The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 26th May

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• Alex says:

  26 May26 May 08:46

  Latam Airlines filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.

• Anna says:

  26 May26 May 08:57

  I’m going to sound like Shoestring (and where is the original one?!), but the 15% Amex offer on BA Wine Flyer stacks nicely with the 20% Blue Light Card discount, so with an order of 24 bottles (including discounted mystery case), I’m paying under £5 per bottle.

  Any emergency services worker can get a Blue Light Card, you need to access the account linked to this to get your discount code, then apply at checkout.

  • Allan says:

    26 May26 May 09:47

    Amex card offer?

    • Anna says:

      26 May26 May 10:02

      Sorry yes, 15% off is on my BAPP.

      • Allan says:

        26 May26 May 10:03

        Not for me… 🙁

        • Rhys says:

          26 May26 May 10:07

          I have it on my ARCC, £100 min spend though

        • Anna says:

          26 May26 May 10:53

          Rhys, you need to be buying wine by the case by now 😂

        • Rhys says:

          26 May26 May 11:05

          Yes but the introductory wine flyer case is less than £100! Would require two+ cases. Not in and of itself a problem of course….

  • Paul says:

    26 May26 May 10:22

    I have the Amex offer but can’t see the 20% offer on BLC??

    • Anna says:

      26 May26 May 10:53

      On Wine Flyer, it’s mentioned under “Offers”. In your BLC account you need to go into your vault and it will give you a code, ours was 7 letters. Apply it at checkout.

      • Paul says:

        26 May26 May 11:20

        Found it! Thanks Anna

  • AndyGWP says:

    26 May26 May 16:57

    Wine Flyer iteration on my BAPP
    Identical Laithwaites iteration on my Gold card

    Same site, different skin, so I’m going to do the Gold card variant and attempt to triple dip for another 6%

• Anna says:

  26 May26 May 09:15

  Reward Flight Finder seems to be up the spout at the moment, not showing any availability after May 10th 2021. (SeatSpy seems to be accurate and mirrors the BA website). This is annoying as I subscribe to RFF and have several ongoing searches which may not be active, I’ve emailed RFF querying the situation.

• YH says:

  26 May26 May 09:46

  Had 2 disputes on 2 different cancelled Amex cards that eventually got refunded by the original merchant. At this point I had twice the balance I needed on the Amex cards. I called Amex to cancel the dispute and transfer out the remaining cash to my bank account.

  Received the money into my bank account this morning but it is double what I was expecting – the agent clearly transferred out everything (S75 money + merchant refund). Slightly annoying as I was pretty clear on the phone call to only transfer half but will call Amex later to repay.

  • Peter K says:

    26 May26 May 10:28

    Can’t you just pay back half with a debit card and save yourself a phone call?

    • John says:

      26 May26 May 10:32

      Amex still needs to take the money back otherwise it just puts the card into credit

    • Dezbez says:

      26 May26 May 14:14

      Perhaps with Curve….? 🤔

  • @mkcol says:

    26 May26 May 11:50

    Why do you use the telephone?
    Their live chat is just fine.

  • Jody says:

    26 May26 May 12:41

    I’ve got the same issue with my Halifax card. They credited me back for a dispute, then the company eventually refunded me as well. I have told Halifax, but they haven’t taken it back yet. Guess I’ll just have to leave it sitting on my card and eventually they’ll catch up.

• TedL says:

  26 May26 May 09:55

  Wondered if anyone is having long delays in Avios posting to BAEC account from Hotels.com. Have four hotel stays in January, February and March which havn’t credited but I have received the Hotels.com Reward stamps. One stay is four nights at Sun City so about 3600 avios at stake and I no longer have the receipt.

  • Anna says:

    26 May26 May 09:59

    I think it was always up to 120 days to credit hotel stays to BAEC. IME it usually took that long as well, though I haven’t used hotels.com for a while.

    • TedL says:

      26 May26 May 10:14

      The last two I had posted within a month, admittedly more than a year ago so things may have changed. The oldest of the ones missing is about 130 days so I may wait till all are over 120 days then put a claim in.

  • Doug M says:

    26 May26 May 10:09

    Yes it’s 90 to 120 days from check out, and often takes that long.

• tical says:

  26 May26 May 09:59

  Apologies if this has been answered previously but I am keen to find out how busy flights are on a particular route in Europe as considering decamping to the beach for the summer. Understanding the higher risk associated with being on a plane for 3 hours, is there a way to find out if I should expect a full flight (more risk) or 20-30% full (less risk)?

  • roberto says:

    26 May26 May 10:10

    I think there will be less flights and therefore expect loads to be high.

    • J says:

      26 May26 May 10:38

      Yes seen lots of whinging Mail Online articles about busy BA flights. But keeping the middle seat free will makes absolutely no difference to the risk.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    26 May26 May 11:54

    That plane trip, regardless of loading, will likely be a lot safer than your journeys to/from airports, in the airport, in the shops/bars on holiday, etc etc etc. The plane loading should not be a factor of your concern.

• Richard says:

  26 May26 May 10:18

  I’m probably being stupid, but I can’t see anywhere on the curve app to do a charge back. Can anyone help?

  • Tilly says:

    26 May26 May 10:33

    I had to email them when I needed a chargeback.

  • John says:

    26 May26 May 10:35

    Tap on a transaction and at the bottom there is a link Questions about this transaction? which opens up a sort of chat window, but all this does is send a generic email without any relevant info

  • Carol says:

    26 May26 May 12:31

    I emailed them and got a prompt response, outlining all the information they needed from me

  • Clive says:

    26 May26 May 15:20

    Contact them via chat and they will explain the process

• Optimus Prime says:

  26 May26 May 10:48

  Those of you going to UAE this year – are you happy with installing their tracking app on your phone or wearing their tracking bracelet?

  • Spaghetti Town says:

    26 May26 May 11:06

    was considering going to the UAE this year, thanks for telling me this, I will certainly not be now.

    • KP says:

      26 May26 May 11:25

      whats the issue with this? You dont want them to know which hotels and malls you visit?

      • roberto says:

        26 May26 May 12:09

        I dont have an issue with this.. I dont do malls only pools , beaches , bars and restaurants. Last time I went to Abu Dhabi never even left the hotel. I care much more about my health than some anonymous bot tracking me, that is what google does now billions of time a day world wide anyway.

      • Spaghetti town says:

        26 May26 May 13:22

        KP – The UAE, as nice as it its…isn’t perhaps the straightest arrow…I don’t want them tracking me thanks.

      • Sandgrounder says:

        26 May26 May 13:43

        I can understand that this app would cause concern to visitors whose behaviour is not in keeping with the values of the UAE, as it records close contact with others. I personally would have no concerns, but if a person feels their actions might offend their hosts, it may be wise to consider an alternative destination.

    • Rob says:

      26 May26 May 12:28

      Eh? The UK tracking app will do exactly the same thing and that has substantially greater privacy issues. If you have an Android phone, Google is tracking you 24/7 anyway unless you deliberately turned it off.

      I also doubt your daily holiday routine of ‘hotel’ (erm, that’s it) with the occasional burst of ‘hotel to mall’ and ‘hotel to water park’ is going to excite anyone.

      • Paul74 says:

        26 May26 May 12:54

        Indeed.

      • Spaghetti Town says:

        26 May26 May 13:22

        Happy for google to track me. Foreign Governments, No.

        • RedEyeDonkey says:

          26 May26 May 14:21

          I understand Rob’s lack of concern as we are indeed tracked a lot anyway.

          But there are issues specifically with the type of tracking that’s being proposed to contain the virus. Particularly issues around you being falsely identified as having been near/in contact with someone who tests positive and forced to isolate/quarantine despite either you not actually being very close/at risk from them or they were actually infected later in the day than your contact so there was no risk at all etc.

          I’d consider that mildly annoying at home in the UK, and, of course, plan to continue to just follow along with the govt guidance while at home, but while travelling abroad or on vacation the risk of a false positive could be a potential snag/ruin a trip and definitely something I’d take into account before going somewhere if an alternative destination with less ‘hassle risk’ was available.

      • memesweeper says:

        26 May26 May 15:08

        Google Maps will track you on non-Android too — you can turn this off in your Google preferences (and yes, I have, they don’t need to know where am I at all times).

        • ChrisBCN says:

          26 May26 May 16:08

          I hope you are aware that turning that off doesn’t mean they no longer know where you are/have been.

  • Andrew says:

    26 May26 May 14:05

    My mobile? As long as they are comfortable with me having a GPS emulator running on it along with my VPN. Not sure if the data will be useful to them though.

    Wearing a bracelet is fine, as long as I can swap wrists to avoid a tan line.

    • ChrisBCN says:

      26 May26 May 16:11

      That solution would in all likelihood stop a state from accurately tracking you, but wouldn’t stop Google (who are more powerful than most states anyway).

    • Blenz101 says:

      26 May26 May 19:10

      Using a VPN under those circumstances in the UAE is illegal and would land you in serious trouble. Your only access to the internet here is via state controlled networks. You would be an idiot to try and spoof your location. Hardly going to be tricky for them to spot a mismatch in cell tower triangulation and GPS information. And cell tower triangulation is being used widely many countries as part of track and trace. Be better just leaving your phone in your hotel room than trying to be smart which could very well land you in prison, at best fined significantly and deported.

      But just for the record as a resident if the UAE, no such mandatory App or wristband has been reported via official channels. The apps do exist and the authorities have been doing extensive testing in high density hot spot neighbourhoods, word is tracking is then enforced as part of quarantine for those testing positive. It is certainly not something either citizens or residents are being asked to use as part of day to day life.

      Until the relevant authorities meet and make a decision anything you read online is just speculation, rumour and gossip.

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