The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 28th May

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• John says:

  28 May28 May 08:02

  Personally regret Tegel’s alleged (again) closure (although who knows…) but what’s interesting from this piece, is how the two hotels are handling reopening: one with price cuts to drive volume, the other additional features to boost loyalty.

  Also curious how they’re getting on with reopening in the suburbs, where there are a lot of well established family hotels.

  https://m.dw.com/en/a-new-beginning-for-berlin-tourism/a-53585161

  • ken says:

    28 May28 May 09:11

    It’s good to be reminded that the UK doesn’t have a monopoly on shambolic construction projects.
    Brandenberg was supposed to open 8 years ago next week. The train station was ready in November 2011. An empty train runs once a day to stop the tracks rusting.

    They were only 4 weeks away from supposedly opening before it was postponed (again).

    Fraud, bribery, cost trebled or quadrupled (no one really sure)
    Fire systems that didn’t work, no documentation for fire systems.
    The person in charge of the fire system design wasn’t even an engineer.

    Foundations not suitable for loads. Roof weight twice what was authorised leading to work halting as it was in danger of collapse.

    Cabling ducts not waterproof.
    600 fireproof walls had to be re-built
    Display screens switched on for 6 years despite the airport not opening and now need replacing.
    Light bulbs on for 6 years – no-one knows how to turn them off.

    • bsuije says:

      28 May28 May 09:31

      BUT they built the train station! I’m still waiting for Crossrail to open its doors where I live… I think Dec 2018 was the original go-live for that; now – who knows?!

    • Lady London says:

      28 May28 May 17:33

      Wow. Cant wait to see what appears on the snagging list when BER finally opens.

      • Rob says:

        28 May28 May 18:17

        There is a photograph I saw which shows an escalator which had been built with a single step directly at the top, so when you get to the top you and your luggage immediately need to step up or you fall backwards ….

• Marcw says:

  28 May28 May 08:28

  South Africa plans go remain closed to international tourism until Feb 2021.

  • Toddy says:

    28 May28 May 08:34

    My South African safari in August appears to be doomed….

    I saw this on LL- has it been confirmed elsewhere??

• Chrisasaurus says:

  28 May28 May 08:52

  There was chat about a revolut – themed phishing text scam the other day. My wife received the same text last night, sender ID was revolut and I’m not convinced she wouldn’t have fallen for it had it not been for me being sat with her when it arrived

  Obviously there’s a selection bias here insofar as these only resonate with actual revolut holders but I’m very suspicious that someone has at least a partial list of revolut holders mobile numbers

  Anyone other readers had anything? I’m talking SMS to be clear not app notifications

  • ian_h says:

    28 May28 May 08:56

    I got one a few days ago and immediately checked in the app to see if any messages or alerts were waiting – in the end I did a live chat and they said they are “aware” of this attempt – doesnt help that he link is revolut.help but its 100% phishing scam

  • EwanG says:

    28 May28 May 09:42

    Smishing text received by me 2 days ago with sender spoofed as Revolut with revolut DOT support DOT co address and duly forwarded to 7726 which is a national service for reporting smishing attempts.

  • Anna says:

    28 May28 May 09:49

    This was me and the text was in with all my other texts from Revolut which is why I didn’t immediately get suspicious. There is a message in the app saying that people are posing as Revolut agents but I am wondering if there is an inside job here, as they do seem to have our phone numbers. I haven’t heard of anyone who hasn’t got a Revolut account getting one of these, put it that way. Chat seems to have disappeared completely on the app but I will try the 7726 number, thanks.

  • RussellH says:

    28 May28 May 10:29

    I rather doubt that the fact that people are receiving smishing SMS messages in connection with any specific bank a/c has much significance.
    Because so many financial organaisations are now using SMS for 2-factor authentication means that there are a much greater number of SMSs going out and it must be possible to hack into these somewhere along the line.
    Then the smishers just send their SMS to every number on their list. They do not need to know who you bank with, because a proportion will inevitably strike home.
    Just like all the phishing e-mails we used to get from banks that we have never had an account with.
    This strikes me as another weakness in SMS 2-factor authentication. With e-mails, if you have your own domain you can use a unique e-mail address for each financial institution. It would be a lot more hassle to have a separate mobile number for bank!

  • Gormlesstraveller says:

    28 May28 May 11:34

    Yes it would be interesting to know if any non-Revolut account holders have received the text

    • EwanG says:

      28 May28 May 11:51

      Fraudsters can fairly easily identify who has a Revolut account and who does not, by loading a list of mobile numbers as contacts and checking the Revolut app to show which numbers have a Revolut account (unless they have opted out, via a setting in Privacy in the app, which most users won’t have enabled or even know is there) and then targetting those people with the spoofed SMS.
      It takes some effort to do that, whereas they could send the same SMS to *everyone* in a block, a small proportion will be Revolut customers.
      If you are a customer there is higher probability of clicking the link, the 2nd group will mostly ignore or report it.

      • Gormlesstraveller says:

        28 May28 May 14:08

        That’s fascinating and also a little worrying.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        28 May28 May 15:29

        When you download an app on your phone, it can request a list of all other apps on your phone. It’s very easy to know who has the Revolut app via this method. I just need to make you download my app by making it a fun throwaway app like a facechanger app or whatever…

• pin perl says:

  28 May28 May 09:08

  Hi Rob,
  is it possible to have to BAEC accounts? 1 household and 1 regular?

  • Rhys says:

    28 May28 May 09:22

    No, a household account is a ‘grouping’ of accounts, not an account itself. You need a personal account to be able to start one.

  • Rob says:

    28 May28 May 09:30

    No

    • pin perl says:

      28 May28 May 09:43

      What happens if I open another account in addition to the the one grouped as an household?

      • Rob says:

        28 May28 May 09:50

        BA will shut it down as soon as you link your passport number which will match the other account. If your passport number isn’t on your account and you use a different email you’d probably get away with it, although ‘date of birth’ could be an issue. You can’t fake that because it goes into your flight bookings and must match your passport details.

        • pin perl says:

          28 May28 May 09:53

          will I lose all the avios points when it’s shut down?

        • pin perl says:

          28 May28 May 10:00

          Rob, Thanks for your reply,I need your help.
          I have 2 accounts, both have points so what do you suggest I do so BA shouldn’t close 1 down?
          How do I combine them?

        • Rob says:

          28 May28 May 10:45

          You can’t. You need to speak to BA and see if they will accept whatever excuse you make and potentially merge the Avios for you. No guarantees though.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          28 May28 May 10:38

          Empty one and ask for it to be closed or if you are feeling brave just tell BA you must’ve accidentally opened a new one and can they merge the two.

      • pin perl says:

        28 May28 May 10:47

        TG Loyalty,
        How do I empty one?

        • RussellH says:

          28 May28 May 11:10

          Open an Aer Club or Iberia a/c and transfer the avios to that?

        • pin perl says:

          28 May28 May 11:16

          will i be able to transfer afterwards to my other ba account from iberia?

        • Mike says:

          28 May28 May 11:32

          could you go BA>EI>IB>BA account #2 ?

        • pin perl says:

          28 May28 May 11:33

          what do you mean ei?
          i can’t transfer to avios or iberia cause the date of birth doesn’t match

        • TGLoyalty says:

          28 May28 May 11:45

          Buy some wine? book at hotel?

          or Transfer it to AerClub if it will let you

        • Navara says:

          28 May28 May 15:52

          @pin peri Did you open two or was it a BA mistake when the Avios .com accounts were merged into the BA executive account?That has happened to my daughter.

• BuyEMExternalBonds says:

  28 May28 May 09:17

  Hi All

  I’ve just checked what income on amex website (Update Your Income) under Contact Details… have stored for me and it appears customer service has messed up here when I downgraded my card and they asked for my income, I told them it was 95,000 salary but it appears the lady inputted 950.00 as I see this online….

  The initial downgrade went through and my most recent amex upgrade application was approved (they used existing details they held so I did not input any info unlike a new app)

  Something to be worried here? consistency in income.

  I checked it now and it says my annual income is 9.00

  • Sundar says:

    28 May28 May 09:57

    Interesting. Did you apply household income when applying ? Surely 9.00 seems like an IT/typo.

    • BuyEMExternalBonds says:

      28 May28 May 11:23

      No just my income

  • Peter K says:

    28 May28 May 10:12

    If ring them and get them to change it. Some people’s income may well have changed to minimal amounts due to losing their business due to coronavirus.

• Anna says:

  28 May28 May 09:43

  I’ve got flights booked on BA CityFlyer from MAN at the end of July. Even in the event that we can travel, are these flights likely to be cancelled? It’s my understanding that LCY is closed and the CityFlyer fleet is grounded, so is there any chance they are going to be flying from the regions this summer?

  • mr_jetlag says:

    28 May28 May 11:29

    Same here, rolled the dice with LCY-JMK. Fingers crossed they come through.

  • Michael C says:

    28 May28 May 12:03

    IOM CityFlyer has moved to LHR for now, but for Aug. reservations it’s back to LCY.

    • Anna says:

      28 May28 May 12:08

      Well I guess if they are flying from LHR, they can get up to MAN. Thinking we might actually get away unless there’s a 2nd spike in the next couple of months, just need to find a villa I don’t need to re-mortgage my house to rent!

• AviosNewbie says:

  28 May28 May 10:07

  I have been trying to make a VAT payment by Curve, and after I enter the details, I get a message to confirm the notification in the app. But I have not received any notification in the Curve app. The HMRC page times out after 5 minutes. Sorry if this is covered somewhere else, but is anyone else facing the same issue?

  • Peter K says:

    28 May28 May 10:13

    You need to have the app open when you make the payment. It comes through as a push notification for me. It is a bit buggy though.

    • AviosNewbie says:

      28 May28 May 10:35

      Does it appear within the app or the notifications section? -i.e. when you pull down the screen from the home page? I am using iPhone 7.

      I am not getting any notifications: tried using with the app open, with the app closed, with iPhone locked, etc. but nothing.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 May28 May 10:40

        I’ve found if I open the app before the transactions then go back to my phone browser/oth app to make the transaction I get a phone notification (so yes on your pull down screen) to click 100% of the time.

  • George K says:

    29 May29 May 13:39

    Have had this issue once before. Raised it with Curve who advised a clean install of the app, and has been working with no issues since I killed it and reinstalled it.

• SL says:

  28 May28 May 10:28

  Got a “business bundle” offer on my Amex Plat business card. £20 statement credit on £20+ transactions at Currys, Carphone Warehouse, Google and o2 Business. Valid up to 10 times.

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