The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 1st July

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• Ian says:

  1 Jul1 July 12:59

  Email from Virgin Money just in that says they are refunding £40 of this year’s annual fee on the Virgin Atlantic + card.

  • Connor says:

    1 Jul1 July 13:47

    The wording is a bit vague.

    “So we’re refunding £40 of your annual card fee. Just after you’ve paid your fee, you’ll see your refund on your statement. “

    So will that be after I pay next years fee or just £40 as I’ve already paid it?

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      1 Jul1 July 15:01

      When does your card renew? Is it soon?

      Mine states “So we’re refunding £40 of your annual card fee. There’s nothing you need to do – just look out for your refund landing in your credit card account in the next few days.”

      • WaynedP says:

        1 Jul1 July 15:06

        +1

        Mine renews Feb 2021

      • Connor says:

        1 Jul1 July 15:08

        September, so that’s no doubt why. Considering not renewing and just cancelling it but I’ll see what happens with Virgin first to decide whether it’s gonna be worth another £120 fee. I’m stuck on a 4k credit limit so I’m only able to earn 72k points a year which is a big disadvantage.

        • WaynedP says:

          1 Jul1 July 15:25

          If your credit score (Experian or similar) has improved since you took out the card last September, I would think it’s worth contacting them to ask for a credit limit increase.

          Scores take a bit of a dip when you take out one or more new credit cards in relatively quick succession, but recover within 90 days as long as you pay them in full each month.

        • Connor says:

          1 Jul1 July 16:26

          I wish! Credit report is pretty good all in (no late payments, defaults, CCJ’s etc) but John Lewis Finance and my car leasing company have both managed to do duplicate hard searches within the past 3 months so it looks like I’ve gone a bit J G Ballard for credit!

          Applied for an increase a few months ago and was just told a flat no, although I could appeal. Guy on the phone put down some things and still got another no a week later. Disappointing but only a couple months till I can apply for an increase again.

        • WaynedP says:

          1 Jul1 July 17:22

          Ouch, hope you have better luck when you re-apply.

          £40 refund is a nice, unexpected refund.

          Have accumulated quite a healthy balance of Virgin Flying Miles so far this year – just Virgin stays solvent and I get a chance to use them in future.

      • kpk1981 says:

        1 Jul1 July 15:16

        My email also says “So we’re refunding £40 of your annual card fee. There’s nothing you need to do – just look out for your refund landing in your credit card account in the next few days.” Better than nothing!

    • jc says:

      1 Jul1 July 20:37

      I believe anyone with renewal in the next N (6? 3?) months has the “Just after you’ve paid your fee” wording and gets their £40 after their renewal. Everyone else gets their £40 now.

• Ja says:

  1 Jul1 July 13:07

  Have a question about BAEC. If you fly on the 8th the same day your year finishes, where do the TP go?. Old year or new year?.

  • ChrisC says:

    1 Jul1 July 13:20

    Old year.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    1 Jul1 July 15:55

    Old year, despite what the T&Cs say…

    • ChrisC says:

      1 Jul1 July 23:06

      what?

      theT&Cs are quite clear that flights on the 8th credit to that year even though it is the last day of your collection year even if they don’t hit your acount until a few days later

      BA systems sort all this out automatically and there is no way around it. What matters is the date of the flight not the date of posting

• Harry T says:

  1 Jul1 July 13:13

  Jet2 cancelled one my flights less than a week ago and they’ve already refunded me without any prompting required. They’ve even sent me PDF receipts of the refunds for each passenger. If only every airline was like this!

  • solartravels says:

    1 Jul1 July 13:22

    Well done Jet2.
    Im still waiting (nearly 100 days now) for £8k from Virgin Holidays!
    They are truly shocking at the moment.

    • Vit says:

      1 Jul1 July 13:23

      Thanks solartravels. Comment like this makes me feel better about my own case. Just £800 from travel agency. 😉

    • Harry T says:

      1 Jul1 July 14:21

      @solartravels
      Sorry to hear that – awful customer service there.

  • Genghis says:

    1 Jul1 July 13:26

    Already refunded so you don’t ask for a more expensive rerouting!?
    What happened if you wanted a rerouting, which you’re entitled to?

    • Genghis says:

      1 Jul1 July 13:30

      Or perhaps I misread the situation from the scenario? Did you request the refund?

    • Harry T says:

      1 Jul1 July 14:21

      @Genghis
      You raise a fair point. However, there isn’t a rerouting on another airline that’s convenient for me, and Jet2 have cancelled and moved a lot of their services. I expect you could try and request a rerouting through their MMB thing.

  • Dezbez says:

    1 Jul1 July 13:28

    Jet2 seems to have been one of (the?) real star throughout this, it has really stepped up and put the likes of BA, Virgin, Ryanair etc to shame

• Anuj says:

  1 Jul1 July 14:08

  Has anyone called up and managed to get a retention offer for the BAPP?

• rams1981 says:

  1 Jul1 July 14:19

  is curve fronted meant to charge you without authorisation required first? just got stung. Thought it would show me potential charge first

  • Genghis says:

    1 Jul1 July 14:21

    Have you got Curve fronted turned on?

    • rams1981 says:

      1 Jul1 July 14:33

      I did do, have switched it off now. I had read people saying there’s a pop up that comes in phone to authorise, perhaps I mis-understood what they were saying lol

      • Jonathan says:

        1 Jul1 July 14:44

        They made clear when they introduced that GBIT is the safety net not the App alert. You’ll have to swallow it or move the transaction to a debit card.

        • rams1981 says:

          1 Jul1 July 14:57

          GBIT doesn’t work at the moment otherwise I would have used that.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    1 Jul1 July 15:49

    No the authorisation thing is fraud / security related afaik not to do with fronted

• Kipto says:

  1 Jul1 July 14:50

  Looking at booking a return flight next June.the inbound flight is not available to book yet. Did I read somewhere on this site that if you book the outbound and inbound separately it is more expensive than booking outbound and return at the same time and ba no longer balance the fees etc

  • Rhys says:

    1 Jul1 July 14:52

    More info here: https://headforpoints.com/2019/11/22/odd-things-are-happening-when-you-book-a-british-airways-2-4-1-ticket-355-days-in-advance/

    • Kipto says:

      1 Jul1 July 15:35

      Thanks. I’ve read the link. The comments underneath it make it more confusing. I am using the 241 for a European flight. I have a few to use up. If I book the outgoing leg using my 241, and use Avios to book the second leg will ba later add my 241 to the return leg ?

      • Rob says:

        1 Jul1 July 15:49

        Yes, if you call them up.

        For clarity, it won’t add them to your outbound. You retain 2 x one-way tickets BUT BA will refund half the Avios from your return flight.

        If you want both legs on the same ticket, you need to call BA and get them to add the return for you.

• BJ says:

  1 Jul1 July 15:21

  After waiting ages for the first, it seems that BA has today received its second of twelve 787-10s. However, before anybody gets excited about flying them, just be award they are all built in Charleston.

  • Vit says:

    1 Jul1 July 15:36

    That just might bring F back to LHR-TYO route next summer. We can only hope. 😉

    • BJ says:

      1 Jul1 July 18:36

      Doubt it, if they wanted F I imagine they would have had a 4 class 777 timetable already.

  • DB2020 says:

    1 Jul1 July 16:07

    Saw it flying over my neighbourhood on approach to Heathrow. Looks like a small B777-200 but otherwise quite unremarkable. It was preceded by an Ethiopian A350 which, at 3500 feet high, looked sleek and elegant with its curved wing tips. 😊

    • BJ says:

      1 Jul1 July 18:45

      I think the 787 looks not bad compared to other Boring planes, easily their best looking since the 787…bug give me Concorde any day, still looks amazing.

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      1 Jul1 July 20:01

      Weird as its longer than a 777.

• Capecam says:

  1 Jul1 July 15:56

  What is the current co-vid BA policy on cancelling an Avios only flight, assuming i book it tomorrow for travel in late July and have to cancel in a coupleof weeks? If I cancel what happens to taxes, and is the “service fee” still applicable ? TIA

  • Rhys says:

    1 Jul1 July 16:00

    Same as always, except you have to call up for a refund at the moment or they’ll try and foist a voucher on you.

    • Anna says:

      1 Jul1 July 16:38

      They still try and foist the voucher on you when you call them! They’ve obviously been given a BA script for this (generally designed to make you bang your head against the wall and lose the will to live).

  • Pat the Postie says:

    1 Jul1 July 16:56

    Phone up and don’t press any buttons otherwise it cut me off every time no matter what I pressed

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