The new HFP chat thread – Saturday 27th June

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• Simon says:

  27 Jun27 June 10:21

  Good day – I wonder if someone can advise me. I have a holiday booked for early October and 3 weeks in Maui/Oahu. Flights are BA LHR-SJC. Flights to Hawaii not booked yet. Hawaii currently has 14 day quarantine regulations, and if you are quarantining you can’t rent a car. Alternatively there is an FDA approved self-test (no idea how to get one here!). My question is, how far out are BA cancelling flights? I am inside 100 days for the accommodation and if I cancel it too much later I face fees etc on that. Thanks in advance!

  • marcw says:

    27 Jun27 June 11:28

    Unless you have US passpoer or green Card, I would only book totally flexible accommodation in the US. Don´t bother with the domestic to Hawai and rental car, because there´s no indication of Trump easing travel to the US. I think BA is cancellig sevicew 5-8 weeks in advance.

    • Simon says:

      27 Jun27 June 11:44

      Thanks marcw

  • The Lord says:

    27 Jun27 June 11:44

    In exactly the same boat but doing SFO. Don’t think we are going to know the state of play for a while.

  • Louise K says:

    27 Jun27 June 15:59

    I think Hawaii are bringing in some new regulations from 1st August –

    1. ****Valid NEGATIVE test 3 days before arrival equals No quarantine. Test results must be in hand.

    2. No Valid test equals 14 days quarantine.

    3. Temperature screens and if a 100.4 or more, they will be separated and given time in an air conditioned room before a second temp scan. They will also be offered a CV-19 test.

    • Anna says:

      27 Jun27 June 18:29

      Won’t that just be for domestic travellers though?

  • Simon says:

    29 Jun29 June 11:24

    Interesting point – wife is US citizen and as spouse I am allowed to travel to US with her. However there are 15 nominated airports I can fly to, and SJC is not one of them. What now? apart from watch this space. Real 1st world problems!

• Charlotte says:

  27 Jun27 June 11:14

  Anyone been able to get through to BA to spend Future travel vouchers at the weekend? Automated service ultimately saying ‘we are unable to take your call’…

• onlysuites says:

  27 Jun27 June 11:18

  If I can see LHR-MIA for the date I want but the return hasn’t opened up yet can I book LHR-MIA one way online using my BOGO voucher and add NYC or ATL-LHR later if the MIA one doesn’t up on my dates. Is this addition subject to change fees?

  • pauldb says:

    27 Jun27 June 12:10

    Yes this normal policy – you can later add the inbound from MIA/ATL/NYC with no fee. But you have to call to do it – a little trickier ATM.

    • onlysuites says:

      27 Jun27 June 14:57

      But there will be a difference in taxes right? Aren’t the taxes on two one ways more than a return? Or do they base the taxes as a return in this case?

      • Genghis says:

        27 Jun27 June 15:01

        If you book the return leg on the phone, you’ll be sold a return with both legs on one PNR (this is what you want for trips to the US).

        If you book the return leg online, then call up in the morning, you’ll end up with the avios refunded but not the taxes. You’ll have each leg on a separate PNR (not good for US, but good for say HKG).

        • onlysuites says:

          27 Jun27 June 15:46

          Perfect! Thanks

• Jason says:

  27 Jun27 June 11:48

  Data point…£1 saver reward ticket cancelled on the phone today with no £35 charge.

  • Harry T says:

    27 Jun27 June 12:11

    Just to be clear, you paid £1 of taxes when you booked it and you weren’t charged a cancellation fee?

    • Jason says:

      28 Jun28 June 09:55

      Yes and I checked with the agent and he confirmed it was still a “thing”

  • Rob says:

    27 Jun27 June 13:26

    Interesting ….

• JohnT says:

  27 Jun27 June 11:49

  BA Refunds – just for info Flight cancelled 21st May, avios and 241 back in account same day, seat charges refunded next day. Taxes and charges arrived yesterday (26/6) to Amex card. So not too bad!

• Graham says:

  27 Jun27 June 12:10

  Is the BA flight voucher transferable to other family members ? ie if I cancel my daughters flight, take the voucher does it have to be used by her ?

  • Vit says:

    27 Jun27 June 12:18

    Graham, I don’t think so. Below is what I’ve read from the T&C here (https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/latest-information#faq)

    Note that I cancelled the flight myself and had to opt for voucher as my flight was not cancelled. Maybe BA has different T&C for those that opted for voucher rather than cash refund for their cancelled flights.

    Does the booking have to be made in your name?

    The voucher allows you to make a future booking in the name of the person on the original ticket. If you had multiple bookings each person will receive their own voucher to use. The voucher is non-transferable.

    For flight + hotel and flight + car packages, one voucher per booking will be issued. The vouchers are non-transferable but we recognise that some of the original customers may no longer be able to travel – so we ask that the new booking contains at least one of the travellers from the original booking.

    • Graham says:

      27 Jun27 June 12:21

      Thanks answers what I suspected that the voucher will have to be used by the named traveller. Will wait for BA to cancel flight and get cash refund

  • Dezbez says:

    27 Jun27 June 12:37

    Graham, I haven’t actually requested (& then tried to use) one yet so can’t say for definite but based on the conversations I’ve had with BA they are quite restrictive. You have to use them ‘like for like’ essentially, so if three people are on the first booking, the voucher is effectively three separate ones, one for each person usable only by them. Further, you can only use them on the same type of booking ie you can’t use a voucher from an original cash booking to then pay the taxes on a rewards booking. None of this is highlighted by BA, it was only through me questioning how they worked that this info was given.

  • John W says:

    27 Jun27 June 12:57

    The future travel vouchers are very restrictive – I had one for a cash booking – I wanted to make an avios booking & cash this week . Even though I had the voucher I was not allowed to use it for the cash element of the avios booking –
    I am only allowed to use the voucher for a full commercial booking ( cash flight only)
    I have escalated to a manager and asked again on twitter

    • John W says:

      27 Jun27 June 12:58

      the same answer I got was Not possible !

• BJ says:

  27 Jun27 June 12:34

  Good news @Lee, @Waddle et al … the missing amex referral bonuses appear to have started posting.

  • Lee says:

    27 Jun27 June 12:39

    Thanks BJ. Just checked all 3 referrals applied between 3 weeks and 5 days across are all appeared today. It must be a glitch.

  • Sukes says:

    27 Jun27 June 14:40

    Good spot BJ thks for highlighting. Just checked and pts now posted.

  • AndyGWP says:

    27 Jun27 June 15:33

    Yeah, mine’s there now too… thanks for the heads up!

    • AndyGWP says:

      27 Jun27 June 15:35

      Was waiting on these to post before I cancelled (BAPP)

      My points balance swept over to BAEC a few days ago – can I cancel now and the points will still sweep over towards end of July, or is that too risky?

      • Harry T says:

        27 Jun27 June 16:37

        @Andy
        I wouldn’t risk it. There’s no guarantee the points would go across, and you have no recourse if they didn’t. If the value of the points outweighs the cost of a month’s card fees, then I would wait until they are transferred to BAEC.

  • Harry T says:

    27 Jun27 June 16:36

    Yes, I got one today!

  • BJ says:

    27 Jun27 June 19:05

    Good to see everybody seems to have got them 🙂

• Gormlesstraveller says:

  27 Jun27 June 12:53

  BA Cash Executive Club Cash Passport prepaid card used Wirecard. According to Paul Lewis. There must be a fair few readers here with that card.

  • Rob says:

    27 Jun27 June 13:23

    It’s a rubbish product – see our reviews – so I’d hope not!

    • Gormlesstraveller says:

      27 Jun27 June 14:10

      Fair enough! It probably beats the Asda credit card for impressing a date though.

      • Genghis says:

        27 Jun27 June 14:20

        I used to use it for MS. It was v profitable! Then stopped using it when they introduced the GBP top up fee (I think that was the reason anyway, a good couple of years ago now).

        • New Card says:

          27 Jun27 June 15:22

          The fun there was the app didn’t charge a GBP top up fee 🙂 then they fixed it, sadly.

        • Genghis says:

          27 Jun27 June 15:29

          Yes – thanks for reminding me! 🙂 the hobby has certainly changed over the years.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    27 Jun27 June 16:18

    3% fees makes it a no go and costs to withdraw at atm in UK.

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