The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 25th November

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• Neil says:

  25 Nov25 November 08:32

  Is anyone else a little surprised but the relative lack of Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals that are live at the moment or are people expecting these deals to become live this weekend?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    25 Nov25 November 08:36

    I thought a lot of them had started earlier this year? They also seem better this year. Obviously more will come on Friday but all good so far.

  • Rob says:

    25 Nov25 November 08:47

    There is nothing amazing we know of.

    • Anna says:

      25 Nov25 November 09:06

      HAve to disagree there, I’ve got a free dessert from Iceland 😂

  • Andrew says:

    25 Nov25 November 08:57

    Yes seems like everything has been on promotion or sale for months anyway, so BF this year is just more of the same. Maybe the UK has finally got over BF – 10 years ago no one had heard of it here, Amazon introduced it to us a few years ago, caught on for while, but year on year the frenzy about it died down and hopefully this is the end of it.

    • Tom says:

      25 Nov25 November 09:15

      Frenzy may have died down but we will still do 5-6x or normal sales on Black Friday. I think although the deals aren’t as good as they used to be it will for many signal the point when you start buying Christmas gifts.

  • AJA says:

    25 Nov25 November 09:32

    What sort of deals are you expecting? And how big a discount? I’ve seen most places are offering 20% discounts which isn’t brilliant but it’s better than paying full price. Plus most retailers seem to be giving double Avios via the BA shopping site.

  • Optimus Prime says:

    25 Nov25 November 10:46

    It depends on what you’re looking for. I work in IT and I’ve received a lot of emails about books and training with big discounts (US suppliers mainly)

• Super Secret Stuff says:

  25 Nov25 November 08:45

  I need to buy some books for Christmas, does anyone know what rate waterstones tracks at on the BA portal? It says “from 2 points/£, was from 1 point/£”, pretty vauge. From experience, from means more than and up to is obviously the cap.

  TaCo Bell tracks at 7.99%, Obviously will do a price compare to Amazon before I order

  • Genghis says:

    25 Nov25 November 09:44

    I buy quite a few books and Blackwell’s pricing often beats Amazon (with free delivery)

    • Rob says:

      25 Nov25 November 10:08

      Waterstones also beats Amazon, and often has availability where Amazon does not, especially from smaller publishers.

      Basically, Amazon has now done what it always planned to do. It has world-beating delivery infrastructure in place and no longer needs to compete on price. It competes on being able to deliver exceptionally quickly to virtually anywhere you want, inc lockers, post offices, local stores etc.

      For me, this is fine. I will actually pay more for a non-letterbox item from Amazon knowing that I can pick it up from an Amazon Locker around the corner. The ‘saving’ from buying elsewhere and then having to mess around taking a trip to the sorting office or sorting our redelivery with Yodel etc, should I not be in, simply isn’t worth it.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        25 Nov25 November 10:22

        Yes I am aware they don’t bother competing on price anymore but always worth a check! Do you know the answer to my original query?

      • memesweeper says:

        25 Nov25 November 13:00

        Argos, and ebay + Argos, have a similar offering

      • Lady London says:

        25 Nov25 November 13:08

        It’s got that bad that I always have to plan against early delivery from Amazon. They’ve caused me severe difficulty in the past by delivering early to a locker then removing the item as I’d planned to collect it within their stated delivery window in between 2 trips.

        Trying to explain to Amazon that early delivery is completely unwanted, will cause a problem and no, does not impress me is something they just don’t get.

      • the_real_a says:

        25 Nov25 November 15:42

        In my area all local lockers are full these days. The convenience stores accepting parcels are now sending back / refusing parcels from amazon causing massive problems, and 2 week delays as the refunds are processed. Absolute farce.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      25 Nov25 November 10:24

      @Genghis Thank you, appreciate it. I have never heard of them. Are they on TaCo Bell or BA avios store?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        25 Nov25 November 10:37

        Don’t forget T C B can be swapped for avios (though I’d take a gift card with a % uplift)

      • Genghis says:

        25 Nov25 November 10:57

        Have a look. They’re relatively big. Their flagship shore in Oxford is (was when I lived there) great.

      • Sundar says:

        25 Nov25 November 12:05

        Ha ha, this is the fun about the codes 🙂 Was thinking for a minute where did Taco Bell come into picture…till these come in the same sentence 🙂

    • Harry T says:

      25 Nov25 November 11:13

      Blackwells is particularly strong for academic books. Used to buy textbooks etc from the one in Newcastle when I was at Uni.

    • Lyn says:

      25 Nov25 November 17:46

      Thank you very much for this Genghis!

      I’d never heard of them and it seems to solve a problem for me.

      I don’t buy books from Amazon on principle, and have just found out that they also own AbeBooks. Waterstones aren’t good at international deliveries and Hatchards has to wait until I can get to London.

• Simon says:

  25 Nov25 November 08:47

  I potentially have to pay 50k stamp duty soon. I can see points opportunities paying with a Tesco debit card (one point per £8 I think) and with my Curve card. Does anybody who has experience of paying stamp duty this way have any advice? Should I break the payment into smaller chunks?

  • Holam says:

    25 Nov25 November 08:49

    I suspect Curve + a good points earning underlying card would be the way to go

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      25 Nov25 November 09:27

      I agree, IHG or Virgin might be the best. I think IHG tends to have a higher credit limit?

      Just from what people have said.

      • Holam says:

        25 Nov25 November 09:34

        My Virgin limit is over 4x that of my IHG limit, but that may be because I applied for IHG after I already have quite a substantial combined limit across all my cards

        • Rahaney says:

          25 Nov25 November 09:51

          Same here

  • The real John says:

    25 Nov25 November 08:57

    I don’t think you will get points from Tesco for tax

    • Rob says:

      25 Nov25 November 09:00

      I think you do. HMRC is not a ‘financial institution’.

      • The real John says:

        25 Nov25 November 13:12

        I didn’t get any points on Tesco debit when I ran out of 3V cards in 2014.

    • Holam says:

      25 Nov25 November 09:33

      don’t you pay the stamp duty to the solicitors (who then pass it on) anyway, rather than direct to HMRC?

      • Number9 says:

        25 Nov25 November 09:54

        That’s what I’ve always done.

      • Jonathan says:

        25 Nov25 November 12:24

        You can pay direct, I did last year & generated a decent stash of Virgin & IHG.

• Sam G says:

  25 Nov25 November 09:32

  Anyone found anything interesting for QR SE Asia in their Black Friday sale?

  I can see 1675gbp pp Birmingham-Bangkok in the summer which makes an ex-EU out of Oslo probably not worth it

  Qatar tickets are currently flexible with no fare difference in the same (R) fare class. I’d also question if Birmingham will be back for the summer so might be able to rebook from Heathrow in QS.

  Downside is no lounge and no seat selection anymore on basic fares and the upcharge to include this is a lot !

  • Sam G says:

    25 Nov25 November 09:37

    964ea Italy-Singapore on Lufthansa or Swiss looking much more interesting!

  • Aston100 says:

    25 Nov25 November 09:51

    QR flights ex BHX seem to be back from end of March.

  • Michael C says:

    25 Nov25 November 11:00

    Sam, Swiss was GBP890 AMS-BKK recently, for summer dates.

• Ja says:

  25 Nov25 November 09:34

  Over the last couple of weeks somebody wrote about their IHG card via bendy being rejected. Message was ‘close to limit’ despite being well within their limit. Did they ever get to the bottom of it. It happened to me first thing this morning. Thanks

  • Genghis says:

    25 Nov25 November 09:47

    Curve have been playing around with MCC codes, it seems. Likely your transaction will now have a rolling £700pw cap, spread into say £300 day 1, £200 day 2, £200 day 4.

    • Ja says:

      25 Nov25 November 09:55

      Thanks Genghis

      • Brighton Belle says:

        25 Nov25 November 12:38

        I’ve had multiple declines using bendy today. Something has changed to the extent that a metal bendy might be pointless, -pun intended. Lots of limit left on all cards so it seems bendy has lost some flexibility and function.

    • xcalx says:

      25 Nov25 November 10:25

      When did this come in I have done high £4k transfers everyday last week and £2K on Monday this week using the usual suspects.

      • Genghis says:

        25 Nov25 November 10:58

        Last Thursday

        • xcalx says:

          25 Nov25 November 14:29

          Thanks will try again next week when curve resets.

  • Asim says:

    25 Nov25 November 20:09

    I also tried a £100 Amex payment and got declined for reaching my limit, though had plenty left. Have messaged them but no reply yet

  • Asim says:

    25 Nov25 November 20:10

    I also tried a £100 Amex payment and got declined for reaching my limit, though had plenty left. Have messaged them but no reply yet.

• Tom says:

  25 Nov25 November 09:40

  Does anyone know what Cathay are like at releasing more seats closer to the departure? I am looking for a flight from Hong Kong to Bali. Cathay have flights when i need them but nothing available for redemption, is it likely they will release more (Flight not until June)? TIA.

  • Lady London says:

    25 Nov25 November 13:13

    If you’re booking with avios, BA used to only let available award aeats on Cathay show to you about two weeks before the date IIRC

    • Lady London says:

      25 Nov25 November 14:54

      Flyertalk is a good place to check on these things

• Gringo says:

  25 Nov25 November 09:47

  A bit late to the game but a suggestion for improving the new website: the option for notifications sent via email when someone replies to your comment/reply. That way you don’t need to keep checking back and you can thank someone who’s answered your q.

  • MattB says:

    25 Nov25 November 10:01

    +1

  • Rob says:

    25 Nov25 November 10:04

    The system doesn’t work like that unfortunately. The default system we have, but disable, notifies you about EVERY reply to the thread which means over 300 emails on busy threads. Once we gravitate to a proper forum this issue will go away anyway.

• AJA says:

  25 Nov25 November 09:55

  Trying again as my comment seems to have disappeared, can you earn both Avios and Nectar points at Argos via the BA shopping portal? Never noticed it there before. Is it new?

  • 747_Brat says:

    25 Nov25 November 10:29

    Yes, I can confirm that you can double dip and earn both Avios & Nectar. Have done it myself on numerous occasions.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      25 Nov25 November 10:39

      @747 I agree, done it myself too

    • AJA says:

      25 Nov25 November 12:12

      Thanks 747 and SSS 🙂 I have missed out on a fair number of Avios as I never thought to check the BA portal for Argos. And thanks Andrew for the offer of the referral code I don’t need it as I am already with Airtime and for the reminder of the extra 2% return.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    25 Nov25 November 10:40

    Yes nectar is earned directly via your number, you can go through any shopping portal and you can even triple dip with airtime using a non Amex as mentioned above.

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