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The HfP chat thread – Sunday 10th January

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We have decided to run this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page.  If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here.  This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

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General

Comments (159)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Mike says:
    10 Jan10 January 06:41

    To Anna, Nick, Jody ( and others that may choose not to mention they are serving / ex Police) – simply: thank you for your service, it is appreciated more than a comment on HFP can ever express……

    • OHR says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:52

      Defund the police

      • Mike says:
        10 Jan10 January 12:10

        er why on earth would you want to do that – it would just reduce the amount of money available to keep us all safe !

        • ChrisC says:
          10 Jan10 January 13:50

          The problem with the ‘defund the police’ slogan is that it’s the wrong slogan!

          It’s more about ‘reform the police’ and ‘spend the police budget on better things’ because over the years more and more tasks have been dumped on them that aren’t actually police matters but it’s easier for politicians – especially in the USA – to get funding for the police than it is for say mental health practitioners.

          Why are police officers spending hours talking people down from suicide when mental health professionals are far better at doing it?

          Why are they directing traffic because of an accident when a few CPSOs or council wardens can and should be doing it. It’s not highly skilled work and those sorts of staff are cheaper than a police officer.

          These aren’t just the concerns of left wing activists. The police belive they shouldn’t be doing these sorts of things either!

        • Mo says:
          10 Jan10 January 15:49

          The idea isn’t to just take money away from the police but to then use thay money on community schemes that help prevent crime in the first place.

          Providing opportunity, as well as decriminalising things that arent harmful to society are the aim, while focusing on real crime.

          The fact of the matter is that police as an institution are very racist and classist, the justice system as a whole is and there are numerous studies to show how the colour of your skin will affect sentencing even when you account for the crime etc

          Yes we need police for certain things, but the fact that there is such a stark difference in the amount of poor (and especially BME) people done on drug related charges vs rich (and especially white) people should really tell you something about the motivations and focus of the police in general.

          • Ashish says:
            10 Jan10 January 17:53

            Yes, can be very racist to drug dealer

          • Mo says:
            10 Jan10 January 18:09

            Not sure what you mean. Drugs are still a big thing in the finance industry for example, do you see many bankers being arrested? How many white kids smoking weed or doing coke get any sort of punishment vs black kids?

    • John says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:56

      Specific acts of bravery or exceptional service by individual officers are – rightly – highly appreciated.

      But, overall, there is now – I think justified – widely held belief across the UK, that policing standards and performance are pretty poor.

      The Met’s response to this story sums things up – arrogance combined with incompetence, and frequently, malice:

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9129555/A-English-lockdown-Met-Police-probe-officers-spotted-flouting-Covid-curbs-INSIDE-London-caf.html#article-9129555

      • sprout says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:09

        And how is this related to travel?

        • Matty says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:16

          ‘And how is this related to travel?’ It’s not and it doesn’t need to be:

          ‘The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind. At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.’

      • Anna says:
        10 Jan10 January 10:13

        You’re completely wrong there, John, surveys of the public show again and again that the majority of people support and have confidence in the police.
        https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/public-perceptions-of-policing-in-england-and-wales-2018
        But if you have so little confidence in them, obviously you don’t need to call them if you need help, they’ll undoubtedly be glad not to have the extra work.

        • Andrew says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:21

          But surely the Police want to take criminals off the streets so they would prefer people to report that they are victims of crimes regardless of the “extra work” this creates?

          • Anna says:
            10 Jan10 January 10:58

            I didn’t say anything about reporting a crime. Less than 20% of incidents reported to the police are crime-related.

        • Unknown says:
          10 Jan10 January 16:03

          It’s somewhat telling that the response to criticism is to tell people they should just not use the police.

          Eerily similar to the people who will tell you to leave the country whenever you mention something that is a problem or could be done better.

          Statistics on people supporting and having confidence in the police are somewhat biased as the people who are most affected by police not doing their job right are often minorities. I bet you’d get similar results to surveys in the US and just look at the level of policing there.

          The fact that level sof stop and search are so much higher for black individuals (9 times more than white people) than other races is crazy, despite all the action that has been taken. And then of course you’re going to find more crime when you search more, search white (or indeed any) university students and the drug charges would be more than you could count haha

      • Jonathan says:
        10 Jan10 January 10:36

        They’ve said they’ll investigate. I’m not sure that’s arrogance or incompetence more following due process as you would expect them to with you.

        I’m not making a call on the rights or wrongs as the article presents one person’s experience but there could well be justifiable reasons eg. The canteen at the station is closed or too small to allow appropriate distancing. In this case using a local cafe that’s larger may be appropriate if it is closed to the public. In my hospital we still need facilities for staff to eat but have switched from small staff rooms to lecture theatres etc.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:45

          Agree. Workplace canteens are still allowed and you can reclassify somewhere as one if it’s beneficial to stopping the spread at work.

    • Anna says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:25

      Mike, your sentiments are much appreciated by every service whose members put themselves in harm’s way for others in their daily tasks.
      That chapter of my life is now closed in practical terms but I’m delighted to be carving a new career tutoring children who have been disadvantaged by the pandemic in particular and life in general. Hopefully at some point I can combine this with being able to travel again!

      • kitten says:
        10 Jan10 January 11:40

        Well done Anna please us know how it goes. I hope you are able to bill some of these efforts soon.

        Praise for specific things to our always seems much less sanctimonious and self-virtue-signalling and hopefully more meaningful to our rescue and front line services.

        At least we dont have the overload of veteran privileging the US do when other services dont seem to be as thanked there although that has markedly improved since Covid.

      • Anna says:
        10 Jan10 January 14:14

        I thought you said you were done on this site, or have you found a load more ridiculous names you can’t resist giving an outing to?

    • ChrisBCN says:
      10 Jan10 January 11:10

      Preview of tomorrow’s opening comment – aren’t estate agents great, we should appreciate them more.

  • Louie says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:07

    If you book a Hilton hotel through Amex Travel as a Hilton Gold, do you get free breakfast? I thought you did (that somehow Amex Travel were not treated as a regular travel agent) but a few searches suggests not….

    • Dave says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:29

      No. Are you booking through Amex travel for a specific reason?

      • Louie says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:03

        Oh well. Probably wasn’t going to choose them even with free breakfast! I rarely stay at the big chains and got my status from Amex Platinum (now cancelled). And yes, using Amex Travel as I have a voucher which expires this week.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:50

          If it’s the best location/price book it anyway as they may still honour the gold benefits even if you don’t earn points.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:04

      Your Hilton status and points earning are only honoured if it’s FHR or The Hotel collection bookings.

      • Mark says:
        10 Jan10 January 10:17

        I booked the cheapest room in Waldorf RAK through Trivago and on arrival I mentioned I was diamond and got upgraded to a top floor suite and given all diamond benefits.
        Maybe it was a one off but it did happen.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          10 Jan10 January 10:46

          Yup as I said above it’s not guaranteed but they may still look after you.

      • Louie says:
        10 Jan10 January 10:37

        That must have been what I was thinking of. Thanks.

        • kitten says:
          10 Jan10 January 11:42

          Anecdotally Hiltons are often generous to status holders when not required. One reason I’ve stuck with Hilton.

    • the_real_a says:
      10 Jan10 January 15:57

      There is a corporate Amex travel – that has sites inside larger companies. When i last used them 3 years ago bookings DID count for HH Gold benefits – the free breakfast and you did receive points.

      I also remember Rob sharing an IHG presentation from a couple of years ago that showed a flow chart for eligible / non eligible booking (for benefits) and that AMEX corporate travel still continued to count for full benefits.

      I’m unsure if AMEX consumer bookings are treat the same, even though on-site AMEX used to point us to the same AMEX travel website.

      So in short you are not insane 🙂

      • TGLoyalty says:
        10 Jan10 January 16:04

        They aren’t treated the same way.

        Consumer bookings use Expedia etc to book and are ineligible.

      • Louie says:
        10 Jan10 January 22:49

        “So in short you are not insane 🙂”

        That’s good to know!

  • Yuff says:
    10 Jan10 January 07:56

    Having flown out of stansted yesterday it is much harder leaving the country than it was 3 months ago.
    I hope it is just as tough to get back in, however I have no idea when that will be 😩
    On my flight to Mallorca, all documents were checked by Ryanair staff multiple times and for my documentation, signed off by a manager at check in, as I don’t have a residents permit whereas my son does.
    Getting into Spain was straight forward although everyone’s covid certificate was checked at passport and health check in.
    I am astounded though that I can sit in a Starbucks ( yuck I hate their coffee) at stansted services ( whilst using a supercharger) but can’t sit in my local costa……….I wrongly assumed we would be sitting in the car drinking coffee.
    My wife thought getting out of the uk would be harder than getting into Spain, as it turns out both were pretty similar with Spain probably slightly easier. I would not have fancied flying via Madrid though…….not withstanding yesterday’s events there

    • Pete says:
      10 Jan10 January 08:53

      Interesting – thanks sharing. Clearly Border Force are not interviewing everyone heading out, then! 😛

      • Yuff says:
        10 Jan10 January 09:27

        I doubt Border force would have been any stricter.
        My son can’t travel with Ryanair unaccompanied, due to his age, so a parent had to travel with him.
        Even with documentation proving the reasons for my trip check still had to get it signed off by a manager.
        At the gate boarding staff were taking check in slips provided for proof all requirements had been met.
        Things are a lot different now than they were last year.

        • Pete says:
          10 Jan10 January 09:36

          All that is to do with you getting into Spain, though – if Spain didn’t care, FR wouldn’t either. There’s been all sorts of conversations on here about Border Force checking people’s reasons for leaving the country (particularly to DXB), but I expect this will not last long. A bit like the BTP officers asking for people’s reasons to travel out of Euston on Friday – that lasted about 90mins…

  • Toppcat says:
    10 Jan10 January 09:16

    Good morning all. I have to book a car in London for an extended period (couple of months +/-) in the near future, and don’t have any experience of car hire other than Zipcar and the occasional few days on holiday. Does anyone have any recommendations / tips / tricks? Many thanks.

    • Toppcat says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:17

      …I have to *hire* a car…
      Where’s that edit function…?

    • C says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:19

      I recently had similar requirements. I found Sixt had very good rates for 28 day rentals. Also look into Sixt Plus, which allows rolling rentals of up to 90 days at quite favourable rates.

      • C says:
        10 Jan10 January 11:00

        Exited to add: i had never rented with Sixt before, but was pleased with the process. The pick up time was a fraction of Hertz–much more automated. On Sixt Plus, it’s quite similar to the service others mentioned below, except it works in 30 day blocks. There is a sign up fee for the first month, but otherwise it was no different than an ordinary rental from Sixt (with a guaranteed vehicle type).

    • Nick says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:27

      I had to rent a car for a couple of months whilst awaiting delivery of a nee factory order Audi. I do some research into this and found that there is a company called apex which specialises in this sector of renting for at least a month. The service and price was excellent and the vehicle was delivered to my door and collected a couple of months later. Website is https://www.apexrental.co.uk/long_term_rental/cars/

    • Andrew says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:59

      I’m doing that at the moment with Thrifty.

      Handed my old car back at the end of the PCP lease (£3K negative equity) and ordered a new one. I mistimed it a bit, so in the middle of a 4 month gap.

      Currently renting a very well specced Focus for around £360 a month (discounted from £400), it arrived with delivery mileage. Minimum rental is one month and I have to give 48 hours notice to end the rolling contract. Arrange your own rental friendly comprehensive insurance. I went through their recommended broker and got an LV policy that pretty much matched my usual policy for price and excess.

      Essentially, I’m paying approximately the same for a rental as I will be for paying for my the car I’m waiting for.

      • Aston100 says:
        10 Jan10 January 13:25

        Hi, how did you manage to get the price reduced on the Focus?
        I need a car for a month or two while I wait for a new lease deal.
        Thanks.

        • Andrew says:
          10 Jan10 January 16:31

          They were doing a Black Friday deal on “lucky dip” cars (within intermediate band).

          I see at the moment the best price is £456! Almost £100 more than I’m paying.

    • Charlieface says:
      10 Jan10 January 12:08

      Long term car hire is defined as more than 28 days. It is sometimes cheaper, but if you have a good offer from Hertz or Europcar on regular rentals, then they will be cheaper, but max 28 days.

      So in that case you would be best off booking back-to-back rentals. If the branch is nice, they may not even ask you to bring the car back in between, just call in for them to close off the old rental and open the new

    • Toppcat says:
      10 Jan10 January 13:12

      Thanks all – this is really useful. Much appreciated.

  • Andrew says:
    10 Jan10 January 09:22

    For those in the LBG community, there is now a 20% funds return at Averys (sister brand of Laithwaites) showing on both my BoS and Hfx branded accounts.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      10 Jan10 January 09:52

      I have 5% off Butlins and LNER instead …

      • Andrew says:
        10 Jan10 January 10:05

        I’ve got those too.

        Now Broadband, Byron, Pasta Evangelists, Laithwaites, Kindle Books, Stitch Fix, Readly, Tesco Mobile, Hello Fresh, JoJo, Butlins, LNER, Huel, LesMills, Hawes & Curtis, FatFace, Averys, Kindle Unlimited, Cult Beauty, Simply Cook, Graze, Telegraph, Nandos, Mountain Warehouse.

        I’ve used H&M, Spar & Coop recently.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:14

      Am I the only one that wondered for a second why only non-heterosexuals got wine discounts. I twigged after a moment or two 😀 😀

  • Roy says:
    10 Jan10 January 10:03

    Morning. MR points transfer to Amex ICC card – do I need to phone to make the transfer or can it be done online? Does the full balance need to be transferred or can you choose how many?

    • meta says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:12

      Over the phone. Last time I did it, you can choose how many points, but they won’t be able to tell you the exchange rate, so if you need specific amount for redemption, I’d put 1-2k points more just to be on the safe side.

    • Rob says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:50

      Phone.

      You can choose how many but remember you can only do 1 transfer every 12 months.

      Take 7-10 days to go through.

      • Chef says:
        10 Jan10 January 20:10

        Be careful as it’s only one transfer per year , not one transfer each way, once they’re gone they’re gone for a year.

  • Andrew says:
    10 Jan10 January 10:23

    I’ve just noticed that the Amex Bicester Village spend £500, get £50 offer is now (for obvious reasons) available online via their virtual shopping service rather than in store. Details of participating boutiques available on the link in the saved offer.

  • Tracey says:
    10 Jan10 January 10:30

    Are people still waiting in the hope of an Avios bonus from club card points?

    • Polly says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:40

      Think not at this stage, no incentive from T anyway, as they still have virgin….

    • Dan says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:42

      Yes transferred my £41 worth of CC vouchers to Avios on Friday. Hopefully there won’t be a bonus as I’d be kicking myself!

    • Scott says:
      10 Jan10 January 10:53

      Will probably convert what I can to faster vouchers by Tuesday at the latest, and then convert.
      I doubt there will be any bonus regardless of what someone may have claimed with nothing to back that up. Should, by some miracle, it turns out there will be a bonus, I would expect something in the next 2 days as that only leaves a week left to convert to BAEC.

      Just curious to see who, if anyone, the next supermarket partner might be.
      Waitrose really isn’t near me, unless I’m working in Manchester, and even then, I don’t spend anywhere near as much as at Tesco and Sainsbury to actually earn anything.

      • Dan says:
        10 Jan10 January 12:17

        Me too. For me tesco was the best supermarket partner as I use them day to day, online delivery system is pretty efficient, tesco mobile earning opportunities, large presence in Scotland where I’m from, etc so will be hard hit by the departure.

        The only other alternatives that I would for me in the same way would be Asda (unlikely) or Sainsburys. Don’t see myself being able to do a weekly shop in the same way at the more upmarket offerings such as M&S, Waitrose etc.

    • TechnoT says:
      10 Jan10 January 11:33

      Absolutely no incentive to give a bonus to transfer to a departing partner scheme…

    • Dora says:
      10 Jan10 January 13:49

      Rob is quiet for a reason 😉

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

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