The HfP chat thread – Sunday 27th September

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• Sam says:

  27 Sep27 September 02:50

  Hoping for a bit of wisdom: have a first booking from man to San Diego returning from lax. Outbound has been cancelled. Phoned youfirst to rebook about 1am to South African CSA for next summer. No issue re: issue date nor changing to a LAX return ( no San Diego first showing) but was advised as only outbound currently cancelled can only force open outbound first class and rebook return leg first as per original duration ( 7 days, but I’d like to stay longer) unless avios availability (which there isn’t). Was told could only alter duration if my original return leg is also cancelled. Is this correct? Or would I be better speaking to a daytime CSA? Thanks

  • Lady London says:

    27 Sep27 September 09:39

    Was this a BA Holiday, or were you talking to India? HUACA if it was sll on one ticket.

    • Sam says:

      27 Sep27 September 11:11

      Thanks. Phoned again and daytime/ UK CSA rebooked the trip as per my preferred dates with no issues. Strange last night SA CSA went to supervisor but still came up with a different answer

• Louie says:

  27 Sep27 September 05:41

  Properly off topic…. does anyone know of any banks etc who will allow a non-UK resident (with a UK address and passport) to open a £ savings account with competitive interest rates? I think I’m stuck with those accounts which I had before I left, none of which are competitive any longer, and now I have a reasonably sized inheritance to find a home for. NS&I was the exception, now that they are about to become non-competitive; shame I have only just realised that!

  • John says:

    27 Sep27 September 07:03

    If you have a UK address just pretend you are a UK resident.

    • Louie says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:30

      Tempting. Not sure why UK banks are so anti-non residents. Regulatory reasons maybe?

  • Andrew says:

    27 Sep27 September 07:14

    Not sure there’s really such a thing as a competitive savings interest rate at the moment.

    • Louie says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:34

      Not sure if that’s aimed at me or Andrew, but this account is not open to non-residents.

  • Nick_C says:

    27 Sep27 September 07:53

    Alternatively, go offshore. Skipton International, 1pc, 40 days notice.

    https://www.skiptoninternational.com/offshore-savings-accounts

    • Louie says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:29

      Looks promising – only covered by guarantee up to £50k though. Thanks for that.

• S says:

  27 Sep27 September 07:37

  Morning, has anyone had any experience with AMEX Platinum Travel Insurance? I was due to fly from Glasgow airport this morning, but there was a major accident on the M1 and traffic was stationary for 4 hours so we missed the flight. We managed to book a flight from Heathrow, but wondered if the insurance would cover this? Unfortunately, they aren’t open until Monday at 9am, but the policy wording says accident / breakdown of your vehicle or public transport.

  • Andrew says:

    27 Sep27 September 08:36

    I’m sure that will be covered. Just try and get some evidence from AA Roadwatch website to back it up and wasn’t because you overslept. They should cover any additional cost incurred minus the policy excess.

    • Jody says:

      27 Sep27 September 11:53

      It was on the Daily Mail website this morning, maybe worth saving the link so you can evidence it, along with AA or something similar.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    27 Sep27 September 09:08

    It happened to me many years ago (guessing around 2009 as it was a bmi flight I missed at Glasgow and they stopped that route before BA took them over). There was an accident on the M8 caused due to changing weather conditions and I missed my flight (last flight of the night). Amex covered the cost of rebooking the flight to the next morning, a night in the airport hotel plus the entire cost of the bar bill (food and alcohol). I’m sure they would have refunded any late return fees for the hire car too but I wasn’t charged any. Amex insurance will tell you what evidence you need to supply.

    The odd thing about Amex insurance was although they’re perfectly happy to pay for my alcohol that night, they refused to pay the WiFi which was on the hotel bill (it wasn’t free back then even with IHG status).

  • Sukes says:

    27 Sep27 September 18:48

    Reply to S: Yes, 3Y ago I missed BA flight from Dublin as public bus had blowout on the motorway en route to the airport. I had to rebook a later flight. Amex Plat insurance reimbursed the additional cost to me the same day, without charging any excess, before I had even finished the phone call, and they never asked for written proof of the delay. The amount claimed was something like only £100 which will have helped.

• Reney says:

  27 Sep27 September 08:20

  Morning all, just finished catching up on yesterday’s thread. Secret Squirrel did you work out what the unnamed changes were?

  Also Rob, still no news on Barclayz current account?

  Happy Sunday everyone.

  • Rob says:

    27 Sep27 September 08:52

    The Avios deal has now been kicked in 2021 I believe. Barclays would prefer to wait until travel has picked up. This represents a total misunderstanding of how Avios work (since you want the points well in advance of booking, yet alone travelling) of course.

    • Lady London says:

      27 Sep27 September 09:49

      Hum.
      Especially with a large number of people that have more money to put into a bank than pre-Covid due to all their going-out and commuting expenses being cut.

      These people still have jobs, money to invest and will sign up if seeing somewhere they can put their money that gives them incentives including avios. Very much a profile of HfP’s readership. They could offer something else for a period as well as avios if they’re worried but right now they’re missing target customers.

      • Doug M says:

        27 Sep27 September 10:55

        Possibly. Repeating myself but it’s cathartic. I moved ISA/Investment money into HSBC with intention of Premier. Had the £175 switching offer, originally opened a more standard account, Advanced I think it is called, £250 redress from their stupidity, but still not happy. I don’t mind the clunky interface and lack of information, I do mind the not being very good. Anyone thinking of shifting to Barclays for Avios may not get what they want, good luck regardless. I phoned HSBC to do the Premier upgrade, was told not doing upgrades at the moment because of C19, as per the website. Pointed out I was on the website and couldn’t see any such information. Was told they didn’t know where, just on the website. Waited a month and sent a Tweet asking if they were now accepting upgrades to Premier, they responded call and ask. Still just deciding whether to move to another platform, the £250 was to cover the exit fees should I decide to do so.

    • Reney says:

      27 Sep27 September 10:38

      Thanks for the update, I will pick up one of the other switching deals instead.

    • Doug M says:

      27 Sep27 September 10:44

      But isn’t it also realistic. At the moment people are not thinking travel, so the deal has less impact. HfP readers are generally accepted I think to be considerably more savvy than typical traveller. Launching an offer right now might only appeal to the savvy, and tempting only those that milk every last drop of benefit at the lowest spend is not a good idea, or is it?

      • Lady London says:

        27 Sep27 September 13:41

        You’d think so but its amazing what a marketing manager with a target will do to achieve it

    • Charlieface says:

      27 Sep27 September 12:54

      I feel like 2021 has been kicked in also 🙂

• CF Frost says:

  27 Sep27 September 08:33

  Been a while now – but green to plat upgrades in the New Normal. If one is non-fallow and very much a recent MR customer, is there still an upgrade points bonus?

  • Harry T says:

    27 Sep27 September 08:36

    Yes. Upgraded myself in July/August. Spent the 4k. Received the bonus 20k MR. Then received a further 40k as a retention bonus. A good month.

    • Doug M says:

      27 Sep27 September 10:40

      Nice, that pays the fee. I downgraded to Green with the intention of getting Plat again when start to travel. At the moment that’s not the case and almost £600 for a metal card of questionable value seems excessive.

      • Harry T says:

        27 Sep27 September 19:51

        Yes, I got it because I was travelling a lot in July and August, and felt I could hit the spend quickly whilst deriving some benefit. Unfortunately lounge access has been poor at most places I frequent. But the 65,000 MR (added supp too) and the £100 back for Waitrose shopping has kept me happy for a while.

  • Vit says:

    27 Sep27 September 08:48

    Yes. Did the final churning. Along with AMEX IT cock-up on one my large expense — managed to get 20k MR points on top of the automatic 20k MR points from online tracker.

    Make sure you also refer Green to your partner / friends if you can before upgrading to Plat to get 5k MR points per referral as well. Then refer them again once get the Plat. I managed to get a total of 74k MR points doing this loops just through me and my partner for a mere £33 card fees.

    No much luck with retention bonus though unfortunately.

    • memesweeper says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:49

      It’s almost like they didn’t want to retain you! 😉

      • Vit says:

        27 Sep27 September 14:30

        🤣🤣🤣 From your name, I know you’re a good banter. I like that! 😉

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  27 Sep27 September 09:54

  What are the benefits and drawbacks of moving the BAEC address outside of the UK (in my case Italy).
  I think to get the BA Visa in Italy my BAEC account has to be in my Italian address. The only reason I can see to change my address to Italy is to get their credit card.

  But am I right in saying moving to Italy would mean also having to give up my UK BA Amex? I know you don’t get bonus Avios on BA Holidays. Can I still transfer Clubcard points over? Any other differences?

  Ideally I would like to have both the Italian and UK BA credit cards, I’m likely still to be able to spend over £10k on the BAPP but having a points earning Visa card I can use in Eurozone countries would be a massive advantage to me. Thanks to the foreign transaction fee the Amex isn’t the best card to use overseas anyway, plus for day to day spend Amex acceptance in Italy is relatively poor.

  Living in Italy seems to be the easiest way to get a British Airways Premier Card 😅 https://www.britishairways.com/en-it/executive-club/collecting-avios/credit-cards/italy

  • Lady London says:

    27 Sep27 September 10:04

    If you have a bank account and a codice fiscale there I cant see how they would stop you.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      27 Sep27 September 11:06

      I remember reading before (back in the days you had lower TP thresholds in mainland Europe) hat you could only earn points with the BA Amex and Tesco Clubcard if you have a UK address on your BAEC membership. I’m not sure if that rule still applies. If it does then it’d mean I couldn’t have a BA card in both countries.

      Now there’s no TP advantage to be gained by moving to Italy it would make sense to remove these rules, but I’m not sure if they have.

  • Charlieface says:

    27 Sep27 September 12:56

    Seem to remember somewhere that UK Amex won’t transfer to non-UK BA account

    • chabuddy geezy says:

      27 Sep27 September 15:09

      Charlie face is correct.

• Axil23 says:

  27 Sep27 September 09:58

  Had a booking via AA miles from MLE-CMB-DOH-EDI. Qatar has cancelled the flight from DOH to EDI on a Sunday so they have rebooked me departing Doha on Monday giving me 20hrs at the airport. Also due to these changes I now have 8hrs in Colombo instead of a 2hrs. I have read EU261 doesn’t cover this right as it’s a non EU carrier flying into EU. Also they have rebooked me so have fulfilled their obligation even though it now takes 3 days to get back.

  AA are saying no award availability so cancel it or take it as is. Do I have any legal backup options?

  • Alex M says:

    27 Sep27 September 10:12

    Take a lemon and make a lemonade out of it – explore Doha and Colombo (if it’s allowed now)?

    • Axil23 says:

      27 Sep27 September 10:25

      With all these covid restrictions I doubt we will be able to get out of either airports.

  • Andrew says:

    27 Sep27 September 11:12

    Doha’s border is completely closed unless you are a Qatari National – even expats and work permit holders are not allowed to enter (although they are allowed to stay if they have been there since the start of the outbreak).

    • Axil23 says:

      27 Sep27 September 11:47

      Just checked and QR has hit my departure flights for a six too. Oh how I miss myflightsapp. Is there anything that does something similar even if it’s paid?

      • Charlieface says:

        27 Sep27 September 12:58

        If they changed your outbound from the EU you can rebook the whole thing under EC261. Them rebooking you on an unreasonable connection doesn’t help absolve them, obviously if they’re not liable under EC261 there’s not much you can do.

        • Axil23 says:

          27 Sep27 September 14:11

          They have moved my flight from afternoon to early morning which is not goona suit me as that gives me 8hrs in DOH. AA are saying there is nothing that they can do as no award seats available on any other UK routes. Who would I need to contact to pursue EC261.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      27 Sep27 September 12:18

      Are you sure about complete lockdown?

      I know an expat that’s just been on holiday. Though doesn’t mean tourists are allowed.

      Ask QR to put you up in the Airport hotel for the 20 hours swimming pool and gym etc might be open ?

  • Sukes says:

    27 Sep27 September 21:44

    Hi @Axil23,
    1/ EU261 can grant right to compensation but any such claim at the moment is unlikely to be approved given almost all operational changes can be blamed on Covid and hence be exempt under exceptional circumstances. So you’re probably not missing anything from eu261 on this front
    2/ a quick read of Qatar’s conditions of carriage (I was looking at article 10 from Dec 2019 T&c) shows Qatar replicates many key eu261 rights anyway in their terms – right to reroute, right to cancel
    3/ in essence you’re therefore not missing anything major vs eu261 & I’m not sure therefore what you consider eu261 would grant you?
    4/ have a look at art 10.2.1.ii as Qatar do state they may reroute you on services on another carrier – if you can find a better flight itinerary for you and can argue that Qatar’s proposed itinerary is unreasonable you may make headway with this albeit the added distance of dealing with AA rather than Qatar direct makes it more challenging.

    • Axil23 says:

      28 Sep28 September 09:29

      Thank you

• BJ says:

  27 Sep27 September 10:10

  Just secured a back up plan for Xmas, 4 nights Craigendarroch junior king suite for 440k points. Hopefully Diamond will get us a 1 bedroom suite or lodge if the place isn’t full. Called and at the moment they are only offering continental breakfast, and restaurant and other amenities are closed. All suites including junior suites have kitchens though so worst case we will be self catering. Last time we stayed we met a superstar from down under but sadly it wasn’t Edna. Hopefully we might get some early snow at Glenshee but that’s a bit too much to wish for too based on recent years. Resigned myself to the fact Thailand is almost certainly had it, and this back up is not looking to promising either but at least we can cancel if it doesn’t seem worth it when the time comes.

  • Vit says:

    27 Sep27 September 12:45

    Thai Embassy in London advised that you can now book your ticket with airlines directly if you are still considering going there at STV (Special Tourist Visa) which allows you to use points, miles, and cheaper than full package quarantine packaged.

    If all goes well with the first 300 STV in October (i.e. no +ive case spread in the country), the government may considering shorten the quarantine period to 1 week.

    All you can do is hope, I guess? Though I am sure a winter retreat at the Cairngorm isn’t bad as well! 🙂

    • Polly says:

      27 Sep27 September 13:38

      Vit
      The quarantine hotel told me in hkt that if you have a negative test at day 5 they then let you use the pools etc which is quite good. Just quite pricey for the15 nights. All immaterial now as we have agreed a refund so not travelling sadly.

  • Polly says:

    27 Sep27 September 13:27

    BJ
    We were going for that special visa too in lieu of kul. But been liaising with K1ngston And a couple of others on BT who is on the island currently. They say it’s absolutely chaotic there and wait til next year. And the flights are all being routed via BKK on Bangkok airways. Pages and pages of forms..
    Have you seen the hotels they recommend quarantine at? Bankrupt the average hfp ter!

  • BJ says:

    27 Sep27 September 14:31

    Thanks Vit & Polly for feedback. We will just see how things develop. Situation might well be different for my partner and I which would be an added complication except he is more reluctant to travel than I am.

  • Harry T says:

    27 Sep27 September 19:54

    Didn’t fancy joining us at Turnberry? Haha.

    Shame about Thailand, it does look like it won’t open for some time. The UK’s present virus situation isn’t going to help.

    • BJ says:

      27 Sep27 September 22:18

      @Harry T, I grew up in Ayrshire so I’ll pass, as nice as the place is. My nephew and his family may be there though but I would not expect Christmas itself.

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