The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 19th January

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Simon says:

19 Jan19 January 10:58

Genuinely sorry to post “one of these”, but I’ve dusted off my MBNA Horizon for the first time in years and haven’t been paying attention to MBNA-related info in the recent comments…

Are any fees/interest levied by MBNA in shifting debt to Horizon via Bendy?

Again, my apologies — I know this is asked a million times a week, but I’ve taken my eye off the ball with MBNA lately. Any flame-free responses welcome. 🙂 TIA. Simon
- Travel Strong says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 12:22
  
  Your question cannot be answered completely as you do not state what sort of debit transaction you are thinking of curving to the card. It all comes down to how MBNA treat the MCC for the type of transaction you are attempting.
  
  However – normal MCC’s from shopping/online spending certainly does not attract fee’s.
  
  If you are thinking of doing a transaction to pay a financial institution – best to do a test purchase and investigate.
  - Simon says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 12:29
    
    Many thanks, Travel Strong. That’s much appreciated.
    
    I was looking to move money from Beardy to Horizon via Bendy. So, in that sense, very much a financial txn. I’m just not sure whether that falls under a MCC at the Horizon end which would circumvent any fees/interest.
    
    Again, this is all down to my ignorance — as I haven’t been using Horizon for several years now, I’m just out of the loop when it comes to Horizon’s attitude to this whereas I’m au fait with fees/interest re HH/IC/VS.
    - babyg says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 12:57
      
      best advice is to try a small transaction and note the result… same for any other x to y via bendy question
      - Simon says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 13:22
        
        Many thanks, babyg.
    - Simon says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 13:24
      
      Travel Strong, many thanks once again — I do appreciate it. I have Metal, fortunately, so I’m still curious about whether there would be fee/interest in the end… if it gets through, of course.
G says:

19 Jan19 January 11:08

Does anyone know what options are available at the moment for miles and points collection with an hmrc corporation tax bill? I have the standard curve card (not metal) so not worth the 1.5% fee. Bill hop isn’t worth it to me either. Any other routes?
- Rob says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 11:18
  
  No, basically. You missed out on the Lufthansa and Tesco Debit cards. If you’re lucky the new Lufthansa card, due in Summer, will be taken by HMRC like the current one.
  
  Your only option would be if you had a credit card which Revolut still accepted without it being treated as cash. You could then load up a Revolut account via your credit card and pay tax with the debit card.
  - BJ says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 15:12
    
    Is the new Lufty card going to replace the ‘current’ one for existing cardholders?
    - Rob says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 15:22
      
      No idea. Depends if the Diners people want out or not I imagine.
  - G says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 18:23
    
    Thanks Rob. I had 3 of the Tesco accounts actually a Few years ago and did take advantage of that at the time, but closed them when their interest rates dropped off the edge of a cliff.
Josh says:

19 Jan19 January 11:30

Posted on another article before seeing here:

Is the card order for maximising welcome bonuses the same even for business cards ?

So marriot > amex plat > BA amex

Cancel amex plat, wait 6 months, amex business plat ?

Is there any card or order I’m missing?
- Rob says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 11:36
  
  Yes, in your case you can slot in a Business Platinum with a six month gap after personal Platinum. You can then churn Bus Plat a couple of times whilst waiting 24 months to restart the personal card cycle.
- BJ says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 15:15
  
  I rated nectar better than marriott for a while but now more debatable. What if nectar is the bew BA partner? Hold off a little bit and see.
  - Josh says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 16:00
    
    is it between nectar or marriott? Cant have both?
    
    Also wife is american so hoping to benefit from her ability to open cards in the US too!
    - Dan says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 17:16
      
      You can’t transfer nectar to Avios so I think the 178k Couple Avios masterplan would have to start with Marriott.
      
      However, that may no longer be the case if Nectar partners with Avios…which will make things interesting…
Jody says:

19 Jan19 January 11:37

We decided to cancel our Gibraltar flights rather than re-book (BA cancelled one leg and booked us on another flight which wasn’t suitable as we would have basically lost a whole day, and it was only a weekend trip). Phoned this morning and got through fairly fast (although the first time they hung up on me rather than answering), am sure refund will be fairly swift from what I’ve seen on here recently.

Also decided to take a chance and book a Med cruise for October. Need something to look forward to holiday wise, although fully aware there’s a good chance it might not go ahead. After all the problems we had with an online cruise TA last year we’ve booked direct with the cruise line (and bonus, they take Amex unlike a lot of the online TAs), so will wait and see what happens.
George says:

19 Jan19 January 11:39

My travel insurance are refusing my claim for my flight booking that I couldn’t take a few weeks ago due to the government of the destination country not allowing in UK nationals. It was a non-refundable fare but the airline was offering a free change, not a voucher. I took the free change but made it clear I have no intention or desire to fly at a future date and will cancel the booking when the insurance confirms my claim. The insurer is arguing that the fare is not non-refundable because I have been offered a free change, therefore they won’t pay me.

The policy states “What IS covered – Your unused non-refundable pre-booked travel and accommodation which You have paid or are contracted to pay”.

I’ve tried arguing my point that the fare is actually non-refundable, as the fare conditions clearly state.

Do I have a leg to stand on? Can I make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman?
- memesweeper says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 12:00
  
  Your *unused* non-refundable pre-booked travel
  
  If you’ve taken a change it’s not unused (yet). If you can’t take the changed date flight either I’d refuse a change and claim on insurance then.
  
  I took the free change but made it clear I have no intention or desire to fly at a future date…
  
  Why did you take the change then?
  
  What you are seemingly asking your insurance company to do it pay out for a ticket that’s not been cancelled or flown yet. I can see why they would resist this.
  - Anna says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 12:41
    
    +1 – you could theoretically take the flight so the insurer would effectively be paying for that. I think they would only pay out if you’re actually unable to take the re-scheduled trip.
- ChrisC says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 12:35
  
  Insurance company is right in its interpretation.
  
  Insurance is there to cover an actual loss.
  
  Accepting the change means you havn’t actually lost anything yet.
  
  You may also get a refusal when you don’t take the rebooked flight you acepted if there is a dislinclication to travel clause in your policy.
  - George says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 12:45
    
    I took the change because the only options available to me before my flight were to cancel it and get a refund of taxes and fees only, or to lose it all by no-showing. I wanted to keep my booking ‘live’ to give me some option of getting my money back, either through insurance or if the airline happened to change their policy. I didn’t want to risk it all by canceling the whole booking.
    
    Their argument isn’t regarding the ‘unused’, it’s that they’re claiming it was not non-refundable.
    
    I’ve told them that I’d cancel the booking if they wanted me to.
    
    They tried saying it was disinclination to travel, but I said I was fully inclined to travel on the original date, and that date is what my claim if for, not the future date.
    - Anna says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 13:01
      
      If you were confident that your insurer would cover the cancellation (and it sounds as though they would, as you could not take the original flight), you should have got the taxes refunded and claimed the remainder on the insurance. TBH, you should have contacted the insurer before you made any decision to check this as well!
      - George says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 13:03
        
        I did contact the insurer but they said they couldn’t tell me anything until I had submitted a claim! I was between a rock and a hard place really.
        
        Even if would have cancelled and got taxes back I still might not have been paid out because they could still have said that since the airline offered me a date change it is refundable, as they are arguing now.
      - memesweeper says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 13:06
        
        A date change is a long way off refundable fare! Nonetheless, you’re likely stuck with the changed date now, until that is cancelled or you are prohibited from flying it.
John Caribbean says:

19 Jan19 January 11:49

I am due to have a cheap week away in Mallorca in June. Melia have emailed to say the property has been taken over by AM Resorts. I imagine in a few months they’re unlikely to make many changes, but are Am Resorts ok, or should I switch to another Melia property?
- Tom says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 23:23
  
  We have stayed in a number of AM Resorts in Mexico, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Apart from a poor start to our DR holiday where our rooms were frankly awful (but resolved well by management) we have never had a bad stay. Secrets or Zoetry are their best brands.
Anna says:

19 Jan19 January 12:46

If I had a flight bought with Amex platinum, then the flight was cancelled and I got a travel voucher.
I used the travel voucher to book another flight. Now, I can travel due to health conditions.
Will Amex travel insurance apply?
lashious says:

19 Jan19 January 13:57

Ok, need more help please. I seem to be having a bit of a run of bad luck with Amex. Now they have cancelled my 2 4 1 voucher which I triggered way back in october last year on my BAPP, I’ve downgraded as was due in Feb 1st. I thought this wasn’t supposed to happen. many thanks in advance
- memesweeper says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 14:16
  
  *Amex* have cancelled your companion voucher? are you saying it was it showing in your BA account, and then disappeared?
  - aDifferentSimon says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 14:25
    
    Well this is rather big news for hfp readers if this is the case!
    - Rob says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 15:26
      
      Nonsense, has never – ever – happened.
      - BP says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 16:56
        
        It has certainly not worked that way in the past. I did get 2 companion vouchers one time when it didn’t trigger automatically and Amex then asked BA to manually add my voucher. I then got a second automatically added!
      - Anna says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 17:31
        
        BP – I had that with Lloyds x 2! Best couple of years ever (sniff).
- Amish says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 15:54
  
  Same here. Cancelled as soon as the voucher was posted in my BA account but clawed back a week later.
  - aDifferentSimon says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 20:19
    
    So two comments suggesting the same thing may be more than a gentle trolling or disinformation spreading?
    I’m £300 off of 10k and was thinking of downgrading. Perhaps not.
    - Anna says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 20:31
      
      But VERY odd that this is the first we are hearing of it …
    - Rob says:
      
      19 Jan19 January 21:36
      
      If it was happening, a reader would have contacted me by now with firm data.
      - aDifferentSimon says:
        
        19 Jan19 January 22:08
        
        surely no amex employee is that *keen* to be discouraging this behaviour by making disinformation posts on the interweb which by tomorrow will be the digital equivalent of chip shop wrapping
      - Rob says:
        
        20 Jan20 January 09:30
        
        They were ‘first time posters’ because the comments went into moderation.
  - Anna says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 20:32
    
    Tell us more. Can’t believe you haven’t posted this before. You’d probably have got a whole article!
- Anna says:
  
  19 Jan19 January 16:32
  
  Hi lashious. What exactly do you mean by cancelled? As far as I know Amex has no access to your BAEC account so can’t tamper with your 241 once it’s in there!
  - memesweeper says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 17:19
    
    … we wait with baited breath…
  - BP says:
    
    19 Jan19 January 22:32
    
    They don’t. When my 241 voucher didnt post it took many weeks of effort to sort it.