Lonely Planet has launched a massive flash sale of its popular eBooks, all of which are just $9.99 until Sunday – that a saving of up to 70%!
Lonely Planet eBooks are digital versions of its trusted travel guides. They come in PDF, ePub and Mobi formats, and you can read them on tablets, smartphones and Kindles.
The sale ends at midnight this Sunday 29 October and there is a maximum of 10 eBooks per customer.
To access the sale in Lonely Planet’s online store, click here.
Singapore Airlines’ eagerly awaited new cabin products, which will be revealed at global launch events in Singapore over 2-4 November, will debut on the Singapore-Sydney route in December.
The introduction of the new cabin products – in first class suites, business, premium economy and economy class – follows four years of development involving extensive customer feedback. They will initially be fitted on five new A380s that the airline has on firm order with Airbus.
The first of the A380s with the new products will operate daily from 18 December as flight SQ221, departing Singapore at 2040hrs and arriving into Sydney at 0740hrs the following day. It will return as flight SQ232, departing Sydney at 1215hrs and arriving into Singapore at 1735hrs. Additional destinations for the new products will be revealed in the coming months.
Sydney was the launch destination for Singapore Airlines’ first Airbus A380 – which was also the world’s first commercial A380 flight – exactly 10 years ago yesterday, so it’s fitting that the new products will again debut on this route.
Stay tuned next week for the big reveal of the new cabins, and good luck to anyone trying to secure award seats to test them out!
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Qantas and Emirates announced more changes to their partnership today, with bad news for travellers who were looking forward to flying between Australia and New Zealand with Emirates.
From March 2018, Emirates will stop flying from Melbourne and Brisbane to Auckland, retaining only its daily A380 flights between Sydney and Christchurch.
At the same time, Qantas will increase the frequency of its services between Australia and New Zealand, adding seven new return flights per week between Melbourne and Auckland and two return services per week between Brisbane and Auckland.
Some of these services will be up-gauged from a 737 to a much more comfortable A330.
Qantas’ new trans-Tasman services will carry Emirates code and will connect to Qantas’ London services via Perth or Singapore and Emirates’ services between Australia and Europe via Dubai.
Emirates will reportedly reschedule some of its Australian flights to Dubai to create a better spread of departure times throughout the day.
Emirates is evaluating potential new direct services between New Zealand and Dubai.
These latest changes are included in the airlines’ pitch to regulators to extend their joint venture for another five years.
Tickets for Qantas’ new Tasman services will be available progressively from tomorrow.
Emirates customers with existing bookings impacted by the Tasman changes will be re-accommodated onto Qantas services or will be given the option to change their flights.
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National Australia Bank has become the second major bank (after ANZ) to axe its American Express companion cards.
NAB announced today that it will stop issuing AMEX cards on 13 November 2017, with all existing NAB-issued AMEX cards to cease working on 21 February 2018.
This affects customers who hold the following Visa and AMEX companion card products: NAB Qantas Rewards, NAB Qantas Rewards Premium, NAB Velocity Rewards and NAB Velocity Rewards Premium.
NAB blames the new credit card regulations that kicked in on 1 July for this change. Under the new laws, margins on bank-issued credit cards have been slashed, with bank-issued AMEX cards the hardest hit.
On 13 November, the Visa earn rates on the NAB Qantas Rewards Premium Card and the NAB Velocity Rewards Premium Card will also change, moving from 0.5 points per $1 (capped at $5,000 per month) to 1 point per $1.50 spent (i.e. 0.66 points per $1) with a $3000 monthly cap (after which you earn a measly 1 point per $3).
NAB customers will surely be disappointed that their AMEX cards are being shut down. If that’s you and you’re now looking for a new AMEX card (which is essential to get the most from your everyday spending), here are my top picks:
Click the links above to read our reviews of these great cards, all of which offer bonus points for signing-up 🙂
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Qantas will be restricting access to its Melbourne domestic Qantas Club while it conducts extensive renovations to the space.
Qantas is upgrading both the Qantas Club and the adjacent Domestic Business Lounge in Melbourne, with work commencing in November and expected to last until late 2018.
The construction is set to be completed in stages to allow ongoing lounge access during the renovations. However, the key question that remained unanswered until now was how Qantas would deal with the reduced capacity in the lounges (which already get quite full in peak hours).
I had hoped that Qantas would set up a temporary space elsewhere to deal with the overflow, but unfortunately that won’t be happening. Instead, Qantas has confirmed it will deal with the capacity problem by restricting access to the Qantas Club (but not the business lounge) during busy periods.
Specifically, gold-level frequent flyers and Qantas Club members will be unable to bring in a guest to the Qantas Club from 5am to 9am and from 3pm to 7pm. This will apply on weekends as well as during the week.
I asked if children will be allowed in with members / gold frequent flyers and Qantas advised that it will accommodate children where possible.
Travellers with a single-entry lounge pass (such as those offered with credit cards) also won’t be permitted into the lounge during these times.
At all other times, the normal guest access policy applies, which means that entry by guests and single-entry pass holders will be “subject to lounge availability”.
If you’re a Melbourne-based, paid-up Qantas Club member and thinking of asking for compensation, you may not have much luck as guest access is not a guaranteed benefit of membership.
Are you flying through Dubai International Airport but stuck without lounge access?
It can be a nightmare dealing with that busy airport, especially when you’re exhausted after a long flight – which is probably the case if you’re flying economy!
The good news is that Emirates allows weary passengers to pay their way into the airline’s lux business and first class lounges, regardless of status or class of travel.
The price isn’t cheap – US$100 for four hours’ access to the business class lounge or US$200 for the first class lounge.
But that could be worth it to break up a long journey or as a treat yourself.
The Emirates lounges at Dubai airport are enormous and broken up into a number of sections.
For example, there’s a new(ish) champagne bar at the business class lounge at Concourse B, where Emirates has partnered with Moet & Chandon to serve some of its top champagnes paired with canapés.
Emirates ‘champagne bar’ business class lounge – Dubai
The first class lounge offers a la carte dining, a day spa, a wine cellar, a cigar lounge and a nap area in various themed sections.
Emirates first class lounge in Dubai
With all that capacity, it’s not surprising that Emirates is opening up access to fee-paying customers. While the price may be a bit steep for travellers on a budget, I’m sure some people will find it good value – especially if you can eat and drink your money’s worth!
All Emirates Skywards members and their eligible guests who are travelling on the same Emirates or Qantas codeshare flight (i.e. a Qantas flight with an EK flight number) can pay to access a lounge. Note that you must be a Skywards member, so make sure you join before your flight takes off.
If you’re already a Skywards gold or silver member (and therefore already have access to the business class lounge), you can upgrade to the first class lounge for an extra US$100.
Children 2 – 12 years pay half the rate, while infants under two years get in for free.
For more information about Dubai Airport lounges, click here.
Melbourne airport’s first premium lounge accessible to all airline passengers opened today.
Located in the international terminal, Marhaba Melbourne will appeal to travellers who don’t already have lounge access provided by their airline and who are happy to stump up A$65 to get through the doors.
Several airlines (we don’t know which) are also reportedly in discussions with Marhaba to provide complimentary access to select passengers.
The lounge has seating for 200 guests and provides shower facilities and a quiet zone.
Buffet cuisine is on offer along with a selection of drinks, including Australian wines and a Hudson Coffee barista bar.
Passengers wishing to use the Marhaba lounge can make online bookings at www.marhabaservices.com or simply walk in and pay for access on the spot.
The lounge is open 7 days a week from 6am to midnight.
In mid-July, Qantas offered 2,000 points for members to update their contact details, saying that participants would receive their points in six weeks – a deadline that has now passed.
Several readers contacted me this week to advise that they haven’t received their points yet, and when I checked my account, neither had I.
You’ll recall that this offer was live for only a couple of days. It appeared to be an incentive for members to update their contact details so that Qantas could implement 2-factor authentication for online logins.
Since the offer was live for such a short period of time, it makes me wonder if it was meant to be publicly available at all. Qantas often sends targeted offers to some of its customers, and this could have been one of them – except due to a glitch or mistake, Qantas made the URL available to everyone.
I thought at the time that 2,000 points was overly generous and would be very expensive for Qantas if it was taken up by many people (and judging from the response to my post, it was).
There has been some speculation that Qantas wouldn’t honour the deal, and with the six-week deadline for crediting the points having passed, it looked like that could be the case.
Yesterday, I reached out to Qantas to find out what’s going on. I asked them if they intended to honour the deal and they assured me that they would. Their exact words were that “the points will be transferred to members’ accounts within the next 7 days”.
So, keep an eye on your account balance and let’s see what happens.
UPDATE
Quite a few readers reported getting their 2,000 points on Friday, 8 September (as did I). If your points don’t arrive soon, you may wish to lodge an online enquiry with Qantas.
