The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 5th January

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• Ammar says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:01

  Anyone been able to pay leasys with a credit card (vehicle lease)?

  • Andrew says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:19

    Don’t know about Leasys, but I’m currently on a monthly lease from Thrifty paid by credit card.

    Booked a mid-range “surprise” car for £380 a month. Have a very well specced diesel Focus.

    • Ammar says:

      5 Jan5 January 15:15

      Thanks Andrew – enjoy your new ride

• old bob says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:11

  From Sky; As of Monday, there were 26,626 COVID patients in hospital in England – an increase of over 30% in one week and now more than 40% higher than the peak of the first wave of infections last April.

  England’s lockdown ‘should’ start being eased in March, Michael Gove says
  there has been a 25% increase in the number of deaths in the past seven days, compared to the previous week. Read between the lines here folks, ‘Should start’ that’s the beginning, not the end of restrictions and no guarantees either. If these figures don’t persuade you to stay at home and not try to circumvent the rules via some dodgy ‘I was looking at a property ruse’ , then nothing will. Meanwhile The idle rich can stay in Barbados until April!

  • Rob says:

    5 Jan5 January 12:26

    Frankly, most people will read this and think they should be getting the heck out of the UK whilst they can ….

    • Nick_C says:

      5 Jan5 January 12:35

      … spreading this highly infectious strain to the rest of the world. Says a lot about your readership Rob.

      • Aston100 says:

        5 Jan5 January 12:38

        Shouldn’t it be down to the destination country to ban people from the UK?

        • Nick_C says:

          5 Jan5 January 12:49

          They really should. Some countries are putting tourism above public health.

          But as an act of altruism, I think we should prevent our own citizens from leaving the country. In fact, I think nobody should be allowed to leave their own postal district unless it esential for them to do so, Quarantine is a centuries old tried and tested method of dealing with epidemics, but we have failed to implement it, resulting in the mess we are in now.

        • Aston100 says:

          5 Jan5 January 12:55

          Nick, while I am broadly in-line with your overall wishes, I don’t think the culture and the type of government in this country lend themselves well to ‘proper’ lockdowns.
          We would need an authoritarian government (China etc) and a population that isn’t often thinking they can do what they want.
          South East Asia seem to be managing better than us. They seem to have the appropriate government types (not necessarily full-on authoritarian, but at least willing to heavily penalise transgressors) and populations.

        • Nick_C says:

          5 Jan5 January 13:11

          @Aston. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is the worst crisis since WW2. We should have had strict lockdowns. We should have closed the borders. We should have had cross party decision making so the politics was kept out of things.

          A relatively short period of severe curtailment of civil liberties could have got us to the situation that Australia and NZ have achieved. We could then have reopened free movement to other countries that had suppressed infection levels.

          As it is, we currently have the world’s highest rate of new infections (per capita) and deaths (per capita), and an economy that is well and truly stuffed. The price of personal freedom.

        • kitten says:

          5 Jan5 January 15:23

          Decent behaviour even if not forced by some external force such as the destination country banning you, or a law stating you should remain at home, was till quite recently taught at home by parents and at school by teachers, as something people should grow up with as their innate ethical moral behaviour by default.

          What happened ? I noticed another post today by Aston100 mentioning he had a teacher’s discount on Qatar.

          The infection is now environmentally transferred and persistent (though to what degree it persists we don’t seem to know yet). So it’s on your clothes, your luggage, your artefacts you want to transport to a foreign country. Even if your home does not have the virus you or what you carry and use may contact it and transport it as youtravel.
          You can bring the virus somewhere even if you’re not infected yourself.

          Common sense and decency would say stay at home and don’t travel even if there wasnt a law telling you not to.

          Not to offend our host, but planes to Dubai have been packed and now they’ve had a surge in cases ? Go figure.

        • Cat says:

          5 Jan5 January 18:09

          Agreed Nick_C and Kitten – this irresponsible behaviour (and lack of proper enforcement of lockdown restrictions) is why we’re in this position.

          People need to start behaving responsibly, and stop thinking only about themselves.

        • Annih says:

          5 Jan5 January 18:57

          Hyperbolic…

        • Cat says:

          5 Jan5 January 19:36

          …parabolic…

          …why, it’s greased lightenin’!

    • Martin Short says:

      5 Jan5 January 17:26

      In Dubai after negative covid test. Now working online from here.
      Why stay in uk?

  • BJ says:

    5 Jan5 January 12:40

    …and the real sh*t will not hit the fan for another 2-3 weeks yet!

    • kitten says:

      5 Jan5 January 15:32

      Seen a post by Novice that said deaths would peak end of February.

      Too many people not united across classes and creeds in the UK have not done what they were told for the common good. As they don’t regard common good as important.

      And a government that blew the biggest opportunity we had, to stop people landing o planea from New York, China, and the Indian subcontinent, for example, when their rates were so much worse than ours in the early days.

      • Aston100 says:

        5 Jan5 January 15:55

        The failure of this government to impose any kind of checks upon arrivals throughout what seems most (if not all?) of last year is scandalous.

      • Nick_C says:

        5 Jan5 January 16:45

        Although the initial infections mainly came from Spain and Italy.

    • Ken says:

      5 Jan5 January 18:02

      The rule of thumb is divide today’s cases by 50 – and that’s how many daily deaths there will be in 3 weeks time.
      So last week of January should see 1000 deaths a day.

      Not impossible that we will see 2000 deaths per day in Feb if cases continue to rise.

      • Nick_C says:

        5 Jan5 January 18:53

        The seven day average is now 736,and infections arising from illegal New Year parties will not have been identified yet. 1000 deaths a day sounds about right, given the direction of travel.

  • Darren says:

    5 Jan5 January 13:27

    Do we have any Australian readers? My limited understanding is that they have been through a number of lockdowns, closed international and state borders etc but I’d be interested in first hand experience.

    • Louie says:

      6 Jan6 January 00:52

      Yes. What did you want to know?

  • Andrw says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:14

    There will be around 1,500,000 NHS Staff in the UK who will have received their first vaccination by mid February. A fair proportion of those will have had their second before Easter.

    There will also be hundreds of thousands of over 80s who have had their jabs and be desperate for some time away from their prisons of the last year.

    Why shouldn’t they enjoy a good holiday?

    • Nick says:

      5 Jan5 January 14:21

      Because no one has yet proved that they won’t spread it to vulnerable populations in other countries. There’s a reason Bozo was able to say we’ve vaccinated more than the rest of Europe… it’s because we paid double to get stocks before them. Until there’s a more equitable spread globally – or it’s proved that the vaccine prevents transmission as well as serious illness – it will still be inappropriate for people to travel abroad. Why does no one get this?

      • The Lord says:

        5 Jan5 January 15:11

        I think if I was in France right now and saw the comparison on number of people vaccinated then I wouldn’t really care what each govt has paid for each jab. Call me cynical but would those complaining that we paid more than the EU per jab not be in hysterics if we had only injected a few hundred people when the country next door in close to a million?

    • Nick_C says:

      5 Jan5 January 14:24

      Because there is no evidence currently that the vaccination prevents you from transmitting the virus to others who have not yet been vaccinated.

      At 2m vaccinations a week, it is going to be the end of June before Phase 1 of the vaccination programme is complete.

      Although if you are making an arguement that only people who have been vaccinated should be allowed to travel, then I have some sympathy with that.

      Not sure that the Government is setting up the IT to certify that though.

      • Dick Steele says:

        5 Jan5 January 14:32

        This supposes that the “UK Strain” actually originated in the UK.

        • Nick_C says:

          5 Jan5 January 14:40

          “This supposes that the “UK Strain” actually originated in the UK.” That is what our scientists believe. And specifically from a Patient Zero in Kent.

          Almost all the outbreaks of the new UK Strain found abroad have been traced back to the UK. And most of those transmissions will have resulted from non essential travel.

          Some people are dying for a holiday.

        • kitten says:

          5 Jan5 January 15:35

          Nick_C it’s worse.
          Some people are dying for *other people’s* holiday.

        • Cat says:

          5 Jan5 January 18:18

          Adding to what Nick_C and Kitten have said – the proportion of new cases that are the new variant (compared to other SARS-CoV-2 variants) is higher in the UK than anywhere else (and people have been looking for a while now). The current rapid rise in cases is truly world-beating.

          If the UK variant (not strain) originated elsewhere, they’d be finding high proportions of the UK variant elsewhere too.

        • Lyn says:

          5 Jan5 January 21:47

          Cat, yes this does seem very likely. What complicates the situation is that the UK has more expertise in this area of idenidifying strains than most countries and has been actively looking at the data. The US is the other extreme, they simply have barely looked at it until now so don’t really have much of a clue how many cases of the new strain they have.

        • Cat says:

          5 Jan5 January 23:05

          Hey Lynn!

          True, genomics is one of our scientific strengths, but when we discovered in mid December that 62% of London’s cases were of the new variant, and said that it was 70% more transmissible, the rest of the world started looking frantically too.

          If anywhere approaching 62% of their cases were the new variant, they wouldn’t have had to look for long to discover this, rather than a case being discovered here and there in Florida and California, one every couple of days or so.

        • Lyn says:

          6 Jan6 January 00:16

          Hello Cat, and best wishes for the New Year. Perhaps so with other countries, but in the case of the US they are apparently only just starting to look.

          The statistics in a New York Times article published on December 22nd are astonishing. Between Dec 1 and when the article was written, the US had sequenced less than 40 cases compared to more than 3,700 cases in the UK.

          The title almost says it all – “The Corona Virus is Mutating, and America’s Leaders are Flying Blind”. Here’s a link in case anyone is interested.

          https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/22/opinion/coronavirus-uk-strain.html

      • Tracey says:

        5 Jan5 January 14:34

        If a lot of vaccinated people are going to be asymptotic just because they’ve had the vaccine and the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission, there are going to be a lot of people unwittingly transmitting covid soon. Will this be a real risk to the 40-60 age group in the immediate months ahead?

        • Nick_C says:

          5 Jan5 January 14:45

          Yes. And it will be a risk to many in the 60/70 group as well, who won’t be getting their first shot until late March and their second until late June.

          People who have been vaccinated should consider that they may be asymptomatic and infectious and act appropriately until the rate of infection comes back down to acceptable levels. Many won’t of course.

      • mutley says:

        5 Jan5 January 15:42

        I

        The country doesn’t have the people to administer such a number of vaccinations, GP’s, nurses, community nurses, midwives are already stretched to breaking point. Are we really to believe that the NHS may be able to vaccinate 2m a week on top of everything else they have to deal with.

        Lets get realistic and they manage 500k to 1m people a week (unlikely) its still going to take until August /September before we can even start to think about ‘normality’

        I appreciate that all politicians are ‘economical with the truth’ but Bojo the clown and his cohorts take it to Olympian levels. Interestingly, I note that the pretenders to the Bojo’s crown have been conspicuous by their low profile the last month or so ( Rees- Mogg, Raab, Patel) as they don’t want to associated with this fiasco.

        • Nick_C says:

          5 Jan5 January 17:55

          There’s a huge pool of registered healthcare professionals that the NHS can draw on. Nursing Associates, Pharmacists, Chriropodists, Dieticians, Occupational Therapists, Paramedics, Physiotherapists, Speech & Language Therapists, Dental Hygieneists, Optometrists. And of course Doctors and Nurses.

          The actual injection can be done by someone who is not a registered professional working under supervision.

        • Ken says:

          5 Jan5 January 18:12

          That’s pure nonsense.

          5000 people could easily vaccinate 2 million a week.
          The limiting factor at the moment is certified batches of vaccine.

          We should be looking to build capability to vaccinate at least 500k per day.

        • Cat says:

          5 Jan5 January 18:21

          That’s the plan. I’m writing a reference for a friend who’s not a healthcare professional, and will be doing just that – administering the vaccine under supervision of a healthcare professional.

        • mvcvz says:

          5 Jan5 January 18:24

          Muttley, you are taking out of your ill-informed derriere. The country has plenty of suitably qualified and experienced people. I resigned from a senior surgical position in the NHS a number of years ago to pursue alternative, non-clinical professional opportunities, although I have continued to maintain my professional registration. Have I been contacted with a view to participating in any vaccination programme? Have any of my colleagues in a similar position been contacted? Answers on a postcard please…

        • Jonathan says:

          5 Jan5 January 18:30

          The NHS vaccinated 1 million/week with the seasonal flu vaccine between 1st September & 30th November. That was on top of the 2nd wave pressures.

          In my trust there were 2 full time staff & a cohort of trained vaccinators giving flu jabs on top of their usual roles (eg. 1 nurse on a ward who vaccinates all their colleagues on shift with them) who covered 80% of the staff in less than 2 weeks.

          There were no mass vaccination centres deployed for seasonal flu so throw them in the mix & making vaccines number 1 priority rather than a side issue & it’ll be very easy to hit >2 million/week.

• David Birkbeck says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:16

  Has anyone managed to add the Virgin Atlantic premium MasterCard to Curve? That’s the one with a photo on front, all details on back. No success for weeks, trying both photo recognition feature on Curve app and also trying manually…

  • babyg says:

    5 Jan5 January 12:20

    added manually no issues approx 8+months ago

  • BP says:

    5 Jan5 January 13:54

    Have had it added to Curve for many months but don’t ever use it via Curve.

  • Chas says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:15

    I added it successfully a couple of years ago. Use it fairly regularly without issues.

  • Alan says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:35

    Manually added a couple of weeks ago, no problems.

• Ali M says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:19

  Re : EC261
  Inbound flight delayed by 6 hrs …we have been told 6 days prior.Still qualify for the the compensation?

  • babyg says:

    5 Jan5 January 12:22

    Compensation during a pandemic?? Be grateful if you get to where you want to go (reroute) or your money back, EC261 compensation currently doesn’t apply, EC261 duty of care still applies.

    • Ali M says:

      5 Jan5 January 12:27

      thanks for your insight.It’s helpful.
      I’ll be thankful for any extra dash of money which I am due legally and hence asking😅 Yes I agree that the attitude may not be most stellar.(await judgements along the lines of ‘pathetic’ and ‘selfish’ to complete the cosy evening in🤪)

      Think compensation maybe due – I’ll try anyway -Specially if the travel times haven’t changed BECAUSE OF THE pandemic.

      • Aston100 says:

        5 Jan5 January 12:36

        Pretty sure compensation (if the cancellation or delay was due to covid) was removed at some point last year.

      • Mo says:

        5 Jan5 January 13:10

        Yeah, as stated about, airlines are no longer obligated to give compensation due to delays because of covid. Its not worth chasing.

        • Ali M says:

          5 Jan5 January 13:13

          Thanks guys x same for travel insurance

      • TGLoyalty says:

        5 Jan5 January 13:13

        Unfortunately even if its not directly caused by C19 the airlines have been given an out that they are free to change / cancel flights based upon customer load factors (which of course might be indirectly or directly C19 related)

  • ChrisC says:

    5 Jan5 January 13:13

    No

    delay compensation only applies to on the day delays not ones notified days before hand.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      5 Jan5 January 13:14

      within 14 days isn’t it?

      • ChrisC says:

        5 Jan5 January 13:24

        That’s cancellation.

        I would suggest that given 6 days notice this would count as a reschedule.

        And then any delay would be based on the rescheduled arrival not the original.

        OP can always ask the (unspecified) airline for it on the basis that if you don’t ask you don’t get. But I’m of the opinion this is a don’t get situation.

        • Nick says:

          5 Jan5 January 14:24

          In ‘normal’ times a delay of 6 hours would count for compensation purposes, depending on the length of the flight. But given covid, airlines are not paying compensation claims for EU261 – and have been given a get-out by the regulators to do so. I also don’t think it’s worth chasing.

        • ChrisC says:

          5 Jan5 January 14:52

          Yes Nick for an on the day delay.

          This has been notified 6 days in advance and could be regarded as a schedule change. We don’t know what the email from the air line said though

          Anyway we are in agreement – no compo due.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          5 Jan5 January 16:00

          There doesn’t seem to be any distinction of on day of travel perhaps I’m reading the wrong regulation. perhaps 6 days notice could be considered a schedule change but not everyone’s idea of reasonable notice is the same.

        • jc says:

          5 Jan5 January 16:11

          I don’t think any of what you’re saying is backed up by the regulations? There is no legal difference between a “reschedule” and a “delay” – if your flight’s arrival time changes by X minutes you’re eligible for the compensation.

          …in normal times, of course. As others have said covid is the reason OP won’t get compensation for this one.

  • Charlieface says:

    5 Jan5 January 17:10

    IMHO the Covid argument is moot if the reason for the delay is unrelated. In this case, 6 days before, it probably is related.
    But if the plane went tech, or the pilot was drunk, 100% that SHOULD be eligible for compo.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      5 Jan5 January 17:53

      Agree.

• Andi Hawes says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:29

  Anyone had any dealings with EuroTunnel and any product extensions? I bought a Flexi Wallet with 5 FlexiPlus journeys in the year expecting to use them all, but have only used 2 of 5.

  EuroTunnel are telling me that they will not extend the time frame for my year wallet, and come July 2021, if i have not used the 3 outstanding journeys, i will lose them.

  Seems a little unfair for their premium product which we spent a lot of money on to have zero flexibity? The irony of the Flexi Wallet not being flexible in this climate…?

  • ChrisC says:

    5 Jan5 January 13:17

    You are asking far to far in advance which is why they have said ‘no’.

    No one knows what the position will be in 7 weeks let alone 7 months away,

    • Andi Hawes says:

      5 Jan5 January 22:26

      a ticket which is bought for a year in advance by design should have a strategy on how this tickets issues will now be addressed in this climate. Saying ‘wait until nearer the end/time’ doesnt help someone who has planned this for the year ahead and now needs to work in that timescale.

      Its also not uncommon to be looking 12 months ahead for holidays, or not for me anyhow.

  • C says:

    5 Jan5 January 13:31

    I’ve found EuroTunnel’s approach to be very inflexible and entirely dependent on when you booked. Different ticket type (Standard), but booked in June 2020 for September 2020, which due to not being able to quarantine at that time we then had to move to Nov, and then due to Lockdown 2 had to move again to March to keep the ticket active, but we won’t be going then. At that time I asked if we could re-book for September 2021 due to baby being due early May and got a point blank refusal even after escalating as a complaint. With zero sympathy we were told we should have booked a refundable ticket as we knew about Covid and we can’t move it beyond June 2021. Will try again a few days before the March date we currently have booked but not expecting much. Annoyingly, from Trustpilot reviews it appears that people who booked pre-Covid are being offered a full year extension to the normal 1 year validity. I’m not sure if they will be more flexible if travel restrictions continue beyond Easter…

    • Andi Hawes says:

      5 Jan5 January 22:32

      I will keep on at them. I dont believe this attitude is sustrainable in this climate. Im not asking for money back, only that i be able to utilise these crossings in a longer timeframe.

      I will keep trying, but i will also remind them they suggested this product to me over my already seperate bookings. With zero flexibilty i wont be booking this product again in a hurry

  • Johan says:

    5 Jan5 January 15:43

    Andi, you can book these tickets also for somebody else so you could try to sell. I for example would pay you for the tickets (that you cant use them) but not at face value as i dont need the flexi version. I m a dual resident / “ frontier worker” and travel quiet regularly although clearly i m not planning to return to London the coming months. I have still the last return leg left in my wallet (i had bought 20 standard tickets in March) that now will expire if not extended but rather than buying by April- May a new set, i could buy – use yours if you find no use. Despite traveling a lot, eurotunnel also rejected my request to extend. In the past I bought both Eurotunnel frequent flyers and season tickets on DFDS (great flexibility as you could buy the cheapest offer version with 15 returns and have any unused trips rolled into next year) but ferry companies now even stopped selling the season tickets since the pandemic leaving only eurotunnel or expensive standard return tickets

    • kitten says:

      5 Jan5 January 18:44

      Johan which DFDS route did you get the carnet for ?

    • Andi Hawes says:

      5 Jan5 January 22:30

      I didnt buy it to sell it, i bought it to use it. I dont have the time to be selling this, worrying about how i advertise, sell itm who uses it etc. I believe as the premium product it should have some flexibility.

      The irony of EuroTunnel suggesting this product to me, instead of my 3 prebooked separate bookings is not lost on me

• Nick ONS says:

  5 Jan5 January 12:40

  Hi all a Curve question. Prior to receipt of the physical card I made a small purchase from ERNIE, it went through fine. Once I received the physical card and tried to use that for ERNIE nd other purchases it has been declined. I have messaged Curve customer service/support I dont know how many times, no response.

  Does anyone know how to actually get response or should I just destroy said card and give up

  • Rhys says:

    5 Jan5 January 12:58

    Did you activate the card?

    • Stephen says:

      5 Jan5 January 15:16

      I had similar issues, so ordered a new card, and didn’t bother activating it. I’m now using the virtual card details in the account, but means I cannot use the card for in person transactions

    • Nick says:

      5 Jan5 January 17:15

      Yes

• John says:

  5 Jan5 January 13:42

  Long but worthwhile examination of points, cresit cards, manufactured spending, morality etc. Also a bit of travel.

  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/magazine/points-guy-travel-rewards.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

• James. says:

  5 Jan5 January 13:42

  I have the Free VA card and have breached the £20k threshold about 4 months ago. I am now starting my next annual period and noticed my reward has not posted. How long should I wait before chasing Virgin Money and Flying Club?

  I don’t want to leave it too longer as otherwise I will be chasing for 2 rewards

  • Chas says:

    5 Jan5 January 14:24

    Are you sure it hasn’t posted? It would have happened within a day or two of you hitting £20k (so 4 months ago), and is an innocuous line on your statement of activity (in your Virgin Miles account, not credit card account) which doesn’t say that it is your reward voucher.

    • James. says:

      5 Jan5 January 17:50

      @Chas, I am 100% sure as both myself and my wife has exceed the spend and not received our vouchers. I have 7 vouchers already on my account I need these other 2 for a family trip (once we open up from COVID) so little frustrating that they haven’t posted

      • TGLoyalty says:

        5 Jan5 January 17:58

        Isn’t it just 1 voucher per 12 months Per account?

        I haven’t had the card in a while but I thought they only had a 2 year validity ?

        • Chas says:

          5 Jan5 January 19:02

          @TGLoyalty – yes, just 1 voucher can be earnt per card account p.a., but that doesn’t mean to say that the OP can’t have both the free and the paid card (I do), so he could be earning 1 x 2 yr validity voucher (paid card) and 1 x 1 yr validity voucher (free card) per card anniversary year. Add in any extensions of the voucher which Virgin have done, and between him and his wife I think it’s possible to have that many…
          @James. Just checking as it is a misconception that the voucher posts at the end of the card year like some schemes, whereas I’ve always found that it posts within a day or two of hitting the spend threshold. Probably worth calling them as it should have posted 4 months ago.

  • Alex says:

    5 Jan5 January 19:32

    Mine has not posted too, first time I asked VA card team and they told me to wait, been waiting for 2 months, no signs of the voucher, just contacted them again and they tell me to ring the Flying Club Team on 0344 412 2414 available 24/7. Not done yet but will do in a few days

    • James. says:

      5 Jan5 January 22:20

      @chas I am going to give VA a call. Normally these post instantly but since COVID I have noticed neither mine or the wife’s has posted. My 12 months renewed on the 3 Jan. wife is 16 Jan.

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