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The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 29th 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/2020/04/29/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-wednesday-29th-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 (360)

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

  • Mark says:
    29 Apr29 April 10:59

    If I take a BA refund voucher for flights in June, can I use these vouchers towards my taxes (and charges) on a Avios redemption flight?

    • Anna says:
      29 Apr29 April 11:06

      If it’s purely a cash voucher, then yes. I got what was effectively a credit note for a cancelled car hire booking, booked new Avios flight for next Easter a couple of weeks ago and got the credit applied in about 5 days. My only easy transaction with BA recently!

  • Justin says:
    29 Apr29 April 11:01

    I have a few BA bookings that have been cancelled. I want to get cash refunds for these, not vouchers. One is for later this week and I have given up trying to get through by phone. Do we have to request the refund BEFORE original flight departure, or can we leave it and request later? I’m sure this has been covered, but I can’t find the answer!

  • Michael C says:
    29 Apr29 April 11:05

    Guessing there’s no reason NOT to go down from BAPP to free card, right?

    • Peter K says:
      29 Apr29 April 13:48

      Depends on whether you have hit the £10k spend to get the 2-4-1. Also depends on whether your spend per month on it justifies the fee.

  • krys_k says:
    29 Apr29 April 11:18

    I’m sorry if the answer to this has been posted already, HFP seems to have grown very popular with each post eliciting hundreds of responses and I may have missed this as I don’t always go back into the middle of threads after I have read them. Anyway…
    Where can one move Virgin flying miles to ?
    Many thanks.

    • MJ says:
      29 Apr29 April 11:20

      Can move to Hilton which gets about 0.5p per point value or IHG which gets around 0.4p per point

      You could also use them for virgin wines etc.

      • Josh says:
        29 Apr29 April 11:34

        0.5p is a very high value for a Hilton point. You can buy them often enough in a “100% extra Hilton Points Sale” for 0.4p. Those are held regularly.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    29 Apr29 April 11:46

    I’ve not seen this mentioned before, but is anyone worried about Heathrow Rewards?

    I have many thousands of points in this scheme and generally keep them there unless there’s a transfer bonus to BA. The reason I keep them there is because I had the option to transfer them to other airlines (such as VS) if I needed to or use them on shopping vouchers.

    I don’t expect Heathrow to go bust, but then again how many airports own a loyalty scheme? If they did decide to close Heathrow Rewards do people expect they’d give notice to allow us to spend the points or would they just close it immediately?

    • Rob says:
      29 Apr29 April 13:03

      I doubt this is at much risk. Heathrow will be happy to have it to entice people back.

    • ankomonkey says:
      29 Apr29 April 13:51

      Your post just reminded me I have some Heathrow Rewards points due to expire – shamefully, I got lazy getting the card out at LHR and the points were too few to bother sending an e-mail to get credited.

      I was due to fly from Heathrow in May but flights are now cancelled. Any news on Heathrow Rewards expiry dates being extended?

    • Spaghetti Town says:
      29 Apr29 April 17:32

      18 months and we won’t be far off back to normal.

  • Trevor says:
    29 Apr29 April 11:46

    Regarding US travel [and other non-EU countries], I can’t see any travel without a vaccine. The US probably won’t even let you in without a vacc certificate. Anecdotally 10 days on a ventilator in the ‘States is North of $900k. No-one would go there without medical insurance? This will kill the US tourism industry on it’s arse. Transatlantic flights will be drastically reduced I guess. In Europe I assume we’re OK under EHIC until Dec 31st and I do read that it may actually become permanent as Norway is in the scheme but not in the EU.
    Lockdown discussion….

    • Andrew says:
      29 Apr29 April 11:59

      That’s why you need travel insurance…

      • Trevor says:
        29 Apr29 April 12:03

        Well yes, that was rather my point. Until there is a vaccine no travel insurance will cover you for COVID and no travel insurance means no USA travel.

        • Andrew says:
          29 Apr29 April 12:21

          Would anyone really take the risk of not having travel insurance when going to the USA even in normal times?

          • Trevor says:
            29 Apr29 April 12:26

            Of course not but then we didn’t have COVID or any equivalent. I’m not sure I’m explaining my point very well?

          • TGLoyalty says:
            29 Apr29 April 21:38

            Yes we did. This isn’t the first infectious virus you can catch and be hospitalised with.

    • Anna says:
      29 Apr29 April 12:23

      Just my thoughts but Trump seems very susceptible to pressure from businesses so may push for tourism to resume, although of course this won’t help with the insurance issues.
      On another note, Spain is still bleating about making a special point of banning Brits from visiting for the summer season, even though our mortality rate is lower than theirs and comparable with that of France and Italy. It feels more like they are trying to make a point about Brexit/Gibraltar than anything to do with COVID-19.

      • Anna says:
        29 Apr29 April 12:30

        Also, obviously they won’t want to upset any country which from which they are hoping for a bailout.

      • Trevor says:
        29 Apr29 April 12:31

        I don’t doubt Donald will open the door but no-one is going to go through it…

        • Anna says:
          29 Apr29 April 13:07

          I don’t know, someone posted recently that if COVID ceases to be a pandemic, insurers may well decide to reinstate cover for it, and of course some people have rolling policies which cover them anyway (it’s rare, but, for example, my own very comprehensive policy through work ONLY precludes cover if the FCO advises against travel, though of course this could change). Renting a villa with a pool would allow social distancing to be practised and you would have control over the amount of human interaction you had (apart from the actual travelling part but presumably numbers of travellers are going to be significantly reduced anyway). Again, just my thoughts!

          • Lisa de leeuw says:
            29 Apr29 April 13:50

            Keep the natives out , expect those that serve me drinks.

        • ChrisC says:
          29 Apr29 April 14:53

          Yes he can rescind his entry ban(s) but if the places you want to visit are closed because of state and local laws then there isn’t much point in going to the US

      • James says:
        29 Apr29 April 13:17

        Johny Foreigners again Anna, eh?

        • Anna says:
          29 Apr29 April 17:38

          ? My family is from Pontevedra, I bet you don’t even know where that is.

          • Optimus Prime says:
            29 Apr29 April 17:38

            Galicia, Spain 🙂

          • James says:
            29 Apr29 April 18:34

            “Spain still bleating about stopping Brits… its all about being punished for Brexit…” blah, blah, blah.

            Where do you get your news from? Spain are saying, for ANY country, they will not be re-starting tourism until its safe to do so. Which is pretty sensible, no?

            Nothing whatsoever to do with getting back at Britain.

          • Genghis says:
            29 Apr29 April 18:45

            Lovely part of Spain. We went a couple of years ago and loved the Cies Islands, Santiago and the Death Coast. Top restaurant in Santiago: Casa Marcelo. We were seated at the counter overlooking the kitchen and chef designs a menu based on how hungry you are.

          • ChrisBCN says:
            29 Apr29 April 19:14

            I know where Pontevedra is, does that mean if I write about Brexit and Gibraltar it is no longer political?

            Anyway thanks for reminding me of this lovely story from a couple of years ago https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/sep/18/paradise-life-spanish-city-banned-cars-pontevedra

      • Kev 85 says:
        29 Apr29 April 13:58

        “ even though our mortality rate is lower than theirs and comparable with that of France and Italy”

        Depends if you believe the government figures…,

        (I’m not saying ours are less reliable than anywhere else, they’re probably being fudged in most countries)

        • Charlieface says:
          29 Apr29 April 15:38

          Don’t think most Western countries are fudging their figures, just bad reporting from healthcare and social care providers

          • Genghis says:
            29 Apr29 April 15:50

            Or poor methodology on data collection?
            My wife’s cousin was in hospital and was told she had coronavirus. She most likely appeared in the infection statistics. She was never tested for CV. She in fact had severe bronchitis and has since recovered.

      • ChrisBCN says:
        29 Apr29 April 15:19

        Anna, you are incredibly politically misguided with your Spain comments. It’s also the case that Spanish citizens can’t travel between regions until certain thresholds are met.

        • Anna says:
          29 Apr29 April 16:01

          Chris, I am half Spanish, all my father’s family live there and I have 2 degrees in Spanish, one of which is a PhD. There is absolutely nothing political about MY comments, they are based purely on my own observations. You should really make yourself a bit more informed before passing sweeping judgements such as this.

    • BJ says:
      29 Apr29 April 12:43

      Too much hope being invested in vaccines. To cut a long story short just search the news for Pennington.

    • jamesj says:
      29 Apr29 April 14:57

      Not sure what point you are making, always going to be individual choice. Whether or not to travel, the risk of contracting any disease is actually very small – even now with 100m infected in US is only 1% of pop. In 6 months time that will be far smaller, and there will be much better testing and treatment available. The more panic is promoted the more it will come true.

      Just on ventilators, experience in US has shown that often they are not the best option anyway with only a 20% survival rate as they are so invasive.
      One thing there is now an oversupply of is ventilators!!

      • james says:
        29 Apr29 April 14:59

        Sorry those numbers total bollox, 1m out of 340m is a bit less than 1% !!

        • TGLoyalty says:
          29 Apr29 April 21:46

          You are correct 1m is the number tested positive out of 330-350m population. But there are many that were infected and showed no or mild symptoms plus those that were suspected but never tested.

          It’s likely a far higher % of the population was infected before testing was really ramped up and no idea what that means for number actually infected right now.

      • Kev 85 says:
        29 Apr29 April 19:45

        “ always going to be individual choice”

        Not if the country doesn’t let you in

  • Joe says:
    29 Apr29 April 12:55

    Can someone help around the new BA voucher extension? So for clarity…

    If I booked for flights in July, with cash, but booked before 3rd March (in January) I can now obtain a voucher?

    I think the BA terms read, yes, but as ever not crystal clear!
    Thanks

  • Don says:
    29 Apr29 April 12:59

    How long does it take for NS&I top-up to clear? 4 days now.

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      29 Apr29 April 15:09

      Don:
      If you mean cash out from day of deposit, for me its taking 8 x days and also coming in later in the day recently.

      • Don says:
        29 Apr29 April 15:32

        Yes SS, to be able to cash out. Balance is up but not cleared yet.

        • Secret Squirrel says:
          29 Apr29 April 16:53

          Used to be in my bank account before 11am like clockwork 7 x days on – the next working day after withdrawal. Now a full 8 x days and usually in around 2pm for me!

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