The HfP chat thread – Friday 18th September

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• Michael C says:

  18 Sep18 September 04:13

  So…the Xmas party this year…guess there will only be…2 invites in the draw?!

  • ChrisC says:

    18 Sep18 September 05:19

    Depends on how many foxes and grouse are available and if the Home Secretary is invited.

  • Andrew says:

    18 Sep18 September 06:54

    Well Christmas will be a repeat of Easter with us only allowed to leave home for essential reasons. Perhaps a spring party might be possible.

    • Lady London says:

      18 Sep18 September 20:34

      not sure if there’s a venue big enough to allow social distancing

  • AJA says:

    18 Sep18 September 11:52

    On the subject of Xmas I see that the NYE fireworks in London has been cancelled!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54204929

• Ben says:

  18 Sep18 September 05:17

  I received an email from BA on a cancelled flight offering me a voucher. I tried calling them many times since to get a cash refund but with no luck in getting to talk to anyone. Any suggestions?

  • Linda says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:19

    Just managed to get through to BA for a refund of our seat selection, only took 10 mins kept getting the message we cannot take your call at the moment so kept hitting redial and got through to a very nice man in South Africa who did all the necessary.

    Rang 0800-727-800

  • Andrew says:

    18 Sep18 September 09:24

    When you call, don’t press any buttons. They try and direct you to do things on line by saying they are busy. Stay silent and they will put you through/into the queue. I rang the Gold line yesterday afternoon and was put through straight away with no wait.

• Dezbez says:

  18 Sep18 September 07:03

  Think I saw reference a couple of days ago to an unexplained avios deduction on an account. This happened to me earlier this week and I queried with BA – this was the reason why:

  “Please note the below transaction pertains to your purchase at House of Fraser on 14 June 2018.

  The merchant has gone into administration hence the Avios was cancelled, however, we have decided to re-credit your 240 Avios as a goodwill gesture.”

  Unbelievable.

  • Rob says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:39

    Why is that unbelievable? House of Fraser won’t pay Avios so Avios doesn’t need to give you the points.

    • Dezbez says:

      18 Sep18 September 08:15

      Because the transaction was in June18 and the Avios have been in my account for over 2 years. Id have thought that transaction is done and dusted? There can’t be an indefinite clawback period, surely? Or have I misunderstood the fundamentals of how it works?

      • Rob says:

        18 Sep18 September 09:09

        The purchase was made before HOF went bust. The new owners have no liability for old debts. Collinson / Avios was clearly hoping they would settle but finally gave up.

      • Nick_C says:

        18 Sep18 September 12:05

        It is a surprising way to do business.

        Voldeportal don’t pay out until they have received their money from the retailer. I would’ve expected the BA store to operate the same way and only credit the Avios once they had their commission.

        I wonder if Virgin have paid Hilton for all the transfers people have made?

  • Luckyjim says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:00

    Wow. Goodwill without much fuss usually means they are pushing their luck.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:31

    The reason why I don’t use the miles stores unless they are the only one offering it.

    • Lady London says:

      18 Sep18 September 11:17

      So is the moral of the story to spend as much as you earn immediately?

• Nkp says:

  18 Sep18 September 07:16

  Anybody with experience of cancelling an Avois flight in favour of a travel voucher? Voucher came through within minutes – how long for Avios to get recredited?

  • Rob says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:38

    Eh? You don’t. The voucher contains the Avios and the cash you paid. You can’t get the Avios back into your account. This is why we don’t recommend the vouchers unless you are trying to extend a 241.

    • Nkp says:

      18 Sep18 September 07:44

      I understand. Thanks.

    • idrive says:

      18 Sep18 September 08:55

      Rob I replied to this, describing my experience which states the opposite, please see below. Sorry today I made some mess with replying:-)

    • Andrew says:

      18 Sep18 September 09:27

      And the Avios vouchers can’t be used on line – only on the phone. The vouchers issued for cash bookings can be used on line. And the Avios vouchers can only be used for future Avios bookings – even the cash element can’t be used towards a cash ticket purchase. For info, this policy and the ability to change Avios bookings fee-free is available to partner airlines booked with Avios as well as BA flights.

• Green Plastic says:

  18 Sep18 September 07:22

  Morning all, is there any way of maximizing your chances of a room upgrade with Hilton Gold? If you check in on the app before arrival does that scupper your chances? Been at Aberdeen TECA this week and checked in online first. Receptionist advised that they were fully booked so no upgrades available. It soon became apparent that there is no way the hotel is fully booked, it is like a ghost town! So thought I might have made a schoolboy error in checking in early. I’m new to this so any tips appreciated!

  • Peter K says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:35

    Only check in visa the app if it already offers you an upgrade you want, otherwise it is always best to check in visa reception.
    Some hotels just don’t like upgrading people though, full stop.

  • Rob says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:38

    Such situations generally involve heading down to the front desk, finding some reason you don’t like your room, reminding them you are Gold and then having the Hilton app open on your phone in case they claim they are full.

  • Anna says:

    18 Sep18 September 07:45

    If you contact the hotel a few days before your stay and ask if any ugrades are available they will tell you if there’s a free one available, if they haven’t upgraded you already. I’d say 90% of the time I get at least a one category upgrade as gold. The only Hilton where I haven’t had an upgrade since becoming gold is the Manchester airport one when they’ve genuinely run out of larger family rooms due to it being school holidays. Be aware though that some brands don’t have upgrades as a standard perk and agressively stick to this policy (HGI is one, I think), especially in the US!

    • Green Plastic says:

      18 Sep18 September 08:06

      Thanks for the replies everyone, will change my strategy next time accordingly!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:35

    So while it may be ghost town due to the really low occupancy hotels have shut off floors / which’s and they are no longer in use or being kept serviced regularly.

    So could be “full” but in general never OLCI and it can be worth dropping a message 24hrs before you arrive

  • idrive says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:50

    I replied, please see below, I must have hit the wrong reply button

  • Tw33ty says:

    18 Sep18 September 17:51

    The trouble with the hotels around Aberdeen Airport, they may seem empty or dead, but they will be fully booked up by companies servicing the oil industry. They get booked up just incase we’ll in advance as they can be cancelled late afternoon with no cost.

    If you check into the CP or Hilton late in the afternoon, the unused club rooms become available, and also if the hotels are fully booked, it usually gets availability again around 2.30pm when the oil companies start cancelling unneeded rooms.

  • cheyes says:

    18 Sep18 September 21:45

    Green Plastic always checkin at the Hotel and ask for an upgrade at same time works for us every time (3 of us and Gold) our upgrade is always to a Suite or junior Suite) not sure if less than 3 though

• berneslai says:

  18 Sep18 September 08:00

  I think this was asked the other day but are there any discounts on official parking at Heathrow? There doesn’t even appear to be a voucher code box on the website now.

• Keely says:

  18 Sep18 September 08:22

  Good morning ! Just checking please, upgrading to BA premium plus from the free card – will they automatically add my current supp card holder ? Just wondering if I can get the extra points for adding this later?

  Also can I refer the same person twice ? It’s for a different card and there will be about 6 months in between ? Or is this likely to flag something? Thank you !

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Sep18 September 08:36

    In my experienced end if they say they are cancelling the supp before a upgrade/downgrade I’ve always had a replacement turn up. The next card ordered online should trigger the bonus anyway.

    You can refer the same person as many times as you want.

    • Keely says:

      18 Sep18 September 10:12

      Thank you 😊

• Aliks says:

  18 Sep18 September 08:49

  For information, I just had my two Lloyds Avios vouchers extended by another 60 days until the end of November.

  Amazing that the vouchers live on so long after the program ended! A year ago I used a pair of the vouchers to book flights to India – we should have been setting off next week, but alas all cancelled last month. The vouchers were returned with expiry date 30th Sep.
  This morning I called Avios.com to rebook some new flights, and the agent volunteered to extend to end November.
  Maybe we should have a Head for Points competition for the last person to hold a valid Lloyds voucher??

  • Nigel W says:

    18 Sep18 September 10:18

    Interesting to hear this. I’ve got one final voucher which expires on 31st December….

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