The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 22nd July

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• Ian says:

  22 Jul22 July 16:19

  Warning to anyone using Amex to pay bills/invoices via BillHop. I received an email from Amex today to say that my account has been suspended while they conduct a review. I have just called Amex to get more information about it and the reason for the account suspension is because I have been using BillHop. The person I spoke to made it very clear that if a merchant doesn’t accept Amex and you use BillHop to transfer cash to pay that merchant then you are in breach of Amex’s T&Cs.

  This came as a bit of a surprise. I asked why in that case does Amex have a merchant agreement with BIllHop.. she didn’t know the answer to that.

  I suggest an update to the BillHop review here on headforpoints.

  The person I spoke to was unable to say for now if my account will be permanently closed as a result of this.

  I have a large MR balance. Does anyone know what happens to that if they do permanently close the account?

  • Rob says:

    22 Jul22 July 16:31

    Weird. As you say, Amex chooses to work with Billhop. In general if you close your card you have a few weeks to use the points before the account is closed. Not sure what happens if Amex closes it.

    Do please send us copies of all the correspondence when this is done.

    It may, of course, be linked to the fact that Amex has just launched something like Billhop – story on the way.

    • Ian says:

      22 Jul22 July 16:34

      I use Amex International payments for my business fx transfers, and they recently offered me to use their ‘premium’ service for sending FX & Sterling payments that would allow me to earn 1 MR point per pound spent. They even made the point that I could use the service to pay my Amex bill!

      Any ideas what will happen to the MR points I’ve earned on the recent BillHop transactions? I paid a large amount of VAT taking advance of the extra points promo.

    • Genghis says:

      22 Jul22 July 17:11

      You can still move your points while your account is suspended.
      Amex account review team aren’t all that great. They’re unable to read basic terms and conditions.
      Hopefully they’ll see sense and let you back. I got let back after FOS involvement. Good luck.

  • AJ says:

    22 Jul22 July 18:17

    Wouldn’t worry about getting your account cancelled, many of us had accounts cancelled due to shops small ‘abuse’ a year+ back. As far as I’m aware, everyone who got cancelled and banned were not blacklisted and those who applied again have been approved.

    It does seem bizarre that they’ve come out with this re-billhop.

  • Anna says:

    22 Jul22 July 18:38

    That’s not good. I use Billhop a fair bit across multiple cards including for a monthly (lowish) car payment!

  • Anna says:

    22 Jul22 July 18:42

    Thinking further about this, it’s bonkers and I wonder if they CSA you spoke to got it wrong. I had a payment rejected by Billhop because it didn’t fit the criteria for Amex, while many others have gone through with no problem so Amex is clearly a willing participant in these transactions.

    • Anna says:

      22 Jul22 July 19:04

      And if a merchant accepts Amex, you wouldn’t be using Billhop anyway so none of that makes sense!

  • memesweeper says:

    22 Jul22 July 20:08

    > The person I spoke to made it very clear that if a merchant doesn’t accept Amex and you use BillHop to transfer cash to pay that merchant then you are in breach of Amex’s T&Cs

    That’s total cobblers… the merchant *is* BillHop. They can ban BillHop if they want — let’s face it, they walked away from Curve (twice). There are other high-risk merchants they either avoid, or place onerous terms on. As others have commented, Amex are proactively calling up business users and advertising a service which enables you to pay bills where Amex (or any cards) are not accepted. And, at a push, you can take money out of an ATM and pay cash anywhere. So the person you spoke does not understand Amex’s business very well at all, it seems.

  • Spursdebs says:

    22 Jul22 July 22:42

    Oh hope this isn’t start of things to come, I’ve been paying for private medical treatment using amex and billhop. That will be most annoying.

    • Rob says:

      22 Jul22 July 22:56

      I think Amex will leave you alone unless you are doing massive volumes. They could simply cancel their Billhop deal if they wanted. It’s more likely that they are looking for Billhop customers as potential customers for their new service …. which we will get to next week.

      • Spursdebs says:

        22 Jul22 July 23:00

        Thanks … what will be will be I guess.

  • Lady London says:

    23 Jul23 July 21:07

    It would be annoying but if tbey do cloae on you could you demand they compensate each MR at 0.9p as that’s what they’ve been offering as the offset value if tbem useable to credit against statement value due?

    Clearly the flexibility of MRs is preferable but if Amex is playing hardball…

    I think this is very unreasonable of Amex. Do they put Billhop in the same category as Curve now? I havent been very sympathetic to Curve on their claims agsinst American Exptess bur if Amex is playing like this with you then msybe Curve would have been correct in their accusations if Amex acting in bad faith.

• BlueHorizonuk says:

  22 Jul22 July 16:51

  Hiya, has anyone tried to book a Air France flight on Virgin?

  Trying to book to Maldives and it is not in the airports list so wont show up.

  Is this a call up and see job? Do we know if they match what is shown on Airfrance.com?

  71,000 miles each way from the UK seems a steal in Business class.

  Thanks

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    22 Jul22 July 19:27

    You sure its 71k VS points to MLE on AF? Redemptions on AF using VS miles do not always match like for like.

    • BlueHorizonUK says:

      22 Jul22 July 21:00

      Yes according to the chart in Virgin website

• Nik says:

  22 Jul22 July 17:23

  I had my redemption flight (using 2-4-1) to Seattle in September cancelled by BA yesterday.
  I phoned today to ask to reschedule it to April, but they would not reschedule because the date is more than 14 days from the date of my cancelled flight and there’s no comparable Avios availability (First & Business) in April.
  I said that according to the 28th April directive (reported on HFP), cancelled reward flights could be rebooked for ANY date. But she wouldn’t budge.
  Is this still the case? Should I be able to rebook for any date irrespective of availability? The original link provided in the post on 5th May doesn’t work any more.

  • UKPB says:

    22 Jul22 July 19:31

    You’re entitled to a full refund of Avios, taxes and 241 voucher or rerouting. Rerouting will include any paid for seat reservations and does NOT require Avios availability. However, rerouted flights have to be completed within 1 year of your original booking date. You can reroute yourself via MMB. No need to call up.

    • Lady London says:

      23 Jul23 July 21:22

      I am unsure if so far as EU261 rights are concerned, which btw zupersede anything BA says, whether passenger has to stay within approx 11.5 months of ticket issue date in terms of his cboice of replacement flight at a later date convenient to him which EU261 gives him.

      I view this as an admin difficulfy that is the airline’s responsibility to solve by issuing a new ticket for the rerouting.

      Aftee all some people can only travel for particulsr reasons at only some times of tbe year or may only travel to attend an annual e dny whose date moves slightly each year.

      I would push back on this and point to EU261. I reallty would not accept it and would go all the way not to.

      If this point has been tested in court it will be on flyertalk somewhere but I dont have time to read that.

• Jerrry Butler says:

  22 Jul22 July 17:55

  I have some large bills to pay through my business, if I apply to Amex for the Plat Business, pay the bills and get the 40K bonus for spending 6K, and then I close the account, will I get a fee refund for the remainder of the year?

  • Connor says:

    22 Jul22 July 18:15

    Pro-rata refund

• Gert van Rooyen says:

  22 Jul22 July 18:17

  I received a British Airways Future Travel Voucher for a canceled flight due to COVID-19. I book the original flight using air miles and a companion coupon. I sent an email requesting information on the voucher rules regarding the air miles and the companion coupon and I received what looks like an automated email response stating BA will not refund my money. I responded a second time stating they need to read my email, I am not asking for my money back, I am asking information about air miles. I received a second email stating the same and my response was the same. About a week ago I noticed BA returned my money via my credit card, returned the air miles, and the companion coupon on my BA account. The money however was $110 less than what I paid. I received no communication from BA explaining why they did it and if they canceled the Future Travel Voucher. Did anybody have a similar experience?

• Waddle says:

  22 Jul22 July 18:36

  Data Point: Have taken 20k MR points retention on my Platinum. No spending requirement. Phoned yesterday and was put through to Brighton immediately.

• Anna says:

  22 Jul22 July 19:24

  Reported in the media that the Bahamas is going to have to go back into lockdown because when they eased their COVID restrictions many Bahamians rushed off to Florida to do cheap shopping, weren’t quarantined when they returned and have caused a new outbreak. Way to undo all the good work!

  • memesweeper says:

    22 Jul22 July 20:10

    You’ve got to feel sorry for the Bahamians. So much of their logistics runs through Miami.

    • Lady London says:

      23 Jul23 July 22:01

      I wonder if the wet muggy heat oc Florida is something Covid likes, as compared to the dry heat of other places where at this time of year it has seemed covid did not thrive so well.

• Derek Scott says:

  22 Jul22 July 20:39

  Can anyone help with this weird question. Wanted to book BAH EDI-LHR-YVR return with 1 night stopover and hotel in LHR, and wanted OB First, return Club. As can’t book that online using deposit option, called to sort out. Prior, had checked Flight Only prices to get good expectation of price difference for upgrade portion (has worked well for me before). and it appeared to be a great deal at only £200 difference for the upgrade.

  8:05pm and BA agent had system problems… so we agreed best option was I booked online for Club Return then call back next day for upgrade, with no fees if done in 24hrs.

  Next day, agent couldn’t find flight upgrade any cheaper than over £3k cost. Insisted there was no way she could find it anywhere near £200, even though I could see it on a Flight only.

  I’m convinced she was pricing as Fully Flex rather than cheapest. But loathed to sit in queues for another 90-120 mins just in case.

  Am I missing anything?

  • Lady London says:

    23 Jul23 July 22:12

    all you’re missing is screenshots of what was on offer before BA’s systems failed so you could ask for it now.

    BA has stopped bookings suddenly for First on a number of routes. Either they’re dropping First on the route or uncertain wbich aircraft they will be using – or planning to switch to a plane witbout First I would guess.

    Over the years I’ve noticed that when an airline is thinking of cancelling something sometimes they say nothing but they put the price sky-high while they make up their mind. so..I was looking att flights to Portland last week and could not underdtznd wby I was seeing a lot of return trips costing £1143 or so. In Y. Pdx can be overpriced but that was still £400-600 overpriced. Now I know why. First availabilitymay have gone the same wsy for you.

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