The HfP chat thread – Thursday 24th September

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• John says:

  24 Sep24 September 03:30

  5% – and they’re not exactly comprehensive tests.

  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54270586

  • TGLoyalty says:

    24 Sep24 September 08:05

    As with all rules/laws they rely on everyone following them and then few being dealt with by enforcement.

    I don’t ever get calls asking if I’ve broken the law recently, I’m sure 95% of others don’t either. I’d have to be caught planning, during or after the act with some sort of investigation.

    • Anna says:

      24 Sep24 September 08:34

      2 women in my local area have been fined £1k after returning to work (in schools no less!!) on returning from trips abroad without quarantining. Reading between the lines I suspect they were dobbed in by (rightly) disgruntled colleagues or parents rather than being discovered by the authorities.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        24 Sep24 September 09:51

        I’m surprised they haven’t been sacked.

        My employer has been very clear if you are caught breaking quarantine at work you’ll be dismissed and rightly so.

        • Bazza says:

          24 Sep24 September 10:00

          Of course you should following the rules but some places of work – including some NHS Trust are now not paying you if you need to quarantine and are unable to do any work at home.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          24 Sep24 September 14:30

          Exactly the same here, I can WFH so no impact on me. if you choose to go abroad now you know the risk so should factor the two weeks into your cost.

        • Anna says:

          24 Sep24 September 14:45

          They may well be, the reporting only covered the police response!

  • AJA says:

    24 Sep24 September 11:18

    @Bazza That seems reasonable to me if you choose to travel to a place that requires quarantine on your return ie you knew about the quarantine rule before you travelled. If you can’t work from home why should your employer pay your salary? There should be an exception if the quarantine measure is only applied while you are away as that is not under your control although it’s not that different to going on holiday and then being stuck there because of flight cancellation meaning you can’t get home as scheduled. In that situation your employer would require you to take extra holiday or as unpaid leave.

    • Bazza says:

      24 Sep24 September 12:30

      Yes, it may be reasonable but it is a fact that will encourage some people to just go to work.

      Also, returning from holiday is not the only reason to quarantine but same rules regarding pay.

      And yet more good will to the NHS staff – if your child his home from school for any (Covid) reason – you will be allowed carers leave which is probably a couple of days, followed by your annual leave and then unpaid leave…

      Just to be clear I have worked every day since this started and I don’t have any kids.

      *And things like free meals and free parking ended months ago.

  • Charlieface says:

    24 Sep24 September 13:34

    In Israel they do things like calling you up and telling you to wave to the drone at your window, or asking you which bus is going passed your door.

• ChrisC says:

  24 Sep24 September 06:03

  So Thursday is normally when they announce changes to the travel corridors and who is back on the nice list and who has been moved to the naughty list.

  What are people’s best guesses on today’s changes?

  • Andrew says:

    24 Sep24 September 06:55

    I think we’re only a couple of weeks away from them advising against all but essential travel again – just in time for half term.

    • ChrisC says:

      24 Sep24 September 07:10

      TBH at the moment as long as the country I want to go to will let me in I’m happy to quarenteen when I get back.

      I’m getting to the stage where it’s bad for my mental health not to be able to go away so that for me is in that ‘essential travel’ bracket.

      • mr_jetlag says:

        24 Sep24 September 07:33

        same here. Get me out of plague island for a week, and I’ll be happy to quarantine after!

        • Nick_C says:

          24 Sep24 September 10:08

          Not sure which plague island you are living on, but the UK currently has lower infection rates than Spain, France, Malta, the Czech Republic, Holland, Denmark, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Monaco, and Portugal. And that’s not even looking outside Europe.

          PANdemic means the virus is spreading world wide.

          And the virus is being spread by unnecessary travel.

        • Rob says:

          24 Sep24 September 10:54

          Not really. If I go for 2 weeks to a place with a far lower infection rate than than the UK then clearly I am reducing risk, since I am less likely to get infected during those 2 weeks.

        • Nick_C says:

          24 Sep24 September 11:18

          @ Rob

          The virus IS being spread by unnecessary travel.

          Six clusters of cases, amounting to more than 30 infections, linked to flights from Zante to the UK for example. Fact.

          Plus of course if you are flying from the UK to a country with a lower rate of infection, you risk getting infected during the journey and increasing infection rates in the country you are visiting.

        • Rhys says:

          24 Sep24 September 11:22

          That begs the question about what ‘necessary’ behaviour is. Virtually the entire economy is built on ‘unnecessary’ activities. I imagine most people are engaging in strictly ‘unnecessary’ things such as seeing friends, eating out etc.

        • Rob says:

          24 Sep24 September 11:49

          I am off on a Boris-authorised golf weekend tomorrow, now allowed as there are fewer than six of us despite all being different households. Luckily being old means that a 10pm curfew is unlikely to cramp my style 🙂

        • Rob says:

          24 Sep24 September 11:53

          I can’t help thinking when you’re old you will look back on the 5 years you sat in your house, refusing to go out, as a waste of prime years of your life ….

        • mr_jetlag says:

          24 Sep24 September 11:39

          Nick completely avoids the mental health implications of lockdown that Chris alluded to and I (humorously) responded.
          I love our Plague Island, but need a break from time to time…

    • Nick_C says:

      24 Sep24 September 10:02

      The advice against non essential travel should never have been lifted. People going on abroad on holiday have contributed to the damaging second wave that we are now seeing, with very little benefit to the UK economy.

      • mr_jetlag says:

        24 Sep24 September 11:37

        Let me guess – “unnecessary”, “non essential travel” – it’s everyone else’s fault but yours?

        Humans are social animals and community spread has already happened. Travel no longer matters as much to the R number – that ship sailed (plane took off) in February and the only way to control it now is complete lockdown in conjunction with a vaccine. Given that even our government balks at that (for now), there is little sense imposing a travel ban at our end – what other countries do of course is for themselves.

        “very little benefit to the UK economy” – if the gov wanted to benefit the local economy they should have imposed a business rates holiday and not a 10pm curfew. Why would anyone choose to stay in a cold, rainy locked down country on their precious few holiday days?

        • Nick_C says:

          24 Sep24 September 13:46

          “if the gov wanted to benefit the local economy they should have imposed a business rates holiday”

          They did. On 18 March.

          https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-your-retail-hospitality-or-leisure-business-is-eligible-for-business-rates-relief-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19

      • TGLoyalty says:

        24 Sep24 September 14:45

        @Nikc_C Your Opinion or based upon any actual facts?

        This is not a foreign disease and the students or chicken factory works that have lead to large outbreaks have not been travelling abroad.

        • Nick_C says:

          24 Sep24 September 15:26

          A mix of both.

          People going on abroad on holiday have contributed to the damaging second wave that we are now seeing – fact. For example, the cases brought back from Zante. And opinion. Spain had the virus under control (as did we). They opened their borders to tourism and the virus is now out of control again. Some of our tourists will have been infected in Spain and brought the virus back here.

          I’m not saying that travel abroad is the sole cause of the second wave, but I believe it has been a contributory factor. And it flies in the face of experience gained over the last 700 years as to how we should deal with infectious diseases.

          “It’s not a foreign disease”. Well although now endemic, it was original brought to the UK (and everywhere else outside of China) through foreign travel. Most of our early cases were brought in from Spain and France.

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52993734

          Very little benefit to the UK economy – opinion. Most of the money has been spent abroad. Having a ban on international travel would have benefited the UK economy as money would instead have been spent here by people having domestic holidays or staycations, helping British businesses to stay afloat and saving British jobs.

        • Nick_C says:

          24 Sep24 September 15:42

          Another reported example.

          “More than 13 people were infected after one group of holidaymakers returned home to Wales from a Spanish island with the virus.”

          https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/cornavirus-lockdown-caerphilly-rhondda-cynon-18897600

        • Rob says:

          24 Sep24 September 16:02

          Don’t see a campaign to close universities after a far greater number contracted it at Glasgow in just the first week ….

          As long as the quarantine rules don’t change, you will still find us on a beach in Barbados over half term. After that I’m going to need a plan for Christmas, because I really don’t fancy sticking around here ….

        • Nick_C says:

          24 Sep24 September 16:29

          @rob

          Hope we don’t have to close Schools or Universities again. The education of our children and young people is vital to the future of the country. Far more so than pubs or airlines.

          Many Universities are working online. My partner is teaching at one from our Dining Room as I write. (Whilst quarantining.)

          Cambridge announced months ago that their 2020/21 year would be entirely online and distance learning.

          Not feasible for all subjects of course, but where it works it helps those courses which need to be delivered on site to achieve social distancing and reduce the numbers of students traveling across the country and mingling.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          24 Sep24 September 17:43

          @Nick

          The virus is spreading as society opens up in the UK (schools, universities, hospitality) holidays to Spain etc stopped 6 weeks ago.

          At the peak of the “first wave” we had in excess of 100k cases a day (best estimates from ONS etc) but no tests to able to tell who had it outside of hospitals.

          This isn’t a wave at all but if it continues growing it could become one so the brakes are being put on the opening of society. We also need an effective testing regime that gets results in 24 hours not 5 days.

  • Number9 says:

    24 Sep24 September 08:01

    Wishful thinking for me but I’d love to see Dubai on the good list. I’m not bothered about quarantining, I’m trapped indoors anyway so no problem for me.

    • Andrew says:

      24 Sep24 September 08:05

      Yes that’s more of a challenge, finding somewhere long haul that will allow us in rather than worrying about the quarantine situation. I’ve got Singapore booked for April but at this rate I can’t see them allowing arrivals from the U.K. by then.

  • Nick_C says:

    24 Sep24 September 13:32

    To answer your original question, I reckon that within Europe, Iceland, Gibraltar, and Denmark should come off the “safe” list. Although for political reasons, Gib is unlikely.

    https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-09-24&country=GBR~DEU~CHE~DNK~IRL~GRC~CYP~EST~FIN~GIB~ISL~LVA~LTU~NOR~POL~SVK~TUR~ITA~SWE&region=World&casesMetric=true&interval=smoothed&perCapita=true&smoothing=7&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc

  • Nick_C says:

    24 Sep24 September 13:42

    Long haul, Bonaire and Curacao

    https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-09-24&country=GBR~AIA~ATG~AUS~BRB~BMU~VGB~BES~CYM~CUW~CUB~DMA~FLK~FJI~GRL~GRD~HKG~JPN~MYS~MUS~MSR~NCL~NZL~SYC~SGP~KOR~VCT~KNA~THA~VNM&region=World&casesMetric=true&interval=smoothed&perCapita=true&smoothing=7&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc

  • Nick_C says:

    24 Sep24 September 17:16

    Denmark, Slovakia, Iceland and the Caribbean island of Curacao have been removed from the UK government’s list of travel corridors, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-54273738

• Pablo says:

  24 Sep24 September 07:20

  Wizzair are running 50% off sale and WizzFlex add on is only £1 per flight allowing cancellations and refunds in the form of wizz credit

• Maciek says:

  24 Sep24 September 07:27

  VS tier points on KL/AF shorthaul. The table at https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/partners/airlines/air-france.html shows 200/100 TPs for flights over 600 miles in the forward cabin. Sadly, it looked too good to be true and indeed I only got 40 for my recent flight over 700 miles in I class.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    24 Sep24 September 08:19

    What was the actual route?

    Have VS offered any explanation considering the earnings rate is published on their website.

    • Maciek says:

      24 Sep24 September 08:52

      I’ve emailed VS, but I don’t expect them to get back to me particularly quickly – they have more urgent issues at hand than some frequent flyer feeling short-changed 😉 Route was BUD-AMS – the charts for >600mi routes are the same between AF/KL.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    24 Sep24 September 10:51

    I don’t know much about VS earning, but noticed that the table is headed ‘VS marketed’. Did you get the ticket issued by VS?

    • Maciek says:

      24 Sep24 September 11:41

      No. There was a talk (I think Rob has confirmed at the time) of this table applying to AF/KL marketed flights too.

      • Munch says:

        24 Sep24 September 17:47

        Post an update. I was hoping the Klm route was a quick way of maintaining my silver status with Virgin.

• Chelseafi says:

  24 Sep24 September 08:04

  Due to go to Corfu early Oct, just considering getting Covid test before travel for us 2, to be on safe side as worrying we could get selected for testing on landing and then don’t know what would happen if either tested positive? Any advice on process please, staying Domes Miramare

  • Anna says:

    24 Sep24 September 08:38

    You’d have to have it done privately (People have been quoting £120 – £150 each). My main concern would be picking it up at the airport or on the plane though, and also, if your private test does come back positive what are the implications for travel insurance?

    • Chelseafi says:

      24 Sep24 September 08:43

      Thank you Anna, yes I’m covered with my holiday insurance and of course we’ll get a private one just wanted any recommendations on place London area

  • Louise K says:

    24 Sep24 September 08:42

    I read yesterday that private tests are no longer being prioritised for results as the demand is so high from elsewhere.

    • Andrew says:

      24 Sep24 September 09:07

      I suppose that will depend on where in the UK you have the test, who takes the sample and which lab they use.

  • YC says:

    24 Sep24 September 10:50

    Domes were offering €300 resort credit if u have a negative test prior to arrival (I think if u have a minimum of 5nights). Helps incentivise a pre-flight test

    • Chelseafi says:

      24 Sep24 September 11:29

      Yes saw that which is good of them, I’m not sure if that’s only booking direct It doesn’t really say? I’m booked BAHoliday.

• Chelseafi says:

  24 Sep24 September 08:39

  I’ve decided to get a test before my trip, can anyone please recommend somewhere, living Ruislip so can get to central London easily, much appreciated

  • meta says:

    24 Sep24 September 08:57

    BA offers fit to fly tests for £92 via CityDoc.

    • TripRep says:

      24 Sep24 September 09:13

      Thanks for the info, their website seems out of date as it claims you do not need a test for the Maldives which AFAIAK is incorrect as of this month.

      https://www.citydoc.org.uk/ba-fit-to-fly/?partner=BA

    • TripRep says:

      24 Sep24 September 09:15

      Here’s the BA info, I think countries mandating PCR tests is a good idea, greatly reduces the risk of transmission onboard and at a resort.

      https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/entry-requirements

    • Chelseafi says:

      24 Sep24 September 09:25

      Thank you but they can’t do test in time needed (72 hours before travel) “Our express service operates Monday to Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. Samples delivered to our clinics on Friday should receive results on Monday afternoon”. I’m traveling early Monday morning, so need to take test Friday and have results before then.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    24 Sep24 September 10:05

    Genuine question. Unless you have symptoms, if you do the last thing you should be doing is leaving the house for anything but a test, why get a voluntary test?

    You could say it’s to be safe but a test is merely a snapshot in time. You could have caught it the day/2 before and not yet be detectable or catch it while getting the test etc.

    Risk reduction perhaps but it doesn’t mean you’re safe or you will pass any test on arrival.

    • Chelseafi says:

      24 Sep24 September 10:38

      No I know it’s probably just a personal thing, If we both get negative tests within 72 hours of travel we wouldn’t need to take a test at airport should we be selected and therefore wouldn’t also need to isolate at Hotel for 24hours until results arrived. I know you just have to make a choice if you want to travel you take a risk.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        24 Sep24 September 14:47

        fair enough I actually thought if you were selected for a random test it didn’t matter if you’d had a PCR test already. Perhaps getting my destinations mixed up.

• KS says:

  24 Sep24 September 08:51

  Regarding Amex Plat £100 offer, there was discussion yesterday if it is possible to get it afterwards upon upgrade. To add to that, I could get the previous offer after applying for a new card in June and asking for it over chat in August nearly 2 weeks before it was due to expire. I couldn’t get it on supplementary card though.

• BrotherBear says:

  24 Sep24 September 08:55

  Morning everyone. Avios bookings advice please.

  Back in April booked 2 sets of RFS flights for pretty much same dates (outbound earlyish October):

  1) To and from Heraklion, Crete – RFS in economy
  2) To and from Larnaca, Cyprus – RFS in Club Europe and booked with a 2 for 1 voucher

  Booked both to give options given all the uncertainty then (and now!).

  Given wife is still on maternity leave and I’m working from home so quarantine isn’t a problem, and Cyprus require the COVID test which would be circa £300 for the two of us, we’ve chosen Crete. Also assuming a higher chance the Crete flight won’t be as busy on board.

  The Crete flights had a time and London airport change which I have neither accepted nor rejected.

  There is still reward flight availability to Crete on the same dates including out in Club Europe which we would prefer.

  So my question is what are my best options to maximise my refund (cash & 2 for 1 / FTV)?

  I gather my options with the Cyprus flight are to cancel for a refund and I’d get the Avios and 2 for 1 voucher back but would cost me a cancellation fee – would I be correct in saying that would be £50 fee per adult so £100 in total? We paid a total of £121 plus Avios including our baby (infant seat).

  Or I understand I could get an FTV? Not sure if this is better as guess I would not suffer the cancellation fees (£100?)?

  My plan with the Crete flights would be, given the times have changed, to cancel those for no loss. Then rebook changing to Club Europe where possible (looks like outbound availability only). And using the 2 for 1 voucher if possible (either as it has returned to my exec account or potentially via the FTV although not sure if this would be possible).

  Last point would be given we have a 9 month old, comfortable using the 2 for 1 a European flight.

  Any suggestions on the best option?

  Many thanks in advance

  • pauldb says:

    24 Sep24 September 09:06

    You can indeed take a voucher for the LCA trip, then use that to book HER. No cost/penalties for that (£35pp otherwise). And take the free refund on the economy flights.

    • BrotherBear says:

      24 Sep24 September 17:51

      Perfect – thanks Pauldb

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