The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 14th October

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• Rich says:

  14 Oct14 October 06:22

  I posted the other day about my jet star experience. I’ve just communicated with them via Twitter, and they said they can’t do anything with a domestic flight as it’s still running as normal. I explained I won’t be going to Australia anytime soon so a voucher is pointless. Obviously they are not interested.
  The other flight was cairns to Bali which originally was booked for April and I took out a voucher and rebooked it for November. This is now cancelled. I’ve asked for a refund and there reply was “as you paid via a voucher, we can only provide a reimbursement in the form of a voucher”.
  Looks like they are trying to fob me off

  • blenz101 says:

    14 Oct14 October 07:14

    In fairness this is not an unreasonable approach by the airline. For the first flight if it is operating and you bought a non-refundable ticket then the airline shouldn’t have to refund you. You will need to discuss your abandoned trip with you travel insurance provider.

    In the second case, again, the airline is again acting reasonably. You previously accepted a voucher for future travel (as opposed to presumably a cash refund if the flight was cancelled or as a goodwill becuase you could no longer travel) and used it. The are offering you your voucher back on a separate cancelled flight. There is little choice for you here but to accept the voucher, even travel insurance will be of no use in this instance.

  • Harry T says:

    14 Oct14 October 13:12

    Yeah, I can’t see how the airline owes you a refund if the flight is running and you can’t take the flight.

• Jonathan says:

  14 Oct14 October 06:39

  Seems fair tbh. If the Bali flight was non-refundable & went ahead then you did well to get a voucher in the first place. To expect them to then essentially convert the voucher to cash again isn’t going to happen as Jetstar are very much in the Ryanair mould.

  The second booking is one for your travel insurance.

  There’s no EU261 équivalent in Australia so pointless wasting time & effort pursuing.

• Graham says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:22

  Earned a 241 voucher with BA over 3 weeks ago and no email or voucher appeared on my account !! Is it time to call them up and kick the tyres ?

  • BJ says:

    14 Oct14 October 07:45

    Call amex and check it was processed properly at their end.

• tony says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:23

  Last week I opened an Amazon business account off the back of the 30% discount promo. This was all approved, but i’ve had no notification of the discount and can’t seem to find it anywhere. Any ideas? Thanks

  • BJ says:

    14 Oct14 October 07:54

    Put something in your basket sold and delivered by amazon, take it through to checkout preview and look to see if a discount is showing on the price details. Don’t do this if you have one click orders set up. If you do inadvertently place an order then just go to orders and cancel it immediately. I think there is a specific page you can check promotions and vouchers but I forgot how to find it.

    • tony says:

      14 Oct14 October 08:05

      Thanks – tried that and got right to the final page but still no discount.

      Hey ho…

      • BJ says:

        14 Oct14 October 08:23

        Call amazon then, I have found them very helpful when things go wrong which fortunately for me has been rare.

      • Rhys says:

        14 Oct14 October 08:41

        Don’t you need to use the special promo code at checkout? It’s in the article we ran.

        • FFoxSake says:

          14 Oct14 October 13:41

          Correct. You need to add a Promo code at the last step B2BPRIME20 (I believe promo for first order using that code is extended until 31st Oct now).
          I just used it yesterday – managed to get a £219 monitor for £99… it was already discounted to £159 as a Prime Day offer then this promo code took off another £60 (so they must have used the FULL price capped at £200). Nice result!

      • cinereus says:

        14 Oct14 October 13:49

        Yeah as long as it’s sold and delivered by Amazon and you’ve entered the code it works. Even works from EU Amazon sites with the max being 30% of €200 instead.

        • tony says:

          14 Oct14 October 16:00

          OK, thanks all. I was under the impression that the offer was only activated 48hrs after the account was approved so had expected to get some kind of communication from them, but this is brilliant. Especially since i’ve had “lunch” so will end up ordering something bigger than I need….

• C says:

  14 Oct14 October 07:41

  For info – I’m able to change an avios sale booking online for free today without it asking for the extra avios.

  • Andrew says:

    14 Oct14 October 07:47

    Good to know. I was hoping that would be the case so I can push my trip to later next year.

  • BJ says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:00

    Was this to a date within or outside the promotion period? I wonder if it will continue to be possible or if BA just allowed some extra time on account of time differences.

  • s879 says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:05

    What if you need to upgrade a CW to First. I have used a 2 for 1. Will it just ask for the avios difference from CW to First for one person? The other will be 0

    • Jonathan says:

      14 Oct14 October 08:11

      Won’t work. Has to be identical in every respect. There’s enough here for everyone to work off so have a play, don’t call & don’t draw attention to it.

  • Jonathan says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:08

    Sshhhh! Fees need to be same as it won’t go through if there’s any additional payment or refund due. Note that Heathrow’s Passenger Service Charge varies through the year so you’ll need to match up with their Low, Shoulder & High Season as well as BA’s Peak/Off-Peak. Now let’s not mention this again…

    • Andrew says:

      14 Oct14 October 08:10

      Plus the change in APD coming….

      • meta says:

        14 Oct14 October 08:34

        I tried playing with one of my bookings where I needed, but I couldn’t get the surcharges to be the same. I tried almost all possible combinations. In the end I just called and cancelled as I was within 24h cancellation period.

    • Louise K says:

      14 Oct14 October 08:35

      This is a very valid point.

      I tried to do this at the weekend but the tax had changed so wanted extra payment. I could change the flights but payment would not go through.

      • Jonathan says:

        14 Oct14 October 08:53

        Do a dummy booking for original & desired dates & look at the breakdown of fees to see where the difference is & work back from there. Unfortunately you need the original to match the desired dates so once you have a booking you’re stuffed if it doesn’t match.

        I’d hazard a guess you had a booking for April or wanted a booking in September as those 2 months are Heathrow’s shoulder season so restrict options.

        • meta says:

          14 Oct14 October 09:35

          Only works on some routes. The route I looked at had surcharges different for every single day in the winter and summer schedule.

          I also would be wary of changing these things too much, it could be seen as gaming the system and you could get kicked out or they could just deduct extra Avios. If too many people do it, they’ll start looking into it.

        • Andrew says:

          14 Oct14 October 09:58

          I can see it working fine on RFS routes (long and short haul) as the cash element is fixed 365 days a year.

  • YC says:

    14 Oct14 October 10:19

    Trying to play with a 2-1 flight and on manage my booking is asking me to contact BA. Can’t seem to be done online

• Steve says:

  14 Oct14 October 08:00

  Sainsbury’s offering double value on Nectar vouchers 28th October to 17th November.

  Is there a better use of Nectar points? I’m sitting on a stash of them from an Amex Nectar.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:20

    I convert mine to wine vouchers when the promotion runs.

    • MattB says:

      14 Oct14 October 09:32

      Alcohol not included in Wales for the double up this year, really annoyed at this been doing it for years and had a few hundreds worth to exchange across our cards. Got a Sainsbury’s 20 miles away over the border so may have to make a booze cruise down the M4.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        14 Oct14 October 15:25

        Perhaps not if Welsh governors have anything to do with it.

  • JPa says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:27

    There is no better use of them, but you do sometimes have to watch for promo disappearing and then reappearing after the double up. As often that can eat about 20% of the value. Last time it was quite limited how many you can convert on the app. Get a second / third / forth card added to your account gets around that as each had the own allowance last time.

    • JPa says:

      14 Oct14 October 08:28

      (You can get refunds on these purchases….)

      • JPa says:

        14 Oct14 October 08:31

        Looks like the dates are 11th to Tuesday 17th November 2020, but you can exchange earlier – best to do it on the app when you have something you want to buy.

  • BJ says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:34

    Possibly double value on LNER or Ebay but don’t hold your breath. There may be an offer on your Nectar account for Cafe Nero if that is of any use. During double up, price promotions on eligible departments are usually close to nonexistent. Therefore, for example, you might find it more useful to redeem your points at standard rates on the half price toy sale that is reportedly imminent. This way you avoid voucher conversion limits.

• Matthew says:

  14 Oct14 October 08:27

  BA Hols question. Plan to book hol this week for my wife and her friend to Dubai in Sep 2021 with intention of upgrading from premium to business. Even though I’m not travelling, can I call and upgrade them both using my Avios? Or will I need to form HHA so my wife can call to upgrade them both. Lastly, how much extra fees/surcharges should I expect to pay when upgrading? Many thanks for your help 👍

  • BJ says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:41

    Might not even be possible to upgrade, will depend on fare buckets so if CW is key then safest would be to book redemptions and shop around for the rest. i expect it will still be a buyers market all through next year.

    • Matthew says:

      14 Oct14 October 12:28

      I thought any PE fare bucket was upgradeable?

      • BJ says:

        14 Oct14 October 13:18

        Reports of people sometimes coming unstuck via BA Holidays. Never had a problem witn any of the three I booked for cash as flight only on BA.

• Charlie says:

  14 Oct14 October 08:30

  Does anyone know if a £20 Currys PC World in store purchase would trigger the Business Platinum card offer?

  • Rob says:

    14 Oct14 October 08:42

    No

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