The HfP chat thread – Thursday 17th September

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• callum says:

  17 Sep17 September 13:53

  Has anyone tried getting a Future Travel Voucher when cancelling a Lloyds Upgrade voucher booking? The BA live chat seemed certain that you’d be able to get the FTV, which would also preserve the voucher, but I’ve never found Avios.com to be particularly flexible in the past!

  • Anna says:

    17 Sep17 September 14:29

    Have you tried cancelling via MMB, or does it just tell you to call?

    • Anna says:

      17 Sep17 September 14:30

      Let us know how you get on as I’ve just made a booking with a Lloyds voucher which was due to expire this month but no guarantee that I’ll actually be able to travel!

      • callum says:

        17 Sep17 September 15:18

        I haven’t actually booked yet. My voucher runs out this month too and I have absolutely no idea when I’ll be able to travel again so a FTV would be perfect.

        I’m going to book next week and see if I can get a straight answer – I’ll post what they say here.

        • Anna says:

          17 Sep17 September 15:56

          Thanks – I used my voucher for 2 x CE to Nice for next August bank holiday (i.e. as far out as i could book!), will be more than happy to actually go there but not counting on it.

        • Matt says:

          17 Sep17 September 21:00

          I have 2 Lloyds vouchers expiring this month (one already extended). Rang last week and was told they could extend them both to end November. YMMV.
          Since I am limited to school holidays and want to visit the States, that extension option didn’t help me, but a FTV might be very useful – please do post if you discuss it with them.

• mart says:

  17 Sep17 September 15:14

  Its now 121 days since we had a VS flight cancelled ,we have requested a refund.
  Nothing
  unfortunately my good will is going rapid
  is chargeback the only option?

  • AJA says:

    17 Sep17 September 15:46

    Wow! You’ve been exceedingly patient. Time to contact your credit card provider and initiate a s75 claim.

  • Blindman says:

    17 Sep17 September 18:43

    Mine took 130 days, was only £100 so no panic.
    Start a charge back anyway, see which one comes first.

• rams1981 says:

  17 Sep17 September 15:16

  Has anyone had issues with paypal before? I ordered something which said it would be delivered in 3 days. 2 weeks later hadn’t arrived so I told them to cancel the order. They said they couldn’t and to refuse delivery which I did when it arrived 4 weeks later. Firstly the mis-sold the product promising a quick delivery. Secondly it’s been 2 weeks and still no refund. Opened a paypal dispute and which took them 2 weeks to look at and the rejected to say delivery tracking was provided. Unreal.
  It was paid with an underlying amex. Is my best bet to claim through Amex as Paypal seem useless. Will never buy anything through them again.

  • GaryC says:

    17 Sep17 September 15:55

    I have had similar experiences. Goods absolutely not supplied as described, many weeks to go through a dispute process, which PayPal ultimately rejected. As a result I only use them now if I have absolutely no other choice with payment options.

  • meta says:

    17 Sep17 September 18:18

    Go via Complaints procedure. There is a separate form on the website for that. It’s hard to find. I only got it when I went on chat and the agent gave the link who couldn’t reopen the dispute that was rejected twice. Tell Paypal you’ll take them to MCOL. I got my refund within a few hours after I told them that in the same situation. These are the bots rejecting claims.

• Andrew says:

  17 Sep17 September 16:28

  For Morrison’s fans, there’s been a low key and very limited re-introduction of the 10% InStore fund return option on Visa & Mastercards.

  Check with your employer’s perks partner, but it is targetted to a very narrow audience for the moment.

  • Connor says:

    17 Sep17 September 17:05

    Glad to see it’s coming back. Only got 2 tanks worth of fuel left on gift cards.

  • thehornets says:

    17 Sep17 September 18:47

    Not on mine unfortunately (perks at work)

    • TGLoyalty says:

      17 Sep17 September 19:28

      They aren’t even on mine

      We use “SmartSpending” app no idea who is behind it.

      • The Urbanite says:

        17 Sep17 September 19:56

        SmartSpending is Reward Gateway. A very lucrative facility to have access to!

• JohnT says:

  17 Sep17 September 17:03

  Another question on BA LGW to LHR moves? Do you not get any compensation for this eg additional cost of getting to airport? Email from BA says “If you accept to travel from a different departure point or to a different destination than your original booking, we will not cover any expenses for travel between the two points”? Unfortunately if I cancel and rebook on EJet now FO is currently advising against eg Austria, so could be Insurance issue.

  • GeorgeJ says:

    17 Sep17 September 17:25

    JOHNT, It is an insurance issue whether you re-book or not. If you engage in non-essential travel against FCO advice most insurance policies are voided. Read the detail and if in doubt call the insurer. Of course it is the situation when you travel that matters not the current one but a new booking is unlikely to be eligible for covid related cancellation costs.
    BA will not pay additional costs but you can of course just cancel and get a voucher or cash, all been very straightforward when I have done it.

  • JohnT says:

    17 Sep17 September 18:11

    True. Refund not the issue, but avoiding LHR looks difficult.

  • Charlieface says:

    17 Sep17 September 19:49

    Completely illegal what they’re doing. They need to cover any extra cost to you of the different airport. You booked a flight from LGW specifically, not London Airports

    • ChrisC says:

      17 Sep17 September 20:03

      From Article 8.3 of EU261

      When, in the case where a town, city or region is servedby several airports, an operating air carrier offers a passenger aflight to an airport alternative to that for which the bookingwas made, theoperating air carrier shall bear the cost of trans-ferring the passenger from that alternative airport either to thatfor which the booking was made, or to another close-by desti-nation agreed with the passenger.

      I’ll be making a claim for the difference between getting to/from Gatwick and to/from Heathrow when I chose – because when I booked – they flew from LGW.

      TBH BA are hacking me off at the moment. 45 minutes to speak to someone yesterday who then put me through to the wrong department whoi then couldn’t transfer me back to the right people!

      And today because I paid for some of my BA holiday with vouchers it looks like they will only give me the BA Hols bonus on the cash pais element!

    • Lady London says:

      17 Sep17 September 21:52

      +1
      @JohnT yesterday evening @Sukes posted the CAA’s clarification of how they require airlines to meet their obligations for rerouting – whuch includes your case of move from LGW to LHR (and for that matter, those readers with cancelled flights from LBA who are contemplating whether to accept travelling from another airport.

      @Sukes provided the link yesterday on the randoms thread (i think – could have been the BA thread) and in the file the CAA specifically states that if an airline wants to reroute you to/from another airport *even in same city* then the airline is responsible for the costs of that. There is no doubt here. You can of course also refuse and take a refund. Or, if another airline is flying from your original airport you can request that.

      The file Sukes linked to even covers that very well indeed – if travel from LHR rather than LGW is going to lengthen your journey etc, or if timetable from LHR doesnt get you there for the purpose of your trip, it’s all in the file Sukes linked to.

• Kipto says:

  17 Sep17 September 17:16

  Anyone else finding that Amex are slower than usual with credit card applications. I usually get the card within three or four days. Been waiting for over a week now. The cynic in me thinks it’s because I am downgrading from BA premium plus to the free card. Rang them today and they said the new applications team were short of staff because of COVID. Mmm

  • AJA says:

    17 Sep17 September 17:40

    I applied for a supplementary card online on Saturday on my BAPP and it arrived today. I appreciate that is not a new application but it shows they are still working and sending cards out pretty quickly. The 3,000 bonus Avios posted as well 🙂

  • James says:

    17 Sep17 September 20:17

    Why the Mmm? Perfectly likely in the middle of a pandemic don’t you think?

  • Lee says:

    17 Sep17 September 21:42

    Applied on Tuesday, approved instantly. Card received today with referral points appeared yesterday. All very smooth.

• Paul Whelan says:

  17 Sep17 September 17:21

  I wondered if anyone had an idea of the length of time it’s currently taking to process Hilton Status matches?

  Reason for asking is that I have a stay booked beginning October and one 23rd December – I’m looking to time my application to get matched in time for the October booking but still be within the 90-day period for the December 23rd booking.

  I know the FAQ on the Hilton sites says 5-7 business days (due to “large number of requests” – that was August 2019) but was trying to work out if that volume is likely to be less or more in the current climate.

  Cheers!

• Liam says:

  17 Sep17 September 17:33

  It’s been a while since I used Curve but I tried using it to add some money to Vanguard yesterday (Lloyds Avios Mastercard as the underlying card) and the transaction was declined. Is that just a dead end these days?

  • The Urbanite says:

    17 Sep17 September 18:40

    Transactions to certain merchant categories often trigger security alerts with Lloyds – might be worth checking your card hasn’t had a block placed on it.

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