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

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

Roosit says:

25 Mar25 March 12:08

Apologies if this was covered somewhere, happy to be pointed in the right direction: Regarding Eurostar tickets, what are the rules there? I was under the impression if my train is cancelled I should get a refund but if I cancel myself I can only get the e Voucher. It seems the only option in any case is actually e Voucher, is that right?
To be clear, I wouldn’t mind a voucher if it was my only trip but with more than one booked in the period that will now most likely be subject to travel restrictions, for specific events which will not be repeated in the allowed re-booking period, I would prefer to at least not have all of them in vouchers.
Thanks in advance!
- Tom says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 17:11
  
  In same boat with Eurostar – only being given option of eVoucher rather than the full refund.
AJA says:

25 Mar25 March 12:31

2020 Cancelled.

After careful consideration, we have decided that it is no longer in the best interests of everyone involved to proceed with 2020.

While we recognise that a lot of hard work has gone into preparing for 2020, if we’re honest it has turned into a bit of a sh*tshow and we feel it is best to just call it off.

We understand that some of you were looking forward to seeing what cruel and peculiar clusterf*ck of a disaster 2020 would throw up next. But on balance we believe it is probably best not to find out.

We will instead provide ticket-holders with a full refund or an exchange, and start afresh with 2021 on Monday.

Our plan is to deliver a more enjoyable year, similar say to 2016, which everyone thought was the absolute worst year of all time, but in retrospect was a f*cking walk in the park.

See you next year.

Management.
- Lady London says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 12:52
  
  Courage, mon enfant 🙂
  
  Sorry to hear about your downstairs neighbour. Understand that must have shook you up.
  - AJA says:
    
    25 Mar25 March 13:00
    
    Thanks! A bit too close to home for comfort. I am well though and didn’t have any direct contact with them but did use the same door to the building and the lift. The floors, doors and door handles and lifts and all surfaces that people touch are being disinfected with a bleach solution on an hourly basis. I pity the caretaker who has to do it though.
n_g says:

25 Mar25 March 12:57

Just got billed for my forthcoming year of AMEX Platinum and can’t see any justification for keeping it over the coming months.

Is there any obvious exist strategy that would allow me to temporarily ‘freeze’ until this all blows over?

I’ve got points that I’d obviously want to hold onto and I’m keen to get a large chunk of the £575 charge refunded electronically.

Any thoughts? Assume there are plenty of people in the same boat.
- Shoestring says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 13:01
  
  ask them about downgrade options
  
  Green is a good card to hold – £60/ yr – great Amex offers
- AJA says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 13:01
  
  Downgrade to the free AMEX rewards card? That will keep the MR acccount live.
- Rhys says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 13:07
  
  You can get a prorata refund on the annual fee. If you want to keep the MR points without transferring them out, then I suggest you apply for the ARCC card: https://headforpoints.com/2019/11/03/review-american-express-rewards-credit-card/
  Make sure you get the new card first before you cancel the Platinum
- n_g says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 13:12
  
  Thanks, was thinking of downgrading to Gold at the very least but not sure what the best way to go about it is. Apply for new card then cancel Platinum card or call them up and ask for them to downgrade me.
  
  Need to make a call on whether there’s anything worth keeping the Platinum card for before biting the bullet.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    25 Mar25 March 14:34
    
    I just rang them and they were happy to downgrade me to gold.
    - Harry T says:
      
      25 Mar25 March 15:07
      
      Will they downgrade to a gold charge card if you already have a gold credit card?
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        25 Mar25 March 15:12
        
        Yup now holding both (Credit to be cancelled when I get the spend bonus in June)
bill says:

25 Mar25 March 13:36

how would downgrading the card potentially effect travel insurance for any future trips that are already booked ?
AJA says:

25 Mar25 March 13:43

On the subject of possible airline bankruptcies I saw this joke that sums it up

Airlines: £20 – £40 to put your bag on our plane

Airlines: Does my flight have catering? Try our enhanced BoB service. It will be £5 per item.

Airlines: You want to sit in the Exit Row for more legroom? That will be £50.

Airlines: If you want to choose your seat (that you’ve already paid for) that will be anything from £70 upwards

Airlines:

Airlines: Oh no someone help us we are out of money!
- Anna says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 13:48
  
  You forgot:
  
  Airlines: That’ll be £700 for your free award flight please.
- Colin MacKinnon says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 13:58
  
  Better joke from a teenager yesterday:
  
  People used to cough to hide a fart, now they fart to hide a cough!
  - AJA says:
    
    25 Mar25 March 14:25
    
    🙂
  - AJA says:
    
    25 Mar25 March 15:32
    
    Well now that Prince Charles has tested positive there’s good news and bad news.
    
    The good news is he finally has a crown
    
    The bad news is it’s the wrong one……
    - Ben says:
      
      25 Mar25 March 16:38
      
      Prince Charles is isolating at Balmoral with Covid-19
      
      Prince Andrew is isolating at Windsor with Jennifer – 15
      - Henry H says:
        
        25 Mar25 March 16:56
        
        😂
      - AJA says:
        
        25 Mar25 March 18:49
        
        🙂
Anna says:

25 Mar25 March 13:45

Just spoken with my in-laws who are at the airport waiting to board their PER – DOH on Qatar. There are only two flights leaving today (Doha & Tokyo) and Australians are being refused boarding.
- Anna says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 13:46
  
  Also one of the DOH-MAN flights has been cancelled today so presumably they will have to move pax onto the other two flights?
- Harry T says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 15:09
  
  My brother is getting this flight on the 30th – earliest tickets I could get that weren’t 11k for his gf and him. The issue is he has to get there from Cairns…
- Lady London says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 16:57
  
  Is that due to the “no Australians must travel internationally?” that’s just been announced, or is there now a “No one can transit in DOH” ??
  - Anna says:
    
    25 Mar25 March 20:00
    
    Ban on Aussies leaving. All QR flights still seem to be going!
Naushiba Khan says:

25 Mar25 March 13:58

I have a trip at the end of the month booked via travelup to a country where the aispace is closed. I can’t get through to them. I do have travel insurance. Would the travel insurance frown that why isn’t travelup refunding or would they pay me back my ticket price irrespective? What I am trying to get to is that does travelup return my money, Qatar does or the travel insurance does? what avenues do I access in order of preferences 🙁
- Rob says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 14:30
  
  There is a thread on the BA board at Flyertalk over the non-performance of Travelup.
  
  I am guessing they have fired the bulk of their staff and so have no-one available to process your refund. If the company goes bust then your credit card company will repay you.
  - Colin MacKinnon says:
    
    25 Mar25 March 15:26
    
    Wonder what happened to all those “cancel flights for free” add ons that people like Travel Up and Last Minute started selling. They must have lost a packet!
  - Naushiba Khan says:
    
    25 Mar25 March 17:16
    
    oh dear.
    Thank you for personally replying Rob.
    I’ll call my credit card company if the date of flight passes and they haven’t got back to me as I foresee they won’t charge it back unless they haven’t responded and the flight time has passed?
Neil says:

25 Mar25 March 14:15

Has anybody got any suggestions how to proceed.

I have a flight booked with Avios, utilising a 2 4 1 voucher next January. I wish to amend the date by one day, to take the opportunity to upgrade my seats. I cannot make the change using the BA.com website “Manage my Booking” because the date change moves it from off peak to peak pricing and therefore it tells me to call the service centres, but they have consolidated their customer centre numbers and only dealing with flights in the next 72 hours.

Any suggestions how best to proceed most welcome.

Neil
- Anna says:
  
  25 Mar25 March 14:19
  
  The only option I can see is cancel and re-book online. You should get your Avios & 2 4 1 back fairly quickly. You would probably have to pay the Avios difference from off-peak to peak anyway if you did it over the phone.