The new HFP chat thread – Tuesday 11th August

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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 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.

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Category

General

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

John says:

11 Aug11 August 09:24

Anyone know what Lufty LHR T2 lounge is like now?

Do you get the eat-out discount airside at Heathrow too?
- Coucou says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 09:36
  
  Pre packed sandwiches (coronation chicken or hummus-tomato, a week ago), one salad and drinks. They have a stand where you go and ask for the items of your choice. Very simple. Lounge is quiet.
Secret Squirrel says:

11 Aug11 August 09:37

Last night people on here made statements about paying Ernie using Revolut. My Q is why use Revolut when Curve is fine & not running risk of closure of account for too many top ups?
Also, what’s everyone using to top up Revolut then to pay others if your nit using Curve?
- Anna says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 10:08
  
  Is Curve not charging for this? (Even if you only have the free card?)
  - Doug M says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 10:16
    
    Nope, not me.
    I don’t understand revolut, what’s the attraction?
    Curve has obvious uses, and for a challenger bank Starling seem really sensible and what I want in a bank, a sense they’ll be around in a year’s time.
    - Anna says:
      
      11 Aug11 August 10:45
      
      Revolut has become much more attractive to me since Curve started charging for certain services. I’m sure it’ll come to an end at some point but for now it’s working very well for me.
    - Lady London says:
      
      11 Aug11 August 16:03
      
      I took advice here and giving Starling a try on business account. Early days but impressed so far.
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 11:24
    
    Nope for me also. Blue free card with 500k limit per year.
    If others are paying for metal to fund Ernie then I can see the attraction now for using R.
- Anna says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 10:12
  
  You can top up Revolut directly from Visa/MC, then pay with Revolut debit card just like any bank account.
  - Doug M says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 10:18
    
    I see, this answers my question above, thank you. But this means revolut sitting on my money, that I don’t like.
    - Anna says:
      
      11 Aug11 August 10:44
      
      Not if you do the transactions one after another!
      - Brighton Belle says:
        
        11 Aug11 August 11:12
        
        Expect to get shutdown soon.
      - Secret Squirrel says:
        
        11 Aug11 August 11:25
        
        My R top ups do not last long in my account. Be lucky to sit on £50.
      - Secret Squirrel says:
        
        11 Aug11 August 11:27
        
        @BB:
        REV give warnings first, I know of people who have had three warnings and still going.
      - Ming the Merciless says:
        
        11 Aug11 August 12:36
        
        I got shut down after £350k
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 18:42
    
    Ahh, I thought maybe I was missing a trick & you could use Seagulls to top up. Been using MC/Visa to top up for ages now.
    - Secret Squirrel says:
      
      11 Aug11 August 18:43
      
      @MingtheMerciless:
      Well at that figure I’ve got atleast another couple of years left.
      - Crafty says:
        
        11 Aug11 August 22:25
        
        It may not be the best benchmark, my Revolut account has had less than £20k through it ever and I’ve had two warnings, both of which I believe were triggered because I paid someone who shares my surname.
  - Chas says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 19:02
    
    Anna – I thought that R top-ups now attracted cash advance fees? I thought it changed c6 months ago, which was why I stopped. Have things reverted back again? For reference, I was predominantly using my VA cards (I recall that Creation was fine, so long as you kept a credit balance on the card).
- Rossy says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 14:25
  
  I was using curve for ernie but now approaching my £50k annual limit, so have shifted my more generic spending to Curve in the hope that they’ll increase my limit, hence the question about using R>ernie for now instead.
  Does anyone know how long I need to maintain non-MS spend for on curve before I should ask for spend limit increase? I’ve been clean since 1st August so far.
  - Connor says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 14:30
    
    I had 20k MS last month and had hit my 30 day limit. Asked for an increase and was bumped from 100k to 350k. Worth a shot.
    - Rossy says:
      
      11 Aug11 August 14:54
      
      Interesting. I’ve just pinged over a hopeful email, I’ll let you know how it goes…
  - Crafty says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 22:25
    
    My partner and I were both recently increased from £50k to £100k after asking politely. No especial effort to do spend of a certain type.
Andrew says:

11 Aug11 August 09:39

Can a Club Europe passenger with no status bring a Euro Traveller passenger as a guest into Galleries lounge at T5 or is it only status card holders who can bring a guest?
- Rhys says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 09:46
  
  No guest, sorry
Lee says:

11 Aug11 August 09:39

There are really good fare to Japan next Feb with Jal from Berlin. As low as £600, choice in transit at London with possibility to skip last leg.
- Doug M says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 11:01
  
  Pulled already. Mistake fare I guess.
  - Lee says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 11:06
    
    Indeed, went up to £1300
- Johnny Tabasco says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 13:24
  
  I’d wager the chances of getting into Japan early next year are very slim indeed.
KBuffett says:

11 Aug11 August 09:47

I vaguely recall mention of a hotel chain offering free parking as part of their current ‘offers’. Can anyone help me identify the brand?
Jeffstrongman says:

11 Aug11 August 10:28

So Swiss have emailed to say they cannot honour my ARN-SYD return sept/nov due to Coronavirus cancellations. This was a 241 business booking mentioned on Hfp. They ask me to accept the changes (no changes have been made!) look to rebook by end of January 21 or ring for refund. If I look to rebook will they honour the 241 flights for sept2021? Although there is no way to book that far in advance yet. The flights are for my elderly parents and unless Australia change their stance they won’t be allowed in for a long time anyway.
- AJA says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 10:36
  
  Given that you can’t book that far in advance I doubt they’d agree to it today. I would be inclined to move flights to a date in early January because the chances are they will get cancelled again given the current rise of infections in Australia meaning the chances are that Australia won’t allow people to enter. Then you will probably have the chance to change the bookings again to later in 2021. I have read horror stories of Swiss being terrible to refund so be prepared to wait for your cash if you do go down the refund route.
  - Harry T says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 10:44
    
    I agree with this. I should also mention that I hope the flights were paid for on a decent credit card because LH/LX often require a chargeback or section 75 claim.
- Harry T says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 10:42
  
  Lufthansa group are absolutely dismal for refunds. Providing your parents want to travel, then they are entitled to a rerouting without paying a fare difference. September 2021 won’t be bookable at present.
- Simon says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 13:06
  
  FWIW, Jeffstrongman, I had to cancel a 2-4-1 Swiss booking myself for HKG in March this year (cancelled in Feb sometime). Slightly different situation as I was actively cancelling, not LX. However, I requested the relevant tax refunds via LX’s Facebook page and refund monies were in my account within circa one week, as I recall. It was a pretty well-run system unlike most other LH/LX refund channels.
- Lady London says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 15:31
  
  I suggest you hold off doing anything with it till shortl before the flight as a lot can change.
John says:

11 Aug11 August 10:51

As all our holidays have e been wiped out this year considering Domes Elounda for a week early September.
Two adults just looking to sunbathe and relax. Thinking Tesco bedroom villa with private pool.
Can anyone who has been confirm if they think this sounds good and if weather is fine to sunbathe in September. Do I need to ask for a villa that faces particular direction to get most sun?
Thanks in advance for an help given.
- Harry T says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 11:08
  
  Greece is probably undergoing a second wave, and may well require a 14 day quarantine on return to the UK soon.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 11:53
    
    1 case per 100k reported yesterday
    
    The UK would be extremely happy with that
    - Nick_C says:
      
      11 Aug11 August 13:30
      
      Looking at a single day’s figures does not give a true indication of the rate of infection.
      
      7 day average for Greece is 13 new cases per day per million population. Slightly higher than the UK.
      
      https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=latest&casesMetric=true&interval=smoothed&perCapita=true&smoothing=7&country=GBR~PRT~FRA~ITA~DEU~CHE~DNK~IRL~HRV~GRC~AUT~CYP~CZE~EST~FIN~GIB~HUN~ISL~LVA~LIE~LTU~MLT~MCO~NLD~NOR~POL~SVK~SVN~TUR&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc
      
      Linked chart shows European countries currently on the “safe” list.
- memesweeper says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 11:26
  
  Can you both work from home (and otherwise tolerate two weeks of quarantine) when you get back?
  - John says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 13:19
    
    Can work from home – quarantining would not be an issue.
    More concerned about villa and weather.
    - Sandra says:
      
      11 Aug11 August 13:31
      
      Greece has today announced night time curfews on bars (mainland and Islands) due to rising COVID cases so I suspect if it continues further restrictions will be put in place by their government soon/Greece may go on the list of countries for isolation in return.
      - Sandra says:
        
        11 Aug11 August 13:32
        
        *on return to U.K.!
      - Erico1875 says:
        
        11 Aug11 August 17:48
        
        The curfew is from midnight to 7am so you can still have a decent night out
- AndyW says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 14:29
  
  I wouldn’t choose Domes if I didn’t have kids. Don’t get me wrong, love the place, but at a guess early September most people will have toddlers with them, it was certainly like that when we have been. Pick an adults only hotel and enjoy the peace and quiet!
  - Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 15:17
    
    Or indeed, pick an adults-only hotel while you still can!
- Jonny says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 18:11
  
  Just spent a blissful week in Domes with our 3 young kids.
  The “standard” suites are built into the hillside soeffectively any “sea view” room has a beautiful view over Spinalonga and the surrounding bay, and captures the sun pretty much all day long. Ditto the pool suites – some have better outside areas than others (though all are good!) – just request one with a nice garden.
  We had a lovely time there this year, and the protocols they have put in place are sensible without being intrusive, and didn’t affect our enjoyment at all (once they scaled up given the sudden influx of last minute bookings!)
  Breakfast was a la carte instead of buffet, but you can order as much as you like. The resort is very good for families (like ours) but plenty of couples there too, and is so spacious that you shouldn’t be surrounded by screaming kids!
Robert M says:

11 Aug11 August 10:51

Hi everyone, long time reader first time poster. I’m a bit confused about how the ba book with confidence applies to a flight that is upgraded with Avios at the time of booking. If one cancels the booking does the voucher have the Avios and the cash part wrapped up in the voucher? or is the Avios refunded to you and the voucher just has the cash element or is the Avios spent converted to a cash amount and then applied to a voucher? I take it rebooking is relatively straight forward if there is availability there would just be the difference to pay is there is any? Thanks for any help with this!
- Rob says:
  
  11 Aug11 August 11:01
  
  I would expect that the whole thing is wrapped into the voucher, so you get a mix of cash and Avios. I can’t say for sure though. The Avios is NOT converted to cash – this only happens if you did ‘part pay with Avios’.
  - Robert M says:
    
    11 Aug11 August 11:40
    
    Hi rob,
    
    Thanks for your reply! It’s great to hear from you, that does clear things up! That makes senses that the voucher reflects the ticket brought.
    
    Thanks again!