The new HFP chat thread – Wednesday 19th 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/2020/08/19/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-wednesday-19th-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.

Blue Mountain says:

19 Aug19 August 04:45

Greece’s Doctors’ Union accuses the government of hiding Covid cases so that it doesn’t harm tourism, even though they (doctors) have been pressured, threatened and forbidden to talk about it. You might need Google translate as it’s in Greek. https://www.oengegr.com/post/aposiopisikrousmaton
BJ says:

19 Aug19 August 07:48

Good morning all, nobody home? Everybody now got their refunds? Flights running like clockwork? What’s up. has something changed?
- gareth says:
  
  19 Aug19 August 07:54
  
  Lol does seem odd at nearly 8am that no one has commented on a refund policy, a cancellation, Covid test or asking what Ernie is!!
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 08:38
    
    We’re all still here (I think) lol😀
  - Jon says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 13:17
    
    Has anyone asked for a refund on their subscription yet? 😂
    - Peter K says:
      
      19 Aug19 August 17:19
      
      😂
- Stanley says:
  
  19 Aug19 August 08:17
  
  No “Latest Comments” on right hand side of page….. No evidence that people are alive…..
  - Rob says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 08:43
    
    Interesting way of looking at it, although I see the serious reasoning behind the comment and don’t disagree.
- ChrisBCN says:
  
  19 Aug19 August 08:29
  
  Don’t forget on mobile it’s become near impossible to get to this page!
  
  Previously – click next article
  
  Now (1) – click back button through all the comments pages on all of the three new articles you read to get to homepage. Scroll down (and then down some more) to see the link to this page.
  
  Now (2) – scroll up and up and up and up to the top of the page. Move your hand from the bottom of the phone to click the homepage button (on Android, this is a poor UX and a rare thing to do). Scroll down through the top articles and other boxes to find the link to this page.
  
  I guess it will stop some infrequent commentors from finding this page, let alone visiting it.
  - Peter K says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 10:41
    
    Actually I discovered this morning in small print at the bottom of the page a link to the home screen in the next box under the “contact us” box.
    Faffy but not quite as much as the other method that you mention that I had been using!
  - @mkcol says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 12:22
    
    I’m genuinely confused how you’re finding it more difficult to get to the chat thread on mobile.
    I was at home page, swiped 3 times to get to the article, clicked on the article link, swiped once to get to the red highlighted link to get oldest first (if I was on here early enough I wouldn’t need to) clicked and there we go.
    Actually quite easy – on Android too.
    - ChrisBCN says:
      
      19 Aug19 August 12:55
      
      You started from the homepage!
      - @mkcol says:
        
        22 Aug22 August 16:46
        
        Which you can do with one click from anywhere.
  - Also says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 12:59
    
    Or just open each article in a new tab when on the homepage? Much easier.
    - Peter K says:
      
      19 Aug19 August 17:21
      
      Good idea, but not as useful as a next article link that expires after, say 7 days, and allows a natural flow through the site.
      - Rob says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 17:35
        
        That’s not a terrible idea Peter ….
Leafwarbler says:

19 Aug19 August 08:05

Okay, BJ , just to keep you happy…
Does anyone have any experience of the Qatar FTV? I suspect my trip to Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia is not going to happen. Is the FTV denominated in the original currency of the ticket? We were flying from Stockholm, but probably wouldn’t the next time.
Freddy says:

19 Aug19 August 08:08

Maybe they’ve all been scared off by the redesign
- Mike P says:
  
  19 Aug19 August 08:11
  
  I must admit that I wondered if the re-design had scared people off. The layout makes more sense on the full desktop version than the mobile version to my mind.
  - Rob says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 08:24
    
    Correct. We have some changes planned for mobile. To be honest, we spent 90% of our time working on desktop and just assumed that mobile would fall into place automatically but it hasn’t quite worked that way.
    - ChrisBCN says:
      
      19 Aug19 August 08:32
      
      I would have thought you would have designed for mobile first! I imagined at least two thirds of your visits would be on mobile – you can’t surely have such a high desktop share?
      - ChrisBCN says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 08:37
        
        Maybe your older audience here means that desktop is more than 50%
      - Spursdebs says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 09:29
        
        I never look at site on desktop always mobile
      - Spursdebs says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 09:30
        
        And I’m old apparently.
    - MD says:
      
      19 Aug19 August 09:15
      
      As somebody who can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve viewed HfP on a desktop rather than mobile over the last few years, I’m genuinely shocked to hear this. I’m pretty ancient (44!) and I do the vast majority of my surfing on smartphone. My younger friends and colleagues practically conduct their entire lives by mobile.
      
      Always thought the HfP desktop site looked far too cluttered and old fashioned (which I guess is what you mainly set out to fix), but mainly it’s just a convenience issue. I always have my mobile, but I’m rarely sat at a desktop computer (well, I am but they are specialist things with no internet). Isn’t mobile a huge section of your readership?
      - Rhys says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 09:23
        
        There’s less you can do with mobile – no sidebars etc so you’re a lot more constrained.
      - ChrisBCN says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 09:38
        
        This page tells us that in the UK market share is 48% desktop, 44% mobile, 8% tablet, but this can vary hugely by site (generally if your site attracts a higher share of younger users, mobile mix goes up). I think HfP skews older so maybe has a far higher desktop mix.
      - Rob says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 10:33
        
        We have a lot of people who, in normal times, read HFP from their office desk. However, the share above is roughly correct for us (at the moment mobile skews higher due to fewer people at work).
      - ChrisBCN says:
        
        19 Aug19 August 09:40
        
        And the page https://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/desktop-mobile-tablet/united-kingdom
    - Crafty says:
      
      19 Aug19 August 10:22
      
      That’s a very strange approach! Most companies design for mobile. I work for a significant value retailer in the UK and 80% of our online sales are on mobile. What’s your mix of page views by device type?
Aliks says:

19 Aug19 August 08:16

I, for one, welcome our new design!

Just let me put on my sunglasses to cope with all that clean white space on the screen!!
- Andrew says:
  
  19 Aug19 August 08:26
  
  It is a bit bright!
  
  Also the text is too big, people next to me can see clearly what I’m reading in the office.
  - MonkeymaN says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 08:33
    
    For the benefit of Andrew’s colleagues, if you are reading this, stop being so nosey and get on with your work!
    - Colin MacKinnon says:
      
      19 Aug19 August 09:11
      
      Once you are over 50, your eyes disintegrate!
      
      So larger type is a boon!
      
      Our son married a well-known author’s child, but their parent’s books are really thick – and with such small type that I had to get a pirate copy for a Kindle so as I could do my homework before the wedding!
  - Grimz says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 10:33
    
    Brilliant ( :
  - Also says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 13:02
    
    Dark mode + zoom out?
Daniel says:

19 Aug19 August 08:50

Has the RSS feed disappeared?

I use this in Feedly, Foxish (for Chrome) and Netvibes, and it hasn’t updated this morning.
- Andy says:
  
  19 Aug19 August 08:57
  
  Odd, I’m a Feedly user too and it did update for me, so if it is happening, it’s not happening for everyone. I’m not Feedly power user, so I can’t offer any suggestions to get it fixed.
  - Rhys says:
    
    19 Aug19 August 09:24
    
    RSS hasn’t disappeared because our emails depend on it!
Paul says:

19 Aug19 August 09:19

I’ve got a question about a family of 4 travelling on Amex 241s. My wife and I have a child (2yrs old and one 2yr old?
2) Use two 241s ; although this seems like it loses a lot of value as I’m getting 2 adults and 2 young children as opposed to 4 adults.
Paul says:

19 Aug19 August 09:21

My previous comment didn’t post correctly so I need to retype….

Current family: me, wife, child1 (<2yrs old)
Future family maybe: me, wife, child1 (<2yrs old), child2 (<2yrs old).

With 2 Amex241s in the bag (expiring Jan2022 and Nov2022) what's the best use to get all 4 of us away?
- Anna says:
  
  19 Aug19 August 09:53
  
  For any child under 2 the 2 4 1 doesn’t have a use as you don’t need a separate seat for them. Once the child needs a seat you can either book 3 seats using the 2 4 1 so you pay avios for 2 and charges/taxes for 3, if you have enough avios. Alternatively, use the 2 4 1 for 1 adult and the child, and pay for a cash ticket for the other adult. This can be a good choice, e.g. my OH achieved Bronze from just one CW long-haul trip to the Caribbean because the flight involved 4 separate legs. A BA holiday package can make this more doable if you don’t want to pay the full cash ticket price up front.
  If you have 2 kids over 2, you can use 2 companion vouchers – either 2 you’ve earned yourself or get your OH to get a BAPP and earn one. Or pay for 2 seats, though I think cash tickets and status are a bit wasted on children!