reward seat sale,miles booster and buy miles, 20% bonus and all that shizzle now on.  Don't moan later that you are a few miles short

Seems it was Sept 9 last year Michelle.

Great thanks

Can anyone remember when Virgin Atlantic tend to have their Reward Seat Sales and also their extra mile sales (when they add 25% to miles purchased and miles booster purchases)? Thanks in advance.

For anyone who visits the USA regularly, Wells Fargo Bank allow non-residents to open a checking account.  It comes with a debit card, so you can transfer money over to the account from the UK using www.transferwise.com to get the best exchange rate (just under spot usually) and then withdraw $ from Wells Fargo branches in Vegas (3 or 4 different branches I believe) or withdraw $ at any ATM (daily limits apply).  If you had a big win over there, you'd be able to deposit the winnings at the Wells Fargo branch and then instruct Transferwise to transfer back to the UK and get an unbeatable rate.

In order to open the account, you have to visit one of their branches in person with 2 forms of ID (1 has to be your passport and the other has to have your address on it).

I've been looking around online and ringing a few places up for a trip to Vegas.
Looking at going 30th October for 7nights, direct flights from Manchester and preferably staying at Planet Hollywood.
The prices I've been given so far are roughly around £950-£1100 that's without resort fees aswell.
Does this seem a reasonable price or is there any hidden gem websites out there with good deals?
Thanks

That's expensive.  Try to source flight and hotel separately if you can, unless you find a really good deal.  Try www.skyscanner.net for flights and www.lowcostusa.co.uk and www.trivago.co.uk for hotels.  Maybe consider flying from Manchester but via Dublin for best flight prices.  You will need to price up Dublin to Vegas separately to Man to Dublin on Skyscanner to find the deals.

You're looking at £332 return from Dublin to Vegas with a stop at LGW - flight from LGW to Vegas is with Virgin Atlantic.  Just found this on www.skyscanner.net.  Obviously you need flight to Dublin from Manchester as well.  Hotels look really really expensive that week, so maybe there's something on there that week.

I've been looking around online and ringing a few places up for a trip to Vegas.
Looking at going 30th October for 7nights, direct flights from Manchester and preferably staying at Planet Hollywood.
The prices I've been given so far are roughly around £950-£1100 that's without resort fees aswell.
Does this seem a reasonable price or is there any hidden gem websites out there with good deals?
Thanks

That's expensive.  Try to source flight and hotel separately if you can, unless you find a really good deal.  Try www.skyscanner.net for flights and www.lowcostusa.co.uk and www.trivago.co.uk for hotels.  Maybe consider flying from Manchester but via Dublin for best flight prices.  You will need to price up Dublin to Vegas separately to Man to Dublin on Skyscanner to find the deals.

I'm not sure if anyone has highlighted this already, but from 31st Oct 2016 Norwegian Air will be flying direct from Gatwick to Vegas twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays).  Prices look really good.  Just over £400 return for their Low Fare + option which includes seat reservation, 1 x 20kg bag and meal.  Their Premium cabin is about £900 return.  They will be using their new Boeing 787 Dreamliners on this route.

http://www.norwegian.com/uk

OK just an idea folks, but I am self-employed and registered as such with HMRC (and I pay only £2.50 per week to get my full NI stamp).  I only work part-time and I do admin, accounts and marketing for a couple of small business owners and I work approx 10-15 hours per week on this from home.  So my insurer is told I am self employed, which is true.  However it wouldn't be too difficult to get a group of poker players together, who then set themselves up with HMRC as self-employed and invoice each other for work completed?!  Doesn't have to be admin.  Could be cleaning, gardening, driving etc.  Just a thought. 

Nice. We've now gone from insurance fraud to full on tax fraud.

Where will it end?

How is it tax fraud?  I work for 2 people who own small businesses on a freelance basis, therefore I am classed as self-employed.  I haven't suggested anyone commits tax fraud.  If people have certain skills and can do work for each other, they can quite legitimately invoice each other for the work carried out.  They likely wouldn't earn more than the personal tax allowance in any given year, so there is no tax to pay anyway.  No tax fraud here.

Well yeah if they actually do the work of course it's fine.

Sounded to me like you were suggesting they set up a (fake) company purely for the purpose of submitting (fake) invoices to each other so that they could claim they had a job. You also suggested registering the company with HMRC (the tax people).

I'm not saying anybody is ever going to find out because they're not but to do one slightly iffy thing to make something else a bit iffy seem less iffy doesn't really solve the problem it just moves it.

If you're self-employed and only work part-time (as I do) there is no point setting up a company. You simply ring HMRC and tell them you are self-employed.  They will ask you when you started your self-employment and the nature of your business.  You could be a driver, a cleaner, a consultant, a driver, a personal trainer, a life coach and you only have to work part time in order to be classed as self-employed.  You don't need a company to be self-employed.  You are effectively a sole trader.  There's nothing fake about it.  You then provide services to your clients, send them an invoice and receive payment.  You can then pay £2.80 per week Class 2 NI to get your stamp and you can tell your bank and your insurance companies that you are self-employed.  The only down side is that you will have to do a self assessment tax return each year. 

I'm not saying it would be right for everyone but it's something to think about perhaps for some people on here.

My wifes car got stolen 5 years ago and the game we had with the insurance company was ridiculous. They were trying their level best not to pay just because my wife works one day in one location and 2 days in another. She put on her policy that she uses the car to commute to work. They tried to say she was using the car for business purposes. The car was actually stolen from home.

It took 4 months to get paid out and this was for only 18k.

At my last renewal I rang my existing insurer and told them that I was now self-employed and although I worked from home, I occasionally had to travel to my client's business addresses to collect paperwork etc.  They amended my policy from Social, Domestic & Pleasure (inc commuting) to Social, Domestic, Pleasure and Business.  I was expecting the price to go up, however it stayed exactly the same.

OK just an idea folks, but I am self-employed and registered as such with HMRC (and I pay only £2.50 per week to get my full NI stamp).  I only work part-time and I do admin, accounts and marketing for a couple of small business owners and I work approx 10-15 hours per week on this from home.  So my insurer is told I am self employed, which is true.  However it wouldn't be too difficult to get a group of poker players together, who then set themselves up with HMRC as self-employed and invoice each other for work completed?!  Doesn't have to be admin.  Could be cleaning, gardening, driving etc.  Just a thought. 

Nice. We've now gone from insurance fraud to full on tax fraud.

Where will it end?

How is it tax fraud?  I work for 2 people who own small businesses on a freelance basis, therefore I am classed as self-employed.  I haven't suggested anyone commits tax fraud.  If people have certain skills and can do work for each other, they can quite legitimately invoice each other for the work carried out.  They likely wouldn't earn more than the personal tax allowance in any given year, so there is no tax to pay anyway.  No tax fraud here.

OK just an idea folks, but I am self-employed and registered as such with HMRC (and I pay only £2.50 per week to get my full NI stamp).  I only work part-time and I do admin, accounts and marketing for a couple of small business owners and I work approx 10-15 hours per week on this from home.  So my insurer is told I am self employed, which is true.  However it wouldn't be too difficult to get a group of poker players together, who then set themselves up with HMRC as self-employed and invoice each other for work completed?!  Doesn't have to be admin.  Could be cleaning, gardening, driving etc.  Just a thought. 

Housewife/husband?

Hoping to be in about 2 months time

Me too! 

I'm looking to buy some US dollars at spot rate if anyone is selling?

Before anyone applies for black card, pls let someone you know (or someone on this board) refer you, win-win

I have a black card but no idea how to refer a friend!  Do I get extra miles?  How do I go about it?

Vegas car hire ??
Does anybody have any links please ?
It's looking like we are going in January 80 k air miles plus £456 direct with Virgin for me n the gf
Plan is Vegas sat night
Head to Phoenix via the Grand Canyon Sunday
Mon to Thursday noon in Phoenix st a friends probably some time in talking stick casino
thurs tea time to Saturday Vegas

Try Alamo.co.uk. Need to book via uk site to get the correct insurance. Go via Quidco to get approx 10% cash back. Upgrade to gold to get multiple drivers, tank of fuel and no excesses.