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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 12th November

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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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Comments (201)

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

  • Antony D'Emanuele says:
    12 Nov12 November 04:17

    As we will shortly no longer be able to collect Avios through the Tesco Mastercard, what is our best option for a Mastercard/Visa Avios earning card (apart from HSBC)? Are we likely to see a new Avios earning card on the market??

  • Mo says:
    12 Nov12 November 05:48

    Was just looking through tier benefits for Hilton and saw that at Waldorf hotels you no longer get breakfast as Gold or Diamond.

    https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/explore/benefits/benefits-and-terms.html

    Is this a recent change, or did I just miss the news when it came out?

  • Anna says:
    12 Nov12 November 06:04

    In better HH news – my missing Barclaycard points from last month have appeared!

  • Anna says:
    12 Nov12 November 06:09

    Some more reliable good news (hopefully) – there will be an extra bank holiday in June 2022 (as long as the Queen is still with us, I assume). Reported dates are Thursday, June 2nd to Sunday June 4th instead of the late May bank holiday weekend. It sounds a long time off but I think some of us are actually planning that far ahead!

    • Michael C says:
      12 Nov12 November 06:28

      …and I bet that coincides with school half-term hols! Was wondering why next year’s schedule hadn’t been published yet…
      Meanwhile, Charles is there, drumming his fingers…!!

      • Andrew says:
        12 Nov12 November 06:38

        But next year’s schedule would be June 2021?

        • Anna says:
          12 Nov12 November 06:45

          Yes – there’s a problem if your school hasn’t announced next year’s holiday dates yet!

      • Anna says:
        12 Nov12 November 06:44

        I’m pretty sure they don’t consult with the schools! The May/June half term normally includes the later bank holiday anyway. Our school holiday schedule has been available to July 2022 for ages now, I think some schools are just much better at it than others. My teenager will be in the middle of his GCSEs at that point so we probably won’t be going anywhere!

        • Michael C says:
          12 Nov12 November 06:52

          ;o) this is what happens in a house of lecturers & schoolchild: the “year” is always academic! Def. don’t consult, but the school holds back to “minimise” those extra days off.

          Xmas hols start in 4 weeks, when we are NOT flying with Avios to northern Finland, grrr…..

          Wonder if GCSEs will be on by then, Anna?!

          • Anna says:
            12 Nov12 November 07:27

            Lol, 2022 is our freedom date, OH retires at Easter so as soon as the GCSEs are over (or whatever they have that year!) we are off somewhere for a month, on off-peak avios tickets for the first time!! That’s the plan, anyway 🤦‍♀️

      • Lady London says:
        12 Nov12 November 07:04

        not for long

    • Bill says:
      12 Nov12 November 08:48

      One extra day? Whoooppee

    • Chris Heyes says:
      12 Nov12 November 09:37

      That’s good news Anna I’m planning 2022 Hols to Dubrovnik already that’s one place in Europe never been (so near as well)
      Only problem i can see is daughter n 2 grand kids want to come lol
      Money isn’t the problem but their places aren’t ours & means they will want term time and we would want at least 3 weeks them 2 weeks Gr such is life lol (I’ve thought of packing them off home after 2 weeks then all is happy, partner says we can’t lol)
      don’t get me wrong love the grand kids “but”
      June grand kids n kids in Blackburn if your correct or better still get them to come Bognor as we will be going down/up Blackburn next year

      • Anna says:
        12 Nov12 November 10:05

        Bognor would be a welcome change of scenery just now!

        • Chris Heyes says:
          12 Nov12 November 11:26

          Bognor is great for us Anna, you would love it or hate it lol
          Kids (age around 40ish) come down but say it’s toooo quiet
          grand kids love it, loads of parks only one small high street which we love, kids hate, sit outside having a Costa (Newlook & Morrisons that’s about it unless you count boots n superdrug lol beach round corner from our flat we don’t even get snow (1 or 2 days only) not far from Arundel Castle, Wetlands ect
          Only drawback is there is a Butlins but totally opposite town to us lol

    • Ronald Jeremy says:
      12 Nov12 November 10:41

      Working on the assumption that you haven’t got anything else to do then yes.

    • paul says:
      12 Nov12 November 12:35

      Well if she isn’t we will still get some extra time off!!

      Then there’s 99 year old Phil the Greek!!

      The Coronation will be quick too when the time does come given how old Charlie is. More time off

      • ChrisC says:
        12 Nov12 November 13:22

        You don’t need a coronation to be King or Queen.

        That’s why we still have Edward VIII who King even though he was never crowned.

  • WaynedP says:
    12 Nov12 November 07:07

    South Africa will reopen international travel to all countries subject to health and safety regulations, and a clearance certificate. (www.businesstech.co.za)

    No more list of high-risk countries whose citizens are banned from leisure travel.

    Requirement for negative PCR test no more than 72 hours before flight departure remains in place.

    • 747_Brat says:
      12 Nov12 November 09:36

      Thanks mate for sharing this.
      I was waiting to hear this news for a while. Hope this remains in place until March, when we are supposed to fly to SA.

  • Sam says:
    12 Nov12 November 09:25

    Due to fly with BA to Barcelona on 21st, booked a back up flight with Vueling for the 22nd, which was cancelled and I moved to 23rd.

    Now the 23rd and after is obviously no good I’m completely reliant on BA not cancelling in the next 11 days.

    I’m at least hopeful that people rushing to Spain before the new rules come into force provides enough demand to keep that flight going.

    • Anna says:
      12 Nov12 November 10:08

      I’m not sure they realise what the impact of this is going to be. There will be a significant number of people booked to go to the Costa del Sol and Canaries over the winter and the logistics and cost of testing multiple people is going to put a lot of them off.

    • Lady London says:
      12 Nov12 November 18:41

      It’s not impossible to get to Barcelona by train.

      You could also take a look and see if driiveme has a vehicle needing moving down there. Eurotunnel not that expensive and some ferries still running. Or main line train from France Paris, Toulouse, maybe other flyable towns on main rail link

  • Pete says:
    12 Nov12 November 10:23

    Random question re the Sainsbury’s Double-Up promotion – does anyone have any experience with how returns work? The website says that their usual returns policy applies, but what does that mean in practice? Do you get Nectar points back / store credit?

  • David Lawton says:
    12 Nov12 November 10:39

    Any update as to when we shall see what we should have seen on Monday at 11:30 ?

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

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