The HfP chat thread – Monday 31st August

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• ee says:

  31 Aug31 August 09:02

  Just noticed there was no 5am email today and can’t see an article that would have related to it? Have we been short changed today? 🙂

  • AJA says:

    31 Aug31 August 09:12

    It’s a bank holiday. Give HfP the day off 🙂

    • Rob says:

      31 Aug31 August 09:17

      Anika pulled an article at 2am because the link to the offer in it, which we were told would be live at midnight, did not go live.

      • ee says:

        31 Aug31 August 10:45

        Dedication, and the advantages of a global team! 🙂

        • Char Char says:

          31 Aug31 August 10:51

          Don’t have to be global to up at 2am

        • ChrisC says:

          31 Aug31 August 11:41

          I thought Anita was in the US so it wasn’t 2am In the time zone where she was!

        • ChrisC says:

          31 Aug31 August 11:42

          Anika! Blooming autocorrect And fat fingers and failing eyesight!

• Grimz says:

  31 Aug31 August 09:05

  I tried to withdraw £200 a ATM yesterday with my CURVE card linked to my Virgin CC and it said insufficient funds. Does anyone know if withdrawing money and paying off Amex has been stopped by CURVE?

  • Ja says:

    31 Aug31 August 09:12

    I have withdrawn cash in the last week using curve linked to IHG/Creation and I had no problems.

    • Chris K says:

      31 Aug31 August 09:49

      Ditto, withdrew 200 with ihg via crv yesterday without issue. Must be a virgin issue.

      • Jonathan says:

        31 Aug31 August 11:38

        See comment above about Ernie being blocked via Curve. Golden Goose been slaughtered after over exposure?

        • luckyjim says:

          31 Aug31 August 12:20

          They cracked the ‘Ernie’ code? How?
          Lets hope ‘Brighton’ doesn’t figure it out.

        • Nick_C says:

          31 Aug31 August 13:06

          People in Brighton and Victoria read these threads daily, have a good laugh, and occasionally plug the loopholes. We know that Curve have followed threads and replied to them when Rob has promoted them in the past.

        • ankomonkey says:

          31 Aug31 August 21:56

          🙂

  • venturelog says:

    31 Aug31 August 13:08

    I withdrew a small amount last week using Curve\V and had no issues.
    You sure you haven’t maxed your CC limit?

    • Grimz says:

      31 Aug31 August 15:33

      Yes sure I am not over my limit

  • Rahaney says:

    31 Aug31 August 16:43

    No problem with using curve & seagulls or Ernie via curve to V – both worked fine for me today. (I’m metal)

• Tommie says:

  31 Aug31 August 10:21

  Any advice on why I may be being rejected for a BA Amex Premier card or if possible to appeal?

  I have been an Amex Platinum member for 5+ years. Spending on average 1500GBP a month on the card. No payment issues and a good credit rating on both Experian and Equifax. Last few months have had Zero offers on a platinum amex card and not using any of the benefits like many.

  Have tried to apply for several Amex cards past few weeks (BA Premier/Basic, Amex Gold and Amex Green) and all are getting rejected despite having done the eligibility check prior to apply.

  Is it worth speaking to AMEX about this or give it 6 months and then try again?

  Appreciate any advice!

  • Young L says:

    31 Aug31 August 11:42

    If your are rejected at the point of online application, it might be IT error. Call to complain.

  • Jonathan says:

    31 Aug31 August 11:44

    “ Have tried to apply for several Amex cards past few weeks (BA Premier/Basic, Amex Gold and Amex Green)”

    This won’t help! If you get rejected for 1 Amex then highly unlikely to get approval for a different one so try calling to ask why before applying for more. Note that they’re under no obligation to tell you why they rejected though.

    Multiple applications in a short period also won’t look good on your credit report. Probably worth checking your credit report via one of the many free online services to make sure there’s nothing suspicious or incorrect as well.

    • Lady London says:

      31 Aug31 August 12:05

      If they perceive some difficulty you could try offering to split existing credit limit over new and existing card

    • Genghis says:

      31 Aug31 August 12:46

      Note that the application runs via Amex’s own systems first before a credit file “pull”. If it rejects at the internal level, it doesn’t do a search.

• ATW says:

  31 Aug31 August 10:22

  Can the TV licence be paid by Amex in-store via Paypoint? I cannot recall if this option has recently stopped or not. I know certain stores with Paypoint facilities accept Amex, e.g Tesco Express, Shell. Thanks

  • Pid says:

    31 Aug31 August 23:21

    Should be no problem

  • Polly says:

    1 Sep1 September 00:02

    Yes, paid mine today with but, affinity etc. But there’s a limit on tv payment.

• Brian says:

  31 Aug31 August 11:09

  Re the new Hilton promotion, just to double check, do reward stays qualify for double night credits? Thanks

  • Ian says:

    31 Aug31 August 14:52

    Yes plus double points on any spend at the hotels

• Jonathan says:

  31 Aug31 August 11:46

  Apparently not since MCC pass through turned on.

  • Steve says:

    31 Aug31 August 14:37

    Is this a general issue (recent?) or Santander specific? Still seems to be working fine on IHG last time I tried a few weeks ago

• William Dore says:

  31 Aug31 August 11:46

  Apologies if this question has been asked before. I have a BA Holiday booked for 7 Oct, 2 weeks in the Pacific Northwest, (flight and car only). So far I have only paid the 10% deposit. As I booked the trip in January, it appears BA’s standard T&C’s still apply, meaning if I don’t pay the balance I forfeit the deposit. Which does seem rather ludicrous, considering their policy from 3 March, i.e.”if you booked when you had no knowledge of the virus, tough, but if you booked when you knew of the issue, here’s your money back”.

  Ideally we would prefer to go, but as the US remains closed, and FO advice is don’t travel, it seems extremely unlikely we can. It’s not changing in the next 2 weeks.

  Any advice?

  • Lady London says:

    31 Aug31 August 12:13

    Do you have insurance youc could claim on. The FCO advice make claims possible.

    Otherwise call and ask to change date, say nothing and pay a change fee only if they bring it up.

    Yo could also wait till 3 days or o before the fight just in case there’s any cancelation or significant rescheduling in which case reboot or refund should
    be free.

    If your flight is showing available on iag cargo website Rob said this is one way to know it’s probably not going to get cancelled.

    • William Dore says:

      31 Aug31 August 12:32

      Thanks for replying. I do have an annual travel policy, so should be able to make a claim. But do feel BA should be dealing with this. Seems ridiculous to offer free changes to people who booked when they knew the situation, but not to people who booked earlier.

      The flight is to SEA, according to Google Flights they are currently running 1 flight per week, however this is changing 1 October to daily. Appears highly optimistic.

      I can’t wait to 3 days out, because I would need to pay £3K balance 3 weeks out, which I’m very reluctant to do if the only option becomes another FTV (already have one from a May holiday that got cancelled).

      Dilemma. BA need to update their policy asap.

      • Lady London says:

        31 Aug31 August 12:46

        Good that you have a travel policy.

        Talk to BA nicely as I suggested ahead of deposit being due then

        I think you have an excellent chance of flight cancellation if it’s not a cargo flight but I wouldnt want to pay the £3k either.

        Id call a couple of days before £3k due and ask to convert my deposit to a voucher. Keep your mouth shut and let them comment if booking date restricts you. If that is refused try to push the date as far forward as possible, pay change fee only if asked.

        If you’re not getting anywhere claim on your insurance due FCO advice.

        • Lady London says:

          31 Aug31 August 12:53

          PS will they accept your other FTV as deposit payment? this might get it all into one, and buy you time to get close enough to the flight date for BA to get around to cancelling.

        • William Dore says:

          31 Aug31 August 13:07

          Thanks for the advice. Appears this is a cargo flight so unlikely to be cancelled.

      • Jonathan says:

        31 Aug31 August 12:57

        BA’s policy makes perfect sense to be fair to them. You booked a non-refundable ticket in January at which point any sane person would ensure they had travel insurance to cover unforeseen events.

        People who booked from March onwards did so in the face of a known pandemic & therefore the likelihood travel insurance would be invalidated or unavailable. In the absence of BA offering flexibility no one would make new bookings & income would dry up.

        If they extended the Book With Confidence policy to you they’d just be taking the financial hit on behalf of your insurer!

        • William Dore says:

          31 Aug31 August 13:08

          Fair enough. So why do they cover people who booked prior to 3 March up to 30 September?

        • Doug M says:

          31 Aug31 August 13:28

          If you mean after 3rd March all airlines had to offer some sort of confidence guarantee to get people to book. Prior to that they leave you at the mercy of the ticket conditions. Commercially makes sense.

        • William Dore says:

          31 Aug31 August 13:39

          No. I said bookings prior to 3 March. Jonathan thinks BA’s policy is fair, i.e. if I booked in January my travel insurance should cover me. My point is, if that is the case why are they allowing people who booked prior to 3 March, and whose travel is prior to 30 Sep, to change FOC, but those who are travelling early October appear to have no case?

        • Jonathan says:

          31 Aug31 August 15:28

          Because there’s a high chance the flight won’t happen & they’d prefer you to take a voucher/change date than refund you cash or reroute you!

        • William Dore says:

          31 Aug31 August 16:22

          you’ve lost me (!)

        • Lady London says:

          31 Aug31 August 15:32

          what @Jonathan and @Doug M said.

          Please let us know what happens on this

• Steve R says:

  31 Aug31 August 12:20

  Can you convert an RFS booking to a cash booking without a charge? Have a booking for next Easter, which is usually a no brainer, for using Avios. Cash price has plummeted

  • Lady London says:

    31 Aug31 August 12:48

    they dont convert. move or cancel the rfs – you lose either the cash you paid or 17.50 /Y 35.00 /C.

    then rebook the date you want to travel as new cash booking

  • Andrew says:

    31 Aug31 August 14:20

    Depending on when you booked you can cancel RFS for a future travel voucher and avoid the fee and then pay for the cash ticket with the cash element of the voucher.

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