The new HFP chat thread – Saturday 1st August

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• friendofbiffin says:

  1 Aug1 August 05:51

  Not sure if this has been mentioned here already but there’s a good opportunity to combine Shop Small with the government’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme from Monday. Splitting a bill across 2 Amex cards at places that are running both schemes should bring a £40 charge down to £10.

  • James H says:

    1 Aug1 August 07:37

    You’ve missed out the % higher chance of catching covid from your calculations.

    • Peter K says:

      1 Aug1 August 09:05

      Exactly.

    • RWJ says:

      1 Aug1 August 10:05

      Agreed!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Aug1 August 11:14

      From going out like the government is encouraging with this scheme or from splitting payment across two cards using a contactless card?

  • mr_jetlag says:

    1 Aug1 August 08:20

    Meerkat meals or Gourmet Society as well. Looking for a triple stack discount next week!

    • Jonathan says:

      1 Aug1 August 09:45

      These cost the restaurant money so personally I wouldn’t use these if you’re already double dipping AmEx & the Treasury.

      • meta says:

        1 Aug1 August 09:56

        It doesn’t cost restaurant any money. They get money for the scheme from the gouvernement and Amex is underwriting Shop Small!

        • Jonathan says:

          1 Aug1 August 10:43

          I’m talking about Gourmet Society etc. The restaurant foots the bill for the 241 with these schemes. My point is if you’re getting Shop Small & Eat Out discounts then that’s plenty without then taking the restaurant’s margin.

        • meta says:

          1 Aug1 August 10:51

          Restaurants are free to chose to subscribe to the Gourmet Society/Tastecard scheme. If it doesn’t work for their margins they are free not to participate. But since they are getting money from governement and it doesn’t cost them anything for Amex Shop Small, for the restaurant it doesn’t matter as they are only taking a hit on Gourmet Society/Tastecard use.

        • Lady London says:

          1 Aug1 August 13:40

          @meta things changed recently for restaurants economically though. that was after Taste and Gourmet signup by them.

          Personally the other poster saying let’s be decent since we’re already paying only 25% using other deals…. As Gourmet or Taste would now cost the provider when they really struggling…personally it woukd be classy not to use Gourmet or Taste on this one.

        • meta says:

          1 Aug1 August 15:04

          I would generally agree, but I know from own
          experience that with Tastecard/Gourmet restaurants can restrict use as much as they want (no weekends, only main course, etc). That’s why I usually don’t subscribe to these schemes any longer. They used to be great, but restaurants have refused the use of a card on too many occasions. Those that still do accept them in this environment obviously find them beneficial.

• Erico1875 says:

  1 Aug1 August 06:10

  Wr are flying Club from Edinburgh this morning. The BA lounge is closed. I phoned BA (India ?) I was asured our boarding pass will get us entry to Aspire or No 1 lounge. I will update later.

  • Wollhouse says:

    1 Aug1 August 06:20

    Hmmm, well when I travelled from Edinburgh on 23 July, ALL lounges were closed. Most of the shops were also closed. There were a couple of cafes open, but all in all it was a very sad experience – We were all like little rats in face masks following the one way markers around the airport. Just another reminder of how our world has changed.

    • Andrew says:

      1 Aug1 August 08:16

      And will be many years before it is changed back to how it was.

      • Lee says:

        1 Aug1 August 08:39

        Maybe never sadly

        • Lady London says:

          1 Aug1 August 13:11

          What do people really think will be left changed for the future in terms of travel?

          I am quite worried about pricing for the future if social distancing remains required and capacity stays lost. Overheads have to be covered soemehow by the providers and will spread over ? one-third of previpus capacity? for the mass providers like mainstream airlines.

    • Rob says:

      1 Aug1 August 09:16

      Aspire opens today.

      • Erico1875 says:

        1 Aug1 August 10:46

        But unfortunately dispite what the numpty in the BA call centre told me they arent accepting BA business class passengers

        • Lady London says:

          1 Aug1 August 13:47

          If they are open and not accepting according to their contract for your airline’s Business Class pax then ask BA for a replacement lounge pass to be used at any if their lounges ideally valid a year or so.

          I can imagine in these times lounges filling up with door-rate or prebooked cash customers and ‘forgetting’ to keep the space for contracted airline J class pax hoping to get away with it.

          If however all the eligible lounges were closed then you would, ironically, have to ‘lump it’ alongside every other J passenger.

  • Robert says:

    1 Aug1 August 08:03

    Anyone know if NCL or AMS BA lounges are open?

  • Kai says:

    1 Aug1 August 08:53

    Were all closed when I travelled on Thursday.

• Bluekjp says:

  1 Aug1 August 06:31

  BA has scrapped the BA1/BA2 London City JFK service altogether.
  Travel certainly is changing forever☹️☹️

  • Andrew says:

    1 Aug1 August 10:08

    Yes it’s a shame LCY has gone back to being a European airport. But I think that service had very low load factors.

• jason says:

  1 Aug1 August 08:10

  Platinum business card offer “business bundle offer” does buying £20 gift card in store work for currys? cheers

  • Rob says:

    1 Aug1 August 09:14

    No, it’s been tried. It must be online.

• Andrew says:

  1 Aug1 August 08:28

  Tesco Clubcard Avios seem to gave landed early this quarter – arriving today rather than towards the end of this month.

• Gareth says:

  1 Aug1 August 08:32

  Hey, looking to pay off Creation with hsbc premier cc via curve- does anyone know if this attracts fees or cash advance interest? Thanks

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    1 Aug1 August 08:43

    You don’t need curve. Not sure about fees with that card though, but cut out the middle man!

  • Jimbob says:

    1 Aug1 August 09:22

    No feed

    • Jimbob says:

      1 Aug1 August 09:23

      Fees!

      • Gareth says:

        1 Aug1 August 12:01

        Thanks guys- yes noticed creation accept credit cards but want to avoid any Hsbc fees.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          1 Aug1 August 12:20

          Well fee free via curve is guaranteed atm as all transactions have a single MCC rather than pass through.

          Ofcourse if/when that changes it would make no difference vs direct.

• Michael C says:

  1 Aug1 August 08:40

  Avios cancellation fee question!
  We’re looking at the following, for 3 passengers:
  LHR-HEL-Rovaneimi (on through ticket)
  Rovaneimi-HEL
  HEL-LHR

  If we cancelled, would it be:
  35GBP x 3
  + 35GBP x 3
  + 35GBP x 3?

  Cheers!

  • Andrew says:

    1 Aug1 August 08:50

    If it’s all one booking then it’s just £35 per person regardless of the connections.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Aug1 August 11:16

    I think from the way you’ve written it you have 3 different bookings so yes £35 per person per booking.

    • Michael C says:

      2 Aug2 August 07:34

      Cheers!

• Andrew M says:

  1 Aug1 August 10:15

  Any news on a HSBC points to Avios transfer bonus this month? There was a 25% bonus on transfers last August. I was hoping for a larger bonus this time. HSBC never does a good job of promoting theses bonuses so I did a small test transfer today to see what happens. I will update with the results.

  • Jimbob says:

    1 Aug1 August 14:31

    The last bonus was in December 2019, hoping for another December bonus this year

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