The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 2nd July

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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/2020/07/02/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-thursday-2nd-july/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.

onlysuites says:

2 Jul2 July 11:30

For those that were waiting for their status to be upgraded through the reduced targets for this year any changes to your account?

Mine still shows Bronze when I have 4 BA flights and 450 tier points. It says Silver achieved in progress to next tier.

Anyone spoken to BA about their account? Was meant to be done Monday.
- Rob says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 12:04
  
  There are a few readers in the same boat, showing ‘Silver achieved’ but not having flipped over (and still being charged if they try to select a seat).
Peter North says:

2 Jul2 July 11:33

Given that most of virgins network is now to US destinations, and also given that the US infection rate is now out of control ( not exaggerating) I would expect that Virgin may not be flying again for some considerable time.
- Anna says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 13:16
  
  Maybe they shouldn’t have withdrawn their services from some Caribbean islands due to those governments refusing to pay Virgin a sweetener to bring tourists in! Those islands are opening to tourism this month.
  - DB2020 says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 14:36
    
    Or for that matter, their flights to Dubai and Tokyo. Oh well, those decisions were taken by the previous CEO as part of his plans to streamline the business and they are now having to deal with the effects of those decisions.
Olivia says:

2 Jul2 July 11:38

Hi all, fairly new to this reward collecting business so a bit of advice needed!

I have an American Express which allows me to collect Avios, however not being accepted everywhere, what is the best credit card people are finding across non-Amex card providers at the moment?
- YH says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 11:46
  
  Check out the new July 2020 best credit cards page: https://headforpoints.com/best-uk-avios-airline-hotel-credit-cards/
- Andrew says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 11:54
  
  Quick Tip…
  
  If a reader rejects an Amex when you tap it, try Chip & Pin instead. Some major retailers like Asda and Wilko accept Amex, but not Amex contactless.
NvT1115 says:

2 Jul2 July 12:09

M&S have revamped ‘Sparks’…. apparently realising nobody really got what the points were for… Maybe a nice surprise at the till occasionally..
- Peter Kemp says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 13:21
  
  I didn’t think they were “for” anything. People just like to see a tally go up and M&S decided to play on that with no benefit for doing so!
  - ChrisC says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 20:54
    
    the points you collected eventually went to the charity of your choosing from the option M&S gave you
    
    It was never a reward scheme were points = prizes
    
    Tthe offers on discounts were sometimes good – get 3 instead of 2 starters when buying the £10 take away menu for example
- Lady London says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 13:59
  
  waste of time. vague promises that never resulted in anything.
  
  other than that, quite good.
  
  I signed up to help a member of staff who mentioned they got an incentive. the main result seemed to be a flurry of emails cross-marketing M&S Finance products.
  
  on the whole, signing up for such a useless programme has probably meant I shop less in M&S than before. Whereas if they’d managed communication from Sparks better and maybe offered a promotion or two they’d have kept my attention.
  - RussellH says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 14:53
    
    Yes, I had completely forgotten the flood of useless and annoying e-mails that signing up for Sparks generated.
    Rapidly resulted in a very irate phone call from me to Sparks; I found myself threatening them with all sorts of things if the flood of e-mail did not cease forthwith.
    I was much more polite to the next few checkout people who asked for my Sparks card; I just told them that I had cancelled it as there was nothing in it it for me.
    - ChrisC says:
      
      2 Jul2 July 20:57
      
      I never got any emails advertising promotions etc because I set my preferences not to get them!
      
      Unless you went into your account and unticked the ‘send email offers’ box then that’s down to you
- Dezbez says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 14:01
  
  Call me cynical, and I hope I’m wrong, but based on experience of other announcements I suspect this will be another damp squib. Sparks really has been a waste of time and effort to date and it’ll need something dramatic to make it valuable to customers. It could (& should) be so much more
damien says:

2 Jul2 July 12:28

Lads, anyone looking for redemption stays in the Intercontinental Maldives. Go book em now. I just got myself 5 days in November because It ties in with another trip I have, but there’s availability in every month from September on.
- Tim says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 13:16
  
  Thanks for the tip, mulled over the radison blu maldives flash sale for a day, then it was pulled yesterday, kicking myself now. Do you happen to know what the how the 23% tax is worked out on reward nights? Thanks
  - The Urbanite says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 13:41
    
    I checked yesterday and that tax doesn’t appear to apply to redemption bookings!
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 18:51
    
    Taxes not applied on point redemptions.
- @mkcol says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 13:45
  
  What about the lassies?
  - Anna says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 14:05
    
    I doubt they accept pets.
    - BJ says:
      
      2 Jul2 July 16:56
      
      😀 Nobody under 50 will probably get it.
      - Harry T says:
        
        2 Jul2 July 17:23
        
        I get it!
      - BJ says:
        
        2 Jul2 July 19:26
        
        Good for you Harry 🙂
      - Lady London says:
        
        2 Jul2 July 20:50
        
        Anyone remember Skippy? (kind of Australian lassie)
      - BJ says:
        
        2 Jul2 July 21:28
        
        Or Flipper?
    - Aston100 says:
      
      3 Jul3 July 00:07
      
      Very good haha
- Martyn Ford says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 19:54
  
  Thank you! Just booked 5 nights in an overwater villa plus Club access with points.
mutley says:

2 Jul2 July 12:32

Rob,
Is your £5 code for Curve metal still valid?
- Rob says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 14:39
  
  Yes, thanks
Kipto says:

2 Jul2 July 12:46

I am due to go to Ibiza next month and paid for extra leg room seats for of us going out and coming back. I received an email this week from ba saying that they had moved our seats “ for operational purposes” both ways. When I logged into my account we had not been moved to new seats and were just given the option of choosing our new seats. I can’t get hold of ba at all to ask them why they moved us. I assume that standard seats will be cheaper than the ones we chose and ba will refund the difference. ?
- Anna says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 13:19
  
  That’s what usually happens. It sounds as though your flight may be about to be cancelled or moved to another airport though, so I would double check this before booking new seats.
  - Kipto says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 13:41
    
    Thanks. I’ve looked on seat guru and there still appears to be two exit rows for the flight. Odd.
    - Lady London says:
      
      2 Jul2 July 14:07
      
      No way are they keeping my seat fee for anything but a seat I selected. Which would normally be an exit row seat.
      
      I think @Anna’s right but for the h*ll of it I’d phone them now and tell them to refund my seat selection fees immediately. I wouldn’t refer to flight being moved or cancelled and would not want to hang around waiting for that even if they hint or say it might be. I’d demand my seat reservation money back now.
      - Anna says:
        
        2 Jul2 July 19:00
        
        Either that or Jade Jagger wants your extra legroom seats.
Aston100 says:

2 Jul2 July 12:56

Just following up on the conversation from yesterdays chat thread pertaining to Hilton status match for IHG.
Got this message from Hilton Honours:
**************
Greetings! The status match begins with Gold status once you have 10 nights within 90 days. If you have 18 nights within 90 days then you are upgraded to Diamond. To be fair to our members who completed the required 30 stays or 60 days a year, we no longer instantly match to Diamond.
**************
- Aston100 says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 12:59
  
  This seems to apply to whatever level of IHG status you have – i.e. straight to gold with a chance to work up to Diamond, rather than a tier for tier match Spire to Diamond; Platinum to Gold etc
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 18:55
    
    Aston100:
    What hotel status did you use?
- BJ says:
  
  2 Jul2 July 17:01
  
  As I explained to you last night. And it is regardless of status they accept from any chain, not only IHG.
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    2 Jul2 July 18:54
    
    Wow, good news for some with basic hotel memberships, straight to Gold for 3 x months. Always can rely on BJ.
    - BJ says:
      
      2 Jul2 July 19:24
      
      If they accept your request. The lower your status then the less likely they will. However, there is a smart way to go about it, if you can you upload a screenshot for them showing lot’s of recent stays and a big points balance. That will look more attractive to them than a higher status with low points and/or few stays. Having said all that, I think most people making requests are accepted but there have been comments over the years that some have problems too.