Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The new HFP chat thread – Friday 29th 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/2020/05/29/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-friday-29th-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 (209)

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

  • Fred says:
    29 May29 May 04:13

    Hi all – has anyone used Curve with HSBC Prem Cc or AMEX BAPP to fund an ISA with interactive investor, and if so was there a Curve 1.5% fee added?

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      29 May29 May 08:52

      You can’t link any Amex card to Curve.

      • Matt says:
        29 May29 May 09:26

        Curve+IHG used to work, but now 1.5% added. Have been meaning to get metal since the change but haven’t got round to it. Can anyone confirm if metal+IHG is fee free to ii? Cheers.

        • Travel Strong says:
          29 May29 May 10:42

          Blue is still free to ii. Do not need metal. See comment below.

    • Travel Strong says:
      29 May29 May 10:41

      Interactive investor MCC is not one of those that curve charges 1.5% for. But IHG is a fairly useless pairing due to their own limits on curve transactions. Curve+Virgin card works beautifully with ii ISA.

      • Matt says:
        29 May29 May 17:02

        I have legacy black, and curve fronted applies when using that with IHG. Strange that they only changed coding for the legacy card with the ii MCC but there will have been stranger IT decisions… thanks for the information, looks like I can save the metal fee (for me, £100 a day limit IHG to ii is a chore, but covers the ISA and SIPP).

    • Travel Strong says:
      29 May29 May 10:44

      If no one gives direct feedback for HSBC, suggest running your own small value ~£100 test to confirm no fees from HSBC.

    • JS says:
      29 May29 May 11:24

      I would also love to know if HSBC card works with curve…

      • Fred says:
        29 May29 May 13:42

        Thanks for comments I will test small amount and let you know results!

      • Doug M says:
        29 May29 May 21:33

        Why don’t you just do £100 and see?

        • Brian W says:
          30 May30 May 01:15

          Doug, you trot this comment out weekly, it’s boring. It’s a forum with people asking for advice and opinion. You need to get your head round this basic fact.

  • Chris Heyes says:
    29 May29 May 05:11

    Anna@ Happy Birthday & Happy Retirement long may you enjoy it x

    • Anna says:
      29 May29 May 09:24

      Thanks! My Facebook page has just reminded that this time last year I was breakfasting on LPGS and smoked salmon in the Concorde Lounge en route to JFK 😒. Lanson in the garden will have to do this year 😂

      • Cat says:
        29 May29 May 09:59

        Happy birthday Anna. Lanson in the sunshine is not a bad way to start the day (and the next year)! All the best!

      • Polly says:
        29 May29 May 10:05

        Picturing you being served breakfast by the OH with a glass in hand already. Enjoy your retirement. More time to plan trips now….

    • Harry T says:
      29 May29 May 11:50

      Many happy returns, Anna! Enjoy your birthday and escaping bothersome children 😉. I’m sure you’ve used all your Avios to buy champagne instead!

      • Anna says:
        29 May29 May 14:27

        Thanks all – no, my avios are staying firmly in my BAEC account at the moment to be used with my 3 companion vouchers, hopefully for some amazing travel in 2021! Champagne came courtesy of other offer though 😆 🍾

        As a pensioner I am looking forward to ramming younger folk with my trolley in M & S with impunity and driving at 48 mph in the middle lane of the motorway (all the way to Durham possibly). 🤣

        • Baji Nahid says:
          30 May30 May 00:34

          Happy Birthday lovely, hope you have a wonderful day x

  • Iain says:
    29 May29 May 05:12

    Virgin Atlantic website… surely this is connection?

    • Tariq says:
      29 May29 May 06:01

      https://www.virginatlantic.com/ Working OK

    • AlexT says:
      29 May29 May 07:43

      The Flying Club section of the website hasn’t worked since yesterday. When I tried to log in this morning, I got a message stating VS is aware of the issue and trying to fix it.

      • Ed says:
        29 May29 May 07:54

        I haven’t been able to access Flying Club for a week now.

        Something must be up (i.e. someone pressed the delete button on customer records) as a week long outage is huge .

        • AlexT says:
          29 May29 May 08:27

          Guess you’re right… only in this environment that could remain barely noticed…

      • Craig says:
        29 May29 May 07:58

        Purely speculation but I wonder if they’ve had attempted breaches and have taken it offline whilst investigating?

        • Jonathan says:
          29 May29 May 09:52

          Under GDPR rules they would have to announce this within 24-48 hours of them suspecting a breach or lapse of security so seems unlikely.

  • Nick says:
    29 May29 May 06:19

    I don’t know if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but it appears that IHG have further extended InterContinental Ambassador membership, as well as unredeemed Complimentary Weekend Nights, by a further 3 months.

    I received an email stating:

    • In March 2020 we provided you with a complimentary three-month membership extension.
    • We have just extended this for a further three-months, meaning your complimentary membership extension now totals six-months.
    • You have also received an additional three-month extension on unredeemed Complimentary Weekend Nights – giving you six more months to redeem these certificates.

    These changes have already been made and are reflected in your account.

    • Andrew says:
      29 May29 May 06:45

      Yes some of us noticed it in our accounts a few days ago and now it’s official with this email. Still waiting on that Spire choice benefit though….

      • Nick says:
        29 May29 May 09:29

        Thanks Andrew. Yes, the ‘new’ Spire benefit roll out seems to be very slow. I was maybe just lucky to get it posted to my account at the end of April. You’re definitely not alone though, I know some others that are also still waiting, including Rob I believe. Nick

        • Secret Squirrel says:
          29 May29 May 12:26

          @Nick:
          Just to confirm you have received 2 x 25k bonuses for hitting spire this year?

    • Matty says:
      29 May29 May 07:21

      I looked at my IHG statement. My Ambassador status expires on 01/05/20201. My last points activity was on 05/26/2020.

      Does my Ambassador status expire on 1 May or 5 January?

      • TGLoyalty says:
        29 May29 May 07:29

        It will expire 1st May. Strange coding from IHG to use both methods of displaying the date.

    • Harry T says:
      29 May29 May 11:51

      Yep, I’m now Ambassador until August 2021. Bit of a shame they won’t give me an extra weekend night voucher as I spent mine in Sydney. Maybe they will be even more generous in the future!

  • Michael C says:
    29 May29 May 06:34

    Thai Airways to pay refunds “within six months” and “hopes” to resume some int. flights in July.

  • EC says:
    29 May29 May 07:26

    Just got through to BA for a refund on an Avios booking that they cancelled. They’ve refunded the Avios, Companion Voucher but won’t refund the £70 fee I paid for two passengers when I changed the Inbound leg to another airport at the time as they say this isn’t refundable. Is this true?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      29 May29 May 07:32

      Yes I can’t see why it would be refundable the £70 was an administration fee for changing your booking and they successfully changed your booking at the time.

      • Lady London says:
        29 May29 May 16:08

        I think they should refund it as that has now become a wasted cost due to BA’s actions.

        What if 100 changes had been made and paid for? All gone to waste with BA’s latest action.

  • Graham says:
    29 May29 May 07:31

    Anyone else getting the Amex gold pop up advert keep appearing across all articles !!!

  • Secret Squirrel says:
    29 May29 May 07:35

    How long do Points.com take to credit Hilton points to your account?

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