The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 22nd December

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• Matty says:

  22 Dec22 December 12:46

  I stayed at the Fitz in Russell Square recently. It was very nice. I’m planning a trip to Edinburgh next year. What are the differences between the Kimpton and the IC in Edinburgh? I’m Spire elite and Ambassador.

  • Si says:

    22 Dec22 December 14:07

    I stayed in the Edinburgh Kimpton this year while on my grand tour of Scotland. The IC was closed for Covid.

    The hotel was excellent and in very very good location. Very good gym and swimming pool. Free drinks each evening in bar etc etc… I’ve never been in the Edinburgh IC but would really have to go some to even be comparable to the Kimpton. If I were to go Scotland again tomo, I would immediately book the Kimpton unless the IC really was a lot cheaper/less points

  • Rhys says:

    22 Dec22 December 15:13

    I reviewed the Kimpton last year! https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2019/12/22/review-kimpton-charlotte-square-edinburgh-hotel/

  • Peggerz says:

    22 Dec22 December 16:39

    Hi @Matty,
    I know both hotels well. Both had a lot of money spent on them in recent past. I much prefer the Kimpton. It has a ‘club’ feel about the whole place. Nice pool/gym. Aizle restaurant and Baba bistro both excellent (when open!), staff great. Is v central, pubs and resto’s only metres away in what was most desirable square to reside in Georgian times. Even N. Sturgeon is a near neighbour in her official residence……….

    • TGLoyalty says:

      22 Dec22 December 17:37

      I agree on baba’s I liked the Kimpton. I feel like the IC location isn’t so far that it should really make much difference to your choice.

      I’d probably try the IC next to contrast and compare.

  • Matty says:

    22 Dec22 December 17:01

    Thank you for all the responses. Most helpful.

• Travel Strong says:

  22 Dec22 December 13:00

  Re: “Insurance pays for everything except your claim”

  I did not travel to a country after they were added to the quarantine list. The flights were with Wizz and the flight still went.

  Earlier in the year my partner was hospitalized the day before a flight. The flights still went, so no cancelled flights in either case.

  I kept paying for Amex Platinum until I got round to claiming today – and the claims are immediately ineligible, as Wizz doesn’t take Amex (so it was not paid for on the Platinum), and the hospitalization event was paid for on my BAPP not Platinum.

  Am I right in thinking I’m at the end of the road? (and next time I should take out a better separate policy if I want to be covered for spend that cannot be charged to Amex Platinum).

  • guesswho2000 says:

    22 Dec22 December 13:02

    Try pursuing the claim anyway, I’ve had successful claims with Amex Plat where I haven’t used the card (or any Amex) at all.

  • Genghis says:

    22 Dec22 December 13:11

    As to whether specific event covered, double check the policy wording. But:
    – if you are not able to pay on Amex because not accepted, then that is usually OK
    – paying on your BAPP instead of Plat is also fine. Follow the “card” and “account” definitions through.

  • Jay says:

    22 Dec22 December 13:14

    Are Amex saying they are not eligible or is that your assumption. As #Genghis said, follow through all the terms card and account in the policy T&C’s. Assume it is a personal card not a business as business?

    • Travel Strong says:

      22 Dec22 December 13:19

      The claim closes as being ineligible after saying ‘No’ to paying on the card. I have now loaded the hospitalization related claim saying ‘Yes’ as that was paid on BAPP and submitted it.

      Will wait and see what the decision is, and then load the Wizz claim after that. Thanks all 🙂

    • Travel Strong says:

      22 Dec22 December 13:27

      Personal card yes.

      “Account” or “Card Account” means your consumer and small business cards issued by American Express in
      the UK

      “Card” means any card or other Account access device issued to a Cardmember (or a Supplementary
      Cardmember) for the purpose of accessing the Account.

      So my BAPP claim seems valid, and I’ll try the Wizz one after.

      • Jay says:

        22 Dec22 December 13:58

        Great…!! The business account doesn’t have the requirement to pay anything on the card for any of the holiday and has £0 excess so is IMHO a better policy.

• Jon says:

  22 Dec22 December 13:09

  Another data point / update to my earlier one on page 1 (apologies for posting this as a new thread, but I thought it might be sufficiently useful to others to put it as a top-level comment rather than it being lost in the previous discussion).

  Avios HAVE now agreed to reroute me onto MH (original cancelled flight was BA KUL-LHR, booked with Avios + Lloyds voucher).

  Took several calls over a couple of days and a degree of gentle persistence, but to be fair to the agents I spoke to, they were brilliant (friendly and as helpful as they could be within the constraints of their policies/instructions – which I think they said they will now update… 😉

  Long story short, they ultimately went back to their Ticketing team for a second time, then called me back a few hours later to confirm that they would do the reroute. I don’t know what changed their mind exactly – whether it was persistence, knowledge of EU261, reference to BA’s own guidelines*, or mention of a Section 75 claim being the next step – but I’m happy with the outcome.

  *https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/traveltrade/bookings-policies/policies/askba?faqid=8497

  As with my other (Avios + 241) flight it looks like the new tickets are going into I fare class. The agent did mention it was a revenue ticket, so quite possibly that’s BA’s I fare bucket, rather than MH’s.

  Hope that’s helpful for someone.

  • Kevin says:

    22 Dec22 December 13:44

    Glad to hear that you got reroute via Avios team using the Lloyd’s voucher

  • Matthew says:

    22 Dec22 December 14:50

    Well done, good result. I tried this earlier in the year and after 5 refusals I gave up! It’s bizarre how BA treat Avios.com as a TA but they are BA issued tickets. Just makes it so hard to sort when something goes wrong…

  • Nigel W says:

    22 Dec22 December 15:01

    Hi Jon,

    That is great news. I may now have to do the same thing. Avios originally refused to move me onto a journey which would allow me to arrive in Osaka. So at the moment I have a direct flight to Tokyo.

    I did send them an email this morning with my complaint. If that fails I might have to give them a call during the Christmas break.

  • Laurence Dalby says:

    22 Dec22 December 15:46

    Do you know if the cancellation rights are still valid with the change to MH? I’m in a similar position to you with an BA Avios redemption that I’m still hoping to go on and MH would be the best option, but only if I still get to cancel within 24 hours plus £35. Thanks!

    • Jon says:

      22 Dec22 December 16:29

      Short answer – I’m not 100% sure.

      Longer answer – I had two slightly different answers from the agents on that one:

      1) Avios + 241 booking: can, I was told, be changed with no change fee but potentially fare difference payable. Not exactly sure how that would work in practice (I paid ‘full’ Avios, ie not sale fare, plus voucher) but of course partner airlines are always priced at peak rate and the 241 can’t be used on them, so not sure in this situation. Flight can still be cancelled as per original terms, if I understood correctly, but I don’t recall whether they explicitly confirmed that.

      2) Avios plus Lloyds booking: can be cancelled for full refund of Avios and taxes/surcharges, but would lose voucher (as per original booking conditions). Agent wasn’t sure about changes. Involuntary ones certainly, but voluntary ones less clear.

      Neither of those answers quite lines up with the exact original fare rules… So I can only assume either new terms apply (not sure how ‘legal’ that is and whether one would have a case for trying to enforce the original terms if necessary – any lawyers here able to comment?) or the agents were trying to advise based on incomplete info at their end. Certainly there was no suggestion or warning that I was giving up flexibility or accepting more restrictive terms.

      I need to try to find the T&Cs for BA I fare bucket. I have no visibility of fare conditions so far (booking not visible at all on BA.com MMB, and in MMB on Malaysia Airlines’ site, the link to T&Cs just leads to a blank pop-up…). I think this may be because, although I’ve had confirmation emails, I’m not sure the actual tickets have been issued yet – I think they’re being processed manually so may take a few days. Will see.

      Hope that helps.

      • Laurence Dalby says:

        22 Dec22 December 18:18

        It does, thanks. I’ll call at some point in the future and hope for an experienced agent and see what they say.

• Blindman says:

  22 Dec22 December 13:55

  Anyone have any insight as to why Car Hire for a week in June in Montreal Canada is 3 x that for hire in Toronto?

  Looking at £300+ for one week for basic car and basic insurance! Crazy

  Would be cheaper to hire in Toronto and drive to Montreal and back.!

  • Charlieface says:

    22 Dec22 December 14:11

    Supply and demand

  • Travel Strong says:

    22 Dec22 December 14:14

    I have no insight in to why, but I’m seeing wild price fluctuations in other stateside hire car prices at the moment (for next summer). Doubles in price and halves again from one week to the next.

    I have gone the route of making fully cancellable pay at location Hertz bookings, and requoting/rebooking every few weeks if the price reduces.

    • thehornets says:

      22 Dec22 December 14:40

      I’m the opposite – seeing high rates in Florida with almost no fluctuation. Out of interst, are you all looking at rental companies directly or through aggregators, such as AutoEurope?

      Cheapest rates I have seen so far are through qeeq.com, whom I have never heard of and have a really offputting, garish website. Puts me off booking through them.

      • Andrew Mc says:

        22 Dec22 December 15:56

        Just the experience of one, but have used qeeq.com without issue before for a York hire.

      • Clive says:

        22 Dec22 December 18:28

        I have used Qeeq or RentalCars which is was before and had zero problems

  • Biki says:

    22 Dec22 December 15:02

    Formula One is on 13th June in Montreal, might be that?

• A. Taxpayer says:

  22 Dec22 December 13:56

  I have a large HMRC self-assessment bill to pay (around £75,000). Is there any way I can do that at a reasonable cost which will generate a decent return in points?

  • Blenz101 says:

    22 Dec22 December 14:24

    See this article, specifically the section on Curve metal –

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/01/20/using-curve-card-to-pay-hmrc/

    Also remember that most card providers will only award you points upto your credit limit per month. So if you have a £10k limit (and you earn a point per £) it would take you 8 billing cycles to pay your bill.

    Billhop is another option but the fees are chunky.

    • Genghis says:

      22 Dec22 December 14:31

      “ most card providers”?
      Only Virgin Money, right?

      • Blenz101 says:

        22 Dec22 December 14:51

        HSBC do the same. Whilst I don’t have it I understood IHG/Creation do similar or are at least funny about putting the account in credit and certainly would be funny about 75k.

        Amex is out in this context and Tesco CC to Avios is going in the next few weeks.

        From Rob’s own December roundup that is every card covered?

        • Genghis says:

          22 Dec22 December 14:59

          HSBC do not.
          Creation do not – putting account into credit is different to paying it off part way through the month.
          It’s Virgin Money only, ie not “most”.

        • DT says:

          22 Dec22 December 15:14

          You don’t need to put the IHG into credit, there’s no problems with making a payment up to your credit limit, then paying that off a few days later once the payment has cleared. Then you’re free to use your credit limit up again

  • A. Taxpayer says:

    22 Dec22 December 19:34

    Thanks all!

• Super Secret Stuff says:

  22 Dec22 December 14:22

  Is it me or is everything very quiet in the HfP world for the last week?

  For anyone starting to think about where the boxing day sales will offer, my guess is dirt cheap flights to all the countries on this list!

  Although fair warning, some on HfP curse a destination when the book 😉 @HarryT ect.

  https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-which-countries-have-restricted-travel-to-and-from-the-uk-12169686

  • Greg says:

    22 Dec22 December 14:52

    Great guess, must be a super secret big brain.

  • Andrew says:

    22 Dec22 December 16:49

    All the sale schedules are off this year – I went into Harvey Nics today as their sale has apparently started and yet such slim pickings. I would have thought they would have been trying to give it away but instead seem to be holding on to the stock they have and wanting to sell at full price.

    • Jack says:

      22 Dec22 December 20:49

      I read an article in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend that was saying that the merchandise in the stores now was being ordered back in March as COVID was beginning – and the buyers were erring the side of caution when placing inventory orders given that it was unknown how it would play out – so stores have far less inventory to begin with and hence the lack of “good” sales this year (every retailer has tat they roll out every year).

      • Andrew says:

        22 Dec22 December 21:55

        Ah yes, that makes a lot of sense. Conversely the summer sales were flooded with bargains at that was all from orders placed way before Covid was even a thing and then they were closed for 3 months.

• John says:

  22 Dec22 December 14:42

  95 euros o/w.

  https://twitter.com/RyanairPress/status/1341323002223443968

• BuildTheWall says:

  22 Dec22 December 15:33

  I vaguely remember that Uber gift cards were accepted on Uber Eats. Is that still the case?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    22 Dec22 December 15:39

    Yes still the case.

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