The new HFP chat thread – Sunday 12th April

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• Kai says:

  12 Apr12 April 13:23

  Think I read it in some comments here, but anyway just checked and BA has indeed introduced surcharges for flights departing from Brazil. I thought this is against the Brazilian law?

  • Reeferman says:

    12 Apr12 April 15:25

    Sadly the law changed and it’s now legal.
    BA’s IT is a mess – but, ultimately you will indeed pay high surcharges now

• fivebobbill says:

  12 Apr12 April 13:26

  Hi all, can someone please tell me is there a bonus by randomly adding a supplementary card to the Marriott/SPG?
  I say SPG, the wife applied just a few months ago and when it arrived it was the new Marriott version, however she still earns 3 points per £ under the old SPG terms (until June apparently?).
  Anyway, she has missed out on the spend bonus due to the 24 month rule, so now wants to max out whatever points she can before closing when they reduce the earnings rate.

  • Daniel says:

    12 Apr12 April 13:56

    No supplementary card bonuses on the SPG/Marriott card

    • fivebobbill says:

      12 Apr12 April 14:33

      Disappointing, but thank you.

• Victairinternational says:

  12 Apr12 April 13:40

  Does anyone know the Qatar policy for refunds. The website states

  “You can alter your booking date; free of charge or receive a travel voucher, or request a refund in case your plans have changed. This applies if you have booked or will book flights for travel up to 30 September 2020.”

  I called to request a refund (the third option) and was told I can only get a refund if there has been a time change or flight cancellation. This contradicts what the website states as I was requesting a refund as I was travelling to japan for the Paralympic Games which is now postponed.

  • Reeferman says:

    12 Apr12 April 15:29

    My experience of trying to obtain a refund from Qatar has been a nightmare. Admittedly, it was a few weeks ago and the Coronavirus “issues” were only just kicking-in, but Qatar refused me a refund despite cancelling the return leg of my journey (DOH to CPH) on a r.t. flight originating from OSL
    I have plenty of written evidence of their refusal (despite EU261 legislation etc) but have now given-up and put the matter in the hands of the CC Company for a S75 claim.
    Good luck!

• Michael says:

  12 Apr12 April 14:04

  Anyone else not had a decent Amex offer for weeks? As of tomorrow I’ll only have six saved offers.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    12 Apr12 April 14:10

    Nope nothing. No one needs to incentivise us to spend money as either they are closing are capacity for packing/deliveries are limited.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      12 Apr12 April 14:11

      *closed or their capacity for packing/deliveries is limited.

• Connor says:

  12 Apr12 April 14:16

  Anybody else notice you can now only pay once every 24 hours per debit card when paying off your VA card?

  • mark2 says:

    12 Apr12 April 14:22

    That has been the case for a long time.

    • Connor says:

      12 Apr12 April 21:35

      Strange, made 3 payments with my Curve card yesterday no problem.

• mark2 says:

  12 Apr12 April 14:20

  Just received the Virgin miles for Morrison’s spending up to 21st Feb. Only 15,726 to go.

• John says:

  12 Apr12 April 14:30

  The new normal, Rob?

  https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0412/1130092-healthcare-workers-coronavirus/

  • Rob says:

    12 Apr12 April 14:59

    New Zealand will definitely do it, because it is free of it (1 death). It is fairly pointless elsewhere because you will always have existing clusters anyway. Pointless, by the way, doesn’t mean people won’t do it.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      12 Apr12 April 15:43

      Unless there were zero people infected in New Zealand itself and all 1300 have had it while in strict 14 day quarantine from the min they entered the country then it’s already spreading through the population.

      • Rob says:

        12 Apr12 April 16:20

        Except it’s not really because of the very early lockdown. Throw in some decent testing and I think they’ll be fine. Whether they dare run with quarantine for a full year is a different question.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          12 Apr12 April 16:55

          This is assuming it hasn’t transmitted to animals, that no one is asymptomatic while walking around grocery shopping etc

          If they have successfully eradicated it from the island then that’s great news but it won’t be eradicated from the earth so 2-3 years without tourism or business travel?

        • Lady London says:

          12 Apr12 April 17:07

          New Zealand is already very aggressive on what they want to keep out that could be in your luggage or on your shoes when you pass through immigration there. For such a laid back country I have found their immigration/customs staff actually not very friendly and they take it very seriously.

          I personally think the New Zealanders will have no trouble enforcing a two week quarantine on every entrant to the country and keep that rule for years if necessary.

        • Cat says:

          12 Apr12 April 18:50

          They take protecting their endemic flora and fauna very seriously – it’s not surprising, they are on the other side of the Wallace line.
          On the other hand – my festival tent (N.B. not Hille Lady London) was never as clean as the first camping trip in NZ, after they inspected it!

  • Lord Flyer says:

    12 Apr12 April 14:59

    If this has been asked before I have obviously missed it.
    But why does not HFP not have proper forum ?

    • Rob says:

      12 Apr12 April 15:07

      We have dummied it and it simply doesn’t work well within the confines of our narrow screen width (550 pixels in the articles area). However, we have a redesign planned and this is something we are keen to add. The text area will be as wide as the ad that sits at the top of the page which gives us a lot more space to play with. Not on day one, because there will be lots of others issues on day 1, but possibly day 31. We are not totally against it.

      • Lord Flyer says:

        12 Apr12 April 16:38

        It would be great if you could as it seems a lot of the same questions are asked constantly.
        It would also safe time trawling through all the comments on different threads for the some very useful information.

        • Lord Flyer says:

          12 Apr12 April 16:39

          *save

  • ChrisBCN says:

    12 Apr12 April 16:05

    John, it would only work in very few places (small island states mostly) so won’t become a mainstream thing. The writer also incorrectly states in the article that Wuhan is virus free – it isn’t, those with the virus or likely to have the virus are still in lockdown at home.

  • James says:

    12 Apr12 April 16:39

    Should be called Prof McDonkey, just more fake speculation which does more harm than good. A 2 week quarantine will kill off air travel compeltely

    • Lady London says:

      12 Apr12 April 17:12

      No it won’t. People will adapt. If a country does not have land borders that are impossible to police then a two-werek quarantine will become the price of travel. It will become as normal as current shoe theatre and liquids theatre in airports.

      A certificate is not as watertight.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        12 Apr12 April 17:53

        We will get to a point in the future (3 months, 6 months, maybe 9) where enough of the population have had the virus and are immune that the remainder who catch it (bearing in mind it will also be a little harder to catch it then) can be easily dealt with by health services. That is the point at which most of the world will open up again.

        (This applies to those countries that have had a major outbreak like most of Europe, USA and not NZ, unless and until they have a major outbreak).

        So holidays in Europe next summer should be fine!

        • ChrisBCN says:

          12 Apr12 April 17:55

          (and my comment on next summers holidays isn’t meant to degrade the seriousness of what we have now)

        • marcw says:

          12 Apr12 April 17:57

          You are assuming long lasting immunity. Highly unlikely though, based on preliminary reasearch.

        • ChrisBCN says:

          12 Apr12 April 18:13

          I am assuming a certain level of immunity yes. Which research are you referring to? This would contradict current understanding if what you say is true.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          12 Apr12 April 23:42

          @marcw you don’t need lasting immunity individually but a level of immunity in the community does mean the spread begins to slow down.

          Only time will tell which countries approach was the better one for the population in the long term. NZ Aus Denmark UK USA Netherlands Sweden all taken different ones.

          While everyone tends to focus on the absolute number I think cases/deaths per million population provides a little more insight into what’s going on (as long as the population and number of cases is actually significant enough)

      • Kev 85 says:

        12 Apr12 April 21:16

        “If a country does not have land borders that are impossible to police then a two-werek quarantine will become the price of travel”

        Presumably you mean people will adapt by going to different places as most people I know can only get a maximum of two weeks off (maybe 2.5 weeks if they’re lucky) at one time so they’re certainly not going to go somewhere which requires two weeks of quarantining.

  • Anna says:

    12 Apr12 April 18:20

    How would this work with the Common Travel Area arrangement? There seems to be no appetite in the UK government to restrict anybody arriving from anywhere!

    • Rob says:

      12 Apr12 April 19:29

      Should be fine, I reckon. My personal view is that my family will end up spending the Summer in Europe.

    • Kev 85 says:

      12 Apr12 April 19:51

      The Common Travel Area only applies the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.

• Nick says:

  12 Apr12 April 15:18

  Any updates on plat card retentions? When asking to cancel?

  • Harry T says:

    12 Apr12 April 15:29

    Wasn’t offered anything – downgraded to Green so I can get an upgrade bonus in the future. Girlfriend cancelled Platinum outright and was offered nothing.

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