The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 28th April

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• KevMc says:

  28 Apr28 April 12:11

  BA extending all travel vouchers to expire April 2022:

  https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/latest-information

  I thought this was the 2-4-1 vouchers at first, but then realise they meant vouchers issues as refunds 🙂
  Might be relevant to some though.

  • Harry T says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:12

    Saw this on Flyertalk. It’s good news. I have some domestic flights for an event in London that’s now cancelled. I will wait to see if BA cancel the flights but would feel better about taking a voucher now.

• Billdub says:

  28 Apr28 April 12:13

  Just got 1st points on BAPP – looks like they have changed the offer on this – say you will get the bonus points if you spend £3,000 by 27/10/20 (i.e. 6 months instead of 3) – is this a new thing @Rob?

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 12:16

    Yes. I appear to have agreed with Amex not to discuss this until Friday though.

  • Sk123 says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:02

    Is this for people eligible for 25k bonus only as I’m about to upgrade?

    • Rob says:

      28 Apr28 April 13:03

      I am not allowed to confirm until Friday 🙂

      • Chrish says:

        28 Apr28 April 14:55

        Rob, Police knocking on your door lol you are under arrest you talked
        We need to take you to station (possible deportation secret destination flying VA)
        Rhys arrested playing “Bingo” whilst at work
        All will be reveled if you manage to escape on Friday lol lol

      • Chrish says:

        28 Apr28 April 15:21

        Rob, Sorry but the downside of your silence (i understand your hands might be tied due to needing to keep friendly ! with sources) But & Big But you should or are hosting this site on behalf off your readers ( IMO) as well as getting revenue.
        I think (IMO) A Bigger hint might be prudent “ABOUT FRIDAY) to deter any readers of this site making any mistakes before Fridays Article (IMO)

        • oldham_fan says:

          28 Apr28 April 16:15

          That’s not how the world works

        • Rob says:

          28 Apr28 April 16:41

          You won’t be making a mistake, don’t worry.

    • Nathan says:

      28 Apr28 April 13:08

      I have just checked my Amex online account, and my 3 month period for the 25k bonus on 3k spend has indeed just been extended by 3 months, from 11th May, to 11th Aug, which is great news, as whilst I was near hitting it before COVID, refund after refund had set me back. So good move by Amex.

    • Billdub says:

      28 Apr28 April 13:53

      Sure they’ll confirm on Fri, but this might help – https://headforpoints.com/2020/04/04/amex-usa-extends-the-sign-up-bonus-spend-period-by-3-months/

  • Anna says:

    28 Apr28 April 14:04

    Slightly OT data pointed – OH triggered his 2 4 1 yesterday, the voucher had appeared in his BAEC account this morning. Amex are extremely on the ball at the moment.

    • Anna says:

      28 Apr28 April 14:04

      With the 6 months extra, so valid till Oct 2022 which is very handy.

    • Harry T says:

      28 Apr28 April 16:40

      C@shb@ck from offers and referral points are also appearing much more quickly.

• Billy Nicholson says:

  28 Apr28 April 12:35

  Does anybody know what Malaysian’s policy is on releasing reward seats?
  And Qantas too please?

  • Lyn says:

    28 Apr28 April 18:49

    Qantas can be quite stingy with First and Business awards, with a little more availability the higher your OneWorld status. I’m not sure exactly how many days they are released in advance.

  • Polly says:

    29 Apr29 April 13:44

    Malaysian don’t release biz seats til closer to the departure time. Economy yes, plenty.

• Kian says:

  28 Apr28 April 12:36

  Thinking of cancelling Amex Platinum. However I have a few trips already booked for later this year. If I apply for the Platinum card again in a few months before the upcoming trips, will the travel insurance cover those trips? Also if I’m going to book trips for next year after cancelling the current platinum card and before applying for a new one, will I be covered for these trips?

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:06

    No. You’d need to buy more insurance, and you really should buy it immediately since – for eg – if you cancel today and get diagnosed with something nasty tomorrow you wouldn’t be insured.

• Ronald Jeremy says:

  28 Apr28 April 12:58

  There were 4,343 coronavirus-related deaths reported by care home providers in England in two weeks, according to the healthcare regulator.
  The figure – from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – covers the fortnight to 24 April. Since then conservative estimates indicate a doubling of the number.

  A government spokesman reassured the public that the NHS has not been overwhelmed, they took a deliberate policy decision to leave Care Homes to their own devices for their own good and since have deliberately not included Care home deaths in the figures. If included the UK has the worst death toll in Europe from Covid 19 given France Spain and Italy include all deaths from the virus.
  The figure was revealed in the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – which also showed weekly deaths from all causes reached the highest point since comparable records began in 1993. Yesterday the Prime Minister reiterated that there is no decision on lockdown measures being lifted but would fly a flag and see which way public opinion was blowing before making a principled and decisive stand, unless Dom tells him not to and changes his mind (again) for him.

  .

  • Lady London says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:19

    You can easily double the reported figures of people lost if you include residential care.

    Other countries have been mostly not including care home deaths in their figures either. If you include deaths of people captive in care homes they at least double everywhere I would say. Some have included care homes recently. But there is incomplete or lagged reporting.

    In the UK and some other countries, with relatives unable to get their loved ones out to safety and not allowed to visit to hold the hand of their loved one who is dying, I believe staff without PPE who come to work infected by something that doesn’t affect them much, have transmitted the infection from resident to resident in their care homes. And not just in the UK.

    • mutley says:

      28 Apr28 April 13:57

      The first and primary responsibility of any government of any political persuasion is to keep the people safe. Taking that as a baseline, the abject failure of this government has been laid bare. The minimum you would expect is for the PM to attend the Cobra meetings, and for front line staff , both NHS and Care Homes to have adequate PPE.

      • Darren says:

        28 Apr28 April 17:00

        A large proportion of care homes are privately run and the companies involved should provide the appropriate ppe, How you implement social distancing in those circumstances I would think is extremely challenging.

        The debacle of ppe for the NHS is another matter and the Gov is rightly being hauled over the coals.

      • J says:

        29 Apr29 April 21:29

        Keeping them safe presumably means on a longer timescale, by protecting their prosperity and liberty? It is the myopic monomania on the short-term death rate that is the source of the longer-term disaster, which will cause misery and, ironically, more excess deaths.

        • Shoestring says:

          29 Apr29 April 21:32

          Sorry, J – you’re not allowed to say that, please retract & apologise abjectly 🙂

  • AJA says:

    28 Apr28 April 14:12

    @ Ronald Jeremy It is clear you want the UK governement to fail and for the UK to be the worst country in Europe for Covid-19 deaths. I don’t really understand what “celebrating” this achieves. Personally I think it’s a tragedy and might have been avoided if people had taken responsibility for themselves and not waited until the government issued the lockdown rules. That said I am not really sure what relevance your post has on a website dedicated to travel, frequent fliers and reward points (both credit card and loyalty schemes) other than a tenuous link to why we are currently not flying as a result of Covid-19. I think the lockdown should continue until we really do see a sustained reduction in deaths and new infections which will obviously have adverse effects on travel and the tourist industry. I think the government is handling this well, giving practical support to business (even if some are missing out) and their actions do appear to be working. Of course they could have, and maybe should have, done more and sooner but what’s done is done. Not sure what complaining about it achieves, certainly the families who have lost loved ones aren’t going to get them back.

    • Darren says:

      28 Apr28 April 17:04

      I’m still amazed we have no restrictions on flights, screening and quarantining in the UK?

  • Mike says:

    28 Apr28 April 17:52

    Still in the first mile of what is going to be a marathon.

    You can’t compare different countries reporting. UK any death with COVID positive test is reported as a COVID death. In Germany it’s been confirmed by RKI that there isn’t routine testing for COVID after death. No wonder the German figures look better.

    German docs doing naked protests due to lack of PPE. That’s a global problem.

    In brighter news, it appears we didn’t need the Nightingale hospitals, in this wave. (we might yet need them in subsequent ones).

    The tally as to who did “best” and “worst” will not come for a couple of years, at least.

  • Andrew says:

    28 Apr28 April 21:03

    We won’t really know the true figures (worldwide) for at least 18 months.

    Even then the “true” figures will be the average annual death tolls for 2000-2019 deducted from the 2020 death tolls. So still not entirely accurate.

    All that Covid-19 has really told us is that there are vast numbers of NHS Management who do nothing but parrot. Despite 6 figure salaries, it’s all “it wisnae me, the big boy tells me what to do”.

• Alan says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:00

  Someone mentioned the other day about Creation being flexible about which cards they accept via their payment page.

  Does anyone have experience of using an ‘underlying’ CC direct rather than Curve. I.e. the likes of HSBS WE Surely attracts a fee?

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:03

    Might do, might very well not do 🙂

• r* says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:07

  Regarding curve and ernie, is that the only thing curve is happy with or is it okay to use anything on nsi site (presumably with metal only), when used with vs or ihg?

  • MJ says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:24

    Can use with anything, I used the direct saver as I think you can withdraw it quicker

  • Peter K says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:30

    Why not try yourself rather than asking? After all, if curve fronted is turned off then you won’t be charged, you’ll be prompted to turn it on to complete the payment.

    • Peter K says:

      28 Apr28 April 13:42

      My reply sounded grumpier than it was meant to be. I genuinely meant that our was worth a try as there was no downside to doing so.

      • r* says:

        28 Apr28 April 13:57

        The reason for asking was cos I was primarily thinking of the ISA and you can only open one of those per year 🙂

        • Peter K says:

          28 Apr28 April 14:37

          Ah, makes more sense now. I was thinking DS.

        • Peter K says:

          28 Apr28 April 14:38

          Don’t know re: ISA but DS seems fine.

• SL says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:15

  Just wanted to check with other people’s experiences.

  I hit my cap of 90K points for referral on the Amex plat back end of last year. Is the cap for 12 months of the card year or calendar year? Amex say card year but I’m hoping others have experienced otherwise?

  Will do a referral anyway and check back in with the result!

  • SL says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:18

    Just checked the T&C’s and says 90k per calendar year. Quite confusing…

    • Alan says:

      28 Apr28 April 17:04

      I believe it’s per 12 months, i.e. not calendar year.

      I fell into that trap previously and had to check.

      • Genghis says:

        28 Apr28 April 19:22

        Calendar year
        https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/legal/refer_a_friend/terms-and-conditions.html

  • Martyn Ford says:

    28 Apr28 April 21:22

    I have received more than the maximum points in a calendar year before – you might want to try your luck.

    • Rob says:

      28 Apr28 April 21:29

      Calendar year. Very rare these days you can go over in my exerience – with Plat, for example, if you’ve done 84k and do another 12k then 95% of the time they spot it and cap the last one at 6k.

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