The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 1st September

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• ChrisC says:

  1 Sep1 September 02:51

  Do your prep before calling BA to use an FTV!

  I had to call BA today to use an FTV. I fed the agent all the flight details and then she came up with a price that was exactly £10 more than the app was showing.

  She suggested I log out the app which I did and miraculously the price dropped to what it should have been!

  The thing is I only logged out of the app in my iPad. I was still logged onto the app on my phone at the same time and that had the same search results etc on it as the app.

  Luckily because I had done my prep I knew what the price should have been.

  Still waiting for the confirmation as it has to go back to ticketing as apparently their IT didn’t properly cancel a flight I had previously part used the FTV for that BA had cancelled so she initially couldn’t see the full value of it.

  Still she confirmed that you can use more than one an e-voucher on the same booking but you have to phone to do it. Ditto with BA holidays.

  • meta says:

    1 Sep1 September 07:11

    Be prepared to wait a long time to be ticketed when using FTV. Very likely you won’t get your ticket until 2-3 days before the flight.

  • Pete C says:

    1 Sep1 September 10:15

    Does anyone know if a FTV is an acceptable payment form for the taxes & fees on a 2-4-1 booking?

    • Anna says:

      1 Sep1 September 16:10

      A purely cash one is, I don’t know about avios plus cash.

• Jill (Kinkell) says:

  1 Sep1 September 06:36

  Just read on TLFL that BA have applied to reduce domestic services from 25 Oct, start of winter schedule. until end of the year.. All places seem affected but the worst is my local…..INV is cut from 133 to 67 and I just booked flights yesterday! Gee! BA are hardly making themselves popular.

  • Anna says:

    1 Sep1 September 07:05

    Hadn’t they already ditched services from LBA? I’ve no doubt BA will prioritise their London based customers over their regional ones.

  • Trish (Fortrose) says:

    1 Sep1 September 08:17

    Oh that’s annoying, I need to check our flights.

    • Rob says:

      1 Sep1 September 08:42

      They are not reducing what was planned. This is just a list of reductions vs August. Non-story which is why we’re not running it.

      • Jill (Kinkell) says:

        1 Sep1 September 09:20

        It may be a non story to you, but I am quite horrified to find that INV is now reduced to one flight a day on most days and it leaves Inverness late afternoon. Gone is the 0700 which allowed connections or a decent time in London.

  • Andrew says:

    1 Sep1 September 09:51

    Not ideal. See Edinburgh is down to 5 flights a day.

    I made the blunder of buying an OptionTown pass earlier in the year. Between Scottish lockdown, family isolating, limited flights and onward transport in Scotland I’ve been trying to get either a 12 month extension or a refund. Neither BA nor OptionTown have been responding.

    I’m not sure if I’m able to do an Amex chargeback as one of the options has been converted to a voucher due to cancelled flight at Easter.

    • Lady London says:

      1 Sep1 September 10:01

      I’m trying to feel sorry for you but my route has bern cut from 20 flights per week acrosd all days to 3 flights per week and sometimes only 2 per week.

  • Nick says:

    1 Sep1 September 11:17

    What do you mean ‘applied to reduce’? They don’t need permission from anyone, there’s no one to ask…?

    • Jill (Kinkell) says:

      1 Sep1 September 12:43

      “ filed a reduction”. quote from TLFL

      • Rhys says:

        1 Sep1 September 13:07

        The info is from Routes Online

      • Rob says:

        1 Sep1 September 15:41

        ‘Filed’ as in ‘entered into the booking systems’

• Jil says:

  1 Sep1 September 07:16

  Received email yesterday, IHG platinum matched to Marriott platinum, requires 15 nights in 90 days to keep it

  • Anna says:

    1 Sep1 September 08:03

    That would be a very good result considering how easy it is to get IHG Platinum!

    • jil says:

      1 Sep1 September 08:23

      But I was expecting to be matched to Marriott gold and requires less nights to keep, I definately can’t do 15 nights in 90 days. On the other hand, now I think the most useful benefits of IHG platinum is to be status matched to other brand’s platinum.

  • Rhys says:

    1 Sep1 September 08:37

    We wrote about this last week! https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/08/28/new-marriott-bonvoy-launches-generous-status-match/

    • Harry T says:

      1 Sep1 September 09:01

      Yep, this status match to IHG platinum is the reason anyone who stays with Marriott frequently will need to aim for Titanium now..:

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        1 Sep1 September 09:14

        It is pretty galling for organic status earners, but seems to be part and parcel these days and HH are doing the same so I guess just suck it up is the answer. I will reach Titanium easily this year but then so I suspect will a number of us who would ‘normally’ have reached platinum.

        • Ja says:

          1 Sep1 September 09:18

          What is needed for Titanium?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          1 Sep1 September 09:30

          75 nights. There’s no status match to Titanium.

          I think Harry’s just saying there will be more plats so plats will need Titanium to enjoy the perks they used to get.

          My view is if they don’t stay 50 nights a year anyway they are u likely to affect me.

        • Harry T says:

          1 Sep1 September 09:55

          That’s not a bad thought, @TGLoyalty, maybe I’m worrying too much.

        • Kevin says:

          1 Sep1 September 20:09

          Can you use the Marriot Amex 15 nights to full fill the status match 15 nights requirements or merely cash stay?

        • Kevin says:

          1 Sep1 September 20:10

          Sorry someone asking the same question at below 🙂

        • Rob says:

          1 Sep1 September 09:31

          75 nights

  • Genghis says:

    1 Sep1 September 19:30

    15% back offer on LBG brand offers and Santander offers.

• S879 says:

  1 Sep1 September 09:20

  Would the Marriott Travel Certificate nights count towards 15 nights in 90 days?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Sep1 September 09:31

    reward nights are excluded have to do 15 cash nights.

• N says:

  1 Sep1 September 09:21

  What are others’ go to companies for car hire insurance?

  I used to use Questor before I realised the Plat gives similar insurance, but now I’m looking for some for a motor home which is not covered by the Plat.

  Questor want £100 for 10 days which seems steep…

  • Lady London says:

    1 Sep1 September 09:58

    Questor does unusual vehicles like motorhomes. They even have a van option. Most will only do cars.

    FWIW I like Questor. You could take a look at insurance4carhire (I think Rob has a link on here), bettersafe (who are really, really excellent to deal with), icarhireinsurance. insuremore/big blue/eversure might do it but I have no experience of them.

    These days I use Bettersafe for normal cars and Questor for everything else.

    Check annual coverage – its usually available for cars and mostly works out cheaper. Vans have a high claim rate so you will never get cheap for vans unless it-s a “passenger van (ie seats more thsn cargo) type.

  • Anna says:

    1 Sep1 September 12:19

    we use insurance4carhire, they seem to charge about £50 for an annual policy. Never had to call on them though, so can’t comment on the service!

  • Scallder says:

    1 Sep1 September 12:43

    did you try an annual policy with them? Usually get an annual policy for around £50 worldwide

    • Scallder says:

      1 Sep1 September 12:44

      sorry missed the motorhome part – sorry!

  • Charlieface says:

    1 Sep1 September 15:00

    Questor with 25% off using the MSE code was alwasy the best pricing me on regular annual European.
    Don’t know about motor homes (if I saw one I’m usually inclined to crash into it out of spite)
    Try moneymaxim, they have a comparison

  • Colin JE says:

    1 Sep1 September 18:51

    x2 for insurance4carhire. Had to claim for damage when renting from Hertz in Corfu (I’m still convinced it was already there as they seemed to know exactly where to look when I returned it). Claim to about a month to settle but no argument. Like many companies they don’t cover Greenmotion. Not sure about the motor homes, but they are good to talk to.

    • Colin JE says:

      1 Sep1 September 18:53

      Oops. Meant to say ” ‘took’ about a month”, not ‘to’

      • Colin JE says:

        1 Sep1 September 18:55

        And the discount with moneymaxim was better than MSE this year, though I went with Eversure who were only £31 for a year for cars only.

• Optimus Prime says:

  1 Sep1 September 10:05

  Looks like Marriott has stopped accepting Platinum status match requests.

  • meta says:

    1 Sep1 September 18:05

    They only stopped Platinum 16 night challenge during status match promo.

• stevenhp1987 says:

  1 Sep1 September 10:08

  If I upgrade to Curve Metal will my spend data be reset to 0?

  Seen a few people mention this a couple months ago but not sure if it’s still valid.

  • Crafty says:

    1 Sep1 September 10:36

    It happened when I upgraded which was in the last 1-2 months.

  • Jonathan says:

    1 Sep1 September 10:39

    It’s not an advertised benefit but many have reported it happens. Try it & see is probably best answer! (Can also try “losing” your card & ordering replacement).

• BS says:

  1 Sep1 September 10:36

  Any news on when BA’s book with confidence policy might get extended?

  I have a flight LCY – AGP on 1st Oct that I want to cancel (happy for voucher) that was booked in Feb.

  • Nick says:

    1 Sep1 September 11:20

    Last I heard they weren’t planning to extend it again, Sep is the last one. But of course that may change – if so, it will probably be quietly published around 15-20 Sep.

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