The new HFP chat thread – Monday 29th June

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• memesweeper says:

  29 Jun29 June 09:00

  @Rob – so now things are opening up what’s the news on the Head for Points summer party? S o c i a l l y D i s t a n c e d of course 🙂

  Or will it be another bleedin’ zoom?

• Gerry says:

  29 Jun29 June 09:10

  Yes I seen that, it is not clear, we have flights booked for 4th July, going to book refundable hotel.

  • Mark says:

    29 Jun29 June 09:42

    We don’t have anything booked currently but short notice bookings are unlikely to be a problem…

• Anna says:

  29 Jun29 June 09:41

  I was looking at flight prices for February half term 2021 (OH has got to use up some leave before April) and they are beginning to go through the roof. I’m glad we re-booked so much stuff as soon as it was cancelled as I suspect it’s going to be VERY expensive so go on holiday at peak period next year as travel companies look to recoup their losses. There were similar hikes in the wake of 9/11 and also a few years ago when the government stopped schools from authorising holidays in term time – in the latter case a lot of flight and holiday prices pretty much doubled overnight!

  • Harry T says:

    29 Jun29 June 10:34

    I think the trend will be lower prices for 2020 travel and then price rises for travel next year. I’ve booked all my flights for 2020 and 2021 already. I suspect the cheap Ryanair and EZY fares for this summer will go up a bit when air bridges are confirmed – this is why I booked them early when there was more uncertainty.

• stevenhp1987 says:

  29 Jun29 June 09:51

  Curve Card will charge all customers effectively, including Blue, for a physical card (including their first card): https://support.imaginecurve.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360010094038-Will-I-receive-a-physical-card-

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    29 Jun29 June 09:52

    Edit: Just Blue – New Blue members have to pay for a card.

    • Anna says:

      29 Jun29 June 10:09

      Hmm, pay for the card so you can then pay to use it? I’m thinking this isn’t going to earn Curve a lot of new business!

      • The Urbanite says:

        29 Jun29 June 10:24

        Virtual card will be free and the paid tiers will have no order fee for physical cards.

        “As of the 26th of June 2020, we’re charging:

        Curve Blue: £4.99 to order a physical card
        Curve Black/Metal: No fee to order a physical card”

        • stevenhp1987 says:

          29 Jun29 June 10:35

          it’s daft.

          People who they want to encourage won’t be willing to pay for the card, while people who MS won’t be bothered as it will mostly be done online.

          Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. They really should make the first card free, then charge for replacements.

        • Genghis says:

          29 Jun29 June 10:41

          Revolut charge £4.99 delivery fee don’t they? But then make offers available all the time – like when it’s promoted on HfP?

          Even then, for the average Joe to pay £5 to earn some return on spend abroad still works. It’s all about convincing them of that. But perhaps the masses still wouldn’t get it and would be better off with a Clarity card / Starling, which Lewis still promotes heavily doesn’t he?

        • Rob says:

          29 Jun29 June 10:46

          Revolut waive the fee via many partners, including HFP. Would be handy if Curve did the same.

        • Lady London says:

          29 Jun29 June 12:10

          so was Curve supposed to have given notice of such a change?

        • Genghis says:

          29 Jun29 June 13:53

          @LL Notice to who? No notice required for any new customers – as no contract yet in place – and existing customers will already have a card and are already covered by existing terms, where there’s a £5 charge for replacement cards anyway.

    • Nick_C says:

      29 Jun29 June 13:08

      @LL

      Notice not relevant to new customers. Did they previously charge for replacing lost/stolen cards?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    29 Jun29 June 11:05

    Back to how it was at the start then?

    I’m sure there will be periods where it will be waived.

  • @mkcol says:

    29 Jun29 June 14:00

    Why even bother with a physical card when you can just add it to your mobile wallet?

    • Nick_C says:

      29 Jun29 June 19:32

      To get cash from an ATM!

• Richie says:

  29 Jun29 June 09:59

  I wondered if anyone can help… and I might have imagined reading this on HFP, but is there a special tel no. for First class customer support or maybe it was just BA Gold Guest List passengers?

  I’m BA Gold and have used that tel no but not made much progress: I have a First class seat on a flight to US in July which got cancelled and I asked them to move it to a flight next year (in 8 months after this flight) when I can go, but they say they can only give me a refund or a voucher. I said I don’t want that as looking at their prices the flight is twice the price next year(!). Anyway, i hoped a First class customer support might be a bit more amenable…!

  • Rhys says:

    29 Jun29 June 10:01

    It’s called ‘You First’: https://www.britishairways.com/travel/webforms/public/en_gb?eId=120001&wfpId=youfirstform

  • Anna says:

    29 Jun29 June 10:05

    Yes, they are usually brilliant and generally adopt a “can do” approach to any requests as opposed to the “computer says no” response of the other call centres!

    • Richie says:

      29 Jun29 June 10:20

      Great! Thanks both!

  • Lady London says:

    29 Jun29 June 12:24

    if they cancel your flight you have a right to choose to make your journey at a later date that is convenient to you. Your choice not the airline’s. You do not have to pay any change fee nor price difference. You do n o t have to accept a voucher or a refund.

    These rights under statute EU261 which has been adopted into UK law. Dont take no for an answer. I

    If you paid by UK credit card, your credit card is jointly liable for any contractual (ticket conditions) and statutory (overriding legal rights that supersede airline conditions if airline tries to say something worse) rights you have connected with what you bought. So if BA fails to provide your rights you can ask your credit card to provide under Section 75.

    Practically speaking your card may be willing to do a chargeback but that only gets your money paid back – take it if that’s enough as if chargeback fails and you paid on credit card you can still fall back on Section 75. If you do want a replacement ticket and it would cost you more then use Section 75 in preference.

    • Anna says:

      29 Jun29 June 12:38

      It still probably easier to have a civilised chat with a You First rep than one which involves banging your head against the wall with a CSA who won’t or can’t deviate from “the BA script”. (I’m pretty sure we’ve both had the latter 🤣)

      • Lady London says:

        29 Jun29 June 13:05

        Yes. YouFirst should sort it. Above is the botto line if you get stuck but in First you hopefully wont have to do more than chat to YouFirst

        • Richie says:

          29 Jun29 June 22:43

          thanks, everyone. That’s exactly what i thought what should happen. I spoke to YouFirst… and the polite lady basically gave no help and said “refund or lose the flight” – wasn’t quite what i was expecting! So i referred to Regulation 261/2004, but it got no where. Maybe just an unhelpful YouFirst person who was doing what the computer told her too, but pretty disappointed. I’ll get them to change it eventually (will sue!), but it’s shocking how poorly they treat everyone, even their alleged “top paying / regular flyers / big spenders”! I’ll try once more tomorrow with YouFirst to see if i get a helpful person, otherwise will try different avenues.

  • Matthew says:

    29 Jun29 June 19:53

    As long the new date is within a year of the original ticket issue date then you can move it no problem. Otherwise refund or voucher.

• Isobel Brown says:

  29 Jun29 June 10:00

  Has anyone tried a Section 75 Claim against BA to expedite a refund? Been waiting 6 weeks for refund of taxes on a cancelled rewards flight (I know that others have been waiting longer but I am angry that they are taking so long)

  • Anna says:

    29 Jun29 June 10:07

    It does sound like something has gone wrong here – have you called BA to chase it up? It might just need another nudge from their end. Otherwise S 75/chargeback is definitely an option.

    • Isobel Brown says:

      29 Jun29 June 12:15

      Thanks. Have just tweeted them saying they have 48 hours to do the refund or I take the Section 75 route. We’ll see what happens

      • Simon says:

        29 Jun29 June 12:33

        I called BA on Saturday for a cancelled 100% avios flight. Avios back in account after 10mins and refund back in my ba amex today. Impressed. So something may have gone awry fror you.

      • Harry T says:

        29 Jun29 June 13:43

        Called BA today for a refund of cancelled Avios flights – got through in 27 mins, Avios already back in my account. Based on other recent refunds, refund to my credit card should land by the end of the week.

• Anna says:

  29 Jun29 June 10:02

  Weird date point. Someone else mentioned this for MIA recently but I assumed people were snapping up the inbound seats as soon as they were released. However, I’ve been tracking the release of CW award seats to GCM for several weeks as I need to book for next July when they appear, and it really does look like BA is releasing 6 seats on certain dates on the outbound but only 2 on the inbound.
  I always assumed that any award seats would apply to both legs of the journey, but I suppose that as long as the minimum of 2 are released BA is fulfilling its undertaking on avios availability.

  • Jane says:

    29 Jun29 June 10:10

    That was me looking at Miami. It’s going to be frustrating if we can get out but not back. Most of the other airports that I’ve been keeping an eye on (Atlanta, Orlando and Tampa) seem to be consistently releasing the same out and back but Miami definitely more out than back.

    • ChrisC says:

      29 Jun29 June 10:58

      MIA is a big cruise port with lots of people only needing to fly into MIA and doing the return from somewhere else.

      But yes the only thing BA guarantees re avios seats is 4 in economy and 2 in club on every flight.

      • Anna says:

        29 Jun29 June 11:02

        The point is they seem to be releasing more seats on outbound legs than on inbound, not that they are not releasing the promised amount of award seats. If lots of people are only flying into MIA, it makes even less sense to release more outbound award seats, as people are presumably willing to pay cash.

        • memesweeper says:

          29 Jun29 June 11:07

          There’s more demand for CW on the way back from West than on the way there, so that might be the logic behind this.

    • Anna says:

      29 Jun29 June 11:07

      Jane, I can’t remember what your holiday plans were but internal flights within the US are so cheap it’s worth considering a 2 centre holiday and return from, say, NYC or BOS with a few days in a city at the end. We do this quite regularly and it makes for a great holiday. Also if you move quick when the seats are released, you may be able to get (very short) day flights back from either of these. BOS is 5 1/2 hours to London which is awesome!

      • Jane says:

        29 Jun29 June 11:20

        Thanks Anna, yes, I think that will be the plan, I quite like the idea of a 5.5 hour day time flight, might even downgrade to PE for that one.

        • Jane says:

          29 Jun29 June 11:23

          just checked – no PE on that route ! not sure I fancy going as far as economy…

        • Anna says:

          29 Jun29 June 11:26

          Economy with extra leg room seats is as good as PE, if not better. I’m not sure how you’d check if those seats were still free but someone on here will know!

        • Rhys says:

          29 Jun29 June 11:54

          Not sure I agree there…PE normally has better recline and wider seats! (plus better food etc etc)

        • Anna says:

          29 Jun29 June 12:42

          I wouldn’t recline on principle on a day flight, it’s one of my pet hates and another reason for travelling in a premium cabin! There is so much space in front of you in the exit row seats it’s almost like having a private cubicle. Under 6 hours you’re only going to need one meal as well so it’s not like you’re missing that much.

        • Michael C says:

          29 Jun29 June 17:03

          Long flight back, but we did into Florida, out of N Orleans, fab trip!

      • Nick_C says:

        29 Jun29 June 13:13

        I love the daytime flights back from the East Coast. I find I have no jet lag afterwards. It costs more, cause you need a hotel for an extra night, but well worth it IMO. When I came back from NYC last year, I heard ground staff at LHR commenting how popular the day flights had become. I think there were only 6 empty seats on my flight (across all cabins).

        • Lady London says:

          29 Jun29 June 13:28

          I think I will follow your advice when I am next able to travel back to the UD @Nick_C. is it only JFK and BOS that gave the day flights?

        • Andrew says:

          29 Jun29 June 14:01

          If I’m flying into London from the East Coast, I’ll always try and get a daytime flight.

          I did YYT to LHR a few years back. It’s timed for 5 hours, but 4h20m isn’t unusual with favourable winds and clear run into Heathrow. From memory there was barely an hour between dinner and breakfast!

        • Nick_C says:

          29 Jun29 June 19:51

          @LL – AA also have a day flight from ORD, but it doesn’t get to LHR until 22:45

• Ben Coyle says:

  29 Jun29 June 10:13

  Driving over the border between Italy and Switzerland yesterday (Spluegen pass) and was pulled over by Swiss customs. Apparently as a swiss resident, I am not allowed to rent a car in Germany (where my wife lives) and drive into Switzerland due to import customs rules. (Doesn’t really make any sense to me). Anyway, therefore I have a Amex Platinum car hire insurance query – Do you know if it covers spouses? Ie. If I am the cardholder, but the rental agreement is taken out in my wife’s name? I would probably also be a named driver.

  • Ben says:

    29 Jun29 June 10:23

    Thanks Genghis, clears things up.

    • Ben says:

      29 Jun29 June 10:33

      Oh actually, one more query – Where you cannot refuse the basic insurance offered by the car hire company (ie. Europcar refuses to wave the CDW) – Am I covered for the 900 Eur excess by the platinum card? I always presumed so, but the wording in the insurance text is a little vague.

    • pauldb says:

      29 Jun29 June 10:35

      As well as putting yourself as an additional driver (which may cost), it would cover her if she is an supp cardholder. Even if she has a supp gold to your plat, not the single free plat supp.

  • Lady London says:

    29 Jun29 June 13:30

    Hum. If you were doing Splugen IIRC thats the more obscure route ( as compared to Gotthard) so it’s almost like they were doing an exercise to stop people? did you get a fine?

    • Ben says:

      30 Jun30 June 09:17

      Don’t think I received a fine, but will wait and see if anything arrives in the post. One of them took photos my passport and resident permit, but think that was a database check more than anything else. Agree it is likely because it was a very obscure route into Switzerland (though most direct for me driving from Varenna to Chur).

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