The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 24th March

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• PerkyPat says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:28

  Air France are offering a voucher valid for one year, which is refundable after that year, no option to receive cash on the website, flights were supposed to be on Thursday. Thoughts? Havent tried the phone line yet.

  • memesweeper says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:52

    I had a similar issue with a hotel in France that wanted to offer a voucher. I declined and asked for a full refund, by email. After seven days of being ignored I asked Amex to recharge it and the money was returned in under 48 hours.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 11:51

    Legally if they cancel or change any flight on your booking eu261 says you can choose to take a full refund.

    Really, really don’t understand why you would accept any other promuse particularly a delayed payout promise.

    I have no sympathy for airlines treating their customers this way. The airlines are far more able to raise cash than the customers they are abusing. The airlines will also survive better in the medium and long term than many ‘little people’.

    • PerkyPat says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:54

      Good advice, but how do you make them do this, people reporting spending hours on the phone to be told no refunds….

      • Charlieface says:

        24 Mar24 March 12:26

        Credit card S75 or chargeback

        • Lady London says:

          24 Mar24 March 13:25

          and don’t hesitate. And don’t delay. Just keep evidence you made a reasonable try at getting your rights so you can explain to your insurance (first) or cardco that you’ve made reasonable attempts.

• Emma says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:32

  EuropCar car hire advice sought if possible – thank you in advance!

  I am currently without a car and suddenly need to hire one at the eleventh hour. Would any Headforpoints readers be able to point me in the right direction in terms of hiring through EuropCar or any other provider/aggregator where I might get an okay deal. I am complete novice really when it comes to car hire, and I’d have to hire an automatic (being from down under). I’m London-based, but need to drive down to the mum-in-law in the home counties.

  Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.

  • Rhys says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:34

    If you’re a key worker Hertz are providing rentals for £1/day

  • jack says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:40

    Would avoid Europcar – seem to hear of a lot of bad experiences. I’ve used Avis/Hertz many times with no issue, tried Sixt for first time last year too which were fine.

    Be aware of the excess with any car hire – also don’t take their insurance to reduce the excess; there’s far cheaper alternative, just google car hire excess insurance – good article on moneysavingexpert comes up which lists all the different options.

  • PerkyPat says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:49

    Government saying don’t meet family members who don’t live with you. Appreciate she may be alone and worried, but we have to get serious about this.

    • Lady London says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:55

      +1 unless you’re going to drop groceries outside her door or arrange other help for her ideally without contact then why are you going.

      You’re not off work cos this is a family holiday folks. Have you seen what’s happenjng in Italy? We’re on the same curve.

• Andrew says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:35

  BA have cancelled my upcoming (OptionTown booked) domestic in early April. They have invited me to call them to rebook or refund (guess my OptionTown gets recredited).

  Now, I’m not that bothered one way or another about the cancellation.

  Given that the lines are outrageously busy, what happens if I do nothing? Automatic voucher or pass recredit, or do I lose out altogether?

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 11:57

    I’d demand % cash back according to the number of flights on the variant you bought.tbh iight even have a go at getting the rest of the flights refunded pro rata.

• Riccatti says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:39

  Field update: landed in Heathrow this morning from an Asian destination.

  No temperature checks. People touching the same handrails and faces freely, all old folk grabbing the same handrails, flight after flight, not sure if travelator handrails are ever cleaned, forget special cleaning.

  Paddington empty, but at 7 am Tube was getting full, people standing.

  Nearly no one wears a mask. Some try to improvise with scarfs and hoodies, effectiveness of which is near-zero if you have a targeted sneeze.

  • jack says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:46

    Same experience yesterday. BA usually use air bridges at Berlin airport – for what ever reason they didn’t yesterday so we were crammed like sardines on a bus to the airport terminal… Like at Heathrow, no temperature checks or much attempt at social distancing.

    Medical and scientific advice in most Asian countries is to wear masks – seems to be a cultural difference. It seems pretty obvious that a clean (regularly changed) mask provides some protection and helps prevent spreading viruses – this is the advice in Asian countries which seem to have a better grip on this than America/Europe where things are quickly deteriorating…

    • Aston100 says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:19

      Have you seen any masks for sale anywhere?

      • Andy says:

        24 Mar24 March 11:50

        Would need an N100 mask to be effective at filtering viruses I’ve read. The N95 offer some protection to others if an infected person wears the mask.

      • meta says:

        24 Mar24 March 14:12

        Yes. My local shop sells masks for £5 a piece.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        24 Mar24 March 15:13

        If you’re not used to wearing a mask then they encourage you to touch your face more to adjust them and scratch unfamiliar itches. Like all PPE they also need to be removed in a certain way to prevent infection at that point (and it’s an unnatural way – even healthcare workers have got this wrong both in Covid19 and SARS – and some paid the ultimate price).

        So wearing a mask in Tesco would probably help your local dentist who’s used to wearing them all day, but would increase your risk, at least in the short term.

    • Paul Pogba says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:39

      The media lied and told the public wearing masks wasn’t effective in preventing the virus:
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51243881
      https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-can-face-masks-really-protect-you-11931121

      While the evidence suggested they are:
      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20161764
      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30229968

      They wanted to preserve supplies for medical staff but the corollary is that trust in the media falls. I’d argue that panic buying in the face of assurances that there is plenty of food is further evidence that the public don’t know who to trust.

  • Riccatti says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:57

    I was shocked how invincible old folk behaves: touching each and every handrail at Heathrow travelators (where hundreds gone and touched the same thing before, which have definitely not been cleaned).

    Also looks like everyone relaxed about being back in the UK — without realisaiton this is not very safe place to be. Virus lives fine on surfaces in chilly and cold temperatures. In Asian airports, heat, air humidity and plenty of strong sunlight actually limit transmission.

    • kk says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:13

      i’ve had an argument with a pensioner too. he thinks he is totally fine doing this and that and will never have the chance to pass to someone else.

      • Optimus Prime says:

        24 Mar24 March 11:16

        “If we keep social distancing, we’re giving in to the virus!”

  • Andrew says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:58

    No problem whatsoever about touching safety rails or escalator belts.

    Unless you are a really dirty so and so and put your hands on your face or mouth afterwards without washing them. There’s no shortage of places to wash your hands at Heathrow, all with touch free access.

    • Riccatti says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:19

      No brains whatsoever…

      They do touch face multiple time, then put hands back on handrails.

      Heathrow toilets are empty, no one comes there just to wash hands.

      Travelators from terminals to Tube, HEX — no toilets there.

      • Andrew says:

        24 Mar24 March 11:31

        Repeatedly touching your face and touching communal surfaces is a lifestyle choice.

        It’s a bit like, when I was younger and worked on the front counter of a bank. We’d get the deposits in from the local prisons which included “recovered” notes and coins. The notes that weren’t too badly stained with faeces, urine or menstrual fluids were simply put back into circulation. Coins simply wiped with paper towel and recirculated.

        Then there were the deposits from “old Mr Slack Bladder”, leave them out to dry and then back into circulation.

        I’d go out at lunchtime and see people use the ATM, then hold those very notes that had been recirculated between their teeth whilst they frob with their handbags and wallets.

        People are dirty. Wash your hands.

        • Andy says:

          24 Mar24 March 11:52

          This gave me a good laugh today 😂😂😂

        • The Original David says:

          24 Mar24 March 14:20

          Lol, I really hope that story is true!

        • Polly says:

          24 Mar24 March 15:47

          If true, just made me gag.. awful thought..never want to hold a note again!

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 12:02

    And we’re importing this.

    We’ll have to hope Boris’s original idea about spreading it quickly to gain herd immunity quickly will work then. Despite it calculating to kill 500,000 more people that didn’t need to die. When we don’t even really know if being attacked by it gives any immunity at all.

    I don’t want this sadness to be any more than it is.

• Always_flying says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:45

  I am 115 tier pints away from getting a GUF1 voucher with a couple of months before my executive club year ends, under normal circumstances I would have no problem getting the required points, but am now wondering what to do, will BA extend my executive club year? (i’m guessing not)

  The only other options are I guess is to do a couple of 60pt flights, or loose the voucher!

  Thoughts or ideas most welcome.

• SL says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:56

  UK to Dubai using Krisflyer on Lufthansa/Swiss what are the taxes/fees like if anyone has done this?

• MKB says:

  24 Mar24 March 11:24

  Our 2-for-1, Club World, Avios booking to Male tomorrow evening is still running, so I’ve had to do a cancellation.

  Thanks for the tips on this forum as to how to do it online.

  BA had written yesterday to say that our booked vegetarian food would not be provided and that we should bring our own food. For those still able to travel, it’s understandable that there may be catering shortages and options may be limited, but surely the sensible thing would have been to default to an option that most people can eat, like a veggie pasta?

  Considering that our contract was for business, not economy, and they say they could no longer provide a significant part of that service, I will try asking for a refund of the cancellation fees, (in a few weeks when they are not snowed under), but I expect there’s zero chance of that, and it’s too small an amount for a legal battle.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 11:38

    If you had flown then in normal times the way to deal with this is to raise a complaint with the crew or on a complaint on the website after the flight if a promised service was not available or unacceptably provided such as filthy seat.

    Quite likely you’d have got 5000 avoid or something each.

    And No to your other suggestion. Just because there’s a lacto-gluto-pesco-vegetarian on the flight I don’t want my dining choice restricted to bamboo noodles.

  • Nick_C says:

    24 Mar24 March 12:12

    ” surely the sensible thing would have been to default to an option that most people can eat, like a veggie pasta?”

    A meat based dish is something that most people can eat.

    Airlines are doing the best they can on those flights that are still operating. The catering companies will be operating with reduced staff and possibly reduced supplies. The only choice I would expect if I was flying tomorrow would be take it or leave it, whatever cabin I was in.

    BA staff are putting their lives at risk through close contact with people flying back from holiday. I would be happy to simply be able to complete an essential journey. People are dying for pete’s sake.

    • MKB says:

      24 Mar24 March 12:47

      A strange argument. You seem to be saying (i) in the dire circumstances, you should be happy just to get home — agreed — yet (ii) defending the policy that if catering is provided it must be a meat-dish. The same argument works the other way: in the circumstances, if catering is provided, meat-eaters should just be happy with whatever they are given, even if that does not contain meat. At least then nearly all passengers are catered for rather than 80-90%.

      • blenz101 says:

        24 Mar24 March 13:11

        Well at least 80-90% of people will now be happy with their meal rather than have the protein element removed or substituted for a minority who have been warned in advance. Vegetarians can eat meat if push comes to shove.

        In any event my understanding is that it is deli style boxes which don’t need to be plated / handled on board being provided. Presumably some finger sandwiches, muffin / kitkat etc. prepared in a sterile environment.

        If there is anything above this then I’m glad that remaining meat in the supply chain is being used up rather than dumped.

      • Nick_C says:

        24 Mar24 March 16:50

        I’m not saying the airline should be getting to provide a meat based meal. They should be trying to provide a nutritious meal that is suitable for as many people as possible. They need to work with the resources they have. They shouldn’t be expected to go out of their way to deal with special diets at this time.

• jack says:

  24 Mar24 March 11:29

  Most people touch their face or mouth without realising it, doesn’t make them a dirty so and so.

  • Lady London says:

    24 Mar24 March 11:39

    It makes them normal, but perhaps not taking enough care right now.

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