The HfP chat thread – Friday 1st January

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• ankomonkey says:

  1 Jan1 January 10:17

  Happy and healthy new year to all!

• Dan says:

  1 Jan1 January 10:32

  Has anyone called Amex for retention offers on the Gold card recently? Annual Fee coming soon in March and keen to know if anyone else has managed to negotiate anything

  • Clive says:

    1 Jan1 January 11:43

    I had 10K offered on my Wife’s Gold a month back with renewal in Feb

    Happy New Year everyone – stay safe 😜

  • Doogie says:

    1 Jan1 January 17:51

    I phoned up shortly after annual fee (and annual points) posted and got offered 10k points for £2.5k spend within 3 months. When I hit that and get the points I’ll just call and cancel/ check for further retention offer.

• SamWardill says:

  1 Jan1 January 10:43

  Happy New Year!

  I’m looking forward in 2021 to continuing my battle with Virgin Money in 2021 over my cancellation of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card. They charged the second annual fee early (on 5th July despite the card year ending on 27th July) and refused to cancel when I emailed them on 28th July. I did not use the card after 23rd July.

  Does anyone else have a similar case? Alternatively does anyone have a Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card where they kept the card for >12 months (I want to see if the practice of charging the fee early is normal – I suspect they only did it this year because they planned to rebate 1/4 of the fee)? I need some evidence to put in front of the Ombudsman (the case is going to the actual Ombudsman because the FOS Investigator did not support me (to my surprise).

  If you want to contact me directly then find me on LinkedIn or Email via Gmail (i.e. posting name at Gmail).

  • Jonathan says:

    1 Jan1 January 18:37

    You would have a cut & shut case for fee refund if you had cancelled card prior to anniversary but by going beyond it (even 1 day) you’re now relying on the ombudsman’s discretion.

    Did you just get the dates wrong or deliberately wait until 28th to cancel?

    I had an issue with them when the card was first launched (can’t remember exactly what it was but remember it affected quite a few people) & thought their response was a joke. Escalated through their internal complaints & got rebuffed. Wish I’d taken them to ombudsman but didn’t get round to it. Does mean I have no qualms about rinsing them via Ernie every month though!

    • Sam Wardill says:

      1 Jan1 January 21:12

      They actually charged the first fee in September so I figured the second fee would arrive a year later. I thought I was early when I did it (not a day late)

  • 747_Brat says:

    2 Jan2 January 00:57

    “I need some evidence to put in front of the Ombudsman (the case is going to the actual Ombudsman because the FOS Investigator did not support me (to my surprise).”

    Are there 2 Ombudsmans? Please could you explain your comment above.

• James. says:

  1 Jan1 January 10:59

  After watching the fireworks last night at the o2 was a little gutted my IC o2 booking was cancelled I bet they were a sight

  • Anna says:

    1 Jan1 January 11:05

    +1, was gutted we missed it being all Christmassy as well. Maybe this year …

    • Anna says:

      1 Jan1 January 11:06

      In fact I’m going to look now if it’s bookable for Xmas 2021, it might cheer me up!

  • David says:

    1 Jan1 January 11:37

    I believe the drones were pre-recorded early on Tuesday 29th. So you might not have had as much to see!

  • dragonfly says:

    1 Jan1 January 16:45

    For 4 years we lived in a rental house directly opposite the O2 and the IC, and missed having the prime position to watch the light show last night!

• Dave says:

  1 Jan1 January 11:13

  Any one know if IHG have got reduced status targets again or is it back to 75000 for Spire?

  • Anna says:

    1 Jan1 January 13:36

    Hmmm, points seem to have reset to zero but it doesn’t say about 2021 targets. Tbh we seemed to get treated similarly well when OH was Spire and I was still Platinum (the only difference I noted was the standard of free drink!) If it’s back up to 75k points this year we might have to decide which account to target the card spend and stays to.

    • Andrew says:

      1 Jan1 January 14:32

      Yes the only main difference between Plat and Spire is the higher amount of points you earn when staying.

      • EwanG says:

        1 Jan1 January 22:56

        Plus the only other difference of the 25k points or gifting status to another user, which you get for achieving Spire.

    • ChrisC says:

      1 Jan1 January 18:37

      They appear to be doing stuff with the app and website

      When I checked the app earlier it was only showing the ‘points’ dial and not the ‘nights’ dial but now the ‘nights’ dial is there.

      On the website only the ‘points’ dial is there.

• Olly says:

  1 Jan1 January 11:24

  Happy New Year to one and all. I have a question relating to Hillton Honors Barclaycard which I haven’t used for years,
  literally, and started using a few weeks ago with my Curve Black Legacy. The first time was for Ernie a few weeks ago and the second, the week before last for a deposit at a car dealers. No HH points appear to have gone on l, looking at both the Hilton and Barclaycard apps. Can anyone give and explanation please?

  • tom1 says:

    1 Jan1 January 11:29

    I must admit I don’t track transaction by transaction (maybe you can’t?), I just wait until the Barclaycard statement arrives at the end of my month and then check to a) make sure the right points were accrued for the spend and b) check to see they have been deposited to my HH account.

  • Peter K says:

    1 Jan1 January 12:02

    The amount of points shown to be transferred only represents your last statement… even after they have gone across to Hilton.
    There’s no accrual counter that I know of for the Hilton Barclaycard.

  • RussellH says:

    1 Jan1 January 12:15

    Barclays do not do the Amex / Creation thing of rounding each transaction down to whole £ and then nominally listing them on the website. [Except BA Amex which goes to the nearest £.]
    They wait until your account bills and then just double the number of whole £ to calculate your Hilton points.
    Much better for you if you have a lot of small transactions at £x.99.
    Same as MBNA used to do, and the Lloyds Avios cards, and NatWest before that…..

• tom1 says:

  1 Jan1 January 11:31

  Virgin points – when you cancel a flight, and get the points refunded – I can’t see any entry in the ‘activity’ tab. I think my points balance has increased correctly, but cannot see any audit trail. Is this just me?

  • Clive says:

    1 Jan1 January 11:44

    I had a refund entry show on my account

  • ChrisC says:

    1 Jan1 January 13:30

    they sometimes just get added back without showing as a transaction but also sometimes it shows against the original transaction date so you may have to scan down the transaction list to see it,

  • Travel Strong says:

    1 Jan1 January 17:57

    Hit and miss as to whether is appears clearly in activity / does not appear at all / modifies some older transactions in activity history.

    My most recent refund of points and voucher are missing in the activity, but the points are definitely in my balance now.

• Aliks says:

  1 Jan1 January 12:33

  I booked some flights this morning and stupidly clicked on the wrong date for the return flight. The airline helpdesk is closed for New Year, so I emailed them asking if they could correct the error.

  Is it better for me to just cancel the whole flight and rebook, as there is a 24 hour “cooling off” period which will refund all my money?

  • Doc says:

    1 Jan1 January 12:45

    Depends who you booked with.

  • memesweeper says:

    1 Jan1 January 12:46

    With BA you should call to exercise your 24 hour cooling off rights. Not sure about other airlines.

    • Anna says:

      1 Jan1 January 13:39

      Haven’t BA pulled this recently, at least on cash fares?

      • Nick says:

        1 Jan1 January 20:33

        No, Anna, still the same as always.

  • John says:

    1 Jan1 January 12:48

    I would cancel the whole thing on the phone to be sure it was done within 24 hours. Also you didn’t say which airline – not all airlines have this policy, and they may not let you make a change even though they would let you cancel and rebook.

    • Aliks says:

      1 Jan1 January 13:03

      The airline is Egyptair

  • AJA says:

    1 Jan1 January 13:21

    Have you tried the online chat facility on the Egyptair website? Or try calling them in Egypt +971 (04)4358444. Or you could try their office at LHR +44 (20) 8897 8234.

    • Aston100 says:

      1 Jan1 January 18:49

      Egyptair customer service (allegedly based in Hammersmith London ) are seriously incompetent.
      I’ve had issues ranging from incorrect nationality on my booking details, through to GDPR data breaches.
      Good luck, but I wouldn’t expect a good experience.

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