The new HFP chat thread – Saturday 28th March

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• memesweeper says:

  28 Mar28 March 15:46

  Q: Revolut

  If I have a Barclaycard, John Lewis (HSBC), HSBC World Elite and IHG (Creation), what’s the collective wisdom on the best to use for a Revolut top up? I’ve not done one for months and I’m not planning to go mad!

• Karen Green says:

  28 Mar28 March 15:56

  I have just had my Easy jet voucher – it expires on 26/9/2020 – better get the flights back on by then
  I think that is outrageous – 6 months? Seriously
  Not happy
  Not received my BA one yet
  I figured that not forcing the refund would save my time and maybe their busienss but dont like being mistreated

  • Anna says:

    28 Mar28 March 17:30

    6 month extensions, which seems to be the policy across the travel industry, are pretty useless given that a lot of people won’t be able to re-arrange their travel within that period – and no-one even knows if and where we will be allowed to travel by then! I don’t know if it’s just short-sightedness on the part of the industry or a deliberate effort to kick the can down the road.

    • Lady London says:

      28 Mar28 March 17:37

      I tend to travel in shoulder seasons mostly and for specific events in those months – a 6 month extension would be absolutely useless to me and 12 months also often no use. 2 years maybe but airlines are going to up all sorts of fees when this calms down.

      Cash is king, the airlines have a much better chance of raising it than I have, and if I’ve got a legal right to it then I want it back.

  • Charlieface says:

    28 Mar28 March 20:11

    Moral is always get cash

• sunguy says:

  28 Mar28 March 16:16

  Rob/Rhys/HFP bods…..

  Any chance you could add in something that flicks this “chat” to “comment-page-1” when loaded – maybe directly from the front page – it makes more sense to read the comments in chronological order rather than backwards……

  e.g. (the link for today could be https://headforpoints.com/2020/03/28/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-saturday-28th-march/comment-page-1/ )

  What do you think ?

  • Aston100 says:

    28 Mar28 March 16:50

    There was some talk of a limited forum of some kind.
    Anything would be an improvement on the current.

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 18:20

    The problem is that you can’t jump forward to the last page of comments, so I think people would be more frustrated by doing it this way (which would take us literally 10 seconds to implement, so that isn’t the issue).

    • Rob says:

      28 Mar28 March 22:49

      Not a bad idea ….

      • Rob says:

        28 Mar28 March 23:03

        And done – link added into the article text in red.

• Aston100 says:

  28 Mar28 March 16:57

  Any talk yet of starting to make big corporations pay their taxes instead of hiding behind loopholes?
  What about HS2? is that £100bn+ project still going ahead?

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    28 Mar28 March 17:31

    It’s putting a lot of money into the economy and maintaining a lot of jobs – strangely, one of the government’s best decisions in light of the virus!

  • Anna says:

    28 Mar28 March 17:33

    Everyone needs to email their MP and demand that this is raised in parliament. The global impact of the current situation could be the motivation for countries to finally come together to address this.

    • Anna says:

      28 Mar28 March 17:34

      The tax issue, not HS2.

    • Cat says:

      28 Mar28 March 17:48

      Plenty of discussion of it in the Grauniad Aston100.

      Any state bailouts discussed should be conditional on scrapping any and all tax avoidance schemes.

      • Shoestring says:

        28 Mar28 March 17:52

        the fault lies with Govt and regulations, not with companies observing the regulations (and minimising tax by squeezing the rules)

        Eg impose a 3% tax on turnover for Amazon, no other tax payable on profits

        turnover is transparent

        • Cat says:

          28 Mar28 March 18:04

          Probably, but either way it needs to end.
          That money goes to hospitals and schools.
          They need it.

      • Anna says:

        28 Mar28 March 18:03

        What tends to get overlooked is that the UK government sends (UK taxpayer) funds to support its overseas territories in times of crisis (one reason why they opt to remain BOT status instead of becoming independent), while said territories provide financial shelter for the world’s tax dodgers. The US is as bad – if you google any list of the worst offenders, UK and US jurisdictions always feature in the top ten.

      • Lady London says:

        28 Mar28 March 21:46

        Er….. actually our tax regime for companies and “High Net Worth Individuals” is a key way the UK competes and survives. You would be very surprised to find where the ownership of major assets in the UK traces back to. And even more surprised to find out where some quite well known figures are apparently domiciled.

        There are tax havens and tax havens… We are actually a very respectable one. Everything’s a balance. A more relaxed tax regime has probably been better for the UK overall. Even if the truth is the “wealth trickles down” argument justifying TV some of this has not always delivered.

        If The Grauniad had their way we’d be back to the 1960’s when as soon as they made any money everyone literally left because every £1 they earned they lost 95p of to tax.

  • Lady London says:

    28 Mar28 March 17:39

    The answer would be various turnover and transaction taxes unfortunately.

  • memesweeper says:

    28 Mar28 March 18:50

    You need to tax things that are hard to move across borders invisibly like ‘profits’ or ‘income’. The tax havens themselves focus on land taxes, sales taxes and import duty, and don’t chase income or profit taxes. Land tax is especially hard to dodge, and sales taxes are pretty much undodgeable for a large scale business like amazon.

• Matty says:

  28 Mar28 March 17:07

  I have a flight SIN-HKG in May. It’s on Cathay. I booked through lastminute.com with my Amex Plat. Cathay and lastminute have both emailed to say that there has been a schedule change. I’ve looked at MMB on Cathay and they’ve shifted me on to a flight 10 hours later, with a different flight number.

  Lastminute have given me the option to reschedule or a refund. I’ll take the refund but does anyone know if I’ll get the whole amount back or will lastminute charge an admin fee? I can’t find the T&Cs.

  • Anna says:

    28 Mar28 March 17:35

    The Ts & Cs should be on your original booking confirmation. I don’t think EU262 will apply in this case.

    • Matty says:

      28 Mar28 March 18:26

      I can’t find the email. Searched but it’s gone.

• Ali says:

  28 Mar28 March 17:28

  Amex platinum down grade to Amex gold a goo idea. Plus what’s best to do with 57k MR points?

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 18:17

    Keep them. Amex isn’t going bust.

• TripRep says:

  28 Mar28 March 17:58

  Decided to derisk my VS balance and punt half my VS miles to HH.

  Used the SMS txt service via VS website, took 4 hours for them to reply but once they did it was simple, can take 30 days for a transfer.

  Additionally Cancelled 2 prepaid + “non-refundable” Hilton stays for May and June this am, refunds can take 30 days to be added back to CC.

  • Alan says:

    28 Mar28 March 18:54

    Hmm no reply here, tried WhatsApp and SMS. Had the automated acknowledgement both times but nothing more. When did you do this?

    • TripRep says:

      28 Mar28 March 19:24

      Today, 9am ish, got a reply > 1pm

      Still keeping a few ten thousands in VS in case it doesn’t go belly up

    • Mac D says:

      28 Mar28 March 19:57

      Took 8 hours for me so don’t worry too much

• riku2 says:

  28 Mar28 March 18:13

  Living in Finland myself I can tell you that outside the airport it’s wonderful. Supermarkets are fully stocked and health care workers don’t have to hide their ID badges for fear of being mugged for them.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    28 Mar28 March 18:25

    Are those online shops with Tesco SS?
    I thought I read online groceries had started restricting online orders?

    • Oh please says:

      28 Mar28 March 18:48

      For a minute there I thought you said you were giving your head gardener a reach-around in your swimmers, now *that* I could believe.

    • Oh please says:

      28 Mar28 March 19:00

      Old men don’t really tick my boxes unfortunately, but when you’ve finished Jack Reacher, you should try ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’. I hear it’s full of gardening tips 🙂

    • Shoestring says:

      28 Mar28 March 20:26

      RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Even as coronavirus cases mount in Latin America’s largest nation, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary.

      Bolsonaro says his response to the disease matches that of President Donald Trump in the U.S., but the Brazilian leader has gone further, labeling the virus as “a little flu” and saying state governors’ aggressive measures to halt the disease were crimes.

    • ChrisBCN says:

      29 Mar29 March 00:25

      I think if you are aligning yourself with bolsonaro’s position it shows you remain cluelss about the entire issue. Probably some kind of defence mechanism.

      • Shoestring says:

        29 Mar29 March 02:40

        there’s going to shortly be a double dip – there always is – as death numbers mount up & people panic – that will be the green light 🙂

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