The HfP chat thread – Friday 13th November

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• Fivebobbill says:

  13 Nov13 November 02:05

  Not normally one for superstition folks, but being a Friday, and one – three, good luck from here in Tenerife.
  I hope you are all well wherever in the world you are

  • Michael C says:

    13 Nov13 November 07:01

    Good news for you, FBB – in Spain, it’s TUESDAY one-three!! Have a goodie.

  • Harry T says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:47

    I’m in Tenerife too. Good luck to you too, sir!

• 747_Brat says:

  13 Nov13 November 02:38

  Data Point:
  I finally made a visit to Morrisons for the Amex offer, and purchased £1000 worth of gift cards.

  The transaction went on smoothly, and didn’t require any intervention from supervisor. I only got curious smile from the cashier, and before he could ask the reason for so many gift cards, I put the blame on Christmas! 😬

  • 747_Brat says:

    13 Nov13 November 02:45

    P.S.: This was my first visit to a Morrisons store, and since I had to do a grocery run anyway, I bought some groceries too.

    I must say I am very impressed with their products and offerings. I wish there was a store closer to where I live! 🙁

    • Andrew says:

      13 Nov13 November 06:19

      I’m looking forward to my first visit to a Morrison’s too!

    • thehornets says:

      13 Nov13 November 07:32

      Out of interest, which demoninations did you buy?

      • 747_Brat says:

        13 Nov13 November 12:17

        (1) Morrisons = £100 x 2 = £200
        (2) One4All = £100 x 3 = £300
        (3) Amazon = £100 x 5 = £500
        Total = £1000

    • Nick says:

      13 Nov13 November 10:08

      Steak pies are lovely from their bakery!

      • Lady London says:

        13 Nov13 November 13:13

        I switched recently from Waitrose as prime to Morrison’s. Got totally fed up with Waitrose refusing to send vouchers out electronically when they drop on the mat while I’m travelling so I miss out.

        I figured Waitrose prices on things I buy that cost a little more than I think they’re worth comparatively, remain where they are due to funding you guys discounts so I moved to Morrisons after 2 years or so of asking Waitrose to send electronically. So far I don’t regret it – their meat is really good and if you pick the right branch, nice choice of stuff. Plus their offers can be used electronically.

        • 747_Brat says:

          13 Nov13 November 14:40

          After my visit, I am also considering dumping my current grocers (Tesco & Sainsbury’s) for Morrisons! 😎

        • Polly says:

          13 Nov13 November 22:31

          We have stopped Tesco now as it’s a drive. Morrisons and Waitrose on the doorstep. Divide my shopping between the two. But Morrisons get more cos of the GC purchases.

• johnny_c-l says:

  13 Nov13 November 05:10

  Following on from earlier in the week when I posted about Amex slashing my credit limits by 90% after I cancelled my PRG card, they have now agreed to reinstate them. Thanks to those who replied with advice.

  • Anna says:

    13 Nov13 November 05:50

    Have they explained the reasoning for the slashing in the first place?!

    • johnny_c-l says:

      13 Nov13 November 08:30

      They just said they review all cardmembers accounts every 3 to 6 months. I dont believe this of course, I think cancelling a fee-paying card and having a couple of rarely used no-fee cards may just have prompted them to want to reduce their exposure.

      • Lady London says:

        13 Nov13 November 13:16

        It’s clear cancelling a card is one method of drawing their attention to your account and possibly causing this. I don’t believe they “review all accounts every 3-6 months” or whatever other tosh.

        A few people have reported this happening to them on here when they cancelled Plat now.

        • johnny_c-l says:

          13 Nov13 November 15:39

          Yes someone said that the other day about Plat. My Gold charge card was a downgrade from Plat so this ties in with that.

  • Harry T says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:31

    Great result, happy to hear that. Did you have to provide any information or documents?

    • johnny_c-l says:

      13 Nov13 November 15:41

      Sent them 3 months of bank statements which satisfied them.

      There was also an option to grant them access to ‘open banking’ which sounds too broad reaching for my liking so went with the bank statements.

      • AJA says:

        13 Nov13 November 16:25

        Glad you got it resolved. I agree with you about “open banking”, I’m not a fan. I’ve declined the offer from Amex too – had the message pop up when I logged in a few months ago. I don’t have a problem remembering different passwords and logging into different websites. In fact from a security point of view I feel more secure not having access to everything in one place.

• Baji Nahid says:

  13 Nov13 November 05:23

  Anyone had any experience booking with edreams? Reason being because I’ve found a very decently priced flight and happy to take the gamble paying with an Amex or other CC. Stepping against the rules of using an OTA.

  • SammyJ says:

    13 Nov13 November 06:00

    Not one I’d use myself based on reviews. Spanish based I believe, and very poorly rated for Customer service so any amendments will need to be routed through then and could be difficult. Amex chargebacks have been unreliable with companies like this as they often include dodgy practices in T&Cs. Try pricing it with Netflights, they’re the only OTA I’d still consider in the current times.

    • Louise K says:

      13 Nov13 November 09:11

      Totally agree with this.

      I’ve always seen a great price with Edreams but when actually booking/confirming the price goes up.

      Another vote for Netflights, good company.

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      13 Nov13 November 12:44

      I’ve found Trip.com good, they very promptly refunded my Cathay flights when not cancelled but when they came within Cathays book with confidence policy time window, no admin charges either

  • ChrisC says:

    13 Nov13 November 06:44

    How much are you saving over booking direct with the airline?

    • Polly says:

      13 Nov13 November 22:40

      We saved £300 pp with the ota, have to say v good at sorting the QR refund that we had to KUL now cancelled. First time we used them. But usually book direct with QR.

  • Pete says:

    13 Nov13 November 09:09

    Have you checked if the airline offers a best-price guarantee? BA and Qatar do, for example, and definitely worth doing that to avoid OTAs!

  • Nick says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:07

    Can I just say I got amazingly priced flights with Trailfinders last year and also got hotels at a knockdown price, I couldnt get anywhere near it elsewhere and believe me I tried!

  • callum says:

    13 Nov13 November 12:44

    I’ve used them at least 15 times (I don’t think they still do, but they would regularly sell Ryanair tickets cheaper than direct). I had one problem where they took too long to process a ticket which then increased in price, so they sent me an email saying I had to pay more or cancel.

    Otherwise it was perfectly fine with the usual caveat – if a problem happens then it’s hit and miss whether it will get resolved quickly or with a huge amount of frustration.

  • Lady London says:

    13 Nov13 November 13:18

    poor reviews wouldn’t touch them in the good times let alone covid when the pressures to bad behaviour by OTA’s are extreme.

• Blue Mountain says:

  13 Nov13 November 05:43

  Can someone remind me what fuel stations have paypoint where you can pay council tax via amex? I know Esso is one of them but the manager at my nearest is not playing ball anymore.
  Reply to 747_Brat: I am still going through gift cards that I bought from similar (use as many times) offer earlier in the year. On one occasion I put through over 2k through a self-checkout and it all went through fine. Invested in the Morissons gift cards on the advice given here from Harry (shoestring), so many thanks wherever you are!

  • The Original Nick says:

    13 Nov13 November 06:22

    Co-op’s? Not all though. Just check that they accept Amex first.

    • Prune says:

      13 Nov13 November 06:46

      Blue not green co-ops

      • mark2 says:

        13 Nov13 November 07:10

        All of the coops that I use for this purpose are green.

      • Blue Mountain says:

        13 Nov13 November 07:11

        Thank you both! Had no idea about blue and green co-ops. I shall give them a try.

        • Stuart says:

          13 Nov13 November 07:52

          It’s not the fact it’s blue or green, the coops are made up of different societies. It’s the regular coops and not a different society that you need to use where they accept Amex. (The wife works for the coop, the green stores are just stores that have not been refitted to the new l blue branding yet!)

        • Blue Mountain says:

          13 Nov13 November 08:06

          Can’t reply to Stewart. Thank you for that info. How do you go about distinguishing the regular coops from the different society ones?

        • Stuart says:

          13 Nov13 November 08:16

          It’s not easy to do, but if you go on the Coop website and store finder. Click on more info about the store, regular stores list in store services such as ‘pay point’ and the society stores say for example ‘Part of Scottish Midland Co-operative Society. You cannot earn or spend Co-op rewards in this store’

  • the_real_a says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:50

    Its the franchise operator, not the brand of the forecourt unfortunately.

  • Amar says:

    13 Nov13 November 11:33

    I thought there’s a fee if you pay your council tax via paypoint/brighton?

    • Charlieface says:

      13 Nov13 November 14:43

      No

  • 747_Brat says:

    13 Nov13 November 12:24

    @Blue Mountain
    Looks like it will take me a while to burn through my own gift cards. But I don’t mind stocking up on GCs if I am getting 18% rebate (+MR points) on them, like in this case!

    May I please check if we can use Morissons gift cards to buy non-Morissons gift cards in future, or can they be only used for groceries?
    TIA

    • mark2 says:

      13 Nov13 November 13:27

      yes and fuel.
      You get More points twice.

      • 747_Brat says:

        13 Nov13 November 14:43

        Lovely, thanks Mark 🙂

    • Blue Mountain says:

      13 Nov13 November 21:50

      @747_Brat
      I mainly used my Morissons gift cards to buy other retailers’ gift cards so a definite yes. Probably only used about 10% of them for actual grocery shopping and fuel at Morissons. If you do use them in Morissons you get the bonus of double More points. Enjoy spending them!

      • 747_Brat says:

        13 Nov13 November 22:17

        Cheers. Thanks @Blue Mountain

  • Charlieface says:

    13 Nov13 November 14:44

    All Esso, some Texaco, some Shell’s, some Best-One’s, Coop, a lot of newsagents will do it also

• mark2 says:

  13 Nov13 November 06:38

  Yesterday I received the 10% statement credit for a large Morrison’s gift card purchase on 8th so four days. I did not receive an email.

  • Harry T says:

    13 Nov13 November 10:35

    Last time the offers were around, the emails were hit and miss, but the offer always credited for me.

• Tom1 says:

  13 Nov13 November 07:04

  Not sure it this has been covered before, but I have a new spend target offer for December on my Amex plat charge.

  It’s not great… but others may be better

  Spend £1,500 for 800 bonus MR points.

  • Optimus Prime says:

    13 Nov13 November 09:32

    I got spend £900 for 500 bonus points…

    • Morningwoody says:

      13 Nov13 November 09:39

      I got 1000 for £1900 spend

  • Matt says:

    13 Nov13 November 09:54

    I’ve got spend £2700 get 1400 MR – probably too much for me I think.

• Anna says:

  13 Nov13 November 07:23

  Has anyone stayed at the Abu Dhabi Conrad? I’m considering blowing some HH points if our stay goes ahead at Easter. I am gold so presumably would get breakfast, but wondering whether to use extra points for a suite which would give us lounge access. The drawback is you don’t get the 5th night free on premium rooms so might not be worth it.

  • Anna says:

    13 Nov13 November 07:26

    Choices basically are: 300k points for 2 standard rooms (though I could ask if they would upgrade us to a room which sleeps 3), 266k points for a family room, or 400k points for a suite with lounge access.

  • TripRep says:

    13 Nov13 November 07:53

    Premium rooms on points is usually v poor value.

    Would you be better off aiming for an upgrade if your status allows?

    • Jonathan says:

      13 Nov13 November 08:28

      For the £330 value of the 100k points difference between standard rooms & suite I’d look at a cheap mattress run to get Diamond & guaranteed lounge access. Status challenge only needs a few (?5) day rate stays if you’ve got somewhere cheap & local to get you Diamond till March ‘22.

      • Anna says:

        13 Nov13 November 08:42

        I can’t see us having many Hilton stays next year so probably wouldn’t use Diamond benefits enough to make it worthwhile. I’m also starting to think it might not be the best idea to sit on a big stash of hotel points in the long term …

        • TripRep says:

          13 Nov13 November 09:07

          I doubt Hilton are going anywhere soon, whilst I’m not buying promo offers, I’m confident of using my stash. In fact I have 2 cash bookings this weekend when I could of easily used points.

      • Rob says:

        13 Nov13 November 09:08

        18, so 9 x day room bookings between now and 31/12.

        • Matt says:

          13 Nov13 November 09:56

          9 day room bookings get Diamond? How does that work? I thought it was 15 nights (or days)?

    • Anna says:

      13 Nov13 November 08:53

      I agree they’re generally poor, but being able to have proper space for a teenager (instead of roll away bed in the same room) plus lounge access adds hugely to the value! Also, at 88k points pn for a suite, it’s still better value than properties which fall into the 95k bracket (are some 100k now as well?) for a standard room.

      • Anna says:

        13 Nov13 November 08:56

        Actually, 88k for 3 nights and 69k for the last 2.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        13 Nov13 November 09:03

        Have you asked what the cash price for an upgrade would be? They might offer a Nor1 deal once you book the base room?

  • Rob says:

    13 Nov13 November 09:11

    It just rebranded from the Jumeirah Emirates Towers, which we reviewed if you search. Very impressive for a city hotel (esp as it has a beach) but clearly not a substitute for a beach resort.

    • Anna says:

      13 Nov13 November 10:02

      I found the review just before! There were a few very positive comments, it looks a good choice for 5 nights.

  • Alan says:

    13 Nov13 November 09:29

    stayed here about a year ago when it was jumeirah etihad towers

    Booked the cheapest room rate through FHR (£160/night) and got breakfast, an upgrade to a suite, $100 food credit, 4pm checkout. Was astonishing value.

    Cash prices look reasonable atm but I don’t know if they are still enrolled in fhr

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