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The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 16th June

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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/2020/06/16/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-tuesday-16th-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

Comments (271)

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

  • davvero says:
    16 Jun16 June 03:37

    You are still able to connect flights within (not between) London Heathrow or Gatwick, but you must stay airside and go straight through Flight Connections. Please check local airport authority and government websites for additional requirements.

    • Peter K says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:42

      I get a weird feeling reading this that I’ve gone to page 2 of the comments, but I haven’t.

  • pablo says:
    16 Jun16 June 06:24

    Today only one fee free money transfer to any country with Small World Financial Services https://www.smallworldfs.com/en/news/international-day-of-family-remittances:-we-are-giving-you-1-fee-free-online-money-transfer

    • Mr. AC says:
      16 Jun16 June 10:16

      For the currency pairs I checked, the exchange rate without the fee is worse than Transferwise exchange rate + fee… YMMV

  • Iain says:
    16 Jun16 June 07:17

    Any else not received their May Virgin Atlantic Miles from Virgin Money and resolved with either party? Thanks

    • Pierre says:
      16 Jun16 June 12:00

      Just had a quick look – mine seem to have posted fine for all months recently…

  • Tanya Wade says:
    16 Jun16 June 07:49

    I’m due to fly Gatwick to Mauritius with BA in November. Any thoughts on whether this will move to Heathrow? Heathrow would suit me much better as I am starting my journey in Belfast. This is all presuming borders are open, quarantine measures lifted and no further lockdowns!

    • Peggers says:
      16 Jun16 June 11:54

      I have had flights in October booked LGW-TIA since January and at the weekend BA sent me an offer of an upgrade (which I’ll decline) still showing flight are intending to leave from LGW. I know this may change if the proposal/threat to pull out of LGW goes ahead, but if that’s their intention I wish they’d announce soon as I’ve connecting flights to consider.

  • Vicky says:
    16 Jun16 June 08:42

    Flights we had this year from London to Japan 2 x premium economy were 51,712 Avios. Same flights, same dates for next year are now 78,000 Avios

    Has anyone else seen such large increases in Avios for future flights?

    • AJA says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:46

      Are the taxes and fees the same?

      • Vicky says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:14

        Taxes & Fees were £990.24 for April 2021

        Taxes & Fees are £1197.04 for April 2021

        Both are off-peak dates

    • Rhys says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:53

      Have you checked the peak/off-peak calendar?

    • AJA says:
      16 Jun16 June 08:56

      Also the previous Avios sounds like an odd amount. I thought redemptions were always round figures to the nearest thousand. Are you sure your previous figure is correct.?

      • Vicky says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:09

        100% correct. I can see it leaving my a/c in Oct 2019 when I booked and being credited back in after the flight was cancelled this year.

    • Dave says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:11

      Are you in a household account? Could be one account’s pro-rata contribution to the booking

      • Vicky says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:19

        That’s it. Thank you!

        • pauldb says:
          16 Jun16 June 09:34

          You should look at booking two one-ways: could be a large saving on the cash element.

      • Mikeact says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:32

        I’ve just done a check, London Tokyo, April, off peak. Premium Economy both ways.
        First option, 120,000 Avios plus £ 598.52.
        All other options nothing like Vicky’s query

        • AJA says:
          16 Jun16 June 09:45

          The taxes and fees are the same, Vicky was booking for 2 so double you figure. Your Avios figure is peak; 60k each way, off-peak is 39k each way. But from her reply to me it looks like charges have increased by over £200 from her previous booking. She is also in a household account which is why she has the odd figure.

      • AJA says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:52

        On the subject of household accounts, are the proportions which are deducted set in stone when you first create an account? E.g. I have 200k and my partner has 100k so Avios would be deducted in ratio 2:1 forever even if for example subsequently my partner took a paid for flight which adds 50k Avios to their individual balance?

        • ChrisC says:
          16 Jun16 June 10:01

          Calculated on the ratios between the accounts at the time of booking.

        • Joseph Heenan says:
          16 Jun16 June 10:02

          The proportions taken are based on the available Avios in each account at the time of booking.

          (If you want to alter how many Avios come from each account you can move some Avios to Iberia/etc using combine my avios first.)

        • AJA says:
          16 Jun16 June 12:45

          Thank you both!. I’ve learnt something new today. Never had a household account but with Avios returned from my cancelled trip to Israel my OH and I now have a combined Avios total which will allow a trip to SYD with a significant chunk left over. I know it is the golden ticket destination to find availability ie I have two hopes – bob and no but we have never been close to having sufficient Avios before to even consider it worthwhile creating an account.

  • Ian M says:
    16 Jun16 June 09:10

    I made a transfer from Amex MR to Emirates 6 days ago, still waiting for them to land in the Skywards account. Doesn’t it normally only take 2 working days?

  • Ian M says:
    16 Jun16 June 09:13

    Amex MR points to cold hard cash…

    I’ve got the Amec Platinum with a decent stash of MR points. Considering the current 0.9p statement credit offer per point, I’ve been considering my options to cash some out into real cash. There’s nothing I particularly want to buy currently, so cashing out for cash would be good before the offer ends.

    Best option I can currently think of it as follows…

    – Make a purchase from a company that accepts bank transfer as payment.
    – Make the payment with my Amex Plat via BillHop.
    – Before the item is dispatched, cancel my order with the company and provide my bank details for a refund.

    Any other ideas?

    • Andrew says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:25

      I could be wrong, but as the redemption of points for statement credit shows on your account as a stand alone transaction which isn’t linked to the transaction you are redeeming them for, I think if you buy something which is returnable, apply the statement credit once it hits your account and then return the item for a refund it will leave your account in a negative balance which you can transfer to a bank account. Alternatively, whatever supermarket you regularly shop at, buy a large gift card, then apply statement credit to that and you’ve got shopping for a year or whatever.

      • Ian M says:
        16 Jun16 June 09:28

        Hey Andrew, that’s a good idea. I hadn’t thought of going into credit and then asking Amex to transfer to me!

    • Rob says:
      16 Jun16 June 10:14

      2) incurs a 3% fee and 3) is against the rules of the card companies so will be tricky to do.

      I’d just buy a few hundred pounds of Waitrose / Tesco etc gift vouchers, depending on where you normally shop, or prepay your gas / electricity / mobile etc if they take Amex.

      • Ian M says:
        16 Jun16 June 10:24

        So BillHop is the looking like the best option in that case. The BillHop fee wouldn’t be so bad as I’d be earning MR points at the current higher rate on the whole purchase anyway.

  • Optimus Prime says:
    16 Jun16 June 09:27

    “New Zealand’s first Covid cases in 24 days came from UK”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53059633

    • Anna says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:48

      I’m really surprised they were allowed out of quarantine to go to a funeral without test results. Surely that goes against everything NZ has done so far to eliminate the virus?

      • Lady London says:
        16 Jun16 June 13:14

        Can you blame other countries for choosing not to let British people in now?

      • Lady London says:
        16 Jun16 June 13:15

        Whoever dies there now, it’s been brought by one or both of those British visitors.

    • marcw says:
      16 Jun16 June 09:49

      NZ and OZ COVID19 international policy is just bonkers, unless they want to remain isolated until god-knows-when (AKA; when vaccine or treatment arrives). It could be never.

      Also, NZ PM little dance got sabotaged…

      However, internally they managed very well the covid-19 outbreak. I just think it´s bonkers to restrict 101% all international arrivals. Even prohibiting your own citizens travelling abroad.

      • Rob says:
        16 Jun16 June 10:11

        New Zealand isn’t the UK though. It’s not as if you can fly to 10 different countries within 60 minutes flying time. I would imaging the % of residents who leave the country each year is small, even smaller if you exclude Australia.

    • Erico1875 says:
      16 Jun16 June 18:04

      When you live like Howard Hugh’s and then go into the big bad world you are bound to get everything going. NZ covid policy wasn’t sustainable IMO.

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

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