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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 17th September

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We have decided to run this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

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Comments (202)

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

  • Anna says:
    17 Sep17 September 09:40

    Possibly mentioned already but some IHG properties are offering 20% off the advance booking rate with breakfast included and only one night desposit. Just booked the HI St Laurent de Var (Nice) for next summer (got to keep hoping…!), I bed suite with breakfast quite reasonable for the riviera in August!

    • PJJ says:
      17 Sep17 September 13:49

      Anna, did you see the HIX and CP that are due to open opposite Nice airport at Grand Arenas ?
      Couldn’t see when they are due to open

      • Anna says:
        17 Sep17 September 13:58

        Yes – they are taking bookings for next summer but are pretty much generic airport hotels, whereas St Laurent du Var offers private beach, water sports, free airport shuttle, beachfront dining etc so much more pleasant for a 5 night stay!

        • Anna says:
          17 Sep17 September 14:00

          I loooed at using an Ambassador certificate for the Intercontinental Carlton but it looks like you pay about 600 euros per night for a windowless broom cupboard at that time of year so, no, basically!

          • Lady London says:
            17 Sep17 September 22:27

            Good hotel though. One of the traditional style Palace hotels.

            Shoulder season could be worth watching for a bargain there although out of season weather there might not be reliable.

          • Lady London says:
            17 Sep17 September 22:33

            Near Nice there is a nice hotel in Eze think it’s SLH Chevre d’Or so Hyatt-able. Stunning views good for a weekend away for 2. Private beaches very close by where they will bring delicacies like fried pumpkin flowers and drinks to you all day on your sun lounger.

        • PJJ says:
          17 Sep17 September 14:13

          Can understand your thinking with 5 nights

  • Barbs says:
    17 Sep17 September 09:47

    Any word yet on BA operations at Gatwick? Specifically the Jersey flight, does anyone know if they expect to keep it at Heathrow (which would be so amazing!) I was looking at flights last night for November, and the system says flights go through Gatwick.

    • Andrew says:
      17 Sep17 September 10:00

      See the main article about BA at the Select Committee – no immediate plans to return to LGW apart from some Caribbean routes currently operating from there, but no firm plans to leave completely either.

      • Barbs says:
        17 Sep17 September 10:07

        Great, thanks. Weirdly enough, last night I could see the JER-LGW flights, but today the BA website just says that there are no flights available from JER-LON for the dates I was looking at. Hoping that comes back soon..

        • JohnT says:
          17 Sep17 September 11:30

          Just had a Gatwick flight in March to Naples moved as well as a Jan Salzburg one. Check your booking!

        • planeconcorde says:
          17 Sep17 September 17:12

          Look again. As of 5pm today BA flights from Jersey to London are now showing as going into Heathrow up to Saturday 27th March 2021.

      • Rob says:
        17 Sep17 September 10:16

        BA fired 1,200 of the 2,000 cabin crew at Gatwick, with those remaining being required for long haul. There are NO, repeat NO, short-haul pilots left at Gatwick AFAIK – all have been transferred to Heathrow fleets, made redundant or placed into the furlough pool.

        • FFoxSake says:
          17 Sep17 September 10:25

          Plus approx 270 out of 300+ BA customer service ground staff were fired/opted for “voluntary” redundancy (whatever you prefer to call it) rather than be TUPEd over to GGS (100% BA owned subsidiary) and immediately be put on consultation.

    • Lottie says:
      17 Sep17 September 12:28

      I have just had my March Geneva flights moved from Gatwick to Heathrow.

    • Ja says:
      17 Sep17 September 13:20

      I have just received an email changing my December jersey flights from LGW to LHR. Result as far as I’m concerned!!

  • Linda says:
    17 Sep17 September 10:52

    Has anyone got an 0800 number for BA for a refund of our paid seat selection, our flight in October has just been cancelled. I have to ring Avios as it was on a Lloyds upgrade voucher to rebook. (waiting for flights to become available for next September hoping we can go then.

    I did find a page on the BA site to apply for seat selection refund but would prefer to talk to a human.

    • Lady London says:
      17 Sep17 September 22:54

      Do not accept a voucher/FTV before getting your cash refund for seat fees otherwise they will put the seat fees into the voucher/FTV and will refuse to give them back as cash.

      You dont have to decide by the date of a cancelled flight whether you want a refund or reroute etc. So ask for your seat fees to be refunded now as cash and deal with the rest later.

  • Rachel R says:
    17 Sep17 September 10:53

    Hi. Did someone say the other day that you can pay off a Creation credit card with an HSBC premier WE without getting charged a cash advance fee? I thought I saw it somewhere in comments, but searched and couldn’t find. Thanks!

  • Aston100 says:
    17 Sep17 September 10:58

    Saw a warning from Revolut about excessive topups and cash advances and whatnot.
    I’ve only had this account under a month.
    Not doing any MS – at least not what I would call MS anyway; certainly no cash cycling.
    Just been topping it up from my IHG and using it to make normal debit card purchases; pay the fast Yanks; bank transfers to a few individuals (a tradesman and some people selling services via the internet and who don’t take cards).
    Admittedly the payments to the Yanks was a few K, spread across a couple of weeks, and the tradesman was just over 1k. The debit card payments were very small in comparison.

    So, what do I do? never topup again from my IHG? make fewer & larger topups from IHG? make frequent but smaller topups from IHG? or do I need to start using ‘Bendy’ as an intermediary for the top ups?

    As I say, I’m not cycling money here and none of it has been transferred back to myself, though a couple of the transfer recipients are relatives.

    Thanks.

    • Benilyn says:
      17 Sep17 September 11:12

      Do you value your Revolut account? I do so have stopped topping up, I also got the warning. If not, slow down and keep going.

      • James. says:
        17 Sep17 September 11:46

        Am I missing the appeal to Revolut? I admit signed up to them in the early days but have been bitten by them so am now very shy to use going forward.

    • Genghis says:
      17 Sep17 September 11:52

      So paying a credit card effectively with another credit card isn’t MS? Hmm…

      • Aston100 says:
        17 Sep17 September 12:36

        Not by my definition. I’m not going out there with the intention of cycling between various accounts and cards for the express purpose of generating points.
        I make genuine everyday purchases with a credit card. I was paying that off through my normal main bank every month by direct debit. I’m now using Revolut instead of my previous main bank account, with the difference that I’m making manual payments every few days to that credit card.I’m not sure if there is a way to setup a direct debit from Revolut to that credit card, but if I find out that this is possible, then I will be doing so.
        So, in my opinion, I’m not setting up some money cycling MS cottage industry here.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          17 Sep17 September 13:51

          MS is “manufactured spend” which means you are manufacturing a way of paying someone who doesn’t accept a credit card with a credit card. paying the speedy Yanks is the very definition.

          Cash recycling is a different thing all together. were you create a loop to effectively spend 0.

    • BJ says:
      17 Sep17 September 12:42

      LOL, join the club, I don’t call it MS either, I prefer MFN.

    • Anna says:
      17 Sep17 September 14:12

      How much are you topping up? I do £500 twice a week and haven’t had a warning in the 2 years I’ve had the account. Pretty much all goes to those speedy dudes.

      • Anna says:
        17 Sep17 September 14:15

        Also, what format does the warning come in? Email or message in your account?

        • Aston100 says:
          17 Sep17 September 14:21

          A full page warning notice as soon as I logged into the app.

          • Anna says:
            17 Sep17 September 14:23

            Yeah, definitely not had that. I am considering getting my OH a Revolut account as well to spread it all out a bit more!

      • Aston100 says:
        17 Sep17 September 14:20

        Around 2k per week, different amounts each time, and leaving a day or two between.
        Following the advice from Peter K and others, I was topping up directly from IHG, and then immediately paying that off from my main bank in order to avoid interest charges. Wasn’t using ‘bendy’ at all.

        Would it make any difference if I had ‘bendy’ in between IHG and them?
        Or is the issue due to being a new customer topping up what appears to be excessive amounts so early on?
        As I say, none of it has been cycled back to me and I always have a healthy balance showing in the app.

        • Lady London says:
          17 Sep17 September 22:48

          I wouldnt leave much balance at all in Rev app. I think I left £25 in it last time. I hardly use it and will always try to do back to back in and out with them.

          I updated the app a few weeks ago, havent used it since then.
          Out of the blue they’ve sent some rubbish email a few days ago saying their processes changed and telling me it will only take seconds for me to re-submit my ID.

          If Rev did not have some useful features I wouldnt bother with them as there’s no reason for this latest re-re-re-upload of my ID. But if I had left money in there it would be blocked, they are hard to contact and slow to respond, too many reports of people’s money being blocked for months while all this is (not) going on. So beware if you leave balances with Revolut.

          • James. says:
            19 Sep19 September 08:40

            When Revolut shut me down they lost £1,000 of funds. They could not locate it and I had to S75 the initial transaction to get the money back. But then strangely 18 months later I got a credit from them for the exact amount. Since then don’t touch them OK when things go right, when they go wrong they are very poor.

      • @mkcol says:
        17 Sep17 September 15:05

        Who or what on earth are these Speedy Dudes or Speedy Yanks?

      • Ron says:
        17 Sep17 September 15:27

        I have never been able to use revolut for the speedy dudes, do u have to be premium / metal?

    • John says:
      17 Sep17 September 14:17

      Well, think about it from Revolut’s point of view, every time you top up by credit card they pay some sort of percentage fee yet they are on the hook for the full amount if you send it out by bank transfer.

      If you pay with the revolut card then they get some percentage fee back. Not sure how much they get charged for paying Amex.

      Clearly Revolut would prefer you to use bank transfer top ups for the amounts you pay out by bank transfer and limit your credit card topups to the amount you pay out by using the card

      • The Urbanite says:
        17 Sep17 September 18:31

        Revolut hate it if you top up with a credit card then use their card to pay off credit cards.

        They also hate it if you top up with a credit then do bank transfers to anybody.

        Topping up more than you can account for when they KYC you will get your account shut down.

    • Ming The Merciless says:
      17 Sep17 September 20:56

      I did just under £400k in 18 months… they shut me down after they realised I could only justify 1/2 of it under proof of funds.

      • James. says:
        18 Sep18 September 15:41

        When Revolut shut me down they lost £1,000 of funds. They could not locate it and I had to S75 the initial transaction to get the money back. But then strangely 18 months later I got a credit from them for the exact amount. Since then don’t touch them OK when this go alright, when they go wrong they are very poor.

  • Benilyn says:
    17 Sep17 September 11:11

    IHG Premium card, quite a few grands away from hitting the £10k to get to free night trigger and only have 1 month to go. Anyone had experience on doing a big spend then refunding spend after voucher comes through? Have you been able to keep voicher?

    • James. says:
      17 Sep17 September 11:47

      Only one way to find out. Do it and let us know 🙂

      Otherwise pump some MS through to ensure you hit the target

    • TGLoyalty says:
      17 Sep17 September 13:53

      open an NS&I account, sign up to curve and boost your savings pot. Might be too late though depending on how many K you are away

      • Anna says:
        17 Sep17 September 14:22

        Top up your energy account – I often find myself a couple of thousand £ in credit as I am a pensioner naturally concerned about covering my fuel bills in the winter months!

        • Aston100 says:
          17 Sep17 September 14:51

          Is there such a thing as a YUMPY?
          Young, Upwardly Mobile, Pensioner.

          If there isn’t, then there should be!

  • crjos says:
    17 Sep17 September 11:13

    https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/el-al/mazel-tov-26-year-old-eli-rozenberg-reportedly-new-controlling-shareholder-el-al/

    What do you think Rob?

  • John says:
    17 Sep17 September 11:14

    Help required.

    I have two business class seats booked with a 241 that expires the day we fly ( already been extended).
    If two first class reward seats become available, can I just up upgrade without this affecting the 241?
    Thanks in advance for any comments.

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