Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Saturday 19th December

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

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.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page.  If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here.  This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

Category

General

Comments (372)

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

  • Anna says:
    19 Dec19 December 13:14

    What happens if the stay then gets cancelled? I’m just wondering whether to try this for my IC stay in Feb with the £100 off offer, but London may still be in Tier 3 by the sound of things today!

  • S says:
    19 Dec19 December 13:27

    Does anyone know how Virgin handles MCC 6012? Thanks

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      19 Dec19 December 15:01

      As a regular purchase.

      • S says:
        19 Dec19 December 15:42

        Thank you, just a heads up for anyone trying to use Beardy to pay off Brighton via Bendy. My transactions were always declining, and I never raised it with them. I had a different transaction decline recently, so I called them up to resolve this (and now everything is unblocked)

  • KBuffett says:
    19 Dec19 December 13:30

    It’s nice that they let you pay for incidentals in advance too.

    • meta says:
      19 Dec19 December 14:32

      I’ve done similar for Hyatt in Hayes. Payments taken now for stay in second half of January (flex booking). On the other hand, Hyatt at Heathrow refused to take a payment in advance for a stay on 6 January. They said they can take advance payment only 24 hours before.

      • meta says:
        19 Dec19 December 14:34

        @Anna if the booking is on a refundable rate, I cannot see how they can not refund you or offer you to move the dates.

        • MarkH says:
          19 Dec19 December 15:28

          That’s exactly my thinking. If London is still tier 3 in Feb, which it very well may be, then I’ll simply move the stay to a later date.

          This is why I reconfirmed with them that the booking conditions remained the same as per the original booking.

  • James Vickers says:
    19 Dec19 December 14:15

    Not sure how accurate this is but seeing various reports that the US may lift the travel ban from as early as next week with states deciding quarantine rules. Would be interested to see what impact this would have on aviation..

    • Rob says:
      19 Dec19 December 14:27

      The quarantine rule won’t change, and there may well be quarantine on arrival in the US too.

  • Nick says:
    19 Dec19 December 14:23

    We were looking to stay at Hyatt Great Scot yard, but, like many others due to event conspiring against us we have been unable to do so.
    I was looking to use Emyr’s booking benefits and the £100 on £300 on my BAPP
    What the consensus on booking and paying now for a stay in the future, thus benefitting from the £100 discount. I would not want to ‘upset’ Emyr by asking if its thought a no go?

    • Rob says:
      19 Dec19 December 14:27

      Emyr can only do ‘pay on departure’ I think.

    • Lady London says:
      19 Dec19 December 23:38

      I suggest you book with Emyr then call the hotel to prepay voluntarily. or talk to hotel first about would they be ok with this.

      You dont have many businesd days now before end of year so sorting quickly would be important

  • memesweeper says:
    19 Dec19 December 14:24

    Boris making a statement at 4pm. Get ready for Christmas to be cancelled, and tier 3 deepened/expanded. 🙁

    • BuildTheWall says:
      19 Dec19 December 14:30

      @Carolin64723572
      15m
      BREAKING: Christmas cancelled for London, South East and East, as areas moved into new Tier 4 with “stay at home” message by law. Christmas bubbles only allowed for Tiers 1 – 3 on Xmas Day with “stay local message”. International travel not advised. Latest plan. @cazjwheeler

  • Travel Strong says:
    19 Dec19 December 15:35

    First whatabuy BA box was so good, I bought another.

    2nd one just arrived …… Had food left inside, many years ago, judging from extremely developed ecosystem that is festering behind the door 😂. Time to boil up some water.

    • Crafty says:
      19 Dec19 December 15:37

      Weren’t the products supposed to be new?

      • Travel Strong says:
        19 Dec19 December 16:00

        The bedding and kitchenware are new unused. The boxes are mostly used to some degree but I got lucky with my first one which can only have been used briefly if at all.

    • Bazza says:
      19 Dec19 December 15:39

      What do you use them for?

      • Travel Strong says:
        19 Dec19 December 16:04

        I’ll just be using them as heart warming storage areas in my workshop. I have the trays which go inside too, so theres 6 shelves in a box, with a pretty good sealing door to keep the contents in good condition.

      • Andrew says:
        19 Dec19 December 16:05

        Cupboard. The Club World black trays (5 for £10) slide in as shelves. You can also buy the drawers for £10 on eBay.

  • BJ says:
    19 Dec19 December 15:41

    US Senate on Boeing, FAA and recertification of 737 Max:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55372499

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

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Learn more on our About page.

VAA

Latest comments

Latest Forum Posts

Get 30,000 points bonus with American Express Platinum

Amex Gold

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.3 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

Get 20,000 bonus points and your first year free with American Express Gold

Amex Gold