The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 24th June

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• Aston100 says:

  24 Jun24 June 13:27

  The updated IHG travel policy: https://www.ihg.com/content/gb/en/customer-care/travel-advisory
  I contacted IHG by webchat to ask for a refund for a late July booking at a Paris hotel under the updated policy.
  I was told I can only have a voucher due to ‘local laws’.
  I note the hotel (Holiday Inn CDG) appears to be closed (or possibly sold out?) and they haven’t been replying to emails these past few days.
  The booking was an advance rate, so paid up front in full.

  Does anyone have a view on whether I can push for a refund, or if there would be any grounds for a chargeback? Admittedly this is a voluntary cancellation on my part, but as I say the hotel looks to be closed in late July I think.

  Booked with a Halifax Clarity (foreign currency etc), and am unsure how good Halifax are in these situations.

  Thanks.

  • r* says:

    24 Jun24 June 13:57

    IHG have behaved like a disgrace. Milan malpensa holiday inn was closed on the day I had a booking, the hotel wont give a refund only a voucher, IHG support have just used the local laws shield to avoid getting involved, even tho italian law appears to allow for a refund to be requested. Issued a chargeback (IHG credit card :/) 2 months ago, heard nothing since, emailed them to ask about the status of the case and the automated response says itll take 8 weeks to respond to the email.

    What I cant understand is how can EU law not require a refund to be provided if the hotel was closed?

  • Anna says:

    24 Jun24 June 14:06

    Was it you who asked this the other day? I think the general consensus was that the French government has agreed that hotels etc can offer vouchers instead of cash refunds, however if the hotel is actually closed on your travel date, then it hasn’t supplied the service you paid for and you can use chargeback/S75 to get your money back.

    • ken says:

      24 Jun24 June 16:21

      Its not just France. The EU issued a recommendation in mid May that vouchers be issued with certain conditions (such as vouchers should be refundable for cash after 12 months).
      It gives carte blanche to national governments to allow the issuance of vouchers.

      It doesn’t however trump you doing a charge back.

      • meta says:

        24 Jun24 June 17:26

        There was no such recommendation. EU just said they can offer vouchers alongside refunds and if they want customers to take vouchers they should provide incentives.

  • Aston100 says:

    24 Jun24 June 17:10

    Spoke to Halifax.
    They’ve said they won’t get involved unless the hotel cancel and refuse to refund.
    If I request a cancellation under the (updated) IHG policy, then I am bound by those t&cs including a voucher if one is offered.
    So I will probably now wait until a few days before the date of my check in, and if still no cancellation I’ll have to accept a voucher.

    • Lady London says:

      24 Jun24 June 23:39

      Prove the hotel is not open on your date and follow @Anna’s advice.

      Another poster reported getting exactly that rubbish from that exact same hotel about two weeks ago. The hotel was most definitely closed for any the date of his reseevation and yet they were trying to palm him off with a voucher.

      We gave him the same advice.

• Also says:

  24 Jun24 June 14:08

  KLM just cancelled a flight I have in August LCY-AMS.
  Seems they have changed their tune in regard to refunds and you can now apply for one online (instead of just a voucher) rather than having to call up.

  No timeframe though on how long it will take…

  • Rhys says:

    24 Jun24 June 14:19

    KLM have just announced they are resuming flights to LCY – although only once daily!

• Ikaz says:

  24 Jun24 June 14:17

  I tried Manchester Airport booked security today after reading the article here. They couldn’t care less about my booking and I was simply sent to the normal line. A bit of a ghost town at the airport right now so security wasn’t too bad.

• Rossy says:

  24 Jun24 June 14:46

  https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/24/samsung-pay-card-powered-by-curve/
  Interesting partnership and some pretty good brand exposure for curve. Not really sure what benefits this brings through other than publicity.

  • Sundar says:

    24 Jun24 June 17:17

    Yeah, what does it do for Samsung, other than try and push up against Google and Apple. I would still think it is vendors accepting multiple paying mechanisms that determine Samsung Pay being used ?

• Dezbez says:

  24 Jun24 June 15:30

  Interestingly, just rec’d an email from Amex with higher than normal bonus offers on the BA cards – 10k on the std and 30k on BAPP

  • Anna says:

    24 Jun24 June 16:04

    I don’t suppose they waived the 24 month rule as well?

    • Dezbez says:

      24 Jun24 June 16:31

      No, unfortunately not – that would have been nice. Also, the application is via a specific link so would be unable to use it with a referral. Interestingly (& contrary to my original post) this is a BA offer rather than an Amex one

• MKB says:

  24 Jun24 June 16:14

  Just had this from Eurostar:

  “We’re really sorry to tell you that we’ll no longer be running our direct summer trains to Lyon and the South of France for the rest of 2020 and 2021.”

  This was a surprise as they had reinstated the ability to book journeys from 24 July, but now pulled, not just for this year, but also next.

  • meta says:

    24 Jun24 June 17:30

    Oh wow! Thanks. I better cancel my points booking for Intercontinental next May. BA flight times don’t work for me on the outbound!

  • memesweeper says:

    24 Jun24 June 18:42

    That’s sad. One of my best redemptions was Eurostar to Marseille 🙁

    • Sloth says:

      24 Jun24 June 19:13

      Ditto…and I was hoping to do it again next year as well 🙁

      • meta says:

        24 Jun24 June 21:27

        Maybe they’ll rethink if things pick up. I am keeping my hotel booking for now.

• Geoff says:

  24 Jun24 June 16:34

  Does anyone know when you will be able to book Mr & Mrs Smith hotels with IHG reward points? The website says coming soon!!

  • Rob says:

    24 Jun24 June 17:15

    It’s said that since Christmas!

    Don’t get your hopes up. IHG is paying full cash rates for those hotels so expect a pitiful deal based around 0.33p per point.

    The whole thing is odd, because you have an independent marketing agency (Mr & Mrs Smith) listing rooms on a hotel chains website – I’ve no idea what the hotels themselves think of this!

  • Lee says:

    24 Jun24 June 17:36

    Even six senses haven’t been merged in for almost 2 years now

• Andrew says:

  24 Jun24 June 16:40

  60% Extra Free on Marriott Points purchases email offer has just arrived.

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