The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 2nd September

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• Darren says:

  2 Sep2 September 10:32

  Amex SLH offer £100 off £350 spend, this was mentioned yesterday and I checked Hyatt prices against SLH Invited and there’s quite a difference. Prepaid rates n/a if I’ve read the t&c’s correctly.

  • BJ says:

    2 Sep2 September 11:00

    …and the juiciest part of your comment’s missing Darren, how much?

    • Darren says:

      2 Sep2 September 12:31

      Sorry, Nira Caledonia £50 per night difference.

    • Darren says:

      2 Sep2 September 12:34

      OTA half the Hyatt price without bf.

      • BJ says:

        2 Sep2 September 13:53

        Thanks, he’ll just have to stay home then 😀

        • Darren says:

          2 Sep2 September 14:37

          😄 breakfast 👍

        • ankomonkey says:

          2 Sep2 September 15:05

          🙂

  • Rob says:

    2 Sep2 September 11:06

    Hyatt pricing is often more than SLH or direct. However, Hyatt bookings get free continental breakfast. You also get Hyatt points which can be valuable, especially if there is a promotion running.

    To make it more complex, not all SLH hotels are in Invited (which Emyr can book for you and includes free breakfast).

    When we booked The Atlantic in Jersey, it wasn’t in Invited. Laughably, the best deal was using Hotels.com – it was offering 10% off to logged in users plus 10% back via Hotels.com Rewards – which the hotel wouldn’t match when Emyr called them direct.

    • Darren says:

      2 Sep2 September 13:02

      Invited has worked out well for me over the years with bf and upgrades at various places.

• Therm says:

  2 Sep2 September 10:35

  Question re Amex Plat insurance for car hire:

  Does it cover additional drivers? E.g. my spouse is the lead booker but we have a free additional driver (my spouse has a supp Plat and I’m the main cardholder).

  If I drive as an additional driver does the insurance of the Supp kick in or is it mine? Are we covered?

  Thanks.

  • Dave says:

    2 Sep2 September 16:54

    My understanding is that the plat card holder is covered as long as they are named on the rental agreement. Both of you are covered, but only because each of you has a card.

• Ja says:

  2 Sep2 September 11:32

  Can anyone who did the Marriott status match tell me how long it took to get a reply. Thanks

  • meta says:

    2 Sep2 September 13:39

    5 days for me. Used IHG Platinum and just sent them reservation confirmation email and not folio.

  • BP says:

    2 Sep2 September 18:21

    3 days for them to tell me the evidence was insufficient. Sent screenshots from the mobile app of my card and also a completed booking with amounts shown. Have resubmitted with website screenshot and a pdf folio from the IC Bangkok.

  • JC says:

    2 Sep2 September 20:54

    3 days. Successful first time. Status match from Gold Hilton to Plat Marriott 😀

• MinR says:

  2 Sep2 September 12:11

  Can anyone advise on any points earning opportunity for transfers to USD account in America?

  I use TransferWise, but the fees vary depending on payment method. Can Curve be used as a Debit Card Payment method for TW?

  • blenz101 says:

    2 Sep2 September 13:42

    By far the best value with Transferwise is to do a bank transfer. You may a payment in local currency to Transferwise using the account details and unique reference number they provide you, as soon as the funds hit their account they initiate a bank transfer the other end in local currency into your nominated account.

    If you are prepared to pay higher fees to make a card payment in the hope of earning points then you are going to have to do some trial and error with different underlying cards. Some will treat as cash advance / foreign currency advance and charge fees and immediate mediate interest, others you may get lucky where the transaction is not being picked up correctly.

• BJ says:

  2 Sep2 September 12:16

  £100 for switching to RBS. Based on previous trends NatWest will likely follow a few days to weeks later.
  https://personal.rbs.co.uk/

  • Harry T says:

    2 Sep2 September 12:57

    Thanks, looks better than the Halifax offer, as less hoops to jump through.

    • mark2 says:

      2 Sep2 September 13:08

      Remember that RBS and NatWest disqualify each other if reward received recently.

    • BJ says:

      2 Sep2 September 14:00

      Halifax paid before the switch even completed, looks like you’ll have to be patient for this one. If you dislike the Halifax account hoops then you could simply switch it to this one before the deadline. I got the NatWest bonus in October 17 so I’m disqualified.

  • Louise K says:

    2 Sep2 September 14:16

    And if anyone business banks with RBS they are targeting companies with a £4k incentive to switch to some ‘challenger banks’.

    Aimed at small / med business with turnover less than £25million

  • Vit says:

    2 Sep2 September 22:23

    Thanks BJ. I am thinking of switching out of HSBC to Halifax, stay 1.5 month then switch to RBS mid Nov. I don’t see the conditions mentioned in MSE about RBS or Halifax disqualified each other in paying out the bonus. Halifax does pay out quicker as well based on my experience.

• KBUFFETT says:

  2 Sep2 September 12:29

  I have a BA 241 expiring Dec2020. I need to find a way to get it extended for max value. I think the route is to book flights that are going to be cancelled so that I can then opt for the FTV.
  Can I get some suggestions on which flights I should book that should be cancelled and how to get a max value Future Travel Voucher?

  • memesweeper says:

    2 Sep2 September 12:51

    I won’t advise which routes as I’d hate to be responsible if BA didn’t cancel, but look for:

    (*) long haul
    (*) routes with no BA flights now
    (*) routes with no travel corridor from the UK and/or not admitting UK travellers
    (*) routes with good Avios availability in the coming months

    • KBUFFETT says:

      2 Sep2 September 13:04

      Thanks. Not so straightforward then!

      • Anna says:

        2 Sep2 September 13:45

        Cayman Islands. No way are tourists going to be allowed in for the rest of 2020. You just need to be lucky & pick a flight that won’t be one of the 2 monthly BA repatriation services the government has asked BA to run.

    • Umba says:

      2 Sep2 September 13:48

      Why do you have to wait for BA to cancel? I thought you could cancel and obtain the FTV for bookings made between 3 March 2020 and 30 September 2020 for journeys that are due to have been completed by 31 August 2021. Happy to be corrected 🙂

      • KBUFFETT says:

        2 Sep2 September 14:30

        I don’t know….I will wait for someone to assist. But it may be that my cancelling myself I would have to pay £35 per person cancellation fee?

        • Umba says:

          2 Sep2 September 14:44

          I may be wrong, but thought there was no £35 pp cancellation fee if you took the FTV. Hopefully someone with greater expertise can confirm?

        • Lady London says:

          2 Sep2 September 17:54

          that was my impression. If you booked at the right time you just phone BA and say you want to convert it to an FTV.

          I’m not sure what the rules are on how far ahead any voucher contained in your booking is extended for though… whether it’s a fixed number of months from the date you call, or until a fixed month like April 2022 for every voucher.?

          Some cleverer than me pointed out a couple of days ago that asking for an FTV is one way of avoiding £17.50 or £35 cancellation fee on an avios booking … and also of avoiding being charged this amount just to change an avios booking. Just convert to FTV without charge… then voila use FTV to book the avios booking you wanted to change to 🙂

      • stevenhp1987 says:

        2 Sep2 September 18:20

        Someone will correct me if I’m wrong.

        If you cancel then there needs to be Avios availability when rebooking.

        If BA cancel, you can change your booking to any day so long as there are seats (even if no Avios availability) available.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Sep2 September 19:05

          Yes. correct.
          EU261 if BA cancels mean the airline cannot insist on only rebooking you to a later flight convenient to you that has avios seats available. EU261 says any seat in your same booking class (ie Y, C/J, F and no more closely defined) is sufficient and you have a right to it. If BA cancels even one of the flights on your booking, you can alternatively choose to take a full refund and it will not have any deductions.
          You should also get any seat reservation fees and other ancillary fees paid in full.
          Currently there is some argument by BA about not refunding earlier change fees but I personally think they would lose that in court so far as change fees to select the flight they cancelled were concerned.

          If you take a voucher /FTV, BA is doing you a favour so of course can insist (and will insist) that you can only re-use it on a flight with avios availability.

          So it’s always best to hold out to see if BA cancel before you do.

        • Rob says:

          2 Sep2 September 21:34

          Correct – although the latter is restricted to tickets within 355 days of the day the original booking was made.

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  2 Sep2 September 12:29

  Upcoming changes to Starbucks Rewards to move to revenue-based:

  Currently: 1 star per transaction, 15 stars is a free drink, 50 stars in a year gets you to Gold level

  New: 3 stars per £ spent, 150 stars is a free drink (i.e. £50 spend), 450 stars for gold (£150 spend). Golds now also get a free birthday drink

  Summary: Easier to get to Gold and Gold is now (slightly) better, but the core rewards scheme is devalued if your average transaction was <£5 (which is probably the case if you were just buying a single coffee).

  • KBUFFETT says:

    2 Sep2 September 12:51

    Doesn’t seem particularly generous.

  • mark2 says:

    2 Sep2 September 13:10

    I assume the coffee is still as dire.

    • BJ says:

      2 Sep2 September 14:11

      I guess so, bitter and lacking body. Ok if you want one of the milky sugary creations but if you just want a decent coffee it is very disappointing. I wrote a formal complaint to the friendly sky as a 1K when they started proudly serving starbucks on board.

      • Lady London says:

        3 Sep3 September 13:14

        I go to Starbucks if I’m travelling somewhere I need the wifi and not their coffee.

        Taking it chilled often means it’s got no taste at all which with the gutless tinny taste of Starbucks coffee is fine by me. Evidently their recipe book doesnt tell them that when you ice coffee you have to increase the coffee and sugar content otherwise iced coffee is tasteless. Lucky me.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      2 Sep2 September 14:48

      Haven’t been for years tbh. Signed up maybe five years ago to take advantage of a sign up bonus plus double stars promo, a certain website that I can’t mention was rebating your coffees and I think there was some reason why I was getting the gift cards cheaply too. The house blend is pretty rank, but there was a rotating limited-edition coffee that you could switch to which was nicer or in summer the iced drinks were fine.

      Fun fact: they used to sell the i newspaper for 20p, which would trigger a star. You could arbitrage your way to a £3 drink if – unlike me – you had the patience…

      • Lady London says:

        2 Sep2 September 15:21

        wasnt there a “thing” as well with PP and the Starbucks in T5C

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          2 Sep2 September 16:47

          No, it was BA lounge eligible passengers could get up to £15 in Starbucks due to T5C not having a lounge. This Starbucks also sold small bottles of champagne. This stopped a long time ago now, but it was nice when it lasted.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          2 Sep2 September 21:03

          It was BA and it was abused by those that knew about it

        • ChrisC says:

          2 Sep2 September 22:20

          It was designed so people could get a coffee (or perhaps the small bottle of champers) and a sandwich in lieu of a lounge but some people abused it by buying mugs and bags of coffee and going right up to the £15 limit

          I heard stories of starbucks staff also adding small items to bills to bump up their sales if people spent less than the £15 allowed.

          When BA became aware of the abuse – either through their own checking or by reading the flyer talk thread – they put a stop to it.

• Benilyn says:

  2 Sep2 September 12:32

  IHG Black Creation Card Free night: “As a loyal cardmember, we want to let you know your Anniversary Night earned through your IHG® Rewards Club Premium Credit Card will be available to you, when you’re ready to travel.
  Your certificate has been extended until 31 December 2020.”
  Anyone had any luck getting this extended further?

  • Peter K says:

    2 Sep2 September 12:47

    Unlikely at the moment as that’s nearly 4 months away and the voucher is a book by 31st December, not use by the 31st December, so you have nearly 16 months to use it within.

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