The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 3rd November

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• Harry T says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:31

  FYI I’m off to Tenerife – expect it to close its borders in about two weeks 😂

  • Anna says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:56

    I was wondering if you would just miss lockdown! Have a great time and post us a few trip reports so we can at least share the joy.

    • Harry T says:

      3 Nov3 November 18:00

      Jet2 flight was grisly due to a row of blokes who enjoyed never wearing a mask and making homophobic comments about a flight attendant. Never come so close to losing my rag with a stranger!

      However, the lovely man at Hertz upgraded me to a BMW X1 from a Yaris (I’m President’s Circle due to an old Shoestring wheeze but I never know what to expect). And the hotel have upgraded me to a huge suite from the basic room. There’s basically no one here and the sun is shining 😊

  • marcw says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:11

    Enjoy your trip in Tenerife! Hope my neighbours will treat you well!

    • meta says:

      3 Nov3 November 10:34

      @Harry T Enjoy!

    • Harry T says:

      3 Nov3 November 17:56

      Thanks!

    • Harry T says:

      3 Nov3 November 18:01

      Thanks, looks like I just beat the UK lockdown and the covid testing implementation!

      • Polly says:

        4 Nov4 November 00:24

        Has nobody warned that island of your imminent arrival Harry? The chaos to follow when you depart? Ha. Have a great break, sounds like you need it…enjoy.
        Just sad that our flight went to KUL without us at the weekend..shame, always next year we hope.

• H says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:41

  Apologies if this has been discussed before but is there a way / trick to be connected to the Brighton Amex call centre directly (instead of their offshore call centres)?

  • Sloth says:

    3 Nov3 November 08:51

    Just ask to be transferred

    • Lady London says:

      3 Nov3 November 09:23

      do so as soon as you’re connected without going into what you need. Someone on here reported offshore did not want to transfer them saying they could do the job perfectly well.Obviously call in hours Brighton is likely to be open ideally in core hours in case some staff are working short hours.

    • Aston100 says:

      3 Nov3 November 11:57

      On the 3 or 4 occasions I’ve asked to be transferred, the offshore team have refused and insisted they can help me themselves.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:09

    From observation and personal experience, 9 till 12 and 2 till 4 tend to be the best times to get thru to Brighton. No idea why but people have had more success at those times.

• Lee says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:42

  Got an offer for Spend £5 anywhere, get 1000 Membership Reward Points on my gold card, seems really good compare to other MR offers seen mentioned.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:11

    And I thought the Rimowa one was generous! (If their is any way to actually use it 🙁 )

    • Anna says:

      3 Nov3 November 09:59

      Yes it’s rather perverse sending an offer for luggage 2 days before we go back into lockdown!

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        3 Nov3 November 10:27

        I hadn’t thought about that! Hahaha!

  • Genghis says:

    3 Nov3 November 09:37

    My wife only got 700 MR for £700 spend.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      3 Nov3 November 10:02

      Better than mine, spend £1,900, get 1,000 MR points. Not at all realistic! I suspect it is so high because I put a new TV at Curry’s thru it last month…

      • 747_Brat says:

        3 Nov3 November 13:02

        I think you are right @Super Secret Stuff

        I put in a lot of spending over the last month on my Amex Gold, specially during the BA Avios sale. Maybe, that’s the reason for our high spending target!

  • 747_Brat says:

    3 Nov3 November 12:59

    I got the “Spend £1600, get 800 MR points” offer, which amounts to a whopping 0.5% return!

• Ali M says:

  3 Nov3 November 08:59

  Booked for end of Nov using lastminute. They emailed to say yesterday that due to Government changes – can cancel flight and whatever the airline refunds, they’ll pass on in two months.
  Q1 : It is a leisure trip thats booked and don’t want to waste my monies by cancelling. Do I wait to see what the airline does and risk losing all?Would the airlines still fly empty planes?
  Q2 : Unlikely that travel insurance will cover? Although tickets were booked when could travel and not since changes announced.Because can ask them and take next steps if they do cover

  • ChrisC says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:01

    The basic rule is if the airline cancels then you can get a refund. If you booked direct with the airline that will be a full refund. Book via a travel agents and they could very well charge you an admin fee.

    If you cancel then you get whatever it is their are offering – voucher or just the government taxes and airport fees refunded

    But that depends which airline is involved and youu omited that rather vital piece of information as well as the route.

    • Ali M says:

      3 Nov3 November 10:16

      Thanks Chris. Its through Lastminute, airline is Qatar. Flying from Manchester to Lahore (Pakistan)

      • Aston100 says:

        3 Nov3 November 12:41

        Never use online travel agents in these uncertain times.
        Good luck with your refund, should you choose that route.

        • Ali M says:

          3 Nov3 November 14:25

          Thank you.
          so best to leave it and not cancel?and wait for airline to cancel?we are happy to take the flight if they let us…

      • Baji Nahid says:

        4 Nov4 November 02:12

        Ali, Pakistan is open so should be fine to leave

• Lev441 says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:22

  Spend £10,200 get 2,600 MR points – haven’t spent that in the last 6 months let alone doing it in one month..!!

  No sign of the Harrods offer on my card either even though I got it in the post….

  • mef13 says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:58

    Spend £1600 get 800 points for me.
    You don’t need to save the Harrods offer separately, it’s automatically applied.

  • Polly says:

    4 Nov4 November 00:21

    Need their heads examined. Some of these offers are ridiculous

• Rachel R says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:30

  I have reward flights booked on BA to Bangkok for 1 December. They appear to have canceled all November flights to Bangkok but currently still running December. Any insight into when they might cancel. Would rather avoid the cancellation fee if possible so would rather let them cancel. Thanks

  • Anna says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:33

    I would wait until much nearer the time. You’ve been massively unlucky with this travel date but you have until 24 hours before travel to get your avios & cash back (minus the £35 pp fee), and I think it’s highly likely that it will get cancelled eventually.

    • Rachel R says:

      3 Nov3 November 14:55

      Yes, I know. The most annoying thing was that we originally planned to travel on 30 November (booked a year ago) but there was no availability then, so took 1 December instead. Now this! Oh well…

    • Rachel R says:

      3 Nov3 November 14:56

      Thanks, BTW. I was thinking I’d leave it till nearer the time. Just playing a game now to see who blinks first.

      • Anna says:

        3 Nov3 November 16:04

        Can you move it to December 4th? (Depending on whether we’re allowed out by then!)

        • Rachel R says:

          3 Nov3 November 19:12

          Thailand is shut sadly. So don’t think that will help.

• Freddy says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:34

  I haven’t got any offers all except one on my business gold – back to business bundle, get £20 credit when spending at O2 business, currys PC world and Google. Not bad when im in the free year!

• BP says:

  3 Nov3 November 09:51

  I’ve a flight booked for 2 adults and a lap infant. If that flight gets cancelled and I get a FTV, does anyone know how this will be handled once the infant requires their own seat? I assume 2 adult seats will be made available on any future flight but what about the infant if they can no longer legally sit on a lap?

  • ChrisC says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:10

    If you get an FTV then that just contains what you paid for the tickets which could be a combination of cash, points and vouchers.

    So I think you would have to pay any additional costs and that would include a seat for the infant (remembering that they get a huge discount on the adult fare) just as if the cost of the flights had increased for your new trip

    Remember thought hat if the flight is cancelled then you can have a full refund.

  • Simon says:

    3 Nov3 November 10:14

    The FTV is effectively monetary so you can spend it how you wish. You don’t have to go for the same fares again. Why not take cash out of interest?

    • Genghis says:

      3 Nov3 November 14:43

      Exactly. Take the cash.

      The FTV is not the same as cash. The terms note,

      “Does the booking have to be made in your name?

      The voucher allows you to make a future booking in the name of the person on the original ticket. If you had multiple bookings each person will receive their own voucher to use. The voucher is non-transferable.

      For flight + hotel and flight + car packages, one voucher per booking will be issued. The vouchers are non-transferable but we recognise that some of the original customers may no longer be able to travel – so we ask that the new booking contains at least one of the travellers from the original booking.”

      https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/latest-information#faqvoucher

      However, no idea whether they’re actually being applied.

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