The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 4th June

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• KBuffett says:

  4 Jun4 June 08:01

  Does anyone know if Heathrow Rewards will extend Premium membership in light of not being able to use it during Covid?

  • Sundar says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:32

    Why not email and ask them? I have found their customer service team very helpful

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  4 Jun4 June 08:01

  A random thought this morning:

  Do BA and other airlines have to pay airports for the slots they aren’t using?

  I am thinking that if you rent a flat, or an office, you have to give the landlord notice. Or in the case of commercial premises, may have a lease for – say – 20 years!.

  So does BA have to pay Gatwick Airport for the lounges, landing fees etc even though it is not using them.

  And will it have to pay London City once it re-opens?

  Just curious!

  • Charlieface says:

    4 Jun4 June 19:33

    Don’t think so but they normally need to fly 80% of the flights otherwise they lose the slot

• memesweeper says:

  4 Jun4 June 08:37

  Help! trying to call 020 3250 0145 for BA to rebook a cancelled Avios flight… I cannot get into a queue as BA are ‘unable to take your call right now’ and hang up. It’s not a F booking so no option to ring You First. Any tips from the HfP readers on a number that might get answered?

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    4 Jun4 June 08:42

    I’ve had problems with the UK number, but zero problems when ringing the US number! Got through to someone in the UK via the US number in a matter of minutes a couple of months ago.

    You can use Google Hangouts to ring US numbers for free as well!

    • memesweeper says:

      4 Jun4 June 09:20

      Thanks — on hold now

      • memesweeper says:

        4 Jun4 June 12:52

        Got through, 30 mins wait, then rebooked

• LST says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:30

  Hi. I have just had two refunds from Qatar post onto my amex gold, leaving me with a negative MR balance of 8000 (I had cleared out the account about a month ago). Any comeback in just cancelling the card? I have no other MR amex cards.
  Thanks in advance.

  LST

  • LST says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:41

    Actually, I don’t want to run the risk of being black listed, so will just have to (in the current climate) very slowly spend my way out of it…
    LST

    • Peter K says:

      4 Jun4 June 09:47

      I understand your cautious approach, but Amex seem very interested in retaining customers at the moment.
      I cancelled a BA blue a couple of years ago with a -4500 or so balance and have had no trouble getting cards from Amex since.

      • Paul says:

        4 Jun4 June 11:48

        I beg to differ.

        I have held the platinum card for 14 years and a BAPP card. I called them last week and the attitude was dire. I was offered absolutely nothing.

        I was however dealing with their desperate Philippine call centre which is the most retrograde move Amex have made in some time.

        I see no sign of them desperate to cling on to customers.

      • MattB says:

        4 Jun4 June 11:52

        I cancelled BAPP with a negative 11k avios balance, no effort was made to retain me.

    • Charlieface says:

      4 Jun4 June 14:16

      Blacklisting unlikely unless you do it multiple times IMHO.

• Louise K says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:48

  I lost my anniversary Amex gold bonus due to having flights refunded.

  Would it be frowned upon if I booked new refundable flights to get the points p, transfer them out, then cancel them, then cancel the card?

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 09:52

    You won’t be banned by Amex, put it that way.

    • Charlieface says:

      4 Jun4 June 14:17

      How do you know that? Probably would if you did it multiple times.

      • Rob says:

        4 Jun4 June 15:25

        If you did it multiple times, you might. As a one-off, unlikely and never heard of.

  • BJ says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:55

    My strategy was to cancel all cards before requesting refunds where these would cause significant impacts. Where balance was just a small negative I spent enough to get the balance positive again before cancelling. I then cancelled any remaining cards with a fee. Result is that I now have gone from five cards to only the ARCC and a supp on my partners BAPP. Having already exhausted my referral opportunities, I am now well-placed to be referred by my dad for more cards when spending opportunities return.

    • Lady Londo says:

      4 Jun4 June 21:46

      That’s clever and subtle @BJ. Getting out of the card first…

• Craig says:

  4 Jun4 June 09:49

  How long are Amex refunds taking at the moment, it left the Amex account on the 28 May but isn’t in my bank account yet?

  • Anna says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:04

    I had one recently that took a couple of weeks, it was from a closed Amex card though so I don’t know if that made a difference. I think they ‘ve been very busy with refunds as it’s normally faster.

  • Lee says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:07

    Only took 2 days to transfer to another AMEX card which is surprisingly quick.

  • Vit says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:11

    I’ve had quite a few refunds from airlines and TA in the last month or so. Yes, took few weeks to show up on your bank account. I would say maximum I’ve had was 2.5 – 3 weeks.

  • Nadeshka says:

    4 Jun4 June 11:30

    We had one on a closed card that took 10 business days (just over 2 weeks with a bank holiday) to hit the bank account once we had called and supplied the account numbers.

  • Charlieface says:

    4 Jun4 June 14:18

    Don’t try transferring it to another person’s card, it’s complete hassle.

• Diydegsy says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:04

  BA just cancelled our flights from Heathrow to Bucharest departing on 30th July and there was me hoping it would definitely go ahead, wishful thinking I guess but gutted!!

• YH says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:07

  Anyone familiar with how the BA systems work? I called to get a refund for a cancelled flight yesterday. This was a “complex” ticket which had been re-issued twice because I made two separate payments after the initial booking to upgrade each leg. I’ll round the numbers up, but basically paid £2k for the original ticket, and then 2x £500 payments to upgrade each leg, for a total of £3k. When I called for the refund, the representative said the running total on this ticket was £5k and they would refund this amount.

  I pointed out the error, they re-calculated the total and still got something that was over by £100ish. It’s getting sent to the refund team to investigate but wondering where they get these numbers from?! Should have just accepted the £5k!

  • BJ says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:26

    WOW, I doubt many around here would have done that! I am also curious (only if you don’t mind sharing) what you thought was worth paying BA £3k for?

    • YH says:

      4 Jun4 June 10:45

      I booked LHR-SCL in F, and the return SCL-LHR was in J. Being the longest flight on BA’s network, I thought I’d treat myself to F and the 787 F cabin is the best in their fleet.

      • BJ says:

        4 Jun4 June 11:07

        Thanks for sharing. £2k for CW direct from UK on that route is good deal AFAIK. Personally I’d have stuck with CW but I’m short so the seat fits, and I sleep a lot on flights too. I am surprised the upgrade to F was £500/sector but can understand why you or others might go for it.

        • YH says:

          4 Jun4 June 11:16

          I had originally booked the outbound in J and return in W. I upgraded the return W to J for £500ish, then at a later date upgraded the outbound J to F for £500ish too. I thought an extra £500 to fly BA F on a 14.5 hour flight wasn’t a bad deal, and get to experience the CCR.

  • Pat the Postie says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:30

    Sometimes its best just to agree

    • YH says:

      4 Jun4 June 10:48

      Yep am slightly kicking myself now but oh well. I went in the call thinking they weren’t going to refund the upgrade amount as I had read that on one of the daily threads, so was caught a bit off-guard when they offered an extra £2k!

      • Alex M says:

        4 Jun4 June 11:03

        kicking yourself for acting descent? LOL

      • BJ says:

        4 Jun4 June 11:21

        Don’t, it was the right thing to do and you and the rest of us know that. Your integrity just kicked in automatically; my point was more that my own and that of others might not have done so. Different airline, different circumstances more likely but the way BA have been treating both their staff and customers lately, I doubt many of us would have bothered.

      • Doug M says:

        4 Jun4 June 12:35

        I wouldn’t worry, I think they’d have spotted the error anyway. According to Flyertalk experts and insiders BA refunds do require some work and manual checking, they’d most likely have spotted any error.

  • Aston100 says:

    4 Jun4 June 11:13

    Well done for having morals and principles.

    • Connor says:

      4 Jun4 June 13:16

      Unlike BA management.

    • Peter K says:

      4 Jun4 June 14:04

      +1 @Aston100

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