The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 2nd September

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• Matt says:

  2 Sep2 September 08:53

  A bit of advice on Amex cards please. My wife and I are both directors of our company. We have not had a business Amex before. I currently have a gold charge card. My wife has not had an Amex for 1.25 years – counting down to a 2 year break. We’re thinking of getting a Business Platinum.

  Ideally we would prefer the Business card in my name (I have 200K Mr points to keep alive), but is the best route:

  I refer my wife for Business Plat – she would be eligible for the bonus if we can spend enough, and it wouldn’t affect her for personal bonuses.

  She refers me towards the end of my 1st year free on the gold card and I take Business Plat and close hers. I won’t be eligible for the bonus, but she will get the referral bonus.

  Any improvement on that, or reason to change it?

  • Genghis says:

    2 Sep2 September 10:04

    The “hiatus” for the Business cards is only 6 months so if you refer your wife now (as 6 months+) and then she refers you 6 months + after your Gold card cancellation, you’re both eligible for a bonus.

    • Matt says:

      2 Sep2 September 10:50

      I’m planning to keep hold of my MR points though, so won’t just be cancelling Gold unfortunately.
      Thanks for the suggestion though – if only there was a good way to use MR points at the moment

      • BJ says:

        2 Sep2 September 10:55

        There was an excellent sign up bonus on business plat last year IIRC, don’t know if it might be worth waiting for a return.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Sep2 September 17:57

          Especially at this time of year.
          Any company looking to get signups for an end of year target is probably unlikely to launch in August as traditionally people are on holiday. So I would have thought it worth waiting through late September/October, at least, if you can, for any financial product.

• ken says:

  2 Sep2 September 09:06

  A bit MSE but if you have a Spotify Premium (and plan including student)account you can get a free Google Nest Mini (RRP £29).

  https://www.spotify.com/uk/premium/

  Existing customers qualify as long as you haven’t had one before.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    2 Sep2 September 13:48

    Not eligible if you receive it via your mobile network or similar either by looks of it.

  • Connor says:

    2 Sep2 September 14:35

    Think I managed to get around 15 of them last time the promotion ran. They stupidly allowed trial accounts to claim the speaker, and you could cancel straight away for no cost.

    • Jonathan says:

      2 Sep2 September 15:55

      Ha ha. They’ve rumbled that one this time, clearly excluded in T&C’s! What did you do with them? Don’t fetch much more than £10-15 on eBay which seems more hassle than its worth!

• Rob says:

  2 Sep2 September 09:08

  I have a lot of AMEX & Virgin Points to use for a hotel in St Lucia.

  I’m struggling to find any redemptions apart from the Hilton Curio…

  Does anyone have any ideas?

  Thanks

  • Peter K says:

    2 Sep2 September 09:54

    You can get a room only rate hotel room on Kaligo using your Virgin miles. This opens up a lot of options but gives low value per point. There’s an article on HfP if you search.

• YH says:

  2 Sep2 September 09:16

  For those with Eurostar bookings, I received this email yesterday:

  “To give you more flexibility, we’re now offering you the opportunity to exchange your ticket for an eVoucher equal to the full value of your booking if you’re due to travel up until 15 November.”

  Previously they were only issuing eVouchers for tickets departing up till 7th September.

  • ChrisC says:

    2 Sep2 September 10:30

    I got it too and applied.

    Had an email with a reference number (different from the booking ref which they don’t include in the email) in it and said it would take up 28 days to get the voucher

    Also said my existing booking would be cancelled but that hasn’t happened yet …

• MattB says:

  2 Sep2 September 09:46

  Anyone cancelled/moved their Easter trips to the US yet? Noticed lots of F availability for next August but don’t have another 241 so would have have to change an existing booking. Thinking it’s a slightly more sensible move although I don’t think I would want to go to the US unless there is a vaccine available…..

  • Rob says:

    2 Sep2 September 10:03

    Mine is still sitting there.

    There won’t be a vaccine as you understand it. The one that is released may only work on 30% of people, and that is 30% of those that choose to have it, so perhaps 15% of the population become safe. At best it kicks you a little further towards herd immunity.

    • Anna says:

      2 Sep2 September 12:29

      Where have you seen that Rob? All I can find is an article saying the flu jab may be 30 – 60% effective, nothing about Covid.

      • Rob says:

        2 Sep2 September 12:50

        People are assuming the same for covid vaccines.

        • TomG says:

          2 Sep2 September 16:09

          My 2 intended destinations for my next trip to the US have had less covid than my hometown. My sister lives in upstate NY and her entire county had 6 cases of covid total. I’m no fan of the current administration or how covid was handled but his idea that the entire USA is crawling with covid and anyone stepping foot there will be immediately infected is very OTT.

        • Jonathan says:

          2 Sep2 September 16:10

          Not seen that mentioned by any reliable sources. There is a well recognised issue with a lot of vaccines in the over 60’s as they’re immune system ages like everything else & therefore harder to generate the initial response. That’s why there’s now a different formulation used in this age bracket. There’s also the issue of selecting the correct strains in seasonal influenza which can be hit & miss whereas the Oxford Covid vaccine targets the spike protein which is responsible for Covid’s high transmission rate vs other corona viruses like SARS/MERS. If Covid mutates to alter/remove the spike protein there’s a very high chance it will reduce viral transmission.

          In the young there’s a much better efficacy for vaccines. A universal vaccination programme will therefore significantly reduce circulation in the community & should get near the magic 60+% for herd immunity to kick in.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Sep2 September 18:00

          @Jonathan this is very interesting. what’s the difference in the formulation that you mention. is it more heavily loaded with some mercury compound or something?

  • Stoneman says:

    2 Sep2 September 10:17

    I think the biggest issue is whether you think the US government is going to let foreign visitors in by August 2021? This is ultimately just a guessing game by my estimation.

  • Anna says:

    2 Sep2 September 12:22

    I’ve got an Easter booking to the US and Cayman Islands. Looking more & more like neither of them will be admitting us by then without some kind of quarantine requirement which would defeat the object of the holiday. A plan B is going to need award availability by all accounts so will probably have to cancel & rebook, if there’s anything available that fits all our criteria, which is quite an ask!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    2 Sep2 September 14:03

    There really won’t be any silver bullet vaccine for COVID19.

    • BJ says:

      2 Sep2 September 14:20

      To some extent I think it is increasingly likely that most countries end up where the UK briefly started.

• Alastair says:

  2 Sep2 September 10:09

  Success on the Melia Chargeback saga. Amex have now closed the investigation and stated that the credit will stand..

  In short: Booked the Melia White House in February for June. 2020 happened and they closed but would not offer a refund as the rate was non-refundable, offering only future credit with strings attached, as per their policy dated mid-May. After some back and forth went to Amex, who immediately credited, but then re-opened an investigation. Sent them the details and 2-and-a-bit months later seem to have sided with me.

  • Carol says:

    2 Sep2 September 13:17

    Pleased you obtained a refund. I had the same with Melia Genoa for earlier this year, and after about 8 weeks Curve obtained a refund for me.

• Linda says:

  2 Sep2 September 10:16

  Does anyone know if BA will be extending their FTV or refund of 100% Avios for October flights we are close to 4 weeks to departure and would like the Avios back not a voucher or refund as we not collecting Avios at the rate we used to. Have looked all over the BA site and cannot see anything. Also as its a Lloyds voucher hoping Avios.com would offer the same as BA.

  • Rhys says:

    2 Sep2 September 10:26

    FTV/refund hasn’t been extended yet, but getting an Avios refund is actually easier to request now than before – we were told last week you can now trigger it online: https://www.britishairways.com/travel/webforms/public/en_gb?eId=120001&wfpId=claimavios

    • Anna says:

      2 Sep2 September 12:25

      That seems to be only if BA has cancelled your flights though?

      • Rhys says:

        2 Sep2 September 12:50

        Yes, looks like you are right

• Stoneman says:

  2 Sep2 September 10:18

  Does anyone know whether the BA lounge (whichever one they utilise) at Munich airport is open?

  • Rhys says:

    2 Sep2 September 10:23

    I don’t believe so

    • Stoneman says:

      2 Sep2 September 11:01

      Thanks. I will have to have a whine at BA when I return and hopefully they will give me some Avios like they did last time.

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