The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 24th March

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• shd says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:01

  Have an flight the middle of next week, booked with OnBusiness points. It’s now showing as cancelled. BA.com is wanting to offer me a travel voucher, OB bookings are supposed to be flex so I don’t want a voucher, I want my points and my cash component back!

  In MMB I can’t even click on “Cancellation options for this booking”, it’s greyed out, so it appears the trick H4P talks about for avoiding being offerered a voucher won’t work … unless there’s another way?

  Obviously calling BA is something I’d rather not have to do right now

  • jamie says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:12

    Tried calling BA several times but you just get cut off even before the messaging is finished. Is there any number that doesn’t do this??

    • Oh! Matron! says:

      24 Mar24 March 09:19

      I know that there’s been some backlash around Branson, but, I whatsapp’d Virgin yesterday and got a response back a couple of hours later. Didn’t get the response I was hoping (My flight in may has yet to be cancelled) but I didn’t have to spend hours on the phone.

      How BA and Virgin treat their customers really should be a study one day…

  • L.P says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:11

    I had the same issue last week. As a stop gap I changed the dates for much later in the year hoping that by then it will be easy to cancel

    • shd says:

      24 Mar24 March 12:25

      Can’t even access “Change date/time of my flight”, *ALL* four options under Change booking in MMB are greyed out.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 13:00

    If you want to travel on same route in future consider taking a later date rebook as this protects you against increases in cash and points prices.

    Otherwise phone them it is y o u r choice, not the airlines, if you take a refund or reroute. They cannot force you to take a voucher you are entitled to cash.

    If you really can’t use the workround posted extensively in cimments and articles here then call On Business in their oenig hours

• Spaghetti Town says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:06

  I live in Wales and this time of the morning you’d see lots of planes on their way to Heathrow and into Europe, really weird not seeing any vapor trails at all.

• Froggitt says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:18

  WANTED: Single economy flight home from Melbourne/Australia, that isn’t charging six grand. Any ideas as to where to look?

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:20

    If time is not a factor, have you thought of sailing on a cargo vessel?

    There’s part of me that’s actually serious 🙂

  • MattB says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:43

    How much is a return?

  • memesweeper says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:42

    Qatar — still flying and non-stupid prices even one-way

    • Rob says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:12

      As stated elsewhere, book a return and it will drop to a very modest sum. Just like always.

  • Grant says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:55

    If you are quick (and can get yourself to SYD), QF1 and QF2 is running via DRW instead of SIN for the next few days, then direct to LHR.

  • Nick_C says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:55

    Book a return? Google flights are showing returns to London leaving Sat for less than a grand.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 13:07

    QR is still running a couple of flughts including MEL DOH LON before everything shuts out of Oz. Look at buying a return abd just not using the return half.

    Alternatively see if any seats available for avoid/points or miles, make sure available before you consider buying any if you’ve not fit enough. Avios can be used to buy at seats if you do find points seat availability

    British Consulate may know of flights available otherwise use online methods or phone (skype to save cost as waitng time costs)

• Simon says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:54

  Au secours! CURVE & Mastercard 3D-secure.

  My apologies for this OT and, indeed, if a workaround has been mentioned previously in the comments. Would anyone have a workaround for the following?

  I have been trying to pay the seagulls with Curve — which I have done for years — but for the first time ever I am being asked for Mastercard 3D Secure information “by opening my app”? I opened my Curve app – though I suspected that this was the wrong app to open — and nothing came up in terms of generating a secure code or the like.

  Could any HFPers tell me what I am doing wrong?

  Thank you! 🙂

  • Genghis says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:59

    Happened to me on Sunday. Initially nothing appeared on the app then after some delay a notification came up. I tried again, got the notification and accepted the payment. I guess The app is a bit buggy.

    My wife tried too and failed completely. She has an old iPhone, if that makes a difference.

    • Genghis says:

      24 Mar24 March 09:59

      Make sure phone fully updated and app updated.

      • Simon says:

        24 Mar24 March 10:06

        I saw this late – but thanks again, Genghis. 😉

    • Simon says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:05

      Many thanks, Genghis.

      A random Google search has just brought up that Curve implemented their new 3D secure feature within the app *today*. I also noticed a new update for the Curve app went live on 19th March. So, I have just updated the app, went to make my seagulls payment again, and, hey presto, a message does now appear in the Curve app asking “Approve Payment?” or words to that effect. I approved the payment and all went through okay this time.

      So, updating the Curve seems to be the workaround, if that helps your wife at all, Genghis, or anyone else. Sorry if this is old news, as I say.

      Many thanks again. 😉

      • Genghis says:

        24 Mar24 March 10:10

        Lol. I tried to implement my own advice for my wife to no avail.

        • Genghis says:

          24 Mar24 March 10:11

          Will try in a few days’ time

        • Simon says:

          24 Mar24 March 10:25

          🙂

• Trevor says:

  24 Mar24 March 09:56

  Hi folks.
  We’re booked LHR into Chicago on May 22nd. I have been patiently waiting for this to be cancelled so I can get a refund as I don’t really want a voucher. This morning I get an email from BA apologising that our 10:25 flight had moved to 12:10. Eh? Do they really expect the flight to go? Anyway I guess I’ll just hang on to nearer the date for it to be cancelled. I assume the voucher offer will still be there even if they do fly?
  Thanks
  Trev

  • mr_jetlag says:

    24 Mar24 March 09:59

    others can comment but I’ve used such schedule changes as a trigger to request cancellation, usually for daytrips where the meeting happens 2hrs after landing… any delays meaning flight no longer serves its purpose etc.

    of course balance that against wait times this week.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:16

    My flight to Chicago leaving on 7th May was cancelled yesterday.

    Give it a bit more time.

    • Trevor Gardiner says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:37

      Thanks, will do. On further inspection, our booking was moved not to a later flight, but the dep time was just changed. Same flight number…

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 11:46

    If the flight number is changed then hat’s the same as a cancellation and you can claim a full refund.

    Personally I wouldn’t touch a voucher and would go for a refund as soon as any change by the airline on the booking allows me to.

    I am not worried at all about the voucher bevomjng worthless n the case of BA. I just worry about how much BA’s prices will have inflated when this settles down so if I take a voucher I could be forced to.spend it again with BA but have to pay a lot, lot more for s flight using the voucher or not be able to book and lose it completely.

    So I’d be refunding asap as that is the most flexible solution

• Aston100 says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:18

  On this site, nasty comments, insults, personal attacks and such like seem to have increased in the last couple of days. Moderation needs to be increased IMO.

  • Rhys says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:20

    Yep, working on it. Doesn’t help that Rob is teaching his kids!

    • sloth says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:05

      he could teach his kids how to moderate…

  • John W says:

    24 Mar24 March 12:14

    +1. – I read daily but not commenting much. Always found the knowledge of members very helpful and enjoy the site for its constructive suggestions and everyone’s enthusiasm for travel !
    Last month or so I have noticed this has been replaced with attacks on individuals and negative comments . Would also like to return to the better days ..,

  • Craig says:

    24 Mar24 March 12:15

    Agreed, very disappointing to see some of the comments since this daily thread was introduced.

  • Charlieface says:

    24 Mar24 March 12:26

    Must say it was mostly on one person, and some argue he deserved it. I also think we should tone done either way)

    • Cat says:

      24 Mar24 March 12:46

      Well no, you might disagree with him (and I do on this one), but he’s an integral part of our community and always has been. Harry has always been massively helpful whenever one of us has been completely stuck, with large amounts of money, or a keenly awaited holiday, on the line.

      Either way, agree with him, or disagree with him, there’s absolutely no need for the sort of playground-esque ganging up on him that has been going on for a while here. There’s just no need for it.

      If you disagree, do so respectfully, because you’re not 12.

      • Polly says:

        24 Mar24 March 15:42

        Yes we have all benefitted at some time or other from Harry’s OTs etc, and yes he may have gone off message with the virus, but being polite costs nothing. Noticed a couple of heated spats last couple of days, and felt l had to put my Now Now hat on. It’s a pity when we all need to help each other out in these strange new times.It’s in the spirit of the site, so let’s keep it positive.

        • Shoestring says:

          24 Mar24 March 16:22

          tbh none of the comments remotely bothered me in the slightest as I do understand it’s all anonymous (I never went to a HFP meet yet), people are stressed, obvs me calling a mild virus for the majority a pussycat virus was digging a bit of a hole as some people will die prematurely and that’s very bad for them & their friends & families, posters swearing at me always raises a chuckle so no problem on that front and at least you got it off your chest & didn’t kick the cat instead (gotta look after cats)

          Covid-19 is a very serious problem, particularly for the economy and future poverty

        • The Cat says:

          24 Mar24 March 16:37

          I agree – definitely don’t kick the cat.

        • yorkieflyer says:

          25 Mar25 March 00:19

          One of the reasons I’ve largely abandoned flyertalk is the hostile atmosphere, certainly as compared to here.having said that I would ask everyone to give a little more space to a contrary view to their own

• Andrew says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:23

  Following on from the thread the other day with the ending of Virgin in store offers for Waitrose & Morrisons, they are ending tomorrow night for my employee perks too:-

  “We wanted to let you know that our In-Store Rewards offers for Morrisons and Waitrose are coming to an end, tomorrow at midnight. This means you will no longer be able to earn WOWPoints on your purchase by shopping with your linked card.”

  Morrisons has already quietly disappeared from Airtime Rewards.

• Iain says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:26

  HFP team

  Given all the nasty comments and people like “Tommy Gunn” it might be worth rethinking the forum. A very useful addition and much wanted from the community but perhaps a login, valid email address etc would help. Hate to say it but people might think twice and you could also ban people / email addresses.

  • Rhys says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:27

    Yep, in hand

    • Brasov says:

      24 Mar24 March 17:14

      Could you move the daily chat part to twitter, and paste in the best posts into the next day’s article?

      • Shoestring says:

        24 Mar24 March 17:21

        a lot of us don’t do Twitter, if that is part of the plan…

  • Optimus Prime says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:37

    Yeah and you can also choose to ignore some users

    • Lady London says:

      24 Mar24 March 13:21

      what Cat said above.

      When the situation changes so that the whole population can be tested a d not just those I’ll or thought to have been exposed the overall low rates of infection and negative outcomes that were mentioned early by SS and other rational people are likely to be proven to be correct if by then we’re still talking about the same unmutated virus.

      It’s just maths and rationality.

    • Pangolin says:

      24 Mar24 March 13:44

      Response to Lady London:

      But SS is still claiming (see his posts from a couple of days ago) that Covid-19 has only moderate affects on 99.9% of people who get it, which is clearly false, and downright irresponsible to keep posting stuff like that.

    • Cat says:

      24 Mar24 March 14:00

      I too suspect Harry might be right about the larger number of cases LL (because we’re being rubbish about testing everyone who should be tested), but I’m certain he’s wrong about the 99.9% Pangolin, I agree with you (especially since doctors are saying 19% are severe or critical, and I generally listen to them).
      It’s still possible to say that you think he’s being irresponsible, without resorting to behaving like a playground bully and making this forum unpleasant for everyone.

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