The new HFP chat thread – Thursday 30th July

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 de facto 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/2020/07/30/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-thursday-30th-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.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HFP home page. If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here. This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

Category

General

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

CardiffJock says:

30 Jul30 July 10:23

Hi all question – following Rob’s article yesterday on buying IHG points… any thoughts gratefully received as they seem a decent buy.

If I buy them on my IHG Premium card (or whatever it’s called – the one with the £99 fee 🙂 ) as I think you buy in dollars will I still be liable for the 3% loading for non-sterling?

I could alternatively shove it all thru on my curve blue (and only pay 2% above £500?) – curve is linked to my IHG anyway

Not sure which of these would garner most IHG points on the purchase either. Will prob spend £1,500 or so on this

What would you do?

Cheers
- DJ says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 10:32
  
  It depends. If I was you, then I would put it via Curve to avoid foreign transaction fees.
  
  However, if I need some qualifying points for Spire, then I’d put it through the IHG card directly. After all, you get 4 points for every £1 you spent on foreign currency. Assuming you put £1500 through, then that would potentially give you 6000 qualifying points.
  - DJ says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 10:33
    
    Just read that you have Curve blue .. in that case I would rather put it through the IHG card … that is, if you have the “Black Premium Card”.
    - Secret Squirrel says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 18:13
      
      Is it worth the 3% FX fee payable?
  - Anna says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 10:34
    
    ON foreign currency or IN foreign currency?
    - DJ says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 13:41
      
      Thanks for spotting the error 🙂
- Andrew says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 10:39
  
  Are you aware that buying IHG points is outsourced to Points.com.
  
  So if you were looking at specific benefits for spending at IHG, they wouldn’t trigger.
  - CardiffJock says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 10:52
    
    Thanks for the replies. Any other thoughts gratefully received, I know when I’ve used my Curve (linked to IHG) card overseas before, I seem to recall earning extra IHG points for some reason (even though it was curve that fronted the transaction…)
    - Genghis says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 12:04
      
      Note that the IHG black card earns 4 points on “overseas” transactions, not necessarily non-GBP transactions. I’ve had online orders earn only 2 points yet get charged the 3% fx fee and I’ve had GBP transactions in Guernsey at 4 points. No idea where points.com lies.
      
      I’d challenge also whether you actually need to buy the points. £1.5k is a lot of money to shell out if no defined purpose?
    - Doug M says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 12:11
      
      Don’t buy any points unless you have an immediate use for them. At the current time that use may result in cancellation anyway.
      You’re swapping money which you can spend anywhere on anything for some fake money that allows you to book at a specific chain of hotels. If you don’t have an immediate redemption in mind it’s pretty much always a bad deal to buy any airline/hotel/loyalty type points/miles.
      In my experience, and others may say differently hotel points only work well on a £/value basis at higher end properties. If you’re happy in a HIE type place you’ll never do that well out of them.
      - Colin MacKinnon says:
        
        30 Jul30 July 13:56
        
        In Covid times I have bought £2,000 of them to pay for a Holiday Inn in California at Xmas.
        
        Rooms booked in hotel next to beach house where rest of family staying, and fully cancellable. And cheaper than paying cash.
        
        Bt the free cancellation in cover times is the huge benefit.
      - Doug M says:
        
        30 Jul30 July 23:52
        
        Of course, each to their own. But you had a redemption in mind and bought them for that specific purpose, that’s a good approach.
        Of course if the Xmas holiday doesn’t happen you’ll be able to cancel, and you’ll have half a million IHG points not £2000. In the current uncertainty buying points seems ever more risky.
Sam says:

30 Jul30 July 11:39

Hi all, I am planning a trip to Paris over a weekend in August or Sept (I’m flexible) – it may be a solo trip and I’m planning to take the Eurostar. Can anyone recommend any decent hotels near the main attractions – I don’t want or need luxury, just somewhere safe, clean and comfortable. I don’t have any hotel loyalty points or signed up to any hotel scheme. Partly the reason why I’m booking the trip is I have 7 Hotels.com reward nights expiring in October ’20 so don’t want to lose them so will be booking hotels through them. Thanks!
- Genghis says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 12:07
  
  I always stay at Idol Hotel as it’s close to our office (booked on hotels.com) . It’s decent. I occasionally walk down to the “centre”, primarily to get a Mont Blanc from Angelina and it’s a leisurely 30 mins or so.
- Lady London says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 13:47
  
  I like the Hampton at Clichy a lot. Bus 65 a very pleasant (and not rush-hour blocked) 25min to Galeries Lafayette. A metro line to near it might be open by now.
  
  Paid 15 euros with 2 suitcases from Gare du Nord on a Sunday in a taxi so suspect it’s cheaper other times.
- Lady London says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 13:51
  
  PS I suggest you do Sept rather than Aug as the essential element of Paris is Parisians and they’re missing in August.
  
  Have a liquorice macaroon or Ispahan (raspberry and pistachio) at Laduree rue Royale and think of me thinking of you enviously.
- Ja says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 15:06
  
  I have stayed at the Crowne Plaza in the Place de la Republique and Hilton L’Opera both of which I recommend.
- PJJ says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 16:15
  
  I believe hotels.com are extending the period of anyone whose rewards expire between April to December. Check out ‘Your Rewards’ page on the site
- Sukes says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 18:57
  
  I haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet but ‘25hours’ hotel literally across the road from main Gare du Nord entrance gets rave reviews, and gives unrivalled access for travelling on metro, RER (and obvs eurostar). It’s an Accor brand and the result of a major renovation of the building – only opened summer 2019 I think. At the opposite end of the spectrum, if you do splurge you can’t beat Le Bristol reopening 1 Sept.
  - Sam says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 20:03
    
    Thanks all!
    
    @LL, yes I read about travelling in August so likely to be Sept.
    
    @PJJ I thought that was the case (and it may be) but nothing showing on my account..I may email them…
    - PJJ says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 21:33
      
      There’s a few lines under the list of stamps collected and also under your rewards nights.
      I hope this is correct as I have 4 nights plus 5 stamps collected due to expire on the 20th August
      Might email them myself to be sure
      Let me know how you get on
Catman says:

30 Jul30 July 11:40

My Revolut top up via my IHG card seems to be back to £700 per week, is this the same for everybody else?
- Anna says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 11:47
  
  Mine’s ok so far but I’ve been keeping it in credit whenever possible so I don’t know if that makes a difference. If they’ve brought the limit back, though, will they also stop charging interest?
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 12:03
    
    Aerclub offering 50% bonus on buying AVIOS points promo on.
- Secret Squirrel says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 12:27
  
  Far exceeded normal limits this week!
- The Urbanite says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 15:11
  
  Mine is down to 0. Revolut appear to have put in a manual override so that topping up with any of the IHG cards is not supported!
  - avstar says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 19:56
    
    how many warnings did revolut give you
- Crafty says:
  
  2 Aug2 August 15:39
  
  No
Aston100 says:

30 Jul30 July 12:26

Hi, want to check if I’ve got this right.
Government eat out scheme, combined with shop small for 2 diners who have it on their cards. One is the main card and the other is a supplementary.
Say the bill comes to £40 (before any 50% discount), and they ask for it to be split in to 2 * £20 bills, and then pay one bill with person A’s amex and the other bill with Person B’s supplementary amex.
Are we looking at each person’s card getting charged £10, and then presumably triggering the £5 shop small some time thereafter?

Or have I misunderstood this?
- Genghis says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 12:32
  
  You’re correct. It’s what we plan on doing.
  - Alex W says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 13:02
    
    Brilliant!
- Stanley says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 12:33
  
  Yes. exactly like that.
  - Alex M says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 15:16
    
    Remember, service charge and alcohol not included.
    - Aston100 says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 15:24
      
      Good job I don’t tip or tipple!
    - Stanley says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 16:17
      
      But you can order a 20 quid starter, pay your tenner. Then order a 20 quid main, pay another tenner. Repeat till you are full…..
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        30 Jul30 July 19:09
        
        I don’t think so unless you were to leave and come back.
meta says:

30 Jul30 July 12:28

For a couple, this could be 5 nights for 2 at a Kimpton or a Regent hotel as the Amb voucher is valid on any night unlike at Intercontinental.

Night 1, 2 – use Ambassador voucher 1
Night 3,4 – use Ambassador voucher 2
Night 5 – Free night up to 40k per points

With Intercontinental it’s not possible as Amb voucher has to be used on a weekend (Fri/Sat or Sat/Mon). You also need to find a Kimpton/Regent for 40k or less and complete one extra stay before that. So need to take all this into consideration whether it is worth it.

Those who can benefit the most from this are those who haven’t got Amb membership yet.
- meta says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 12:32
  
  This was a reply to Anna’s comment further up thread about IHG Amb membership.
  - Anna says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 15:31
    
    Can you use the bogof at Regent now? I haven’t seen that, only IC or Kimpton.
    - meta says:
      
      30 Jul30 July 23:59
      
      Yes. It’s quite recent. Announced yesterday or the day before.
Ishan says:

30 Jul30 July 13:08

I know that BA has pulled it’s Gatwick operation to 9th November and some flights are being moved to LHR. I need to go to Jersey in early October and while BA.com shows flights from LGW and not LHR, when you try to book entering either LON, LGW or LHR is the search box, it says no flights found.

Anyone else seen this or able to comment as to whether they are progressively moving flights across to LHR?
- Rhys says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 13:09
  
  Is this a reward flight? There have been numerous reports of reward search playing up in the last week
  - Ishan says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 13:33
    
    No, looking at a normal cash booking. 4-7 October. Appears flights are running to/from LGW in the timetable but no flights found when trying to book
- MadeUpName says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 13:33
  
  I’ve read on flyertalk that some have moved to LHR, but not all yet. I’m keeping an eye too as we have SKG flights.
  
  Cash search currently says no flights available. Other LGW only destinations say the same thing or offer connecting flights
- MadeUpName says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 13:36
  
  This might help – LHR until 8 Nov, but might not be loaded yet
  
  https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2020-07-30/bas-jersey-to-heathrow-route-will-continue-until-november
  - Ishan says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 13:41
    
    Thanks. Looks like they haven’t got round to moving them all in that case.
@mkcol says:

30 Jul30 July 14:24

Not before time
“Virgin Atlantic faces enforcement action over refund delays”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53595739
- Lady London says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 14:39
  
  Would be nice if the Dutch, German and French regulators would step up and tell their national airlines to stop their nonsense too
  - Anna says:
    
    30 Jul30 July 15:25
    
    Also if BA was held to account for disabling the online refund function!
Anna says:

30 Jul30 July 15:56

Bit niche, but anyway! My nephew needs to travel from Chester to Holyhead tomorrow to join family. The Transport for Wales website says rail services are for essential travel only but no further explanation. Anyone come across this?
- Stoneman says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 17:15
  
  The trains are empty but are likely to encounter a couple of staff at the station asking where you are going. Just tell them it is essential travel and you are left alone to conduct your business
- AndyGWP says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 17:15
  
  Specifically (IIRC) it says travel in Wales
  
  Assume it’s to do with Welsh approach to Covid
- Anna says:
  
  30 Jul30 July 19:33
  
  Thanks -will see how it goes then.