The HfP chat thread – Monday 4th January

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• TT says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:02

  Not sure if mentioned but swiss has sub£1000 fares from AMS to DXB in April and Mart, various date. Not on search engines, only direct on Swiss! Played with dates and plenty available

  • Anna says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:19

    There’s a very good chance we will all effectively still be in Tier 4 in March and April! I have an Easter trip booked but it was booked some time ago, I wouldn’t be making any plans just now for the same period. I’m expecting either BA will cancel in the next couple of months or I will be calling them to do it myself. 😥

    • TGLoyalty says:

      4 Jan4 January 09:27

      Have some faith Anna.

      Boris and his minions are promising millions of vaccines by April… should relax tier 4 if nothing else.

      • Lee says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:31

        The promise was made for Dec once though

      • Andrew says:

        4 Jan4 January 09:31

        Always best to add a couple of months to any promises made by the government though.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          4 Jan4 January 10:28

          🙂 and more.

      • Anna says:

        4 Jan4 January 10:10

        Well … I won’t be cancelling until the last minute when all hope is gone. But with all the obstacles currently in the way I’m thinking it’s going to be a good 6 months before we’re anything like back to normal!

      • Nick says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:45

        Look at today’s newspapers… high level of restrictions until at least Easter. You can bet these have been ‘planted’ by govt insiders to make it less of a shock when it’s announced later. Add a month or two for government ineptitude, and we’re talking May or June before we’re allowed to travel. Or do pretty much anything to be honest. (July for Anna… because they do seem to like being extra cautious in east lancs for some reason 😂)

        • Anna says:

          4 Jan4 January 14:22

          They do – as long as there’s some government moolah in it for our local leaders. I can’t wait for the funds to dry up!

      • Alan says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:46

        Boris has just been interviewed on Sky. He pointedly refused to answer questions about ramping up of the vaccination rate, strip out the blather and he said nothing.

        Supply is clearly a big problem, I think I will soon be cancelling our April and May trips.

        • ANDY says:

          4 Jan4 January 12:28

          AZ can provide the supply if the Govt can vaccinate 2 million a week. They are delaying putting the vaccine into vials because they aren’t confident the Govt will be able to use the vaccine before it goes out of date.

        • Anna says:

          4 Jan4 January 14:25

          This has been pointed out before but as long as it’s not an entry requirement, the only reason to want the vaccine for travel is if you are particularly worried about catching covid. It will be far more likely that you’ll need to present a negative test prior to travel, as you can still catch and transmit covid even after being vaccinated, apparently. So if none of the above applies, you just have to hope you’re not in Tier 4 on your travel date!

        • Cat says:

          4 Jan4 January 22:09

          It’s not that people *can* catch and transmit the virus after vaccination, it’s that they don’t know whether they can or can’t yet, and they won’t know that until they can monitor a population with a high proportion of vaccinated people, that actually mix and engage in behaviour likely to lead to high levels of transmission.
          That one will take a while to find out just how effective each vaccine is at preventing transmission, as well as preventing the virus from taking hold within one individual.

    • James Vickers says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:49

      I think there’s a chance of there being a tier 5 so best chance for anyone would be dropping to tier 3.

      • Jonathan says:

        4 Jan4 January 13:24

        GP’s delivered 11.5 million flu jabs between 1st September & 30th November, pharmacists another 650k & the NHS vaccinated nearly 800k staff in same period.

        That’s a million/week without really breaking sweat.

        Now there is a vaccine (AZ) with a much simpler supply chain & this is number 1 national priority rather than just a routine annual vaccine those figures can be doubled very easily.

        • Anna says:

          4 Jan4 January 14:28

          I got an ivitation to have the flu jab for the first time last November. I declined as I have never had flu in my life and I go out so little at the moment I didn’t think it was worth taking up NHS time and resources.

        • Doug M says:

          4 Jan4 January 22:40

          I always cross the road without looking as I’ve never been hit by a car.

  • Andrew says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:26

    And factoring the added complication here of needing to be able to enter the Netherlands to start the journey.

  • marcw says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:46

    Good luck entering the NL for non-essential purposes as an UK pp holder.

    • TT says:

      5 Jan5 January 07:21

      Long life my european passport!

• James says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:24

  Just got a BA PP Amex and have no offers available at all. I already hold Amex Platinum which has plenty of offers. Is this normal or do they only start giving me offers once I start spending on it?

  • Andrew says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:27

    Usually takes a couple of weeks before offers start showing up on a new card.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:27

    You need to start spending on the actual card for a few weeks.

• Doog1000 says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:27

  Slightly unusual covid corridor question: I have a son who is living in Paris with his mother who is a UK rather than French citizen as is he: it appears from the French website that you can only visit if they are French citizens – is this correct and if not what would be the workaround?

  • Anna says:

    4 Jan4 January 10:12

    Are you saying both mother and child are UK citizens (but residents of France)? Do you mean them visit you or you them?

    • Doog1000 says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:19

      yes thanks Anna all three of mother, myself and my six year old are UK citizens – the mother and child have been staying with family for a year in France but are not French residents – I am living in London

      • Anna says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:36

        I don’t think there would be any issue with them coming back here, apart from whatever quarantine requirement is in place at the time. You would need to check the current regulation for UK citizens entering France, an elderly family friend of mine was taken to France earlier this year to live with her nephew as she has no other family. He is English but a long term French resident, and this was apparently possible as she was a close relative of his. It may be that you could visit if your son’s family are French residents and this policy still applies.

        • Nick says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:50

          I have friends in a similar position… they asked and the French authorities were very clear that entry would only be allowed if they had residency status. Check very carefully with a consulate/similar before planning anything. I would hope they would be pragmatic if a child is involved, but not guaranteed. One good thing about french bureaucracy though… if they will allow it, they can give you documentation to facilitate at the border.

        • Doog1000 says:

          4 Jan4 January 13:26

          thanks Anna and Nick – it’s a complicated one – think agree with Nick’s suggestion and will seek advice from the French embassy – the issue is me wanting to go visit my son over there rather than them coming to London

        • Lyn says:

          4 Jan4 January 19:19

          Further to Nick’s advice – as long as your son’s mother is comfortable with her own French residence status, she could also ask for advice, and support for your visit, from her local mairie.

          It might be best to wait until after January 6th to see if the current restrictions are extended, and in what form.

      • AJA says:

        4 Jan4 January 14:44

        If they are not French residents won’t they now require a visa to stay for more than 90 days in the next 180? In which case they are going to need apply for a visa if they don’t intend to come back to the UK before April. I think you will be out of luck getting approval to visit them.

• Rob says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:44

  Anyone taken an Amex out recently and got the “we may need more info” ? Received that but never heard anything or received any other emails since.. this was 4 days ago now. Wasn’t sure whether to reapply.

  • Toppcat says:

    4 Jan4 January 09:51

    I have had this a couple of times in the past, but then the cards showed up about a week later with no further correspondence iirc.

    In any case I would call Amex to discuss your existing application, rather than reapplying.

  • Nick says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:54

    Assuming you’re talking about Amex UK… are you serious?! Think for just a second. You need a manual review, and the last 4 days includes a bank holiday and a weekend. When exactly do you think they’re going to do it? Do you realise that bank holiday means exactly that… banks close?!

    Have a tiny bit of patience. They’ll be back at work today, and you’ll either get a rejection (unlikely) or a new card this week.

    • Genghis says:

      4 Jan4 January 12:06

      Quite – albeit Amex isn’t a bank in the UK.

• Andrew says:

  4 Jan4 January 09:55

  A few offers back on LBG. (should also be on the MBNA brand very soon too.)

  LNER (5%) – until 5th March
  Mountain Warehouse (10%) – until 18th February
  Spar (10%) – until 18th January
  Coop (10%) – until 18th February

  I’ll be making £600 of prepayments to my 2021-2022 Council Tax Bill…

  • Harry T says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:37

    @Andrew which bank accounts would you recommend opening to take advantage of these offers?

    • Nick says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:58

      Whichever has the best sign-up bonus or ongoing benefits that you like the look of most – the offers are all the same across the brands (they’re run outside by Cardlytics). However, note that to get the best offers you have to actually ‘use’ the account, which includes reasonably frequent spending on the debit card. I have to remember not to use Amex occasionally and spend on my DC to trigger any offers.

    • Andrew says:

      4 Jan4 January 12:25

      Whichever has the best sign up bonus generally.

      Halifax if in England, Bank of Scotland if over the border. MBNA Credit card for when they come on stream shortly if you don’t already have one.

      Debit card use drives the volume of offers on the current accounts.

  • 747_Brat says:

    4 Jan4 January 13:35

    I second the comments related to spending on debit card to get offers. I have a Halifax & a Lloyds current account. Never received any offers on these 2 initially, and thought the scheme was useless. But then read some comments here from Andrew on how he constantly gets offers by using his card in the office cafeteria, where Amex is not accepted.

    I then started putting some purchases on both debit cards, and voila started receiving offers! I will admit most of them are useless (like Amex), but there are some decent ones I can see myself using like Costa & Co-op.

• John says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:48

  Time for some optimism:

  https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/aer-lingus-to-start-selling-tickets-for-transatlantic-flights-out-of-uk-1.4449216

• Miles. On point says:

  4 Jan4 January 10:50

  Data point: Amex Platinum fee renewal (fee hit card in last bill cycle)

  Rang this morning, no points offering (spoke to UK team and then the “cancellations team”)
  Only offered downgrade to Gold Card (free for a year) or Platinum fee split into monthly payments.

  • babyg says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:10

    Hmm interesting – had you previously been given any retention points? Do you put much through you platinum? O was looking to cancel my platinum today unless there was a retention offer. Based on your post it looks like ill be getting rid of the platinum for now.

    • Alex M says:

      4 Jan4 January 11:23

      Downgraded my Plat to Gold Charge 10 minutes ago – when I asked about retention offer they said they already had given me one back in may and they can only offer it once a year, so was advised to wait till may. I also complained (again) about zero offers since late Oct, they said they would look into the issue, but they said same back in Dec.

      • Anna says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:37

        I thought there were no gold charge cards any more?

        • Alex M says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:38

          there aren’t on internet, but Plat holders can be downgraded to it.

        • Andrew says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:55

          They still offer for downgraded platinum.

      • jil says:

        4 Jan4 January 11:37

        i got the same response when asked about retention offer, but there are poeple reporting they got twice, once in apr/may, once in oct

        • Andrew says:

          4 Jan4 January 11:57

          +1 – as I had the bonus in May or whenever it was, I can just downgrade to gold or pay monthly now. Let’s hope there are some more of those £100 credits to pop up as I don’t really want to cancel but also don’t really want to be out of pocket. Double points double value returning would be a start.

  • babyg says:

    4 Jan4 January 12:20

    Just got off phone to UK Brighton, they offered 35,000 points to keep the card. Ill keep the card and i have a trip (perhaps) in Feb where the Plat insurance may come in handy on top of my regular insurance.

    • MilesOnPoint says:

      4 Jan4 January 13:20

      Interesting. I had received retention offers in April & September 2020. Going to weigh up over the next couple of weeks but difficult to see value in keeping given what the next few months look like. Does anyone know how long you have to wait before “upgrading back” to Plat for 20K points (if indeed still available)?

• S says:

  4 Jan4 January 11:02

  To those that are still flying right now or in the near future, might be a silly question but are you mostly flying direct?

  I’m looking at using partner awards on various alliances but obviously that then includes stopovers and layovers which would require PCR tests and whatever other requirements the stopover country wants, as well any quarantine when returning home.

  Just interested to know what others plans are with regards to all that.

  • Rob says:

    4 Jan4 January 11:10

    We flew to Dubai via Zurich. We originally booked for 12 days so this would have triggered 2 days quarantine at the end which we were OK with. As it happened they cut the quarantine period to 10 days and we stayed for 17.

    It was trickier coming back because we were restricted to just BA or Emirates as any flight touching down in Europe would have triggered quarantine and, whilst we didn’t know it at the time, potentially PCR tests.

    Basically anyone booking an ex-Euro cheap ticket or transferring in Europe is taking a risk now.

  • ankomonkey says:

    4 Jan4 January 12:17

    I have flights to Egypt booked for Easter via Berlin. I have been actively looking for alternatives using direct flights UKEgypt to remove the added complications of needing to go via Germany which may not be allowed, may require extra tests in both directions, may require extra quarantine in both directions, or any combination thereof. I haven’t yet booked new flights or cancelled my existing ones as I doubt even direct UKEgypt will be possible without some/all of these restrictions (travel insurance, quarantine affecting kids’ schooling, etc.).

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