The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 29th April

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• berneslai says:

  29 Apr29 April 14:31

  Are there any ways of earning hotel points in these barren times? I booked several Marriott hotels on an advanced points rate expecting to do enough road warrior work between now and September and I’m 70k short of the points I need.

  I’ve already got the Amex range and ordered the free supplementary cards. Any other ideas that don’t involve me buying a Range Rover on my Amex Gold card?

  • MJ says:

    29 Apr29 April 14:49

    Best bet is probably to refer family members. 12K per referral if you still have the plat and you can transfer Marriott points for free (you can send up to 100,000 per year and receive up to 500,000).

    Would be best to refer them for the platinum. That’s 33k MR + 6k if you add a supp. Add on 4k-8k for the spend due to the double points and you will have at least 55k between the 2 people. At a 2:3 ratio that’s 82.5k

• sunguy says:

  29 Apr29 April 14:42

  Ok….I have just done something that Im a little conflicted about….and Im not sure exactly what to do…

  I got distracted by work yesterday (yes, shock horror!), and when I finally got round to trying to book the ARN-HNL deal, the fare had been pulled by OneWorld…..(meh!)….BUT the copycat fares are still available with Star-Alliance …. and as we are using this for a holiday, I looked into it and actually, I got better timed flights over a weekend rather than midweek and from BRU rather than ARN!

  Anyways….crux of this is – who should I credit points/status to – with BA, I was looking at keeping silver alive with a possibility of gaining gold – the main things that matter to me are status for access to lounges and earlier boarding – miles accrual Im less worried about currently as realistically Im not sure how often Ill be using star-alliance carriers (shame about the demise of BMI!).

  Work have also just changed to using United as a preferred carrier – but, there is only a fairly small chance of work travel in the near future….and if it were to happen, its probably a return to Chicago in economy…..yack – hence why the status for lounge access is more important…..

  So, I have no idea what programme I should credit this to – Ive read the article from last year, but Im still confused – any ideas?

  I booked it through Air Canada UK site / £1500 spend/ticket but not sure how that translates to anything……I cant see anywhere what the credits I should receive when the flights are completed actually will be….

  help ?

  • Dominic Barrington says:

    29 Apr29 April 14:53

    If I have understood various posts on here and other things I have read, I think that (assuming you are UK based) Star A is much less good news. You need Star Gold for lounge access, whereas with BA it is only silver. Surely the big question is what you would use accrued miles for, and that answer might point you to LH or SK or TK, perhaps. Or if your focus is entirely transatlantic, UA…

    • guesswho2000 says:

      30 Apr30 April 08:20

      Star Gold translates to Oneworld Sapphire, essentially (there’s no equivalent to Emerald). Doesn’t matter about the specific scheme’s naming of it (remember that BA Silver=AA Platinum=QF Gold within Oneworld alone).

  • AJA says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:12

    @ sunguy. are you asking which Star Alliance FF scheme you should credit the flights to? I would suggest you post your question on this specific thread in FT

    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-alliance/1144878-need-advice-ff-scheme-join-please-post-here.html

    The advice there is as follows:
    If you fly less than 50k miles per year: it is almost guaranteed that your choice will be between Aegean Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Asiana Airlines. Please look up these airlines’ frequent flier programs, and make a decision as to which best suits your needs.
    Some considerations to take into account:
    Airlines tend to treat members of their own frequent flier program better than members of other frequent flier programs. If you fly one of these airlines, it is recommended that you choose that airline.

    Some airlines have better earning/redemption charts for your pattern. For example, if you fly on cheap fares on a certain airline often, Turkish might give you miles for it, while Aegean might not. However, Turkish Airlines might charge much more for the redemption that you want to make than Aegean.

    Asiana Airlines offers lifetime Star Alliance Gold for 500k miles over life. The other 2 airlines do not offer this benefit.

  • mr_jetlag says:

    29 Apr29 April 19:19

    A3 if you are looking for the easiest Star alliance programme to achieve Gold based out of the UK. UA if you are US heavy.

  • Harry T says:

    29 Apr29 April 19:24

    If you’re an infrequent A* flyer and just want to earn some points you can use/top up from Amex MR, crediting to SQ KrisFlyer might be helpful.

  • sunguy says:

    29 Apr29 April 23:49

    Thanks for the ideas folks…I have 6 months (I guess!) to make up my mind ….but these points are definitely a starter for 10!

• happeemonkee says:

  29 Apr29 April 15:19

  Ambassador status and expired weekend certificate just been extended by a further 3 months

  • Anna says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:13

    Yes I noticed this, mine’s been extended to July next year which is helpful.

  • Rachel R says:

    29 Apr29 April 22:56

    A further 3 montgs beyond the membership?

• Unsavage gerbil says:

  29 Apr29 April 15:32

  I see that Germany has extended international travel ban until 14th June, I have flights booked to Middle East and Indonesia mid September, what chances they will fly?

  • Rob says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:48

    September is a long time away.

  • Kev 85 says:

    29 Apr29 April 19:48

    No idea

• Don says:

  29 Apr29 April 15:33

  What’s the trick to get the Curve Metal fee charge in EUR rather than GBP? 150 EUR. 13-14% discount paying in EUR.

  • Connor says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:31

    Have an EU address?

    • Boi says:

      29 Apr29 April 16:56

      I have a Republic of Ireland address. Do you think I can get it in € under my current membership? Or do I need to apply separately? Will I also need an Irish phone number 🤔

      • Connor says:

        29 Apr29 April 17:00

        I’d imagine you’d need to apply separately, though you’re technically not allowed 2 Curve cards. Maybe contact Curve and see if they could change address along with the currency. Bear in mind all GBP transactions will be converted in future.

        • John says:

          29 Apr29 April 18:29

          But isn’t the point of curve that you can add a GBP card and have curve charge it in GBP, or the same way as UK users can add a EUR card and have curve charge it in EUR

        • Sundar says:

          29 Apr29 April 19:18

          Yes, if the transaction is made in the underlying card’s currency, then there will be no currency conversion done.

  • J says:

    29 Apr29 April 18:12

    When I linked my Curve to my German address the underlying Barclaycard stopped working as that is linked to a UK address.

• Y says:

  29 Apr29 April 16:10

  Just tried to cancel my BA Amex (no incentive provided to stay) but they mentioned I will lose my 2-1 BA voucher if i cancel the card. Can someone confirm this is actually not the case? i.e. 2-1 voucher will remain in my BA account?

  • rams1981 says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:11

    they always say this but it always remains in your account.Voucher when used needs taxes to be paid with an Amex.

    • Y says:

      29 Apr29 April 16:18

      Great thanks! And its an amex in anyone’s name? or has to be your name?

      • Genghis says:

        29 Apr29 April 16:24

        In anyone’s name. It might say Mr Genghis on the payment info (and uneditable) but the Amex is in Mr Khan’s name. All goes through as Amex don’t do name verification.

        • Amar says:

          30 Apr30 April 00:19

          Brighton advised this week that one BA card needs to be active in a household account, for everyone to keep their companion vouchers active.

          Or are you saying we can all cancel our BA cards and keep all of the companion vouchers?

        • Genghis says:

          30 Apr30 April 06:04

          That’s bull

  • Dezbez says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:28

    Appreciate it wasn’t your main point, but re retention offers, I was given double Avios for 3 months when I rang to cancel

    • Harry T says:

      29 Apr29 April 19:26

      So 3 Avios per pound for non BA spend, and 6 per pound for BA spend? Did you ask for a retention offer?

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        29 Apr29 April 19:56

        I got offered 2x AVIOS for 3 months as retention offer on BA free card in the last month.

      • Dezbez says:

        29 Apr29 April 21:08

        Sorry, it was the free BA card so not quite as impressive.
        And no, didn’t ask, I was offered it unprompted.

  • Rob says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:46

    Not the case.

• David says:

  29 Apr29 April 16:55

  Economist Canada Avios Offer – can’t get it to work.

  Have tried to sign up with 2 cards, Starling first (for fx free) then Amex (as read they don’t do Country verification) however both give an error message that the payment can’t be processed.

  I had entered my actual address in the fields, however the country box is default selected as Canada and can’t be changed. Do I need to put in a genuine Canadian address (that would then be different to my actual billing address)?

  How have people got it to authorise payment?

  • Boi says:

    29 Apr29 April 16:59

    Moving to Canada in August….hope someone sends the economist to my address. Lol.

    • BJ says:

      29 Apr29 April 17:12

      Hope your move goes well, all the best Boi.

    • Harry T says:

      29 Apr29 April 19:27

      Let me know your address and I’ll use yours (not joking ha).

      • Harry T says:

        29 Apr29 April 19:27

        Email Rob if you want me to send it to you – I’m sure he can access my email.

        • David says:

          29 Apr29 April 19:59

          Hi Harry, I think I have seen you post that you have used this successfully in the past. Did you encounter any issues with payment?

  • Harry T says:

    29 Apr29 April 21:32

    I think I used a VPN and used the address of a Canadian hospital. They kept trying to charge my curve card and it failed – eventually I used my Amex Gold, which worked.

• BJ says:

  29 Apr29 April 17:07

  I have a Premier Inn reservation coming up in Inverness on 5th June. Today I received an email outlining my options which included “Cancel your booking up to 28 days before your arrival date and obtain a full refund”. Feeling thick here, what does this mean? Cancel for a refund within 28 days of the arrival date, or cancel at least 28 or more days in advance of the arrival date?

  • JImbob says:

    29 Apr29 April 17:16

    It could mean either!
    If I were to guess, it would be the latter.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      29 Apr29 April 23:15

      It’s the latter as “up to” and time travels forward…

  • BJ says:

    29 Apr29 April 23:31

    Thanks both.

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