The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 2nd April

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• Craig Davison says:

  2 Apr2 April 15:05

  Re: manufactured spending
  Anyone have a successful manufactured spending method as of 2020? Seems prepaid cards are no longer offered in supermarkets.

  • Heathrow Flyer says:

    2 Apr2 April 15:13

    Sure, let’s tell everyone on here so they can be shut down tomorrow…

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    2 Apr2 April 16:35

    When you find one, come back here and let us all know!

  • The Urbanite says:

    2 Apr2 April 19:57

    Try topping up a gambling website with a rewards credit card of your choice, give Amex a go. Then withdraw back to card and let us know how you get on!

• Debbie says:

  2 Apr2 April 15:56

  I have 250k virgin miles and was planning on moving most of them to either IHG or Hilton Honours.
  Is one better than the other in terms of value? I don’t have status with either and unlikely to have this in future.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    2 Apr2 April 16:36

    IMO Hilton is better value than IHG.

  • Rob says:

    2 Apr2 April 17:27

    See https://headforpoints.com/2020/03/17/will-avios-and-virgin-flying-club-go-bankrupt/ – Hilton better.

    • Don says:

      2 Apr2 April 18:11

      What have you decided to do Rob? Are you keeping your entire balance in VS?

      • Rob says:

        2 Apr2 April 19:42

        No use for 4m Hilton points …

        • yorkieflyer says:

          2 Apr2 April 22:15

          On the other hand not a lot of use for VS miles. I guess one of the reasons many of us have a stash of VS miles is the relative difficulty in finding a good use for them, AF/KL bit of a letdown as only SA looks a good use and after the culling of routes over the last few years unless you fancy plague ridden Trumpton not many options so maybe transferring out weren’t a bad plan?
          Disclaimer, yes we bought booster mile twice…..

        • TripRep says:

          3 Apr3 April 08:45

          Sounds like a good competition prize tho! 😉

• Princess says:

  2 Apr2 April 16:27

  Hi everybody! Looking for advice! I’ve done somenthing really silly.
  As I’m hoping in summer we will able to fly again I bought tickets to go to Porto. (4 tickets £84 with Wizzair ) but I got them wrong!!! I manage to book the Porto-London route instead of the opposite. (From there we will go somewhere else so no need of return)
  Changing it was costing more than a new ticket. I called the airline and they said they will not refund (refund policy had £60 fee per person)
  I’m guessing nothing I can do right? Insurance will not be in sternest of my genuine mistake right?

  • mark2 says:

    2 Apr2 April 16:34

    Why not go the other way round, if practical?

    • Princess says:

      2 Apr2 April 16:44

      I have Already the other flights…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    2 Apr2 April 17:11

    No nothing you can do and your insurance won’t cover your own booking mistake.

    Just hold onto the flights and hope they are cancelled or significantly moved due to whatever the future schedules could look like after all this is over.

    • Princess says:

      2 Apr2 April 17:27

      Yes, I thought to do that!

  • Erico1875 says:

    2 Apr2 April 18:29

    You just have to sit on them. Hope for a schedule change/ cancellation nearer to the time, that will enable you to cancel FOC

    • ChrisBCN says:

      2 Apr2 April 23:55

      Just wait for them to be cancelled, I reckon there is a high probability of that.

  • Charlieface says:

    3 Apr3 April 02:33

    Cancellation within 24hrs was not offered for free?

• Reeferman says:

  2 Apr2 April 16:27

  Just called the BA 0800 number to get cash refunds on 3 bookings BA cancelled today. I followed the previous advice about selecting Option 2 and the call was answered within 3 minutes.
  There was an issue with an expired CC for one of the bookings (the BA system wouldn’t accept either the expired card or one that wasn’t used for the original booking!) however, the agent took down all the details and emailed me later confirming all was resolved – the cash would be back on my CCs and Avios refunded within “a couple of weeks”
  Incredibly efficient and friendly (from the Newcastle call centre).

  • Erico1875 says:

    2 Apr2 April 18:33

    Same for me yesterday. Lady at call centre was brilliant.
    All done in 30 minutes. Avios and 2 4 1 back in account. Money will take aprox 3 weeks though.

• Craig says:

  2 Apr2 April 17:19

  Data Point: Virgin Miles – Hilton, requested 24 Mar, arrived 2 Apr.

  • Genghis says:

    2 Apr2 April 20:43

    Thanks. Got mine too!!

    • Peter K says:

      2 Apr2 April 21:31

      And mine, but not Mrs K.

  • Brian W says:

    2 Apr2 April 21:38

    Thanks for this, mine left my VFC account on the 25th March so hope then that the HH credit might arrive tomorrow then.

• Boi says:

  2 Apr2 April 17:22

  What happens when you go over credit limit on Amex? My sister’s limit on ARCC is £1000 but current balance showing as £1005.91.

• Henry says:

  2 Apr2 April 17:28

  The wife just had some Virgin flying club miles turn up into her HILTON acc.
  Requested on the 18th of March
  She had a decent amount as well.

• JDuncan says:

  2 Apr2 April 17:38

  Hi Everyone,
  i am looking for a some help from the gurus here that mange to find reward seat availability.

  I am limited to only flying during school holidays, because i have children at school, which i understand limits my options, so my question is, do you tend to book 2x one way tickets (say outbound on the 1st, and then return on the 14th) or wait until the seats on the 14th become available and hope that the seats on the 1st are still available?

  Does it even make a difference in terms of costs?

  Thanks for your help and advice.

  JD

  • Rob says:

    2 Apr2 April 17:48

    Have a look at this – https://headforpoints.com/2019/11/22/odd-things-are-happening-when-you-book-a-british-airways-2-4-1-ticket-355-days-in-advance/

  • Anna says:

    2 Apr2 April 17:50

    It depends on destination. Destinations with low availability, yes book outbound when they are released then add the return later. You have to be careful how you do this, though as you can get landed with very high cash fees, especially if you are going to America (Rob did an article on this not so long ago). For somewhere like NYC, there is usually very good availability both ways year round. It’s useful to spend some time browsing Reward Flight Finder and getting an idea of availability at various times of the year. We have 1 child so quite often use 2 award seats and a 2 4 1 and pay for a cash ticket so one of us gets tier points and Avios. My OH got Bronze last year from one long haul trip as we fly from MAN. Happy hunting!

    • Anna says:

      2 Apr2 April 17:50

      Ah, Rob may have beaten me to that one!

  • JDuncan says:

    3 Apr3 April 09:15

    Thanks both for the replies.
    Rob, thanks for the link to your post, i have not read it yet – but will do 🙂

    Its Orlando during school holidays, so only 2 direct flights a day, so flights are quite limited!

    Thanks again for your tips 🙂

    JD

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