The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 1st April

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• Rob says:

  1 Apr1 April 09:57

  I have a question about the ARCC that we had an article on recently.

  Is there any referral bonus if you hold the ARCC and refer somebody else? Assuming there isn’t but even 4K points like the BA blue would be ideal.

  Thanks

  • Nick_C says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:23

    4000 for the referrer.

    https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/refer-a-friend.html

• Tony says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:25

  Has anyone had any experience of trying to cancel the Miles and More credit card under current circumstances?

  My renewal is due and I’m wondering what the chances are of the waiving the £79 fee for a year (or offering a reduction for instance?)

  Thanks

• tomdoyle says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:29

  Question on Hilton: Currently on Hilton Gold, which expires March 2021. Understand if my expiry is in 2020 it’ll be renewed for 2022. Also heard of a status match where if you hit 10 nights you’ll be extended to March 2022, though I currently do not have any status with other hotels (was Caesar’s Diamond but expired last December). So is there any way around this or do I have to hit the ‘normal’ criteria to maintain Gold past March 2021?

  • Rhys says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:33

    Your status should already be extended until 2022. Status that expires 2020 has been extended to 2021, and the same for status that expires in 2021.

    • tomdoyle says:

      1 Apr1 April 17:28

      thanks. weird, contacted the live chat and they mentioned March 2021…

• Stu says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:47

  I have a return 241 booked.

  A better travel class has become available on the same flight.

  If I call to book as well as the extra avios and tf&c do I pay £35 change fee or £70 as there is two of us booked. Is the fee per booking or per person?

  Thanks

  • Genghis says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:49

    £35 per person x 2 = £70

    • BJ says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:16

      x4 = £140 if return was added later and processed undef a different PNR.

• Barontheman says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:54

  I have an Avios booking next month with QR, I’ve been waiting for them to cancel the flight.

  Today the booking has completely disappeared off ba.com and I can’t locate it even through a manual search.

  Has anyone ever seen this before? I’m currently on hold trying to reach the call centre.

  • Anna says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:52

    This has happened with my recent cancellations. You need to find your original email confirmation for the flight as the CSA will ask for the booking reference.

    • Polly says:

      1 Apr1 April 23:57

      We have now started to print out copies of every flight booked, as they have disappeared at will..weird.

• Steve says:

  1 Apr1 April 11:14

  Random BA companion voucher question. Does the person who earned the voucher have to be one of the travellers, or can they buy tickets for two other people in their Avios “household”?

  • Steve says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:18

    Found the answer:
    The BA Amex cardholder MUST be one of the two travellers. There is no way to avoid this. If you are in a Household Account, the second passenger must be in the household account or on your ‘Family and Friends’ list.

    https://headforpoints.com/2019/03/17/how-to-use-your-british-airways-american-express-2-4-1-companion-voucher-ba-amex/

  • Scallder says:

    1 Apr1 April 12:40

    Hi Steve – only time this doesn’t apply is if you have 4 people flying and you use 2 vouchers at the same time.

    • Steve says:

      1 Apr1 April 13:16

      Got it, thanks for the clarification

  • Rob says:

    1 Apr1 April 14:51

    Must travel.

• Matthew says:

  1 Apr1 April 11:19

  Does anyone know if the Amex referral cap rule is per card or total across all. I’ve used up my 90,000 MR referrals from my plat this year but wondered if I’d continue to receive referral points from my Marriott card too?

  Also, I see BA keep on increasing the charges for long haul Avios tickets. I’ve been watching one way to Tokyo and it’s gone from £340.50 to £389 and now now over £400pp. All in 3 weeks.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:47

    the cap is on each points account so MR is separate to Bonvoy or BA limits

    However, if you had multiple MR earning cards all on 1 account you would only get 90k across the lot

  • Anna says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:49

    This doesn’t surprise me, it’s the perfect time for BA to hike fees while everyone is otherwise distracted and people are getting vouchers they can only use towards other BA flights.

    • Matthew says:

      1 Apr1 April 13:23

      Yep – I’ve not checked other routes but I suspect it is across the board…

  • Harry T says:

    1 Apr1 April 13:16

    Marriott and BA card referral caps are separate from MR.

    How are you getting that many referrals?

    • Matthew says:

      1 Apr1 April 13:22

      OK thanks. Wife, family, friends, work colleagues. I don’t normally hit the cap but everyone has asked me for referrals recently because I help them all with planning/booking their trip with points.!

      • Harry T says:

        1 Apr1 April 14:22

        Good work, Matthew! I think my brother owes me a referral after I helped him escape Australia 😉

        • Matthew says:

          1 Apr1 April 16:30

          Thanks – yes he certainly does!

• xcalx says:

  1 Apr1 April 11:21

  Just a quick thumbs up to Iberia who get some stick on here..

  I contacted IB on the 24th of March regarding a cancelled avios booking, checked my account today and the avios are back in. I also received an email today saying credit card has been refunded.

  • AndyW says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:40

    One of the lucky few. Iberia are without doubt the worst company to be dealing with in this situation.

    • xcalx says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:59

      I will know better over the next few weeks as I have a couple more IB flights to cancel. You have clearly not had dealings with bookingdotcom.

    • Michael C says:

      1 Apr1 April 12:22

      Iberia once cancelled my 0700h flight at 2300h the night before by email, saying “ring us urgently”. Phone answering maching said “we open at 0800h tomorrow”…

  • Michael says:

    1 Apr1 April 14:08

    You got lucky, definitely not most people’s experience.

    Last year the night before my flight IB sent me this email:

    “We are contacting you to inform you of a change in your flight. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
    Here are the details:
    Your flight has been cancelled.”

    No explanation, no new flight, nothing. And worst of all, they *REFUSED* a refund!!!!

    It took me 10 months (!) to eventually get a refund after I took the case to Spain’s Aviation Safety and Security Agency (AESA) to rule that IB had acted illegally. Even then it took IB another 6 weeks to process the refund.

    Honestly, their customer service is so utterly dire (rude, unhelpful etc.) that I would strongly recommend that everyone avoids them at all costs (no matter how many Avios or taxes you might save).

    • Lady London says:

      1 Apr1 April 15:24

      Did the Spanish authorities award you either interest (payable in UK at 8% pa pro rata) or anything else extra for the trouble you had ?

      • Michael says:

        1 Apr1 April 15:36

        Nope! They didn’t actually refund the flight, they just paid the short haul €250 compensation.
        I actually didn’t think they were going to pay anything despite the judgement against them, so was so happy when they finally did that I was happy to leave it there.

    • xcalx says:

      1 Apr1 April 15:28

      Got lucky 3 years ago when I pointed out (not complained ) that the service in business on the LAX-MAD flight was below the usual standard, result 2175 avios pp. Yeah I’ve had the run around over cancelled flights and getting avios back , infact once left 7500avios on the table, lifes too short.. But on the whole speak slow and nice to IB call centre and they will go out of there way to put things right.

      • xcalx says:

        1 Apr1 April 15:29

        21750 half the reward cost pp

      • Michael says:

        1 Apr1 April 15:39

        IMO no matter how courteous you are to the customer service team, they have an extremely poor attitude and are most unhelpful. There is definitely a language barrier which is not helpful and things can be lost in translation, but that comes down to the standard of the staff they recruit and their training. I’ve dealt with other international airline call centres and the service has never ever been as poor as what IB offer.

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