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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.

  • TonyT says:
    25 Mar25 March 17:19

    Hilton Honors – Here’s the relevant bit from the email I just received –
    Your Hilton Honors Status and Points

    We consider it our privilege to have you as a Hilton Honors member and we want to show our appreciation by extending your benefits:
    2019 Status Extension. All members whose 2019 status was scheduled to be downgraded on March 31, 2020—whether it’s Diamond, Gold or Silver—will automatically receive an extension through March 31, 2021.
    2020 Status Extension. We are extending your 2020 member status through March 31, 2022. This means you will continue to enjoy all the Diamond, Gold or Silver benefits you have access to today for the next 24 months.
    Points Extension. We will pause the expiration of all Points scheduled to expire between now and December 31, 2020.
    Weekend Night Rewards Earned on Eligible Hilton Credit Cards. We have extended the expiration date of all unexpired Weekend Night Rewards as of March 11, 2020, and all new ones issued until August 30, 2020, through the end of next summer (August 31, 2021).

  • Shoestring says:
    25 Mar25 March 18:58

    and some you criticised me for sel-isolating out at our place in the sun, because it entailed just 1 flight

    check out Simon Calder’s latest: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-flight-ban-world-health-organisation-a9422961.html

  • Claire l says:
    25 Mar25 March 20:01

    We booked return club tickets LHR to India for March using Avios and companion voucher. We flew out ok but 10 days into trip FCO advice was essential travel only and as India starting to pack up for tourists we decided to come back early. Some people in our hotel were spooked by their travel agents telling them to get out in 24 hours or risk quarantine. BA had not been in touch but other Airlines eg Qatar were calling their passengers and booking them on earlier flights. We tried calling BA in UK and India with no luck after few hours. In desperation and do we wouldn’t miss out on availability, we grabbed some Avios flights in club back 10 days early on basis if we’d been able to talk to BA we’d have been able to switch to those. We didn’t use another voucher so additional 125k Avios and strangely tax at £980 one way when original return was only £1050. We contacted BA on return and asked for refund of 125k Avios plus The tax but happy to pay any an amendment fee. They’ve said no and only thing they will do is refund half of original return flight so we are still out of pocket by c60k Avios and c£500. They have said we can try claim on travel insurance which seems ludicrous! They’ve since cancelled the return flight and are asking passengers to call them to seitch to a new date. No way to do any amends online and all requires getting in touch with them. Does this offer seem right or am I missing something?

  • Simon Miller says:
    25 Mar25 March 20:38

    Hi,
    Had a look through the comments here and couldn’t see anything similar and just looking for some advice please!

    Booked DUB-LHR-DFW and return in Club ages ago and due to fly next week. One of the flights at least has been cancelled. Am I better to call up and re-book for a date in July (can always rebook again if that gets cancelled) or get cash refund do you think?

    Just thought flight prices could go up when this is hopefully over and original price of fare was v. good… any thoughts appreciated thanks!

    • Lady London says:
      25 Mar25 March 21:44

      If you want to roll the dice again on whether the flight you book in July will run then go for it.
      If you dont go and the plane flies, you’re on the hook for whatever cancellation charges your ticket carries.

      Personally I am very unsure if the US will “open” again by then and you might not necessarily be comfortable if you feel they’ve not got things under control. Your insurance for sure is going to exclude what you most want covered right now:-) as well, unless you purchased an annual insurance before it actually looked like a possible loss so all the insurnace companies excluded it!

      So yes I would takea punt if I still wantedthe itinerary but perhap a bit further out… Christmas maybe?

  • Mr T Bateman says:
    26 Mar26 March 06:15

    Hi how long have you had to wait for a BA refund voucher. Been waiting for over 8 working days now.

    • Shoestring says:
      26 Mar26 March 06:20

      Figure on more like 2 weeks these days. If you’re nervous, check your ex-booking reference on Manage My Booking and you should see the message that your cancellation and refund are being processed

  • Mark James says:
    26 Mar26 March 15:21

    We have just been forced to return from a 3 week holiday to India after just one week. This was a bespoke holiday package arranged by Kuoni. Kuoni are now refusing to have any discussion with us regarding the remaining two weeks. We would be happy to simply push it forward 12 months, but the only correspondence we have received from them (after we sent them an email) was to say it was a Force Majeure, and we should try contacting our travel insurance! Surely this is their responsibility? Can anyone advise??

  • Oz59 says:
    26 Mar26 March 17:28

    Hi. Any one with any experience of American Express Platinum card insurance – are claims relating to COVID-19 being entertained? If so what’s covered? It’s impossible to contact AmEx re this. Likewise they hand off to AXA who are non contactable as well. Any tips please. Thanks.

  • AlanTJ says:
    26 Mar26 March 18:57

    Hi, I booked flights in May from Milan to Bangkok with Lufthansa’s 2 4 1 sale. Does anyone know whether they will be refunded assuming the only essential travel advice is still in place.

    Thanks
    Alan

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