The HfP chat thread – Thursday 7th January

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JM says:

7 Jan7 January 05:19

Any tips for getting hold of BA on the phone? The main number which I’ve been able to get through on generally now says after 5mins we can’t take your call and hangs up.

Trying to change a flight using BA book with confidence and the cost in flight changes doesn’t seem right. One flight says “low cost of change” and is £600, the other flight says “Medium cost of change” and only £400. Who knew £400 was more than £600?!
- Jim says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 05:44
  
  Try this number: +44 (0)344 874 7747 (Open 7am – 10pm BST).
  - JM says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 06:36
    
    very good Jim, you got me! (Virgin Atlantic number)
- Michael C says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 06:38
  
  Several times last week I got through on 020 32500145. Each time, the first call rang off saying too busy to take more calls, redialled immediately and always got through on the second go (after the mandatory wait, natch!).
  - JM says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 07:05
    
    Great tip, after letting them hang up, called straight back and got straight through away! Thanks!
- Andrew says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 06:53
  
  Never press any options either – just say silent.
- Pete M says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 09:36
  
  You can also try the freephone US number (1-8777 677 970) via Skype (for free).
johnny_c-l says:

7 Jan7 January 06:15

New Amex ofter this morning, spend £70 with Paypal, get £15 back. Finally a decent offer!
- Wollhouse says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 07:19
  
  Not on my personal card but business one is spend £250 get £50 back. Would be interested if paying a friend does trigger it as Andrew asked as cautious w large purchases via PayPal as my friend is having a nightmare getting a credit for a big ticket electronic item that the vendor says was shipped in early Dec but never arrived. Andrew, if you try, let us know!
  - Andrew says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 07:26
    
    Other options are buying a gift card from a retailer such as a supermarket which you shop with regularly. M&S sells e-gift cards on their website with PayPal an option.
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 09:44
      
      Nice I’m about to go buy 5x £70 e-gift cards 🙂
- VJ says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 11:43
  
  Does it works for friends and family transfer (& no cash advance charges by Amex)
  - Andrew says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 12:47
    
    The only way we will know is to try it and report back.
    - Rob says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 14:19
      
      It will because Amex will see a PayPal charge and pay up.
Andrew says:

7 Jan7 January 06:16

New offer popped up on my BAPP and its supp – spend £70, get £15 on PayPal! Very strange offer considering offers specifically exclude the use of PayPal usually. Wondering if the offer will trigger just by “paying a friend” rather than for commercial goods or services.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 06:21
  
  Not that strange since PayPal would be the merchant Amex see on those occasions rather than the intended merchant directly.
  
  My guess is PayPal have funded this to drive PayPal use. I’ll give it a go with items I don’t need s75 on.
  - Andrew says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 06:34
    
    Well yes, but a change of tack for Amex. But a very decent offer and one I’ll be making full use of. On 3 of my cards.
- SwissJim says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 06:25
  
  You lucky people. Not showing on mine 😕
  - Fab212 says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 06:59
    
    Not showing on PRG or BAPP for me unfortunately
    - Will CARPMAEL says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 07:47
      
      Only shows on 3 of our 3 (&3 supp) gold rewards cards – The ones that are not already linked to PayPal. Handy little bonus but would have been better a month ago!
    - Tocsin says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 12:30
      
      Keep looking, as it appeared on my Platinum card sometime between 9am and 12 midday (UK time)
- WaynedP says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 07:48
  
  On my Marriott Bonvoy Amex (with long expiry out to 4 Mar) but not on my BAPP which usually gets majority of offers (46 current offers on BAPP vs 12 current offers on MB)
- Ste Cox says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 07:54
  
  I have it on my free BA card but not on my normal Plat card (or sups)
  - Anna says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 08:48
    
    Got it on one of my golds. Would it work for Amazon top ups?
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 08:54
      
      Should do if Amazon take paypal
      - Lee says:
        
        7 Jan7 January 10:00
        
        Can’t see there is option for Paypal on Amazon
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        7 Jan7 January 10:09
        
        I don’t think there is. I’ve never seen it but I’ll be honest I’ve never looked.
    - Pablo says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 12:47
      
      Got it on my Nectar Amex
- Travel Strong says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 08:51
  
  Nothing here on BAPP, Plat, PRG. But all have had regular Paypal use so not suprised.
- Charlieface says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 08:54
  
  Considering Ebay are dropping Paypal, I think Paypal are getting a bit desparate
  - Axel says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 09:15
    
    Is it not PayPal are dropping Ebay. PayPal is worth 3 times as much as ebay and doesn’t make much nargin from them post split/demerge.
    - The real John says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 09:46
      
      No, ebay is dropping paypal.
    - Charlieface says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 15:06
      
      Three times larger indicates probably 30% of Paypal’s turnover was from Ebay. Even on small margins relative to the rest of their income, that is a huge account to lose
- Pete M says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 10:02
  
  Nothing on mine, of course… Have escalated all the way to the UK Country Manager and have exchanged various emails with their executive complaints team. They cannot see anything wrong with my account apparently. I guess I am just not generating them enough income and this is a way to drive me away?
  - Nick says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 14:50
    
    Well offers are non-contractual and targeted, so not much you can do about it really, short of closing your account.
    
    There has to be a control group for each offer for assessment purposes (roughly 10% is best practice) so some who would otherwise qualify will be held back. I’d have thought they’d have done this on an individual offer basis… but do wonder if they’ve also set some users to be control groups on an overall level, and that’s why some users are affected.
- TechnoT says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 20:26
  
  A 70 quid M&S gift card bought via PayPal indeed activated the offer. Just got the e-mail.
Anna says:

7 Jan7 January 06:22

Someone was asking the other day about BA refunds. I cancelled a flight via YouFirst on Tuesday, the refund for the taxes/fees is showing on my BAPP this morning!
- chris1922 says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 09:19
  
  Hmm, I too cancelled an F booking on Tuesday, points and 241 back in my account immediately, but as yet no sign of fees on BAPP. Agent said it could be up to 7 days, so will wait and see…
  - Anna says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 09:48
    
    That was the good news – the bad news is that the return leg which needed manual cancellation is now showing that it has instead been moved to February 11th, so god knows what happened with that! I will give it another week and then call back if it hasn’t changed.
The Original Nick. says:

7 Jan7 January 06:34

Things to come? https://www.flyertalk.com/articles/american-express-revamps-travel-benefits-for-2021-travel.html?utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=
- Harry T says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 06:48
  
  They don’t care about the UK market.
  - Grant says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 08:01
    
    … because the interchange fees are capped, unlike in the US
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 08:55
      
      It’s not for Amex MR cards …
      - Dave says:
        
        7 Jan7 January 09:15
        
        Only for Amex MR charge cards, cap applies for all credit calls I think
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        7 Jan7 January 09:48
        
        Nope no differentiation on charge vs credit, it’s to do with the relationship between the customer, bank and the card issuer.
        
        In fact now we are outside the EU Amex might be able to appeal for the UK to throw out the the EU ruling on its branded cards being 4 party relationships, the UK supported them.
      - Jonathan says:
        
        7 Jan7 January 09:53
        
        The UK initiated the legal case which led to interchange fees being capped so unlikely!
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        7 Jan7 January 10:10
        
        Yes they did for Visa and MasterCard no intention for Amex to be caught up in it.
  - Rob says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 09:16
    
    More accurate to say that the UK premium card market is not competitive enough for them to bother.
Matt says:

7 Jan7 January 06:58

I have about 90000 MR points on an Amex card I’m about to close. I have previously transferred MR points to Avios, but I’m about to cancel yet another holiday and will have quite a lot of Avios in our household account and no immediate use for them. I have recently decided to migrate from Hotels.com to Marriott, and don’t have a very big balance there yet. Based on Rob’s suggested valuation moving them to Marriott would be a significant loss in value – am I daft to consider it? Is there another destination I should be thinking of?
- Andrew says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 07:05
  
  Cash – £405 statement credit for 90,000 MR. Can’t beat cash at the moment!
  - Matt says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 08:52
    
    If there was (still?) an offer on for 0.9p per MR I’d do it, but my expenditure on holidays has been negative over the last year, so I don’t need to take the cash at an even bigger loss of potential value.
- Lumma says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 07:07
  
  If you’re not trying to reset the clock with AMEX to get another sign-up bonus, I’d get the rewards credit card reviewed today and hold onto the membership rewards until things get back to normal
  - Matt says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 08:04
    
    It’s a business platinum card, and a few months away from 2 years without a personal card, so that’s not an option unfortunately.
- BuildBackBetter says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 07:08
  
  R u trying to cancel all Amex cards and wait for 2 years? If not, best option is to go for the free rewards card and leave the points there until u need it
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 08:56
  
  Send them to Marriott.
- Chris Heyes says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 09:55
  
  Matt get the free card gives you time to think
  - Matt says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 10:07
    
    The free business card isn’t an MR card, so that wouldn’t help. The free personal card would stop me getting sign up bonuses in about 4 months’ time.
    - BuildBackBetter says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 11:41
      
      Get the cheapest ICC card £60 per annum (refundable pro-rata) and transfer your MRs there. Wouldn’t affect your signup bonus on personal cards. But you won’t get a sign up bonus on ICC platinum.
- David says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 03:12
  
  Business Gold card is fee free in first year.
  
  Otherwise, Marriott does give you plenty of options.
  
  Could you also keep the current business plat card open, then close it later for pro-rata refund once you have your new personal card in a few months time.
Chrism20 says:

7 Jan7 January 08:07

Morning everyone. Just a couple of updates on a few issues I posted about over the last few weeks.

IC Edinburgh closure and the transfer to the Kimpton.

After initial back and forth with IHG Customer Service it was eventually escalated as the rep didn’t understand what the issue was. They eventually confirmed that what was being offered to move was not comparable and the rate should have been paired back to the Kimpton one at the time of booking which was £80 a night cheaper. The Kimpton had offered to substitute lounge at the IC with one plate of something from the kitchen for the IC rate. They offered to move the reservation at the Kimpton rate but by this point we had managed to pick up a good rate at the Caley and went there instead.

They also extended my AMB for another six months including the BOGOF voucher so I now have until July to use that. I thought that taking the option to extend that was probably better than letting it lapse and taking the free night offer for renewing as I’m not convinced that I’ll be able to use it before the expiry date.

The other issue I had was with Marriott points expiring. My online account says they expire in February but elsewhere on the Marriott website it says August. Customer Service responded late last night saying that I should disregard the one when logged into the account and the expiry date is definitely August.
James says:

7 Jan7 January 08:07

Ryanair cuts flight schedule amid new lockdowns:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55571834
- James says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 08:08
  
  Guessing “Jab & Go” wasn’t a success. Strange, that.
- Colin MacKinnon says:
  
  7 Jan7 January 08:20
  
  EasyJet also canned flights until April. Came back from Lanzarote last night – aircraft flew empty from Edinburgh, just 15 passengers on return! Saturday flights still showing on app, but all gone now.
  - Anna says:
    
    7 Jan7 January 08:31
    
    Did you have a full row to yourself Colin?! It must have been like CE 🤣
    - Colin MacKinnon says:
      
      7 Jan7 January 18:10
      
      @Anna
      
      Weirdly, there were four people in my row – so much for the random seat selection!
      
      Two guys (who seemed to know each other) in 20 ABC and a woman in 20D.
      
      I said to her: I am meant to be sitting next to you, but – nothing personal – I think I’ll sit a few rows further back! She then moved to the window seat.
      
      I had bought a sandwich at the airport, but purchased two cups of tea on board. So, apart from the Champers, was CE! Bags – although not priority! – made it to the carousel before we got through passport control.
      
      Four Special Branch – now Small Ports – police officers monitoring people as they came through immigration, but no-one asked who, what, where, why. Seems a bit of a waste – they could have done something useful, might have made a Facebook post and discouraged others?
      
      See BA have now canned mid-Jan to mid-Feb to Lanzarote. Just as well wife and daughter negotiated a two-bed flat with terrace, sea view and Netflix for 30 euros a night!