The HfP chat thread – Thursday 31st December

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• Craig says:

  31 Dec31 December 09:42

  A couple of people asking about my Hilton Gold gift a friend, Roger from a few days ago and Baji Nahid from yesterday. First come first served, Craig at strickers co uk

  • Eric says:

    31 Dec31 December 10:21

    Emailed!

  • Matty says:

    31 Dec31 December 10:40

    Where will I find this in my account? I’m Diamond but I didn’t receive an email and I can’t see any mention of it when I log in.

    • Pangolin says:

      31 Dec31 December 11:07

      Look for an email with the subject: You have a gift of Gold status to give! (This assumes you are eligible to gift gold rather than diamond status, so obviously it would say Diamond for those who are eligible to gift that)

      Check the spam folder also. If you still can’t find anything then DM HiltonHonors on Twitter and request it to be sent to you.

  • Craig says:

    31 Dec31 December 12:34

    Hilton Gold status now off to a lucky new home.

    • Dave B says:

      31 Dec31 December 12:50

      Which was mine, thanks Craig and happy ’21.

    • Aston100 says:

      31 Dec31 December 13:35

      Very good of you and the others who also did this recently.

    • Craig says:

      31 Dec31 December 13:51

      Happy to help, better giving it away here to someone that will use it.

      • Baji Nahid says:

        31 Dec31 December 15:35

        Sorry craig i missed out on the message yesterday as i never had the chance to get on. Many thanks for the offer!

        • Craig says:

          31 Dec31 December 15:54

          Sorry you missed out, there may be others going over the next few weeks?

• BS says:

  31 Dec31 December 09:45

  Hi,
  I am in same situation! EC261 requirements to rebook at your convenience do not have an exceptional circumstance opt-out. But Virgin have been very difficult to fulfil their EC261 requirements.
  If you really want to push for it you would likely have to go down MCOL route, or if you paid directly with a credit card you could claim the cost of the new flights off the credit card company under Section 75.

  • memesweeper says:

    31 Dec31 December 13:44

    Section 75 might not cover rebooking on a new, future, date.

    Personally? I’d call up Virgin, record the call, and make it clear you are insisting on your EC261 rights to rebooking on a future date of your choosing. If they don’t budge buy the tickets you want on the dates you want and lodge a money claim online (or CEDR first then MCOL).

    • babyg_wc says:

      31 Dec31 December 14:53

      EC261 doesn’t allow for ANY dates in the future..

    • Charlieface says:

      31 Dec31 December 15:25

      S75 gives the credit card joint and several liability with the merchant, so they would have to pay

• Hardik says:

  31 Dec31 December 09:49

  Does anyone has any idea/knowledge/guess whether BA shall extend its book with confidence guarantee for bookings beyond 31 Aug 2021. Its bizzare that one cannot have any flexibility for later part of 2021. Virgin is offering one but I am not sure whether it will survive.

  • memesweeper says:

    31 Dec31 December 13:46

    You have Section 75 protection if Virgin don’t survive.

• ash says:

  31 Dec31 December 09:53

  Anyone know how quickly Qatar charge Amex, I have a £100 off offer with them but expires today, most offers I get a email straight away but know airlines sometimes delay. Otherwise Any idea if a sales is coming as £700 each for economy tickets to male in may even though school holidays seems a bit steep. Thanks ash

  • FFoxSake says:

    31 Dec31 December 11:50

    I made a Qatar booking 14th Dec 6:30pm (UK time) and charge to account was dated same day. £100 credit posted on the 15th 🙂

• dave says:

  31 Dec31 December 09:55

  Hypothetical question but

  With the whole Covid situation I wouldn’t be surprised If BA cancel my 2 4 1 CW flight to HND in April. What I’d like to do if so is just move the flight to the same dates in 2022. However BA only release reward seats/sell tickets 355 days in advance. Is there anyway I could just phone up and get them to shift the dates to more than 355 or do I just have to suck it up and move it to March 2022 due to them not being able to do it that far in advance?

  • Anna says:

    31 Dec31 December 11:00

    I think you’re going to find the problem is not the release of award seats (which you won’t even need if BA cancels your flight), but the inability to re-ticket more than 365 days from when you originally booked, which has been discussed over and over recently!

  • AJA says:

    31 Dec31 December 11:06

    The 355 day limit is because thats as far out as BA releases seats. You are also hamstrung by ticket validity which is one year from date of issue (not flight date) so depends on when you booked. You may have more luck if BA cancels the flight as technically there is nothing in the regs that says you can only rebook 365 days out. BA would have to reissue the ticket which they can do despite them saying its not possible. I’d wait until closer to the time to decide what you do.

    • Dave says:

      31 Dec31 December 11:30

      I booked 355 days in advance basically when seats became available. So would that mean I couldn’t move the dates at all?

      • Rob says:

        31 Dec31 December 11:56

        Correct.

        • dave says:

          31 Dec31 December 12:51

          ok thanks Rob, Anna and AJA for clearing that up! I guess I better really hope they don’t cancel it then. It’s two separate PNRS for my flight there and back as i did the booking the flight back online ands then had the booking linked so only one companion voucher was used. I doubt i have much validity left on the voucher so if the flight was cancelled or Japan wouldn’t et us in then I guess I’d be pretty screwed!

        • AndyW says:

          31 Dec31 December 13:06

          Interesting data point, but a friend of mine who booked the Maldives 355 days out, and was due to be going in Nov 2020, had the flight cancelled shortly before when we had the nationwide lockdown. He then called and moved it to Dec (after the lockdown), with no issue. No idea how it happened, but he has flown it now so something worked.

        • memesweeper says:

          31 Dec31 December 13:48

          +1 AndyW, I’ve reticketed beyond 365 days before, and I strongly suspect I’ll be back on the phone to BA to do it again in a few weeks.

• Pierre says:

  31 Dec31 December 10:15

  A wee bit ahead of schedule, but I wish you all a happy new year 2021! May it be full of travels, awesome hotel stays and exciting mileage earning opportunities!

  • Anna says:

    31 Dec31 December 12:47

    +!!

• roger says:

  31 Dec31 December 11:04

  Any idea if or when the curve limit will revert back to previous limits before they raised for the festive period?

  • Stephen says:

    31 Dec31 December 11:14

    This is the reply I received from Curve about the limits –

    There are some changes to our limits structures that have been rolled out in the last few weeks. These limits are set by MasterCard and we are unable to alter them.

    Your new limits with a Personal card will be on the highest tier. These will be:
    4500 GBP per single transaction and per day
    1000 GBP cash withdrawal per day
    1,400,000 GBP per year

    • roger says:

      31 Dec31 December 11:19

      Thanks, what is your current limit for
      4500 GBP per single transaction and per day?

      I have tried up to 8K in single txn with limit of 9K and it has so far gone through.

      I am on the meta version though with annual limit of 1.6m.

      • Peter K says:

        31 Dec31 December 12:18

        You will be on business curve Roger. The lower limits are for personal cards.

        • roger says:

          31 Dec31 December 12:24

          I was on business earlier but now on personal card and still working ok for HMRC without extra fees (Curve Metal that is).

        • Stephen says:

          31 Dec31 December 13:35

          Just checked mine again, and despite being changed to Personal, it’s kept the limit at £9000 too

• George says:

  31 Dec31 December 11:09

  Does anyone have any experience of getting a refund on flights to Switzerland, particularly with Swiss?

  I booked a flight in December LHR-ZRH to fly next week, a few days before Tier 4 and ‘new strain’ were announced. The Swiss government are now not allowing non-Swiss nationals into the country. As of today my flight has not been cancelled. Swiss are only offering a one-off date/destination change for free but I don’t wish to travel at a later date.

  I booked with Amex Everyday Rewards Credit Card and have separate travel insurance taken out in February 2020. I’ve been told Amex travel insurance doesn’t cover cancellation of trips although I could dispute the charge and I’m not sure my separate travel insurance would cover it, as I booked the trip whilst it was against FCO guidance to travel. Travel insurance will require proof of cancellation or a letter of no-show before they can settle the claim.

  I have to make a decision before I fly next week if I want to ‘no show’ and lose it all or if I begrudgingly take the option to rebook.

  Can anyone tell me if I have any hope of getting a refund, either through Amex or travel insurance?

  • Nick says:

    31 Dec31 December 12:11

    If your flight operates, you won’t get a refund from the airline. They are fulfilling their part of the contract, and it’s not their fault you can’t take them up on it.

    This is really a question for insurance… my (cheap bog-standard) annual policy does cover changes in government restrictions as long as travel was permitted when I booked. If this latter clause is your fall-down point then I suspect you’ll be best off at the mercy of whatever Swiss will offer (do they have an equivalent of BA’s FTV?)

    Obviously best to leave any decision to the last minute anyway, as if the flight does get cancelled you’ll get a refund.

    • George says:

      31 Dec31 December 12:30

      I will be leaving it to the last minute and will find some backup dates to change the booking to as Swiss don’t offer a voucher, only a one-off change of date/destination. I’ll follow it up in writing that I am taking that option however I’ll pursue the refund through my credit card or travel insurance.

      My (also bog-standard) insurance covers FCO guidance changing however at the time that I booked I think the FCO guidance was also not to travel unless essential. That might hinder my claim I guess, however it is only now that the Swiss government are preventing me from entering that I cannot fly. Before, even with FCO guidance I could still travel for an essential reason.

      • JLNF says:

        31 Dec31 December 13:51

        I had a Swiss flight LHR-ZRH for 18/12 that we decided not to take. I had expected that the only choice was a the single date change, as per the T&C of my ticket. But I called Swiss and they offered me a refund without me even asking and the £ was back with me in 2 working days.

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