The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 23rd June

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

• CaptainAnonymous says:

  23 Jun23 June 15:59

  I had a TAP Flight booked with Amex Travel. The flight was cancelled and I requested a full refund 2 weeks ago. Predictably nothing has been reimbursed – reading Flyertalk it’s very clear that they are only refunding US nationals to comply with DOT rules.

  Amex are now saying it could take 12 weeks, but I’m not prepared to wait that long, given I already know the outcome.

  Should I proceed with a chargeback against Amex Travel? I don’t like my prospects to be filing a claim against Amex.

  • Anna says:

    23 Jun23 June 16:13

    Is it a flight to or from the US? I lodged a complaint with the DOT about not getting a refund for my MIA-GCM flights on Cayman Airways recently. It was really easy to do and I had my refund within 4 weeks.

    • ChrisC says:

      23 Jun23 June 22:34

      It took the US DoT 5 weeks to respond to my complaint about my AA refund and then that was to say they had just sent it to AA who had 30 days to give an initial response and 60 for a final one.

      It too a couple of days longer than that for AA to respond to my complaint about the breaching their own 7 day notice on their website I sent witin seconds of the DoT complaint.

      Unless you had an email from the DoT saying they had forwarded your complaint then all it means is that the airline got to your refund first.

  • meta says:

    23 Jun23 June 16:39

    I had a flight with TAP booked via Expedia which was cancelled and they offered a full refund, but it will take 8 weeks to process the refund. I think this is the norm at the moment. I will wait for 8 weeks and decide what to do after this has passed.

• Roy says:

  23 Jun23 June 16:19

  Hotels to reopen from 4 July

  “From 4th July, provided that no more than two households stay together, people will be free to stay overnight in self-contained accommodation, including hotels and bed & breakfasts, as well as campsites as long as shared facilities are kept clean.”

  https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-statement-to-the-house-on-covid-19-23-june-2020

  • Oli says:

    23 Jun23 June 17:06

    Well, they are allowed to reopen. It will be interesting to see how many of them actually decide to reopen.

    • Spaghetti Town says:

      23 Jun23 June 17:17

      I’d assume all self-catering, campsites and that sort of stuff will fully re-open with a phased re-opening of hotels?

      • Roy says:

        23 Jun23 June 17:29

        It’s worth noting that the COVID Secure guidance for these sectors hasn’t been published yet (although supposedly it will be published today).

        Until that happens, no one – including the businesses concerned – knows precisely what is expected of them for them to be able to reopen.

  • Jeff 99 says:

    23 Jun23 June 17:38

    “No more than two households”

    What a load of nonsense. Which hotel is going to bother checking if a group is only from two households?

    Also, not releasing the “Covid secure” guidelines for hotels which need to open in 10/11 days sums up the clowns in charge.

    It was also nice of them to only give a few days notice to pubs that the guidance was going to change to 1 metre. It could be argued that it was obvious this was going to happen, but businesses can only plan based on certainty and not what might seem obvious.

    • pauldb says:

      23 Jun23 June 19:32

      Can you think of any problem with telling people 1m is safe in four weeks time?

      • Jeff 99 says:

        23 Jun23 June 20:38

        “ Can you think of any problem with telling people 1m is safe in four weeks time?”

        No. If 1m is safe in 4 weeks then it’s safe now and it doesn’t really matter if people stop following the 2m guidance.

        • Roy says:

          23 Jun23 June 21:50

          The general rule is still 2m. 1m only applies in certain circumstances, where the risks have been mitigated.

          Also, 4 July is just eleven days away – not four weeks.

        • pauldb says:

          23 Jun23 June 21:58

          Thank you – you’ve proved my point. 1m is only sensible since incidence of the virus has quartered in the last 4 weeks, and because there is a positive benefit of changing the rules: to get the leisure sector working again.

          If they’d given everyone people 4 weeks notice of the change some – apparently you – would decide 1m must be immediately safe in all circumstances.

        • BJ says:

          23 Jun23 June 22:36

          There is a very fine line between incidence quartering every four weeks and doubling every three days.

        • Roy says:

          23 Jun23 June 23:00

          @BJ: that’s why we are repeatedly told, every time the rules are relaxed, that those relaxations are contingent on the number of cases continuing to fall, and will be reversed if necessary.

        • pauldb says:

          23 Jun23 June 23:19

          @BJ: we didn’t have doubling time less than a week even back in March, so I’d say it’s a much thicker line than that.

        • BJ says:

          24 Jun24 June 05:23

          @pauldb…because we were in lockdown. It is clear that the speed and extent to which lockdown is being eased is risky but the government is clearly taking the chance, hoping that it can count of tge majority of the population to continue to take the threat seriously and act accordingly with the restrictiohs. As Roy said, they can go tbe other way too. And even thougb the incidence is now lower, there remains quite a lot of people in hospital and others continuing to be taken into hospital. 30-40% of those will die which should be all the reason most of us need to act sensibly.

        • pauldb says:

          24 Jun24 June 06:34

          I agree with your cautious sentiments but get the scale right. Doubling in a week was the fastest it reached pre-lockdown.
          Yes we might unlock too fast, but it won’t suddenly spiral away: your implication is it could multiply by 8 in two weeks before we react. In reality it seems more likely it rises 50-100% in a worst case scenario before we stamp down on it again.

        • BJ says:

          24 Jun24 June 10:44

          I never at any time said it did double in three days.

        • Cat says:

          24 Jun24 June 18:49

          For the record (and for anyone still reading this), in Italy between Feb 20th and March 3rd, the cases were more than doubling every 3 days. They were taken by surprise a bit more than we were. Without mitigation, doubling every 3 days is completely possible.

    • Roy says:

      23 Jun23 June 20:32

      It’s no different from the general rules on indoor gatherings from 4 July – i.e. no ore than 2 households can meet indoors at any one time.

      I presume that, like most of the other lockdown rules to date, they’ll largely rely on the majority voluntarily choosing to comply

    • Lady London says:

      23 Jun23 June 21:41

      Given the trouble women in supermarkets and men everywhere seem to have even knowing that 2 metres is not your elbow in my ear, I shudder to think how close some people are going to come if the distance changes to 1 metre. Do some people think the distancing of 2 metres is the maximum.not the minimum distance to keep between people?

      • Blindman says:

        23 Jun23 June 22:14

        Well that’s the joy of living in London.

        Thank God I don’t

        Anyone potted the similarities of this

        https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Great-Plague/

        • Blindman says:

          23 Jun23 June 22:14

          spotted.

        • Lady London says:

          24 Jun24 June 00:52

          thanks. we could do with a reminder.

          Google “Bill Gates” and “Shattuck” if you want to scare yourself more.

• sloth says:

  23 Jun23 June 16:36

  hi, Hilton Honors barclaycard…is anyone aware if there is a minimum spend to receive points? like a lot, my spending has decreased dramatically so last few months this card has been under £100/month and I received no points. just wondering if this is expected or there is another issue with my account (looking to put much more spending through it shortly and don’t want to find an issue later on)…barclaycard on phone is a ridiculous wait so hoping someone here may know. thanks

  • J says:

    23 Jun23 June 16:40

    If there is it’s new as I used to often spend <£100 on this card and received points no problem.

  • The Urbanite says:

    23 Jun23 June 21:39

    Are any points shown on your statement?

    • Sloth says:

      23 Jun23 June 22:58

      No

      • Sloth says:

        23 Jun23 June 22:59

        Ill try and find a few hours tomorrow to sit on hold to them and see what they say

• Aston100 says:

  23 Jun23 June 18:03

  I’m thinking if anyone was planning a staycation, they’d better start using their IHG points before the points requirement shoots up dynamically.
  Might be imagining it, but I feel a couple of the Crowne Plazas ‘up norf’ have gone up from the recent low of 12500 / 15000 back to the usual 20000+

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    23 Jun23 June 18:47

    Anyone had problems redeeming ba avios points today on e-rewards?

• Matthew says:

  23 Jun23 June 19:35

  Just had my BA First flight to HND in Aug cancelled. I wanted to change to Jan 2021 (within the year of ticket validity) but BA aren’t flying a First cabin to HND during winter schedule. Asked to be put on JAL instead but agent refused. Said can only go JAL if rescheduling -3/+14 days of original flight.

  I’ve heard some have success switching to JAL outside of these limits? Anyone suggest if I should insist or just accept not possible and get a refund. Thanks 👍

  • meta says:

    23 Jun23 June 21:15

    Somebody commented the other day that they were put on JAL by quoting EU regulations. The flight was in May next year. I think it is a case of trying another agent or speaking to supervisor. Did you call You First?

    • Matthew says:

      23 Jun23 June 22:12

      Yeah tried You First. Will try again tomorrow with the regs at hand!

      • Lady London says:

        24 Jun24 June 08:40

        they cannot impose this rule. It may be BA’s preferred policy but EU261 supersedes the airline policy. EU261 is quite clear you are entitled to be rerouted in same class of travel even on another airline on your route if thats who’s got a flight close enough to your original timing in the class you booked. IIRC the regulator had to remind BA of this during some kind of meltdown within the past year or so.

        • Rhys says:

          24 Jun24 June 08:44

          This is correct – I would try getting a written statement from BA, and if they still refuse proceed with next steps (CDR/MCOL)

        • pauldb says:

          24 Jun24 June 10:33

          The poster wants to shift from August to January. Yes they’d have to put him on JL if that’s the only choice in August. But the requirement to rebook him on to a date of his convenience, when BA doesn’t offer seats, has had far less clarification by the authorities AFAIK.

      • Matthew says:

        24 Jun24 June 10:12

        Ok thanks for the info. I will hopefully have better luck today. Will keep you posted 👍. This is the third cancelled flight I’ve had whereby BA (twice) and Finnair have refused to follow the regs. It’s left me in a tricky position for sure….

    • Matthew says:

      24 Jun24 June 22:03

      So they offered me JAL first on any date within 14 days but not any other time. I was offered a downgrade to club (Avios availability not required – which was handy as there was none!) for the date in Jan I wanted and they gave me a refund in avios too. Not the best result but this is my 3rd cancellation with no luck when pressing EU261 rights so I’m just happy to have a seat on the flight time/date I want albeit in club. First world problems clearly so I mustn’t grumble! Thanks everyone for their help.

• Mark says:

  23 Jun23 June 20:14

  Has anyone else spent £500 on the free IHG card within 3 months (applied for under the 20,000 bonus offer) and only received the 10,000 sign-up bonus?

  Does the other 10,000 come separately and, if so, how long do you have to wait?

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    23 Jun23 June 20:19

    Yes, the last 10,000 points get sent direct to your IHG account rather than show in your Creation account.

  • Vit says:

    23 Jun23 June 20:48

    Been waiting for mine since mid April but got confirmation email after chasing Creation that it will be credited to the IHG account within 90 days. So I guess another 30 days of waiting…

  • Crafty says:

    23 Jun23 June 22:48

    Still waiting. Chased IHG and they disclaimed any responsibility and said to contact the credit card provider.

• MarianC says:

  23 Jun23 June 22:15

  Hi all.
  Is there a time limit when I can ask for a refund if my flights was cancelled and the scheduled date has past?
  I had a return ticket in May with Wizz Air, i thought my partner called for the refund, actually she didn’t.
  Is it too late now? I am going to call tomorrow, but I couldn’t find much information online.

  • Pid says:

    24 Jun24 June 07:55

    I do not think so. They are just not going to remind you, hoping that you forget so they can keep the money!

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