Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 16th April

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

We have decided to run this new daily chat thread on Head for Points.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the defacto repository for random comments and questions.  It is unlikely that the news flow will be so big over the next few weeks that we will need many ‘Bits’ articles, however.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are stuck at home self-isolating, we want the HFP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as its keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

By default, HFP shows the last page of comments under the article.  If you want to see the first page of comments and read them all from beginning to end in order, click here: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/04/16/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-thursday-16th-april/comment-page-1 The page will refresh with this article but the comments will now show the first page and not the last page.

We will continue to monitor how this is working:

we could potentially split it into a daily travel and non-travel chat thread

we may install some basic forum software

we may start suggesting potential topics for daily discussion

Let’s see how it goes.  Take care!

Category

General

Comments (158)

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

  • Anna says:
    16 Apr16 April 09:05

    Morning all. I can’t remember how to check that a flight was cancelled. Employer wants evidence that our flight to MIA on April 10th was cancelled but we never received any confirmation from BA, just our refunds. Where can I find this info? Thanks!

    • Peter Taysum says:
      16 Apr16 April 09:26

      If you check “manage my booking” on the website (not app/phone) it usually shows this.

      • Anna says:
        16 Apr16 April 09:29

        Should have said, it completely disappeared from MMB after I cancelled by phone. I have the original booking email but otherwise nothing which links me to that flight!

        • Doug M says:
          16 Apr16 April 12:19

          That’s my experience of cancellations. Have you checked spam folder, if company email used then in my experience because of the way BA send these emails they’re often picked up as spam/bulk mailings by email security devices.
          Was it BA209, because that seemingly ran on the 10th.

          • Anna says:
            16 Apr16 April 19:12

            Thanks, I will check the junk folder, though I’ve never had a BA email go there before. I suppose if the flight wasn’t actually cancelled I will just have to refer work to Donald’s ban on UK visitors!

  • Yukon2 says:
    16 Apr16 April 10:14

    Hi all – I’ve got flights to Spain on May 1st (in 15 days) bought through BA but operated by IB, and needless to say I won’t be going.

    Have just received an e-mail from BA which strikes me as sneaky. They say my flight has been cancelled, but are rebooking me on a later one (departure from LON moves by 35 mins, departure from Spain moves by 1.5h), and are asking me to go to “Manage My Booking” to accept. I doubt that flight will leave, and I’m wondering whether they do this to fish for people to screw over.

    Can I now cancel this flight and ask for a refund? It’s more than 14 days notice (though I suspect they will have to cancel the other flight). What would be the best way of cancelling and getting cash back?

    Thanks.

    Y

    • Yukon2 says:
      16 Apr16 April 10:17

      Just to add, the MMB page gives me a list of alternative flights with two buttons “Cancel Booking” and “Change Booking”.

      It also states “There’s no extra cost for any changes and please contact us or call your original travel agent to get a refund.”

      I do not want to click on any button just in case it triggers a voucher refund against my will – any input appreciated.

    • Anna says:
      16 Apr16 April 10:19

      IB seem to have form for making pointless changes like this. You won’t be allowed into Spain, and it’s also likely that FCO advice not to travel will be in place by then, so it’s my understanding you are entitled to a refund.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:22

        Neither of those things would entitle his the OP for a refund if the original flights were flying though.

        • Anna says:
          16 Apr16 April 10:26

          Not true, if FCO advises against travel, the flight can’t go ahead.

          • Anna says:
            16 Apr16 April 10:27

            Presumably unless it’s classed as “essential”.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            16 Apr16 April 10:38

            The flight can and flights have been all through this period. FCO advice doesn’t mean the airline has to refund you. Your insurance would cover you though.

            If you had a package holiday booked the company has to refund you as they are held to different standards but that’s not the case for flight only bookings.

          • Kev 85 says:
            16 Apr16 April 22:07

            There have still been flights running around to get people back home etc since the initial travel advice from the FCO in mid-March.

      • Anna says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:22

        You’ll probably have to call BA, but if the flight is cancelled they will probably contact you nearer the time with your options. I don’t know if BA refund helper deals with flights which are still running or just cancelled ones.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Apr16 April 10:19

      The system is doing what it normally does which is get you on the next available flight and reserve a space just incase you want it.

      If you don’t want it then phone up and ask for a full refund.

      • Yukon2 says:
        16 Apr16 April 15:21

        Thanks for all the responses.

        How are people actually contacting BA? I’ve been trying all day and basically get cut off. They won’t even take the call and say to try again later – any secret phone numbers with a higher hit rate?

        • TGLoyalty says:
          16 Apr16 April 18:25

          Have you tried the phone and don’t press any buttons trick? If not try a Gold or You first number they may or may not help you, I’m sure they are available on Flyertalk.

  • Alex says:
    16 Apr16 April 10:24

    Am due to fly at end of June to Seychelles on BA in First return using Avios redemption for a week. I think looking unlikely this will happen (although who knows)?

    However, given how difficulty Avios availability was/is for this route, do you think I will be able to use EU261 (not for compensation) but for “re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger’s convenience, subject to availability of seats.” NB I am not trying to use some peak/off peak arbitrage, but more just to see if I could at a similar time next year instead where there are flights available (and not have to hope for Avios availability)

    • Sean says:
      16 Apr16 April 10:33

      This recently posted on flyertalk:

      “If rebooking within -3/+14 days they will rebook without regard to reward availability, so if there are any seats in the cabin that is sufficient. If you want to rebook for dates beyond that then you need reward availability. In both cases there should be no fees or other costs to rebook. The alternative is cancellation – so you get everything back including the avios, cash, and vouhcer. You can then rebook at your own convenience or use them for something esle.”

      • Alex says:
        16 Apr16 April 10:39

        Thanks. So yeah that’s not really “at the passenger’s convenience” if they try and do that, not sure how that meets EU261, so maybe I could try and argue for future date.

        • Stu N says:
          16 Apr16 April 12:03

          I think this answers my question below too, must have been typing at the same time. As and when a reschedule of my event is announced, I’ll phone BA and post the response here but my route isn’t like rocking horse poo so should be OK to rebook in due course.

        • Lady London says:
          16 Apr16 April 14:38

          It’s not EC261 conformant and I would have no hesitation requesting my travel to be rerouted to a date many months hence. Most of us only have particular windows for specific travel. I would expect to be able to get what’s clearly in the text if the very readable legislation EC261/2004 and that’s what it says.

          • AJA says:
            16 Apr16 April 16:32

            Lady London I disagree with you. I think you would lose out.

            The EC261 wording is “re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger’s convenience, subject to availability of seats.”

            The key words are “subject to availability of seats”. BA has a let out in that it can argue you booked an Avios reward flight for which they guarantee to release 2 seats in Business and none in First. Therefore if you choose to fly a later date at your convenience you have to find reward seats in F to be rebooked.

            This is a downside of booking reward seats in F and it all going FUBAR.

          • Lady London says:
            16 Apr16 April 16:45

            It’s been established on many occasions before that in the case of a reroute the airline is not allowed to refuse a seat if seats – even revenue – are available even if your original booking was made with avios. Remember this is the case where it’s the airline side that is inconveniencing the passenger with a flight change or cancellation. So if there’s a seat in the same class available they would be wrong to refuse.

            BA has even relatively often offered only Y seats for a J class booking and gas has to pay downgrade compensation when the passenger had the knowledge to claim it.

            This is an only the case where the airline causes the reroute – if passenger wants to change then that’s standard contract conditions and nothing from EC261 there.

          • BJ says:
            16 Apr16 April 19:07

            @AJA, not really knowledgeable in this area myself but my partners hard experience with AF/KLM in 2018 was entirely consistent with explanation provided by @Lady London.

  • Stu N says:
    16 Apr16 April 10:29

    BA redemption rebooking question.

    I’ve got BA flights booked to Germany next month – apart from anything else, the event we are going to is going to be cancelled or rescheduled following Merkel’s announcements last nigh thatt included a ban on large gatherings to at least 31 August.

    3 of 4 legs of the flight have been cancelled too – any experience of rescheduling flights far into the future? Does it depend on Avios availability or can we insist they rebook us on flights we want, regardless?

    • AJA says:
      16 Apr16 April 16:40

      Stu N As you noted the post immediately above yours answers your question. You need Avios availability to get BA to rebook far into the future. Since you’ve already had a cancellation of at least one flight why are you waiting for the event to be rescheduled? Why don’t you call BA now and get them to refund everything to you which you are entitled to do?. Then when the event is rescheduled just book which you can do online rather than calling.

      • Stu N says:
        16 Apr16 April 21:19

        Yes, agreed – thanks. Given info above I shall get on the phone when I get a chance, I’m BAEC Gold so shouldn’t be too onerous and they have been great so far with other issues.

  • Scallder says:
    16 Apr16 April 10:51

    Has anyone had any luck with the extension of IHG credit card free nights? I was meant to be going to Vienna at the start of May with one night using a free night voucher. That free night expired in June 2019.

    The hotel is now shut and so has cancelled the stay. I called them two weeks ago and they said they couldn’t return the voucher because of the expiry date having passed (this was someone in reservations rather than the reward club which the phone number seems to be closed).

    I’ve followed up that email with one today with the email from the hotel cancelling the stay, so just wondering if anyone has had any luck themselves getting vouchers already expired reinstated? I know they’re extending current vouchers, but that’s hot hugely helpful for those already expired but still valid…

    Thanks

    • @mkcol says:
      16 Apr16 April 11:15

      Yes I contacted IHG from the website once logged in & just requested an extension, which they granted.
      This is before the group had announced their extension policy.

    • Leo says:
      16 Apr16 April 13:12

      I asked via chat on the IHG website on 1st April (was die to run out that week) – they extended it to October.

      • happeemonkee says:
        16 Apr16 April 13:18

        I can’t find the live chat on the website. Only the useless virtual assistant. Where about is it?

        • Leo says:
          16 Apr16 April 13:37

          It was probably that – I didn’t say it was a painless experience! Took a while….

          • EwanG says:
            16 Apr16 April 16:38

            Usually with these type of tools where the automated bot is not able to sort out your problem (i.e. most of the time in my experience) then just type ‘live agent’ into it to get onto chat with someone real!

  • Spaghetti Town says:
    16 Apr16 April 11:40

    Easyjet have announced they’ll block the middle seats on flights

    • Paul Pogba says:
      16 Apr16 April 11:51

      easyJet will become Club Europe, another headache for Cruz and Walsh.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Apr16 April 13:55

      Will be interesting how that’s implemented because why would a booking of 3 or 6 need an empty middle seat between them. Would booking in pairs be better for families to get a bit more space etc

      • Kev 85 says:
        16 Apr16 April 22:10

        Also, if someone coughs for example it really won’t make a difference if there’s an empty middle seat. Pointless really.

  • Matt says:
    16 Apr16 April 11:41

    Amex Platinum Question:
    I have the card for the travel benefits and just renewed the yearly £595 fee. As there is actually no travel to use the benefits currently, just wondering if anyone has asked Amex directly and gained any kind of discount/refund or anything as the value of the Platinum is now greatly decreased in current circumstances? Maybe by calling them saying it’s not worth it and to maybe close, they may make an offer to keep it? I also have other Amex’s, so don’t need to spend on Platinum.

    • Bentoni says:
      16 Apr16 April 11:47

      There hasn’t been any comments about any retention deal offered by Amex for the Platinum card. The best they could offer is to downgrade your card to Gold or Green. With the Gold card, you get first year fee free.

      There was some comments about Amex would offer spending bonus for some existing Gold holders who wish to cancel.

    • tony says:
      16 Apr16 April 11:48

      Bear in mind, the insurance element could be invaluable. I know that’s why i’ll happily let my card renew next month.

      • PJJ says:
        16 Apr16 April 14:50

        Is the insurance really that good you couldn’t find one at the right price

        • Lady London says:
          16 Apr16 April 16:51

          More that it’s continuous and people say they haven’t excluded covering CV unlike others. So could be harder to get covered on a new standalone policy. Personally I wouldn’t see the value of Plat for close to 6 months from now from that point of view.

    • Tom C says:
      16 Apr16 April 12:05

      I cancelled my plat card yesterday. They suggested that I could take but a cheaper annual fee card, but no offers were made in terms of trying to keep me, spend bonus or anything else. As I only use the plat for the travel benefits I cancelled and received back the £270 pro rata refund today. I can always take it out again in the future when we hopefully get back flying.

      • Matt says:
        16 Apr16 April 12:15

        Thanks for the responses. Seems like it is either a cancel or keep only option, rather than an offer from them, it was just a thought. The insurance is the main reason I have it, but I have the BA Amex, which I’ve also just paid the fee, plus the Virgin card fee all in the same month, so just need to decide whether to cancel and reapply later when needed. Cheers.

        • Lady London says:
          16 Apr16 April 16:52

          People have indeed reported some incentives to stay on here were received when they phoned up to cancel.

      • Sk123 says:
        16 Apr16 April 12:16

        That’s good that money was refunded so quickly. I cancelled 2 weeks ago and car fee has still not been refunded. Will chase it.

    • Rob says:
      16 Apr16 April 12:24

      Not heard of anyone getting a deal on Platinum.

      • onlysuites says:
        16 Apr16 April 12:47

        There are offering it as of last week in the USA. Various offers like 50k points for hitting a certain target. Although our market is different to theirs as just a sign up bonus can be double that on a loyalty card for starbucks 😉

        • TGLoyalty says:
          16 Apr16 April 14:08

          The sign up bonus is also once in a lifetime and there’s a max amount of cards per 24m across all issuers.

          1 USA MR is also worth 0.5 Avios.

      • Lady London says:
        16 Apr16 April 12:49

        Someone reported 2 days ago they got offered 20,000 MR for £4,000 spend in 3 months when they phoned up to cancel renewal for 2nd year.

        5 years history with Amex, average spend £30,000 per year.

        Think it was @Sam….

        • Stu N says:
          16 Apr16 April 13:47

          I got this on my Gold card a couple of months ago when I phoned to cancel after my 10k membership rewards came in.

        • Secret Squirrel says:
          16 Apr16 April 14:41

          I got this on Gold 2nd YR Retension recently, 20k MR – 4k spend in 3x months. Done & just waiting on annual 10k bonus to land then cancelled.

  • Linda says:
    16 Apr16 April 12:49

    Anybody else received email from BA Exec Club regarding ‘shut down’ of account because of anomalies….the anomaly that was very apparent to me was the Avios figure on the email which showed I was missing thousands of Avios!…is it a scam email?

    • Lady London says:
      16 Apr16 April 13:00

      Suggest you call the Exec Club and get to the bottom of it.

      Don’t click on anything in the email and don’t respond to it.

    • ChrisC says:
      16 Apr16 April 13:09

      click on the email header – the part that shows the sender to reveal the actual email address it comes from and then take it from there.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Learn more on our About page.

VAA

Latest comments

Latest Forum Posts

Get 30,000 points bonus with American Express Platinum

Amex Gold

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.3 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

Get 20,000 bonus points and your first year free with American Express Gold

Amex Gold