The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 28th April

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• Ammar says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:16

  My sister and mum have a amex Gold PRG card and want to downgrade to the free one. a couple of Qs:
  1) can they cross refer each other and then cancel the gold card? Will they get the referral bonus or not really as they already have an amex?
  2) Will there MR balance carry across or do they need to empty it out first?
  Regards

  • MJ says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:26

    Yes, you can refer each other, probably best to wait until the bonus has landed to cancel the gold cards though

    Yes, if it is a MR card you get, you can cancel the gold cards once you have the referral bonus and keep your MR points

  • Ian says:

    28 Apr28 April 18:50

    They’ll get the referral bonus but not sign up bonuses on the new card as they already held a card

• Optimus Prime says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:20

  Looks like IHG has started rolling out dynamic pricing in mainland China and Taiwan – https://onemileatatime.com/ihg-dynamic-award-pricing/

• @mkcol says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:39

  Just had a wee survey in from AMEX about the American Express Rewards Credit Card – basically asking about satisfaction with its features & what else I use instead of it, why and how they compare to each other.
  Turns out my Curve card is my only alternative & I scored it higher.

  • Rum says:

    28 Apr28 April 14:57

    I got this too for my Gold charge card

• Tom says:

  28 Apr28 April 13:40

  I downgraded Amex Plat to Green – didn’t offer me anything to stay and no free gold in first year either despite putting a decent volume through the card.

  The green card has arrived (haven’t activated it yet) but my platinum card is still working for online and in store purchases, how much longer is it likely to work?

  • Sina says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:48

    When I downgraded to green last year they didn’t send me a replacement card and I still use the metal card! Still can go to T5 Premium plaza for free! 😅

    • Mark says:

      28 Apr28 April 13:51

      Do they even check the card is still valid? From visits to the Amex Centurion Lounge in HK, and the Eurostar lounge at St Pancras I don’t think that was checked in either case.

      • Doug M says:

        28 Apr28 April 15:17

        Surprised at Amex lounge, in the USA they always scan the card. St Pancras they barely glance.

    • Polly says:

      28 Apr28 April 15:03

      Did they charge you the fee for the green?
      Our plat was checked in ARN tho.

    • Doug M says:

      28 Apr28 April 15:19

      Has this worked fro you, because normally Plaza Prem scan the card for me.

  • Mark says:

    28 Apr28 April 13:49

    Is your account showing a pro-rata refund on the Platinum?

    Interestingly I was advised they couldn’t downgrade my Platinum to Gold (as the former is a charge card, the latter a credit card) so I took out a new Gold card (with first year fee free) and cancelled the Platinum once I’d received it.

    • flyoff says:

      28 Apr28 April 14:29

      They can downgrade the Platinum to the Gold chargecard. I was offered this with no fee for the first year

• Howard says:

  28 Apr28 April 15:48

  Hi Rob, I seem to recall you recommending various business magazines to read in the comments section a while ago . Do you mind giving the list again?

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 16:05

    Did I?!

    I have cut back quite a bit. If you run a start up or very small business, I rate Courier because it keeps you in touch with what others are doing and where new trends are coming from. For general business stuff I would say Bloomberg Business Week, which is impressively easy to read and printed on super-light paper so great for travelling with. The Economist is not great for general business stories per se – or at least there aren’t that many of them each issue, whereas Business Week is 100%.

    Whilst we are an online business I don’t find Wired relevant.

    • Howard says:

      28 Apr28 April 16:44

      Thanks!

• Dan says:

  28 Apr28 April 15:55

  Any word on Mr & Mrs Smith hotels being loaded on to IHG – earning or spending points? Press release says ‘early 2020’ but that was before the current bother.

  • Rob says:

    28 Apr28 April 16:01

    No, not heard anything.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    28 Apr28 April 16:13

    Supposed to be a couple of hotels in Singapore loaded but not seen anything else as yet!

    • Heathrow Flyer says:

      28 Apr28 April 16:34

      I believe you’re thinking of the Six Senses hotels in SIN.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        28 Apr28 April 16:47

        Yes, I think also there were a couple of Mr&Mrs Smith hotels loaded on ihg somewhere else like Istanbul.

        • Heathrow Flyer says:

          28 Apr28 April 16:54

          That was also the only other SS property to bookable with IHGs.

          Like you, I’m also eagerly awaiting MMS properties to be loaded.

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          28 Apr28 April 17:43

          @HeathrowFlyer:
          Mr&Mrs Smith are one of the reasons I’ll be hanging onto my IHG Prem card this year at renewal. We look forward to that day, probably 2021 now!

  • Charlieface says:

    28 Apr28 April 22:40

    Current bother is a nice non-descript term 🙂

• CC says:

  28 Apr28 April 16:01

  Afternoon. The article the other week about claiming a refund via section 75 mentioned that charge cards were not covered ‘However, Amex chooses to voluntarily match Section 75 protection although it is not legally obliged to.’

  I chatted to Amex and they said they had no knowledge of this so was just wondering if this documented anywhere, or is it an unwritten rule? Thanks.

• Gamer says:

  28 Apr28 April 16:31

  What is Ernie again?
  Is NSI working without fees?

  • Nick_C says:

    28 Apr28 April 16:43

    Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    28 Apr28 April 16:48

    Via Curve Blue appears yes today with no fees still according to earlier reports.

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