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The new HFP chat thread – Monday 17th 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.

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Comments (161)

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

  • Will says:
    17 Aug17 August 06:37

    Kudos to Doubletree Manchester Piccadilly. We are both Hilton Gold And booked 2 rooms at Honors Dream Away rate of just £52 for one night per room. Excellent simple rooms, friendly staff, and get the following:
    Free full English and continental breakfasts for all 4 of the family
    Upgraded to 8/9th floor with Nespresso machine and free water
    4*free drinks at the bar
    Discounted Local parking in nearby Q-park for approx £6 If arriving Sat or Sun. Default hotel parking is £20 so ask)
    Expecting 2000 bonus Honors points plus the regular credit.
    I frankly can’t see how they turn a profit with all the extra sanitation costs at present.

    • Will says:
      17 Aug17 August 06:43

      Just credited 5666 Honors points as also got Barclays first stay bonus 2500 for this year. Just thinking now how much BA could learn from Hilton how to look after their customers.

      • BJ says:
        17 Aug17 August 07:04

        Do you mean you are getting 4 x 2500 points from Barclays every year? Lucky you if so!

        • Will says:
          17 Aug17 August 07:27

          Not sure because I probably haven’t made 4 stays in total but have had the credit card for a long time. I thought there was a time limit on the first four stays so perhaps it has reloaded or perhaps it was an old promo that I Had loaded and have forgotten and was hidden from the website. It’s described as Barclays 1st stay bonus

          • Will says:
            17 Aug17 August 07:34

            And my wife got exactly the same in her account. Is this an old grandfathered perk or have we just got lucky? My wife’s card is perhaps 3 years old, mine is maybe 8-10 years old

          • BJ says:
            17 Aug17 August 07:36

            Supposed to be the first year only but on some cards it ran on longer. I got lucky but then something went wrong with my card and the replacement was not so rewarding.

          • Harry T says:
            17 Aug17 August 10:05

            So much credit card privilege here 😂. I’d settle for the normal Hilton Barclaycard without extra brucies.

          • Lady London says:
            17 Aug17 August 11:27

            Lots of us would like that @Harry T. The lucky ones that got it (it’s now closed) like @BJbwaving their Hilton credit card in front of us is very frustrating 🙂

          • BJ says:
            17 Aug17 August 12:40

            I’d be happy to share with Harry’s £100 NHS discounts on a £250 Marriott stay. I still have my old IC ID which would have done the trick. It’s out of date but I wonder if the temptation would have been too great had it not been.

          • Harry T says:
            17 Aug17 August 13:13

            @BJ fair play! I’m savings hundreds at Augustine and Hotel Imperial this month.

          • BJ says:
            17 Aug17 August 13:34

            @Harry T, enjoy Vienna but don’t waste any time on coffee and torte at Hotel Sachre, it really doesn’t merit the hype.

        • John says:
          17 Aug17 August 12:48

          lol I have an Imperial NHS ID which has no date, but at some point I will look too old for the photo

          • BJ says:
            17 Aug17 August 13:29

            Well, unfortunately mine has but I’m not divulging which 🙂 Don’t worry about your pic, working at IC would make anybody go grey.

          • Jonathan says:
            17 Aug17 August 13:33

            Hope you signed up to the Imperial Staff Arts Club before you left. Free entry to Tate/V&A/Royal Academy exhibitions with your ID badge.

          • BJ says:
            17 Aug17 August 13:39

            Not my scene Jonathan but hope you enjoy.

    • John says:
      17 Aug17 August 12:50

      IIRC the on-street parking 30 seconds away is free on weekends and after 8pm anyway

      And if you walk 5 minutes there is free on-street parking all the time. As long as your car is not worth stealing like mine…. (well I haven’t been to Manchester in 7 months but expect it is still the same)

  • Sandgrounder says:
    17 Aug17 August 06:58

    The full quarantine on arrival restrictions for Iceland have been published on covid.is, and it will probably kill off tourism for the foreseeable. ‘Special Precautions’ are officially toast, and they have actually tightened the ‘Quarantine’ required for the first 5-6 days. Regulations now specifically forbid driving for sightseeing and between towns. Why they started letting people in from Germany, Finland, Norway and Denmark without tests is beyond me. Yes, levels were low, but the virus wasn’t eradicated in those countries.

    • Spursdebs says:
      17 Aug17 August 07:36

      We will never know the real truth of what happened in Wuhan either.

      • BJ says:
        17 Aug17 August 07:38

        So, are you into the conspiracy theories Debs?

        • Spursdebs says:
          17 Aug17 August 07:58

          Well more common sense theories which of of course is different for everyone lol
          I don’t believe the world has tanked its economy because someone eat a contaminated bat at a wet market that’s for sure. I also don’t believe the Royal Family are lizard people although one or two of them a good case could be made lol I also don’t believe the Americans staged the moon landings. But who doesn’t love a good conspiracy theory.

        • BJ says:
          17 Aug17 August 08:07

          With all those buzzwords you might deliver HFP bumper page views today 🙂

        • Spursdebs says:
          17 Aug17 August 08:21

          Well BJ Rob did say his income was down 80% just doing my bit to help his page views 😂
          It will probably get deleted when the office wakes up lol

        • Jamie says:
          17 Aug17 August 10:25

          Spursdebs shows tin-foil hat tendencies regularly 😐 🤦‍♀️

        • AJA says:
          17 Aug17 August 13:18

          @ Spurs Debs “Royal Family are lizard people” adds new meaning to Queen Liz the 2nd 😉

      • Lady London says:
        17 Aug17 August 11:31

        Do do you think it’s a conspiracy by the Russians, or the Chinese?

        There has been a thought the Chinese should pay reparations.

        After SARS and this I wish China would work with us operating a minimum level of common world standards for biological matters.

    • meta says:
      17 Aug17 August 07:54

      Yes posted last night. Have started cancelling my September trip ☹️ Now need to find somewhere else.

      • Anna says:
        17 Aug17 August 08:21

        I’m staying within the UK for the rest of the year, and wondering if our Feb trip to Vienna will go ahead as planned; OH and son not really able to quarantine due to work and school!

        • Harry T says:
          17 Aug17 August 09:26

          @Anna
          I seem to recall your husband is a doctor? Just FYI, Marriott Bonvoy is offering discounted hotel rates called “Thank you, Healthcare Heroes”. The Hotel Imperial Vienna is participating – makes the entry level room £160 in February and the rate is flexible. The RC Vienna also appears to participate. Just search using the code HJH, and remember to get your hubby to bring some ID.

          • Anna says:
            17 Aug17 August 12:19

            Thanks – no it’s another branch of the blue light family! We’ve got a very good deal on the IC with a double upgrade to Executive suite with lounge access but it’s what Europe is going to be like after the winter that could be an issue…

          • Lady London says:
            17 Aug17 August 12:39

            That code on Marriott is not just medical/healthcare. Government, police, military can use it too.

          • Harry T says:
            17 Aug17 August 13:16

            @Anna
            Ah, think I just made some erroenous assumptions – I think the blue light family have similar problems with leave etc. The rate does say Medical/Healthcare in my booking but could be more flexible than that.

          • Pid says:
            17 Aug17 August 17:06

            @lady London – are you sure the Marriott rate can be used by other government workers such as police and military. Unless I missed read the terms I thought it was only for healthcare workers.

        • meta says:
          17 Aug17 August 09:43

          UK is not safer than other country in the world. My partner and I would Iike to go somewhere, but don’t want to spend time in quarantine/self-isolating abroad. We both work from home, so self-isolation on return is not a problem. It’s also difficult to plan anything as rules change constantly. Plus we’ve got too many points too my liking. I think it will be last minute decision.

          • Optimus Prime says:
            17 Aug17 August 10:22

            We WFH too but self-isolating means you’re not even supposed to go out to exercise once a day 🙁

          • meta says:
            17 Aug17 August 10:35

            @Optimus Prime you’re allowed to go out shopping for groceries. Who says you can’t exercise on the way? I do have a garden, so that wouldn’t be a problem. I do understand that I am in privileged position.

          • John says:
            17 Aug17 August 12:52

            Only if it is impossible for you to get them delivered or for someone to go shopping for you. If you want to break the rules, just be thankful that nobody is actually checking

          • Nick_C says:
            17 Aug17 August 12:57

            “UK is not safer than other country in the world”

            The UK clearly is safer than many other countries as our rate of infection is lower than many. The US has almost 10 times the level of infections as the UK currently.

            And within Europe, Spain, Malta France, Belgium, Holland, and Croatia have twice the level of infection as the UK.

            Add to the the risk of the activities you will be undertaking when going on holiday compared to those you will undertake while staying at home.

            Look at the data.

    • Vit says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:43

      Yes, 5-6 days in Iceland just to quarantine is not cheap (not for me). I would do if it were out in SE Asia but currently it is 15 days in Thailand. 🙁

  • Chelseafi says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:00

    Anyone stayed at Domes of Elounda this summer? I’m due to go end of Sept just interested in how things compare, staying in Haute Living Residence.

    • meta says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:44

      They are dumping a lot of inventory at various private membership OTA for cheap, so they must be struggling.

      • BP says:
        17 Aug17 August 12:02

        Any of the private membership OTAs you’d reccomend? I only know of 3 – luxuryescapes, voyage privee, verychic

        • meta says:
          17 Aug17 August 12:27

          I saw it on Secret Escapes too in addition to voyage priveee. I was looking at booking it, but am not going to do it until last minute as they’re not flexible enough. I don’t want their vouchers or credit notes.

  • Hannah says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:11

    Not sure if anyone can help but I can’t find the answer on the BA website. I need to book some flights to Europe but want to book it as 2 one way tickets to maintain as much flexibility as possible after I’ve flown the outbound sector. The inbound flight is charged in euros and I understand that if for any reason I cancel the flight for a future travel voucher this will also be in euros. Does anyone know if this can then be used against a purchase in GBP? I’m assuming if it is they would probably apply a less than favourable exchange rate. Thanks in advance!

    • blenz101 says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:42

      Not sure you gain any advantage doing this as BA are already allowing changes with just the fare difference. But.in any event you have to call to use the voucher currently so BA can easily change the point of sale of your ticket to allow pricing in Euros. There isn’t an exchange rate risk as such but they do price flights differently for different markets. One way flights often can be higher than a return.

    • Reeferman says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:40

      Yes, an FTV in € can be used for a booking in £. I did exactly that last month.
      The pricing has to be calculated by back-room colleagues (I’m still waiting for anything to be charged to my CC after 20 days) but the booking is confirmed with ticket numbers (and seats!) issued.

    • memesweeper says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:43

      I’ve done this — had a cash one way from EU to UK, took a voucher, spent it in the other direction. No problems. Note, for other reasons, you may want a return, including lower pricing, and the option to cancel the whole thing if one direction is cancelled/changed. One-ways are often a good use of Avios.

    • John says:
      17 Aug17 August 12:55

      The voucher will be converted to the currency of the flight at the IATA exchange rate, which is usually pretty close to the current rate, unless one of the currencies has crashed in the past few hours.

      The numbers may get rounded so if it’s a small amount it may not match the current exchange rate exactly, but who cares.

      I recently used a EUR voucher for a CHF flight and I got a rate of 1.091, which is better than the rate at the time. All done online with no hassle

    • Hannah says:
      17 Aug17 August 18:14

      Thanks all! Really appreciate the replies!

  • Oz says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:19

    Does anyone have a cunning plan / work around for KrysFlier miles. I’m “stuck” with quite a large quantity after Singapore cancelled my flight (purchased with points). So, I’m 18 months into the hard 3 year expiry date with no prospect of being able to fly in near future.
    TIA for any advice.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:55

      Were the call centre able to do anything about extending the life of the miles or suspending the ticket to travel at a later date rather than just a refund?

      Sometimes you have to get close to expiry date before approaching the call centre about possible alternatives.

    • meta says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:50

      They kept my redemption ticket on hold till end of March next year. Once I am ready to rebook, they will reticket and recalculate taxes. This means I can rebook for travel up to mid-March 2022. Taxes were minimal anyway, so don’t need cash and points would expire.

      • Spk says:
        17 Aug17 August 10:04

        Don’t you have to specify a future date to put a ticket on hold? Are you sure then that ticket can be extended for a further period of 12 months? Usually a ticket has to be cancelled and rebooked if it has to be extended beyond 12 months. And a cancellation can trigger expiry of miles if they were supposedly past their expiry date.

        • meta says:
          17 Aug17 August 10:11

          Nope. They put a note on my booking that they will reissue the ticket for me at the point of rebooking. It won’t be original ticket number or PNR when I rebook. My flight was cancelled though, so it might be different.

    • Spk says:
      17 Aug17 August 10:02

      You have effectively 28 months more for a trip, as you can book 1 year in advance. Partner airline booking is also made easy now with their website updated. I’ll be surprised if you say you don’t have any travel plans until end of 2022! Worst case, ask your friends or relatives if they’d like to use your miles. Don’t tell anyone if you receive a compensation for that!

  • Steve says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:39

    Passed through Zurich Airport yesterday . BA operating from D gates , access to the Aspire lounge , heads up , don’t expect much , pate, bread rolls , soup and that is pretty much it . However help yourself drinks .

    • Martin says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:53

      I did the same a few weeks ago and was also not inspired by the Aspire lounge. The only upside of the BA part of my trip was that they were operating a 788 on the outbound flight so had decent CE seats for that half of the trip, ok they were the old ying-yang seats but still miles better than the A320 CE seats on the way back.

  • MadeUpName says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:52

    Can anyone recommend a good beach hotel in Italy? Looking for something modern as most of the ones I’ve seen on line look like there are decorated in the same style as my gran’s house.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:57

      Do you have a certain brand in mind (points/status etc?) or a certain area?

      Or up for anything, anywhere in any price bracket?

      • MadeUpName says:
        17 Aug17 August 09:31

        Ideally by the sea, with pools and things to keep a toddler happy. Up to EUR 400 a night though aiming for 300 EUR.

        • MadeUpName says:
          17 Aug17 August 09:44

          No preference on brand. Have some hilton and marriott points but I think cash likely to be better value right now

        • pauldb says:
          17 Aug17 August 10:10

          Principe di Fitalia in Sicily or there’s a Rocco Forte resort down south. Lanthia Resort in Sardinia Is lower key or there are some swankier resorts in Costa Smerelda.

          • MadeUpName says:
            17 Aug17 August 15:00

            Thanks, Principe di Fitalia looks nice and not too expensive. Forte looks like but much more expensive.

    • Stanley says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:21

      We had the same problem – why cant Italy build modern hotels?? – have chosen the Mare Pineta – in Milano Marittima…… or the Verdura in Sicily…..

    • Fred (Your comment is awaiting moderation) says:
      17 Aug17 August 10:55

      Your Gran gets about.
      I found this to be the case in the US also – even in wealthy California – its crazy how they view themselves as No.1

  • YH says:
    17 Aug17 August 09:42

    I have a BA First class flight on a 789 to DXB in November. Any thoughts on what travelling to Dubai will be like then? I understand everything is purely speculation at this point but just interested.

    My booking is Avios and hotels are refundable so no huge risk from my side.

    • Spursdebs says:
      17 Aug17 August 10:00

      My trip is booked for January 2021 I’ve been reading everything I can find, but it changes all the time. Having the test is a pia but hopefully more approved places will be doing them come January that doesn’t require me to drive 90 mins to get it done. Not bothered about quarantine when I return as I’m stuck indoors all day anyway. More concerned about travel insurance being invalidated if UAE doesn’t come off the list of non approved countries. Like you everything is on easy to cancel bookings. Wait and see and be prepared is name of the game by looks of it.

      • Blenz101 says:
        17 Aug17 August 11:51

        As a Dubai resident I can answer any specifics you have. Just to note that an NHS test result (printed email) will be perfectly acceptable for your arrival into Dubai, Departing currently you will need to pay around 300AED/ 60GBP as only private tests are available.

        Masks are mandatory everywhere with hefty fines (3000AED) for non compliance. You can take them off when seated in a bar/restaurant or around the pool/private beach at a hotel. I know of friends who were eating at a restaurant in a mall and headed to the public toilets in the mall without their mask during their meal and picked up a fine from a plain clothed policeman. You will need to be very aware of this when out and about, unlike the UK it is being strictly enforced.

        Another noticeable restriction is that it is maximum of 2 people in a taxi, front seat out of use, if you are travelling as a family you will need multiple taxis each time.

        Beyond that everything is pretty much open but with social distancing in place. It does mean things get booked up and particularly in residential areas you can’t just walk into a bar without a reservation at the weekend but as a tourist this will be less of an issue in any event.

        • Spursdebs says:
          17 Aug17 August 19:20

          Thanks Blenz that’s great info and much appreciated.
          Hope the taxi thing changes tho, paying out two taxis from dxb to Ras for 2 adults and 1 child will be annoying. That’s assuming I can even get in the back I normally sit in the front as I get car sick!

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