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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.

  • Doug M says:
    10 Jan10 January 10:56

    Not sure where you’re at with things but the site is still quite laggy at times. I find on iPad I hit blue HfP logo top left, line indicating refresh goes about 10% of way and stops. Repeated taps eventually get home page. This is Firefox on iPad Pro. Similar on Firefox on Windows. Don’t experience same lag on other sites.

    • Charlieface says:
      10 Jan10 January 12:03

      +1
      @Rob What did the IT guy say?

      • Aston100 says:
        10 Jan10 January 12:10

        “have you tried turning it off and back on again?” – the default response from IT people the world over.

        • Doug M says:
          10 Jan10 January 13:13

          I can tell you having worked in IT for over 30 years that what they’re really thinking is ‘Do you have the original packing’

        • Charlieface says:
          10 Jan10 January 14:08

          Given that one of the hardest things in software is cache invalidation, I think they have a legit claim.

          The full quote is: “There are two hard things in software: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors”

      • Rob says:
        10 Jan10 January 14:48

        There are a number of things going on at once. We have dealt with two issues – site search is moving into the cloud, removing 6 million lines of code from the site and removing a big drain on processing power.

        We have also plugged a lot of attempts to hack the site. They would always fail but the huge number of approaches was draining processing power.

        I noticed the lag was back today after a break. We are still not sure about this.

        Literally no-one got a 502 error yesterday when accessing the site so that is progress.

        • Charlieface says:
          10 Jan10 January 17:43

          Whitelist your SSH port and turn on Fail2Ban with 1 day ban time, should solve most hacking issues.

  • Stanley says:
    10 Jan10 January 11:13

    Very good BA Holidays datapoint. Cancelled a DXB February Holiday on Wednesday night. Deposit money already back on my BA amex this morning…. I am not sure if BA Holiday regs are stricter so refunds are faster, but agent told me up to 14 days…..

  • Matt says:
    10 Jan10 January 11:19

    If I have just opened a second MR card with Amex (Business Plat to go alongside personal Gold) and have 2 separate MR balances, will they combine at some point by themselves, or do I need to ask for them to be combined?

    I’d like to avoid contacting Amex if possible, to avoid drawing attention to (what I assume is) a bank error in my favour.

  • SQFan says:
    10 Jan10 January 11:44

    Few questions please.

    – Does the Personal Amex platinum cover business trips in the next few weeks to countries in the travel corridor that are not on the don’t travel FCO list.
    – I don’t have the card yet and the trip was booked a few months back so will the trip be covered if I take it out now.

    In regards to Laithwaite’s offer someone here suggested a great way to buy a £120 mixed case with some code and then use Amex resulting in a case for like £65 the last time around. Anyone found a similar offer?

  • Keely says:
    10 Jan10 January 12:45

    Afternoon all , just took a FTV for a Tenerife flight in Feb to extend the 241. I know I can add to / change destination but I forgot to ask – does there need to be avios availability in a flight to use this too ..? Can’t seem to find a clear answer to this. Thanks

    • Simon says:
      10 Jan10 January 13:01

      Yep. U just have a combined Avios/241/fees voucher to use when you find the availability to use it.
      I had to call up to use. And got refunded the £30 balance a month later.

  • Chris Heyes says:
    10 Jan10 January 13:00

    Regarding Tesco Avios Bonus, I think it’s safe to Assume Rob would have been told by now (or by tomorrow as it’s Sunday)
    As he would need a couple of days to fit an article in his schedule
    Can’t see Tesco not informing Rob if they have excess Avios in their system to get shut off.
    Also BA wouldn’t want final Tesco farewell to be successful, not good for next partner

  • Andrew says:
    10 Jan10 January 13:44

    PayPal offer related – Starselect website is an official partner of Netflix where you can buy a £70 gift card by PayPal and apply to your account and it will use up your balance over the coming months for your membership fee (going up at the end of this month).

    • TGLoyalty says:
      10 Jan10 January 14:04

      Not sure if you got any discount to make it sweeter but

      https://www.paypal.com/uk/gifts/ Sell them directly.

      • Youllnever says:
        10 Jan10 January 14:05

        +1. Topped up my Uber Eats acc. by £70 yesterday using this.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          10 Jan10 January 14:21

          Yep did my just eat as I already have some uber credit.

          Amex email arrived pretty quickly.

      • Sundar says:
        10 Jan10 January 14:12

        Not a bad choice – Presume this would qualify for the Paypal offer on Amex ? In reading t&cs of the offer, it seems one needs to register a paypal accoubt for using the offer. Directly paying with amex without paypal acct maynot be an option ?

        • Andrew says:
          10 Jan10 January 14:15

          The offer terms specially say you don’t need to use a PayPal account: “ You can make payments using a PayPal account or by entering your Card details at PayPal checkout.”

        • Youllnever says:
          10 Jan10 January 14:16

          Triggered the amex offer email immediately so looks like it should.

      • Andrew says:
        10 Jan10 January 14:15

        Great! Even easier.

      • Grant says:
        10 Jan10 January 20:06

        Thanks for this. Everyday is a school day in this place.

    • BS says:
      10 Jan10 January 14:24

      Bear in mind if you (say you) live in Turkey, Netflix is £2.33 a month at the moment…

  • Boi says:
    10 Jan10 January 15:39

    any trading 212 code please. Thanks

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

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