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The HfP chat thread – Friday 16th October

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We have decided to run this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

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Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

By default, HfP shows the last page of comments under the article.  If you want to see the first page of comments and read them all from beginning to end in order, click here: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/10/16/the-hfp-chat-thread-friday-16th-october/comment-page-1.  The page will refresh with this article but the comments will now show the first page and not the last page.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page.  If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here.  This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

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General

Comments (214)

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

  • Piers says:
    16 Oct16 October 07:10

    FYI- all the article dates on home page are appearing twice like ‘16 OCT 202016 OCTOBER 2020’ when I view on iPhone.

    • Rob says:
      16 Oct16 October 07:40

      It’s a cache issue (ie it’s you, not us!). Go Settings, Safari, Advanced, Website Data and delete the HFP line. All will be well.

  • Anna says:
    16 Oct16 October 07:12

    More IHG/points weirdness. I booked a paid night at the Kimpton Blysthwood, for next March, then used the bonus Ambassador 40k certificate for a 2nd night. This morning the free night was showing cancelled in my account, and the certificate returned, although I didn’t cancel it and I haven’t had the usual cancellation email. I managed to rebook the free night (and I’ve emailed the hotel asking them if they can shed any light on it) but I’m wondering if the Blysthwood is preparing to follow The George and ditch its award availability.
    Another oddity was that the function to select the free night on the booking page seemed to have been disabled on my laptop, though it worked in the app.

    • BP says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:17

      Hopefully it’s not a trend. I’ve complained to IHG about The George.

      The Initial reply was along the lines of “The hotel is closed and hence reward availability cannot be offered”. I’ve replied setting out again that the hotel has reopened and what the issue is.

    • Lady London says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:37

      Sounds like you’ve spotted what this IHG hotel is up to @Anna! keep a beady eye on it as they’ll probably try again 🙂

      Guessing hotel is thinking if they are not going to be 95% full then IHG will give them peanuts for the reward room so they want to sell it for cash instead. But if they’re not 95% in full then they do have a spareroom they’re notc earning cash on so why not generate some goodwill instead and honour it for a reward booking.

      • Anna says:
        16 Oct16 October 09:41

        Indeed – if they cancel my reward night I will be cancelling the paid night as well (which was a DBB & spa package) and take my custom elsewhere!

  • Mark says:
    16 Oct16 October 07:29

    Saw some chatter yesterday that Barclays had sent notice they were ending their current rewards program, any update on when we might hear about the avios tie up with Barclays premier?

    • Rob says:
      16 Oct16 October 07:39

      2021 because ‘no one is travelling’. It may soft launch for existing customers, I guess.

  • ayearinmx says:
    16 Oct16 October 08:09

    trying to transfer some Avios from my BA account to Iberia, but i don’t have any “qualifying activity” on my Iberia account (setup in January 2020)….. can i just purchase some avios for that account? Or does it have to be “earnt”?

    • ayearinmx says:
      16 Oct16 October 08:15

      just looked…. $80 for 2000 avios isn’t great, so is there a better way?

      • Genghis says:
        16 Oct16 October 09:03

        Amex MR transfer. I do it every couple of years to keep activity.
        (Note avios may disappear after transferring BAEC->IB if no IB activity in last 3 years).

        • MattB says:
          16 Oct16 October 09:05

          Iberia also have a their own shopping portal, but might not be the quickest way to get the points active.

        • ayearinmx says:
          16 Oct16 October 09:37

          i only have an AMEX BA PP card….. no Gold/Platinum 🙁

  • Craig says:
    16 Oct16 October 08:22

    Any recent experience with Virgin refunds? They are saying 30-days for the cash element of a reward booking, points are back already.

    • TripRep says:
      16 Oct16 October 08:46

      Cancelled redemption booking for this Nov back in May, got points back same week, cash took 4+ months, ie late Sept

    • AndyGWP says:
      16 Oct16 October 18:46

      Had a Virgin flight cancelled early August, refund appeared a few days ago

  • Lee says:
    16 Oct16 October 09:10

    Can anyone log in to their Creation account? unavailable since yesterday.

    • Craig says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:14

      Working fine for me, try closing and reopening the app or starting again from the Creation homepage for the credit card?

    • Anna says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:15

      I keep getting a message saying they are “making changes” to the app but I can log in on my laptop.

      • Anna says:
        16 Oct16 October 09:37

        Hmm I’ve tried deleting the app and reinstalling but it won’t let me complete the re-registration.

    • Genghis says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:16

      Wasn’t working on Chrome at 6am but fine on Safari.
      App was fine then too.

    • Vit says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:17

      Fine for me just now (free IHG card, logged in on a laptop).

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:51

      App working fine here. iOS incase that matters.

  • Frankie says:
    16 Oct16 October 09:20

    As a left handed person who uses the left index finger to scroll up pages on the left on my iPhone, I’m constantly finding myself accidentally hitting the reply link against comments since (I think) the redesign moved it to the left under each comment. Where did the reply link reside previously? I’m just curious, and wondering if others experience this 🙂

    • Rhys says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:25

      It’s supposed to be on the right now! But it is an issue we are aware, of. Annoyingly it is an issue with Wordpress core.

    • Elaine J. says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:28

      I’m left handed too, and definitely have the same problem. Redesign please??

      • Rob says:
        16 Oct16 October 11:05

        We redesigned it for the benefit of right-handed people, sorry!

        Not sure what the options are. We can’t really make the word ‘REPLY’ any smaller than it already is – it could come down marginally but I doubt it would make a difference. The sensitivity of the button is outside our control.

    • Lady London says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:28

      I’m right handed doing it one handed and same. as well as moving it just inside the date, wondering if smaller could work. Or just a blue-framed black R” in the centre, that will turn all-blue when we click it to reply 🙂

    • BS says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:32

      Yup me too! Very annoying

    • Stu N says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:37

      The “Reply” was on the left immediately after the redesign; I – and many other right handed people – kept hitting it when scrolling. It was then moved to the right to solve that problem but I suppose that doesn’t work for everyone.

    • Jon says:
      16 Oct16 October 10:47

      I suspect the problem is not so much where the reply link is located (always going to be a problem for someone – personally I have trouble with it as much now that it’s on the right as I did when it was on the left), as the behaviour it triggers when tapped.

      Couple of possibilities to consider, perhaps:
      – On touch-screen devices, require a double-tap to trigger the insert/scroll-to-form action; or
      – On first tap, set up the reply but don’t auto-scroll to the form (perhaps add a visible flag of some sort to the just-tapped reply link), then on second tap do the scrolling.

      You’d need to do some testing with users to see which (if either) of those is better.

      Less of an issue on mouse/keyboard-based devices, presumably?

      • Rob says:
        16 Oct16 October 10:58

        Rhys can clarify this. However, I believe that our IT guy looked at this and it turns out that the sensitivity required to trigger reply is set at a very high level. This is coded into ‘wordpress core’ as they call it and not something we can easily fix, if only becaue it would be written over every couple of weeks when WordPress is updated.

        • Rhys says:
          16 Oct16 October 11:11

          This is the problem, unfortunately.

          • Jon says:
            16 Oct16 October 11:45

            Ah that’s annoying. I wonder how much luck you’d have getting WordPress to change that on their next update, given that HfP must surely be among the bigger sites using the platform, by traffic volume… 😉

          • the_real_a says:
            16 Oct16 October 12:41

            Can you not center align to make everyone happy?

          • Rhys says:
            16 Oct16 October 12:45

            I’m not sure it would make everyone happy – I tend to scroll in the middle of my phone screen!

          • Mzungu says:
            16 Oct16 October 13:45

            Just to add another view, I read the comments about this a few days ago, and to be honest, I couldn’t have told you whereabouts on the screen I scroll, so I’ve been keeping an eye in it for the past few days – and it’s in the middle!
            FWIW I am right handed, and usually hold and scroll with my left hand, but sometimes I use my right hand (to hold and scroll) and it’s stil the middle!

          • Chris K says:
            16 Oct16 October 18:00

            Even on an iPad in landscape mode the Reply button is in a bad place. Exactly where, like Rhys, where I naturally scroll.

            On a small phone is even worse. Don’t most people hold their device either in their left hand and scroll with their right, or hold the device in their right and scroll with their thumb? Either way I’m constantly hitting the reply button and (for once) I don’t think it’s just me being incompetent.

          • Rob says:
            16 Oct16 October 20:04

            Phones are designed to be used one handed. If you need 2 hands, get a smaller phone!

          • David says:
            16 Oct16 October 21:47

            I think the problem is not helped by the positioning of the button moving in and out as the reply comments increasingly indent with each reply.
            Therefore what is a safe place on your phone screen to put your finger to scroll without hitting the button actually changes depending upon the comment indenting depth.
            Would be better if it was in the middle of the screen or right aligned so it didn’t change position depending upon comment depth.

  • Gareth says:
    16 Oct16 October 09:31

    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?

    • james says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:35

      Try it and see, and let us know

    • Anna says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:38

      Is it still showing in your “available offers” section? They usually disappear once they’ve been used.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Oct16 October 09:54

      You’ll be able to use it again. May not post automatically straight away but in experience it does by the closing date (Amex must run a script to check)

      • BS says:
        16 Oct16 October 09:57

        I have had a similar offer post twice because of this.
        I phoned up to complain it hadn’t worked – they manually credited me. And then I got it again when this script was run.

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

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