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The HfP chat thread – Monday 23rd 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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General

Comments (313)

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

  • Wollhouse says:
    23 Nov23 November 10:06

    Just spoke to Amex re my new business gold having no offers, and during the call the agent confirmed that shop small would be starting in Dec. Hopefully by then my card will be getting offers!

    • S says:
      23 Nov23 November 11:42

      I was wondering whether there would be a Shop Small in December – this is good news. Can @Rob confirm?

  • Readhfpbeforebreakfast says:
    23 Nov23 November 10:21

    Is the onefinestay perk any useful? The rooms all seem pricey?

    • Will says:
      23 Nov23 November 10:24

      problem is getting a bill anywhere close to £200…. can you telephone and use multiple cards?

      • Amar says:
        23 Nov23 November 10:32

        I’ve called and you can use multiple cards although in London the minimum stay is currently 6 nights instead of 3 due to COVID. Would be useful if they updated their website with it before I spent ages finding the perfect place.

      • Readhfpbeforebreakfast says:
        23 Nov23 November 10:34

        Not sure, locations seem to be constrained too

      • Super Secret Stuff says:
        23 Nov23 November 10:59

        You can use more than one card on the phone, they appear to honour it. Problem is, £200 doesn’t cover your first night…

  • Will says:
    23 Nov23 November 10:23

    Virgin/Tesco 2000 bonus miles
    2,000 bonus Virgin Points when you sign up for auto-exchange! see Virgin points site, can’t see the promo on Tesco site. Good replacement for BA auto-convert? and a competition if you keep it active for 9 months or so

    • Rhys says:
      23 Nov23 November 10:33

      Yes, we were offered a 15 minute exclusive but the other Virgin offers were more interesting! There will be an article tomorrow 🙂

      • Will says:
        23 Nov23 November 11:01

        If you had the grandfathered 800 avios per 250 clubcard points, does this still work for a last minute manual transfer, or do you drop to 600 avios ? The Virgin auto convert is only 625 virgin points per 250 clubcard.

        • EwanG says:
          23 Nov23 November 14:53

          I’m on the grandfathered rate, have never let it auto convert (or maybe just the once). Manual transfers have always gone through at the 800 Avios per £2.50 rate for me, so I expect it should continue at that rate right up to the very end.

  • r* says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:01

    Is there likely to be any sort of BA reduced-avios black friday offers similar to the virgin one?

    I have a booking I want to make, but not sure if it would be better to wait for a few days?

  • S says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:09

    Anyone managed to get AMEX to manually add the 2 MR points per £1 Amazon offer to their cards today?

  • Tri87 says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:23

    Offers of Selfridges (£30 off £100) and Harvey Nichols (£30 off £150).

    Any ideas on best way to use these offers? I have no real use for purchases from either store. Do they sell Amazon gift cards and would these count to trigger spend? Or is there an MS route?

    Would be great to stack them and get £60 off £250.

    • KBuffett says:
      23 Nov23 November 11:44

      No

    • Rob says:
      23 Nov23 November 12:45

      Selfridges sells booze. 2 x Laurent Perrier Rose, down to £51 from £65 ….

      • Ming The Merciless says:
        23 Nov23 November 21:29

        Speaking of using offers… plat business pcworld.

        Purchased a game for £22, CEX took it off me for £24 the following day, plus the £20 statement credit!

    • AJA says:
      23 Nov23 November 14:56

      I was going to buy some perfume using this offer but the prices in Selfridges are much higher than elsewhere even with the £30 back and combining with their “up to 20% discount” CCE promo (was only 10% on the perfume I wanted) and they have low/no stock availability so I’m not buying. 🙁

  • Bill says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:27

    Hi everyone

    Has anyone had a recent BA Avios booking refund experience recently? I cancelled a 2 for 1 on the phone and got the Avios and voucher back on the call. The cash still hasn’t appeared 1 month later

    Any advice?

    Thanks

    • AJA says:
      23 Nov23 November 12:49

      I would chase BA. Was there any complication with your booking such as you made a change after initially booking it eg upgraded from WTP to Club or changed the date of one of the flights? There are reports that anything out of the ordinary is referred to back office for manual handling and that is taking weeks to resolve.

      • Bill says:
        23 Nov23 November 12:59

        Hi – yep it changed dates for one of flights. I can’t fathom why it takes them
        So long

    • Jill (Kinkell) says:
      23 Nov23 November 13:18

      Call them. Took 3 calls with Agent on the last call saying that previous agents hadn’t prioritised my refund as a Gold member. Refund within 24 hours.

  • Simon says:
    23 Nov23 November 11:37

    The Bends Datapoint:

    I’ve been successfully moving uncoiffured facial hair debt from my and my wife’s pots to my own creative account with help from my friend at the bends for months now — no real limits: £4.5K single transactions no problem. This may have come to end. Both bearded iterations suddenly being rejected by the bends, and yet: my bends’ limits are well within parameters, and my creative underlying is at zero balance (due to swift settlements). Underlying is also not being blocked — tested a legit payment and it went through no problem. I then tried a smaller amount (£250.00) from the super-uncoiffured one to the creatives via the bends: success. So, I wonder if, where for months previously there was no limit on such transfers up to my bendy £4.5k daily limit, there suddenly now is, and likely back to the usual circa £300.00 daily/£700.00 weekly? As another datapoint, the bends/creative into Ernie — fine, with no limitations beyond your own bends’ one.

    I appreciate this is mostly gibberish, and I know there’s been much chat about using/not using this kind of lingo, but f**k it, I hate Mondays like Garfield and I’ve done it anyway, so there. 🙂 Call me puerile. 🙂 And doubtless many will!

    • BP says:
      23 Nov23 November 13:13

      Maybe the tolerance threshold got triggered by so many people using this route and talking about it in public as people on here have repeatedly warned about.

    • Harold R says:
      23 Nov23 November 13:56

      Having the same problem here with creation although even £300 not working for me.

    • Bazza says:
      23 Nov23 November 14:10

      This was clearly going to come to an end sharpish! The rest will soon follow. Once the masses got into the full on AMEX churning cycle it didn’t last long…despite the some ‘knowledgeable’ people insisting AMEX were find with it!!!

      • TGLoyalty says:
        23 Nov23 November 14:35

        Amex UK were! The bosses were given targets on new sign ups and that’s what they reported they had

        That’s now changed and with it so did the bonus rules.

        Regarding limits I find they seem to come and go I don’t know if that’s by choice due to Covid or because of IT changes taking place.

    • ankomonkey says:
      23 Nov23 November 14:57

      Is Steven Segal eating his Branson Pickle? If not, he should repent his sins with The Reverend in the B90–B94 postcode locale…

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

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