The new HFP chat thread – Friday 5th June

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• Martyn Ford says:

  5 Jun5 June 08:52

  Good morning. Do we know how long the current QR flight alteration policies will last? I have an OSL-USM trip booked for October and it`s now unlikely that I can fly due to health issues last year. Can I safely wait until a few days before departure before deciding which of their options to take? Thank you.

  • BJ says:

    5 Jun5 June 09:21

    I would guess not, but it is only a guess. If there are no major second waves and travels continue to ease then it seems likely that the generous policies will start disappearing, and October is almost a full four months away. Recall that even in the most affected countries the worst was over within two months so barring further outbreaks the picture is going to look very different four months from now.

    • Martyn Ford says:

      5 Jun5 June 10:11

      That was very much my thinking. Thank you BJ.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Jun5 June 11:00

      +1 I think we can expect generous policies to be withdrawn very soon. As QR is great in the air and when things go well, but can stonewall you otherwise according to experiences reported, personally I wouldn’t hang around thinkinf about it more than a couple of weeks.

      • Martyn Ford says:

        5 Jun5 June 11:55

        I really appreciate your thoughts, thank you.

• memesweeper says:

  5 Jun5 June 09:22

  A massive thank you to Rob and the HfP staff, and regular commenters. Just managed the ultimate redemption for a family of five to the Caribbean, 2 + 2 on Avios with Amex companion vouchers, 1 with upgrade, booked off-peak dates and, following a cancelled outbound flight, rebooked for Christmas. All in club. Couldn’t have done this, or even have dreamt of doing this, without your help.

  • Anna says:

    5 Jun5 June 09:31

    That sounds fabulous – my OH is struggling to get any time off at all at Xmas, even for a 3 night break 😪 and we’ve had to cancel pretty much everything we’d planned for the rest of this year. Are we allowed to know where you’re going?! It’s still fun reading about other people’s plans.

  • Andrew says:

    5 Jun5 June 09:33

    Fingers crossed there’s no second peak then or flights will likely be cancelled again.

    • memesweeper says:

      5 Jun5 June 11:58

      everyone involved has had their expectations set that nothing is certain… even if the world is opening up again by then BA’s schedule is unlikely to resemble what is planned officially today. Didn’t stop an extensive discussion last night about who gets the window/step over seats in Club 🙂

      • Lady London says:

        5 Jun5 June 12:26

        where to?

      • memesweeper says:

        5 Jun5 June 14:41

        All teenagers, quite old enough to travel alone never mind sit alone, but also I’ve spoiled them sufficiently they don’t want to be “stepping over strangers” in club world.

  • Lady London says:

    5 Jun5 June 11:01

    Wow. Well done. shows this hobby is still giving… 🙂

    • memesweeper says:

      5 Jun5 June 11:36

      Yes, the hobby keeps on giving for me. 🙂 However taxes/fees/charges for five were very painful (although the list price for five people for what we’ve just got on Avios is over fifteen grand!). I’m no longer flying for work so not picking up Avios that way, so I’m going to switch my attention to hotel points and Asia Miles, the latter don’t expire and have reasonable TFCs on most oneworld airlines — provided you swerve flying with BA from London.

    • Rob says:

      5 Jun5 June 12:01

      Yes, the ‘book for July, rebook for Christmas whether or not there is Avios availability’ plan continues to work.

      I was going to try it for Cape Town but then the SA Government started talking about Feb 2021 reopening so I decided not to bother. The £1,000 per night hotel price tags over New Year also put me off!

      Annoying Maldives is not running in Summer so you can’t use it to get that over Christmas – although, again, the hotel bill with the compulsory $1,000 New Years Eve gala dinner, no doubt, would be reassuringly expensive.

      • Graeme says:

        5 Jun5 June 18:10

        Does anyone know whether this approach would work with an open jaw ticket? I guess the rebooking after cancellation would need to be done by phone rather than in MMB in this case (as is the case for making the booking in the first place). Would the call centre allow me to rebook any date regardless of reward seat availability, or is this just a happy glitch with MMB?

        • memesweeper says:

          5 Jun5 June 19:52

          it’s not a glitch in MMB, you have to do it on the phone. expect some pushback too, most of the staff won’t know it’s the policy. polite and firm worked for me. don’t see why it wouldn’t work openjaw provided the outbound was cancelled first, but I’m no lawyer.

• memesweeper says:

  5 Jun5 June 09:22

  1 with upgrade => 1 with upgrade voucher from Lloyds

  • rams1981 says:

    5 Jun5 June 11:28

    Great work! For a family of 5 did the same person have 2 of the 2 for 1 vouchers and Lloyds voucher and it was allowed to be booked or did a different person have the Lloyds upgrade voucher?

    • memesweeper says:

      5 Jun5 June 11:32

      @rams1981 Me with two companion vouchers, partner with the upgrade.

      @Anna — it’s Costa Rica to be exact. Beachside Accommodation will be pricey but there’s a few options to burn up Marriott points and we’ll probably do a night or two in San Jose in the IC on points too.

      • Anna says:

        5 Jun5 June 13:22

        Fabulous – it’s definitely on my bucket list! My son’s school runs a Geography trip to Costa Rica (he’s not going!); he was very scornful when he found out the price was nearly £2000 and told his teacher that his mum could get us all there in business class for that 🤣🤣🤣

      • rams1981 says:

        5 Jun5 June 14:04

        Thanks. Costa Rica definitely on my list. Looks great

        • memesweeper says:

          5 Jun5 June 14:43

          Partner and I have been before, many moons ago, so we know we’re in for a treat, assuming it’s open for visitors.

      • AJA says:

        5 Jun5 June 15:33

        That sounds like a wonderful Christmas for you and your family. I really do hope you get to go.

        I am still sad I am not going to Israel next month. Have a small hope that I will still get away to Tenerife in September but other than that no holidays booked for the foreseeable future. 🙁

        • memesweeper says:

          5 Jun5 June 17:09

          I’ve had two trips cancelled this year, a third that was planned has been canned too, so really wanted to get something in the diary.

• Andrew says:

  5 Jun5 June 09:30

  Despite all the BA bashing I do on here their refunds process during this crisis has been second to none. Flight in July was cancelled Tuesday morning, I called YouFirst Tuesday afternoon, they answered immediately, refund processed and was back on my Amex this morning.

  • Roberto says:

    5 Jun5 June 09:33

    Got to agree 100% .. Myself and my good lady have had 20+ flights cancelled each and every one has been refunded fuss free in a few days. Hold times have always been low and the staff have been super friendly and professional.

    • Anwar says:

      5 Jun5 June 09:39

      Everyone is having differing experiences. My flight was cancelled more than two months ago. And still no refund

      • Andrew says:

        5 Jun5 June 09:45

        Give them another call today, your money will be in your account in a couple of days. My friend had a similar experience, some refunds dealt with at the very start of the crisis seem to have fallen through the cracks. And agree Roberto – the call centre staff have all been super friendly, we even lamented together the (likely) passing of the 747 and how I might never get to fly in 1A on 747 again (which I had booked for that flight).

      • guesswho2000 says:

        5 Jun5 June 12:05

        Similar experience, abysmal response in my case – three weeks and nothing for a flight canned in April.

        That said, once I contacted BA refund helper on Flyertalk it was dealt with in 48h, I just shouldn’t have had to do that.

  • Gavin says:

    5 Jun5 June 09:54

    I had a good experience on the normal line as well – although had to redial around 5 times before I got through. Avios refunded straight away and cash back on my card the following day.

    I don’t feel I can really praise BA for this though, despite the pleasant phone agent – they should re-enable the functionality to do this via the website which would have taken me no more than 1 minute, rather than wasting 20 minutes of my time on the phone.

    • Isobel Brown says:

      5 Jun5 June 12:14

      I can’t even get through to them today. All avenues end up with ‘sorry we can’t take your call at the moment’ followed by hanging up on the call!

  • John W says:

    5 Jun5 June 10:51

    I agree also , my BA avios flight was cancelled and my refund was back on my Amex card the following day plus return of avios at end of the call .

  • Anna says:

    5 Jun5 June 13:10

    You First have been fantastic, but I am shortly going to be joining the queue of non-premium passengers trying to get through to BA to re-arrange my July/August cancellations!

  • AJA says:

    5 Jun5 June 15:39

    +1 for YouFirst. They have been excellent. The dedicated phone line is wonderful too. It was my first experience of dealing with them and the CS agent I spoke to was so apologetic about BA cancelling. Refund of Avios and 2-4-1 was processed immediately.and cash returned to Amex card yesterday. Pity that the Avios balance has gone negative though and now my spending to reach the next voucher is a bit higher. Was hoping to get the voucher by the end of this month but it’s not looking like it will happen now!

• Rossy says:

  5 Jun5 June 09:46

  Does anyone know how long I’d have to wait after cancelling a curve card I’d be able to reapply as a new customer with a fresh spend limit, or am I best just to wait out a year until I get around to the start of my rolling 365 day spend limit again?

  • Michael says:

    5 Jun5 June 09:55

    Have you asked them to increase your limit?

  • GeorgeJ says:

    5 Jun5 June 11:31

    They are more likely to give you a higher limit if you stay with them and ask. After all if your balances are getting cleared why wouldn’t they!
    Even as a new customer they have moved me up to annual 50k from 10k after @ 6months or so (and that was without asking).

• DQ says:

  5 Jun5 June 09:52

  Morning all,

  How does the downgrade from BAPP to the free BA Amex work? Is it a downgrade or a cancellation plus a new application? How will downgrading impact my credit score? Will there be a new credit check?

  • Genghis says:

    5 Jun5 June 10:30

    It’s effectively a new credit card given you’re signing up to new terms but your account – and accrued avios – get transferred across.

    Amex reserve the right to do a new credit search but rarely do.

    I wouldn’t worry about credit scores. They’re pretty meaningless. If you’re about to get a mortgage or some serious credit, concern yourself a bit with what you’re doing – i.e. don’t do 5 credit card applications just before – but not the scores themselves.

    • Martha says:

      5 Jun5 June 11:33

      How long before mortgage application do you suggest not to apply for a new credit card?

      • memesweeper says:

        5 Jun5 June 11:42

        *Personally* I try and have a clear six months before a mortgage application with most CCs cancelled, no balances on CCs I hold and no CC/loan applications. There’s no science behind this. Last time I fouled up and thought I had six more months on my introductory rate than I did, and had to remortgage in a hurry without the usual preparations and still got a decent deal through a broker.

        • Genghis says:

          5 Jun5 June 11:53

          +1. We did a 6 month hiatus prior to initial mortgage and then at renewal. Whether this is right or not, I don’t know. There are some things more important than points.

        • Spk says:

          5 Jun5 June 15:05

          Small balances on credit cards and paying them off regularly is better than zero balances on all cards. Paying off cards regularly every month adds a positive credit history to your record.

• pin perl says:

  5 Jun5 June 09:59

  any news from Qatar airways status match by anyone?

• Reeferman says:

  5 Jun5 June 10:12

  BA getting stroppy – refusing to attend the Govt’s meeting on quarantine plans yesterday
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52927481
  and, this morning, hinting at legal action on these plans
  https://news.sky.com/story/iag-chief-calls-for-unions-to-engage-so-british-airways-can-have-a-future-12000804

  • Lady London says:

    5 Jun5 June 12:12

    I feel sorry for Pritti being told she has to implement this. The time for it was March. We’d be back close to normal now if it was done then. Now we’re just a pariah and a laughing stock. Like the kid in the playground with pimples that other kids won’t play with.

    • Vit says:

      5 Jun5 June 14:34

      I know. My only hope now would be a mass blanket testing where we can find out if we got the virus or not combined with my another passport to visit the family in Cambodia over the summer.

    • Reeferman says:

      5 Jun5 June 14:38

      I agree.
      I can see the need for a 14-day quarantine from certain Countries/regions (South America, North America, Southern Africa etc) but a blanket quarantine is plainly daft. At the very least, an exemption for travellers from EU/EEC Countries seems sensible.

    • Bill says:

      5 Jun5 June 14:38

      Feel sorry for her? She could resign. Then I’d have sympathy for her. Until then she can get lost

  • Anna says:

    5 Jun5 June 13:24

    Why are they cancelling their summer schedule? Surely if they are going to put up some opposition to the quarantine plans they would carry on flying.

    • Rhys says:

      5 Jun5 June 13:30

      Even without a quarantine BA will need to reduce its capacity. The cancellations happening now may be part of that.

      • Anna says:

        5 Jun5 June 14:50

        I think you’re right. Looking at MMB, they are offering me a re-route on the same day MAN-LHR then LGW-AGP! On what planet does anybody want to do that?!

  • ChrisC says:

    5 Jun5 June 14:10

    Michael O’Leary also refused to attend the meeting.

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