The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 7th April

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

• Aleks says:

  7 Apr7 April 09:13

  Morning,
  Hopefully a very simple question – do ALL credit cards qualify for claims back on S75?
  I have an MBNA Visa Horizon Credit Card and VA Credit Card, wondering if one is more secure than the other if we’re looking to book flights.
  Thanks

  • Charlieface says:

    7 Apr7 April 09:16

    All UK credit cards, loan providers and hire purchase providers

    • Aleks says:

      7 Apr7 April 09:17

      Thank you!

  • Rob says:

    7 Apr7 April 10:15

    All the same.

    • Andrew says:

      7 Apr7 April 17:32

      Even a business credit card?

      • Charlieface says:

        7 Apr7 April 19:56

        Self employed or partnerships I think is fine, so long as the card is under personal liability.

• JP_MCO says:

  7 Apr7 April 09:19

  Anyone having issues charging HMRC payments to Virgin Atlantic Mastercard via Curve this morning?

  • ian_h says:

    7 Apr7 April 09:52

    Keep an eye on your daily Curve Txn limit – this is usually my issue when I try to pay HMRC

    • JP_MCO says:

      7 Apr7 April 14:25

      I don’t think it’s my limits as I can do £7k per day / £50k per month.

• Ian says:

  7 Apr7 April 09:21

  Someone help my fuzzy brain this morning. Braathens Regional Airlines (in Sweden) went into administration yesterday and won’t be operating any flights until the autumn at the earliest (if they ever fly again). Text message this morning to confirm tickets I hold in July are off – no refunds as the company is legally shielded from such claims. Tickets were bought on my Amex Plat charge card. Is this one to raise as a chargeback via card services, or is this one to file a claim for via the travel insurance?

  • Doug M says:

    7 Apr7 April 10:18

    I’d try Amex first, I always treat insurance as last resort.

• Jen T says:

  7 Apr7 April 09:24

  For anyone wanting to cancel future travel and claim on their travel insurance, the FCO updated their advice on 4 April (previously advised against all but essential travel until 15 April) to advising against travelling overseas for an indefinite period. This change was part of a larger press release although some newspapers picked the change up yesterday morning. May help your case with insurers for dates beyond mid-April. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/foreign-office-steps-up-plans-to-bring-home-britons-stranded-overseas

  • Alan says:

    7 Apr7 April 09:44

    This will be a slightly awkward question as it will be dependent on personal details, but assuming for the average person, what’s the ‘best’ travel insurance policy available via a credit card?

    I’m guessing it’s either Amex Platinum or HSBC World Elite?

    • Genghis says:

      7 Apr7 April 10:24

      HSBC World Elite credit card does not convey a travel insurance benefit; the Premier bank account does. As you’re aware, the definition of “best” is subjective so I suggest a good reading of the terms. For what it’s worth, I’ve never placed any reliance on the Amex Platinum insurance given the requirement to pay on the “card” and my former high levels of churning. I find now it’s very expensive. When I moved from Barclays Premier to HSBC Premier, I’ve relied on the HSBC Premier insurance ever since; not renewing a travel insurance policy obtained through work.

  • p998 says:

    7 Apr7 April 09:55

    How does this work in practice for trips beyond April?

    E.g. I have a BA Holiday (flight + car) to SFO in mid-June. Have paid a deposit and outstanding balance due in 3 weeks. We are definitely not going even if for some unlikely reason travel is normalised.

    Can I go ahead and cancel through AMEX or even call BA and tell them in light of this they need to refund me? I havent braved the lines as its for flights in upcoming 72h.

    Also have IB and Norwegian flights to Spain and Norway 1st week of May which have yet to be cancelled but will obviously not happen.

    Any thoughts?

    • Rob says:

      7 Apr7 April 10:05

      On what grounds do you think you can cancel? Your flight is showing as departing. Your hotel will probably be open. The US is not saying that it won’t lift restrictions on entering. Until one of those things changes you have no grounds to cancel.

      • stevenhp1987 says:

        7 Apr7 April 10:39

        BA Holidays are subject to “the package travel and linked travel arrangements 2018”.

        Among many things, it must be “safe” to enter the country for a package holiday.

        If the flights run, and the hotel is open you are still eligible for a full refund if there’s an FCO advisory warning against travel or all but essential travel.

        • Rob says:

          7 Apr7 April 10:56

          But there may not be an advisory when you come to travel ….

    • MattB says:

      7 Apr7 April 10:07

      At this time you wont be getting any sort of refund, maybe a voucher for the deposit value from BA.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    7 Apr7 April 10:37

    I think you will have a very hard claiming on your insurance until close to the date of your actual trip. If the FCO advice changes then there will be no grounds for a claim.

    It’s also last resort after claiming a refund from the airline/hotel/holiday company or credit card.

• Craig says:

  7 Apr7 April 09:24

  Managed to book a room at the CP Times Square for NYE on points, it’s a room with a view of the Square (but not a view of the ball drop). 60k points (non-refundable) versus $3134!!

• Doug M says:

  7 Apr7 April 09:54

  So a variety of bits here, just data points really.
  Called Amex to downgrade Plat to Green, not even asked why, just some general questions to do with what in effect is an application for the Green card.
  Had an AA ticketed flight that got changed to the point of being useless, kicked off the refund process, no voucher offer, no idea how long the cash will take to arrive with me.
  Cancelled some hotel com bookings, one was non-refundable, for a Hilton at CDG, cancelled online making it clear it would be refunded in full.
  Called Amtrak to cancel booking on a train they’ve cancelled, got into a battle of stupidity with their voice based auto system, and hungup before I lost it completely.

  • MattB says:

    7 Apr7 April 10:11

    I went round in circles with that awful amtrack voice system, doubt it was my accent! I think in the end it just asked if i wanted help i said yes and spoke to an operator in a few mins who promptly refunded and it hit my cc account a few days later

    • Doug M says:

      7 Apr7 April 10:21

      Having just shouted ‘are you having a f***ing laugh’ at a computer I thought it best to hang up and calm down.

    • Jody says:

      7 Apr7 April 11:54

      I also had to phone Amtrak, really helpful person on the phone and received my refund in just a couple of days. I googled and found one of those numbers that you call before then calling an American number so it doesn’t cost anything.

      • philco says:

        7 Apr7 April 14:23

        I don’t know what number folks are calling but I live in the States and called to cancel and Amtrak ticket after they changed the train I’d be on and got through to a human in like 2 mins flat. I am certainly not a huge Amtrak fan but it was the most painless cancellation I have done in the last two months.

  • Lady London says:

    7 Apr7 April 10:20

    HaHa ‘battle of stupidity’ with an automated call-directing system.

    Bern there, done that,these are the only thing worse than my multiple experiences with British Airways’s nasty, obdurately ineffective India-based call centre.

    Here’s my best tip. Most of them have a ‘back door’. at every stage don’t say one of their choices or dial a number. First, try saying clearly “agent”. This can even work on quite a few systems that are not speaking English to you at the time. Sometimes the company’s own local word that they use such as “conseiller’ in French works. Perhaps not on the first time they ask you to say or dial something it will get you straight into the agent queue (which may be zero) but has a good chance to work on a lot of systems by 3rd or 4th prompt.

    Obviously try the standard way first but if you end up in Kafka’s castle the normal route IME it will extend your phone’s life by about two years because you won’t be throwing it against the wall.

    There’s even a website somewhere that lists major travel and banking automated systems in the English speaking world and tells you how to navigate them quickly. I got this off that about 5 years ago, lost the URL though, but my nerves are shredded less often now when I encounter one of these insufficiently programmed but restrictive systems. Oh wait…that’s just like BA’s India call centre.

    Come to think of it, it also describes the setup BA has made to avoid giving struggling passengers the cash refunds they are entitled to for service the BA business did not provide.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      7 Apr7 April 10:38

      I find agent or complaint usually works.

    • Doug M says:

      7 Apr7 April 10:44

      Good advice, yesterday I’d somehow made it a personal battle to defeat the system, which of course was a waste of time. It was seemingly so bad I felt I had to keep trying I’d say 89 it would respond you said 91, is that correct? At that point I was not entirely rational.
      Representative is the usual US term for agent I think.

      • Lady London says:

        7 Apr7 April 11:09

        IIRC “agent” works on Amtrak too.

        The French railways chat bot is even worse. It’s like an AI application they’ve not programmed at all. They still seem to be at the stage where your only purpose as a customer is to provide phrases that the computer is adding to its dictionary. Sometime someday someone will come and upload a next process step against that phrase in the system so it will know what to do with it.

        Are you listening SNCF ? Your idea of getting customers to do your programming for you, is not working.

      • Lady London says:

        7 Apr7 April 11:14

        Amtrak is literally that bad @Doug M.

    • Charlieface says:

      7 Apr7 April 19:47

      Often pressing 0 works

• Waddle says:

  7 Apr7 April 10:04

  Can I get a few data points on Virgin -> Hilton transfers? I initiated the transfer on 27 March and have not yet received. How are other readers doing?

  • J says:

    7 Apr7 April 10:43

    It’s been reported that they transfer once a month, so 27th March looks to have missed the April transfer and so should hit in May.

    • Doug M says:

      7 Apr7 April 10:45

      Other posters rubbished that, I have no experience of this transfer.

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      7 Apr7 April 12:01

      My previous VA – HH transfers gave always taken approx 10x days. These were all done at varying times in the month.

  • Wally1976 says:

    7 Apr7 April 22:55

    I requested a transfer on 28th March, it was confirmed on 29th March and not in Hilton Honors account yet 🙁

• ChrisBCN says:

  7 Apr7 April 10:14

  How will BA even go bankrupt? Are you saying IAG will allow it? Or that IAG themselves are going bankrupt? Does that mean you have heard the Spanish government aren’t supporting IAG? And the Qataris aren’t putting any more money in? And what about the other governments of other countries?

  Methinks you are being dramatic 😂

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.