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The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 30th June

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We have decided to run this new daily chat thread on Head for Points.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the defacto repository for random comments and questions.  It is unlikely that the news flow will be so big over the next few weeks that we will need many ‘Bits’ articles, however.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are stuck at home self-isolating, we want the HFP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as its keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

By default, HFP shows the last page of comments under the article.  If you want to see the first page of comments and read them all from beginning to end in order, click here: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/06/30/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-tuesday-30th-june/comment-page-1.  The page will refresh with this article but the comments will now show the first page and not the last page.

We will continue to monitor how this is working.  Let’s see how it goes.  Take care!

Category

General

Comments (206)

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

  • Jamie says:
    30 Jun30 June 10:54

    Saw some whispers that BA are back to £1 cancellation fees for reward (RFS) flights? Is this true or will I be whacked with £35?

  • Steve R says:
    30 Jun30 June 11:00

    Just tried to “book” our RFS flights LGW to Dalaman in August. Still showing in manage my booking, but if you actually try & book the flights nothing showing at all for August, just LHR

    • Jonny says:
      30 Jun30 June 11:08

      My flights to Crete at end July / beginning of August have just been shifted to Heathrow.

    • Graeme2 says:
      30 Jun30 June 11:13

      I just got a “Seat changes for British Airways booking xxxxxx” email for my flight from Faro to Gatwick in late August, and on logging in to MMB in fact what has changed is that original flight shows as cancelled and I am booked on a new flight at the same time and with the same flight number as the original but from to Heathrow instead.

    • ankomonkey says:
      30 Jun30 June 13:51

      BA fly LHR-DLM and LGW-DLM, so it’s an easier swap for them than routes that are ex-LGW only. So they may be planning to move you to ex-LHR.

    • Stanley says:
      30 Jun30 June 14:14

      Had same issue with Palma flights in August…. Just got the cancellation email today though. Called BA, and changed to Heathrow at a time that suited better… Also let me change outbound from Heathrow…. took 10 minutes on phone. Very good service.

  • walle says:
    30 Jun30 June 11:11

    Morning all. We were meant to go to Greece leaving from Heathrow on July 9th. Now that Greece presumably has banned any travelers from the UK till July 15th what do you guys think would be the best options going forward. At this time BA has yet to cancel the flight. I guess an option besides canceling entire trip would be to fly to intermediate country (Germany) and then take a flight to Greece?

    • Anna says:
      30 Jun30 June 13:28

      I would hope for the sake of the Greek nation that Greece isn’t run by people stupid enough not to have considered this get-around!

  • JC says:
    30 Jun30 June 11:58

    Hi – my BA flight to Crete in August has now been moved from Gatwick to Heathrow (and have received an email from BA with the new departure details). I am not planning on travelling anyway but does this give me grounds to cancel and receive a full refund? It was an avios booking. Thanks

    • Stanley says:
      30 Jun30 June 12:12

      yes

    • Anna says:
      30 Jun30 June 13:31

      You may struggle to get a refund unless Greece is still closed to travellers from the UK at that point, as LHR and LGW are both classed as London (unless it’s a new flight number). You may have to cancel for £35 pp as suggested, or take a future travel voucher, which should be able to be done online.

  • BJ says:
    30 Jun30 June 12:16

    My latest dilemma for my trip to Japan next summer concerns our flight from KIX-BKK. Normally I would pay cash on Air Asia X premium, however, the flight is just over 5h so I’m now contemplating just trying JAL Y as it is only 13,000 avios/person. It is a 787 with only 8 across in 2-4-2 configuration as opposed to the usual 9. Reviews seem to suggest JAL has the best economy class around, but I was just wondering if any HFP readers have flown it? On a flight of this duration I am not convinced the regional J is worth three times as much and PY isn’t available on the route from KIX. The spanner in the works is the schedule, the flight leaves at 1am. I would definitely try it if it was a daytime flight but at this hour I’m not so sure. On the other hand, the short duration does not lend itself to a decent sleep in J either. Grateful for any thoughts from our community.

    • ankomonkey says:
      30 Jun30 June 13:56

      My wife and kids have flown it during the day in Y and it was perfectly acceptable. With J redemptions costing 3x the price of Y, they felt the Y flight was fine for that length of time compared with 3x for a bit of extra comfort.

      • BJ says:
        30 Jun30 June 18:31

        Thanks, I’ve gave it some further thought during the day and economy feels like the right fit in the circumstances.

    • Nick_C says:
      30 Jun30 June 19:11

      I did a short domestic flight in Y on JAL in December (HND to ITM) and was very impressed. Free soft drink, free WiFi, and free IFE. This was on a new domestic 787 with a 3-3-3 configuration. 2-4-2 on a long haul JAL 787 should be good.

      But I also did HKG to NRT in J on JAL. It was amazing. If you have enough Avios, I recommend using them on JAL J class.

      • BJ says:
        30 Jun30 June 20:22

        Cheers, Nick. My thinking is that by 1am I might be too grumpy to appreciate any sort of service but we’ll see. Obviously I would prefer J but the extra 50k between us could go far on another flight too.

  • Ed says:
    30 Jun30 June 12:50

    Anyone had any luck using Curve Blue for a mortgage overpayment?

    • Anna says:
      30 Jun30 June 13:33

      It will depend on your mortgage provider. Mine only takes payments from UK bank accounts, so no points-earning for us 😤

    • Genghis says:
      30 Jun30 June 16:44

      Halifax take payments by debit card. Don’t know if Curve accepted. Give it a try.

    • Dezbez says:
      30 Jun30 June 20:35

      Ok. I realise Ed I’ve jumped on your mortgage post for which I don’t have an answer, sorry! But it is related…. has anyone got experience of using Curve for gambling websites eg Paddy Power? Credit cards treat them as cash advances, debit cards no consequence. How about Curve?

      • The Urbanite says:
        30 Jun30 June 21:59

        Gambling is banned with Curve – you have to ask them to unblock that category of transaction.

        Pretty much every credit card will charge a cash advance and immediate interest on gambling transactions. Or at least they used to, before the government slapped a ban on using credit cards to gamble back in April 2020.

        If you want to do that, best off doing it direct with a debit card!

  • Dezbez says:
    30 Jun30 June 13:16

    Given the uncertain outlook for the US, presumably Virgin might be considering more non-US destinations, ie ones it’ll be able to fly to sooner with passengers (Canada and some more Eastern routes instead perhaps?) I’m really not sure how easy it is to switch and how long these things take to do, clearly it’s not straightforward, but it seems like it could be an opportunity to diversify and not have all its eggs in the US basket?

    • Andrew says:
      30 Jun30 June 14:10

      Won’t that clash with the evolving Delta and Westjet partnership?

      I don’t have any objection to saving Virgin, but not at the expense of a well run Canadian airline.

    • ChrisC says:
      30 Jun30 June 18:14

      Any switch would depend on the availability of slots.

      Toronto and Vancouer are both slot reestricted

      VS has flown to both of those in the past.

  • Roger* says:
    30 Jun30 June 13:17

    I have a 2-4-1 redemption to South Africa in Jan/Feb 2021 LHR-JNB//CPT-LGW.

    SA is closed to international tourism until at least Feb 2021. I’ve just spent a couple of hours looking in vain for signs of a change to this. It looks like we won’t be allowed in.

    Have I any options? Postponing the flights could jeopardise the validity of the 2-4-1. (Sorry, I can’t remember the original expiry date.) I could perhaps use the 2-4-1 elsewhere.

    Grateful for your advice.

    • Rhys says:
      30 Jun30 June 13:23

      I would wait and see unless you 100% know where you would like to go

      • Roger* says:
        30 Jun30 June 13:30

        Thanks, Rhys. Sadly in the circumstances, I’d normally be looking at North America, but that’s clearly out for the time being. I’ll look elsewhere.

        I assume if I cancel now, I’ll be hit with 2x £50 fees. That wouldn’t apply if I cancelled just before the outbound date, I guess. Decisions, decisions.

    • Aston100 says:
      30 Jun30 June 14:41

      Why are people certain SA won’t be taking tourists until Feb 2021?

    • WaynedP says:
      30 Jun30 June 17:39

      There have been at least two court challenges to the South African government’s Covid regulations. One is moot (Tobacco industry challenging ban on sales) as prohibition has since been lifted.
      Another succeeded in getting parts of the regulations declared “irrational” and “unconstitutional” by the High Court (google SA covid regulations constitutional court challenge).
      It is low season there now, but if travel restrictions remain in place as SA moves into spring and tourism-dependent operators gear up for the summer season, I predict more court challenges.
      Obviously no guarantees, but in the absence of a Brazil-like pandemic, I’d be very surprised if the SA government doesn’t re-open borders to international tourists this side of Christmas 2020.

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

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