The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 18th 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/2020/06/18/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-thursday-18th-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

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

FloriGuy says:

18 Jun18 June 09:31

OT – I am looking at the Amex Gold Card. The bonus advertised is 20k If I get a referral link it is 22k bonus points.

If I “self refer” using my own link will Amex do anything bad to me? What’s the best way of maximising my bonus here?
- Anuj says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 09:37
  
  They’ve been cracking down and banning people in the us for it. I personally wouldn’t do it. Why don’t you just refer between family members ?
  - FloriGuy says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 09:39
    
    OK – thanks.
    
    The issue is that I am the only one in my family at the moment with such a card and I doubt if my wife applies that her card will come before 30 June.
    
    Do you still get the points bonus if you have a British Airways Premium Plus Card? Rob’s review says you do when you sign up to Platinum but is silent as to Gold.
    - Rob says:
      
      18 Jun18 June 09:41
      
      No. To get the Gold bonus you cannot have had ANY personal Amex cards for 2 years.
      
      Plat is more lenient because, well, you’re paying them £575 ….
      - FloriGuy says:
        
        18 Jun18 June 09:57
        
        Perfect Rob!
        
        On that basis, I am trying to work out when my wife cancelled her membership. Does anyone know an easy way of finding out?
        
        Thanks
      - Rob says:
        
        18 Jun18 June 10:01
        
        You need to ring Amex. No other way if you want the exact date. You lose your bonus if you reapply even 1 day inside the 24 months cut-off.
      - FloriGuy says:
        
        18 Jun18 June 10:06
        
        Thanks. I think I have found a solution the Business Gold Amex does not seem to have as onerous conditons. Just say you cannot have held a Membership Rewards card in the past 6 months. So my BAPP would not affect me on that presumably?
      - Rob says:
        
        18 Jun18 June 11:51
        
        Correct. It’s an odd system because the business cards look at BOTH personal and business MR cards but only require a 6 month gap. The personal cards only look at personal MR cards but require a 24 month gap. All very weird.
      - Michael C says:
        
        18 Jun18 June 10:34
        
        ..although if you’ve only been a supp. holder, that’s ok, right?
  - Definitas says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 09:43
    
    Or get Rob to refer you 🙂
Travel Strong says:

18 Jun18 June 09:52

I have met my amex gold £15k spend target and exceeded by £42, the spend year ends in 12 days.
During July there is a chance I will receive up to £500 in credits (travel bookings that may get cancelled).

Will amex block or claw back the 10000MR payout if this happens? I have read that BAPP vouchers are ‘safe’ in this situation, but never noticed anything about the Amex gold spend bonus.

I can spend another £500 if I need to.
But I would rather not if I do not need to.
(Would rather put that spend on a a card which earns more points per £ than amex gold!).
- Lee says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 10:00
  
  If the spend year ends in 12 days, you may receive bonus points in Aug with your refund in July there is risk.
- Rob says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 10:04
  
  You’re fine (in my view) because the £500 will come off your 2020/21 target meaning you need to spend £10,500 next year. I can’t be certain though – you’d need someone who’d actually been in this situation.
  - Colin says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 13:56
    
    Yes Rob – Correct. I was in same situation and 20/21 target was increased by the relevant amount.
  - Travel Strong says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 16:53
    
    Excellent. That makes sense. Thank you all – I will just keep an eagle eye on the transactions for 12 more days then!
Richard says:

18 Jun18 June 09:56

Hi, just got the email below from Aegean Airlines re cancelled flights. Does anyone know if this is true? And presumably I can do a charge back (flights were paid for on Curve)?

“Faced with this unprecedented turn of events, the Greek state, as well as other EU countries, recently published a law (Government Gazette, A’ 84/13.04.2020) that allows businesses in the travel industry to issue a voucher instead of extending an immediate refund.”
- Anna says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 12:16
  
  I have a feeling the EU (and UK) initially refused to budge on EU261, but individual countries are just going their own merry way (as usual)! The official EU position might have changed since then, though.
- Ken says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 12:45
  
  It is true.
  
  And in Greece supposed to be full refund if you don’t use the voucher within 18 months.
  - Richard says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 18:30
    
    Thanks, does the fact that I bought the tickets here come into play? Not sure if law of where you are vs the law of where you’re buying from applies.
    - Ken says:
      
      18 Jun18 June 20:22
      
      Not 100% sure but EU issued guidance in May saying that it was an acceptable divergence from EU261 (although I think they mentioned 12 month limit on vouchers).
      
      Chargeback attempt is probably best initial route but they may just respond that you have been given a voucher.
lostforwords says:

18 Jun18 June 10:12

I’m slightly surprised that Head for Points haven’t yet thought it necessary to write a comprehensive article about the failure of corporate giants to refund customers for cancelled flights. I wonder if this is to do with advertising revenue? This site was previously a big promoter of Swiss air flights and hope that is not the reason for a lack of scrutiny!
- Peter K says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 10:17
  
  I’m surprised you’ve not been reading the blog enough to see how much this is brought up all the time. Not maybe a main article for all the companies but it’s there.
  - Paul74 says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 20:30
    
    +1
  - BJ says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 21:49
    
    Even main articles, including this one which must be a leading contender for best travel article of the year: https://headforpoints.com/2020/03/19/how-to-trigger-an-online-avios-flight-refund-using-google-chrome/
rams1981 says:

18 Jun18 June 10:43

Anyone ever had delays with payments to Creation posting to the account? I mad a payment on Monday and still not showing.
- Sandra says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 10:50
  
  In my experience Creation doesn’t post quickly i.e same day, mine normally shows 24/48 hours later but credit date backdated to date it was made
- stevenhp1987 says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 10:51
  
  I was going to post something similar. Usually posts the next day but my payment Tuesday morning hasn’t yet credited.
- Allan says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 10:54
  
  Same, made payment on Tuesday and nothing showing up as yet.
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 19:05
    
    Same here, payment Tues still not credited!
- Gormlesstraveller says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 11:06
  
  Faster Payment sent from your bank account, or as a card payment?
- New Card says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 11:53
  
  Seems to be an issue this week.
  - Genghis says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 11:59
    
    Did you not know that Mike from Ops is off this week? 🙂
    - Peter K says:
      
      18 Jun18 June 12:35
      
      😁
    - Charlieface says:
      
      18 Jun18 June 14:21
      
      Do you mean the guy who does the weekly spreadsheet uploads that no-one else knows how to do?
      -:)
- Anna says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 12:11
  
  Yes, even slower than normal this week!
meta says:

18 Jun18 June 10:49

Maybe someone will know this. If I book a car hire for September in Iceland will Amex Plat insurance cover me? I am not entirely sure because FCO advice might not change by then.
- Ali M says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 14:17
  
  unlikely that the travel insurance will cover it.
  If its the car collision damage waiver – of course that should be covered if part of the original deal
  - meta says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 15:03
    
    I am not concerned so much about cancellation as it is refundable up to 24 hours before and after that the charge is only 50 euros. I am more concerned about whether I can refuse excess coverage and damage cover because normally Amex Plat would cover me. The worry is that Plat insurance will not cover it because the advice is still in place.
Jonathan says:

18 Jun18 June 10:55

https://finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/level-europe-part-iag-intends-092530402.html

Level Europe filing for insolvency.
- Yawn says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 10:59
  
  Interesting. I remember them taking over some non-Spain Vueling routes. (Rome-Amsterdam springs to mind.) Wonder what will happen to those.
- Rhys says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 11:05
  
  Thanks!
Yawn says:

18 Jun18 June 10:58

Just booked a flight back to the UK (from Germany where I’m temporarily based) for Saturday 25 July. I felt I needed to plan something. Anyone any views as to whether the entry quarantine rules will have been lifted by then?
- Rhys says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 11:03
  
  We can only hope! There’s been talk of air bridges in the media so I imagine that will be implemented at some stage but not clear when/where.
- Rob says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 11:46
  
  Should be.
  
  And not a single person has yet been fined for breaking quarantine rules so I wouldn’t worry about it!
  - Yawn says:
    
    18 Jun18 June 14:36
    
    Thanks both. Fingers crossed. Would be interesting to see if they fine anyone in the end.
    - Anna says:
      
      18 Jun18 June 15:10
      
      Even if fines are issued in the first instance, there are so many grounds for legal challenge it makes it a pretty pointless exercise.
- @mkcol says:
  
  18 Jun18 June 20:45
  
  Data point: air crew are exempt & there’s a section in the online form to declare as such. There has been no subsequent check made of this self declaration since arrival to UK.
  
  It’s almost as though they’ve said they’re implementing a scheme & not actually policing it…