The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 29th December

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• Tarmohamed says:

  29 Dec29 December 03:40

  Given the currency situation with Pakistan banning visitors arriving from the UK, or have been in the UK within the last 10 days we’ve had to book a stopover in Dubai.

  Any recommendations on hotels? We are leaning towards staying again at HGI Al Jadaf as we’ve stayed here before and is very economical. Also have the option of a Hampton but never stayed at one and I believe it’s a more inferior brand?

  Transport links not an issue as hiring a car for the duration.

  • Rob says:

    29 Dec29 December 04:56

    Prices fall quite sharply once you get into early January so you have your pick. If it’s just a quick overnight then I wouldn’t be too fussed. If it is a couple of days then put some thought into it. We reviewed the new Hyatt Regency near the airport last year. Last week I got a £99 at the brand new Sofitel Obelisk (Wafi Mall) which was astonishing value for a brand new 5-star in mid December.

    • Tarmohamed says:

      29 Dec29 December 05:23

      Thank Rob, would you say I wait a few more days before booking? We need to be in Dubai for 10 days so not looking for a lavish time on the palm, but also not looking for a Premier Inn. I’ll take a look at Sofitel Obelisk as haven’t come across this one yet.

      • Rob says:

        29 Dec29 December 05:52

        Assuming all of the UK goes into Tier 4 then another chunk of bookings will get cancelled, so prices may soften. Most bookings are flexible at the moment however so no risk in locking something in.

        Hilton still offering 100% bonus on buying points until 31/12 which may be a way of getting one of their properties at a good rate.

      • Tarmohamed says:

        29 Dec29 December 16:57

        Thank you Rob and MinR

    • MinR says:

      29 Dec29 December 10:53

      +1 for the Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights. Not a bad location if you have a car, and is relatively cheap (£60/n) after the 2nd of January. I’m booked there for 6 nights next week as part of my quest to chase the Globalist status before Feb 2021

• John says:

  29 Dec29 December 05:26

  Just keep using the old one until it expires

• MileS MaeStro says:

  29 Dec29 December 05:39

  Good morning. How are we all today?

  • memesweeper says:

    29 Dec29 December 09:18

    Busy with work (which is good) but swamped with bad news off the radio. Getting my daily dose of holiday escapism news from HfP which is lifting my mood. 🙂

  • Aston100 says:

    29 Dec29 December 12:15

    All things considered, I am good thank you.
    Trying to find a decent lease deal on a new car. The Volvo s90 got returned as it was surprisingly thirsty.

  • Mouse says:

    29 Dec29 December 15:30

    pSeudonym?

• GE9X says:

  29 Dec29 December 05:44

  https://www.flytap.com/en-ua/miles-and-go/promotions/combo-club-miles-store

  Trying to get my head around this promo.

  “Receive 75,000 promotional miles as a gift when you join or renew your Club membership and buy miles from the Miles Store between 11 December 2020 and 3 January 2021.”

  So:

  EUR 718 – Club Platinum: 25k miles + 96k miles over 12 months
  EUR 140 – Miles Store: 4k miles

  Which should qualify for the 75k miles bonus, giving a total of 200k miles for EUR 858. Surely I’ve missed something?

  • Mouse says:

    29 Dec29 December 07:31

    That is how I would read it too. The only way I can see it not working is if the monthly bonus miles are not awarded if you take the “combo” offer, but that would be a bit perverse as you’d then end up with fewer miles in total with the combo offer. It does look quite tempting, assuming TAP (or at least its loyalty programme) survives the pandemic.

  • AJA says:

    29 Dec29 December 08:15

    I too am confused as I read it that way too but I also joined that they seem to have two promotions running concurrently. The 75,000 bonus miles combo offer and the separate club promo. My email shows that I will only earn up to 105k miles if I do the combo promo. It seems too good to be true.

    • GE9X says:

      29 Dec29 December 14:06

      To confuse things even more, just seen this in Combo Campaign T&C’s:

      “This promotion is not cumulative with other current Club TAP Miles&Go and Miles Store promotions.”

      Guessing that means only base level miles from Club Platinum and the miles store? I’m going to try and contact them to get things cleared up and will report back.

      • Mouse says:

        29 Dec29 December 14:35

        I had read that as meaning other offers outside the two that can be combined for the bonus offer. Would be interesting to hear what you hear back from them.

        • Mouse says:

          29 Dec29 December 14:36

          (the standard platinum offer including the monthly bonus miles being one of those two)

  • SJ says:

    29 Dec29 December 11:55

    Has anyone successfully done this?
    Would be very interested to hear if so

  • Mark says:

    29 Dec29 December 13:08

    What exactly is ‘Monthly bonus miles’ for Platinum? 8k miles every month for free…?

    How is TAP Portugal when redeeming tickets for other Star Alliance partners? SQ in particular, or Swiss

    • AJA says:

      29 Dec29 December 13:18

      You buy Platinum membership for €718 and receive 8,000 miles each month so that by the end of 12 months you will accumulate 96,000 miles. That compares to the basic club membership which gives you 1,000 a month but only costs€99.

      I would also like to know how easy it is to redeem tickets for other Star Alliance partners.

      • GE9X says:

        29 Dec29 December 13:59

        This OMAAT article goes into some detail about redemption options:

        https://onemileatatime.com/redeem-tap-air-portugal-miles/

• Swiss Jim says:

  29 Dec29 December 06:20

  Can I refer back to a thread on 22 August (this is the one I spotted – there may be others). Re: topping up Revolut via IHG credit card. Is it correct that still no cash handling fee – i.e. only interest charged (which can be avoided by going into credit first, or mitigated by paying off IHG balance immediately after Revolut top up). The same trick doesn’t appear to work on Virgin Credit card, for example (you get hit with a 5% cash handling charge). Not sure if it works on the old Hilton card (which I do have).

  Seems odd that IHG give you points (i.e. they don’t consider it cash), don’t charge you a cash handling fee (i.e. again not cash), but charge interest (which suggests it is!). Their system therefore seems muddled – though to our benefit.!

  • Genghis says:

    29 Dec29 December 07:44

    Yes
    Barclaycard have been adding cash advance fees for well over a month now. Avoid.

  • Harrier25 says:

    29 Dec29 December 08:08

    Don’t punch a gift horse in the mouth and go about your business quietly.

  • The Urbanite says:

    29 Dec29 December 08:11

    All credit card issuers have their own policies on which transactions attract cash advance charges. In my time in this game I’ve found the banks’ policies are a constant.

    Revolut has been risky for a long time because they regularly change how they are treated by the banks. Despite this it remains a very popular way for holders of rewards cards to get stung with cash advance fees and interest charges – all for no rewards!

  • Ash says:

    29 Dec29 December 10:56

    this is good jim. I want to discuss AMEX manufacture spend. I read the the US they are using PAYPAL. UK must have some good ways. Must be some pre paid card we can top with AMEX

    • DodgyDCF says:

      29 Dec29 December 11:29

      Lol 🤦‍♂️

    • Genghis says:

      29 Dec29 December 12:34

      You can send money to your partner using PayPal. What could possibly go wrong? 🤷🏻‍♂️

    • the_real_a says:

      29 Dec29 December 15:38

      Lol it feels like 2006 in here. Dont do it.

  • Pangolin says:

    29 Dec29 December 13:27

    Real Slim Shady still works for me when topping up Rev direct.

    That said, I’m trying not to flog this particular gift horse too mercilessly, lest Storonsky’s minions get their panties in a twist and drop the AML hammer on me.

    • the_real_a says:

      29 Dec29 December 15:42

      You will get AML and KYC checked. Not a question on if 🙂

• Steve L says:

  29 Dec29 December 07:26

  Could it be worth having a forum on here rather than these daily chats and reams of old comments noted ‘OT’? I bet there is a goldmine of knowledge that isn’t easily discoverable

  • Rob says:

    29 Dec29 December 08:06

    It’s on the list but there is still a lot of back end work to do post the site relaunch (ie 11,000 articles which need adjusting). Most likely, once there is a noticeable pick up in travel, we will retire the chat thread and simultaneously launch a forum.

• Bob says:

  29 Dec29 December 08:15

  Virgin credit card voucher qs:

  1. Can it be used on a booking originating outside UK – say JFK to LHR?

  2. If used to upgrade a redemption booking made in premium to upper class, would additional taxes and fees be due? Such as the high fees charged on the ex US routes for eg in UC

  Thanks

  • JLNF says:

    29 Dec29 December 09:25

    In relation to 1, yes, I have done this. They took ‘half’ the voucher, so I could still use the other half at a future date.

    • Bob says:

      29 Dec29 December 11:26

      Thanks

  • Fraser says:

    29 Dec29 December 16:46

    2) Yes, basically price it up twice to check – you’ll pay the miles for the lower cabin, and the taxes and charges for the higher cabin

• Track says:

  29 Dec29 December 08:22

  Reporting about Revolut by FT highlights strange items, much as I am in favour of the innovation and emoney services.

  Apparently, customer accounts blocks occurred not so much out of genuine KYC reasons but such issues as submitted documents not being translated.

  “…backlog of frozen accounts as staff were unable to complete compliance checks.”

  Also, while forcing employees to leave under disguise of ‘mutual agreement’ / voluntary leave is a common HR practice in Eastern bloc — there is impact on pool of candidates/available talent.

  • jil says:

    29 Dec29 December 09:15

    not just eastern europe, in western/northern europe (ex-UK) ‘mutual agreement’ redundancy is also a common practise, many countries have very protective labour law, and the employer can’t let people go unless there’s a significant financial reason (insolvency) or gross misconduct. e.g. in France most of the white collar redundancy happens in this form.

  • BP says:

    29 Dec29 December 09:36

    Revlout sound like a horrible company to work for.

    • 747_Brat says:

      29 Dec29 December 11:50

      I was in talks with Revolut for a job this time last year, but I backed out after reading the employee reviews on Glassdoor and after talking to a friend of a friend, who frankly told me to run a mile away from Revolut, if I could!

      • Aston100 says:

        29 Dec29 December 12:25

        Glassdoor should be taken with a pinch of sale. It is very hard to find positive reviews; mostly disgruntled employees.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          29 Dec29 December 12:47

          Issue with the internet in general. People love to come on a moan far fewer randomly say nice things.

        • kitten says:

          29 Dec29 December 13:42

          I check Glassdoor of any company I am considering dealing with, or working for. For some companies Glassdoor sites in several countries may cover them.

          @Aston100 you could say that about reviews on any site. Same as for a restaurant or a hotel, I check reviews on Glassdoor for companies offering contracts or companies I might be considering buying from. I can judge those reviews’ accuracy and fairness easily by looking for volume of reviews about the company over time, possibly eliminating outliers,and above all calibrating the tenor and ratings of companies I don’t have very good knowledge of with reviews of companies I do know well.

          When do much of what we do or buy these days is a service it’s delivered by people. Taking the above into account I have found Glassdoor reviews to be accurate overall about any company I’ve ever checked with them.

          For example one company I checked with them early last year was Dyson and found it to be highly revealing and also corroborated from other sources.

        • Gavin says:

          29 Dec29 December 16:57

          I declined a job offer from Dyson and got a response verging on abuse from the recruiter criticising me for wasting their time!

      • Pangolin says:

        29 Dec29 December 13:30

        Company reviews on Glassdoor are about as impartial as reviews of McDonalds by vegans.

        • Pangolin says:

          29 Dec29 December 13:32

          Oh, this proves that comment threading on HFP is definitely borked. I hit the REPLY button under 747_Brat and my post appeared under TGLoyalty 🤔

        • Rhys says:

          29 Dec29 December 14:45

          Looks fine to me?!

        • 747_Brat says:

          29 Dec29 December 13:34

          Exactly, that’s why I wanted to speak to an actual person I know. People can write crap behind the anonymity of a keyboard and a mouse!

      • Mouse says:

        29 Dec29 December 15:14

        One company I worked for encouraged employees they perceived to be happy to post good Glassdoor reviews to counteract the negative ones

  • BuildTheWall says:

    29 Dec29 December 09:41

    The wired report was pretty scathing. I’ll try to post the link, but not sure if it’ll be approved.
    I terminated my account. While I don’t like their HR practices, I don’t think a company with this culture will survive long.

    • BuildTheWall says:

      29 Dec29 December 09:42

      https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-employment-coronavirus

      • r* says:

        29 Dec29 December 12:23

        Heres another one from 2019. They sound like an absolutely vile company, no way anyone should be leaving money in there.

        https://www.wired.co.uk/article/revolut-trade-unions-labour-fintech-politics-storonsky

        • chabuddy geezy says:

          29 Dec29 December 20:36

          I received an email from Revolut stating my money was safer with them rather than with a bank that was part of FSCS!

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