The HfP chat thread – Sunday 27th December

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• martyn ford says:

  27 Dec27 December 10:34

  An Australian friend of mine needs to fly home urgently today/tomorrow. She`s BA gold – not worried about who she flies with but wants to be in business. Any advice would be warmly received, thank you.

  • Jan M says:

    27 Dec27 December 10:40

    Eek! I’ve had a number of Australian friends repeatedly bumped off flights because of the passenger caps, even flying business. Perhaps flying to one of the smaller cities Brisbane or Adelaide will increase the odds?

    • martyn ford says:

      27 Dec27 December 10:52

      Thank you Jan

  • Nick says:

    27 Dec27 December 10:46

    Given the very strict caps on flights and arriving passengers, and that these are booked up weeks in advance at the moment, I doubt she can afford to be choosy right now… if she ‘needs’ to travel, it’ll be on whichever airline has space and can accept her (and in any cabin). It’s not like usual times where there are loads of seats available. It is also likely to end in a ‘bidding war’ so she’d better be prepared to pay well over the odds.

    • martyn ford says:

      27 Dec27 December 10:53

      Thank you Nick.

  • Rob says:

    27 Dec27 December 10:58

    As flights are capped at 30 (?) pax per flight, you book whatever you can get at whatever price is asked in whatever class is there and consider yourself hugely lucky. Most airlines have no seats for weeks.

    • martyn ford says:

      27 Dec27 December 11:15

      Thank you Rob.

  • Harry T says:

    27 Dec27 December 11:07

    My opinion is that she probably won’t get in at such short notice, but if she wants a shot at it she needs to pay QR whatever they want for a business class seat, and then prepare to pay several thousand Aussie dollars for the mandatory 14 day hotel room quarantine. If she needs to conduct her urgent task within the next two weeks, she won’t be able to leave her hotel room to do so.

    • Harry T says:

      27 Dec27 December 11:14

      Tbf getting into Australia as a citizen is pretty much impossible right now, especially at short notice, as they strictly cap the number of incoming travellers and usually people find their flight or seat gets cancelled multiple times before they are eventually possibly successful a few weeks to months later. And the authorities are imposing a mandatory hotel quarantine for all arriving passengers, which I believe costs around 3000 AUD. There is perhaps a small chance of compassionate exemption but I imagine that’s a process that would be subject to long wait periods and complex bureaucracy. I know this all sounds very cold, but if your friend has a genuine reason to see someone in the next few days on compassionate grounds – I’m thinking immediately dying close relative here – they probably won’t be able to do so. This kind of trip requires a lot of planning and expenditure – Qatar cancels all the economy fares anyway, as they are already flying at a loss due to the quotas and it’s not worth their while to fly anyone who isn’t stumping up the cash for big boy flexible fare business class. If your friend wants to get in within the next few days, it’s worth considering whether they should call the immigration authorities etc to ask for some kind of compassionate expedited entry. However, to be completely honest, there are thousands of Aussies abroad who haven’t been able to get back due to the quotas and a lot of them are stuck somewhere pretty unfavourable too – I’m sure there are a lot of very heartbreaking tales of people unable to make it back for bereavements, births etc.

      • Harry T says:

        27 Dec27 December 11:16

        It’s also probably worth posting in the Australia sub forum on Flyertalk to find people far more knowledgable than me! I’m basing most of what I’m saying on the various reports I’ve read on flyertalk.

      • martyn ford says:

        27 Dec27 December 11:22

        Thank you so much.

        • Harry T says:

          27 Dec27 December 12:25

          I wish I had more helpful/optimistic things to say… I hope I’m wrong and your friend manages to get to Australia promptly and without undue expense. This has been a hard year for so many.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    27 Dec27 December 11:17

    Find any flight from any country and book , say bali to brisbane. Then book a flight to bali. Its probably your only workable choice right now

    • ChrisC says:

      27 Dec27 December 12:13

      Still going to get caught in the max 30 passengers per flight rule plus all the quarentine etc

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        27 Dec27 December 16:53

        Well yes but the logic being its a shorter flight than say dubai or doha so will be substantially cheaper. Not to mention can use smaller planes, more routes etc.

        Will be all Round easier and cheaper

• idontfly says:

  27 Dec27 December 10:44

  Morning, hope you dont have a trampoline in your garden from the next door neighbours. I am wondering if I am eligible for a refunds from a wizz air flight that is due to fly out to Madeira. With Portugal not letting and UK nationals in at the moment would I be entitled or should I just get the credit note with Wizz. Thanks for your thoughts.

  • Nick says:

    27 Dec27 December 10:48

    Is the flight cancelled? If so, you can have a refund without question. If the flight still operates then you’re at the mercy of the airline – it’s not their fault you won’t be on the flight they’re running – so you’re likely to have to take the voucher. Or claim on insurance (some policies do cover imposition of government restrictions, so hopefully you were smart enough to buy one of those).

    • idontfly says:

      27 Dec27 December 10:53

      flight is still on so I will just claim the voucher. Will check the insurance policy though. Thank you Nick.

  • BS says:

    27 Dec27 December 10:49

    If the airline is flying then you are not entitled to a refund. Due to the restrictions they may decide not to fly – wait until 24h before (to see if it gets cancelled) before requesting a credit.

• Steve says:

  27 Dec27 December 10:54

  BAPP Companion Voucher – I’m just about to hit my £10k target with just 3 weeks to go before my card year ends. With BA flight being cancelled how do future refunds impact the voucher, will it be cancelled and therefore no opportunity to re-hit the target since I will be entering a new earning year?

  • Rob says:

    27 Dec27 December 10:56

    You’re fine, vouchers are never removed. Some people book £10k refundable flights ….

  • Nick says:

    27 Dec27 December 10:58

    No, once triggered the voucher is yours to keep. But the £10k spend is net (i.e. after refunds), so hold off requesting any if you’re close until after the voucher lands in your account.

• KBuffett says:

  27 Dec27 December 11:02

  Is the Hilton Revolution over?

  • Genghis says:

    27 Dec27 December 11:19

    If you don’t want to pay cash advance fees, yes.

  • martyn ford says:

    27 Dec27 December 11:26

    I paid £2.99 for a £10.00 “test run”.

    • Doug M says:

      27 Dec27 December 12:51

      Based on typical card behaviour your test run should have been £100, assume 2.99% with a £2.99 minimum.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        27 Dec27 December 13:52

        Yep.

  • fivebobbill says:

    27 Dec27 December 13:09

    Got this from HH Barclaycard yesterday, they’re blaming Revolut.
    I had asked why I was charged a fee, why the change in policy, and is it likely to continue as such.

    Dear…

    I have reviewed your account and I can confirm that Revolut has treated the transaction as money transfer and not a purchase.

    I do understand your concern and would like to inform you that your transactions are given an identifying code and this code which is used to determine how the transaction is treated and what transaction fee is or isn’t charged. It is possible for retailers to have several transaction codes depending on the types of products/services they offer but they and their bank determine the code used.

    As such, we are unable to advise you in advance how a transaction will be classified. All we can advise is if the retailer submits the transaction and it is classified as either a cash withdrawal, gaming, betting, money order, wire transfer or foreign currency purchase then the transaction will attract the cash transaction fee.

    There is no interest free period on cash transactions in sterling. Interest will be charged from the date that the cash transaction was debited to your account until the balance is re-paid in full. Cash transactions include cash withdrawals, the purchase of foreign currency, travellers cheques, gaming transactions, wire transfers and money orders.

    I would like to inform when you take cash (or make a cash like transaction), interest is charged on a daily basis from when the transaction hits your account, to the day it is paid in full (there is no interest free period).

    There will be Cash handling fee on transaction for 2.99% or minimum of £2.99 which ever is higher.

    Cash transactions are charged interest at the rate of 2.0583% per month and 27.70 % per annum from the day of the transaction until paid in full.

• Chris H says:

  27 Dec27 December 11:18

  Having just received my Business Platinum card, I want to add a supplementary card holder. Is there an automatic bonus for doing this, or do I have to wait for a special offer of a bonus?

  • guesswho2000 says:

    27 Dec27 December 13:18

    Automatic on the Gold, assume it’s the same for Plat.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      27 Dec27 December 17:20

      Are you sure for business ? I thought it has to be targeted.

  • Jay says:

    27 Dec27 December 14:18

    Last time I did it got 5k MR

• Green Plastic says:

  27 Dec27 December 11:49

  Hi all, rookie IHG premium card question. Got the card in march, hit the 10k spend a couple of months ago, am I right in thinking the free night voucher won’t get sent to me until March 2021? How does it arrive, email?

  Many thanks!

  • Anna says:

    27 Dec27 December 12:16

    Unless you’re one of the few unfortunates who dont seem to be getting their vouchers (and not getting very far with Creation either), it should land in your IHG account shortly after your 12 month statement is generated.

    • Doug M says:

      27 Dec27 December 12:54

      Didn’t someone say they got £150 compo? Since they’ll almost certainly get the voucher in the end that’s the sort of unfortunate that can pay off.

      • Genghis says:

        27 Dec27 December 13:22

        🙂 I remember @mark2 mentioning how disappointed he was when Lloyds were finally posting the avios to his acct.

        • mark2 says:

          27 Dec27 December 13:32

          Indeed.
          And I am in the process of receiving £100 compensation for late delivery of the pet insurance ClubCard points too late to convert to Avios.
          And we has two boxes of wine from Virgin for moving our spare accounts yet again.

      • Anna says:

        27 Dec27 December 14:44

        Oh yes, I was most unfortunate with Lloyd’s. In 2 years I got £350 compo and 6 upgrade vouchers! But complaining to Lloyds sounds much easier and more lucrative than Creation has been to deal with!

        • Anna says:

          27 Dec27 December 14:45

          And an extra 10k avios because for some reason they decided to duplicate the ones they hadn’t posted!

        • Nick_C says:

          27 Dec27 December 15:47

          Lloyds are extraordinarily generous with compensation. I made a complaint recently because I had called three times about a relatively minor problem with online banking, which wasn’t getting sorted. I finally lodged a complaint so I would have a reference and someone would follow through and fix the problem. In addition to fixing the problem, they gave me £75.

    • Roselin says:

      27 Dec27 December 19:00

      Thoughts on cancelling after the 12 month annual fee is triggered? Would we still get the free night voucher?

    • Green Plastic says:

      27 Dec27 December 20:19

      Many thanks Anna

• The Streets says:

  27 Dec27 December 12:09

  Just spotted that my Marriott 7 night travel certificate has been automatically extended again to 01 August 2021. Fair play to Marriott Bonvoy

• Harry T says:

  27 Dec27 December 12:24

  I switched to Natwest recently whilst the £125 swithcing incentive was available. The offer terms and conditions that I saved say that I need to pay in £1500 before the 15th Jan 2021 to receive the switching bonus. Does anynone know if I need to keep the £1500 in that account until the bonus lands? The bonus can apparently be paid any time up to 12th Feb 2021. I’d rather not leave the £1500 in a current account that pays no interest, as this is money that would be better used earning interest or being invested in stocks and shares. Thanks for any advice.

  • Anuj says:

    27 Dec27 December 12:46

    Usually you literally just need to deposit and you can take out straight away. But there is a small chance this time the terms are different.

  • Doug M says:

    27 Dec27 December 12:56

    Was earlier this year, I got the bonus very quickly as NatWest said they wanted to process them asap.

  • Jonathan says:

    27 Dec27 December 13:33

    Assuming you’d get 5% interest elsewhere (which is a very generous estimate) then that’s 0.416% per month. 6 weeks of that on £1500 is £10. If there’s a £125 on the line then I know how I’d play that risk/reward equation!

    • Harry T says:

      27 Dec27 December 18:48

      Good point!

  • Jay says:

    27 Dec27 December 14:19

    Paid mine in and withdrew the next day and got the bonus fine.

  • Harry T says:

    27 Dec27 December 18:48

    Thanks, everyone.

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