The HfP chat thread – Sunday 11th October

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

• Peter Taysum says:

  11 Oct11 October 12:28

  Post nights so brain not working. Can I use Two AmEx 241 for four people to travel using Avios redemption? I will be travelling. To make use of current sale, clearly.

  Thanks
  Peter

  • Michael C says:

    11 Oct11 October 12:36

    Yes, but only over the phone, Peter.

    • Peter Taysum says:

      11 Oct11 October 12:37

      Thanks Michael,

      Brain was struggling to search and make any sense!

      Really appreciate you taking the time.

      • Anna says:

        11 Oct11 October 14:12

        Peter – if the vouchers are both in your account you can do this online. Maybe under supervision though if you’ve just come off nights 🤦‍♀️😂

• BJ says:

  11 Oct11 October 12:35

  For anybody who hasn’t seen it yet…
  https://youtu.be/4tZVnbDq9B4

  • Lady London says:

    11 Oct11 October 13:58

    Ouch.

  • Anna says:

    11 Oct11 October 14:02

    Lol – that REALLY sounds like they got Elaine Paige to do the vocals as well!
    There are some very funny clips from the new Spitting Image around as well if you haven’t got the paid channel.

    • BJ says:

      11 Oct11 October 15:42

      It’s hard not to laugh, even the regular CNN coverage makes me want to laugh at times. The sad part is that the whole mess is not funny at all.

    • Genghis says:

      11 Oct11 October 16:04

      Free 6 months’ Britbox subs if you’re with EE.

      • BJ says:

        11 Oct11 October 16:10

        Saw that for BT broadband customers too.

• Toni says:

  11 Oct11 October 14:01

  Thanks everyone for all of the great advice about trip to Malaysia. Lots of options to look at. How do most people travel between locations? Hire car, train or fly (eg KL to Penang)?

  • Nick says:

    11 Oct11 October 14:35

    Singapore to Penang is best on a flight, KL to Penang is a really easy (and comfy) train plus the ferry over, so I would always do that.

    • Andrew says:

      11 Oct11 October 14:47

      Flying is nice and easy (either from KUL or SIN) and Malaysia Airlines’ refundable fares are actually quite reasonable.

      The train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur is lovely, as is KL to Butterworth (for the journey across the water to Penang). Takes a long time though so call it a day trip!

  • BJ says:

    11 Oct11 October 15:02

    If you are going with avios then be aware BKK is zone 7 while SIN and KUL are zone 8. If accessing via BKK then fly Air Asia. You might need to transfer to DMK if the flight does not move over to BKK.

    • BJ says:

      11 Oct11 October 15:28

      On second thoughts, with potential Covid restrictions best to avoid multi country travels, especially Thailand that will be stricter than most. So better fly to KUL and take train or a zone 1 avios redemption on MAS.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    11 Oct11 October 16:25

    Internal flights are competitively priced and frequent (Malaysian is full service and in Oneworld if you have BA status, Airasia also good). The train is modern and easy to use. Grab taxis are absurdly cheap by Western standards.

  • BP says:

    11 Oct11 October 18:59

    I decided to take the scenic route on the bus from SIN to KL. After factoring in airport transfers the time difference wasn’t much.

    What I didn’t plan on was on 29th Dec lots of Malaysians return home from SIN resulting in massive queues at the border. The journey took over 12 hours, the bus Aircon was broken and I had no SGD or MYR to spend when the bus stopped. Nightmare!

  • SLLee says:

    11 Oct11 October 20:20

    Not sure what are your dates, but up to 30-DEC-2020, Malaysia is generally closed to foreigners (exceptions apply), and if you do get the approval to enter, you will be subject to a 14 day mandatory quarantine in a hotel, which you have to pay, and which will be allocated at random. If you get a Hilton or Marriott, that’s great. If you get something like a Tune hotel, good luck in seeing through a 14 day lock-up. You are not allowed to leave your room at all (except to pick up your food by the door side).

    For me, I prefer to hire a car from KLIA to get between locations. The road networks there are world class, and the inter-state highways are quite scenic too. The drivers there can be a little mad, but nothing that I can’t handle. Petrol is cheap too. Apart from car hire, I would take flights (KUL-PEN, KUL-SIN). They are cheapish and reliable. Bus…I would skip. It is not uncommon to find an under-30 year driver in charge of a bus with 30-40 passengers onboard, speeding over 100 kmph in a monsoon rain.

• Nick says:

  11 Oct11 October 14:34

  I’m aware this is ‘Class A Idiot’ territory… but I’ll ask anyway and if nothing else give you all a good laugh.

  Does anyone have any experience asking Amex to honour an offer on a different card? Checking out of a hotel earlier the clerk asked if I’d like to use the Amex stored on file. “Yes of course” I said (you can see where this is going…), when what I should have said was “ooh no, I have an offer on this other one.”

  Tips welcome if you think it’s salvageable. Obviously I realise it’s entirely my own fault so deserve to take the hit if that’s the only option.

  • Sukes says:

    11 Oct11 October 14:46

    I’ve never asked amex for this but assuming the offer is still active, have you tried with the hotel? Last month I stayed at an independent London hotel and had to prepay deposit online & only options were MC or visa but I use the travel insurance on Amex plat. I paid on visa. When at the hotel I enquired and they accepted Amex. I asked them to refund the visa and put the whole payment on Amex and they were happy to oblige. Just a thought if you get the expected ‘computer says no’ from amex.

    • BJ says:

      11 Oct11 October 15:35

      OT @Sukes, IIRC it was you who highlighted the amazon small business offer for us. If so can you advise me how you got it to work please? I’ve tried three times with purchases searched from the linked ‘store front’ page and none have triggered the offer.

      • Sukes says:

        11 Oct11 October 16:13

        Hi BJ I spotted the offer but haven’t actually used it. Sounds like you’ll need to take it up with Amazon chat. I hope you get the credit because it sounds like you did everything as required by the terms.

        • BJ says:

          11 Oct11 October 16:29

          I think so, I cancelled the orders before shipping. I doubt it but perhaps that is the problem, possibly the offer isn’t triggered instantly on order.

        • Sukes says:

          11 Oct11 October 17:54

          Hey BJ – Amazon have always charged my card on dispatch only so I suspect that explains the issue.

  • RussellH says:

    11 Oct11 October 15:13

    Play up the ‘Class A Idiot’ bit and be very apologetic?

    FWIW, I did something like this in a restauirant last year. Money off on my blue BA Amex, but paid with my dark blue Marriott M/card. I went up to the pay point, told them I was an idiot and asked them to void the original payment and let me pay again with the right card.
    Pleasant server let me do this with no problems at all – except that I used the Marriott Card AGAIN! (It sits next to the BA Amex in my wallet.)
    Third time, I did it right!
    [And yes, we have been back since, a couple of times.]

    • GT says:

      11 Oct11 October 15:24

      Not sure if I’m missing something but the end date of 13th October for the BA Booking With Confidence flexibility seems to have disappeared. The BA website update on 9 Oct now only refers to “ bookings made from 3 March 2020 onwards”.

      Have BA now extended to offer to an undefined date ?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        11 Oct11 October 15:51

        Believe so.

  • BJ says:

    11 Oct11 October 15:30

    Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

  • Anna says:

    11 Oct11 October 16:03

    An essential element of checking in is to decide which card you want to pay on and give it to the person to authorise so that anything you charge goes onto that card and not the one on file if different. It’s so easy to forget otherwise! (I have a couple of accounts which still have a closed Amex attached to them. No-one has ever queried it and it would prevent unfortunate incidents like the one Nick describes as of course the card would be declined if the hotel tried to charge anything to it.)

  • Travel Strong says:

    11 Oct11 October 17:22

    Nick – I have salvaged this before by contacting the hotel. The hilton in question refunded to the original card, and recharged to a new card. This was a USA hilton, and they had me fill out and scan over a form with my card info… I would expect a slightly different process for an EU hotel.

    • dezbez says:

      11 Oct11 October 20:39

      Agree, Hilton seem to be very accommodating in this regard (excuse the pun). I recently rang up a UK hotel some two weeks after my stay and they swapped cards no problems whatsoever. No forms needed either (presumably becyit was a Uk venue).

• Tripitaka misses Pigsy says:

  11 Oct11 October 16:35

  Good afternoon everyone,

  My apologies for yet another question regarding 2-4-1 extensions, but I’ve reluctantly had to accept the reality that my trip to Japan in Feb ’21 — with the prospect of bringing my Aussie mother-in-law across from Adelaide for the Snow Festival (via other means) for her 70th — will now not be happening.

  I have two return CW flights booked via a 2-4-1 (booked in Feb 2020), the expiry of which is now November 2021, just shy of the Feb 2022 that I’d ideally have liked for a re-booking of our current trip.

  Would anyone be kind enough to confirm whether I have the following information correct or, indeed, completely wrong! Thank you in advance for any responses:

  • As BA is currently flying to TYO, it is unlikely that our flights will be cancelled by BA themselves?

  • As such (if the above is correct), if I opt to cancel my current 2-4-1 booking myself, would I then have the option of turning my current 2-4-1 booking into a “FTV” that would extend my current 2-4-1’s expiry beyond its current November 2021 expiry?

  I may have both of the above points totally incorrect, of course — I have been labouring under the illusion that I would somehow make it to Japan in Feb, but clearly I’ve been in total denial; the mooted April ’21 Japan opening-up seems to be the final nail in the coffin. My wishful thinking has also meant that I’ve not kept up with the most expedient way of prolonging a 2-4-1 in such circumstances.

  Any help would be ever so greatly appreciated. Thank you once again.

  • Rob says:

    11 Oct11 October 17:19

    1. Correct
    2. Correct, to 30/4/22 (last day to travel)

    • Tripitaka misses Pigsy says:

      11 Oct11 October 17:50

      Thank you for confirming, Rob!

• Nige says:

  11 Oct11 October 17:56

  Anyone know if the showers are available at T5 Gallery’s South Lounge? Or are they out of action due to Covid?

• Sukes says:

  11 Oct11 October 19:25

  For those who miss ‘smellies’ aka tayto crisps in your airport lounge experience, the Causeway lounge at Belfast Intl is reopening tomorrow, albeit with ‘variable’ opening hrs. 20% off lounge bookings until the end of 2020 for all bookings made during October using code CO20.

• Baji Nahid says:

  11 Oct11 October 19:31

  So im about to hit the 10K spend on the free BA card now and wondered what would happen if i spent over 10K on the free BA card and then upgraded to the BAPP, would i not receive my 241?

  Secondly to upgrade, im presuming your credit balance on the free BA card should be clear or can you carry it over to the BAPP?

  Appreciate the help!

  Secondly, debating getting some lululemon gym gear before the 2K avios offer ends tonight.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    11 Oct11 October 20:05

    Best to upgrade before you hit £10k otherwise you end up with a 1 year voucher instead of 2 year

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