The HfP chat thread – Thursday 5th November

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• Michael C says:

  5 Nov5 November 11:36

  Had a CP Kensington reservation for late Nov. Not heard from them yet, but just found this on their website:

  Following the latest Government guidelines, from 5 November until 2 December (inclusive) Crowne Plaza London Kensington will be open for essential business travel only and offer limited hotel services.
  All leisure reservations will be cancelled.

  • Anna says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:18

    How are they going to determine if your stay is for leisure, just interested?

    • Michael C says:

      5 Nov5 November 12:24

      I wondered that! They just said “It’s still on – do you want to cancel?”, so I guess leaving it up to the guests?

    • Simon Barlow says:

      5 Nov5 November 13:09

      They can’t I guess. But the guest will know and should do the right thing.

  • Michael C says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:18

    (rang & they cancelled no probs, even though my special offer conditions were 1-night deposit)

    • Anna says:

      5 Nov5 November 12:43

      Glad it worked out!

• Emja says:

  5 Nov5 November 11:38

  Downgraded Amex Preferred Rewards Gold last month. Also hold BAPP, can I downgrade that as well to avoid annual fee? I won’t be spending near anywhere near 10k for 241.

  • Rob says:

    5 Nov5 November 13:01

    Yes

• Tracy says:

  5 Nov5 November 11:48

  OMG I am so slow to notice this, but what is happening with bendy payments to ernie via ihg, I have been charged interest arghh and only noticed today….this an on going thing now? Any way to get the interest charge reversed?

  • rams1981 says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:11

    are you curve metal?

  • Anna says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:16

    They charge interest for various cash-like transactions these days – I would just suck it up this time, not draw attention to it and pay it off straight away in future!

  • Travel Strong says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:34

    Where are you seeing you have been charged interest (exactly)?

    The ‘Estimated Interest’ on the monthly statement is NOT a charge, but an estimate of how much you would be charged if you do not pay off in full each month – same as any other credit card.

    Sounds off to me. I have never been charged any interest for bendy/ernie/ihg, including this month.

    Every time this comes up there’s always something else going on … like a revolutionary transaction.

    • Ghosty says:

      5 Nov5 November 12:45

      Someone said a few weeks back they had been charged when Beardy went on Holiday. My statement was a few days ago and no charge.

    • Aston100 says:

      5 Nov5 November 13:39

      This.
      I was charged interest by Creation due to poor (insufficient) timing between fully repaying a Sandy Bondy purchase and giving some money to the Revolutionaries.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:54

    No charge here

  • Tracy says:

    5 Nov5 November 13:46

    I am not with it today, just checked my statement again, looks like they didn’t take my dd so I’ve been charged interest. Nowt to do with anything else thankfully. I’ve been paying off early for years so not even sure my dd is still active. Can I argue this?

    • Peter K says:

      5 Nov5 November 14:00

      Not really. If you look back through emails there is likely one saying the DD was cancelled after 13 months of not being used (had one myself) so you wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. One to chalk up to experience.

      • Tracy says:

        5 Nov5 November 16:52

        £220 of experience is a bit hard to swallow……

        • dezbez says:

          5 Nov5 November 18:39

          Not sure about creation but some companies will refund as a matter of goodwill if it’s your first ‘offence’. Not guaranteed & no obligation on them, but you can only ask.

  • Jan says:

    5 Nov5 November 14:45

    Does anyone know if Barclays charges interest on payments to Ernie via bendy (non metal)? I received a charge previously which put me off using it. But now I am thinking it may have been my own fault, as I didn’t pay it off straight away and waited for the DD to come out (which incidentally was never a problem before). Is this the case?

    Is this also the case with revolutionary? If I were to pay it off immediately, would I avoid the charge, again using Barclays to top up.

    Thanks for the help!

    • Rahaney says:

      5 Nov5 November 17:35

      Barclays have never liked Curve for me…

    • John says:

      6 Nov6 November 05:13

      Hilton card blue curve no interest on anything, I don’t use it for revs

• Tical says:

  5 Nov5 November 11:49

  It has been mentioned many times so I though it is interesting to provide an update – BA cancelled flight to SOF in July and refused re-routing so bought alternative tickets for cash. Still not heard back from BA Amex credit card regarding S75 so also filed MCOL, which BA has come back as intending to defend – now they have 28 days to do so. Is this fairly common? I was under the impression that once MCOL is filed (in a reasonably clear case) BA settle

  • Lady London says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:09

    Yes but BA quite likely will “settle on the courtroom steps” ie late day before

• AJA says:

  5 Nov5 November 12:25

  I read late yesterday in the Guardian that Do&Co will make over 1,000 of its Heathrow workforce redundant rather than put them on furlough. Aim is to only have 500 staff. Sad but not sure what the option is given that the food offering on board BA has been so miserable and now another 4 weeks of lockdown.

  • marcw says:

    5 Nov5 November 12:28

    As a consequence of 747 leaving the BA fleet, the BA’s long haul production has decreased significantly – for good. There are no replacement aircraft, so BA won’t need as many meals anytime soon, even if tomorrow they activate 100% of their available fleet.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      5 Nov5 November 12:55

      That’s not true. There will be replacements just as there were going to be anyway. But it won’t be where it was until 2024.

      • marcw says:

        5 Nov5 November 13:01

        If 2024 is anytime soon for you, then yes. But for me 3-4 years from now is not anytime soon.
        Anyway, there’s no guarantee though that in 2024 the size of BA’s fleet is going to be = 2019. More BA planes could leave the fleet anytime.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          5 Nov5 November 13:13

          Doesn’t explain why 1500+ staff will become 500 in the medium term.

  • Lady London says:

    5 Nov5 November 20:49

    Furlough technically just finished end of October so perhaps Do&Co just didnt think it worth it. Furlough now extended for November as well but that’s only just happened so too late. Redundancy takes time for companies to organise. Perhaps the staff were on furlough but being made redundant as furlough ends.

    Same as IR35 – which seems to be halving contract opportunities in my market regardless of covid – was delayed for a year earlier this year at the last minute. But too late as many medium to large companies had already made a blanket decision to force all contracts via umbrella or PAYE (when most contracts in market truthfully would not come under IR35 by their nature) or to outsource the work instead ie often using labour abroad due to fear of hassle from HMG. So too late – the work has gone.

    HMG has at least learnt from British Airways’s treatment of their staff and the successor scheme to furlough does not allow an employer to give notice of redundancy to staff i
    whilst taking HMG support for them.

    • Rob says:

      5 Nov5 November 21:14

      But these are the sort of jobs that furlough shouldn’t be used on. Those jobs won’t magically come back in March. The workers need to find something new. Paying them £2,500 per month of taxpayers money is a waste, since they would be fired the moment it ended, and it is a waste for the staff too who should be doing something more productive to build themselves a future.

      • Lady London says:

        5 Nov5 November 22:43

        Agree Rob and that’s why they are going.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Nov5 November 22:41

      *Oops update. Rishi just extended furlough to end March. He took back the previously offered bonus to employers who retain furloughed to end Januaru though – was 1k per job retained.

      TBH I think this extension was unwise.The economy is in enough trouble already. I simply dont get the magic money tree idea of QE to buy back gilts. It just feels like somewhere between thinking the UK has alchemists and the tale of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. I think we should take the pain now but I am not a New Economist.

• Mark says:

  5 Nov5 November 12:59

  Is there any way to purchase a Waitrose gift card online? Or only in store to trigger the Amex £10 off?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Nov5 November 13:08

    Only instore or via delivery of groceries as the payment is processed instore

    • Harry T says:

      5 Nov5 November 13:16

      TG is correct. Don’t purchase online, as a different system takes the payment.

      • Harry T says:

        5 Nov5 November 13:16

        *don’t purchase online from the official gift card page

• Paul says:

  5 Nov5 November 13:01

  Quick data point.

  Used the Harrods offer from Amex online on Tuesday and received items earlier today. This offer was sent to me by post and never appeared on my offers on line. I dont think I have ever spent money in Harrods before

  Payment and refund of £100 made today. Excellent offer.

  • Lady London says:

    5 Nov5 November 20:52

    This is why

    • Lady London says:

      5 Nov5 November 20:56

      …why I advised anyone with a Plat to purchase something returnable from Harrods yesterday as I expect the offer to apply to any UK Plat whether someone sees it or not. Returnable just in case. The exceptio being anyone who’s not getting offers, not able to refer etc., indicating some kind of problem with the account.

• Sukes says:

  5 Nov5 November 13:09

  The crown prosecution service’s legal guidance on the new England ‘lockdown’ law is available at https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/coronavirus-national-restrictions-movement-gatherings-and-businesses-effective-5. I’m posting because it basically is a layman’s rewrite of the legislation so might prove useful to those wanting to check compliance of their situation.

  • Anna says:

    5 Nov5 November 13:56

    I like the bit at the end where they are pains to point out that just because a government minister tells you something, it doesn’t mean it’s the law!

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