The HfP chat thread – Monday 19th October

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• Anna says:

  19 Oct19 October 12:12

  Creation – not only was it behaving oddly over the weekend with “updates” which now seems to mean I can’t use the app any more as I don’t have the right ios system, no payments seem to have gone through either so it’s worth checking if you’ve got a balance that needs paying off just now.

  • xcalx says:

    19 Oct19 October 12:55

    My payments have gone through ok, only problems were having to get a code sent each time I signed in on desktop.

    • Anna says:

      19 Oct19 October 14:01

      I made 2 payments on ipad, not showing on either Creation account or payment card. I did have to input a code to log on today and payments seem to have gone through now.

• Steve says:

  19 Oct19 October 12:17

  I currently have the BAPP card and have already hit the 10k spend to trigger the 2-4-1 voucher. I have a couple of big purchases to make this month. From reading the articles on what bonuses I’m eligible for, I might be able to get the Amex Platinum and still receive the bonus.

  In this case, would I be able to sign up for platinum, make said purchases, trigger the 30k membership points bonus and cancel or downgrade and receive a pro-rota refund once the points are safely converted to avios?

  This makes sense in my head, I just need someone to tell me I’m right or wrong!

  • Rob says:

    19 Oct19 October 12:20

    Yes, no problem (as long as you’ve not had a Gold, Platinum or any other personal card offering Membership Rewards points in the last 24 months).

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Oct19 October 13:47

      If you have then green to platinum would net you 20k.

  • Anna says:

    19 Oct19 October 14:02

    Is it still 35k points if you’re referred by another Amex holder?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Oct19 October 14:55

      Yes and 22k for Gold. Not for the green to Plat upgrade ofcourse.

• Nick Newbury says:

  19 Oct19 October 12:43

  Not linked to Amex but part of the MCARTHUR GLEN who own the Biscester shopping village, just had an email to offer 20% off prices there, might help someone, who like me might be passing by in next few days

  • Nick Newbury says:

    19 Oct19 October 12:44

    The above is for the Ashford outlet, happy shopping!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    19 Oct19 October 13:48

    Bicester has no link to MacArthur Glen

    • Andrew says:

      19 Oct19 October 14:36

      Yes Bicester wouldn’t take kindly to being put in the same league as MacArthur Glen!

• Andrew says:

  19 Oct19 October 12:43

  If you haven’t seen it yet Google:-

  Easyjet Everybody dies.

  Really rough Scottish burd having a tantrum and coughing everywhere on EZY481 on the 18th October.

  • BS says:

    19 Oct19 October 12:54

    Terrible. The sooner we make masks compulsory on planes (without the self-defining ‘optouts’) the better. No mask = no fly. End of.

    • Aston100 says:

      19 Oct19 October 13:32

      Tougher penalties and the willpower to enforce those penalties.

  • AJA says:

    19 Oct19 October 13:45

    I misread that, I read it as the woman having a tantrum had died! That said the woman needs to be banned from flying on any airline. Selfish behaviour. I feel very sorry for everyone on board and those having to deal with her and her loutish behaviour.

    • Lady London says:

      19 Oct19 October 13:52

      Why didnt the Easyjet cabin crew just use the powers they have and de-plane her? US cabin crew are doing this with mask refusers.

      • meta says:

        19 Oct19 October 14:45

        She was deplaned.

• memesweeper says:

  19 Oct19 October 12:45

  Warning: if you are using American Express FX for regular payments which total > £10k or >£100k you will not pay the reduced fee. You will pay the fee for the individual payment amounts. This is in contrast to the ‘one off’ batch payments where the correct, bundled, fee is applied. Amex are aware and I guess might fix it one day, but for now, batch up manually every month to avoid the higher fees.

  • BLT says:

    19 Oct19 October 13:38

    This has been the case since I signed up. You need to batch payments to >10k to get the 1.15% fee, >100k for 1%.

    • memesweeper says:

      19 Oct19 October 13:57

      Yes, sorry, I wasn’t clear, if you *schedule* them to *repeat* it doesn’t work, it charges at the individual rates for each part of the batch schedule.

• Anthony says:

  19 Oct19 October 13:42

  Got the same email email this morning, it’s worth checking the offer on your Amex card, I think they were all extended until the 19th December

• Alan H says:

  19 Oct19 October 14:32

  Not sure whether anyone else has encountered issues with BA’s IT. I was due to fly to GCM on 1.11 and when I got an email on Sunday (14 days before the scheduled flight) I thought it would be a cancellation; it wasn’t, it was merely advising me on what to do before flying. On the BA app, the flight was still flying and on the BA website, all the usual flights (including mine) were on sale as normal. Upon looking at MMB, it stated my flight was cancelled. I telephoned BA who stated that according to their system the flight was operating and after being put on hold a couple of time, I was informed that their back office needed to investigate and they would telephone me. A short while later I received an email stating the flights were cancelled but transferring the booking to flights on different dates. The flights allocated are actually repatriation flights and not for normal tourists as the borders are still closed for that purpose. I explained this to the CS rep but Im not sure it was fully understood. If I hadn’t checked MMB, the working assumption for someone who was none the wiser to the circumstances in GCM would have assumed the flights were operating. All very bizarre but I’ve got a refund organised.

  • Will says:

    19 Oct19 October 14:47

    Sorry to hear about your difficulties but a better question to ask on here would be ‘anyone NOT encountered issues with BA’s IT?’ I doubt you will find that person!

  • Anna says:

    19 Oct19 October 16:56

    Alan, the situation in GCM is reported daily in their media! It’s been known for months that the island will be closed for tourism until at least the end of the year. Especially at a time like this, why would anyone not research the situation at their destination?
    Of course BA is still selling seats, though, they want your cash and hope that you’ll take a voucher when they cancel your flight.

    • Anna says:

      19 Oct19 October 17:06

      Also – if you’re hoping to visit in future, I advise doing a LOT of research into the way the Cayman government is steering things in relation to tourism. It’s very unlikely there will be any short-term visitors until a vaccine has been developed AND it’s proven to be effective at preventing Covid entering the territory. They currently have no need for many covid restrictions (they’ve even been able to abandon face coverings) and they are not going to jeopardise that. It’s causing a lot of issues for people with second homes (or timeshares!) there.

      • Alan H says:

        19 Oct19 October 19:50

        Don’t worry as a caymanian and property owner there I’m very familiar with what’s happening there just a pity BA don’t understand the restrictions around their repatriation flights!

        • Anna says:

          20 Oct20 October 12:23

          In that case surely you would have applied for and received authorisation to return and have been booked on one of the “official” BA flights sanctioned by the CIG? Why would you want a refund if you’ve been cleared to return?

• Sam says:

  19 Oct19 October 14:45

  Hi,

  Sorry, I have a stupid question, which I’m sure this has been asked and answered.

  I annoyingly have a FTV for a booking (three people) which cost £1.50 and 45000 odd avios. Presumably my voucher is now worth exactly that – does this mean then that if I want to use my voucher for a new flight, it will have to be a flight with award availability?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    19 Oct19 October 14:57

    Yes there will need to be Avios availability

  • AJA says:

    19 Oct19 October 15:01

    Yes you need reward availability and I believe it will be for the three passengers as well. I am not sure but I believe you can’t use it just for a flight for yourself.

    • Andrew says:

      19 Oct19 October 15:50

      And you can’t use the £1.50 towards a cash ticket – avios FTVs are only for use with Avios bookings (and need to be used over the phone, not online).

    • Sam says:

      19 Oct19 October 19:16

      Thanks (and to everyone else who replied). Turns out there was avios availability and since it was the same three of us travelling it was no extra cost and a refund of 5000 avios.

      Felt nice to swap what was intended to be a flight home from a holiday in Seville to a flight out to go and live in Barcelona.

  • Anna says:

    19 Oct19 October 17:00

    I am in a very similar position and will need to find award availability for 3 of us when I re-book, however the voucher extends my 241 until April 2022 so it’s probably the only way we will get to use it!

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