Raffles

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Other tips - if you're heading to Hong Kong or China, you can take advantage of the main anomoly of the award chart - that Europe 2 to HK / China is a lot cheaper than UK (Europe 1) to HK / China. First Class, for eg, is 50,000 miles + £340 compared with 70,000 miles + £480. You should start your trip in a Europe 2 country like Copenhagen or Milan (for eg - CPH-FRA-HKG) and pay for a cheapo return from London to CPH to start your trip. This is a bit of hassle but you save a lot of miles.

It is also worth noting which Star Alliance partnershave fully horizontal (ie BA-style) flat beds in business class. At the moment, you have SAA, Air New Zealand (fully flat on the LHR-LAX service) with Air Canada coming in next year. Thai is near enough flat, I think. The LH J seats are VERY slopey - you need to fly F if you want to fly flat. Other comments welcome.

In general, remember that the credit card companies have really tightened up in the last couple of years as default rates have risen. Make sure you cancel any other MBNA cards before applying, and don't apply for any other cards (or indeed credit of any sort) for a month or so before you apply.

Another tip - make sure, like MCS? say in the first post, that you sign up for a DC account before applying for the card. Do NOT let MBNA open an account for you, because you run the real risk that they will mess it up and you will a) not get your account, b) not get the miles or c) you get an account and the miles but MBNA will never tell you what the account number is!