The new HfP chat thread – Friday 21st August

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• Travel Strong says:

  21 Aug21 August 09:56

  Unsuccessful request to virgin money today to increase credit lImit, had waited the required 6 months but it’s a flat ‘No’.

  I’ve only got half of the limit that VM issued me with on previous cards (years ago), so seems a bit of a nonesense, but oh well.

  • Martha says:

    21 Aug21 August 10:04

    Out of interest, what is your spend usually on?

    • Travel Strong says:

      21 Aug21 August 10:29

      Admittedly, only 3 types of transactions in recent times: Virgin flights, big creation payment, and fill whatever is left of the limit wth a curved payment to a savings institution.

      I used to use it ‘normally’, but i’ve since got the IHG card and it makes more sense to do everything on that except virgin atlantic spend.

      • Martha says:

        21 Aug21 August 17:05

        Will is it better to use IHG over Virgin?
        Thanks

        • Rob says:

          21 Aug21 August 20:42

          In theory it’s a bad deal. 1 IHG point is worth 0.4p so you’re getting 0.4p per £1 you spend on the card. Virgin miles should be worth 1p so you’re getting 0.75p per £1 spent on the card.

          However, you need to be realistic about whether you’d earn enough Virgin miles to get a redemption flight in a premium cabin to allow you to hit that 1p valuation.

          It can be done of course. Anika’s flight from the US to Germany recently cost (one way) 50,000 Virgin miles plus $5 of tax on Delta in Business Class. That’s great value however you look at it.

• Vasco says:

  21 Aug21 August 10:01

  Got an email from Tesco yesterday saying they were giving out double club card points on shops from today to the 24th.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    21 Aug21 August 10:22

    The Clubcard app must be scanned at checkout for the offer to be applied. Offer starts 21/08/20 and ends 24/08/20. These additional points will show in your Clubcard account within 5–7 days of purchase, but will not show on your till receipt.

    This also applies for Clubcard Plus customers scanning their Clubcard from the Clubcard app. However, if only the Big Shop coupon is scanned without the Clubcard, then double points will not be applied.

    The offer does not apply if you scan your physical Clubcard, key fob or your Clubcard in Apple Wallet, Android Pay, Tesco Pay+ or any other loyalty card aggregator app.

    This offer excludes fuel, tobacco products, stamps, saving stamps, Tesco Café, lottery products, prescription medicines, infant formula milk, gift cards, travel money, and E top-ups. Other products may also be excluded at the discretion of Tesco.

• Waddle says:

  21 Aug21 August 10:16

  Offer on Gold card for 1 extra MR point per £ at Deliveroo, Esso, Aldi, Currys PCW, and Superdrug.

• YH says:

  21 Aug21 August 10:39

  I have a Eurostar booking for late September. I tried to get an eVoucher for this since France is on the do not travel list, but the Eurostar website says vouchers can only be issued for journeys departing up till 7th September.

  What options do I have to get a voucher or money back?

  • Lady London says:

    21 Aug21 August 12:06

    Yes. Avoiding Eurostar’s swingeing £30 or 40 euro change fee would be nice. In these times that’s a totally unrealistically high level of punishment for Eurostar passengers and a disincentive to book.

    I would have booked 4-8 one way tickets on Eurostar yesterday evening but in thesr times, I am simply not prepared to expose myself to such a high fee to change the booking. Eurostar has ‘form’ for being pretty unfair so I wont take risks with them.

    The reason Eurostar would get my business now is that I’ve got loads of flight vouchers but the flights have all disappeared. The few flights left don’t get me anywhere I need to be at the time I need to be there. So many days dont have any flights at all on my routes anymore (previously 3-5 per day) I am looking at 3 extra hotel nights or finding a way to get there by land. When I have so many vouchers to use.

    Most worryingly, British Airways seems to have completely stopped flying some routes midweek. The BA website only offers flights on Vueling now – no BA flights on formerly multiple-flights-per-day routes – at 2.5x the BA price and with a connection. I hope the handover of BA shorthaul to Vueling is not a trend.

  • Lady London says:

    21 Aug21 August 12:10

    I suggest you watch the French version of the Eurostar site for any extension of the 7th September date otherwise Trainline has done quite well explaining cancellation policies of Eurostar and other train networks as they have evolved.

• jc says:

  21 Aug21 August 10:40

  I appreciate there can’t be a definitive answer, but is anyone with a rough idea of current flight loads, terminal capacities etc able to give an educated guess to whether VS will go back to Terminal 3 in the short/medium/long term?

  • Doug M says:

    21 Aug21 August 10:52

    General view is T3 won’t reopen this year.

    • Lady London says:

      21 Aug21 August 11:49

      +1. T3 is a zoo. But am missing those lounges.

• Tilly says:

  21 Aug21 August 10:41

  Having been considerably unimpressed with BA in general for several years now, I must note I am impressed with their ‘evoucher’ refund process. I just filled in the online form to cancel a flight back from Germany on Monday. No confirmation or anything. Just a screen saying ‘ we’ll get back to you in 7 days’. My initial feeling was this was something I would need to chase. But a few minutes later, the booking had been removed from my BA account. And an hour later I received the email with the evoucher. So fair play to BA on this one.

  • sloth says:

    21 Aug21 August 11:29

    I also managed to change a FTV to an evoucher last night so very happy with that – esp as it was a non cancellable cash fare for three of us, that has gone from essentially 3 FTV’s to 1 voucher

    • Gavin says:

      21 Aug21 August 11:46

      How did you do that?

      • sloth says:

        21 Aug21 August 11:51

        they sent me an email last night giving me the option. I had taken the FTV’s back in June. it did say specifically this is only available for certain flight types and isn’t available for redemption flights…as I said mine were cash ones

• AndyK says:

  21 Aug21 August 10:52

  Is it still the case that if you upgrade from free to BAPP and get over 10K before Sep 30th your 2-1-2 will be valid for 30 and not 24 months?

  • Anna says:

    21 Aug21 August 11:04

    Yes

    • AndyK says:

      21 Aug21 August 11:15

      @Anna Thanks. I checked Amex website but didn’t find any info

      • Anna says:

        21 Aug21 August 11:39

        I have a message on my app confirming this but I don’t know if it only applies to the BAPP and not the free card maybe? But if you upgrade prior to triggering the voucher you should be ok.

        • AndyK says:

          21 Aug21 August 14:13

          @Anna Thanks. Nothing for free card in the app. My concern is that 30 months validity is for BAPP taken out earlier and might not be the case for newly issued.

• Sina says:

  21 Aug21 August 10:52

  Shop Small – does the 10 transaction apply on the account or the card number? Do I get more £5s if I get a replacement card? 😬

  • Rhys says:

    21 Aug21 August 11:05

    It applies separately to supplementary cards so that’s probably your easiest bet – https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/06/15/american-express-shop-small-2020/

  • Lady London says:

    21 Aug21 August 11:52

    as Rhys says Amex has watered down the promotion but supps get their own allowance for the promotion as if they were a separate card

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