The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 14th April

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• Cheshire Pete says:

  14 Apr14 April 11:29

  My May flights now being cancelled in the Past half hour, Interestingly on BA.com it’s forcing you to use the “new” look when Managing bookings. Can’t choose then”old” anymore which is the first time I’ve ever not been able to opt out of the “new” look. So disabling Java script simply makes it not work at all!

  Is this BAs new approach now to forcing you to accept vouchers unless you call them…..

• paul says:

  14 Apr14 April 12:10

  I am becoming concerned about the future viability of Virgin and with over 200,000 miles between my wife and I was wondering what was the advice was in terms of protecting the miles or moving them to an alternative such as Hilton. I have never stepped foot an a VS plane and have no status.

  The comments from the head of Manchester airport basically begging the government to bail them out has rather spooked me so what is the collective thought?

  • Travel Strong says:

    14 Apr14 April 12:16

    Any action at this stage is just gambling on an outcome. If you never fly virgin to date, what were you going to use the miles for? Were you going to transfer out anyway?

    • Rob says:

      14 Apr14 April 12:35

      The maths is relatively simple. You can’t value a Hilton point at more than 0.4p – irrespective of how you spend them, even for Maldives etc – because you can buy them for 0.4p at the moment. At best you are getting 0.6p per Virgin mile. In reality most Hilton redemptions get you nearer 0.3p so you’re getting 0.45p per Virgin mile.

      (I would value Hilton points slightly higher IF you want a big Maldives etc trip because of the limits on the number you can buy per year at 0.4p. If you want 1.5 million Hilton for a 3-week Conrad Maldives stay then you can’t buy that many but you can transfer 1m Virgin over.)

      An Upper Class flight should get you 1p. You’re looking at a 55% value loss IF Virgin survives and if you could otherwise have used them for flights.

      But, you know …. there is more to it than that. Imagine that your dream WAS to go to The Maldives. Virgin doesn’t fly there anyway. Perhaps getting a few nights for free at a luxury resort via Hilton and paying cash for flights is the best way of achieving that dream. This is true irrespective of whether Virgin survives.

      I am getting more confident it will survive, actually. The Government is going to be very nervous about letting high profile companies collapse because it will lead to a massive push to reopen business in general to stop it happening to others, and the scientific advice is against this. It is also likely that the Government would shoulder the blame. We also have the €6 billion Air France bailout about to be finalised with a similar sum being lined up for Lufthansa. The US airlines are getting $29 billion of free money plus another chunk on top in soft loans.

      If you ask me what Virgin would do if the US refused to accept incoming passengers for the next 12 months then I have no idea though …

      • Harry T says:

        14 Apr14 April 13:22

        @Rob
        Thanks for the interesting and insightful comment.

        I suspect that you may be right and I’m an idiot for transferring my 50,000 VS miles to Hilton. However, my chances to redeem on Virgin I Newcastle were limited anyway, and the Maldives sound good for a 5 nights for 4.

      • paul says:

        14 Apr14 April 13:54

        Thank you

      • marcw says:

        14 Apr14 April 14:26

        Virgin Atlantic is not going to survive this storm (hurricane?). All their eggs are on the North TA market, which won’t reopen anytime soon. No one is going to visit the USA this year, unless you have to. Almost all travel insurances won’t cover COVID-19 in countries with high medical costs. So how the hell is VS going to survive 8-12 month with almost zero traffic? And we are not talking about a really profitable business. If the Gov decides to provide them with a loan… do you think they will be able to return it?

  • Charlieface says:

    14 Apr14 April 14:00

    What about booking some flights far in the future using a credit card? If you decide you don’t want to fly it’s only £35 to cancel, if they go bust you claim a new flight or notional cash value from the cc.

    • Travel Strong says:

      14 Apr14 April 14:40

      Are there any catches here?
      If not, i’m going to go this way!

      • Rob says:

        14 Apr14 April 14:44

        There is no proof – based on similar failures in the past – that your credit card company will buy you an equivalent fully flexible business class flight on the date you demand, at the cost of around £5,000 per person. If you took it court you might win but might not, at your own personal cost. That said, I accept the risk is relatively low (£35 canx fee).

        • TGLoyalty says:

          14 Apr14 April 16:31

          Why does it need to be flexible? It just needs to be for the dates you booked in an equivalent class of travel.

        • Travel Strong says:

          14 Apr14 April 19:39

          So if I am understanding correctly, you would book your replacement flight yourself and then claim(?). And if you booked a very reasonable alternative, it would be reasonable to expect your CC provider to cover it re: S75?

        • ChrisWKR says:

          14 Apr14 April 19:51

          Your CC provider is contractually obliged in law to re-ticket you (jointly & severally liable) but your obligation is to be reasonable in your requirements, you would therefore contact the CC provider and suggest your chosen flight is XYZ and are they agreeable?

          Only if you met a blank wall would you go ahead and book it anyway: you’d win at court if you were reasonable in the costs but that’s hardly necessary. Why do you think the credit card cos are blocking so much money from the airlines (keeping it held in reserve)? Section 75.

        • Rob says:

          14 Apr14 April 19:58

          Those are cash tickets, not reward tickets. Whilst I’m not saying it won’t work, I point towards – for example – the fact that when airberlin collapsed and UK residents had redemptions cancelled, I never read of a single person getting a ticket reinstated via S75. Topbonus was very niche though, admittedly.

          Fully agree it is worth a try though if you are concerned.

• The Lord says:

  14 Apr14 April 12:12

  Just noticed on flightradar that a BA 747 has flown from Heathrow to Cotswold Airport. 1) Surprised it managed to land on the small runway 2) Is this for storage or to be disposed of?. Plane reg for those interested is G-CIVL

  • Spaghetti Town says:

    14 Apr14 April 12:28

    to be broken up. another 4 to follow this week.

  • mark2 says:

    14 Apr14 April 13:59

    If you drive past, as I used to, 747s land there frequently and are dismantled or re-engined.
    They used to park two with the tail up to to the perimeter fence. It was quite a surprise the first time that I came round the corner and saw them; they are surprisingly tall.

  • sloth says:

    14 Apr14 April 14:25

    I’ve seen a Thai airways 747 there before (in the past), I assume for the same reasons

• Tony says:

  14 Apr14 April 12:31

  Can anyone advise how to contact BA Refund Helper on Flyertalk? I’ve been a member (but hardly used) for years. Have seen the threads for BA/refinds/Avios etc but I can’t see who to contact to send a PM to.

  • Doug M says:

    14 Apr14 April 12:37

    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/ba-refund-helper.html is the page for his/her profile. Then just underneath the name is a Send Message link.

    • rams1981 says:

      14 Apr14 April 13:35

      thanks have just messaged. the iPhone method no longer works as they have switched to new website design (I assume)

      • Anna says:

        14 Apr14 April 16:53

        iPhone method worked for me this morning.

    • tony says:

      14 Apr14 April 14:30

      Thanks!!

• jamesj says:

  14 Apr14 April 12:56

  Are people noticing that prices for future bookings, say Oct onwards are noticeably higher than you would expect? I’m seeing this in hotel bookings also

  • Olly says:

    14 Apr14 April 13:15

    Yes I’ve noticed the same. Think it’s mainly because they are only offering refundable rates

    • Roberto says:

      14 Apr14 April 13:38

      No necessary refundable buckets only but none on the cheaper options.

  • Chris says:

    14 Apr14 April 14:29

    Could it possibly be that a lot of the original tranche of pax opted to rebook for later in the year rather than take the refunds.

    This was what a lot of operators were encouraging to start with resulting in higher bookings than normal.

  • Stanley says:

    14 Apr14 April 16:39

    10% is FX move

• Sandy says:

  14 Apr14 April 13:25

  Hi, we booked tickets last week to Europe for September with BA, and the price has fallen by £50. Do you think it’s possible to get this difference back, possibly by moving the flights to another date and then back again, presumably with no change fee? Thanks!

  • E says:

    14 Apr14 April 15:56

    No.

• s879 says:

  14 Apr14 April 13:29

  My 7 nights Marriott certificate (from Travel Package) has been extended till 31st January. I don’t want to book flights for December school holidays as it’s difficult to say when things will return to normal. I’m sure there must be others in the same boat. Do you think Marriott will extend it further?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    14 Apr14 April 16:34

    It’s possible they might as goodwill but unless there are travel restrictions closer to the time I wouldn’t say it’s likely to be extended.

    If many countries borders are open then you deciding not to travel isn’t really their issue.

• Anna says:

  14 Apr14 April 13:46

  I got an email from BA stating I could apply the £759 I paid for cancelled car hire could be claimed back against a future flight or holiday booking. I’ve just replied and asked for it to be credited towards the 3 F award outbound flights I’ve booked for next Easter. I won’t be completing the trip within 12 months of the original start date, but I don’t know how BA is going to know this! Let’s see if the money comes back now…

  • Nick_C says:

    14 Apr14 April 15:05

    They are only applying vouchers against new bookings (at least that is what they told my brother. He tried to use a car hire cancellation voucher as part of the final payment due on a BA Holidays future booking. They refused.)

    • Anna says:

      14 Apr14 April 16:55

      It is a new booking, the seats were only released yesterday!

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