The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 9th September

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

• MadeUpName says:

  9 Sep9 September 08:35

  Hi, quick question on expert flyer. Does it show all passengers who are booked on a flight? So if 30 seats are shown as ‘occupied’ in economy does that mean only 30 people are booked onto the flight in economy? And are the blocked seats people who’ve booked or do they just get made available 72 hours before departure?

  • Rhys says:

    9 Sep9 September 08:36

    Most passengers don’t have allocated seats until check in etc

    • MadeUpName says:

      9 Sep9 September 09:00

      Ok, thanks. So there is going to be more than 30 on board then?

      • Rhys says:

        9 Sep9 September 09:01

        Most likely, yes!

        • MadeUpName says:

          9 Sep9 September 10:17

          Thanks Rhys – that’s a shame – I was looking forward to a lot of space at the back of the plane vs an 80% full club cabin!

• Alex says:

  9 Sep9 September 08:39

  Quick question, I had an original avios booking (with 2for1 voucher) that I requested a future travel voucher for so I could make a free change (different destination and dates) and that has been processed. If I now want to cancel the whole thing, can I still pay the £35pp fee and get my cash back, with the points and voucher going back into my account? Or is this destined to remain as a voucher now. (Noting it needs to be 24h cancellation for Avios or up until close of check-in for the voucher I believe)?

  • L Allen says:

    9 Sep9 September 09:08

    I think, but you’d need to call and ask, that once it’s a voucher it stays a voucher.

  • pauldb says:

    9 Sep9 September 09:32

    Worst case scenario: use your FTV for an economy booking to AMS – 8,000 avios and £70. You’ll get the vast majority of avios and cash refunded. Then in a few days cancel the AMS booking, forfeiting the £70 but getting the 241 and 8k back.

    If you’re in no rush, book a winter Gatwick flight or a USA flight to a non-gateway airport. When it gets cancelled you should get a full free refund.

  • AJA says:

    9 Sep9 September 10:00

    No. You have a FTV which effectively put your booking on hold for use before April 2022.

    As advised above you can use the FTV to book another flight and then potentially cancel that booking for a refund but be aware if the new booking has a lower value than the current FTV you will probably be refunded the difference with another FTV.

    • pauldb says:

      9 Sep9 September 11:44

      The experience seems to be that on an avios booking they’ll refund the difference not give another FTV.

  • Alex says:

    9 Sep9 September 10:35

    I called YouFirst and they said I could do either, cancel and pay the £35×2 fee or take another voucher. Don’t know if that seemed too good to be true, but the lady I spoke to did confirm several times this would be fine.

• Simon (previously Avatar de Scoob) says:

  9 Sep9 September 09:01

  Datapoint – Amex Platinum retention offers

  Like many on here, for years HUACA has served me pretty well. It did once again in the last week and this may be a useful datapoint for those wondering if Amex are still offering healthy retention offers for those considering cancelling their Amex Plat cards.

  Amex Phone call #1 (Thurs 3rd Sept): got through to Brighton, but the young man said he couldn’t administer retention offer enquiries, so I was routed through to “Maverick” (Really!!! I guess he was on hiatus from naval aviator school in the Mojave desert) in the Philippines: I was offered the opportunity to downgrade to a Gold charge. I will want to do that anyway, but I thought I could do better than this, so I said I’d think about it.

  Amex Phone call #2 (Fri 4th Sept): got through to Brighton and asked again about retention offers for Plat. A very officious woman told me that she could only offer me — wait for it — Shop Small. Hilarious. I told her this wasn’t even a retention offer, still less one peculiar to a Plat card, adding that Shop Small is available to pretty much all Amex cards… and that it was ending very soon, by the way. She was having none of it, though. I ended the call.

  Amex Phone call #3 (Mon 7th Sept): I got through to Brighton again and once more I asked about Plat card retention offers on at the moment. A pleasant chap transferred me through to another Brighton-based colleague, another very personable guy: he offered me 30,000 MR points on the spot. I said thanks very much! These points posted today. :o) And now I can finally get my Cat 8 Marriott Travel Package thanks to this.

  So, it just goes to show that HUACA is very much alive and kicking as an approach, as indeed are Plat Amex retention offers. I hope this helps others elicit the same results.

  • Andrew says:

    9 Sep9 September 09:27

    Did you get the 20k when they were offering that a couple of months ago or was this the first time you have approached them about this/got anything?

    • Simon says:

      9 Sep9 September 09:35

      I got another 15K about two months ago, Andrew, from another retention offer when they were handing them out, but that was on a different Plat card I held at the time.

      • Bharat says:

        9 Sep9 September 09:40

        Called Amex yesterday. Told them unable to use the benefits of the card. Offered me 40000 points. In my account this morning.

        • Lady London says:

          9 Sep9 September 13:33

          you are the second or third poster who got the 40,000 saying “unable to use the travel benefits / benefits of the card”

          it;s about time Amex UK stopped being mean and gave us the 40,000 reports say Amex has been giving the Germans for many months now

  • Harry T says:

    9 Sep9 September 09:41

    I got an American, asked if they were offering any retention offers for customers considering cancelling, was then put on hold before being put through to an English lady in a senior position who offered me 40k after explaining all the card benefits. She was very helpful.

    • Simon (previously Avatar de Scoob) says:

      9 Sep9 September 10:19

      Nice one 😉

    • Chris says:

      9 Sep9 September 10:22

      Harry / Bharat, did either of you get the original 20k offer? Now that will be interesting data point to figure out if it’s 40k on top of the original 20k

      • Bharat says:

        9 Sep9 September 10:35

        No just 40k

      • Harry T says:

        9 Sep9 September 13:36

        I didn’t have a Platinum card when the 20k was being offered – I had already downgraded to Green. I upgraded to Plat again last month to get the upgrade bonus.

  • Rum says:

    9 Sep9 September 14:02

    Having recently returned from abroad, I called last week to downgrade to gold as I currently have no need for the Plat other than to retain my points (I hadn’t even read they were doing this again). I called and asked to be put through to Brighton. I got 40K there and then “because you’ve been with us for a long time”. They were in my account before the call ended. The adviser told me there were more incentives and offers on the way for Platinum cards, which I am looking forward to.
    I already got 15K for threatening to cancel back in the spring. Nice result overall. If only the BAPP card would launch a similar incentive.

    • Youllnever says:

      9 Sep9 September 18:51

      How long have you been with Amex? Have you held the plat for a long time?

• rams1981 says:

  9 Sep9 September 09:17

  HSBC WE works fine

• Pete22 says:

  9 Sep9 September 09:43

  Quick question – are all flights from EWR/JRK – LHR on the new BA club suites?

  • Rhys says:

    9 Sep9 September 09:43

    Nope but I believe the vast majority are

  • Andrew says:

    9 Sep9 September 10:30

    Turning Left for Less has an article about this very thing today. Apparently only one pair of LHR/JFK are Club Suite at the moment, with 3 pairs scheduled for the summer next year. When you are doing the booking on the website you can go through to the screen before payment and you can select seats there – that will show the seat map with CS clearly 1-2-1 layout – if the flight you have chosen isn’t that layout you can go back and select a different one.

    • Andrew says:

      9 Sep9 September 10:33

      I should say this relates to the 777. All flights marked as A350 are Club Suite.

• Mzungu says:

  9 Sep9 September 09:51

  Question for the combined wisdom on HfP – I’m sure that this, or variants have been asked many times recently:

  In February I booked a weekend in Monaco (with the helicopter transfer thanks to HfP). I paid the BA Holidays deposit, and then another £300 ish to use the MR points for spend on BA. Net result, have paid £500 out of £900 total. The outbound is 3 weeks this Friday, so the balance is due in 2 days.

  I’ve checked the flights on BA Source, and they are still operating.
  With quarantine in either direction (AIUI), there’s clearly no point in going for 3 nights. What are my options, if any?

  If claiming on travel insurance is an option, I only have Amex Plat – kept that just until the end of this trip. Although I’m totally unimpressed with their service – claimed in February after a SE Asia trip for:
  1. medical – declined (long story)
  2. delays/cancellations – ignored, and when I chased they said they would call back – I’m still waiting. I won’t be relying on them again, I’ll take out ‘proper’ travel insurance.

  Thanks all.

  • Stu N says:

    9 Sep9 September 11:06

    As it’s a BA Holiday and France and Monaco are both on the the FCO list of destinations with travel advisories, you’re covered by the Package Holiday regs and BA should cancel the trip and refund you.

    Given proximity of balance payment, I’d give them a phone and check the position. If you phone first thing in the morning people are reporting that wait times aren’t too bad.

    • Mzungu says:

      9 Sep9 September 12:39

      Thanks STU N (I always read that as STUN now it’s in CAPS 🙂 )
      Just the kind of info I was looking for – I hadn’t considered the package holiday regs.

• Eppleby Green says:

  9 Sep9 September 10:14

  Has anyone heard anymore about the Tesco 24000 avios draw?

• Naveen says:

  9 Sep9 September 10:25

  Is there any point applying for a Platinum card at the moment? I would love to hear people’s opinions regarding this. Assuming someone will use it to travel in the next few months. Will retention offers apply?

  • Andrew says:

    9 Sep9 September 10:30

    In a word – no. Even with retention offers, you’ll only just about break even on the £575 and unlikely to use many/any of the benefits.

    • Rob says:

      9 Sep9 September 10:48

      If you’re travelling, and given that it is covering covid, it may well be. It depends on where you are going. Plaza Premium T5 is open and it gets you in there, the insurance and car hire insurance clearly works as usual. The hotel status cards may be marginally less useful as some benefits are restricted, but arguably upgrades may be easier to get at present.

  • Naveen says:

    9 Sep9 September 15:33

    Thanks.

    Currently have a BAPP – never held a membership rewards card before, so I would be able to get the bonus. It sounds like an expensive insurance since benefits are not great at the moment. As for the lounge, I am *G and usually fly *Alliance anyway.

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