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.

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/2020/08/17/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-monday-17th-august/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.

Lady London says:

17 Aug17 August 13:06

Hey Rob did I just see a test flash-up of your new website layout? Unmissable with brightly coloured greens and terracottas in squares. For a moment I thought my phone had developed an old TV test pattern!
- BJ says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 13:17
  
  So we are getting earth tones?
  - Rhys says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 13:36
    
    Wait and see 😉
  - Lady London says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 13:37
    
    kind of natural brights. Think Gucci summer without the gold. very modern layout. unmissable.
Super Secret Stuff says:

17 Aug17 August 13:36

Anyone noticed some odd things happening with Shop Small?

I’m still waiting for some of them to arrive from a few weeks ago but I had Creams on Saturday (delicious btw) and got Shop Small. Creams is a massive chain so why on earth did that happen?
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 14:03
  
  Not sure if each store is actually a standalone franchise? I don’t know what sort of turnover excludes you from being eligible for small shop
- Kai says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 14:19
  
  Brewdog in certain locations also participate.
  - avstar says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 18:47
    
    care to share ….?:)
Oh! Matron! says:

17 Aug17 August 13:42

Couple of shout outs:
1. BA: Got to LHR at 3pm ish a week last thursday for my flight to Milan, only to find out that I’d brought my old passport (which has my CURRENT US visa in) and not my new passport. BA booked me on to the flight the next morning. Impressed… I know many US airlines have a “flat tyre” rule for eventualities like this, but it’s the first time I’ve ever had to use it in the UK!

2. Hilton: I was going to be spending that thursday in the HGI at Malpensa, but obviously that didn’t happen, so rang Hilton who rang the hotel who have given me a voucher for future use (couldn’t cancel as it was so late in the day)

Just wanted to share some positivity in this age of doom and despair
- Lady London says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 13:47
  
  That HGI has a reasonable little gym in the basement and IIRC a laundry
YH says:

17 Aug17 August 14:02

I have a Eurostar booking in September with a connecting SNCF ticket bundled as part of it.

Clearly with France being added to the quarantine list I no longer want to make this journey. I know I can request a travel voucher, but do I have any options for getting a cash refund since France is on the do not travel list now?
- BS says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 14:21
  
  Depending on how things move, countries may well be taken off the list in a matter of weeks. May be worth waiting if you’d be happy to travel if the ban lifted. I know this doesn’t answer the question…
KS says:

17 Aug17 August 14:17

qq regarding Avis Preferred benefit on Amex Platinum. What is the Avis Preferred tier and discount available?
- Aslan says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 15:18
  
  Just the base tier so not much – I think you get some discount for having a amex platinum card linked to your account.
  However, you can get National Executive Elite status via Amex plat (technically a US amex plat benefit) and status match to top tier hertz and presidents club Avis.
  - KS says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 15:29
    
    Interesting, that’s what I expected as well but when I enrolled couple of months back I seem to have jumped on to President’s Club and getting approx 30% discounts. I might have inadvertently accessed discounts meant for Centurion then.
- Doug M says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 15:25
  
  I think the discounts come from alternate means, various airline and credit card AWD codes. The big benefit of Avis Preferred in my experience is that you can skip the desks, rock up in the garage, find your name on a board with a car location, and be in the car and gone in a very small amount of time. Some of busy locations in Florida and Las Vegas for example this can save an hour or more.
  - Tocsin says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 15:45
    
    I think the PP card with the Amex Plat can get you Avis Preferred Plus – but you have to ask specifically for this and provide the PP no. – did this a long while ago, so can’t remember the details.
    
    … however a quick google: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2018/09/17/priority-pass-giving-avis-status/
    
    🙂
    - KS says:
      
      17 Aug17 August 16:09
      
      Thanks. So my purpose was to understand why I have been enrolled into President’s Club while this is not advertised anywhere. I went back and looked at the Amex membership benefits enrolment page and the directions to enrol for Avis suggest using Centurion as the code during enrollment, which I probably did. This also unlocks 35% discount and is available if you are logged into your Avis Preferred account while making the booking. On a rental that I had over the weekend it applied AWD code that is meant for centurion cardholders (E888810) and I can see similar discount for my next booking in September.
      - Tocsin says:
        
        17 Aug17 August 16:36
        
        Sounds like you’ve found an ‘undocumented feature’ then!
  - Lady London says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 22:21
    
    this avoids the relentless upsell by the Avis agent when you pick up at the desk. While everybody in the queue stood waiting, their wait was being hugely lengthened by the agent trying to upsell item after item. Put me right off Avis especially when I got to the front of the queue and realized that was why I’d been standing for over 1 hour as #4 in the queue.
BS says:

17 Aug17 August 14:19

Some of the Marriott hotels for medics/nurses/paramedics are pretty good, around a third of the price of the BAR. You need to use promo code HJH
W hotel in London £150/night, the London EDITION £159/night, Marriott park lane £150/night. All of those are £350 – 550 /night on the best available rate, and seem to have been rated quite highly on tripadvisor (although I have not stayed at them myself)
- memesweeper says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 14:40
  
  Seems to be a price cap … the cheaper properties are not noticeably reduced. Fantastic treat for some (para)medics, well deserved I’m sure.
- Harry T says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 15:51
  
  I’ve found the same at luxury Marriott properties in Vienna and Prague.
- Harry T says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 17:10
  
  Btw thank you – I’ve booked a few weekends at these hotels.
Augustiner says:

17 Aug17 August 14:21

To conclude yesterday’s conversation about quarantine I spoke to the home office helpline today and indeed arrival day is day 1 so if you land on a Monday you can return to work 2 weeks on the Monday.
Michael says:

17 Aug17 August 14:51

Re. CURVE CARD: Is it possible to pay of credit card balances with the free blue curve card (app) with an underlying debit card? Or will this incur any charges?
- Anna says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 15:28
  
  I think all payments to credit cards using the free Curve now attract a charge.
  - Bazza says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 20:18
    
    Can you get away with it with this miles and more card Rob uses?
    - Rob says:
      
      18 Aug18 August 01:45
      
      No, Diners treats it as cash (which it is).
- Travel Strong says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 15:58
  
  Try it (with curve fronted turned OFF) and see.
  If it works, no fee.
  If there is a fee, it will decline to process.
  Plenty of things still work with no fee.
  But you’ll usually have to test yourself.
  - Doug M says:
    
    17 Aug17 August 16:49
    
    Agreed. Curve charges, underlying card cash advance fee, and interest on underlying card. Quite a lot of variables and Curve make changes quite often. Almost all these things are best tested yourself on say £100 and see what happens.
    I had a good run paying Amex on IHG and previously Virgin, but no more given I have free Curve and fronted turned off.
- Chris says:
  
  17 Aug17 August 22:51
  
  Debit card is fine. Tesco bank has started awarding points on this also since the Wirecard change over…