The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 13th May

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• davvero says:

  13 May13 May 03:50

  Do we know what shorthaul flights are running next month? When my flights to Milan were cancelled for June, I was able to move them to an LCY service which is still showing as running. I really don’t think the LCY routes will run next month and if there is any LCY service I doubt it would be a route that’s already been cancelled from LHR.

  • Lady London says:

    13 May13 May 11:38

    Whats the outcome you are seeking? FWIW current coverage is saying Italy not open for June and could be longer.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  13 May13 May 05:26

  After seeing on the BBC News a few days ago that you can apparently pay for a test at Vienna airport and if you’re free of coronavirus you don’t have to quarantine for 14 days. I’m seriously wondering whether I should move to Austria for a couple of months if things are more normal over there. Main issue is there’s no flights from the UK to VIE at the moment (and BA isn’t due to resume flights to VIE until at least July). Perhaps Austria doesn’t want any British people at the moment even if tested due to the relatively high number of infected people.

  Why do I want to do this? Due to bad timing I don’t currently have a permanent address in the UK, I had handed back my flat just before things started going bad and so I’m renting a flat via Airbnb in blocks of a month. So if I moved to a less infected country I’d not be paying for property in the UK. From what I can read, the 29th May is when Austria plan to reopen gyms and allow tourism (although I can’t see you if that’s only domestic tourism).

  As you can see I’ve not yet looked into it much as things could change by then, but if anyone else has thought of this do you have any ideas?

  • BJ says:

    13 May13 May 06:23

    Have a look at this from over a month ago. A reason why Austria might be a good place to be and indicative of the reasons why I have so little confidence in our own Governments response. After face mask requirements were introduced in Austria their cases collapsed. Obviously not all due to face masks but they do help as Asian countries have known for years.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52143873

    • TGLoyalty says:

      13 May13 May 08:38

      face coverings that stop c10-40% of particles leaving your mouth/nose is the main reason they have very low transmissions?

      They are very effective in Asia? The countries can only pick up transmissions if people come forward to be tested. After weeks of 0 local transmissions it seems we have 6 new cases in Wuhan do you think that’s because there were actually 0 or due to fear of coming forward?

      As the poster below says there is a significant percentage of asymptomatic people out there that aren’t getting tested either.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        13 May13 May 08:44

        Wish I could edit.

        Germany also introduced face coverings and they have seen spikes in R over 1 recently.

        my point is you can’t compare countries and say they did this and it’s lower etc because every country has a different culture, demographics are different, urban vs rural populations, population density and importantly testing regime and reporting standard.

      • BJ says:

        13 May13 May 09:46

        There is no suggestion that face masks alone can solve the problem. There is also no disputing the limited protection they provide in this context. The benefit is small but they do reduce exposure if worn, particularly if somebody coughs or sneezes in your immediate vicinity. Get real, medical staff, carers, dentists and research scientists amongst others do not wear face masks because they are fashion accessories, they are very uncomfortable to wear over prolonged periods. Even where the benefit is small at the individual level, when it ripples up through communities, workplaces, regions, countries those small benefits becomes significant and in conjunction with other measures, can help in disease control. Why do you think there is now an increasing trend towards recommending the use of face masks in many countries? Do you think governments just want to give their citizens a false sense of security?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          13 May13 May 10:03

          Medical professionals wear them because they are in constant contact with confirmed cases and in constant close contact with a NUMBER of people in a day i.e. an unwell dentist could be infected with anything airborne and pass it on to 20-30 people in a single day. Your average person just isn’t in that close a contact with that many people random people right now.

          Also yes absolutely governments want people to feel safer going out and restarting the economy and if that means introducing temp checks, border controls and face coverings when the statistics and scientists say its of minimal benefit then that’s what they will introduce.

        • Lady London says:

          13 May13 May 11:44

          In answer to your last question BJ yes i think thats exactly why government stances have switched.

        • BJ says:

          13 May13 May 11:54

          @TG, the scope and speed of community transmission indicates that the virus is being spread by mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers. You do not need to take my word for this, you can find recently published peer-reviewed articles supporting it in some of the most respected science and medicine journals such as Nature Medicine and Journal of Infectious Disease. In such journals you will also find studies showing that medical masks reduce transmission of human coronavirus. Admittedly, studies have been conducted with symptomatic patients but it is reasonable to expect similar with mildly or asymptomatic carriers, albeit the effect might be less. Taking these together, there is sound cause for recommending the use of masks in the wider community.

  • TripRep says:

    13 May13 May 08:27

    40% of contagious cases are asymptomatic.

    Temp checks won’t pick them up.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      13 May13 May 08:30

      This isn’t a temp check, it’s a swab test and then you get the results in 3 hours (presumably you have to wait for that info before leaving), it’s not free though.

      • Lady London says:

        13 May13 May 11:47

        200 euros which strikes me more as an entrance tax than a test which is not going to fully guarantee anything about your infection status to thr local population.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      13 May13 May 08:47

      That’s not a reason *not* to test it as you could catch say 40% of people but the equipment itself can be poor and unreliable with a +\-2 degree margin of error itself.

      A lot of this is to make people feel better rather than due to any scientific or statistical evidence it does anything to improve the situation.

      • BJ says:

        13 May13 May 09:54

        I may not have much faith in our government TG, but I just don’t buy that.

  • Rob says:

    13 May13 May 09:50

    As I mentioned the other day, we might do a year in Amsterdam if we can’t get our kids back into full-time school from September. My wife’s bank has an office there, it makes no difference to me and the kids could do a full school day at the British School. Both of my kids are in schools converted from residential buildings – as is the norm in central London – and it would be physically impossible for them to do full days with any distancing measures. We already see my son’s education tanking as working alone does not suit him.

    • BJ says:

      13 May13 May 09:58

      Then there will be no excuse for you not to become an expert on FkyingBlue and cover that desirable angle on HFP yourself 🙂

    • The Lord says:

      13 May13 May 10:46

      Will be interesting to see if international companies actively promote this. Other than tax I can’t see what difference it would make to me or the company whether I was in London, Frankfurt or Paris. Will be interesting to see how working habits change once the dust has settled.

      • bsuije says:

        13 May13 May 11:09

        Depends on relative bargaining power of employee vs. employer, but the complexities of international taxation for corporates are likely to put a nail in the coffin for 99.9% of employees on remote working across borders.

        • Lady London says:

          13 May13 May 11:52

          +1

          plus salary highly likely to adjust to local rates. and you had better engage a good financial adviser re dual taxation – companies pay for this but if the move is your idea perhaps not – the right level of advice for someone earning a very decent amount does not come cheap.

          if EU then we lose working privileges quite soon so a permit might have to be applied for.

    • Anna says:

      13 May13 May 11:35

      What will the situation be from Jan 2021 re residency, work etc? (Assume your wife and kids have German passports so no issue for them). I’m still toying with the idea of getting Spanish passports for me and my son, though that wouldn’t help with family travel as my OH would only have a UK one.

      • Lady London says:

        13 May13 May 11:59

        would marriage not mean the EU cituzenship could be applied for?

        • Rob says:

          13 May13 May 12:21

          Wouldn’t really matter – the Dutch wouldn’t know I was working. I can’t get a German passport because it would require giving up my British passport (Germany does not allow dual nationality if the other nationality is not in the EU). Long term, if it was an issue, I may end up buying a flat in Portugal, Malta, Cyprus or one of the other EU countries which ‘sells’ passports if you buy property.

          We wouldn’t look at this until we know for certain what the school pattern will be in September though. I can’t see us settling for 50% attendence especially as it means either me or my wife couldn’t return to an office. At the moment we’re paying £1,200 per week so our kids can do a couple of hours of Zoom per day ….

        • Anna says:

          13 May13 May 13:35

          Rob – have you looked into this fully? Spain also doesn’t allow dual nationality, however it is not actually possible to relinquish UK nationality. The only way you can lose it is to have it stripped from you by the Home Office for treason or similar. So, if I were to get a Spanish passport, Spain would no longer recognise my UK citizenship, but the UK WOULD. I’d just need to remember to only use my Spanish passport when entering Spain. But you can have any number of passports and still be a UK citizen.

        • Rob says:

          13 May13 May 13:39

          No, not looked into it to that level of detail. However, I get a weird feeling the Germans would insist on giving a temporary passport until they got written proof of UK cancellation. You also need to be fully fluent in German to get a German passport, and as I’ve not managed that in the last 15 years I don’t see much changing their unless I do a full time course!

        • Anna says:

          13 May13 May 13:37

          Also – shocking re the schooling. The independent school I attended is delivering the entire curriculum via video link to every pupil. I guess it will stop parents demanding a refund of fees and ensure they will be way out in front come September! They are even starting the Year 13s early on their university studies by all accounts.

        • marcw says:

          13 May13 May 14:15

          I have recently obtained my German Passport (German parents). I hold a Spanish passport too (was born in Spain). You can not have dual nationality, but you can have 2 nationalities.

        • Rob says:

          13 May13 May 16:21

          Germany allows a 2nd EU passport to be held. It does not allow a 2nd non-EU passport to be held.

          My kids will have to surrender their German or UK passports at age 18.

      • Optimus Prime says:

        13 May13 May 19:47

        Are you sure you can’t get a Spanish passport and tell UK you want to keep the UK one too? That’s how it works when doing it the other way around – you have 2 or 3 years (not sure exactly) to let Spain know that you wish to keep it.

    • Lady London says:

      13 May13 May 11:58

      Have you grabbed places yet? guessing bureaucracy should be started before end of summer term rather than start of the school year?

      Also guessing taxation for someone such as you in the creative arts is also ok there Rob. For me as a contractor I’ve been warned the Dutch are particularly good at collecting tax and wages are lower.

  • bsuije says:

    13 May13 May 11:17

    What would the health coverage be, if you were to fall ill?

    Do you have any other commitments in the UK that might be difficult to keep from elsewhere, e.g. work that requires a certain set-up?

    Personally, if there was no good reason why I would need to stay in UK, and I would have certainty over medical treatment, I would relocate. Somewhere by the sea, preferably! 😉

    There are still flights out of UK, so I would assume you can reach Austria, albeit indirectly.

  • Lady London says:

    13 May13 May 11:41

    do you need any facilities to work or does it not matter where you are? it looks like Greece is opening first so LCC’s will fly there.

• Steve M says:

  13 May13 May 05:50

  CW BA flights booked on 241 and Avios. Via BAPP card refunded as vouchers as wanted extension of 241 and thankfully comments on here eased my woes.

  Hotels.com! I booked 5 nights fully cancellable in Toronto on my Amex Gold card, refunded fine.
  Another night (special VIP deal blazoned over it) non refundable but hotel cancelled booking

  Question is my final 4 night booking in Montreal was again on a non refundable deal (I was swayed by the special VIP benefits)
  – hotels.com have said I need to cancel the booking to qualify for a refund in form of 12 mth voucher
  But that’s no use to us and I’d rather get a refund
  – ps Hotel is closed
  – I also have travel insurance but that states going through hotel first, then credit card

  – main crux is if I don’t cancel there is the crazy idea of no refund plus the hotel charging a no show fee and then where do I stand with Amex and travel insurer.
  Hoping somebody else has successfully navigated through similar and yes I apologise for booking a non refundable rate

  • blenz101 says:

    13 May13 May 09:05

    I think what you are asking is that if you booked a non-refundable hotel stay and don’t show up for it do you have a valid insurance / chargeback claim? If the hotel re-opens then the answer is certainly ‘no’ via a chargeback claim or any legal entitlement for hotels.com to refund you.

    The “no show” fee would be as a maximum the cost of your stay so there wouldn’t be addtional to pay. No show is typically only where you have reserved a room rather than paid upfront non-refunable.

    You would need to check your own travel insurance policy but if you have decided to abandon the trip rather than be unable to travel for reasons covered by your policy (I think the border is closed until the 15th May) you are unlikely to be covered.

    • blenz101 says:

      13 May13 May 09:06

      Just to add you don’t say when the trip is but best hope would be that the hotel remains closed and you would then have a much wider range of options to obtain a refund as they didn’t / couldn’t provide the service.

    • Steve M says:

      13 May13 May 11:44

      Many thanks. The trip is/was 17th May to 26th May.
      BA cancelled the flight and this hotel stay is the only element left. VIA RAIL also fully refunded.

      The hotel Le st Martin hotel de particulier (sic) is not open until the day after the original check out date.

      • Lady London says:

        13 May13 May 12:04

        then they cant charge you.
        raise a dispute or section 75 with your credit card

        i really would not spend time thinking about this its open and shut case just claim.

• BJ says:

  13 May13 May 05:54

  Data points that may be useful to somenody:

  1. BA Holidays standalone nonrefundable hotel reservation, Accor, June. Called Saturday on main number, 10 minute hold. Refund approved but only after checking I had a relevant cancelled BA flight. Funds back on my card this morning, 4 days after request.

  2. 4x Air Asia flights June/July. None of these have been cancelled and seem unlikely to be so. Requested refund via AVA bot to Air Asia BIG credit account April 30 as I do not anticipate any difficulties using it. Cancellation request approved and refund showing on BIG account today, 13 days later.

  3. LNER eVouchers. Requested extension via online support ticket. Request was denied with excuse that they were Nectar vouchers so I had to contact Nectar. Disputed this and I am back in another 14 day queue. Others have reported fast service and extension to vouchers using LNER social media teams so use them as opposed to online support tickets.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    13 May13 May 06:09

    Sounds like you had bad luck with LNER. As soon as Nectar issue the vouchers then any extensions are up to LNER so they shouldn’t have declined your request.

    • BJ says:

      13 May13 May 06:30

      Yes, exactly the points I made in bouncing it back to them. Most likely just a CSA with a bad attitude or perhaps a newbie with little training. More generally, I have been very impressed with, and much appreciative of, customer support I have received from a wide range of companies during these challenging times.

  • Vit says:

    13 May13 May 09:11

    Thanks BJ. I think getting credit into BIG is not too difficult as you will be using them in the future. My flight BKK – PNH has been cancelled but still waiting for the full refund. About 3 weeks now.

    • Alex says:

      13 May13 May 09:24

      My AirAsia flights were all cancelled (around £800 worth). Absolutely impossible to get a refund, am having to use Section 75 to try and get it back, but credit card company being just as slow too and not heard anything. Useless webchat where they insist it is being looked at, but completely ignore me. I raised refund requests back in March! Now the policy has changed and they are not offering refunds, even for cancelled flights. I seriously regret ever booking with these people.

      • Vit says:

        13 May13 May 09:35

        Alex, yes. Very tough time for everyone now. My return flight was never cancelled but raised this to Travel Agent and noted them that the government doesn’t allow any international flight anyway but so far not heard from them yet. Worst case, I will raise a chargeback with AMEX. Don’t think I can do S75 as these are flights not in EU?

        • Mervyn Miller says:

          13 May13 May 09:52

          S75 has nothing to do with the EU.

          S75 is available if you used a UK issued credit card to pay and the amount was for £100+

          I hope this clarifies the situation and that you are pleased with this good news.

      • Mervyn Miller says:

        13 May13 May 09:50

        That was exactly my experience exactly since 14 February when the first of three Air Asia bookings (for a total of four flights x 2 pax each) was cancelled (Sandakan-Kota Kinabalu-Hong Kong).

        The Chat Bot called Ava id worse than useless. The online updates on the claims were constantly misleading / wrong. nonsense and I received may emails with words to the effect that ”We are all in this together and that for your benefit you have to take vouchers to ensure the future well-being of Air Asia”.

        I gave up after several weeks of that nonsense and lodged a S75 claim with my Post Office MasterCard (provided by Bank of Ireland). They were very slow but after a few weeks I have received the £521.xx for the refunds due to me. Air Asia have something like 60 days to dispute this but as every one of our four flights was cancelled (and with no re-booking or re-routing options given) on what grounds I do not know!

        I have used Air Asia many, many times with no problems at all but I have to say that the key thing to remember when paying money to them is to ensure you pay by a credit card (preferably one with no foreign exchange loadings / fees). Otherwise it is a case of Caveat Emptor.

        • Alex says:

          13 May13 May 10:09

          Great to know you got it back under Section 75. Yes I am very glad I paid on credit card, I just regret not paying on Amex as Halifax have been beyond slow (around 45 days now and heard nothing). I get everyone is in a similar situation, and am allowing extra time, but Halifax haven’t even reached out to me for documents yet, and a 3h+ phone call to get it lodged in the first place (can’t raise online).

          Likewise, have used Air Asia before and they have been fine, cheap, and we were meant to have a big trip in Asia, but their lack of refund option is very poor and will make me extremely wary booking any sort of high value flights with them again.

        • BJ says:

          13 May13 May 14:15

          Interesting to read all the comments here. Does anybody know of anyone who has actually received a refund from Air Asia under any circumstances since Covid-19 outbreak? Party line is thst they will refund but it will take a few months. Obviously nobody is buying this, if they can credit a BOG account in 13 days there is no reason to stop them crediting a card too. I’m just fortunate a BIG credit is fine for me, there will be tens of thousands of people for whom it isn’t.

• DMW says:

  13 May13 May 06:22

  Has anyone received refunds from Marriott? I cancelled two in March, but no refund yet. I’ve had the cancellation emails. They state refunds could take 90 days, so I’m not worried. Just looking for data points from others as to whether everyone is having to wait the full 90 days. Thank you!

  • Qwertyknowsbest says:

    13 May13 May 06:48

    Mine received but took several chasing calls to main CS then a call to actual hotel.

    • CHRISTOPHER RUDDY says:

      13 May13 May 09:12

      I contacted a generic email adress, who passed on to the hotel, who then contacted me promising a refund, two days later I received a confirmation email and the funds on my card, whole process was three days. On an originally non-refundable stay. Marriott Harbour Lakes, Orlando.

  • Kirsty says:

    13 May13 May 09:24

    I cancelled a stay due to take place on 23 March (which was originally non-refundable) and received the cancellation confirmation but no refund yet. Chased it late April with Marriott, they confirmed I would receive a refund and advised they would chase it with the hotel. Haven’t heard anything further yet so am just hanging on now.

  • Andrew says:

    13 May13 May 09:28

    A pay with points stay that I cancelled was refunded to my Marriott acount instantly.

    • Anna says:

      13 May13 May 09:46

      That’s always been the case with points bookings.

  • Pierre says:

    13 May13 May 13:37

    Yes, however similar to another poster here, I had to approach the hotel directly to get the refund actioned. I used the Marriott twitter account to request the concierge email address for the hotel I was staying at, then chased the refund direct.

• Green Plastic says:

  13 May13 May 08:01

  How do I view my total spend on my IHG card? Can’t seem to find it anywhere in the Creation app? But most likely me being dim.

  • RK says:

    13 May13 May 08:06

    Total spend for the month should come up on dashboard, if you want to see previous months just scroll down on app and previous months spend will appear.

  • Genghis says:

    13 May13 May 08:39

    Use the website. Progress towards £10k shows there. Not on the app.

    • Green Plastic says:

      13 May13 May 08:45

      Thanks!

    • Anna says:

      13 May13 May 08:48

      Mine showed progress on the app up till a few weeks ago then it disappeared! Very unhelpful as the app is otherwise excellent and I wouldn’t need to go online at all.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      13 May13 May 08:48

      What’s odd is my white card shows the points earned this month in the app but my black card doesn’t

  • Vit says:

    13 May13 May 09:12

    Just to tag along, for a white free card, do you get anything if spend 10k in a year?

    • Rhys says:

      13 May13 May 09:19

      No. https://headforpoints.com/2019/11/16/ihg-rewards-club-mastercard-credit-card-review-2/

• Bill says:

  13 May13 May 08:12

  I posted this late last night in the Tuesday chat thread and I saw Lady London replied. However, it’s possible not may people saw it due to the timing, so I’ll repost here for greater visibility.

  Does anyone have any experience of changing their email address with easyJet flight club ? This is due to my old email address not always receiving emails from easyJet. I know that I can change my email address on easyjet.com however I am unsure whether this would reset my Flight Club account or what the impact on my membership would be. I understand from the call centre that membership is linked to the flight history for the email address. So I wasn’t able to get a clear answer about the impact of changing my email address.

  I would be grateful if someone could advise me on how to proceed.

• Boi says:

  13 May13 May 08:16

  Just realised IHG are enforcing their £700/week again. They are on a yo yo diet! I hope it gets lifted soon…..

  • Spk says:

    13 May13 May 08:20

    Looks like it. I wasn’t able to pay yesterday, but managed today. And two days back, it worked after reducing to less than 100.

  • Anna says:

    13 May13 May 08:50

    There doesn’t seem any rhyme or reason to it. Some months I can make my car payment on top of my other cash-like transactions, but other times it gets refused if it takes me over the £700 limit.

  • @mkcol says:

    13 May13 May 10:01

    It also seems to be limited to £700 across both the white & black card.

  • guesswho2000 says:

    13 May13 May 12:30

    Not for me, £2k no issues.

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