The new HFP chat thread – Friday 1st May

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• Stephen says:

  1 May1 May 12:35

  Booked 2 x Business seats to fly to NZ in July with Lufthansa/Air NZ.

  We booked early February for £1400 each via GoToGate. New Zealand are likely to enforce a quarantine period (if they allow foreigners to enter, and our trip is only for 2 weeks).

  I guess there is nothing much we can do at the moment unless the flights get cancelled? If they do offer an option of re-booking, I guess we would have to pay the fare difference or fly in a lower class?

  • Harry T says:

    1 May1 May 13:56

    Lufthansa group have been awful about refunds, even when they have cancelled flights. I would contact your OTA and find out what they can do for you. As this involves two separate airlines and an OTA, as well as travelling to a country that has currently closed its borders and doesn’t plan to open them before the end of the year (and will open them to Australia only first), you might have a challenge on your hands. Best of luck.

  • Harry T says:

    1 May1 May 13:57

    Do you have travel insurance? Did you book before NZ closed their borders and enforced quarantine?

    • Stephen says:

      1 May1 May 15:50

      Thanks Harry, has the border restrictions been confirmed anywhere? We booked whilst things seemed to just be affecting Wuhan, before any further action was taken.

      Yes, have got travel insurance with Leisure Guard Lite, will check their T&Cs to see what they cover.

      • Harry T says:

        1 May1 May 19:53

        https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/covid-19/border-closures-and-exceptions

      • Lyn says:

        1 May1 May 23:19

        New Zealand closed their borders in mid March, and they are only just starting to loosen internal restrictions, in the start of several weeks-long phases, while keeping external borders closed, even to Australia, for now.

• rob says:

  1 May1 May 13:00

  Does anybody know if there is bonus points for adding a supplementary cardholder on the ARCC card? I suspected 1k (the same as BA free card) but have not receieved any.

  Many thanks

  • Don says:

    1 May1 May 13:48

    Looks like there is no bonus. I asked this last month.

• Paul Pogba says:

  1 May1 May 13:55

  Looks like the Holiday Inn Ariel hotel might be taken out of general use for quite a while:
  https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/05/01/interserve-starts-converting-hotels-into-isolation-centres/

  • tony says:

    1 May1 May 14:38

    Interesting, as this was reported almost three months ago, but perhaps this development is the indication that UK borders will soon be closed, too? https://headforpoints.com/2020/02/18/holiday-inn-heathrow-ariel-coronavirus/

    • Paul Pogba says:

      1 May1 May 14:52

      The original HfP article was about a block booking, this sounds like they’re refitting the insides which makes it sound like its at least a medium term deal.

      • Lady London says:

        1 May1 May 21:58

        I believe there used to be some sort of quarantine centre near the police station on the roundabout above Concorde just to the East on the airport side.It’s probably way too small now. So building out the Ariel (which was a dire hotel) which is just across the road to the North from there as a quarantine centre probably makes sense.

        Interesting that they are also taking other IHG hotels in Wembley and Brent Cross that always used to be quite low in points price-wise.
        Sounds like they expect the need for quarantine to be an ongoing permanent thing if they;re going to this expense and capacity which is a bit worrying.

• Doug M says:

  1 May1 May 14:32

  Hotels com just extended status and reward nights expiry

• Rob says:

  1 May1 May 14:33

  URGENT Q.

  Booked a stag do with lastminute.com

  Due to go end of June. We still owe £2,500 as a group.

  I’m worried if we DON’T pay this we won’t get our initial 50% back.

  What do we do?

  • @mkcol says:

    1 May1 May 15:01

    Ask your supplier lastminute dot com

    • Robert says:

      1 May1 May 15:33

      They are telling us we need to pay the balance.

      Other members of the stag do are worried as they know it will be months to get the money back.

  • Lady London says:

    1 May1 May 22:02

    You can only cancel as per your terms. Check the emails from when you booked? That would be what you agreed to. Read everything very, very carefully.

    You will have to pay whatever you were on the hook for. ifit’snotrefundable/ 100% cancellation then you could take a chance and not pay the rest but technically LastMinute could pursue (thoughthat’s not guaranteed).

    Why not call the hotel directly and ask what’s possible? You can advise the wedding is now cancelled anyway presumably.

    • Lady London says:

      1 May1 May 22:05

      PS if the terms you bought on don’t let them keep your 50% then you have a Section 75 claim you can make on your credit card.

      Reports say Last Minute has not covered themselves with glory in ways of handling this and may have been trying to retain fees that are not specified they can retain in the terms you were emailed.

• Al says:

  1 May1 May 15:24

  Anyone else finding 3 hour waiting times on AXA travel insurance with curve and then the call being cut automatically?I mean this is being logged on my telephone bill of course but frustrating that not been able to get through…There are other numbers I can ring but the curve ones have a specific number. Similarly can’t use / register for the online portal.I guess just because its a policy through the credit card…anyone else experiencing issues?

• AlanC says:

  1 May1 May 15:41

  My willingness to hold on to 120,000 Virgin miles in the current uncertainty has gone and I have moved them to Hilton this week. The points have left my Flying Club account yesterday. Anyone else in the same situation?

  • Anne says:

    1 May1 May 20:16

    Yep, transferred my last 50k yesterday after taking 40k out a few weeks back. Other half has taken 80k out in total. We were holding onto enough for some premium flights but decided level of risk plus having a plan in place to use a decent chunk of Hilton points made it worth going for the transfer.

• Baji Nahid says:

  1 May1 May 15:48

  It took less than 5 days for me to get my IHG points from my flying club miles.

  • Mac D says:

    1 May1 May 20:23

    I’ve been waiting 6 days to speak to them

    • Baji Nahid says:

      1 May1 May 23:35

      They take a long time to rely on the texts so just call them, honestly the wait is not long at all and its better than texting or whatsapping them!

  • Lucy says:

    1 May1 May 20:25

    Do you know which date you requested the transfer? Virgin confirmed transfer of 75000 miles to my IHG account on 8th April and advised it would take up to 30 days but that it would probably be sooner. No sign of the miles in my IHG account today- do they only make the transfer on a certain day of the month?

    • Baji Nahid says:

      1 May1 May 23:35

      I spoke to them on Monday the 27th so literally this monday. And bam it was straight into my account on thursday.

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