The HfP chat thread – Thursday 15th October

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

• Tariq says:

  15 Oct15 October 06:47

  Had the Marriott £50 off £200 offer on the BA card for a while. Nothing on the Marriott Amex card until this morning, then £75 off £200 has appeared.

  • Ikaz says:

    15 Oct15 October 07:22

    I have it on 2 of my cards too, thanks for highlighting!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    15 Oct15 October 07:32

    That’ll do nicely. I actually had the £50 off and used it a while back.

    Got it on main card and 2 supps : )

  • DJ says:

    15 Oct15 October 07:36

    Thanks for highlighting this! Just in time for my University Arms stay.

    It appears to be on the Marriott card only.

  • Harry T says:

    15 Oct15 October 07:40

    Pretty decent, as I’ve got it on my Bonvoy amex and I’ve only just used the £50 off £200 offer that was on this card!

  • DJ says:

    15 Oct15 October 08:12

    Just noticed that the 2500 bonus points per stay has been extended to the 10th November too

    • Harry T says:

      15 Oct15 October 08:28

      Excellent news!

• Stuart Evans says:

  15 Oct15 October 07:10

  I got it also – just in time for my first Marriott stay since mid-March

  • roberto says:

    15 Oct15 October 08:15

    I got it too, and sitting in Marriott bed in Pine Cliffs I was double delighted until I noticed Portugal properties were excluded.

    • Harry T says:

      15 Oct15 October 08:31

      How are you finding Pine Cliffs? I stayed in the Ocean Suites and was a bit underwhelmed. The breakfast was a zoo, and the beach and property in general was packed. I got the impression I’d like it better outside of August. Seems like an odd choice badging it as a Luxury Collection resort, as it felt more like genetic luxury than “distinctive luxury”.

      If you have some time, Penha Longa near Lisbon is far superior.

      • Harry T says:

        15 Oct15 October 08:31

        Generic*

        Nothing beats the first snake of the day from Apple autocorrect.

      • roberto says:

        15 Oct15 October 08:41

        Its quiet now, a few kids but catering mostly for the going grey demographic. Beach and sea relaxed with space, pools too cold to use but the winter sun is still very warm.

        Its a fair price @ about €200 a night with breakfast in a nice room. Some of the resturants are closed what with the lower guest numbers but the beach bar is still open all day.

        Its a five hour drive with a couple of coffee stops from Malaga and our first visit in about 10 years. Its well manicured and well run.

        • Harry T says:

          15 Oct15 October 09:01

          Sounds much better! I think I just chose the wrong dates. It was also €350 a night when I visited. Enjoy your stay!

        • Michael C says:

          15 Oct15 October 09:09

          We went late May and really enjoyed it. Also less than €200 for 2 adults+child with b/f. Of course, we were looking for somewhere WITH kids, so v different demographic from Harry (in fact, we said when we were there it would be fab for some friends but not for others). A highlight was a trip to the indoor market in Loulé, easy car ride away. Lovely places all around for food.

• Secret Squirrel says:

  15 Oct15 October 07:36

  Any problems today with Revolut authorisations?

  • Crafty says:

    15 Oct15 October 22:26

    Not sure if this is with respect to recent reports, but turned out my problems were because Creation had put a block on my underlying card, suspecting fraud (nothing to do with Revolut), but not until today told me!

• James says:

  15 Oct15 October 07:38

  Has anyone from the UK been to the Maldives – or anywhere else that has a PCR certificate requirement – and can share their experience? ‘Certificate’ is such a broad term. Will NHS Email with test confirmation suffice?? NHS say not
  to use their test to travel but I’m interested from the Maldives perspective.

  • Gareth says:

    15 Oct15 October 07:48

    Shouldn’t be using the nhs for this purpose regardless

    • TGLoyalty says:

      15 Oct15 October 07:54

      Sort of agree. Then again schools and uni’s shouldn’t be insisting 1000’s of students without symptoms go get tested either.

      • Rhys says:

        15 Oct15 October 09:35

        My alma mater is testing its students with in-house labs. Not sure what other unis are doing though!

        • TGLoyalty says:

          15 Oct15 October 12:00

          Yes I’ve heard a few uni’s have purposed their own labs. But wonder if they are included in the official figures as they are completely private tests.

      • Nick says:

        15 Oct15 October 12:05

        If unis can demonstrate high case volumes they can insist people stay inside… and charge them vastly inflated prices for a box of junk food. Cynical maybe, but in a year they’ve struggled for revenue, free £ profits are very welcome.

  • meta says:

    15 Oct15 October 07:51

    Not possible to use your NHS email. The certificate needs to have your passport number and exact date and time stamp. A colleague of mine went there https://www.coronatestcentre.com/

    • MD says:

      15 Oct15 October 08:08

      They quote an accuracy rate of their PCR test (swab) of 99.9%, which is an outright lie.

      • meta says:

        15 Oct15 October 09:00

        NHS tests quoted similar at some point. It is known that the accuracy is about 70%, but no-one will say that anywhere.

      • BS says:

        15 Oct15 October 09:25

        It depends what you are measuring.
        If you are measuring the current presence of Sars-CoV-2 RNA (and therefore infectivity), the sensitivity is indeed >99%.
        If you are measuring it in people with symptoms of COVID, and wanting to know if they have current evidence of Sars-CoV-2 RNA, the sensitivity is indeed lower, largely because the COVID symptoms of difficulty in breathing etc. occur later, frequenly after the RNA is not detectable. This is because the COVID symptoms are frequently caused by the immune response to the virus, and not the current presence of the virus.

        It all depends on what you want it for. For travel – checking on current infectivity – the PCR test is almost perfect, except the delay in getting the result back.

        • MD says:

          15 Oct15 October 11:37

          @BS

          Sorry, not trying to pick a fight but you’re making slightly misleading statements there.

          If the question is “I have in my tube a live sample of Sars-CoV-2, will this PCR test detect it?” then of course sensitivity will be >95%, it wouldn’t be much use otherwise. That is obviously what the company are using for their false advertising. I’m not sure why you’re making that statement as some sort of attempt to defend the clinic’s claims.

          Unfortunately, as I’m sure you’re well aware, that isn’t the question actually being asked of the company. The real question is “If this patient comes to the travel clinic and actually has COVID, regardless of symptoms, will this swab detect it and stop them getting on the plane?” The answer to that is only “maybe”, as the reported false negative rates have been quoted between 2-33% (there’s even a small false positive rate, estimated at 0.8-4.0%, but let’s not confuse matters).

          Your points about the pathophysiology and why the virus might not be detectable are not actually relevant to that overall question being asked of the travel clinic.

          So to say the PCR test is “almost perfect” is I’m afraid false. Not saying it isn’t the best option available at the moment (other tests of course currently being trialed), but no clinic should imply to patients that one swab has a >99% chance of accurately telling them they have COVID. They do, of course, but it’s false.

        • BS says:

          15 Oct15 October 12:30

          @MD,
          No – for travelling you don’t care if they have COVID. COVID is the disease, you can’t catch it. You can only catch the virus which sometimes causes COVID, Sars-CoV-2. From a travel point of view (ie is this asymptomatic person at this time infectious to other passengers) this is all you care about. ‘Infectious’ is likely to be having RNA detectable with a CT on the test of <28. So even having RNA present, but in very small amounts, you are not going to be infectious.
          From a medical point of view (how should I be treating this symptomatic patient with odd possible-COVID like symptoms?) the test is a lot less good.
          Yes, the PCR test is not perfect. But for what you want it for for traveling passengers, it is very good.

        • Charlieface says:

          15 Oct15 October 15:30

          If you test large numbers of asyptomatic people, given even a very small false positive rate, you WILL have false cases.
          Whereas false negatives in the single digits is not major until a large number of people under test are in actual fact positive.
          They should be at a minimum double-testing

        • MD says:

          15 Oct15 October 20:25

          @BS Yes I’m well aware of the difference between the name of the virus and the name of the infection caused by the virus thanks, I was just being lazy as my swipey keyboard recognises COVID but refuses to learn Sars-CoV-2 for some reason, apologies. Enough of my medical colleagues still use COVID and other variants as shorthand that I would have thought my meaning was obvious, but if you wish to deflect into semantics then I can but concede that you are of course correct.

          Still doesn’t distract from my basic point that a test with a false negative rate of potentially 30% isn’t “almost perfect” or that the clinic’s marketing strategy is disingenuous at best. But good to see that you’ve at least downgraded “almost perfect” to “very good” so I guess we’re sort of in agreement…

  • Harry T says:

    15 Oct15 October 07:56

    You’re meant to use a private testing service, as advised by the FCO. The national testing apparatus is struggling.

    • Lady London says:

      15 Oct15 October 18:40

      Covid has been a notified epidemic since March month 3. We are now in October month 10 and still apparently struggling with providing sufficient access to testing.

      What on earth is making the UK unable to do this efficiently given how long this is now. Countries like Germany and Austria have had public testing on place for months and ir doesnt sound like families are being put in the position of having to seek out and pay ridiculous prices of private clinics.

      • Optimus Prime says:

        15 Oct15 October 19:02

        Don’t worry, they’ll sort it out soon. They’ve hired consultants at £7000/day. Such consultants earn in a week as much as a nurse does in a year…

        • Rob says:

          15 Oct15 October 20:08

          The consultants don’t get the £7k – the firm gets it. And then pays it to the partners. That’s why average partner pay at KPMG etc is £750k – £1m.

      • meta says:

        15 Oct15 October 19:26

        My partner’s colleague had to pay £400+ last month for private tests after both of his kids had continuous cough. The school (private) has policy that you have to get tested in such cases. It was on Sunday, so he tried to get an NHS test Monday. No luck for either home test or drive-in. By the afternoon the only test available was private and on Wednesday for results on Thursday evening. So the kids missed entire week of school. It’s a joke.

  • The real John says:

    15 Oct15 October 08:13

    I ordered a home test a few days ago as my son got a fever. Arrived same day, sent it off and results came through quickly… can someone explain what all that fuss over people being forced to drive 100 miles to the nearest available test centre was about?

    Also if I wanted to test negative with a home test I could just not stick the swab up my nose and send it back – so why would anyone else trust that, it’s only good for people who actually want to know if they are infected.

    Do the results appear different if someone else swabs you as opposed to doing it yourself?

    • roberto says:

      15 Oct15 October 08:18

      Self tests are excluded from most country’s fit to fly programmes.

    • bill says:

      15 Oct15 October 08:21

      the result wouldnt be negative, it would be inconclusive

    • BuildTheWall says:

      15 Oct15 October 08:25

      Very lucky. They ran out of home test kits few weeks ago. My son had a temperature and was sent back from nursery. Had to take him to a centre 30 miles away to get tested.

      • Sandra says:

        15 Oct15 October 12:25

        I requested a home test kit Sunday 4th Oct, arrived Monday (via amazon), I returned it that day via Royal Mail to a Glasgow address and had the result (negative) early AM Weds 7th. I think availability of home test kits may depend when you go online and try to get one. This was for symptoms and not a holiday btw!

        • ChrisC says:

          15 Oct15 October 13:41

          I ordered Monday lunchtime last week. Test arrived Tuesday morning and I posted it back same day, There is a ‘priority’ post box at the end of my road and you are allowed to take it there yourself if there isn’t anyone else who can do it for you.

          They received it Wednesday morning. I got text and email result around 7pm Friday. App updated itself a couple of hours later.

    • Peter K says:

      15 Oct15 October 08:34

      I had to travel about 30 miles to get a test once.
      My sister, (who lives 100’s miles from me) could only get a home test which took 2 days to arrive, on a Saturday evening so she could post until Monday. No drive/walk ins were available anywhere for her.

  • John Caribbean says:

    15 Oct15 October 08:37

    I used MedExpress, for a different country. I had to follow up to get the certificate with more details (DOB, accredited test centre name), because the result email was just “pass”.
    They do NHS discount though, about half price, if you have access to an NHS email account

  • Doc says:

    15 Oct15 October 08:57

    I would not use the NHS one since you are only supposed to be use it if you have symptoms. That aside, the results don’t always come back in 48 hours and you don’t get a certificate for travel etc either. Bizarrely some of the NHS COVID testing is not UK lab approved which some countries are requiring. So in short NHS COVID testing system is not something I would use for travel.

    • James says:

      15 Oct15 October 10:36

      Im really not asking what you would and wouldn’t use. It’s what you can and cannot use.

• BriantD says:

  15 Oct15 October 07:55

  How can I get the Chat thread to pop up with my HFP emails each morning? Thanks

  • Rob says:

    15 Oct15 October 09:11

    You can’t, sorry.

• Louise says:

  15 Oct15 October 08:17

  I already had £50 off £200 at Marriot, now £75 off £200 today, will they stack? I seem to remember people having this with Harrods offers and them both being applied?

  • Harry T says:

    15 Oct15 October 08:32

    Should stack, just double check when they both expire.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    15 Oct15 October 09:00

    Yes all offers stack on Amex if there is any overlap.

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    15 Oct15 October 09:24

    Lucky you! I’ve got absolutely terrible offers! Nothing worthwhile for ages on any of our cards. Don’t have Plat…yet! Seems all the good offers ( well, the ones I’d like) go on that.

    • Louise says:

      15 Oct15 October 12:59

      Thanks everyone, Jill I only have the SPG card now, have been suffering with the poor offers up till now

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  15 Oct15 October 08:22

  20% extra value on Anantara gift cards this week

  https://egiftcard.anantara.com/

• Gareth says:

  15 Oct15 October 09:09

  Morning – I have a query over the Amex Platinum, ‘£100 statement credit when you spend £100 at a combination of Waitrose, John Lewis, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Deliveroo’.

  I purchased some items from Selfridges and received the statement credit. These items were then returned and the subsequent statement credit was reversed, which I expected to happen.

  Can I now use this offer again? Or is it completely gone?

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