The new HFP chat thread – Monday 1st June

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/2020/06/01/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-monday-1st-june/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

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

Sina says:

1 Jun1 June 14:47

Does anyone know whem Amex Platinum fee will hit my account? It’s been a couple of weeks since upgrading?!
- BuyEMExternalBonds says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 15:05
  
  On your next statement post upgrading
- Waddle says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 15:06
  
  When you upgrade, your statement date doesn’t change so when your next statement (the first statement since upgrading) drops is the earliest you will see a fee as part of the balance.
  
  So if your normal statement date is the 8th and you upgrade on the 9th, you won’t see the fee until the 8th the next month.
- Rob says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 15:49
  
  There was a time when they only charged you on the anniversary of your original card …. thought they’d fixed that bug but perhaps you got lucky?!
Richard says:

1 Jun1 June 15:33

Hi all, I want to make a t -355 booking tomorrow morning but using a book with confidence voucher. Looks like I need to wait until 8am and call the general number. Are there any ways around this?
Waddle says:

1 Jun1 June 15:40

To readers who have downgraded to Gold charge – does the 10k for £15k annual bonus still apply to this card? Or is it exclusive to the Gold credit?
- paulm says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 16:29
  
  Yes you get it. Note if you downgrade before your year end, it gives you a short deadline to complete the spend. For example my account anniversary was October but I downgraded in July so it only gave me 3 months to spend before it re-set. Not sure if thats how it is supposed to work, but I was not going to spend £15K anyway so did not take it up with Amex
Jonathan says:

1 Jun1 June 15:52

My reward flights to/from Dubai next week with BA has been cancelled. In MMB i can select new dates but just not Friday\Saturday\Sunday next April or May. Would there be any reason for this? As far as i know this is the re-book any flight as long as there are cash seats available option so avios availability shouldn’t be required.
- Rob says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 16:07
  
  That’s also what I thought. I also didn’t think peak / off-peak came into it either. Odd.
  - babyg says:
    
    1 Jun1 June 19:41
    
    I found with AVIOS cancellations it would often take he MMB system days to update correctly, this can be overridden by any of the (good) call centre people (i moved a LHR-SYD reward from OFF-PEAK to PEAK without issues after cancelling by calling – but failed when i tried to use MMB)
- memesweeper says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 16:10
  
  See my earlier comment Jonathan — I have a booking that is cancelled and I cannot rebook online despite availability of tickets for sale. My issue isn’t caused by Avios availability , as it’s not an Avios booking. No idea what’s up, but I think it would be fair to guess this system was rushed into service and may have the odd bug.
  
  I’m going to call tomorrow again and see if there’s a *reason* I can’t rebook, as opposed to a purely online difficulty.
Lumma says:

1 Jun1 June 16:13

Shopper Thoughts – the survey website where you used to get clubcard points after each survey changed to needing to save up 1,000 to redeem for either clubcard points or other vouchers.

Has anyone else had trouble redeeming for clubcard points since the change? It always says “waiting approval” when I add my clubcard number even though I used to get a handful of points this way.
- Craig says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 18:27
  
  Redeemed a few times over the last year or so without problem. Surveys seem to have dried up though?
roro says:

1 Jun1 June 16:14

Hi mine and my wife’s GC expires 8th June and not hit the renewal target, missed by a wide margin unsurprisingly. Just curious as to whether anyone has managed to get BA to grant a status extension or is it simply not worth the hassle
- Rob says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 17:34
  
  The 30% cut-off seems to be sticking, so you’d need 1050 points.
  
  I get a sneaky feeling that BA wants to get the number of status holders well down, because it is the only way to empty out the lounges. The alternative is even worse – daily fights with status card holders who can’t access a lounge because they are full. I assume that ticketed business and First passengers will be guaranteed access and it becomes pot luck for shiny cards.
  - Andrew says:
    
    1 Jun1 June 17:49
    
    And yet all other airlines around the world are extending status.
  - BJ says:
    
    1 Jun1 June 17:56
    
    Great news if true 🙂
  - marcw says:
    
    1 Jun1 June 20:58
    
    But fewer people will be flying in the future anyway.
Billy Nicholson says:

1 Jun1 June 16:44

HI guys, does anyone know how far out Cathay reward seats appear on BA.com?
Thanks
- Andrew says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 17:32
  
  I was looking at March last week and lots of availability in all cabins. BUT it varies on where you’re flying to FROM HKG ie LHR-HKG no availability showing, LHR-HKG-SIN showing lots of availability on the same date which means there are Avios seats on LHR-HKG but not showing. Not sure if calling BA can book them but on line you can’t.
  - Billy Nicholson says:
    
    1 Jun1 June 17:53
    
    Interesting…I am looking at Apr21.
    I am booked HKG-LHR with BA but need to get to HKG from Australia.
    Nothing showing with Cathay yet.
    - Billy Nicholson says:
      
      1 Jun1 June 17:57
      
      I thought it was just a date thing as up to mid March the route I want is showing on BA.com
  - marcw says:
    
    1 Jun1 June 21:06
    
    CX has married segment logic.
- BJ says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 18:05
  
  Two issues here. 1. CX availability has always come and gone so it has always been wise to check regularly. 2. There has often been issues with displaying and booking CX flights in BA so monitor availability elsewhere and call BA if need be.
  - Yorkieflyer says:
    
    1 Jun1 June 21:37
    
    I have booked avios CX flights more than 355 days in advance via the BA call centre a couple of years ago
    - Billy Nicholson says:
      
      2 Jun2 June 08:40
      
      Will I have to create a CX account to check reward availability elsewhere – ie on their website?
Brian S says:

1 Jun1 June 17:50

Has anyone received their IHG status extension yet?

I achieved Spire a few weeks ago through CC spend but wondered if there were any data points for a further extension and Spire benefits (extra 25k points)

Or am I just being greedy 🙂
- BJ says:
  
  1 Jun1 June 18:11
  
  Some people have been extended already while others are waiting for IHG to get to their accounts, IHG stated this would take time. AFAIK, nobody has yet received a 25K Spire choice benefit that they dId nit qualify for via stays.