Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The new HFP chat thread – Sunday 10th May

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

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/2020/05/10/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-sunday-10th-may/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 (239)

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

  • mark2 says:
    10 May10 May 10:18

    I was probably not paying attention, but does anyone know why my wife has suddenly received 10,000 IHG points with the explanation ‘IHG Credit Card Additional 10K Offer Bonus’?
    It is a black card. I have not received it (yet).

    • TGLoyalty says:
      10 May10 May 10:39

      Hasn’t signed up for the white card in the past few months the ?

      • mark2 says:
        10 May10 May 15:45

        Thank you; that is it.
        I did not expect to receive them after reading that Creation offers ends at midday on the last day.

  • MinR says:
    10 May10 May 10:51

    I took up the Amex offer yesterday of 20k points.

    Logged in this morning, and I was credited 40k!

    I’ll be calling them later to ensure it’s not a glitch 😉

  • Clive says:
    10 May10 May 10:58

    UNITES response to BA

    https://youtu.be/kLloF1IYmss

    • Andrew says:
      10 May10 May 13:45

      Haven’t UNITE declared a Climate Emergency and are campaigning against flights?

  • meta says:
    10 May10 May 11:08

    20k Amex MR points in my account today after calling yesterday afternoon.

  • Paul says:
    10 May10 May 11:28

    I’ve a VS reward flight booked for a few weeks time (business class, out with Delta, back with VS), unsurprisingly cancelled by the airline. I’ve asked for a refund, and they’ve acknowledged this is possible but warned it could take a while, and offered 4k miles or £25 cash per person per flight to instead move it. It’s a reward flight, so not that pricey in actual £ tied up, and I’m not desperate for the cash (taxes/fees) immediately though obviously very keen not to lose it.

    If a refund of £ and miles was quick I think I’d do it, and have done with it but seems unlikely. Thinking about the possible insolvency/pre-pack I’m wondering what would be a better position: if I’m still owed a refund at that point presumably I wouldn’t be getting it, though credit card would get me my fees back. Miles would probably never come back (even if my current balance did remain). If instead I was sat on a re-booked flight the hypothetical new Virgin might still honour it (?) and if not I could still rely on credit card to get my fees back and would have the Virgin offered re-booking ‘bribe’. Starting to wonder if that might be the better option therefore, less because of the incentives, but more because of the chance of walking away with most ‘value’ from my miles. Any views on my thought process?

    • Mike says:
      10 May10 May 15:40

      Who knows what “New Virgin” might do…

      – would New Virgin honour existing bookings? (and would they even be running the route you booked?)
      – would New Virgin honour miles held? Some say don’t annoy your best customers; miles are not actually held by VS but by another Virgin company who also don’t have the money to back all the miles held
      – would New Virgin allow speculative bookings (either cash, or points) that you are looking for a refund on later?

      The more of the above they ditch the less liabilities they will be carryying going forward, but possibly the greater the damage to the brand.

      What is set in stone is that you have S75 protection if you paid with an actual credit card.

      • Mike says:
        10 May10 May 15:41

        Sorry, forgot to say – so I’d take the rebooking as you always have S75 to fall back on.

  • Vit says:
    10 May10 May 11:31

    Hi all, never bothered log into my VA account but found out this morning, I have about 4300 miles. Worth nothing, I assume — but want to double check if there is anything I can / should do with it as I don’t normally fly VA and won’t be in the future.

    • Harry T says:
      10 May10 May 11:33

      If you mean Virgin Atlantic, then I believe they only allow miles to be transferred to Hilton in 10k chunks.

      • Lyn says:
        10 May10 May 17:55

        A lot of people use VA for Virgin Atlantic of course. But if they do really mean Virgin Australia, I think those points are temporarily frozen,

      • Vit says:
        11 May11 May 10:37

        Yes, it is Virgin Atlantic. I will just leave them there for now. 🙂

  • Km says:
    10 May10 May 11:35

    It frustrates me that I can’t and never have been able to credit my William hill account with my curve. People topping up ISAs and premium bonds and I can’t place a bet with Willie

  • Paul says:
    10 May10 May 12:31

    Just had £160 renewal for Virgin Atlantic + credit card. Can I avoid the fee with a downgrade to the standard credit card and if so, will these leave my upgrade voucher unaffected?

    • Harry T says:
      10 May10 May 13:10

      My understanding is your upgrade voucher won’t be affected, whatever you do. Virgin are not keen on pro rate refunds so you have likely lost that £160 now. They are offering the chance to downgrade through a convoluted process – I spoke to them the other day. Personally couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.

      My advice would be to try and cancel or downgrade your card anyway, and ask for the fee to be refunded. But prepare for a high probability of failure.

      • Lady London says:
        10 May10 May 13:24

        Make sure you don’t accidentally use the card in the new year if you’re trying to get the fee refunded.

        Also reports are that they’re billing the fee slightly early – so you might be in time to just cancel.

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Learn more on our About page.

VAA

Latest comments

Latest Forum Posts

Get 30,000 points bonus with American Express Platinum

Amex Gold

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.3 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

Get 20,000 bonus points and your first year free with American Express Gold

Amex Gold