The HfP chat thread – Friday 28th August

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• Doc says:

  28 Aug28 August 07:00

  Rob,
  Any sweet spots on the BA sale that you recommend since suspect lots of places you can’t travel yet? Couldn’t find anywhere good that are letting people in yet!!!

  • Andrew says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:44

    There’s good deals in CW or F to USA next year – when (perhaps?) the border will be open. JFK in F return for £1600 I saw. And maybe F will be serving more than a salad and a ready meal with £10 champagne by then.

  • Rob says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:52

    Newqay is £126 return in Club Europe! For a tier point run with no quarantine risk this is excellent. No idea if you can do a back to back here though. Having flown into Newquay yesterday I can confirm that you cannot reboard the same aircraft – you need to leave and re-enter the airport, potentially having the gate close on you.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    28 Aug28 August 09:55

    SFO is £1.3k in CW in 2021 if you want to take a punt on US reopening in 6-9 months time. Virgin and United are the same price. Could probably do it with two stops each way for 640tp if you’re a glutton for punishment.

    • ChrisC says:

      28 Aug28 August 12:17

      Past couple of years I’ve done LCY-JFK-SFO-JFK-LHR for 560 TPs (4*140). Adding a couple of ex-EU legs would get it to 640 and if you use CE for positioning flights that increases to 720 (the TPs would be the same for using LHR-JFK since LCY-JFK is no more).

      Last July I was due to do LHR-HEL-SFO-JFK-LHR for 500.

      But looking for the dates I want to go to SFO next July there are few (if any) AA flights between JFK and SFO. Also there don’t appear to be many ex-EUs on offer either.

      I thought I’d found a couple of good routings on google flights but BA website wouldn’t book them because they insist on 2 hours for connections at JFK. Need to check what AAs equivalent of the Book with confidence policy is …

      Then again could just wait until the next BA sale …

• Glenn says:

  28 Aug28 August 07:15

  Hi, I’m looking for the best ways to earn points for a sizeable HMRC tax bill I have to pay soon.

  • Crafty says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:21

    Personal or corporate?

    Personal – Tesco current account, if you have one.

    Corporate – depends how big the bill, it may justify the Curve Metal subscription if you have a IHG credit card (preferably Premium).

    • Rob says:

      28 Aug28 August 08:36

      Personal – Lufthansa Miles & More card at 1.25 miles per £1

    • Glenn says:

      28 Aug28 August 14:12

      Personal

      • Donna says:

        29 Aug29 August 08:46

        What about revolut? Build a balance with credit card top ups? Appreciate it will likely take time.

• Secret Squirrel says:

  28 Aug28 August 07:24

  Just had to download the Creation app, mobile log in site points you to app now.
  How do you overpay in the app as it would only allow me to pay balance?

  • Michael says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:26

    You can’t overpay on the app. Needs to be done on the Creation site.

    • thehornets says:

      28 Aug28 August 08:57

      ..or you can just do an Internet Banking transfer from your bank to your Creation account

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        28 Aug28 August 16:33

        Defeats the object as paying by credit card!

  • Keely says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:33

    I’m new to Creation but have found that it only ever lets you pay the balance, even on the full site. So if you have a pending transaction you can’t pay it off until it’s posted. If there’s a work around please let me know as it’s very annoying!

    • Genghis says:

      28 Aug28 August 10:34

      When you have a balance >0 on there, right click on the make payment link. Save the link and then you can make payments anytime.

    • ashish says:

      28 Aug28 August 13:44

      Very good for MS. Send all to savings. can do over and over

  • Anna says:

    28 Aug28 August 09:50

    You can overpay on the app. You need to pay the balance, let the payment go through, then pay it again.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      28 Aug28 August 11:02

      This is the simplest approach- payments takes days to post so in that window you can just pay again and again in the normal fashion.

• Mikee says:

  28 Aug28 August 07:33

  Did the HFP reader who decided to travel to Turkey a couple of weeks ago and stay there for 14 days manage to enter the US without any problems in the end?
  I had a browse of the chat threads but couldn’t see any updates.

• thefuzzbox says:

  28 Aug28 August 07:34

  Make multiple payments, each slightly below the balance amount.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:23

    Balance was 2p, it won’t allow you to overpay past 2p.
    I sorted it by using a desktop version, that way still allows overpayments.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      28 Aug28 August 11:03

      Please, make thousands of 1p payments and post the phone call you get off them!

• KD says:

  28 Aug28 August 07:45

  Hello – Apologies if I missed this.
  What happened to the 25k bonus points IHG Spire were going to receive as part of the reduction in nights / stays to receive status again?

  • Andrew says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:41

    It never happened. They changed their mind from their initial comms and it’s now not provided to all Spire members who they auto extended. You now only get this if you meet the (reduced) nights or points requirement for Spire this year.

  • Rob says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:42

    Not seen ….

    This doesn’t mean it won’t turn up at the end of the year of course. However, given IHGs financial difficulties, perhaps someone decided this was a bit too expensive a present?

• Piers says:

  28 Aug28 August 08:03

  Hi there. Apologies, I know this has been mentioned in the comments before but I can’t track it down… What’s the best method for getting BA reward flights on popular routes (using 241)? I am over a year in advance. I recall reading that you can book Outbound by phone as soon as they are released and then call to add Return to the booking later on. Is that right? Is there a charge for adding the return? What’s the best number / call centre to use? (Don’t mind calling at 3am if that’s what I have to do..)
  TIA

  • Rhys says:

    28 Aug28 August 08:28

    See here: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/06/08/how-do-british-airways-2-4-1-american-express-companion-vouchers-work/

    Best to use the US or Japanese call centre, depending on which is open

    • Piers says:

      28 Aug28 August 20:16

      That’s the one. Thanks, Rhys!

• Bill says:

  28 Aug28 August 08:08

  OT. Easyjet have started selling flights for a new route MAN-IOM which is interesting because the IOM border is closed to non residents.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    28 Aug28 August 11:20

    Well, means it might be mostly used by residents perhaps but is this a subsidised router praps?

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    28 Aug28 August 11:21

    Also in a chat thread I’m not sure you can be off topic!

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