The new HFP chat thread – Friday 27th 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.

BP says:

27 Mar27 March 08:49

I’m meant or be going on a stag trip to Lisbon in September. Flights from EDI with easyJet were £389

I’ve booked a £85 return for April in the hope it gets cancelled and I can transfer to the stag flights at no cost 🙂

Fingers crossed it works out! If not I can transfer and pay the difference right now so nothing lost.
- Shoestring says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 08:54
  
  smart 🙂
- William R B says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 09:50
  
  easyjet will charge you the difference when you transfer to September, if that flight is more expensive than the April one.
  - Dave says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 10:00
    
    Correct, only the change fee is a waived.
    - Kevin 9876 says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 10:02
      
      Not so smart after all 🙂
      - crafty says:
        
        27 Mar27 March 10:24
        
        Karma?
  - Bilbo Baggins says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 10:23
    
    And if another airline is cheaper for September, now you’re stuck with booking with Easyjet. What a wally 😛
  - Lady London says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 10:33
    
    Their practice was not to charge you any difference if the reason for change was they cancelled the flight. I am sure operating that flexibility benefited them as it retained the customers money and presumably avoided a lot of EU261 duty of care costs.
    
    That’s probably what the OP is working on the basis of.
    - Shoestring says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 19:47
      
      some people don’t get it, very smart move by OP
  - Ian says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 19:44
    
    Not convinced by the Easyjet change your booking offer. I tried to change a May flight to a new destination and date next February.
    On their website the new flight was pricing up at £250 return for the whole family – when I tried to change my existing booking to the new flight they wanted to charge me £640 just to change the outbound leg. Needless to say I just made a new booking for £250 return..
Rui N. says:

27 Mar27 March 08:51

Just some info about hotels.com/tesco vouchers in case it’s useful to someone:
I had an hotel booked in the UK for Easter, using Tesco Vouchers on Hotels.com. The hotel is closed, so they cancelled my booking. Hotels.com told they would refund the cash portion of the payment, but that they couldn’t do anything about the voucher bit, and that I should contact Tesco. I contacted Tesco via Whatsapp (modern! they don’t allow contact via the web form anymore, because of the virus), and one day later they got back to me and said they would refund the original points to my Clubcard. One day later I’ve received email confirmation that they points were being returned.
- Nick M says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 11:36
  
  Sorry I asked about this elsewhere in the thread and just spotted your post now. Thanks very much for the info!
  - Rui N. says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 13:27
    
    No problem Nick! I was just coming back to this post to copy over what I had written and answer the one further down the thread! Hope you get your points back as well! For me it was all done in 2 days, pretty smooth. Try whatsapp, you can find the number on Tesco website.
davef says:

27 Mar27 March 09:04

Has anyone worked out what happens with AL when you have a cash ticket but upgraded it with Avios to Business Class? (Yes I actually managed to upgrade a transatlantic return)

Would I get a refund of the Avios + 110% of the cash ticket as a voucher?
Charles says:

27 Mar27 March 09:05

I have 560 Tier Points with BA and a renewal date of 8th June. Am I correcting with my following understanding of what will happen under the 30% Tier Point reduction rule as it is unlikely I will be able to make up the additional 40 Tier Points before then.

I will be upgraded to silver from current bronze as at the renewal date only – i.e. Normally one would upgrade immediately they reach the required threshold but this will not happen under the terms of the reduced tier point requirement until renewal date
- Stu N says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 09:10
  
  Yes, that’s my reading of the rules. feels pretty unlikely anyone will be flying anywhere much between now and June so you’re probably not missing much.
- Stan says:
  
  28 Mar28 March 20:03
  
  Yes. It is very clear in their statement that your status will be upgraded at your anniversary date for 8th April/May/June.
Stu N says:

27 Mar27 March 09:08

Amex Q – I have a statement balance of (say) £2,500. Had refunds for cancellations of £1,000 and spend since statement date of £100. I’ve paid £1,600 so the balance is now now nil.

It stll says “balance due” of £1,000 – do I need to worry about this re interest or anything?
- Grant says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 09:39
  
  Yes – refunds do not count as payment against a statement balance.
- davef says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 09:41
  
  Credits after your statement date wont reduce your balance owing for the month.
  
  You’ll need to pay the 1000 balance. Then if your balance is postive on the card spend the amount or ask Amex to return it to your bank.
  - Stu N says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 10:49
    
    Thanks both.
    - Genghis says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 19:55
      
      @Stu N. Please do report back on what Amex say.
      
      My statement is due end of this month and I’m expecting my QR refund to come soon thereafter, so I’ll be in the same boat.
- Rob says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 11:32
  
  You’re fine if the balance is nil. If it wasn’t nil you’d need to make a payment.
  - Genghis says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 13:05
    
    I wouldn’t be so sure. This is what I was on about the other day based on my experience. The statement balance needs to be cleared in full and refunds do not count. As such, a £2,500 statement balance with £1,600 paid against it still needs a payment of £900. I’d call Amex.
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 13:21
      
      my experience too costly mistake for me once 4/5 years ago
      - Erico1875 says:
        
        27 Mar27 March 14:15
        
        I’d be seriously worried about my finances if a month’s interest on a grand 5 years ago still haunts me
    - memesweeper says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 13:50
      
      webchat told me that *chargeback* refunds do not need to be paid off to avoid interest… other refunds I do not know
    - Rob says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 16:41
      
      Yes, I agree. The way I read the comment was that the balance was ALREADY zero due to the refund and making a payment would have put the person into credit, which made no sense.
- N says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 14:45
  
  I read somewhere (maybe on a US blog? not sure, sorry) that Amex have been excellent with covid-related cancellations and refunds, and that they are deferring payments interest free if requested. I imagine if you explain the situation they would be understanding.
Voltron says:

27 Mar27 March 10:02

How are companies like AMEX / Visa / Mastercard doing through corona? Will they be negatively affected with all the people doing S75 / chargebacks etc
- Rui N. says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 10:20
  
  I’ve seen reports in other countries of declines of over 50% in card transactions, so yes, they will be affected. But the card business is very very profitable (even with interchange fee caps): Visa has a profit margin of 60% or something like that. So, they’ll probably be fine.
  - Lady London says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 12:12
    
    +1. Cardco’s and other businesses that earn mainly on transaction takeoffs will change from earning a shedload to earning a bit less.
    
    Unless they’ve been really poorly managed and this causes some fraud or poor management etc to be uncovered, then unlike businesses that actually produce real value in the world, they are going to be just fine.
  - Alex Sm says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 18:29
    
    Time to invest into them! Which I actually did the other day alongside with shares of Slack, Tesla, Netflix and Alibaba
- pauldb says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 10:48
  
  Amex is a lender: it’s problem is unsecured lending rather than fees and s75. Share price halved but is now down more like a third.
  
  Visa (and MC) don’t take the financial list: your s75 and credit losses would be against your card issuer. Visa’s shareprice is off a quarter.
r* says:

27 Mar27 March 10:25

Does anyone have a contact email for IHG that isnt a form on the website?

Their covid19 policy says that all bookings can be cancelled but I’m being refused a refund by a hotel in Milan, they are saying that they can only issue a voucher due to ‘Decreto 09/2020’?
- meta says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 10:56
  
  Yes, read elsewhere about new Italian law which forbids all tourist establishement issuing refunds, only vouchers valid up to 2 years. I would ask for a refund and when refused do a claim via credit card.
- Lady London says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 11:35
  
  Call IHG. Have found a secondary, local Italian source reporting that if your stay is after 3 April then you have to wait as current decreto only covers stays up to that date. Although probably will be extended to apply to later stays. For those stays you get a refund or a voucher useable 1 year. It doesn’t say if your choice which, or the hotel’s choice.
  
  Source ” La Repubblica 24 matzo Federico Formica “would probably find it.
  
  I would call IHG ask them to put in email that the hotel refuses to refund. With IHGs notable lack of ability to ensure consistency across their hotels even k peacetime I think IHG is going to say they talked to the hotel (maybe) a d can’t force a refund (for sure). When you get something confirming you can show, and making it clear you can’t use a voucher as only those dates worked, go to your insurance co. If that fails go for s75 or chargeback. For sure the “Cura Italia” legislation operation date is gonna be extended.
  
  The Decreto you mention seems only to talk about cancelled flights and packages so seems like does not apply. The source above explained what’s happening with standalone hotel bookings specifically.
  - Lady London says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 11:37
    
    *text editor grrrrrr replace with 24 m a r z o in text search above.
jack says:

27 Mar27 March 10:34

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/03/26/coronavirus-furloughs-job-cuts-hilton-ceo-forgoing-salary/2922894001/

Help for Hilton workers, CEO forgoing his salary, extending status for customers… obviously no company perfect, but Hilton deserve loyalty when things get back to normal. Good for them.
- BJ says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 10:59
  
  +1, they just give the impression of getting on with the job, competently doing what needs to be done without any drama or fanfare. Cancelled two reservations yesterday (thanks @BrightonBelle and others) sithout any difficulties. Thanked the hotel staff and assured them I had every intention of returning when the crisis was over. Got nice replies back from both too.
  - Harry T says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 12:21
    
    I was thinking of pursuing Marriott status but Hilton have caught my eye with their sensible, customer focussed approach recently.
- Lady London says:
  
  27 Mar27 March 11:41
  
  +1 like Hilton anyway. Their Honours program is ok without giving excessive benefits. At any level of Hilton hotel and even in old properties with problems I have always felt ‘professionally managed” to a system in Hilton hotels.
  
  The ‘promotion benefits start from second stay’ rubbish didn’t last long with Hilton luckily, otherwise I might have changed my mind.
  - BJ says:
    
    27 Mar27 March 12:02
    
    Yes, the second stay thing alone means that Marriott are bottom of my list amongst the major chains. I even rate Accor higher despite their layers of frustration.
    - Lady London says:
      
      27 Mar27 March 12:15
      
      Wow @BJ. You rate Accor higher than Marriott?
      Marriott really must be merde then.
      - ankomonkey says:
        
        27 Mar27 March 14:47
        
        Yep. Accor are the absolute bottom of the toilet bowl. Marriott are trying hard to take that spot. Hilton have shown compassion, so can look forward to being the ones sitting on the seat and dropping ‘bombs’ on Marriott and Accor.
      - BJ says:
        
        27 Mar27 March 15:35
        
        @both, personally I rate Accor higher because I have had better experience at their hotels and the one time I needed CS they came through ok. Promotions used to be great but not anymore, and their website is horrendous. Marriott hotels I have been to were overpriced for what they were and status recognition when I had it was rubbish.