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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 10th December

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We have decided to run this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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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 (383)

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

  • ash says:
    10 Dec10 December 09:59

    Hi ladies & gents, any idea with monese if you can still top up at paypoint without being charged? I know the simple plan charges any idea about the pay for plans? Thanks

  • Phil says:
    10 Dec10 December 10:13

    IHG Free Night Vouchers – I’m looking for some advise, thoughts and data points.

    (a) I have a IHG Premium CC Free Night Voucher, earned in 2019, awarded in Jan-20 and extended to Aug-21 currently unused.

    (b) I have earned a further IHG Premium CC Free Night Voucher in 2020, which is due to be awarded in Jan-21.

    (c) I am intending to renew Ambassador early, complete a mattress run in January and earn a separate Free Night Voucher in Jan-21.

    I understand that there have been issues with IHG Premium CC Free Night Vouchers earned in 2020 landing into IHG accounts. What I am interested to get some feedback on is,

    – Do we think having an existing Free Night Voucher (a) residing in the account increases or decreases the propensity for their to be confusion or issues in my subsequent vouchers (b) and (c) landing. Or is IHG/Creation technology so unpredictable that it’s unlikely to have any bearing on the issue.

    Apologies, I have quite a lot of time on my hands at the moment and I’ve become this obsessed by tracking all my points and miles!!!

    • Anna says:
      10 Dec10 December 10:26

      You’re not the only one! We’ve had free night certificates land no problem in our 2 accounts in July and October this year. It seems to be a complete mystery why some people are getting them and some not. I also got the bonus Ambassador free night certificate for joining a couple of days after completing the qualifying stay. Don’t forget that one is worth max 40k points and has to be used by April 30th, so won’t necessarily be helpful if you want to combine it and use your credit card night for somewhere more expensive at a later date!

      • Phil says:
        10 Dec10 December 10:37

        @Anna – Thanks for pointing out the terms of the early renewal, I had clicked through to the terms on my mobile and hadn’t spotted those limitations. Did it on the PC just now and spotted them clearly. I’ll not be renewing early then.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    10 Dec10 December 10:18

    Jet2 cancelled a flight from EDI-Fuerteventura last month. Flight booked 48 hours before departure (in an attempt to make sure it would operate) and accom booked immediately after. Flight cancelled 12 hours later (36 hours before flight due to “government regulations”) and so lost deposit on accom.

    Jet2 not in any Alternative Disputre Resolution scheme – such as CEDR.

    Only way forward is small claims court? Jet2 just say Covid.

    (They flew that day to Tenerife from Glasgow and Ryanair flew to FUE from EDI the following day!)

    • Anna says:
      10 Dec10 December 10:28

      I can’t see how Jet2 would be liable for your accommodation if it wasn’t a package holiday – this is probably an issue for your insurance. Sorry if I’ve misread.

      • ChrisC says:
        10 Dec10 December 10:50

        Indeed. They are not liable for any consequential loses such as accommodation or car hire expenses so that’s down to your travel insurance.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:
        10 Dec10 December 10:52

        Hi Anna,

        I meant: I wouldn’t bother claiming under EU261 for a last-minute cancellation if it had not been for me suffering consequential losses.

        I understand there are Covid difficulties, but I know Jet2 pilots who are watching afternoon telly at the moment and their aircraft are parked all over Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports.

        A cancellation a few hours beforehand because the rostered crew had Covid issues is OK in my book, and I would have taken the consequential losses on the chin.

        But a cancellation 36 hours before – rather than two weeks before – shows they couldn’t be bothered trying to roster crews and aircraft, or just wanted to save their money on a poorly loaded flight. So they want the customer to suffer losses instead.

        • Anna says:
          10 Dec10 December 11:10

          I don’t know if your accommodation deposit would fall under duty of care.

          • Colin MacKinnon says:
            10 Dec10 December 11:28

            I’m just thing of a 261 claim – while Covid was originally an exceptional circumstance, I briefed some have challenged this successfully nine months on?

          • Colin MacKinnon says:
            10 Dec10 December 11:28

            I’m just thing of a 261 claim – while Covid was originally an exceptional circumstance, I believe some have challenged this successfully nine months on?

          • ChrisC says:
            10 Dec10 December 11:43

            No it wouldn’t fall under duty of care.

          • Anna says:
            10 Dec10 December 11:51

            I’m not sure what you would be claiming for then?!

        • Jonathan says:
          10 Dec10 December 11:50

          I’m afraid you’re wasting your time pursuing this (& I say that as someone who believes in fighting for your rights). Covid is widely agreed to be an exceptional circumstance & until the EU or UK government come out & say it no longer is you’ve got no chance of convincing a district judge otherwise.

          We might be 9 months down the line but the situation is so fluid that airlines could quite reasonably argue that they are forced into last minute cancellations by issues such as changing quarantine, entry or testing requirements at either end over which they have no control or foresight. The fact that another airline is running on the same route is irrelevant.

          It’s travel insurance or bust on this one.

        • Lady London says:
          10 Dec10 December 12:20

          Hi @Colin done you a comprehensive reply with a possible solution but I accidentally used the volde-word c@shback when I meant chargeback so you will have to wait till someone like Rhys moderates it and allows it to be seen.

        • Lady London says:
          10 Dec10 December 12:23

          moneysavingexpert is a good source for this aspect of s75

        • Charlieface says:
          10 Dec10 December 13:22

          Crew getting Covid is not exceptional IMHO. Especially when flying from a base they should have expected staff illness. This has been done in court already (illness in general, not necessarily Covid).

  • Chrism20 says:
    10 Dec10 December 10:20

    Following on from my post last week about the IC Edinburgh closing until January my patience is running out with the nonsense I am getting from the hotel regarding moving the BOGOF reservation to the Kimpton.

    The more back and forth there is the more I am convinced they have damn well known that hotel was never going to open.

    They are proposing to move the reservation to the Kimpton – at the IC rate. The IC rate included breakfast and lounge whilst they are proposing to provide an amenity (without advising what it is), a plate of something from the kitchen and in lieu of the lounge and breakfast a £15 raid the bar credit. The Kimpton rate when booking was £91 at the buy now pay later rate and was that until yesterday whilst the IC was £220 on the BOGOF rate.

    This is IMO a substantial downgrade.

    My BOGOF expires on Jan 1st and given that half the options in the U.K. are closed until mid January at the earliest the proposed two month extension on it by IHG is pointless. I’ve tried to use it numerous times this year and it’s simply been impossible.

    • Phil says:
      10 Dec10 December 10:30

      It is possible that they had assumed that Edinburgh would drop from Scottish T3 –> T2 this Tuesday. That would have permitted tourist visitors to Edinburgh, in which case they could have justified keeping the IC and Kimpton open. Unfortunately they decided to keep Edinburgh in T3 (probably until January at least). With just essential business visitors permitted, they’ve probably decided to keep the IC shut.

      • Chrism20 says:
        10 Dec10 December 10:36

        They called me last week to tell me that the hotel was closed until January so I don’t think it’s anything linked to Krankie and her tiers. Had it been Tuesday I’d have thought the same but they decided it wasn’t opening before all this.

    • Anna says:
      10 Dec10 December 10:34

      What is the rate if you just make an new Ambassador booking at the Kimpton (or the Kimpton Blythswood if you can get to Glasgow)? Some of the rates are terrible at the moment for Ambassador bookings but you would be paying over the odds keeping the booking at the IC rate. It might just be a case of cutting your losses on this one, IHG seem to be consistently a nightmare to deal with on this kind of thing. I had to forego our points stay at The George earlier this month but managed to negotiate a very good deal for March 21 when I’m planning to use one of our Ambassador free nights – effectively triple room upgarde to a suite for £40 per night on top of the Ambassador rate.

      • Chrism20 says:
        10 Dec10 December 10:43

        Glasgow was £220 on the bogof when I looked on Saturday. We only booked the IC in the end due to having had everything else cancelled.

        If the vouchers a write off it’s a write off. It’s more what they are proposing that’s angering me more tbh.

        • Anna says:
          10 Dec10 December 11:12

          Is your 2 month extension until Jan 1st or 2 months beyond that?

          • Chrism20 says:
            10 Dec10 December 11:40

            It’s from Jan 1st. I’ve told them not to bother extending it as at the rate it’s going I’ll be surprised if the closures aren’t extended further and they don’t actually reopen until the furlough comes to an end.

          • Anna says:
            10 Dec10 December 11:53

            Even if you have to remain in the UK you have the possibility of using it in Edinburgh x2, Glasgow, London x 3 and Manchester. Don’t forget as well at Kimpton you can use it any day of the week, not just weekends.

          • Anna says:
            10 Dec10 December 12:19

            You could probably also get a good deal on an upgrade beyond what you’re entitled to as Ambassador. IC O2 lets you book a junior suite with lounge access (or equivalent) which they will then upgrade to a one bed suite for free due to your Ambassador status.

      • Lady London says:
        10 Dec10 December 12:33

        Exactly. If you can put up with the lower standard offering at the Kimpton and still travelling that date then buy it for cash.

        At the same tell the IC the Kimpton is not acceptable and insist that they move your night without cost to you to another date that you name next year ( might as well try for a peak date first). They can claim from IHG whatever they would have got from IHG had they honoured the booked night meanwhile.

        Tell them the proposed downgrade to the Kimpton in itself is not acceptable let alone the inferior package they are trying to fob you off with and it’s shoddy and the least they can do is as above.

        • Chrism20 says:
          10 Dec10 December 18:04

          I’ve managed now to get it extended by six months but it has been one hell of a challenge so hopefully come the Spring I will be able to use it somewhere a little warmer as well.

          Still waiting on someone addressing the IC/Kimpton nonsense so will provide an update when I hear back on that one.

          One thing I noticed whilst looking at IC dates for around Easter was that the AMB Bogof page says the Kimpton are only available until the end of the year although they do appear to be bookable at the BOGOF rate into the new year so it looks like they have extended that.

  • Grant says:
    10 Dec10 December 10:21

    Has anyone been offered a MR bonus by Amex when calling to cancel their Gold card recently? Wife’s 10k annual bonus just landed so its time to cancel. I’d normally do it via chat but wondering if its worth coaching her through a call.

    • Phil says:
      10 Dec10 December 10:31

      Wife cancelled two weeks ago, no offer. I cancelled my BAPP a couple of months ago, no offer on that either.

      • TomD says:
        10 Dec10 December 11:04

        They offered me 1 extra Avios for every £ spent for 3 months on BAPP. Will cancel after that as well.

    • The Other Nick says:
      10 Dec10 December 13:53

      Received 10k MR pts on the phone

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      10 Dec10 December 16:11

      Yeh they do do it, just ignore all the sales stuff about what the card offers. Just be like I know all this, im still thinking about cancelling.

      You might struggle as you’ve just paid the yearly fee, its a mysterious algorithm the service agent has to click on to offer you something. Normally atleast 5k points or triple points for 3 months. Anything extra is really good

    • James H says:
      10 Dec10 December 23:08

      Coaching the wife through a call? Jesus… just drag her back to your cave when you’re done.

  • YDZ says:
    10 Dec10 December 10:26

    Shall I be worried about booking flights in Jan from the UK to Rest of Europe? FT article here: https://www.ft.com/content/43a5b078-9102-4972-b5a8-b52a0081fb94
    “Most Britons will be barred from visiting EU countries from January 1 when pandemic safety rules that allow free travel within the bloc stop applying to the UK.”
    “The end of the Brexit transition period means that the UK will be subject to a system that only allows non-essential travel from a handful of non-EU countries with low coronavirus infection rates, the European Commission said.”

    • Anna says:
      10 Dec10 December 11:13

      2 separate threads on here about this!

    • marcw says:
      10 Dec10 December 11:31

      Unless you have direct relatives, Uk residents will be banned to enter the European Union.
      Fom BBC: “Separately, the European Commission has confirmed reports that a ban on travel to the EU because of Covid-19 levels, applied to non-EU countries, will be extended to UK visitors from 1 January.”

      • ChrisC says:
        10 Dec10 December 11:50

        Individual countries can disapply that though and let anyone they like in.

        The EU commission wanted freedom of movement within schengen to remain but individual countries still closed their borders due to Covid. EU didn’t like it but there was nothing they could do.

        • Anna says:
          10 Dec10 December 11:55

          Indeed, unless the EU offers compensation for loss of tourism revenue, there will be at least one or two who break ranks and welcome the £.

        • Lady London says:
          10 Dec10 December 12:36

          we’re not in Schengen, not even when we were in the EU.

          • ChrisC says:
            10 Dec10 December 13:07

            That’s correct but once you were admitted to Schengen by say flying to Amsterdam or Malaga or Athens you could move around the zone with no internal border checks.

            The point I was making is that despite Schengen and the EU each EU nation still has control of their own borders and can apply and dissapply restrictions as they see fit.

  • Chris says:
    10 Dec10 December 10:43

    Apologies if already mentioned (so hard to keep track when they drop into the middle of the list) but a £100 off £400 Regent, Intercontinental, Kimpton appeared on my Plat at some point this week

    • TGLoyalty says:
      10 Dec10 December 11:10

      When’s it valid til?

      • Phil says:
        10 Dec10 December 11:41

        Landed in my account today, valid until 31/12/20… combined with a bunch of cards getting the Shop Small today, I think they’ve discovered a “blockage”.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          10 Dec10 December 13:36

          Looks like it as that was an offer released a few months back.

          • Chris says:
            10 Dec10 December 16:56

            yeah possible. I don’t seem to have any of the problems people complain about here and i’ve got a regular flow of offers ~60 at the moment but this didn’t appear with all the other hotels offers over the last few months

            Weird, but it is a very strict deadline, now i look at it

  • Billy Nicholson says:
    10 Dec10 December 11:03

    Well, after frantically saving Avios (with HfPs help) over the past 3 years and sitting up until 1am to grab the only 2 seats within 25s, BA have today cancelled my Club World flight to Sydney in March 2021. Of course I saw it coming but still a kick in the teeth given how hard these Reward Seats are to get :-(. Just have to try again for another date – probably 2022.

    • Anna says:
      10 Dec10 December 11:14

      Don’t forget you are still entitled to re-routing under EU261. It’s very unlikely that you’ll be able to travel to Oz in March but you could ask for your trip to be moved to a later date and hope Oz reopens.

      • meta says:
        10 Dec10 December 11:43

        Yes, I would wait till March 2021 to book for March 2022!

        • Anna says:
          10 Dec10 December 11:56

          Good call, @meta! I hope Billy is going to come back and look at these comments and hasn’t accepted a refund or voucher yet!

        • Jonathan says:
          10 Dec10 December 11:58

          That will be beyond the ticket validity (365 days from booking) so you’ll have a fight on your hands. Varying opinions here on likelihood of success although I’d say more chance claiming a lengthy postponement is reasonable for somewhere like Australia than a weekend break in Paris. Would be a tossup on whether the adjudicator or judge agreed with that though.

          • whiskerxx says:
            10 Dec10 December 12:06

            Not disputing the validity of what you are saying but what if you have booked/ticketed 355 days in advance and there are no other flights available in the 10 day window between 355 and 365?

          • Anna says:
            10 Dec10 December 12:21

            I would say its absolutely reasonable to ask for re-routing to a time when Australia is actually accepting visitors. (Given what the EU has just announced, it might be easier to re-route to Oz than to Paris soon 😯)

          • Rob says:
            10 Dec10 December 12:23

            Australian immigration laws are not BA’s problem.

          • Charlieface says:
            10 Dec10 December 13:26

            @Rob
            No, but a cancellation IS their problem

        • Lady London says:
          10 Dec10 December 12:45

          they will say they cant reroute you on a date more than 355 dsys after you bought your ticket (this is due to maximum validity of ticket restrictions)

          IMV this is rubbish it just means the airline has to write a new ticket as they would not be able to
          endorse your original ticket with a date that far ahead. Airlines are perfectly capable of issuing new tickets and can even document their link back to old tickets if conjunction tickets no longer exist. So I would view that objection as poppycock and an admin-based attempt by the airline to deny you your rights when they’re in charge of that admin so go for it.

          • meta says:
            10 Dec10 December 17:00

            I agree with @Lady London. It’s purely down to inefficiency of airlines’ ticketing operations.

            I will tell you what happened with my Singapore Airlines ticket that I had in April this year. The flight was cancelled. I wanted to fly a two weeks later the following year. The agent said that I can book now for these dates I want the following year. The way it would work is that they would reserve the seats as soon as they are released by the system and send me an email to call them to finalise it.

            I wasn’t ready to do that just yet at the time. That was also not a problem for SQ. The ticket and taxes was were put on hold.They just said that when I am ready to rebook to give them a call for any date I want. Absolutely any time in the future. The agent called a month later to say that seats were released, but I was just not ready yet. I then called in August to rebook. I received the same ticket number, the same PNR, the same seats. All done within 5 minutes on the call and new dates showed after a few hours. They also put a note that I can change dates again as many times as I want free of charge. I know who I will be flying to Far East in the future despite the hard expiry of their miles.

            When there is a will, there is a way!

      • BuildTheWall says:
        10 Dec10 December 12:30

        Does EU261 apply after brexit?

        • ChrisC says:
          10 Dec10 December 12:42

          Yes as it’s been UK law since 2005 via. Statutory Instrument and will remain UK law until it is either repealed or replaced.

    • Anna says:
      10 Dec10 December 11:22

      So DON’T take a voucher or refund until you’ve considered all the options!

      • Billy Nicholson says:
        10 Dec10 December 12:40

        I havent accepted anything yet. I will call them in the near future. What I really want is the same flight in 2022.

        • Lady London says:
          10 Dec10 December 12:48

          call them 2 or 3 days before your cancelled flight.

          • Billy Nicholson says:
            10 Dec10 December 12:57

            Thanks everyone I think I will do that as by then we will also know more about the restrictions.

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