The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 2nd September

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• Louie says:

  2 Sep2 September 05:13

  Someone very helpfully posted a way of searching the comments a few days ago. Of course I didn’t make a note of it and without it I can’t find it!! Can anyone help?

  The reason I want to search is to find a comment Rob made a few weeks ago about the effective rate of interest on Premium Bonds if you assume you will only win £25 a time (discounting winning the big prizes), so if anyone knows on which thread that is, that would also help. Thanks.

  • J says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:06

    Moneysavingexpert covers this well and has a calculator to estimate your returns based on your deposit.

  • Doogie says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:10

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/06/08/the-new-hfp-chat-thread-monday-8th-june/ is that it?

    Basically the Google keyword you want to add to your search for this site is

    inurl:headforpoints.com

    You can also obviously apply the same logic to any other site

    • Louie says:

      2 Sep2 September 12:41

      Excellent. Thank you.

  • Claire says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:18

    Martin Lewis says that for a person of average luck, premium bonds have an effective interest rate of 1.4% – is that what you mean?

    • John says:

      2 Sep2 September 07:58

      That’s the statistical expected value, but in reality you have something like a 99.99% chance of getting 1.1% and a 0.01% chance of winning a very large amount. The 0.3% difference in the effective interest pays for the big prizes

      • Rob says:

        2 Sep2 September 08:05

        It’s 1.22% tax free based ONLY on £25 prizes.

        You have a 1 in 24,500 chance of winning £25. Buy £49,000 (cap is £50k) and statistically you are guaranteed an average of £50 per month, so £600 per year tax free.

        If you invest smaller amounts then your return will go up and down but for large sums it is effectively a guaranteed 1.22% with a teeny tiny bit of upside for getting a £50+ prize.

      • Claire says:

        2 Sep2 September 08:09

        That is fast maths we could use you in Tulsa!

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    2 Sep2 September 08:11

    This isn’t quite what you’re looking for but is the best calculator I’ve seen since it doesn’t just boil it down to a single rate.

    https://premiumbondsprizes.com/#5000

  • Louie says:

    2 Sep2 September 12:43

    Thanks to everyone about the Premium Bond rates. Do we think that either Premium Bond or NS&I Income Bond rates are likely to fall in the foreseeable future?

    • Lady London says:

      2 Sep2 September 15:24

      Erm… does anyone on here mind too much if they do?

      • Rob says:

        2 Sep2 September 16:54

        Government has set a crazily aggressive target for raising £ via National Savings, so they won’t fall until that is hit.

      • Louie says:

        3 Sep3 September 06:41

        Yes. Me! I’m actually looking for a home for savings. As a non-UK resident, it’s not easy to find anyone paying competitive interest rates on £ who will actually take your money.

• KBuffett says:

  2 Sep2 September 05:51

  I’ve been receiving a lot of new Amex offers over the last few days. Three or four hotel ones too.

  • Andrew says:

    2 Sep2 September 06:56

    And lots of fashion and cosmetic brands. Would be good to see some more offers for everyday spending – I think they need to do another round of retention offers for Platinum.

  • J says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:07

    Hopefully not long for another Hilton Amex offer!

    • Andrew says:

      2 Sep2 September 07:51

      There’s basically every other chain on there at the moment, so hopefully not long!

      • KBuffett says:

        2 Sep2 September 08:40

        Is every other chain in there when there’s no Marriott, Accor or Hilton?

        • Harry T says:

          2 Sep2 September 09:17

          I’m waiting for Marriott! Knowing my luck, it’ll appear after I’ve done all my stays for the year 😂

        • TGLoyalty says:

          2 Sep2 September 09:54

          Marriott would do nicely, its a yearly occurrence so really surprised not to see it while the market is so soft.

        • Andrew says:

          2 Sep2 September 10:06

          Mentioned it yesterday as one of the final posts on the chat thread yesterday, but there’s a 15% reward for the LBG community with EMEA Marriott Bookings until the end of October.

          Just check your Everyday Offers.

        • Rhys says:

          2 Sep2 September 10:18

          I’m assuming you don’t mean the LGBT community!

        • BJ says:

          2 Sep2 September 10:43

          Q+?

        • Andrew says:

          2 Sep2 September 10:45

          There are definitely many many members of the LGBT community who are also members of the Lloyds Banking Group community!

          It’s a long time since I worked for them, but at one point BoS and Halifax were one of the few banks that offered a set of “daytime” and “nighttime” cards so our clients could always match the plastic in their wallet or handbag to their current presentation.

        • Rhys says:

          2 Sep2 September 10:45

          What was different between the daytime and nighttime cards? Glow in the dark, neon?!

        • TGLoyalty says:

          2 Sep2 September 13:46

          🙃 I’m guessing two cards which have different names in case you prefer to be called another name during the day/night

        • Lady London says:

          2 Sep2 September 14:46

          My evening name was Fifi

        • BP says:

          2 Sep2 September 18:28

          On Santander offers too.

    • Lady London says:

      2 Sep2 September 15:26

      i’d settle for any decent Hilton offer at all. What Hilton has put out so far is not getting me to book them when cash prices for other hotels are so much better than Hilton pricing right now.

• Vit says:

  2 Sep2 September 06:13

  Going to cancel my Plat in a couple day. Do you know if you can request to the pro-rata refund to be put into another amex card (e.g. Gold card)? How does this work normally? Thanks.

  • Jonathan says:

    2 Sep2 September 06:27

    Cancel the card, the prorated refund will be applied to your Amex statement within a few days. Once it posts, you can contact Amex chat or by phone and ask for the balance to be transferred to another card or returned by bacs/cheque etc. This assumes you don’t have any purchases outstanding on your platinum card to settle which the prorated refund would otherwise pay off.

  • Louie says:

    2 Sep2 September 06:30

    You cancel. They work out the refund which puts you in credit, unless it is set against an amount you owe. You ask them to transfer the credit to another account in your name. They won’t transfer it to e.g. a partner.

  • mark2 says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:07

    I always make sure that I owe more than the amount to be refunded e.g. by buying gift cards.

  • Vit says:

    2 Sep2 September 08:59

    Thanks guys. Very helpful. @Mark2 I have too many giftcards already from this final churning (i.e. Morrisons, JL, B&Q, Tesco) 😀

    • Polly says:

      2 Sep2 September 20:50

      Am now needing either a Morrisons or Waitrose 10% off offer…

• The Hunter says:

  2 Sep2 September 07:08

  A bit of advice if possible please. At the end of March I called BA (you first) to receive a refund of an open jaw trip due end of April to Miami, and back from Mexico. Avios, taxes and 241 voucher (extended by 6 months) all returned no problem. We also had flights from Miami to Mexico booked, using Avios via BA.com, but on AA. I mentioned this to BA on the same call, and had assumed this had been dealt with in the same way – having checked back only just now I see that part of the trip wasn’t refunded. So, should I speak to BA, or AA, or am I a bit scuppered…I guess partly depends whether that flight was cancelled / amended, but don’t know how I’d find that out.?! Thanks

  • ChrisBCN says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:27

    I think your best option is to call BA and play dumb about why haven’t they refunded it.

    You are reliant on a little bit of CS goodwill as they could argue that you weren’t clear enough you wanted that flight cancelled (did you give them the PNR, for example).

    I think there is a treasonable chance of them refunding you though! If you are certain you were explicit about cancelling the other flight and you are getting nowhere, ask them to go back and listen to the call.

• Anna says:

  2 Sep2 September 07:31

  I might have missed this previously but after looking at the Conrad Rangali as a Plan B for next Easter, it seems the afternoon tea has now been removed from the list of Gold/Diamond benefits! This is surely quite a significant loss – it still seems to be in place for the IC Maldives for all guests.

  • BJ says:

    2 Sep2 September 09:01

    If it led to a significant loss around the waistline for many guests shouldn’t this be best perceived as a gain?

  • Ali M says:

    2 Sep2 September 09:18

    Its a shame as it used to be quite a good thing (& for free) that patched one over from free breakfast to the over priced dinner – I used to think 100usd per person per night is ok as one can reassure self that its ok as averages out to 30 / meal

• Keiths says:

  2 Sep2 September 07:41

  Sometimes a bit if effort pays off and economy Avios redemptions can be worth it.
  Recently opened 2 Amex Gold (me & Mrs) after the 2 year Amex gap and got the 20k bonus on each,
  Looking at grown up family trip next year to Greece. Outbound flights v expensive. For each outbound I saved £230 for just 8,500avios each. Did one way cash for the return.
  I know this is unusual, but value can be found in economy.
  This was also increased by another 2 tickets using a 2:4:1.
  Now I just have to reconcile flying back of the bus as no Club was available!

  • Keiths says:

    2 Sep2 September 07:44

    Putting this in context, by just opening 1 Amex Gold and getting the bonus, I have saved £700

    • John says:

      2 Sep2 September 07:56

      With the usual caveat that it’s only a saving if you really would have paid the £700 instead of searching for cheaper dates etc

      • Keiths says:

        2 Sep2 September 08:19

        Indeed. And in this case we would have as the dates were relatively fixed

  • Anna says:

    2 Sep2 September 08:00

    RFS is always decent value, especially at peak times. 4 of us flew MAN-NCE a couple of years ago on Monaco GP weekend, when cash prices were £400pp. We were on the Embraer 190 so CE wouldn’t have been much of an upgrade anyway.

    I thought the Amex gold bonus was 12000 points now?

    • Keiths says:

      2 Sep2 September 08:21

      I opened them a few months back, hence the 20k bonus

      • memesweeper says:

        2 Sep2 September 08:37

        I did a one-way redemption to Amman last year in economy — fantastic use of points. No decent cash alternative with any airline.

  • Doug says:

    2 Sep2 September 08:49

    I hope you only opened one first and then referred the other. Once opened you then got supps on each other’s accounts.

    • Keiths says:

      2 Sep2 September 12:42

      Yep.
      Used to do it with Platinums, but the Gold was a bit of a sweet spot recently with the no fee / double bonus / double time period for spend

  • Charlieface says:

    2 Sep2 September 14:39

    Last minute and one-way long haul are also good in economy

    • Lady London says:

      2 Sep2 September 14:59

      Amen to that. often seen extra Y avios seats available at the last minute.

      BA does play games with not showing all available avios seats excepr, it seems, to Golds. Many times I as a current Blue see only C seats but my Gold friend also sees aviis seats in Y and additionally availability on flights that show zero avios seats to me at the exact same time.

      Two weeks ago found another differentiation BA is making in which avios seats they show available, depending on the person’s status (possibly) – 2 of us were looking and the Blue who used to be Silver was not shown available seats on the same flight that a Blue who used to be Gold(me) was being shown. So it looks as though BA isnt just looking at current status when jt decides whether to offer you avios seats on decently timed flights instead of just on dogs.

      • Doug says:

        2 Sep2 September 15:20

        Known benefit of gold is additional Avios availability.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Sep2 September 18:53

          I was just surprised that with neither of us currently Gold, both Blue, I as an ex-Gold was being shown better availability of seats than a Blue who had only been Silver before.

          Maybe BA is counting something else into this other than current status.

      • Charlieface says:

        2 Sep2 September 20:23

        It’s V class availability if anyone wants to know, and only applies to economy for Golds. I’d very surprised if it really was the case like you say @LL, one way to verify is to look on aa.com and see what’s available there. I don’t think V class shows up on aa.com

• KD says:

  2 Sep2 September 08:40

  Hi All,

  I’m about to hit top tier of europcar club Elite VIP and It says I will achieve a priority pass membership, does this come with any free visits or is it just a bit of a waste as I have lounge club with Amex Gold.

  I also credit my Europcar rentals to Accor as I’ve never known anything better for hotel points, anybody disagree?

  Thanks

  • George says:

    2 Sep2 September 08:51

    If you earned your status exclusively through public rate rentals then I’m fairly sure it has unlimited visits for you and zero for guests.

    If you earned it using a discounted or corporate rate (or one of the sites that shall not be named) then there will be no recognition and you’ll get no Priority Pass (know that from experience!)

• BJ says:

  2 Sep2 September 08:41

  @Lady London (and others similarly affected), LL reporting that Accor have reinstated points that expired 1 January through 18 May. Hope that helps.

  • ChrisC says:

    2 Sep2 September 09:23

    Rob has that here as part of this offer –

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/09/02/6000-bonus-accor-points/

    It’s only a reinstatement if you register, book and stay as part of the offer.

    LL is what? Don’t assume everyone knows what you mean!

    • Peter K says:

      2 Sep2 September 09:51

      LL is another travel blog. Understandably it seems general courtesy on the message threads on HfP that you only obliquely reference these so as not to step on Rob’s toes. You’ll notice others turn up from time to time like TLFL etc.

    • BJ says:

      2 Sep2 September 10:51

      Sorry, haven’t had a chance to see the other articles yet. Accor seems to have been a bit of a pain as usual. My only accor stays were via the amex travel offer, I eventually got a refund but it was the least straightforward.

    • ChrisBCN says:

      2 Sep2 September 13:01

      LL could also be Lady London!

      • ChrisC says:

        2 Sep2 September 14:08

        Well it could be anyone or any organisation!

        I’m not sure what Robs policy is on naming other blogs but I see no problem with naming a source properly even if it’s not appropriate to add a link for people to click through.

        Sometimes this site becomes so insular that it could be putting readers off because for some posts it’s like solving a cryptic crossword plus annagrams on top of that to work out what people actually mean!

        • BJ says:

          2 Sep2 September 14:37

          He has stated he is ok with it, even links, provided it is useful, not too much or hasn’t been covered by HfP. He’s never really complained about it or made an issue of it so I guess he is ok with i t as currently practiced. There are sites he doesn’t like mentioned for good raason and they are quite effectively filtered out. I would not have posted the comment I made above had I read the other article first. If you need to know then just ask, somebody will answer for you. It’s not as if tbe same questions don’t get asked (and answered) in tbe comments 10 times a month anyway.

  • Lady London says:

    2 Sep2 September 15:16

    Ta, BJ. It was me that made the comment you saw in that other location! currently deciding whether to just continue in my current project of spending all my remaining Accor points to get rid of them and finally dump Accor or give them another look

    It sticks in the craw that every other brand of hotel point I have was extended and yet Accor kept on expiring points when all their hotels were closed to the public and everyone locked down. Now Accor want us to spend more money to get our points back. And to add insult to injury, pre-Covid expirations as well which – sorry guys – were within your power to stop expiring pre-Covid.

    • BJ says:

      2 Sep2 September 15:41

      Yup, I know. Figured there may be others in the same boat. I ditched Accor when status became much more difficult to earn and their more generous oromotion were enhanced but I understand why you stuck with them. I’m also struggling with my hotel choices. Hilton will remain primary but I’m contemplating ditching IHG for Marriott as secondary. The dust needs to settle on the current situation though before a more robust decision can be made.

      • Lady London says:

        2 Sep2 September 18:58

        I’d dump Accor in a heartbeat but my clients often have Accors near them that are well within client budgets.

        Stayed in an Accor hotel 2 weeks ago – box-ticking only for Covid precautions and I heard someone had to be taken by ambulance from the hotel to hospital with apparent Covid. A young lad who had been drinking in bars nearby. Luckily I was checking out that day.

        Contrast that with another Accor hotel 4 weeks previous (this is all on my use-up-all-my-Accor-points-and-dump-Accor project) which had truly excellent Covid precautions.

        Guess which hotel I might go back to , if I do bother with this latest Accor offer?

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