The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 30th June

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

• JUH says:

  30 Jun30 June 09:22

  Good morning, I need some advice. Had a connecting flight cancelled and wondered if I can cancel the entire ticket for a full cash refund? I am booked with Swiss from LHR to BKK via ZRH. They cancelled the ZRH to LHR leg in the return part. (Alternatives require an overnight stay so not keen anymore). Many thanks.

  • Stu N says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:34

    Yes – if one leg is cancelled you have the right to cancel the entire trip for a full refund, as long as it’s a single ticket.

  • R says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:41

    Yes as long as you bought it as one ticket, any leg being cancelled means you are entitled to *your* of a full refund or comparable rerouting

• Ian says:

  30 Jun30 June 09:25

  If a RFS booking for LGW flight moves to LHR can this be used to trigger a fee free refund (ie without the £35 charge or whatever it is)?

  • memesweeper says:

    30 Jun30 June 12:58

    If the flight number has changed, and it very likely will have, then yes, a full refund no fees.

• Andrew says:

  30 Jun30 June 09:25

  Are Amex referral bonuses posting promptly again or are there still delays?

  • Craig says:

    30 Jun30 June 09:28

    My last one took 15 days. 12 June -27 June.

  • Louie says:

    30 Jun30 June 13:41

    Referral on Friday, points posted yesterday so back to normal for me.

  • eligold says:

    30 Jun30 June 17:34

    made 2 referrals Sunday night, points for 1 of them already posted like in the good days

• xcalx says:

  30 Jun30 June 09:59

  Anyone have any experience re checked luggage with a cancelled BA Club Europe flight and choosing Easyjet for the reroute. Thanks

  • Anna says:

    30 Jun30 June 13:12

    It would be really great to have a definitive answer to this but I would be surprised if this has ever happened yet! EU261 does state that the replacement transport has to be “under comparable conditions”, so you could argue that this means including checked baggage but I suspect it might have to be decided via arbitration or legal action. Same with F & B on board, lounge access etc.
    Is a re-route with Easyjet worth more than getting a refund for your CE flights and re-booking yourself? Obviously there’s a lot that you just can’t get on Easyjet compared with CE, but on the other hand, if cash flights are really expensive on your travel dates, you may think it’s a worthwhile trade.

• Jonathan says:

  30 Jun30 June 10:01

  Has anyone been successful topping up Revolut via the VA Premium card lately? It worked earlier on in the month but now for the past week or so all i get is a decline and Virgin calling me about suspicious activity despite being told these transactions are fine they still keep calling every time i try and use it?

  • MD says:

    30 Jun30 June 10:14

    Don’t they hit you with a cash advance fee and interest?

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      30 Jun30 June 10:16

      Yes, MCC 4829 for Mastercard topups and 6012 for Visa.

      Virgin will cash advance the 4829 (Wire Transfer).

      • Jonathan says:

        30 Jun30 June 12:26

        I haven’t been hit with any charges or interest thus far even with the MCC at 4829. I can see the recent (failed) attempts have the MCC 8999 which is why i think they are being treated as suspicious by Virgin Money.

        Net result is it doesn’t work and Virgin Money blame Revolut and Revolut blame Virgin Money so wondered if anyone else was having better luck?

        • The Urbanite says:

          30 Jun30 June 13:56

          Interesting – I just did a nil value transaction with Revolut to check the MCC and it showed as 4829 – that was with a Mastercard which is the same as the Virgin card.

          When it showed MCC 8999, was that topping up directly with the Virgin card or via Curve?

  • The Urbanite says:

    30 Jun30 June 10:28

    Are you accruing any points for doing that?

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    30 Jun30 June 17:12

    I just had my IHG declined, error message on rev actually says ‘oops something went wrong card is not supported ‘ though that could be generic

    • Andrew M says:

      30 Jun30 June 19:01

      I had something similar when trying to top up Revolut with IHG recently. You’ll probably find your IHG card has been blocked due to this “suspicious” transaction. I had to talk to Creation’s security department to get my card working again. No problems with Revolut top ups since then .

• Nick M says:

  30 Jun30 June 10:05

  Marriott redemption changes…

  I’ve had the email telling me that my points booking at the Langley at the end of this month needs to be postponed… I booked in September last year before the category/rules changed… am I right in thinking that they should still be able to honour the rate of 35k points?

  From initially querying it, they have suggested that it should be 50k points/night… From memory, I booked early enough to retain the advantages of the older rules – have I messed up somewhere or is it worth going back and arguing the case that it should be the lower rate?

  • Harry T says:

    30 Jun30 June 10:57

    I think Marriott terms and conditions would not be in your favour. But you could ask the hotel nicely.

  • Stanley says:

    30 Jun30 June 11:00

    I just replied asking to move to a date in december. think i paid 35k originally too. its been updated in my account to reflect the new date. no extra points have been taken from my stash…..

    • E says:

      30 Jun30 June 11:23

      Might want to be a bit careful here as I’ve had a Marriott hotel deduct extra points from my account on the date I checked out from a stay when the points rate changed after I’d booked. I’d had the original points deduction done on booking and, in that incident, explicitly asked if the points value would remain the same and been told it would. As I’d been told that (and had it in writing) I did get the extra deduction returned but it took a lot of ‘discussion’ to get the points back.

      • Stanley says:

        30 Jun30 June 11:57

        Thanks for heads up.. Email reply from them doesnt mention additional points. I’ll save that to use if I have to. Dont want to poke the bear and ask the question now….

  • Rob says:

    30 Jun30 June 11:33

    They would not honour the 35k rate for me and insisted I pay the extra, so I ended up cancelling.

    It is stupid because Marriott pays them the same amount irrespective!

    • Jonathan says:

      30 Jun30 June 11:55

      They’ve been pestering me daily to rebook or cancel for a stay next weekend. The lady did say a move would be more points but I didn’t push it as was waiting to see if anyone here had any luck. Has anyone raised with Bonvoy? Will probably just cancel if it’s 50k.

      • Anna says:

        30 Jun30 June 13:18

        I had a 2 night stay moved from May to August (just waiting for that to be cancelled now!). There was no mention of extra points being required and none were deducted from my account when the new booking appeared. I am inclined not to mention it in the event of another re-booking, then if they try and deduct extra points after a new stay, I can argue that I was not made aware of the requirement to use extra points.

  • Y says:

    30 Jun30 June 14:19

    Email from Langley yesterday:
    We are continuing to offer our guests postponements or full refunds for pre-paid reservations . Kindly respond to this email to advise if you wish to postpone your reservation until further date or if you would like to cancel your booking altogether. Please note that the hotel may only re-open in November 2020 and should you wish to postpone your reservation, we would recommend selecting a date after November 2, 2020. Additionally, the number of Marriott Bonvoy points required for the new dates may vary from the number of points required at the time of booking.

    Suggests to me if rebooked, the points delta will be deducted/reimbursed.

    • Stanley says:

      30 Jun30 June 14:26

      Yep. I got this email, and replied with my new chosen date. They have confirmed the new date and havent mentioned any extra point cost.

    • Anna says:

      30 Jun30 June 14:36

      I assume I’ll be getting this soon then. What would happen if you emptied your Bonvoy account of points prior to Marriott trying to take them?

      • Stanley says:

        30 Jun30 June 14:50

        I have a feeling i booked pre price hike, so maybe my 35k booking shows as a 50k value in there system now. so no further points taken

• Aston100 says:

  30 Jun30 June 10:15

  IHG:
  points & cash bookings.
  I was casually looking through some countries at random, looking at reward night bookings, specifically at the points + cash rates. The cheapest price for the points I could find was an Intercontinental where paying cash for 20k’s worth of the reward night points would cost £94 (0.47p per point).
  I’ve seen a couple elsewhere for £73 for 15k points (0.486p per point).

  Has anyone seen anything better in recent times, and where please?

  Thanks.

  • Craig says:

    30 Jun30 June 12:34

    Just be wary if you are using this as a cheap way to get points, people have had accounts frozen for doing similar.

    • Genghis says:

      30 Jun30 June 12:49

      And rates don’t look that cheap. Was 0.4p in last sale https://headforpoints.com/2020/05/07/100-bonus-buying-ihg-rewards-club-hotel-points/

      • Aston100 says:

        30 Jun30 June 12:54

        Yes but going forward, if there isn’t another similar sale anytime soon…

        • Harry T says:

          30 Jun30 June 13:13

          IHG seems to have 100% bonus sales every other week!

• Nadeshka says:

  30 Jun30 June 10:26

  Question for a friend booking reward flights:

  Looking at Taxes and Fees, two one ways are much cheaper (Asia destinations, open jaw).
  If she books the outbound online can she call up to book the return without it repricing to the higher return?
  If not, can she book two one ways and call up to link them after to get protection in case one leg is cancelled? Or is it a case that to get the benefit of the lower taxes of two one ways she has to accept the “risk” of bookings not being linked?

  I always book a proper return as I am using a 2-4-1 voucher and I know they allow “joining two one ways” for that but in this instance they don’t have one.

  • AJA says:

    30 Jun30 June 13:03

    If you try linking two separate tickets into one PNR I think BA will reprice as a return and you may find you have to pay more in taxes. You can certainly book two one ways but I don’t think you can link them afterwards. I think you can even book the inbound one-way online as well, no need to phone to do it. The only risk you have is having the outbound cancelled but then you can still cancel the return at a cost of £35 per passenger. That would be cheaper than paying the higher taxes on a return starting in the UK.

  • Anna says:

    30 Jun30 June 13:26

    The last time I asked BA to join separate bookings they refused outright. However, as long as I’m not paying over the odds for the taxes I’m usually quite happy to leave it as 2 one-way flights as I may want to change my departure point on one of the legs and it saves the trouble of cancelling and re-booking the whole thing with no guarantee of all the required seats becoming available again.

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