The new HFP chat thread – Friday 24th April

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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/2020/04/24/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-friday-24th-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. Let’s see how it goes. Take care!

Category

General

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

Crafty says:

24 Apr24 April 12:08

Anyone solved the Curve “please open your app to verify your purchase” issue? I’ve just encountered it for the first time trying to buy premium bonds. Opening the app does nothing. No notification in the app.
- aDifferentSimon says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 12:12
  
  Try this
  https://community.curve.app/t/curve-3ds-problem/19710/43
  
  It worked for me on an androis phone
  - Crafty says:
    
    24 Apr24 April 12:20
    
    Thanks. No luck for me, although I don’t know what I’m looking for necessarily. Absolutely bizarre that this major flaw was reported 15 days ago and is unaddressed.
    - Crafty says:
      
      24 Apr24 April 12:26
      
      Excellent stuff – whole bunch of notifications have now appeared (I fiddled with my app settings – battery saver etc) several minutes later, after of course I had voided all the transactions.
      
      Curve is so poor.
- Boi says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 12:15
  
  I cant get my curve account details. I have been getting “error retry”. I want to activate my nice new red investor card.
  However I can see my wallet and purchase timeline. Reinstalling app didnt help.
  Any lead?
  - BuyEMLocalBonds says:
    
    24 Apr24 April 13:06
    
    I have a similar issue here – red card arrived in the post a few days ago.
    
    Go into app – Somethings gone wrong on ‘Account’ …
- the_real_a says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 14:52
  
  On my android, turn off “Do not Disturb” if you have it set just before you try the trasnaction. Curve seems to be ignoring the From and To times, and also ignoring the override settings if you have set Curve in the settings to ignore Do Not Disturb.
Max Ramsay says:

24 Apr24 April 12:11

Would anyone know of a valid *Qantas* email address?

I am struggling to get through on their telephone lines (unsurprisingly, of course), so wondered if anyone knew of an in force Qantas email address? Thank you
- guesswho2000 says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 14:32
  
  frequent_flyer [at] qantas [dot] com definitely works, but I’m a QFF member.
  - guesswho2000 says:
    
    24 Apr24 April 14:37
    
    *com [dot] au I mean, of course.
CC says:

24 Apr24 April 12:11

I’ve got a stay at a Novotel in Paris next month and as per Accor t&c French hotels are only giving out vouchers which are completely useless to us. The hotel in question cancelled the room and emailed me a voucher already without even acknowledging I asked for a refund! Problem is I spoke to my insurance company to confirm that I would be covered as FCO are advising against travel, and they said yes but theywould need confirmation from the hotel that you will not be getting refund or compensation in any way.

So that screws that up, why cant they just say no refund and then anyone on a non flexible rate can claim on insurance. Is there any way around this? Section 75 claim?
- Rob says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 12:14
  
  If the hotel is open you have no legal right to a refund from the hotel. That’s what travel insurance is for. If it’s shut then of course you are due your money.
  - CC says:
    
    24 Apr24 April 12:22
    
    I know! Im happy with that! But as they are offering a voucher it means I cant claim though travel insurance.
    
    I want them to just say no refund and leave it at that. So is there anything else I can do or should the travel insurance pay out?
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      24 Apr24 April 13:06
      
      It wont pay out if they have given you a voucher, whats the voucher valid for anyway?
      
      I’d approach your card issuer – closed hotel = you are unable to stay = full refund and nothing else is acceptable.
      - CC says:
        
        24 Apr24 April 13:15
        
        Im not sure they are closed, its possible to book for the dates we are going. The voucher is valid for 18 months to use at the same hotel.
        
        Ive just made another comment about what insurer has said. Turns out the person I spoke to before gave me wrong info, they will pay out due to FCO advising against travel. Just got to reject the voucher.
happeemonkee says:

24 Apr24 April 12:18

Has anyone got the following when trying to log into there IHG account? Been like that since early this morning.

“Your account is temporarily locked. Please wait 30 minutes before trying again or contact Customer Care”.
- Andrew says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 12:31
  
  Same here. Maybe doing some maintenance.
- mark2 says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 12:35
  
  I just logged in with no problem!
Don says:

24 Apr24 April 12:35

A dispute I opened for Groupon forcing Groupon credits for closed merchants was instantly closed and credited by Amex. As it was £20 is there some system that just closes those in favour using Amex funds cos they’re not worth the fuss?

I don’t think Amex should be paying out for Groupon’s violation of basic law regarding refunds unless those funds were resolved later?
- the_real_a says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 14:56
  
  When i disputed Toll charges in the US from Advantage car rental Amex just refunded the money – offered me the option of a charge-back or just a refund as it wasn’t worth their time to challenge the payment.
- john says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 15:44
  
  Amex paid out when I ordered from Dominos and the store didn’t receive the order without any quibble. Got a standard letter saying investigating and that they would reverse the charge on my account. I suspect they didn’t investigate..
- ee says:
  
  25 Apr25 April 09:37
  
  I’m in the same position with Groupon. I rejected groupon credits for a £60 purchase that they can’t fulfil and said if they won’t give a cash refund I’ll charge back. This got an escalation to a manager, with a reply due by Tuesday. If no refund and no reply, I’ll be charging back!
CC says:

24 Apr24 April 13:05

Regarding my previous comment about Accor vouchers invalidating insurance claim, I managed to speak to someone who knew what they were talking about at my insurance company.

Basically I just need to make a claim within 28 days before travel to claim based on FCO travel advice. I need to reject the Accor vouchers they offer and insurance should pay out.

Dont know if this is all obvious to most people in the first place but I didnt know.
- Blindman says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 13:53
  
  Who is your Insurance provider?
  
  Nationwide have said (on their web-site) they will not pay if the airline-(AirNZ in this case) give me a voucher for a flight they have cancelled due on 8th May.
  
  The voucher will be valid until Jun 2021 for booking so in theory I could travel May 2022.
  
  But as it is only valid on Air NZ and they have cancelled the LHR-AKL flight and we’ve been to New Zealand it may not be of any use.
  - CC says:
    
    24 Apr24 April 14:14
    
    AA underwritten by AXA. At least yours is a voucher to use on any route that ANZ fly. My Accor voucher was for the same hotel!
    
    Have you asked Nationwide what would happen if you reject the ANZ voucher? I thought if a flight leaving UK is cancelled the airline has to refund you anyway? Maybe Nationwide are advising they wont pay out to stop people thinking they can get a voucher and claim on insurance?
    - Blindman says:
      
      24 Apr24 April 18:55
      
      I have not called to ask, I will do as their web-site could just be a front to stop people claiming.
  - Lady London says:
    
    24 Apr24 April 14:45
    
    If you paid on UK card then s75 as you did not get what you paid for.
    - Phil says:
      
      24 Apr24 April 16:42
      
      Be careful on s75 as that has less of a chance of success if you’ve booked via a travel agent rather than booking direct. Agents are successfully rejecting s75 claims as they are claiming they are not the providers and airlines are not refunding agents either fast enough or at all in some cases.
      - Blindman says:
        
        24 Apr24 April 18:54
        
        LOL
        
        I booked direct
    - Blindman says:
      
      24 Apr24 April 18:56
      
      My flight was
      
      SYD-RAR.
Nick G says:

24 Apr24 April 13:31

I just wrote this but didn’t realise it was yesterday’s article so might not be read now….

I was looking at flights from HEL to BKK for just under £1k on Qatar in biz class for October the other day.

I was really tempted but just wanted to see how it pans out first.

I’ve looked at other flights in Europe as well and as far as I can see it seems like prices are still attractive.

Won’t hear that in the media though!
Chris says:

24 Apr24 April 13:52

Hi, saw that some people have been moving miles out of Virgin Atlantic using a text service?

I’ve got an upgrade voucher but might be safe to move chunk in case they go under – any thoughts?
- AndyGWP says:
  
  24 Apr24 April 15:25
  
  Unless my memory is failing me (possible!) there was an article on here a few days ago that might help