The HfP chat thread – Friday 25th September

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• Frankie says:

  25 Sep25 September 08:44

  I flew back from Catania last Friday afternoon (12:30pm) on an avios redemption on CE and only got one mini bottle of champagne as they ran out pretty much immediately on the three and a half hour flight. I was told all 40 bottles went on the first drink service (there was 36 people in club). Do they only stock 40 per three and a half hour flight?

  • DB2020 says:

    25 Sep25 September 12:25

    Not sure about the number of bottles loaded, but I have been on BA flights in First and they have run out of champagne. Not just the coveted LPGS, but also the rosé and the English sparkling wine.

    It has happened numerous times, so it is not an isolated incident or exception.

    I believe it is called cost cutting, or something like that. 😏

  • John says:

    25 Sep25 September 12:35

    The bar would’ve been stocked on the outbound for both legs, perhaps those pax had more than their fair share? One needs something to distract from the dire food.

    Fwiw I always ask for two on the first service, on the basis it’ll be a while before the CC are around again.

    I’ve seen people get three or four and put them in their bags, presumably to take home.

    On the last flight to/from ACE I had four outbound and six on the return, hic.

    • Stoneman says:

      25 Sep25 September 12:53

      Was on a short hop from Munich and the cabin crew couldn’t stop pushing the champagne. Perhaps that explains it as I have never bother seem them so actively push champagne on their CE punters prior to the near Covid travelling

• SG says:

  25 Sep25 September 08:47

  Morning all
  Looking for some advice or rather experiences
  I have recently had a BA flight cancelled 12 days before the flight due to operational reasons and been offered an alternative that did not suit my travel plans(my connecting flight was arriving almost at the same time with the flight they offered)
  I had to pay for an overnight day at Sofitel as I was travelling with a lot of luggage and had a £27 room service between me and my wife
  When I rang to change the flight for a suitable option the agent confirmed that I can send the bill for the expenses at the customer services
  Customer services has now for the third time rejected my claim under the reason the cancellation was due to the ongoing Coronavirus and was an extraordinary circumstance
  In my understanding operational reasons cancellation does not exempt them from paying the customer out of pocket expenses
  Is my only route now a small claim court(MCOL) and what the chances are?
  Many thanks all

  • Anna says:

    25 Sep25 September 09:05

    It’s not exactly clear what was cancelled and what you eventually accepted in terms of flights, however Covid can’t be used as an excuse to wriggle out of duty of care obligations under EU261, so you should get this if the circumstances fit the criteria. I had great service from CEDR last year when BA refused to pay delay compo (oh, those pre-pandemic days!), BA paid up straight away once they got involved.

    • SG says:

      25 Sep25 September 10:54

      Thank you Ana
      I have had to book another flight which they were not planning to offer to me
      I will fill in a claim,their attempts to exonerate themselves of their legal obligations were quite poor

• meta says:

  25 Sep25 September 09:04

  UK is now on Barbados’ high risk list!

  https://www.visitbarbados.org/sysimages/fileupload/source/00%20ATTRACTIONS/Travel%20protocols%20-%202020/btmi%20travel%20protocols%20update%20240920%5B10%5D.pdf

  • Anna says:

    25 Sep25 September 09:08

    That might reduce Rob’s half term options, plus all the people who re-booked for Xmas! But it’s not really a surprise, our infection rates are much worse than in the Caribbean islands by virtue of our population density, climate etc.

    • Anna says:

      25 Sep25 September 09:10

      But looking at this, you only need a negative test to enter, no quarantine requirement. I imagine they won’t want to lose the revenue from winter visitors.

      • Anna says:

        25 Sep25 September 09:11

        I didn’t read far enough … actually 7 days’ quarantine … I think I need to go back to bed 🤣

      • Andrew says:

        25 Sep25 September 09:12

        I think that’s been the case for a few weeks now.

        • meta says:

          25 Sep25 September 09:15

          The document says from 24 September!

    • meta says:

      25 Sep25 September 09:14

      Last week I was planning to go. Glad I didn’t book…

  • Dave says:

    25 Sep25 September 09:45

    I have booked for XMAS (15th to 26th) if you go to a quarantine hotel is it safe to assume you can at least go to certain areas outside etc? Or does this mean you are quarantined in your hotel room?

    • meta says:

      25 Sep25 September 10:42

      It means you have to go to government approved hotel or villa. You also have to self-isolate, don’t think you can go out of your room.

• John says:

  25 Sep25 September 09:29

  Marriott management team u-turn on panic woke attempt (although threats of enforcement action for altering a listed building without consent, probably bigger factor than finding out that the statues represented princesses rather than slaves).

  Great location opposite Stephen’s Green, incidentally.

  https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2020/0924/1167307-shelbourne-statues/

  • Optimus Prime says:

    25 Sep25 September 09:40

    Speaking of Marriott, they’ve just lost 122 properties in the US due to lack of payments…

    • Pangolin says:

      25 Sep25 September 10:15

      Oh dear. And IHG just lost 103 to Sonesta.

      When you look at the the properties affected, most of them wouldn’t be that high on the list of places to stay for tourists.

      • ChrisC says:

        25 Sep25 September 10:58

        It’s Sonesta / SVC that have taken the properties back rather than Marriott losing them.

        Apparently Marriott haven’t paid SVC $11m. Could be a strategy for both IHG and Marriott to get rid of underperforming portfolios (even though individual hotels may be profitable for them).

    • Rob says:

      25 Sep25 September 10:57

      They haven’t lost them yet. They have 10 days to pay up.

      Looks like a bull market deal to me. Marriott basically promised to pay $200m to the hotel owner per year, irrespecitive of occupancy levels. No surprise they are walking. What’s more surprising is that the contracts are so weak that Marriott can just stick two fingers up.

• Rob says:

  25 Sep25 September 09:51

  Hi all, bit of advice.
  Have got Domes Miramare booked first week in October, so coming up to the 7 day cancellation period. Been searching for info on possibilities of Corfu going on the quarantine list but not much info out there. Would it fall under mainland Greece?

  • Optimus Prime says:

    25 Sep25 September 09:59

    I don’t think it would but now my concern would be UK ending up in their naughty list.

• MARK C says:

  25 Sep25 September 10:01

  Does anyone know when the manchester lounges are due to reopen please?

  • Vin says:

    26 Sep26 September 06:59

    Flew out of T1 3 weeks ago. Aspire and Escape were open. Used Aspire – there were only a handful of people and table service.

• Pangolin says:

  25 Sep25 September 10:21

  Loyalty Lobby has news of a 1,000,000 point Hilton Honors giveaway. You only need to share on Instagram or Twitter with a pic, some blurb about your favourite Hilton memory and the relevant hashtag.

  https://loyaltylobby.com/2020/09/24/hilton-honors-giving-away-1000000-points-enter-by-october-16-2020/

  • RussellH says:

    25 Sep25 September 10:32

    Serious discrimination against those of us who do not touch these sites with a bargepole!
    🙂

  • Alex B says:

    25 Sep25 September 11:06

    My favourite Hilton memory was the time I checked in, and they hadn’t cleaned the room toilet before hand, and it was full of shit.

    A couple of hours later it still hadn’t been cleaned so I asked for a toilet brush to do it myself. Got 120k Hilton points for my trouble which was worth it. Not sure they’d appreciate that though.

    • Genghis says:

      25 Sep25 September 12:42

      Sounds like a good deal to me. I’d clean another person’s shit for 120k HHs 🙂 I got a £10 gift voucher from Premier Inn once for finding a supposedly clean toilet seat to be covered in piss.

      • BP says:

        25 Sep25 September 13:26

        I got 150$ from Aria in Las Vegas when I found an opened box of unused condoms in the suite bedroom.

        • Lady London says:

          25 Sep25 September 15:24

          At least they were unused.

          I think it was the IC Prague where a pack of 2 condoms was in the minibar as part of the minibar offering. Quite sensible really.

      • Rob says:

        25 Sep25 September 14:23

        You’ve got a child though, it’s second nature to you. My son once took a dump in the shower whilst we were in it together.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          25 Sep25 September 15:20

          😂

          I imagine it was skids not something that required a plunger! I’d take 120k HH all day.

    • Lady London says:

      25 Sep25 September 13:46

      Go for it.

• Terri says:

  25 Sep25 September 10:46

  Iberia are steadfastly refusing to reinstate the avios refunded for a cancelled long haul redemption which they expired a day later. Iberia sees nothing untoward with retrospectively nullifying account activity for their own gain. I am wondering if anyone has used resolver for such an issue?

  • ChrisBCN says:

    25 Sep25 September 13:21

    That’s not very nice of them. It does appear they are following their rules to the letter though –

    “Regulation stipulates that you earn or spend Avios at least once every 36 months to make sure the entire Avios balance doesn’t expire. Issuing or receiving Avios transferred to you is not considered to be an activity”.

    I would call them again and ask to speak to a supervisor, if you haven’t already done so. Although from their point of view, if you haven’t had any activity for 3 years they don’t mind losing you as a customer…

    Good luck!

    • Andrew M says:

      25 Sep25 September 20:19

      The redemption must have been booked within the last 12 months so surely redeeming those points would be a qualifying activity?

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