The new HFP chat thread – Monday 13th July

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

• Peter North says:

  13 Jul13 July 11:10

  My AmEx Plat is due for renewal at end of September? When is the best time to threaten to leave and attempt to get a 20K rewards bonus?
  or have they stopped offering it to would be leavers?

  • Andrew says:

    13 Jul13 July 11:32

    There isn’t really a good or bad time, it’s just your account is flagged as worth them giving a bonus or not. The key is to speak to Brighton, so when you ring the number, ask to speak to Brighton if you’re in any doubt as to their location and they will put you through and they will either give the bonus or not. Some are offered 15k, some 20k, some zero – but not much in the way of data point on the reasoning. And there is no requirement to stay even if you get the bonus, you can still take the bonus and then ring up the next day and leave.

    • Peter North says:

      13 Jul13 July 11:33

      Thanks, i guess its worth a try.

• C says:

  13 Jul13 July 11:25

  How long do curve transactions normally take to post on IHG? I made some transactions on Thursday with my new curve blue card which are showing in the curve app but do not appear to have been recharged to my IHG card yet. Is that normal?

  • Anna says:

    13 Jul13 July 13:25

    Creation/IHG is quite unpredictable at the moment. Revolut top ups are taking 2 – 3 days to show sometimes and a payment I made on Friday seems to have never been credited so I had to do it again this morning. I just keep a close eye on it and make sure everything tallies eventually.

• SlowBrain says:

  13 Jul13 July 11:40

  Amex Bonvoy:

  Recent comments mentioned a letter from Amex re the end of 3 pts / £ from August 26th.

  Been getting 2 points since Feb, stopped spending, was going to cancel.

  BJ said if I had the card before the change I should be getting 3 points and suggested calling.

  I called, (HUACA, HUACA) and got the missing points plus 5K.

  Lovely helpful chap (3rd attempt) and I can’t be too disappointed at that, though I would have put a lot more spend through if still getting 3pts.

  Difficult to push any harder because all 3 people I spoke to said they couldn’t find anything to say existing card holders keep getting 3 points, could only see 2pts from 26th Feb.

  If anyone can point me at something documenting the 3pts for pre-existing card holders I’d be very grateful. Could be handy to have firm details when my next fee becomes due.

  • Jonathan says:

    13 Jul13 July 17:33

    The 3 points/£ extension was only for people who got the card in the window between the changes being announced & implemented.

    For some reason Amex notified all existing card holders of the impending drop in earning rate (which was applied on the expected date) but didn’t include this info in promotional material for new applications. Can’t remember the exact dates (Rob will know) but if you had SPG card last year you shouldn’t have been entitled to those extra points!

    • SlowBrain says:

      13 Jul13 July 19:24

      Ah, I see. Oh well, good old Amex sorted me out nicely.

      Always worth asking politely, whatever the issue, whatever the company. You might get something and if you don’t you haven’t lost anything.

      I’ll put this in the happy column to offset miscounting the number of shop smalls I’d done.

• rk says:

  13 Jul13 July 11:47

  With the personal gold, you receive 3k MR for a supplementary card, does anyone know if this is the same with the gold business card, as you can have upto 99 supplementary cards. TIA.

  • memesweeper says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:40

    I’ve applied for Gold Bus. supp. and got nothing. Set your expectations to match.

    • roberto says:

      13 Jul13 July 13:09

      Personal Sups you should only get the bonus for the first one but I and others have had it on the second and third. Same with the Plat and sups.

      On the Gold Biz you should get it for every sup. I had 20 plus sups and bonuses once (including one for my dog). I dont have the biz card currently but will no doubt get one again later this year or early next.

      • memesweeper says:

        13 Jul13 July 14:05

        Wow — I might just raise a chat and ask where mine is then! How much did you get (each)?

        • Munch says:

          13 Jul13 July 16:45

          I got nothing for a supp Gold biz card – what is the bonus?

        • roberto says:

          13 Jul13 July 17:16

          3000 each

      • Venturelog says:

        13 Jul13 July 14:22

        But for the personal supp. after the 1st you get charged no?

      • Worzel says:

        13 Jul13 July 16:34

        Roberto(13:09) with all those sups, is it then that you won a million Avios ……… :).

        • roberto says:

          13 Jul13 July 17:18

          Hi Worzel , The million Avios was a Avis/Iberia promo and I burnt through those suckers in no time.. Was great fun I must admit.

        • Worzel says:

          14 Jul14 July 06:01

          Glad you had a good time roberto- the hobby needs to be fun!

• Benj says:

  13 Jul13 July 12:48

  Thought I’d report back on a question I asked last week in case it’s helpful to anyone else – my 2-4-1 booking to Sydney for August was cancelled. I rang today and they happily rebooked me on QR business class for the same date. Also told me the BA baggage allowance would still apply (more generous than QR) and BA change/cancellation terms still apply.

  • Anna says:

    13 Jul13 July 13:16

    Result!

  • Venturelog says:

    13 Jul13 July 14:25

    That’s really good! congrats!
    So you were able to use your 2for1 on QR?

    • Benj says:

      13 Jul13 July 15:32

      Indirectly, yes. BA cancelled the Sydney route for all of August, so they rebooked me on QR.

      • Polly says:

        13 Jul13 July 16:32

        Wow great news. Fancy a similar plan for our end Jan 21 J 241 to SYD also…

  • Harry T says:

    13 Jul13 July 14:34

    Excellent result – hope you’re allowed in! I heard that they are charging returning residents for quarantine in NSW soon, so keep an eye out.

  • Rhys says:

    13 Jul13 July 14:57

    Just in case you haven’t seen, Sydney will start charging for the mandatory 14-day quarantine stay soon!

    • Benj says:

      13 Jul13 July 15:28

      Thanks. I think there’s a waiver of the fees for anyone who had flights booked before last Sunday, so fingers crossed that applies!

    • Lady London says:

      14 Jul14 July 20:05

      They are and it’s $3000 AUD I think.

• Andreas says:

  13 Jul13 July 13:01

  Just tried calling BA to refund a cancelled flight. The automated voice said “call volumes are very high right now, please call back later”. Anyone have any idea about the best time to call? I’d like a cash refund as I paid for the flights of five other people, who want their money back rather than a voucher

  • meta says:

    13 Jul13 July 13:12

    Just press the number as if you were making a new booking. They are deliberately making it harder for people to obtain a refund.

    • Andreas says:

      13 Jul13 July 13:28

      I called and pressed # to jump straight to an agent, I’m on hold now. Was worried that the “new bookings” team would just transfer me, where I’d get hung up on again!

    • Lady London says:

      14 Jul14 July 20:08

      Someone has *got* to get the regulator to takea look at these deliberate practices by BA to deny giving customers the refunds they are entitled to receive within 7 days.

  • Anna says:

    13 Jul13 July 13:19

    The last 2 times I’ve had to do this I called fairly early in the morning and got through quite quickly (within 5 minutes). The last time though, they insisted on passing me through to another department so I was on hold for about another 20 minutes. It’s outrageous that they haven’t put their IT right so you can get a refund you are entitled to online, and about time someone held them to account for it.

    • Andreas says:

      13 Jul13 July 13:30

      They’re making it harder to make people consider taking the voucher instead so they don’t lose cash as quickly. I think they may have had better success with the voucher if there were better incentives to take the voucher. I read on one of the av geek forums that you had to call them to use the voucher, which makes it entirely pointless as an exercise to avoid having to call them!

      • ChrisC says:

        13 Jul13 July 15:54

        Well it even says it on the BA website you have to call them. And in the voucher email. It’s not a secret loophole the bloggers have discovered! Mentioned here literally hundreds of times as well.

        They were supposed to have changed it to be able to use it online but I’ve not read the relevant thread on flyer talk in a while so don’t know the current situation. But it would be an improvement. But remember they introduced the voucher scheme very quickly and they did the best they could.

        I called a couple of times in recent weeks once to cancel and refund and once to use a voucher. Phone waits in the early evening around 7pm were approx 15-20 minutes. My voucher booking call was 3 minutes quick because I had done the searches for the flights I wanted beforehand so could quote the times and numbers etc. I could tell the relief in the agents voice when I said I could give her those details rather than for her to go through 28 different options!

        I know people on here seem to think that offering a voucher is a bad thing but IMHO it has actually saved a lot of people a lot of money,

        They introduced the scheme just as I was going to cancel a flight which was still operated (but my next flights ex ARN on AY had been cancelled)

        Without the voucher I would have got back £50 ish for a voluntary cancellation Instead I have a credit of £260. I know which I would rather have In those circumstances.

        Yes it can be a pain to call but remember the vast majority of BA flyers have absolutely no idea HfP etc exist and they build their systems for the masses.

        • Lady London says:

          14 Jul14 July 20:14

          @ChrisC it will *never be possible to use these BA vouchers online. Voucher=frozen booking. These come in all shapes and sizes so will always need you to contact a human to unbundle/understand/decide what can be used and in what way towards a future booking.

          It would be impossible to code so the system can create a new booking by itself given all the variation and knowledge needed as above.

• Michelle says:

  13 Jul13 July 13:34

  Hi looking for resort/hotel in Europe that has all inclusive water sports does anyone have any recommendations. or ideas
  thanks

  • Aston100 says:

    13 Jul13 July 14:50

    Do you want to narrow down your selection of countries a bit?

  • Rachel R says:

    13 Jul13 July 15:41

    Have you looked at Neilson?

    • ankomonkey says:

      13 Jul13 July 16:14

      Yep, I’ve watched all the Naked Gun movies 😉

      • Peter K says:

        13 Jul13 July 18:40

        😂

  • Anna says:

    13 Jul13 July 19:00

    I did a couple of All Inclusives in the 90s and found that the “included” water sports involved spending a lot of time trying to find an available session to book along with everyone else and anything remotely exciting had to be paid extra for. This was at quite a fancy resort in the Bahamas as well! Since then we just book and pay for anything like this separately – OH dives as well which isn’t normally included so paying extra for facilities he wouldn’t use is a bit pointless.

• Harry T says:

  13 Jul13 July 14:33

  Has anyone received notice about Newcastle to Barcelona EasyJet flights being cancelled? I have flights booked for early August but the entire month of August is now showing as sold out on their website and cannot be booked.

  • Darren says:

    13 Jul13 July 17:22

    My sister has bookings on this route at the end of Aug and I was also looking to go next month, oh well not now then.

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