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The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 25th March

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We have decided to run this new daily chat thread on Head for Points.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the defacto repository for random comments and questions.  It is unlikely that the news flow will be so big over the next few weeks that we will need many ‘Bits’ articles, however.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are stuck at home self-isolating, we want the HFP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as its keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

We will review how this works after a few days:

we could potentially split it into a daily travel and non-travel chat thread

we may install some basic forum software

we may start suggesting potential topics for daily discussion

Let’s see how it goes.

We will do a separate article in a day or so about how we plan to run the site over the next few weeks.  Take care!

Category

General

Comments (177)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Cat says:
    25 Mar25 March 10:40

    Hey, I’m supposed to be flying to the Seychelles with Ethiopian Airlines on 4th April. I’ve spoken to them, and they were willing to offer me a voucher, which is not a route I want to go down, for obvious reasons. I’ve held off doing anything about it, and focussed on cancelling hotels, as. I was sure they were going to start cancelling flights, and was expecting to be able to get a full refund if that happened. They don’t seem to be cancelling flights (perhaps for cargo reasons), so I probably need to get off my backside and do something about it.
    I paid with my BA AMEX PP, and have a Plat. Is the best route an S75 chargeback, or should I try to claim on Plat insurance?
    Sorry, I know this is a daft question, and I should know the answer to this.
    Thanks all!

    • Rob says:
      25 Mar25 March 10:44

      If the flight goes you need to take the voucher or you’ll lose the lot. Worth speaking to Amex too – can you technically get into the Seychelles? Compulsory quarantine probably counts as ‘being allowed in’. Not sure how S75 would help if the flight goes as Ethiopian has done what it promised to do.

      • Cat says:
        25 Mar25 March 10:49

        Ah, yes, I should have said – the Seychelles has barred entry for anyone coming from UK or the EU, except returning residents (not that I was planning to go and risk bringing Coronavirus to a country with very limited healthcare facilities, plenty of people who are HIV+ and a hefty heroin problem).

    • Shoestring says:
      25 Mar25 March 10:46

      I don’t think S75 would work unless the flight is cancelled

      they might be sympathetic if the contract can’t be fulfilled if you are forbidden from flying so worth asking

      • Cat says:
        25 Mar25 March 11:04

        Ah, yes, I should have said – the Seychelles has barred entry for anyone coming from UK or the EU, except returning residents.

      • Cat says:
        25 Mar25 March 11:26

        OK, I’ve opened up an S75 chargeback case, I probably won’t find out whether it worked until after the flight has gone.
        Fingers crossed!

        • meta says:
          25 Mar25 March 13:29

          I would also submit a claim with Amex Plat. They might be quicker and you can always withdraw S75 dispute.

  • AJA says:
    25 Mar25 March 10:48

    Just heard that a neighbour on the 2nd floor of my block of flats (I am on the 7th floor) died on Sunday in hospital of Corona Virus! Am now in lockdown in my flat. Went out yesterday for a walk around the park, the first time since Saturday. Trying to stay calm. We are wondering what happens next.

    • Cat says:
      25 Mar25 March 10:59

      I know, it’s scary. I’ve been acutely aware for the last week that the borough I live in and the borough I work in have been jockeying for the position of coronavirus-capital of the capital, while I take a train between the two.
      Just keep washing those hands and stay at home. That’s all we can do.

      • AJA says:
        25 Mar25 March 11:04

        Thanks Cat. Fortunately I have access to outside space, I have 2 big terraces, one from lounge and one from bedroom so can open doors for fresh air and can still walk around those if I want some exercise, though I am not going to attempt to do a marathon! Am wondering if the building needs to be deep cleaned and how that is organised. Sent email to managing agents to ask. Fortunately have plenty of food so can sit it out for the next ten days not going anywhere.

        • Cat says:
          25 Mar25 March 11:10

          Sadly no garden, balcony or outside space for me at all. This is the downside of living in zone 1! I do have one hell of a view of the empty streets, and 40 storeys of fire escape to climb up and down, to stop myself from climbing up the walls though!
          Good luck with the managing agents.

  • Andrew says:
    25 Mar25 March 10:51

    I made a BA holidays booking for July and really changed my mind on going and would rather cancel it. I paid the deposit and some extra payments (to trigger the Amex Avios offer) if I ring them to cancel will I get the extra payments refunded (of course I understand the actual deposit is non-refundable).

    • Harry T says:
      25 Mar25 March 11:49

      I think you would get a voucher if the holiday is within the Book with Confidence period. You wouldn’t be entitled to a refund because you’ve changed your mind. If you cannot travel due to FCO advice, or they’ve cancelled your trip, that would be a much different scenario.

      • Stu N says:
        25 Mar25 March 21:21

        In normal course of things, deposit would be lost but additional payments are refunded. I did this when a sale fare was much, much cheaper than the flights I had booked.

        If you’re confident of using the voucher in future (both likely to book with BA and that BA will still be around in current form) I’d take that at the moment as should get everything back.

  • Don says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:02

    Tip for anyone calling BA.

    Had to cancel an avios 241 booking that was departing tomorrow. Couldn’t do the workaround online because it just had a message saying I had to call! Anyway I called up BA using their You First phone number before 7am. Got through in about 15 seconds.

    They say the number is reserved for those flying F, not sure how strict they are about enforcing that (my avios flight was in F).

    • Blob says:
      25 Mar25 March 11:39

      So you called YouFirst because you had a FIRST flight…..errrr top tip.

      • Don says:
        25 Mar25 March 11:55

        Jesus. I’ve been collecting Avios for years now, burned over a million miles and had never heard of You First until last week. Not a stretch to think there are others out there in the same boat. And worth a punt for non-F people who can’t get through to normal lines.

        • Lady London says:
          25 Mar25 March 13:08

          BA is quite capable of hanging up on you if you call the “wrong” line for your status level of class of travel. Sometimes they help anyway, sometimes they just say call the right line and hang up.

          Must be jolly useful to have access to YouFirst right now, so good if people who have a First leg on their trip get a reminder.

          • Shoestring says:
            25 Mar25 March 17:06

            I never got hung up on calling the Silver line (as a nothing/ Blue)

    • Joe Hodrien says:
      25 Mar25 March 17:13

      Thank you for this. I had NO idea You First existed. My redemption flight to NY in First was cancelled but I didn’t get an option to refund online – just a message to call (and you can’t get through). All sorted now – cheers!

  • Fraser says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:31

    Anyone know the score with Virgin Miles Booster? I have a US flight booked for early May using miles and PE upgrade voucher, and bought miles with the 30% booster offer (already paid but not yet received the miles).

    What happens if I either cancel or, more likely to preserve the voucher, rebook for a later date?

  • Mark says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:35

    Hi, are people still waiting for the extra 10,000 IHG Credit Card sign up bonus points? First lot of points has arrived in my IHG account and only 10,000 not 20,00 points are showing as an activation bonus…thanks!

    • xcalx says:
      25 Mar25 March 12:17

      I did spend on first statement = 10000 second statemant had the extra 10000. However Mrs xcalx hit the same spend targets got the 10000 in first statement and nothing since. Hope that helps LOL

  • Robert says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:36

    Does anyone know when the Darwin to Heathrow flight is expected?

  • Anon says:
    25 Mar25 March 12:02

    Anybody booked a flight through agents TravelUp and had experience of their customer service? Airlines obviously pushing people who booked with agents to go through them and want to know if they’ll be reasonable or if I will need to go S75 / Chargeback route?

    • Sloppy says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:54

      Haven’t been able to get through to them. sent email to admin , info email addresses 🙁 filled a form on their website as well. Have travel insurance but would attempt section 75 first

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

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