Dec. Economy 2/3/6/7/8/9th.
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Popular destination, popular time of the year.
Maybe consider booking it and if something better comes up youāre Ā£35 per person out of pocket (cancellation fee).
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