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The new HFP chat thread – Monday 27th 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/2020/04/27/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-monday-27th-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

Comments (244)

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

  • Mark Coulson says:
    27 Apr27 April 11:00

    Morning Guys, advice required!

    I want to add an inbound Reward flight to my BA booking tomorrow, but can’t get through on the UK phone line. I already booked the outbound reward successfully 2 weeks ago, waiting for the inbound to be released.

    a) Is there a good time to call BA when they will actually answer the phone at the moment??

    b) Is there an overseas, international BA office that could process this (and speaks English) that may be a better option?

    Wish I could just add the inbound to the existing booking online, but doesn’t let me.

    Thanks
    Mark

    • Rhys says:
      27 Apr27 April 11:01

      Try the US line

      • Mark Coulson says:
        27 Apr27 April 11:11

        It’s not open either at that time, restricted hours.

        • Sk123 says:
          27 Apr27 April 12:10

          I tried Japan last week at 1am BST and all went smoothly. Too about 25 minutes in total.

          • Mark Coulson says:
            27 Apr27 April 12:36

            Fantastic, what was the right number to call?

            Was the language barrier an issue?

          • Sk123 says:
            27 Apr27 April 12:43

            I just used the Japan number on BA’s site and language wasn’t a barrier. The agent knew English but it was taking her a bit of time to understand what we said so we spoke simple, to-the-point English and we remained patient. She knew what she was doing so that was great. I did take tips from here and load the payment card on to my account before calling and that did speed things up. I have a household account so even the passenger names were there. I loaded £5 Skype credit and used something like 80p! Good luck.

    • Cathy says:
      27 Apr27 April 11:58

      I rang BA this morning at 06:00 to add a return flight on a 2-4-1 voucher. The usual number said all calls are being taken on 0800727800 so I hung up and rang that number. I think the wait was about 20 mins and the process took about the same. The advisor knew which flights I had been looking at so must have got that from my Executive account latest search information. All sorted now after taking the extra avios and charges

      • Mark Coulson says:
        27 Apr27 April 12:37

        Thanks Cathy

        Do you know what time that call centre opens? 0800727800

        is it 6am?

        Thanks
        Mark

        • Stuart Evans says:
          27 Apr27 April 12:57

          I have called it at 05:30 a week or two ago

          • Anna says:
            27 Apr27 April 13:28

            I just can’t be bothered calling them at the moment, I’m going to book my return flights online then call to get the Avios refunded when all this calms down a bit. The tax differential on my route is no as vast as that in a return from the US so I don’t mind paying a bit extra for less hassle. Plus I have £729 towards the surcharges from my cancelled car hire booking.

        • Cathy says:
          27 Apr27 April 13:56

          Not sure Mark, BA website said 08.00 but that is obviously wrong, they were definitely open at 6 as went straight into the queue, rather than a message saying opening times. Maybe an idea to ring later tonight as they may have a message on giving opening times. Good luck, hope you get what you want.

  • Bill says:
    27 Apr27 April 11:31

    Norwegianwill run out of cash mid May

    Link including presentation to bond holders

    https://twitter.com/LondonAirTravel/status/1254704628144451584?s=19

  • Spaghetti Town says:
    27 Apr27 April 12:21

    Well it’s more likely to be that, than posting videos of Jeremy Corbyn on a train.

  • Aiman says:
    27 Apr27 April 12:28

    Hey Peeps…
    I know this is the least of anyone’s worries with virgin and curve and ihg premium card gone…
    When is the Hilton Barclaycard back x Does Rob or Rhys have any inside news being inside the business?
    Regards

    • I pay homage to the one and only Secret Squirrel says:
      27 Apr27 April 12:31

      +1

    • Spaghetti Town says:
      27 Apr27 April 12:59

      There’s a recession to follow. doubt we’ll be seeing anything to be honest.

      • J says:
        27 Apr27 April 13:30

        +1 yes I’ll be surprised if they relaunch it. The UK HH barclaycard if you’ve got it is a great deal for a free card, I’m very happy I never cancelled. I easily spend 10k a year so keep Gold and get 2 points/£. There is still a Hilton credit card in Germany but it’s 50 euros a year and 1 point/€, includes Gold though.

      • Charlieface says:
        27 Apr27 April 14:16

        Impression I get is that during a recession they launch these type of cards more often, owing to banks wanting to lend more and airlines/hotels selling miles cheap

        • Spaghetti Town says:
          27 Apr27 April 18:26

          I hope you’re right Charlie face!

          Etihad, Emirates and KLM cards please!

  • onlysuites says:
    27 Apr27 April 12:56

    Has anyone been offered points/targets to keep the Gold or Plat Amex cards?

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      27 Apr27 April 13:06

      I got 20k MR for 4K spend in 3x months.

    • RogerC says:
      27 Apr27 April 21:44

      I was offered one of :
      – 1 extra point/£ – so 3 points/£ – for 3 months
      – the ability to have my fee refunded pro-rata, but then to pay monthly for the card
      – to downgrade to a Gold Charge, free for 1 year

      Still can’t see how that stacks up against the fee, though, sadly.

  • marcw says:
    27 Apr27 April 13:04

    IHG has has secured a £600m loan under the government’s coronavirus financial support scheme.

    cityam.com/holiday-inn-owner-ihg-secures-600m-coronavirus-loan/

    • Spaghetti Town says:
      27 Apr27 April 14:10

      As Rob reported in a previous article – I thought IHG were just a franchise operator swimming with cash?

      • Rob says:
        27 Apr27 April 14:12

        What idiot wouldn’t take a huge amount of cash at virtually 0% interest if offered? The Government money comes at 0.2% if you have a top credit rating (I am guessing IHG is paying 0.4% if they borrowed £600m because it is staggered). Pay off £600m of normal debt and you’re looking at a nice little profit.

    • Lady London says:
      27 Apr27 April 14:10

      I thought Rob was saying IHG has an operating margin of something like 54%, has souchoney they don’t known what to with it, and had been buying back their own shares hugely with all the money they had?

      Can this be true? easyJet got the same govt support and has real outgoings to cover.

  • Dominic says:
    27 Apr27 April 13:18

    I’m trying to get a subscription to the Economist using the Avios offer, but when I complete the form, the box for card details is not appearing. Has anyone else had issues?

    It was appearing yesterday for 1 hour, but kept going to “Payment Application Error”.

  • Ossie says:
    27 Apr27 April 13:19

    I wonder if anyone knows what will happen when my Hilton Honors VISA credit card expires at the end of June? Will they simply replace with a Barclaycard, nothing or do they still issue a replacement HH VISA for existing customers?

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

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