The HfP chat thread – Saturday 21st November

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• meta says:

  21 Nov21 November 08:41

  Aegan offering 5000 award miles for signing up (and 1000 tier). That’s enough for one-way economy domestic flight in Greece or 2000 miles convert to 500 Accor points.

  • FFoxSake says:

    21 Nov21 November 11:11

    thanks meta!

  • Vit says:

    21 Nov21 November 13:11

    Thanks Meta. Just signed up that should be enough just to transfer out my orphan ALL points to IB!

• Ant says:

  21 Nov21 November 08:49

  My Xmas trip to Malta keeps on being a nightmare.a few weeks ago I noticed BA were not showing the flights anymore so assume they are cancelled. But I cannot do anything until they send me a cancellation email. Will just get a straight refund from them later.

  In the meantime I booked new tickets with Ryanair. Now the outbound has been cancelled. The only option left is Airmalta. Ryanair are refusing to reroute me. So I am going to buy the tickets myself. Pls can someone remind me of the process to force Ryanair to pay up for these new tickets?

  • Anna says:

    21 Nov21 November 08:57

    I used CEDR to make BA pay delay compo they tried to refuse last year – their website is really easy to use and they were very helpful.
    https://www.cedr.com/

    • ChrisC says:

      21 Nov21 November 09:43

      Ryanair is not part of CEDR.

      There are other arbitration services and they may partcipate in one of those.

      If not the only option then would be to take them to Money Claim On LIne.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        21 Nov21 November 12:22

        Or small claims court…

• Reney says:

  21 Nov21 November 08:57

  Morning all, Curve question. I am flying very close to my monthly limit. I have tried twice to put through a transaction that I can see I have enough limit to cover but it was rejected both times for being over the limit (paying off a cc). Any ideas why? I have mostly been doing transactions that curve would tell me off if I ask for a limit increase so reluctant to ask them what is wrong.

  • The Urbanite says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:24

    Does the underlying card definitely have enough credit and no security blocks on it?

  • memesweeper says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:35

    Not experienced this myself, despite getting close to the limit with my spend last month.

  • Rahaney says:

    21 Nov21 November 11:30

    Likely your underlying card, several have transaction limits depending on what you’re trying to put through esp when paying off seagulls

    • Reney says:

      21 Nov21 November 11:54

      No lots of limit on the underlying card, the ‘warning’ is pls contact the curve support team.

      • Peter K says:

        21 Nov21 November 13:30

        I’ve had this message for 2 reasons before. One was in store at a retailer that rejects curve (other credit/debit cards accepted though).
        The other time was when the underlying card rejected a particular financial “retailer” type.

      • Harrier25 says:

        21 Nov21 November 14:50

        Good luck getting any sense out of the Curve Support Team in a timely manner! 😡

        • Reney says:

          21 Nov21 November 17:39

          Harrier25 – I’m not even going to try!

      • Joseph Heenan says:

        22 Nov22 November 10:56

        Some cards (creation) have low limits (~£300/day, £700/week) that affect only certain mcc.

  • the_real_a says:

    21 Nov21 November 15:48

    Are you sure you haven’t hit your 30 day or 365 day limits? You can have space in your daily limit but be up against the rolling restrictions. Certain underlying cards have unpublished limits on psudo-cash like transactions. If you have a failed transaction (going back in time crashed) the transaction was authorised, and the available limit was reduces but no payment was made and had to wait 5 days for the pending auth to drop off)

    • Reney says:

      21 Nov21 November 17:42

      the_real_a it might be what you said, i have hit it particularly hard this month. But there is definitely limit on my curve card because that’s what the app says. I have never hit unpublished limit on the underlying card to know what the error message looks like.

      • the_real_a says:

        21 Nov21 November 21:57

        30 day and 365 day limits are all visible on the app if you scroll down BTW. Easy to miss though.

• Nick G says:

  21 Nov21 November 09:04

  Has anyone seen the Hilton Syon Park charges £20/per adult for the pool every use and now says adults only. Was thinking of a night away before Xmas, however wanting to take our 7 year old son. Now we can’t take him in the pool has put us off. Shame as we really enjoyed several stays at the hotel.

  • KBuffett says:

    21 Nov21 November 09:06

    This could be a sign of this of things come as properties try and make up for lost revenue

    • Nick G says:

      21 Nov21 November 09:13

      I assume so. Maybe it’s COVID related losses.

      • Michael C says:

        21 Nov21 November 09:38

        Nick, I know it’s the total opposite of lovely countryside, but we’ve just booked Hilton Bankside for a “pool trip” with our 7-yr old: v decent rates for now/Jan.

  • Mark says:

    21 Nov21 November 09:20

    Go somewhere else where they have no charge.
    They will eventually work out that this policy is daft once people stop booking.

  • Terri says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:18

    I was also looking to book Syon Park for a leisure break. The pool restrictions meant this was no longer an attractive option with an 11 year old who loves swimming. Now heading to Hilton Newbury which is nearer to home and third the price even if the location is more motorway service station.

  • John says:

    21 Nov21 November 13:18

    There’s no basis to charge if it’s hotel owned and operated for HH Silver+.

• Cat says:

  21 Nov21 November 09:19

  Hi Meta, if you’re reading the comments today, I emailed the Constance Lemuria yesterday to check whether they still issue day passes to non-guests in order to access Anse Georgette. They confirmed that they do, and asked when I would be visiting, so that they could go ahead and book it in (I am actually hoping to visit in August, so I’m not just wasting their time!).

  Sorry to be pedantic, I just do think it’s important that people know that, as long as they book in advance they can see Anse Georgette too, they don’t have to stay at this one guest house, or the Constance Lemuria itself.

  • meta says:

    21 Nov21 November 09:29

    Oh they might have changed the policy again or it might have been the guards who turned away people. Now that I am thinking, with the pass that the villa gave us we didn’t have to pre-book and we could just come and go as we please. Maybe that is the sole benefit.

    • meta says:

      21 Nov21 November 09:35

      @Cat and of course there are other good places to stay and the point was not to stay in bigger hotels.

  • ankomonkey says:

    21 Nov21 November 21:07

    Do Anse Georgette or Constance Lemuria work with beardy, ERNIE, the Reverend or bendy? And, if so, do you have to go through the affronted Seagulls?

• Big Al says:

  21 Nov21 November 09:20

  Newbie Curve question. Thinking about getting the Curve Metal as I’ve got a tax bill to pay and some NS&I to buy totalling about £10k so worth getting the Metal and paying the £150 fee to avoid the 1.5% charge. Plan to put the Virgin MC as the underlying card.

  Will this work or will Virgin charge a fee? Also, can I pay my Amex bill with Curve and therefore earn Avios on the Amex spend and Virgin points from the underlying payment? Also, does Rob’s referral code still work?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:09

    I can’t help with beardy. However, Ernie is still fee free even on the free card

  • Reney says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:13

    Yes it should all be fine. I tend to back my transactions with creation instead and then pay that off directly with beardy so I get even more points

  • RH says:

    21 Nov21 November 10:51

    I have curve metal and have done HMRC payments over the last few weeks and Beardy as underlying card doesn’t add any charges.

  • Steve says:

    21 Nov21 November 13:37

    No charge on Ernie. Pay the whole amount into Ernie, withdraw to your current ac and then pay the taxman in the normal way.no need to pay for metal or the fee

    • Jonathan says:

      21 Nov21 November 16:23

      I’m still getting used to card nicknames, which card or group of cards is Ernie?

      I know seagulls and bendy

      • sam says:

        21 Nov21 November 17:33

        It’s not a card or group of cards….its an abbreviation for an investment product…(I don’t have any myself but think I am right from reading the comments for some time and trying to think of it!) I don’t think I have deciphered it incorrectly…

        • Jonathan says:

          21 Nov21 November 18:56

          Ah right

          I’m a bit unsure where the nickname came from, based on some of the comments above, it appears that with selected cc’s you can pay into your account earning rewards and spend towards an annual spend goal for the big reward.

          While I’m here, which card or card group is beardy ?

  • @mkcol says:

    21 Nov21 November 18:04

    I can only buy ERNIE when I’ve got my HH card as the linked card via Curve, it refuses to accept IHG or Virgin.

    • LST says:

      21 Nov21 November 19:47

      I got curve metal this week with an underlying WE with a significant limit, it has allowed me to pay £350.00 council tax (which I did as a trial, our council accept MasterCard anyway) but literally every other transaction I have tried (Waitrose, JL, Amazon, HMRC) has been declined. Getting very frustrated as curve CS tell me I need to spread my spending in order to raise limits – which I can only do if they actually let me buy stuff!

    • Steve says:

      21 Nov21 November 20:20

      Strange, have had zero issues with IHG behind Bendy for Ernie

• 747_Brat says:

  21 Nov21 November 09:31

  VS left me high & dry this morning!

  I am flying to DEL, and placed a bid to upgrade from Premium to Upper Class. After being told that my bid has been successful, they backtracked and put me back in Premium! They put the blame on IT as usual. Not done Virgin! 🙁

  • Lady London says:

    21 Nov21 November 13:30

    do you have a confirmation that your ticket was in Upper Class?

    If so then you have been involuntarily downgraded. There’s a scale of compensation for that, that you are entitled to regardless of Covid, if you were departing UK or Europe or departing from anywhere on a UK-based airline.

    It’s a percentage back of the ‘cost’ of your Upper Ticket. Either what you paid or value of miles to buy or you can also try for representative ticket cost either generally for that route that season or, if you know, a value approximating to the last seat sold in UC on that plane or similar.

    You claim the fixed rate percentage of that calcukated Upper Class fare (after all, this is what it wil cost you to replace your lost experience on a new ticket sometime) under involuntary downgrade provisions of EU261. keep confirmation and boarding pass as otherwise it’s harder.

    VS doubtless sold your seat for a lot more Good chance they thought you would be cheaper to pi k on. Nope. ,As BA has apparently found out in court. So claim based on the market value of your Upper Class ticket and let moneyclaimonline dot gov dot ukdecide.

    Do it quickly ask VS for compo of ( check flyertalk for rates I think the % is somewhere 30-55%), get 3 refusals or ‘no and this is final answer’ or failure after 2 months then go to moneyclaimonline.

    VS is entitled to make a commerial decision taking all factors into account. That includes your compensation. Cheap to do and likely to be resolved by post. Dont sit around on this, yoi can do it now and should.

    • Lady London says:

      21 Nov21 November 13:57

      PS just to be clear you will actually have to fly in the lower class to ‘crystallise your loss’ before you can claim. Hence keep your boarding pass.

      If it mattered to me, and if your downgrade didnt happen at the airport today, I:d think about expressing my disappontment and see if they would transfer me in UC to a flight on a nearby day. Otherwise go for compo assuming you have the evidence that you had been put in UC.

      • 747_Brat says:

        21 Nov21 November 21:27

        Thanks LL. This was very helpful.

• Rich says:

  21 Nov21 November 09:41

  Anyone got any intel on the new ‘test and release’ shorter quarantine when entering the UK? (Being reported – without much detail – here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8971963/Foreign-travel-quarantine-slashed-14-days-five.html) I’m trying to decide whether or not to delay a return from Greece. Thanks

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