The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 4th June

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

• Sukes says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:26

  Data point: I’ve left a couple of comments in recent days regarding a Melia hotel booking that Melia would not refund despite hotel being closed. Booking was non-refundable & prepaid. To update I submitted a chargeback request to Amex Plat who authorised the chargeback instantaneously. The credit was added to my account 48hrs later. Well done Amex who again exceeded my expectations with regard to customer service.

  • Diydegsy says:

    4 Jun4 June 10:29

    Amex always do this for chargeback but if the merchant disagrees they can claim it back.

    • Sukes says:

      4 Jun4 June 15:32

      Have you had experience of this? There is not much info but a document addressed from Amex to merchants states ‘In certain circumstances we [Amex] will debit [the merchant] disputed Charges without sending [the merchant] a ‘Request for Information’ letter…In this instance, Cardmember disputes are immediately Charged back. You will be notified about these Chargebacks on your monthly statement or via Online Merchant Services (OMS) if you manage your account online….You may not re-submit a Charge after a dispute related to it has been resolved in favour of the Cardmember.’ In my case I got instant authorisation of chargeback with notification that the investigation was Closed. Not had to do chargeback before so another new experience thks to Covid.

  • Lady London says:

    4 Jun4 June 21:49

    Well done

    • Sukes says:

      4 Jun4 June 22:06

      Thks Lady London for your inputs on these threads, they’ve proven very helpful especially regards creditcos. Cheers

  • Sarah says:

    5 Jun5 June 08:39

    I wrote to them asking for confirmation that the hotel was closed when I was due to stay so that I could initiate a chargeback. They just wrote back agreeing to move my booking to a new date next year without any price increase, which is the result I was after. Took a long time and a lot of hassle to get there. I wasn’t happy with the price increase because it was higher than what a new booking would have been and because a friend who booked through booking.com had their reservation moved with no price increase.

• BJ says:

  4 Jun4 June 10:39

  Datapoint LNER evouchers: Others reported getting these extended via twitter team some weeks ago. At the same time I went via the support ticket route in my LNER account. Request was rejected, and rejected twice more after bouncing it back. The two CSA concerned also refused my request to escalate it. I then tried twitter team, they also refused to extend my eVouchers because they do not expire to 31/12 but as a goodwill gesture reissued two vouchers I had expire. Happy about the latter obviously but not the former. Due to restriction on travel and decreased service due to Covid-19 I think these vouchers should be extended. I’ll try again in a few months after the impact on services becomes even longer.

• Michael C says:

  4 Jun4 June 11:02

  So if I ask for my current BAPP with negative Avios to be downgraded to a free card, is the Avios balance simply reset to zero?

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 11:07

    No, in that case I think it will be carried over. You’d need to do a full cancellation and apply fresh for the free card (at a guess).

    • RedEyeDonkey says:

      5 Jun5 June 00:21

      Don’t assume you’ll get the new card you want though if you cancel with plans to reapply for the fee free, even if you have a perfect payment record with AMEX and perfect payment record on your credit file/good score etc because there is some chance of a decline in the current ‘credit crunch’ environment.

    • Michael C says:

      5 Jun5 June 04:34

      Cheers, all!

• illuminatus says:

  4 Jun4 June 11:07

  My LIM-LGW flight in F in July has finally been cancelled. It was a return flight booked via 241, the outbound flight tool]k place a year ago, and the voucher itself expired many months ago. I do not need to rebook this flight or any other flight at this time. Am I correct that my options are, by calling BA:
  – to claim the Avios and taxes paid for a full refund, thus loosing that ‘half’ of the voucher
  – claim a ‘Covid’ voucher instead, which will extend the 241 for another 6 months? However how does it work for future bookings, given there’s half of the 241 left?

  Thanks.

  • Charlieface says:

    4 Jun4 June 14:20

    Cancel the whole thing and get the voucher back

    • Charlieface says:

      4 Jun4 June 14:21

      Sorry just realised you flew already. Technically I think you could still demand the voucher back

• Taylor says:

  4 Jun4 June 11:25

  How long does the statement credit take to appear on the recent offer? Spent £100 on tuesday. The payment has processed and appeared on my balance today but no credit.

  • Andrew says:

    4 Jun4 June 11:31

    Probably tomorrow. I did an M&S and it took 2 days from being charged to the card to be credited back but I did a Harvey Nics and it was credited back the same day as the card was charged. Depends on the retailer I think.

• Clive says:

  4 Jun4 June 11:40

  Travelodge bankruptcy https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2020/06/04/travelodge-launches-bankruptcy-proceedings/

  • Rob says:

    4 Jun4 June 11:55

    CVA isn’t really bankruptcy. It’s just a way to shaft your landlords.

    • Craig W says:

      4 Jun4 June 17:29

      and competitors

• BJ says:

  4 Jun4 June 11:55

  Netherlands starts reopening to tourist from June 15 but not from the UK.

  • J says:

    4 Jun4 June 12:18

    Germany are still advising against any non essential travel to the UK.

  • Hannah says:

    4 Jun4 June 12:18

    Which is ridiculous given the UK is currently excluded from the travel ban until 15th June

    • J says:

      4 Jun4 June 12:22

      UK is high risk – end of. If only the PM had taken this virus seriously as it was wreaking havoc in Italy.

      • mark2 says:

        4 Jun4 June 15:44

        If only we had a Labour/SNP coalition government!

        • Don says:

          4 Jun4 June 18:12

          If only Stalin could be re-animated? Maybe Lenin has half a chance?

        • AJA says:

          4 Jun4 June 20:23

          The country rejected Labour’s vision of the future in Dec 2019. And wishing the SNP had offered to go into coalition with them is like wishing Jo Swinson hadn’t lost her seat and everyone had embraced the Lib Dems vision of reversing Brexit. Or wishing China had told the world about the virus in late November. Trouble is that didn’t happen. Cloud cuckoo land I’m afraid. We are where we are. I doubt that a different government would have prevented any Covid-19 deaths or done much differently, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

        • BJ says:

          4 Jun4 June 21:27

          @Mark2, I’m inclined to agree with AJA that it wouldn’t have made much difference. Infact, it might even have been worse. I’m led to that conclusion by the fact that neither Labour nor the SNP were voicing much concern, let alone crying foul, with the governments strategy in the early days of herd immunity or in the run up to lockdown. Granted, Labour were in the process of installing a new leader and the SNP, like the other devolved administrations, were hamstrung by the lack of various powers to respond independently of the UK government on the scale that was necessary. Despite this, they should still have been doing theur job of holding the government to accouht; it would seem they either failed miserably, were in general agreement with the governments approach, or perhaps most likely didn’t want to be seen to be devisive at a time of national crisis. So many ifs and buts, and the answer will never be known.

  • meta says:

    4 Jun4 June 14:40

    I am not seeing it anywhere officially.

• Doogie says:

  4 Jun4 June 12:49

  Hotels.com/ Accor/ Nationwide Flexplus quandry

  I currently have 3 rooms (booked in February) on non-refundable rates with hotels.com at an Accor property in Amsterdam for the end of June for myself & wife, adult daughter and sister in law.

  Our Easyjet flights are 99% certain cancelled according to their schedule, so we can’t get there (even if we wanted to) and expecting refund on that after a dance about.

  Hotels.com are offering vouchers usable for *12 months* *at the same property* which is a worst case scenario, but seems like a pretty crappy option.

  Natwest Flexplus insurance are saying in FAQs,
  “My travel provider has offered me a travel voucher or credit to re-book my holiday for a later date. If I decline this, will I be able to claim on my travel insurance?- select this to hide related content

  Unfortunately, no, there is no cover under your travel insurance.

  You’ll need to speak to your travel provider to get a refund. Travel providers are dealing with high volumes of cancellations right now and it may take some time for your refund to be processed.”

  I can potentially argue with my insurer that the voucher is overly onerous, which I may win or lose, but then daughter and SIL will have to have similar arguments with their respective insurers.

  Anyone any thoughts, before I have to think about accepting the very strict voucher?

  • BJ says:

    4 Jun4 June 13:19

    Hotels .com are applying the Accor policy for reservations made via a third party (which is essentially the same for direct nonrefundable bookings). Despite this published policy, BA Holidays and Amex Travel both refunded my money for nonrefundable Accor reservations made via them, and they both did so without a fuss. So, it might be worth having another go with Hotels .com. After completing all my teavdl refunds in May, I cancelled my FlexPlus account last week, the response of their insurer (UK Insurance) to Covid-19 has left me very unimpressed, and I plan to take out a policy with LV.

  • Charlieface says:

    4 Jun4 June 14:15

    Nationwide are talking garbage, they can’t refuse you insurance if that’s what was agreed in your T&Cs. A voucher is never acceptable as payment for an insurance claim. Unless they mean that you wanted to cancel under “disinclination to travel”, in which case they are right.

    • Lady London says:

      4 Jun4 June 17:37

      btw who is the underwriter of this Nationwide policy? just so we can avoid other policies underwritten by the same one, in future.

      • Charlieface says:

        4 Jun4 June 19:07

        UK Insurance Ltd, I think. They used to be pretty OK for paying claims

  • Lady London says:

    4 Jun4 June 16:10

    pretty sure unless it was very specifically in the terms of insurance you bought, the insurer cannot force you to accept a voucher or a credit if your travel insurance as bought covered you for a refund.

    I think most people would agree that the exact date is part of the essence of what you book particularly if you are buying for a holiday. so if the date you booked cant be provided then you cannot be considered to have been compensated with a voucher or a credit as you may have no further need for the travel you purchased if the original date you booked cant be provided.

    obviously you should ask whoever you paid for a refunf. if that fails you can try chargeback via your card. if credit card then you have Section 75 coverage you can claim on (can try chargeback first if you want to). Insurance seems to think they should be liable only if all these fail

    For credit card.s75 and insurance you can consider/threaten an ombudsman claim. This costs the card/insurance co literally £00’s regardless of the outcome so you should get their best available answer if you mention this after not getting anywhere with them. 8 weeks without satisfavtion or reply, 3 or so reasonable attempts, or them saying final answer is enough to go to Ombudsman.

    • Connor says:

      4 Jun4 June 19:41

      £650 per complaint, for reference.

      • xcalx says:

        5 Jun5 June 08:19

        However, the really nasty companies purchase the equivalent of a season ticket which covers multiple claims against them.

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