The new HFP chat thread – Saturday 18th April

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• Mark says:

  18 Apr18 April 10:26

  I’m due to trigger my companion voucher with another £1k of spend. However, I have a booking using last years companion voucher that is more than likely to be cancelled. This would leave me with potentially 2 companion vouchers on my account. Anyone know what will happen in this scenario? Am I right in thinking you’re not allowed 2 companion vouchers on the same account?

  • Genghis says:

    18 Apr18 April 10:28

    No problem. I’ve had 3 before.

    • Mark says:

      18 Apr18 April 10:32

      Great news, thank you.

  • BJ says:

    18 Apr18 April 10:31

    No, there will be no problems. Your new voucher will be valid 30 months and your old voucher will be valid for it’s original expiration date +6 months.

    • Mark says:

      18 Apr18 April 10:33

      Perfect, thank you.

• The Jetset Boyz says:

  18 Apr18 April 10:34

  Qatar Airways has closed all but one of their Doha lounges – all passenger who have lounge access are now directed to the Al Mourjan Lounge.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Apr18 April 10:45

    That’s good for status holders who had to use those awful sapphire and emeralds lounges.

    • Peter K says:

      18 Apr18 April 11:57

      But less good if you are trying to socially isolate.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        18 Apr18 April 12:24

        Maybe they should close them all like the other airports out there.

    • Lady London says:

      18 Apr18 April 12:29

      No one sorry for those who would have used the Al Safwa lounge? 🙂

• memesweeper says:

  18 Apr18 April 10:38

  Question on Iberia awards. Their T&Cs say:-

  Are my Avios refundable?
  Refunds of tickets purchased with Avios for Iberia Group flights depend on the fare and the following terms and conditions:
  [snip most of it about Iberia themselves]
  Changes and refunds are not allowed for tickets purchased with Avios for Vueling flights.
  For partner products and services purchased with Avios, refunds must be processed directly with the partner in question and will depend on their returns policy.

  … so my question is, does anyone know *which* partner airline awards are actually cancellable for a refund of miles? I’m specifically interested in AA at the moment.

  • Charlieface says:

    18 Apr18 April 22:13

    None except BA

• Genghis says:

  18 Apr18 April 10:57

  “Virgin Atlantic has been told to resubmit its proposal for a £500m coronavirus bailout package after the UK government was left unimpressed with its initial bid, the FT can reveal.”
  https://amp.ft.com/content/e2636703-acec-49ad-97b8-b944e032db1f

  • Rob says:

    18 Apr18 April 11:34

    Thanks.

• BJ says:

  18 Apr18 April 10:57

  @EastCoastRewards and other rail experts, I just realised last night that I had LNER eVouchers expiring this month. Went online and sure enough £54 worth were gone. I note that my other vouchers have not been extended either. Is there no news on LNER or other rail companies extending vouchers due to Covid-19?

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    18 Apr18 April 12:11

    I’ve not heard of an policies for extending the eVouchers but they have generally been good with ensuring passengers that can’t travel aren’t left out of pocket.

    Their call centres are closed currently but messages to the social media team are lower than usual so it’s worth asking there if there’s any policy on eVouchers. If they’re not aware of any policy then it’s worth emailing customers (at) lner (dot) co (dot) uk and hopefully they will reissue the expired vouchers.

    If there’s no policy of reissuing expired vouchers and you have others due to expire soon you could always book a trip for a month or so in the future (that you’d be willing to take if things return closer to normal, e.g. a weekend away) and if the travel ban is extended then the vouchers will be reissued when they refund.

    • BJ says:

      18 Apr18 April 14:45

      Thanks, I will follow up your advice and also drop in the suggestion that they consider a blanket extension to eVouchers in light of circumstances. I’ll report back if anything interesting comes out of it.

  • Anna says:

    18 Apr18 April 12:26

    On the subject of LNER, I have Leeds-London rail tickets booked for May 2nd for an exhibition that’s now cancelled. Would I be able to get a refund or voucher for these? They did email a few weeks ago saying they were monitoring the situation but nothing since. I don’t use public transport much so no idea what happens if you can’t use tickets. (Only because it’s rubbish up here, hence having to travel 40 odd miles to Leeds to get a direct train to London!)

    • E says:

      18 Apr18 April 12:33

      Anna, depends when you bought the LNER tickets.

      “Advance tickets are usually non-refundable or changeable. However, if you bought an Advance ticket prior to 7am on 23 March and your plans have changed, you can apply for a full refund.”

      Otherwise it’s a voucher. There’s a dedicated page on their website with details.

      • Anna says:

        18 Apr18 April 13:04

        Thanks E, I will have a look. This has come at a time when I had organised loads of things for my 50th & retirement next month so it’s a full time job cancelling it all the moment. Next up is probably going to be our stay at The Langley at the end of May ☹️

        • Lady London says:

          18 Apr18 April 15:37

          Noooooo, unlucky.
          Will you ask them to let you change date?

        • Crafty says:

          21 Apr21 April 00:17

          Langley will let you move it and honour the rate, in my experience. Up to end of calendar year. Unfortunately it was a birthday treat, so still no good for me, and they wouldn’t budge further.

• Alex says:

  18 Apr18 April 11:13

  Have about £800 of internal flights booked with AirAsia for a now cancelled Asia/China trip. Flights are cancelled, but they are refusing to refund – I can take rebooking or voucher only. Useless when I have no idea when we will be back in Asia, and also no protection from being gouged on prices (or if the airline collapses). No EU261 obviously. Have lodged claim with credit card company for Section 75 but they are being incredibly slow, had to call up to lodge the claim and that was it (Halifax). Supposedly they are meant to contact me so I can provide more detail, but not heard anything back. Very poor from AirAsia and Halifax to be honest.

  • Gavin says:

    18 Apr18 April 11:57

    I made a Section 75 claim on my Halifax Clarity card some time ago (10+ years ago). They were beyond useless, and barely seemed to even understand the S75 process. After numerous letters and phone calls, time wasting, being ignored etc I just gave up!

  • Cat says:

    18 Apr18 April 21:57

    Does the voucher need to be used by you, or can you sell it on to somebody else?

    • Alex says:

      19 Apr19 April 13:50

      Don’t think I can.

      Think I will file section 75 claim in writing now, as I still don’t have much faith in logging it over the phone and not hearing anything back.

• Spaghetti Town says:

  18 Apr18 April 12:32

  Can i use curve (Virgin underlying card) to pay into my vanguard ISA? anyone tried?

  • Ian says:

    18 Apr18 April 12:42

    Yes, it works fine – last did it earlier this month

    • Spaghetti Town says:

      18 Apr18 April 12:44

      Nice one. Thanks.

      • Don says:

        18 Apr18 April 13:47

        Would this be a MS opportunity?

        • Ben says:

          18 Apr18 April 15:44

          Stupid comment.

        • Don says:

          18 Apr18 April 16:59

          Is this not a points blog Ben?
          The only things that have ever been worth doing have been tricks, most of which have gone over the years. Killed off by boomers? :p

          Who remembers bmi Denis? YO MAN PAX.

        • Rob says:

          18 Apr18 April 17:41

          Denis was the man!

          Those were the days. 2.5 BMI miles per £1 on their Mastercard, a reward chart which was substantially lower than the BA one (which, in those days, was itself far lower than it is now) and – personally – me being a Partner in the firm by that point so I had to pay my tax via self-assessment and could bung it all on said BMI Mastercard for no fee.

• xcalx says:

  18 Apr18 April 12:49

  “The self employed would leave money in their companies and live off savings for a few years”

  A rather sweeping statement Rob. I have been self employed for 40 years and paid my taxes ontime every year. We are not all out to game the tax system like we do with miles.
  Or maybe I am not “smart enough”

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Apr18 April 13:40

    But if you had money in your easy access savings why would you take dividends or other withdrawals from your business at a higher rate than you possibly could in the future?

    • xcalx says:

      18 Apr18 April 14:54

      Conscience and maybe the (missguided) belief that everyone would want to pay their way in society if able instead of looking for an option to let others pick up the tab.

      • J says:

        18 Apr18 April 15:05

        +1 Indeed and what would the consequences be if everybody gamed the system? Unfortunately a large section of the population don’t seem to care for the rest of society, but hey their hero said there’s no such thing as society.

    • Rob says:

      18 Apr18 April 15:45

      I personally doubt I will ever not be a high rate taxpayer, even at 90. There are also good reasons, eg risks of lawsuits, lack of protection if investments fail, not to keep money inside a company.

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