The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 30th June

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

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

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

Pat the Postie says:

30 Jun30 June 18:04

Booked an Avios flight that was cancelled and its impossible to get through to BA, the online system only allows for a travel voucher which is not suitable. Every time I phone up they say they have no staff to answer the phone, completely useless!
- ChrisC says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 18:12
  
  I called BA last night just after 7 pm to get a refund after a cancelled flights
  
  Call waiting time was 18 mins to be answered and 3 to process the refund
- pauldb says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 19:05
  
  Given hundreds of Gatwick flights have been cancelled today or switched to Heathrow, I’d wait a week before calling if you possibly can. Or recommend the WQ4U app.
- Steve says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 21:23
  
  It’s been quite easy to get through recently. Call, don’t press any of the options when prompted, through to an agent within minutes.
  - Pat the Postie says:
    
    1 Jul1 July 08:55
    
    Thanks
Sam says:

30 Jun30 June 18:29

BA flight to Seville moved from Gatwick to Heathrow.

Predictable, but still incredibly annoying given I live 5 minutes from Gatwick.
- mvcvz says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 18:36
  
  I would have imagined it to be far more annoying to live five minutes from LGW.
Anna says:

30 Jun30 June 18:57

Our Langley weekend in August has been cancelled (just waiting to see if they will move it to New Year weekend, they haven’t mentioned extra points…). Now trying to find an alternative as our back up (Voco Spires in Oxford) has also been cancelled and our 2nd backup (the University Arms in Cambridge) isn’t definitely going to be open either 🙄
- Chef says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 19:12
  
  My Qatar refund arrived 5 days today, not the 28 days suggested?
  Mind you it was 6 weeks for them to process it.
- old bob says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 19:13
  
  Give it up , the locals open from Saturday, a yard of ale and couple of packets of pork scratchings down the pig and whistle with me a Geoff will see you right, you’ll forget all about it.
  - Anna says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 19:28
    
    Can I have a yard of gin instead?
    
    Just checked my Bonvoy account and it’s showing the new dates but with the old points price.
Wally1976 says:

30 Jun30 June 19:16

Our BA Avios flights from LGW to DLM (end of August) have just been moved to Heathrow. Quite pleased as LHR is more convenient for us and flight times are better too. The flight numbers and PNRs are unchanged.

It says in the email that we need to confirm our acceptance of the new flights. When I click the link to do this, it just throws an error. It also throws an error if I click the option to “choose alternative flights”. I notice in my BAEC account it shows the new flights. It doesn’t say anywhere how long we have to accept the new flights. I would like to know as I might stall a little in case we find we need to cancel.

Any info/advice appreciated. I don’t want to have to phone up BA unless absolutely necessary!
Tracy says:

30 Jun30 June 19:17

I cancelled 241 flights to Japan for June 2020. I got back my 241 with new expiry date of 12/06/21, with the 6 month extension. I want to rebook the exact same flights for 2021 but need to go end of June 2021, original flights were end of June 2020. My voucher expires 2 weeks early. I asked BA for 2 week extension and was told no. Am I being unreasonable? Should I try again?
- Anna says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 19:24
  
  I can’t see them budging on this. What you could do is make an earlier booking then cancel for a future travel voucher valid till 2022.
  - Tracy says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 19:26
    
    How does this work? I have 2 241s for 4 people.
    - memesweeper says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 20:15
      
      Not many people have done this. I *think* you will end up with four vouchers for the travellers, each with sufficient Avios to enable a booking equivalent to double the Avios you used, plus the full taxes/fees/charges each. Although, this being BA, anything might happen! Keep a copy of your *original* flight booking confirmation email, that’s the one with the e-ticket numbers in it as you’ll need this in the event of a dispute.
      - Anna says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 21:12
        
        You will get an email with all your original ticket numbers on it and an assurance that you can travel until April 2022. It does NOT say that you are limited by the original date on your 241 and I am going to be holding them to this!
      - pauldb says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 22:32
        
        I’ve been through the process and rebooked a May 2020 trip to May 2021. The 241 on it expired June 2020, extended to Dec 2020 – so the FTV did indeed extend its usability.
meta says:

30 Jun30 June 20:48

My flights from Porto end of August have now been moved from Gatwick to Heathrow. I don’t mind actually as it works better for me. Same time, same flight number. Do I have to confirm the change? Normally you would need to and the email received says so, but there is no option on Manage my booking.
- Genghis says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 20:52
  
  I’m the same. I’d have preferred LGW, however. Can’t see option to confirm on MMB. Will give them a call sometime.
- Wally1976 says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 21:32
  
  We had similar – for Dalaman. There’s a link in the email which brings you to a page where you can select options…all of which throw an error when you click them (or at least they did for me!).
Roy says:

1 Jul1 July 14:57

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but apparently Curve is currently processing refunds by crediting them to the Curve Cash balance

What is the latest regarding refunds? – If you are asking “what is going to happen with my refund?”

We want you to know that our main priority is to get refunds up and running again for you as quickly as possible. The best way for us to do this is to build our own refunds process (totally in-house).

In the first instance, the quickest way to do this is to send that money back to you as Curve Cash so you can use it right away.

If we are able to process a refund; you will find it on your Curve Cash balance. You will just need to select Curve Cash as the payment card and you will be able to use the money stored inside!

We are working hard to get refunds working in a normal way – our priority has been to get you access to money owed to you as quickly as possible.
- Rob says:
  
  1 Jul1 July 15:21
  
  Could be some interesting opportunities there then 🙂
Roger* says:

1 Jul1 July 16:47

My IHG status is platinum, based on my IHG black credit card. Oh, and Ambassador.

The narrative in my online account shows: ‘Your IHG Rewards Club status has been automatically extended through January 2022’