The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 9th June

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• Harry T says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:38

  There’s a new Hyatt Bonus Journeys Promo. As there’s about three Hyatt hotels in Europe, let’s hope Marriott, Hilton and IHG follow suit.

• Andrew says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:11

  From BBC New: Travel bosses in the UK furious about new quarantine rules for most international arrivals say they have received assurances from the government that air corridors, which will allow unrestricted movement between Britain and some other countries, will open from 29 June.

  • Alex M says:

    9 Jun9 June 09:27

    If the other country has low covid – they won’t want a bridge with us, if the other country has high covid – we don’t want a bridge with them (unless it is established for political reasons).

    • Rob says:

      9 Jun9 June 10:15

      There is no-one higher than us, is there?! Possibly Brazil but that’s not exactly a big inbound tourist market.

      What makes more sense is banning anyone who lives outside the M25 from travelling and letting the rest of us in corona-free London get on with it.

      • Alex M says:

        9 Jun9 June 10:22

        Rob, totally makes sense and suits me very well – are you going to start a petition on change.org?

      • Anna says:

        9 Jun9 June 10:30

        Spain is just ahead of us by death rate (though countries are all counting differently so no-one really know yet.) It will be interesting at some point in the future to compare numbers. given that Spain had a much stricter lockdown. Also, if our numbers don’t now start increasing as a result of easing restrictions, this would also suggest that lockdown didn’t have a huge impact.

        • Rob says:

          9 Jun9 June 11:23

          As I am not a key worker it is likely that I would be rejected by the sorting system for NHS postal tests and if you live in London you’re unlikely to have a car to drive to a testing centre.

          The tracing system doesn’t work by all accounts but it is keeping 25,000 people happy getting £1,500 per month for literally doing nothing all day!

        • Optimus Prime says:

          9 Jun9 June 11:28

          Spain’s death ratio is worse than UK’s because of presenteeism.

          Businesses in London started asking employees to work from home 2 weeks before Johnson ordered a lockdown.

        • Rob says:

          9 Jun9 June 14:09

          The big test will be when the Harrods outlet store opens in Westfield to clear, basically, their entire Spring clothing stock for peanuts. Then we’ll see how few people really want to avoid the tube at all costs.

          It’s odd that John Lewis isn’t reopening Peter Jones next week, but I am guessing that a large % of customers travel in via Sloane Square and they may think it isn’t viable. Not sure the relatively modest population of SW3 can support a seven floor department store!

      • BJ says:

        9 Jun9 June 10:40

        The problems outside the M25 would currently be a lot less had it not been for the problems inside the M25…same old, same old! The risk of a second wave within the M25 and the SE is obviously also much greater than in less populated areas so being complacency should be avoided.

        • BJ says:

          9 Jun9 June 12:30

          I felt a UK-wide lockdown should have been put in place as soon as the scale of the problem in Italy, France and Spain became apparent but the opportunity was missed. The government were then presented with an opportunity to better protect the rest of the UK from London when the scale of the problem there became apparent but they again failed to take the obvious step and isolate London.

      • Nick_C says:

        9 Jun9 June 12:21

        Depends how you measure it.

        If you look at the current death rate, their are more people dying in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden and Peru than their are in the UK. And that is based on national populations, so hides hotspots in large countries.

        https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=latest&deathsMetric=true&dailyFreq=true&perCapita=true&smoothing=7&country=GBR~FRA~SWE~BEL~IRL~ITA~PRT~MEX~PER~CHL~BRA~USA~CAN

      • Charlieface says:

        9 Jun9 June 14:07

        How about we ban anyone going in or out of London completely? I for one couldn’t care, I haven’t been there in 10 years and have no intention of doing so

        • Nick_C says:

          9 Jun9 June 15:42

          Quite easily, if there was a will to do it

      • Gormlesstraveller says:

        9 Jun9 June 16:06

        Because anyone that could, moved out.

        (Workers with their parental homes in EU, students, second homers)..

      • Rob says:

        9 Jun9 June 16:58

        I know some who moved – my kid’s school has a fair chunk who are now outside the UK. However you shouldn’t confuse Chelsea with the 8 million people who live in London overall. I also know many people with multiple houses who are still around. For a start, little country villages tend not to have the high-speed wi-fi that a lot of people need to work properly.

        I think Rhys is still out of London. Sinead remains. I’m here. Most students are still being forced to pay for their accommodation even though the universities are closed so there are probably more around than you think.

      • BJ says:

        9 Jun9 June 17:58

        Don’t believe some of the fantasy stats and statements being thrown around in the comments here, they must be coming from governent sources.According to NHS England, 74 people died in London hospitals during the last seven days following a positive Covid-19 test. According to them, there were also a further 13 deaths in London hospitals attributed to Covid-19, but without a positive test. The only date in both categories without any reported deaths was Sunday 7 June. In addition to these deaths reported by NHS England, there would almost certainly have been deaths from Covid-19 in care homes, in the community, and in other places such as private hospitals. The reliability of the data presented for such by the government has been questioned and you would be better to draw your own conclusions from data on excess deaths in England. However, the trend in deaths in London is downwards and and seems to be back at pre-lockdown levels which is obviously a good thing. The same downward trends are being observed in other nations and regions of the UK but reasons for differences in the timeframe and scope of the outbreak are complex, and not simply an indication that London is somehow doing any better or worse than anyplace else.

      • BJ says:

        9 Jun9 June 21:56

        I would not be surprised if multivariate statistical analysis of mortality rates standardised on age, deprivation, and race explained the majority of the variation both between London and other areas of the UK, and also between boroughs within London itself. I very much doubt that the government would like you ever to know the fine detail because it probably makes very uncomfortable reading for the Conservative Party.

• Ali M says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:13

  Hi 🙂
  Had an email about Curve Credit yesterday. Got all excited thinking there’ll be a card with more points but looking at the email just looks like an option in the current app to change transactions to ‘purchase now, pay later’ sort of option 🙁

  • The Streets says:

    9 Jun9 June 09:37

    A couple of our Curve cards were attacked overnight with fraudulent activity. I’d advise people to check their transactions

    • Andrew says:

      9 Jun9 June 09:52

      And remember that Curve has a useful lock your card feature in the app, and as I don’t use the card that much I tend to leave that on unless I’m using it as a protection against fraud.

      • The Streets says:

        9 Jun9 June 09:56

        Was just thinking this! It’s going to have to be my default position

      • davvero says:

        9 Jun9 June 11:32

        I wasn’t aware of the lock your card option (I’ll look for it now) but I did something that worked just as well.
        For a short period in 2019 Curve allowed you to use Amex to top up a virtual balance, it was quickly pulled by Amex but I still have 10p on the virtual Amex, so I just point Curve to that card when I want to lock it.

• Michael C says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:21

  (Sorry for repost: put it in yesterday’s thread)

  So did I understand correctly, and the open-jaw option for 2-4-1 (booking outbound with voucher and adding on Avios-reserved inbound over the phone) is no more?!

  • Jane says:

    9 Jun9 June 09:32

    my understanding is you can add it on and get a refund of the avios but that the taxes won’t be adjusted which will most likely cost a lot more.

    • Rhys says:

      9 Jun9 June 10:16

      Jane is correct. This article goes into more depth: https://headforpoints.com/2019/11/22/odd-things-are-happening-when-you-book-a-british-airways-2-4-1-ticket-355-days-in-advance/comment-page-2/

    • Anna says:

      9 Jun9 June 10:16

      I think the situation is that if you book it online and then call to get the avios refunded, you won’t get the taxes adjusted BUT if you call and ask BA to make the inbound booking, they then adjust the taxes so you pay the right amount.

      • Michael C says:

        9 Jun9 June 13:22

        Thanks, all!!

• GRIMZ says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:36

  Hi Folks, Can anyone answer this one?
  If I refer off my Starwood for the BAPP to my MIL will I get the Starwood bonus for referral?

  Thanks in advance

  • Peter K says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:04

    Yes

• memesweeper says:

  9 Jun9 June 09:58

  I’m guessing nobody knows this yet, but I’ll ask anyway, if a BA covid-19 voucher is used on a flight that costs *less* than the original ticket, is the balance refunded?

  • HM says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:10

    From conversations with BA to date, my understanding is as follows: Any remaining balance on a cash-only ticket WILL NOT be refunded (it will be retained and a new voucher issued); any balance on an Avios ticket (both T&F cash and Avios) WILL be refunded when the original voucher is redeemed.

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:43

    It’s been on the BA website since they started offering the voucher that you would get another one for the balance.

    It’s in the FAQs!

    • memesweeper says:

      9 Jun9 June 21:15

      thanks!

• Nadeshka says:

  9 Jun9 June 10:22

  Anyone else waiting for a refund from Virgin holidays?
  My booking was cancelled in early April and I requested a refund and a call back – have had neither.
  Even worse than BA’s approach, they automatically email a voucher for the full amount and asked nicely if I would consider taking it, but it has a July 2020 expiry!
  My booking is made more complex as it originally includes a voucher, with a September expiry. So I’d prefer to get my cash back with the original voucher expiry, not their ridiculously short-dated one. Not sure how an Amex charge back/S75 would work in this situation ( £700 cash was paid on my BAPP).
  Cannot get through on phones at all – it just disconnects when you enter a booking reference not in the next 3 days (because it was 2 months ago!)

  • Charlieface says:

    9 Jun9 June 13:53

    A chargeback will not give you the voucher back, although it may cause the ticket to be automatically cancelled. A S75 you could demand the notional value of the voucher on top, you would have to demonstrate how to value it, and may receive pushback from credit card company about this.

• Connor says:

  9 Jun9 June 10:25

  Got an email from Qatar this morning.

  Thank you for participating in our appreciation initiative for healthcare professionals. As we know you had tried to register, we are pleased to offer you a unique promo code for 50% off on Economy Class tickets for yourself and up to three companions, so you can still experience a well-deserved vacation.

  Use the promo code ********** by 15 June 2020 to book on qatarairways.com for travel between 23 June and 10 December 2020*. You will also receive 20% off at Qatar Duty Free outlets at our state-of-the-art hub, Hamad International Airport.*

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