The HfP chat thread – Sunday 25th October

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• Baji Nahid says:

  25 Oct25 October 03:04

  Im loving the BA online shopping portal as it currently has a very high amount of avios being rewarded for shopping.

  However dont appreciate it when they pinch the avios from you months later for no reason.

  • Jonathan says:

    25 Oct25 October 07:03

    I had this recently for an Apple purchase made last October – yes clawing the points back a year later. Logged a ticket with shopping portal support and was informed it was a mistake and the points were returned within 24 hours. Thanks to AwardWallet which saved the day here and alerted me to the problem.

    • Anna says:

      25 Oct25 October 07:15

      I’ve had this happen a few times but it’s really not worth the hassle of getting them back (unless it’s a huge amount of avios). Each time I’ve complained the retailer has said it was done by BA so I do wonder if BA is systemically grabbing avios back and hoping people can’t be bothered challenging it!

      • Andrew MS says:

        25 Oct25 October 09:39

        The insurers are the worst at clawing back the points arguing that you bought the policy outwith the portal – complete nonsense . four awards for insurance purchases cancelled within the last two years.

  • Doc says:

    25 Oct25 October 10:42

    Don’t think I have ever had a problem free purchase from this portal since they always get the amount of Avios wrong or claw it back later and had to get in touch with the customer services each time. Take screenshot each time but it is a real faf and time consuming, which I suspect is what BA are hoping you don’t chase after.

    • Lady London says:

      25 Oct25 October 11:13

      So far several small Screwfix amounts – like around 6 avios when I remember just to try to buy something through the portal to credit something to retain RFS access – have all been credited in 1-3 days and so far not been clawed back.

      Could BA be clawing back once a contractual period has expired without the retailer paying BA? I think at least one major cashyback site does this too.

  • Kevin says:

    25 Oct25 October 12:12

    The portal seems having issue in tracking the purchase (using iPad with clear or history prior to login the portal) recently. A bit annoying need to go through a claim for missing Avios.

  • Eligold says:

    25 Oct25 October 21:42

    I haven’t noticed any clawbacks but still waiting patiently for points to be applied for in-store purchases on registered cards.
    Anyone know if it actually works?

• Baji Nahid says:

  25 Oct25 October 03:05

  Also hoping Qatar airways do a status match again soon

  • LST says:

    25 Oct25 October 22:12

    Had a load of in store spending (odeon) avios (10 per £) from February post this month!!!

• Pablo says:

  25 Oct25 October 06:18

  Amazon has voucher discounts on Champagne. Veuve Clicquot £32.40; Moët & Chandon £23.49; Laurent Perrier £24.30
  Worth stocking up for the festive season if you can make them last until then 😉

  • Andrew says:

    25 Oct25 October 06:34

    Tesco have 25% off when you buy 6 bottles of any wine or champagne. Taittinger is on offer for £28 so £21 after the discount (you can save a further 10% if you have Clubcard plus) and you don’t need to buy 6 bottles of champagne – you can get 5 bottles of cheap plonk for £5 and a bottle of champagne to get 25% off the lot.

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      25 Oct25 October 07:59

      Picked up Moet 2012 at Tesco for £30 on this offer, which seemed pretty keen.

      Presumably there’s going to be a bit of a Champagne glut with so many hospitality venues closed globally.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        25 Oct25 October 08:29

        And so many weddings and parties cancelled; yes you could be right… although don’t get it; think it tastes horrible myself :D.

        • Andrew says:

          25 Oct25 October 08:52

          And all that Nicolas Feuillatte going spare from a lack of BA flights

        • Heathrow Flyer says:

          25 Oct25 October 10:38

          I enjoy a glass of champagne as much as the next person, however I agree it’s overpriced.

          The price is largely a consequence of the restriction in supply (has to be grown/produced in the Champagne DOC) coupled with the marketing and global desire to ‘pop open a bottle of Champagne’ to celebrate.

          You’re paying a lot for this, more than the actual wine is worth.

        • Nick_C says:

          25 Oct25 October 11:08

          Although I like Champagne, I think it’s terribly overpriced, and I’ve sampled a fair few bottles that retail at over £100. I’m just as happy with a good Cava or an Australian.

        • Lady London says:

          25 Oct25 October 16:16

          They can maybe sell off the Nicolas F as paint thinner?

  • MattB says:

    25 Oct25 October 09:33

    Laurent Perrier Cuvee Rose is £37.50 in the Sainsbury’s 25% off 6 bottles deal. Bought a few for the wife as we should have been in the Concorde lounge this weekend.

  • Erico1875 says:

    25 Oct25 October 19:10

    Aldi’s have a decent bottle at just over a tenner

• Joe N says:

  25 Oct25 October 07:12

  I have the £50 back on £250 spend at Hilton on my Amex, and my partner has it on his additional card too. If we split the bill at checkout to trigger both offers, are Amex likely to get annoyed about this? I remember with shop small there were reports they got annoyed when someone split one bill across multiple cards, but am not sure if this is different (supplemental card vs all in the same name, and I think these offers are funded by Hilton whereas shop small is funded by Amex?)

  • Anna says:

    25 Oct25 October 07:16

    It will be fine – spending £500 across 2 cards is not the same as paying £50 across 5!

    • Polly says:

      25 Oct25 October 07:24

      I spent a nice afternoon going around our local fav eateries Happily buying £30 gift tokens, supps etc being used. Often showing 3 different x £10 on some accounts. Not a peep from Amex.. enjoying those meals now this month and next..to repeat in Dec if we have SS. Don’t think Amex really care. Our Cook shop was the only one who complained.

  • Reeferman says:

    25 Oct25 October 08:25

    I did this with an SLH hotel booking. Checked out last weekend and split the bill between my Amex and my partner’s supplementary card. We both received the £100 credit a few days later (although there was no notification of the offer being used at the time).

  • Harry T says:

    25 Oct25 October 09:43

    I split a recent Marriott bill across three cards at checkout and they didn’t bat an eyelid. Amex won’t care either.

    • Anna says:

      25 Oct25 October 10:12

      I can’t go anywhere to spend my offers. My next 2 bookings (which are looking less and less likely to happen) are both IC’s and I didn’t get that one!

  • Chris Heyes says:

    25 Oct25 October 11:31

    Joe N no problem, i used 3 of my (5) cards for £50 back on £250 spend
    all three paid out already (two of them for next year, but that’s another story lol) offer should end Dec 20.
    but pays out at date hotel takes payment, i just ring hotel and say i’m helping their cash flow at these difficult times would they mind taking payment now.
    used 5 cards for Donald Russell meat offer £10 off £40 spend
    picked delivery times from last week up to 22nd Dec.
    that was a good deal combined with a tv offer £52 of mixed steaks for £29.99 just made each of the 5 orders up to £40.40

    • Joe N says:

      25 Oct25 October 21:28

      Brilliant, thanks everyone

• Anna says:

  25 Oct25 October 07:20

  Tempted by the current 12000 MR points offer on Amex gold, I’ve made a referral and the other person has been accepted (and my 12000 points have posted within 24 hours!). What is the chance of the current hotel offers appearing on the new card? Friend might want to book a couple of weekends away before the end of the year.

  • Polly says:

    25 Oct25 October 07:28

    We have nobody left to refer! Sadly. Nice offer tho.
    Very likely they will appear. They showed up on one of our new BA supps last week.

  • roberto says:

    25 Oct25 October 07:31

    Anna , What 12000MR point offer? Can you pls advise as I am not seeing it…

    • Lee says:

      25 Oct25 October 07:42

      It’s targeted offer.

      • Andrew says:

        25 Oct25 October 08:10

        If you have platinum card it’s always 12,000 to refer a gold card

    • Anna says:

      25 Oct25 October 07:45

      Lo siento Roberto! It seems to be targeted. Some people even have 18000 avios for referring from BAPP at the moment, which I don’t have. You need to check all your Amex accounts as they are popping up randomly just now.

• EvilDoctorK says:

  25 Oct25 October 07:24

  For Meta from the IC Athens .. The pool is open 10-5 confirmed ( though not yet tried it!) .. Details of hotel operations here https://sway.office.com/yud0m4UO2wgDFkdo?ref=Link&loc=play

  • meta says:

    25 Oct25 October 07:32

    Oh great. I’m glad. Grand Hyatt had 2 hours extra opening hours till 7pm and that’s the best time usually as there is almost no one at the pool. Enjoy your time in Athens!

    • Marcin says:

      25 Oct25 October 09:12

      Fingers crossed will enjoy it in 2 weeks.

      Have you seen any people on the airport pulled over for the test? Apparently those poor smocks have to isolate and it’s all random who will be chosen.

      • EvilDoctorK says:

        25 Oct25 October 09:32

        Remember to fill in your PLF form for Greece .. After you do then they will email you the form with QR code .. If the QR code starts with a 7 apparently you will get tested .. we weren’t and didn’t see any sign of testing

        If you do get tested there’s nothing in particular you need to do can just leave the airport as normal, unless they subsequently contacted you if it was positive when you’d need to isolate

        • Rob says:

          25 Oct25 October 09:37

          We were ushered through yesterday without being picked for a test. Not sure what they base it on – assuming you have not left the UK in the past 14 days the ONLY possibly factors are home address and how expensive your hotel is. Those spending more may get leeway.

        • Olly says:

          25 Oct25 October 10:25

          We went to Rhodes for a week the week before last having gone in September. The first time the PLF QR number started with a 4 and we were waived through. This time it started with a 7 and I got swabbed. The only thing that changed was the adjoining local authority area had spiked in the 4.5 weeks between trips. QRs starting with 2 or 4 will get waived through, 7 and 9 will get swabbed.

        • The real John says:

          25 Oct25 October 11:22

          Interesting, is that a general rule or just what happened on that day?

          Need to do an Aegean mileage run to retain status, very unlikely that I would test positive given the only place i go is Sainsburys once a week at the quietest times, but don’t want to take any risk.

          So if that’s the rule I could just change the flight date if I get a QR code with 7 or 9 and try again….

    • EvilDoctorK says:

      25 Oct25 October 09:28

      The IC pool is also fairly chilly ( not that that’s stopping the kids) .. it’s behind the building rather than on the roof .. not a bad little pool and very quiet .. Might be warmer in the afternoon after a day of sun on it

      • meta says:

        25 Oct25 October 14:33

        Mini review! Grand Hyatt Athens rooftop pool is heated, so that was a big plus!
        And great to enjoy in the evening with Acropolis view and sunset. In general, breakfast was ok. Large queue for breakfast on our last day, so went downstairs for a la carte. Normal breakfast is buffet, but they plate it for you. Coffee is brought to the table. A la carte breakfast was slight disappointment, but greek coiffe was great if one prefers that. They brought us eggs benedict without the ham and when we mentioned it they brought us some parma ham on the side. My partner and I ordered some greek yoghurt, but it was supermarket one. I guess due to covid. They also don’t have much cocktail selection for the same reason. I’d suggest eating dinner elsewhere as the choice is limited and mainly international. There was one greek option, but it was frozen shrimps. Menus are printed on A4 paper and single use. We had 90 euros credit included with the rate, but this can’t be spent on food in the main restaurant only in the lobby bar until 4:45pm, so not good for dinner. We ended up using it for drinks only. After first night we only ate breakfast at the hotel. We got upgraded to a junior suite which overlooked closed courtyard pool. Avoid rooms with Acropolis view unless you don’t mind noise from 10-track highway.

        In terms of getting pulled for covid test. I was 50/50 certain that they will pick us because we went to Athens first then Crete (potential to spread to several places), but they just looked at the code (starting with 4) and waived us through.

  • Peter K says:

    25 Oct25 October 09:01

    Oh no, my evil Mr Hyde equivalent is using my phone to write on HfP!

• Chelseafi says:

  25 Oct25 October 08:19

  I’m booking BA Hol in 2 bookings one for myself, OH and one for our 2 adults sons, they don’t know yet if they want to go so I can always cancel their trip and get my deposit back as voucher. Question can I use the voucher for future trip for myself OH as I paid deposit or does it have to be trip in sons name? Thanks

  • Lammy52 says:

    25 Oct25 October 08:52

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/07/28/british-airways-future-travel-voucher/

• Dominic says:

  25 Oct25 October 08:44

  OT but notice I have another £100 of £750 cumulative spend at Dell on my Gold (personal) amex. Valid until 31/01.

  I did use the offer when it came around approx 5 months ago.

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