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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 22nd December

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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 (297)

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

  • Monty says:
    22 Dec22 December 15:36

    Creation weirdness.
    I put payments through it and also paid it off yesterday. The using of the card has not hit the account, yet creation have received being paid off. This leaves my account in credit but also not able to be used to make payments. Is this usual?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Dec22 December 15:40

      Yes. Can only pay it off when it has a balance.

      Purchases can take a few days to clear.

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      22 Dec22 December 15:40

      Creation only lets you have pending transactions up to your credit limit.

      If you have a £5k limit, but are £2k in credit. You can make transactions until you have £5k pending, not the full £7k. Once they’ve cleared you can spend the next £2k.

      • Martha says:
        22 Dec22 December 18:23

        Issue is, it does not even say the purchases are pending

        • Doug M says:
          22 Dec22 December 19:07

          In the app the ‘available’ is just that. It usually reflects transaction values immediately, although the transactions don’t show. Payments to Creation often lag by a couple of days.

          • memesweeper says:
            22 Dec22 December 20:30

            The whole thing is very laggy compared to Barclays or HSBC. Makes planning difficult!

  • David says:
    22 Dec22 December 15:53

    Received a cheque in the post today from Amex for c£30 with no covering letter. Card reference was for a cancelled card but wasn’t expecting any refunds and no idea what the amount was for.

    Queried with Amex via chat and initially they stated I had made an overpayment but I pushed to look again as I know I clear(ed) my balance to the penny and it was 0 upon card closure.

    They came back highlighting that a remediation exercise has occurred across their cards where I had not received the correct amount of either MR or Avios. Tbh I don’t track MR or Avios received so no idea how much I was missing and what value they have ascribed to the missing points but no complaints!

    Wondering if anyone else has experienced similar?

    • Nick says:
      22 Dec22 December 16:44

      Interesting. I’ve had a small ‘American express promotional credit’ applied to my account today but don’t know what for. Could that be the same thing?

      • David says:
        22 Dec22 December 18:34

        The statement posting on the cancelled card just said “Credit adjustment”.

    • Dave says:
      22 Dec22 December 20:26

      Sure it’s not the prorate refund for the annual card fee?

  • Travel Strong says:
    22 Dec22 December 15:55

    Gibraltar have just banned air travel in for non-residents/citizens/workers/military, essentially back to the rules they had at the start of covid lockdown.

    I was waiting on such a move, as I had a flight for NYE booked, which hopefully will now be cancelled. (Booked at start of this year, and can only change (not refund) until cancelled).

    (Please no day trip climate emergency replies! It’s been done.)

    • Josh says:
      22 Dec22 December 17:46

      Was it a 24 hour New Year jolly?

    • Jonathan says:
      22 Dec22 December 17:58

      I wouldn’t expect Gib flights to be cancelled as the BA service is viewed as a key component of their infrastructure (not just in Covid times) by the local government. I have a relative there now who is a Gib national but needs to return to UK for work in the new year and received an e-mail from the chief minister this afternoon reassuring her she won’t be stranded!

      • Travel Strong says:
        22 Dec22 December 18:46

        This is from BRS on easyjet, so still a chance of cancellation. They’ve cancelled almost every BRS-GIB flight so far… just not this one yet! No worries if not cancelled, i’ll shift it out to another date though.

  • Jason says:
    22 Dec22 December 16:21

    Quick question, are BA allowing you to move cancelled avios booking to any date regardless if availability exists. Cheers

  • Chef says:
    22 Dec22 December 17:26

    Hilton Diamond status credited today after 15 stays, many thanks for all the advice from Rob & Rhys.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Dec22 December 19:15

      Does it still expire March 2023

      I’m thinking is I do my last night before 31st Dec do I knock a year off my validity.

      • Chef says:
        22 Dec22 December 19:47

        Yeah March 2023 I believe?

        • TGLoyalty says:
          22 Dec22 December 20:36

          There is a way to check on the desktop website (not via phone browser)

          If you go to your My Account page and click on the link on the left that says My Hilton Honors Card, it will pop up a window pointing you to the Android or iPhone apps. That window has an image of your physical card, with your expiration date at the bottom. You can also choose to print the image or save it as a .png file. All of these have the expiration date. (or, you can request that a physical card be mailed to you.)

          • Chef says:
            22 Dec22 December 21:02

            Very useful thank you but there’s no expiry date on my virtual card obtained by following your advice.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          22 Dec22 December 20:49

          Having checked I think it doesn’t matter as all 30 nights roll over and you will qualify for diamond again next year. Therefore valid until end of Feb 2023.

  • Mco says:
    22 Dec22 December 18:06

    Got to get a smaller size in something that I bought from Harrods which triggered the £50 cash back on Amex. Harrods are saying I should order new size and return the one that didn’t fit for a refund. Amex will takeaway the cash back though? Or is there anyway to do this?

    • Anna says:
      22 Dec22 December 18:15

      Put another card in the machine when they ask you? I don’t know if this works at Harrods though!

      • Josh says:
        22 Dec22 December 18:59

        Worth a try…some stores can tell which card was used to pay for an order though as the system keeps track.

      • Harry T says:
        22 Dec22 December 19:01

        Surely the Harrods store is closed due to tier 4?

        You could ask for a refund to store credit/gift card, if they offer that online – then you can use the credit on the different sized garment. You can do that with many companies but I haven’t tried with Harrods.

        • Anna says:
          22 Dec22 December 19:05

          Surely it’s classed as essential retail for the Knightsbridge set?!

          • Anna says:
            22 Dec22 December 19:07

            Food hall is apparently staying open for those wealthy divorcees who need Godiva chocolate. They may well deal with returns (M & S food hall does this for us lesser mortals).

          • YL says:
            22 Dec22 December 19:19

            Apart from the food hall, the pharmacy apparently is also open.

        • Rob says:
          22 Dec22 December 19:45

          Food hall and pharmacy is open.

          Click & Collect is also still operational.

    • Jonathan says:
      22 Dec22 December 19:31

      Harrods are very difficult with this scenario. They won’t do exchanges, end of discussion & the usual tricks to disguise a refund don’t work, I’ve tried a few times!

    • Mike says:
      22 Dec22 December 19:32

      Christmas returns are extended till 31st Jan 2021, too.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Dec22 December 20:22

      When does the offer actually expire?

      If it’s a single item over the offer amount as long as the new one is charged before the offer end date you’ll keep the credit.

    • Radiata says:
      23 Dec23 December 18:20

      Had the same when bought a black pair of shoes and received brown..

      Online CS insisted I return for a refund.

      In-store CS agreed unsurprisingly to provide a gift card instead. This was third floor CS and so will be closed under T4 unless Food Hall tills oblige instead.

  • RTS says:
    22 Dec22 December 19:20

    Hey – quick question for someone who may have done this… has anyone successfully upgraded their virgin free card to the paid for card?

    • Rob says:
      22 Dec22 December 19:44

      It’s stupidly complex. Cancel free card (as you can’t hold two Virgin Money cards at once), apply for paid card, get rejected (as no 6 month gap), ring up and say you were trying to upgrade, get card manually approved. Hard to believe its the 21st century.

      • Harry T says:
        22 Dec22 December 20:11

        Virgin told me to do this but going the other direction – paid to free. Honestly wasn’t even worth the time, and the hassle of dealing with an organisation with low standards of customer service.

  • Anna says:
    22 Dec22 December 20:12

    It’s being reported that more areas will move into Tier 4 on Boxing Day.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Dec22 December 20:29

      I think that’s a given tbh.

      Only hope is that with schools and unis all finished and starting later the rate starts to drop off in some areas.

      looking at the rate in my city and it’s not too bad (c200/100k). Surrounding areas in my Covid cluster(fuck) are rapidly rising having been relatively low at the start of Dec (under 100/100k)

      • Harry T says:
        22 Dec22 December 20:50

        Uni students need to stay with their parents until the vaccination programme has made considerable progress towards inoculating the vulnerable.

    • Harry T says:
      22 Dec22 December 20:49

      Yes, pretty sure it’s inevitable. Only reason it hasn’t happened already is because no one will comply with the man who “cancelled Christmas”

    • Stagger Lee says:
      22 Dec22 December 21:04

      My guess is that it will be the whole country except Waverley 😉

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

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