The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 8th April

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• Deenesh says:

  8 Apr8 April 10:13

  Morning all. After some advice. I have just had my holiday with TUI cancelled for May (in the process of trying to get refunded). Looking to book a trip with Virgin Holidays instead. I have ~200,000 points and thinking of using these to part pay the cost of the holiday (3000 points = £18 discount I believe).
  I KNOW these aren’t the best value for money BUT with current family/job situation it is our best option to get them used. My question is, given the precarious position of Virgin Atlantic, if I book a holiday with VH and use all miles right away to part pay and VS go bust will they revoke my “part payment” with miles or since it was already done I will be fine? I can’t seem to find any info on how this would work. Any advice appreciated.

  • Rob says:

    8 Apr8 April 10:16

    I think you are fine. Note that VA and VH are the same company, so if one goes bust the other will go bust too. However, ATOL regulations means that you would be bailed out for your holiday. The fact you part-paid in miles shouldn’t make a difference in my view.

    • Deenesh says:

      8 Apr8 April 10:20

      Thanks for your help, Rob.

    • Deenesh says:

      8 Apr8 April 10:23

      Off the top of your head do you know if we can use mine and my partners miles to part-pay? Account not linked as we don’t have VS status. Or will they only let the lead passenger use their miles to part pay?

      • Rob says:

        8 Apr8 April 10:27

        If you do it by phone and you are both travelling it may be possible (of course, whether you can get through is a different question). Call centre is generally flexible on these things.

        • Deenesh says:

          8 Apr8 April 10:29

          Thanks

• BlueHorizonuk says:

  8 Apr8 April 10:23

  This is a once in a generation event that the travel industry is going to use to do everything they want but were afraid to do. Things like cancel orders, change T&Cs for crew, pilots etc, cancel routes, downgrade service and meals etc etc

  Everything and anything is on the table and there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.

  • Nick_C says:

    8 Apr8 April 10:46

    The travel industry has been doing most of those things for the last twenty years.

• Geoff says:

  8 Apr8 April 10:43

  Is Waitrose rejoining Virgin Flying Club as a earning partner?
  When HFP broke the news that Waitrose were leaving Virgin last month the Waitrose page on Virgin said Waitrose was no longer a partner.
  This morning it says that Virgin points are temporarily unavailable from Waitrose but that Virgin hoped they would be available again soon.

  • Nick_C says:

    8 Apr8 April 10:48

    No supermarket needs to run any sort of promotion right now. When life eventually returns to normal, supermarket promotions will return.

    • Lady London says:

      8 Apr8 April 12:57

      +1. Coupons and offers have practically dried up. My ‘local’ level shop only ever participated in a limited selection of offers compared to hypermarkets of the same chain. Probably because they figured they’ve got a captive local market. Now they’ve got “this branch is not participating” on every offer.

      Supermarket bosses are apparently rubbing their hands with glee.

• N says:

  8 Apr8 April 10:50

  Can I buy Premium Bonds with my Curve linked to HSBC Prem CC without incurring interest?

  (not even MS!)

• Sam says:

  8 Apr8 April 11:12

  Hi @Genghis, I’ve opened the Vanguard ISA with 88% in the FTSE Developed World UCITS ETF (VEVE) and 12% in the FTSE Emerging Markets UCITS ETF (VFEM) but struggling to understand when is the best time of day/month to trade (if there is such a time), is it best to set up regular monthly payments? Thanks!

  • Genghis says:

    8 Apr8 April 12:34

    Just accept that it’s not possible to “time the market”. As such, I just use the Vanguard bulk purchase of ETFs which is free. If you are going to use the £10 or whatever per trade option, don’t trade as soon as the market opens or late on for liquidity reasons. Some say that it’s best to wait until the home market is open to get a fairer price, i.e. if buying a S&P 500 ETF to wait for New York trading to open, but I don’t worry about this.

    I don’t use the Direct Debit function as I prefer topping up manually.

    • Sam says:

      8 Apr8 April 13:24

      Thanks Genghis, is the bulk purchase option on Vanguard the ‘next trading’ option when you click on ‘invest now’ (as opposed to the live ETF’s which has the per trade fee)?

      • AJDT says:

        8 Apr8 April 13:45

        Vanguard really likes Curve/Virgin…

      • Genghis says:

        8 Apr8 April 14:34

        Yes. During lockdown I suggest having a good read of the Monevator website. Follow me on Twitter and I’m then happy for you to DM me to ask any more Qs, @genghis1232.

        • Sam says:

          8 Apr8 April 16:37

          Thanks Genghis, will do.

• jc says:

  8 Apr8 April 11:25

  The FCO is now advising against all but essential travel *indefinitely*. Presumably means that we now can’t book any travel at all, even for later in the year / next year, if we want to be covered by travel insurance (e.g. Amex Platinum charge card insurance)??

  • Rhys says:

    8 Apr8 April 11:31

    Not sure on the insurance part but ‘indefinitely’ to me suggests that they cannot predict when things will improve and therefore do not want to suggest that that non-essential travel should only be cancelled until 30th April or whenever they say. Easier to state indefinitely and then lift when things improve.

    • jc says:

      8 Apr8 April 11:41

      I agree it doesn’t mean stay in the UK your whole life 😀 was just the insurance thing that hit me – since most (even great) insurance policies won’t cover you if you book a trip for a time when there’s a travel ban… and an indefinite travel ban technically means that’s what you’re doing

      • Sean says:

        8 Apr8 April 12:08

        Indeed – and just received a reminder email from Amex about the cover provided in respect of Coronavirus.

  • DV says:

    8 Apr8 April 12:17

    If your travel insurance excludes cover where the FCO advises against all or all but essential travel (as most policies do), then yes, given the current FCO advice, you will not be covered should you book any travel or commence any travel.

• Roger says:

  8 Apr8 April 12:05

  IB booking

  To share lessons learned with IB Booking:

  In one booking where IB is still operating flight (flying this weekend), I filed for a voucher request online. IB has come back saying my booking does not qualify for voucher as it is either On Business or Travel agent / holiday agent booking.
  None of that is true as the booking was directly with IB on their website or app.

  I suggest anyone in similar situation remove OB and BA number via QR/AY first before you send a voucher request.

  I contacted IB customer service and they are now looking into it.

  • roberto says:

    8 Apr8 April 12:18

    “IB customer service” …. Now there is an oxymoron

    • Roger says:

      8 Apr8 April 12:29

      To be fair, in current circumstances at IB has managed to answer calls and even offered me refund (at least on one booking already received); forget about BA with its trickery.
      I would rate IB higher than BA in this situation.

• Zoe says:

  8 Apr8 April 12:58

  Hi all hope you are all doing okay. I’m trying to make a payment to Brighton from Curve. It asks me to open the Curve app to verify the payment but when I open it there is nothing to verify. Obviously this is likely to be something I’m getting wrong as I’m pretty sure the last time I did it I needed to ‘flick the app away’ then reopen it.
  Please help, thanks in advance

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    8 Apr8 April 13:01

    I’ve never seen this before. Have you got the latest update of the app?

  • Doug M says:

    8 Apr8 April 13:10

    I’ve not seen this either, but it was mentioned by others. It seemed to point to Curve being slow, you just have to wait or try again. Is this on iPhone, as I don’t see it on Android.

  • Genghis says:

    8 Apr8 April 13:12

    – update app
    – make sure notifications switched on within the app
    – before making payment, open the app
    – make payment
    – wait for alert to pop up to approve. Sometimes takes a minute, literally.

    • Zoe says:

      8 Apr8 April 13:31

      Thanks so much it worked perfectly with the App open and ready.

  • Alastair says:

    8 Apr8 April 13:23

    This happened to me yesterday – I did exactly what Genghis described and it went through OK but I did have to wait nearly two minutes before I got a notification. In fact I cancelled the first payment and tried again – then a second notification came through a few minutes later so it is delayed.

    Transferwise has a similar arrangement with their debit card except that it works instantly and flawlessly!

    • Liam says:

      8 Apr8 April 18:43

      This has been working fine for me over the last couple of weeks. Today I upgraded to Curve Black and now I’m not getting these verification prompts in the app, even if the app is open before I click ‘pay’.

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