The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 19th January

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• Doc says:

  19 Jan19 January 15:07

  Random question- are the dates for the 2022 peak/offpeak calendar for BA out yet or do we have to wait a bit longer? Can’t find it anywhere, so assume not published yet.

  • Rhys says:

    19 Jan19 January 15:16

    Not yet. Normally they drop around April time.

  • Rob says:

    19 Jan19 January 15:23

    Usually appears around June.

    • Doc says:

      19 Jan19 January 15:47

      Thanks Rob and Rhys

• Sprout says:

  19 Jan19 January 15:15

  I’m looking to book an early morning flight from India to UK (5.30am) around October / November time in BA Bus. (Family of 4 but “children” in early 20’s)
  – Is it possible to check bags in the previous afternoon?
  – It seems a little pointless getting a hotel room for the night before probably having to leave it at 2ish. Is it possible to access the lounge the previous evening and stay there until the flight leaves?
  Thanks for any help or any other suggestions!

  • Doc says:

    19 Jan19 January 15:42

    In relation to your question about checking in bag before in India, you have absolutely no chance. You will actually not be able to get into the airport till at least 4 hours before your departure time since the armed police at the entrance to the airport building will check your ticket / confirmation and will not let you in before the designated time.
    I would definitely pay for a hotel (they are relatively cheap dependent on where you want to stay).

    • Sprout says:

      19 Jan19 January 15:46

      Wow, I hadn’t anticipated that. Many thanks for your reply.

      • Doc says:

        19 Jan19 January 15:51

        No problem. The airports work very differently in India:)
        Make sure you have a copy of the confirmation email or eticket or else you won’t be able to get into the airport!!
        You will have your bags through the scanner before check in and after your chaotic check-in, you will have your boarding pass stamped numerous times by different people at security. It is an experience!!!

        • Sprout says:

          19 Jan19 January 16:02

          hmm, I was planning 3 or 4 flights on a short
          tour. Hopefully, I won’t live to regret it!
          Is there any benefit to booking business class internal flights as far as smoothing check in / boarding etc goes? I wouldn’t normally consider it for short 2/3 hour flights…

          Thanks again for the advice

        • Doc says:

          19 Jan19 January 17:02

          Depends who you book with and which airports you are going through. The bigger airports have business checkin which is quicker than economy ( although if you have status,, you get the same) . Air India might potentially be leaving star alliance depending on who buys them, so be a bit wary of Star Alliance Gold. Vistara is a newer airline which has some really good reviews and LCCs obviously don’t have what you are looking for. Most airports do not have priority security either for domestic and the domestic lounges vary in quality from really bad to ok. I personally don’t think business class is worthwhile for short flights but it is your choice.

        • Anuj says:

          19 Jan19 January 20:01

          Yep they’re embarrassingly behind. They have no online checkin because of all the stamping. Everything is paper and no online check in means if you’re running late for a flight you can’t chance it and try to dash for your flight which happened to me because my connecting flight baggage came out super delayed from the baggage reclaim.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    19 Jan19 January 19:31

    You can book priority boarding for most LCCs. Air India and Vistara have priority boarding for business class.
    If you can afford it, I’d suggest booking business. The experience is vastly different.

• BJ says:

  19 Jan19 January 15:23

  LNER have made timetable changes so many cancelled journeys as a result. Check email, accounts, texts and voicemail for fee-free rebooting or refunds.

• Aston100 says:

  19 Jan19 January 15:29

  I’m going to try yet again to fly to South Africa, this time in the Christmas holidays.
  Some pretty decent prices with LH and Swiss right now.
  However if wanting to make changes to the dates of travel, I can see that the LH policy requires travel to be completed within one year from issue of tickets.
  So if I bought them today, I’d have to be back home one year from today.
  In case of disinclination to travel due to say FCO advice or some reoccurrence of a super mutant covid over there, this doesn’t allow pushing the dates out to the next school holidays, and LH no longer give vouchers.
  If I wait a while, the prices will only go up.
  Does that mean I am pretty much going to be stuck with the Xmas dates and have no recourse (other than if the airline decides to cancel like they did the last 3 times)?

  • Aston100 says:

    19 Jan19 January 15:31

    Also, given I currently have an ‘extra avios per pound spend’ retention offer on my BAPP, is booking directly with LH using my BAPP going to be the most beneficial route?
    I can’t see any ‘funds returns’ or codes out there.
    Thanks.

  • AJA says:

    19 Jan19 January 17:16

    I can’t answer the question of which card to use but I thought the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card gave 2MR per £ on airline bookings so you may wish to consider using that if you have it. Are you sure you want to buy tickets so soon? The only reason to book so far out is if the price is really good. I think there will be very good deals a bit later in the year when we are a bit more certain that travel will be possible. If you are looking for flexibility to be able to push flights out I would suggest holding off for now. YMMV.

• Ammar says:

  19 Jan19 January 15:44

  Wisdom from M&M Credit Card Holders requested:
  Y’day made a payment of £3k for SA to HMRC – got email saying successful. Then I tried to make subsequent payments of 3k which was unsuccessful and then a further 2k today which was also unsuccessful. I called the M&M customer service team today – they say you cannot make payments to HMRC with the card – but i thought with the prepaid MC if it was possible for personal SA payments?
  She confirmed that a payment of 3k was pending when i asked them re the successful payment i made.
  Just want to know if anyone has a better strategy for success with making payments?
  Thanks

  • Catman says:

    19 Jan19 January 16:31

    What is your credit limit? My card only seems to let me spend my card limit a maximum of 1X in a week even if you pay some off

    • Ammar says:

      19 Jan19 January 21:30

      Credit limit was not the issue, got loads left, considering balance was less than 500, but clearly what Rob mentioned below is where I may have come foul.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    19 Jan19 January 16:49

    They will say you can’t if you highlight it to them

    I can’t see why you couldn’t pay a personal hmrc payment via M&M.

    What I’ve noticed is that the payment might clear @ 4pm but it takes a day or two for the credit limit to actually become issuable again.

    • Ammar says:

      19 Jan19 January 21:29

      Thanks for that, good to know. Unfortunately I have left it late to put through large amounts it seems, but will try to do what i can and then be more diligent re going forward

  • Rob says:

    19 Jan19 January 17:32

    I’ve paid SUBSTANTIAL sums on this card over the past year. Last one was in December just before we went away. Never a problem, never a decline.

    My wife owes £800 tax which we need to pay this week so I will try it on that.

    You are massively overdoing it though. No wonder all the alarm bells went off. I split my annual tax into tiny fragments and made a payment every few days for 12 months.

    • Ammar says:

      19 Jan19 January 21:28

      Thanks for the advice. I think last year with COT i did it with Bendy and put through similar amounts in one evening and was ok, but clearly too much in one go for them. Will try and be more diligent going forward and paying a little every month.

• Alec says:

  19 Jan19 January 16:09

  What are the options for a UK metal card? I don’t care about the benefits, I just need it for show.

  • Rob says:

    19 Jan19 January 17:29

    Plat, Curve Metal … some of new fintechs have them too.

    Amex Gold will go metal this year I think as it is rolling out across Europe.

    • Dan says:

      19 Jan19 January 17:46

      Do you think that will include a Annual Fee increase and also a refresh of the benefits, Rob? They did this with Platinum…

    • Andrew Mc says:

      19 Jan19 January 21:42

      Out of interest…am I still expected to cut my metal card up upon account closure? Angle grinder?

      • Andrew says:

        19 Jan19 January 22:52

        How thick is the metal?

        Decent pair of Fiskars kitchen scissors should be able to cut them I would have though.

        • Crafty says:

          20 Jan20 January 07:07

          Have you tried this on an Amex Platinum?!

      • Rob says:

        20 Jan20 January 09:31

        Amex will send you an envelope to post it back for disposal.

  • Alex says:

    19 Jan19 January 17:38

    Revolut do a metal card, curve does, Amex plat, I think a few other companies do. If you just want one for show you can get anything and just cancel it and don’t throw it away 😂

  • TGLoyalty says:

    19 Jan19 January 19:08

    Show off when your scraping ice off the windscreen?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      19 Jan19 January 19:09

      You’re … doh

      • Anuj says:

        19 Jan19 January 20:03

        You’d get far more attention buying a Samsung galaxy fold and using it to pay contactless than a metal card anyway !

        • Harrier25 says:

          19 Jan19 January 21:22

          The Amex Rewards credit card is the best to show off, with all its transparent splendor….and it’s free!

• Navara says:

  19 Jan19 January 16:45

  Hilton Honors has just rolled out its first promotion of 2021 on purchased points 100% bonus

• AndyGWP says:

  19 Jan19 January 17:15

  AwardWallet alerted me the 5000 Melia Rewards points I got in September 2020 (from doing a 30 second Melia Rewards survey) expired a week or so ago despite them being less than 4 months old.

  A quick Twitter message to the MeliaRewards team means they are now re-instated.

  TL;DR: If you got points for doing a Melia Rewards the survey, it might be worth checking yours haven’t expired too 🙂

  • Anuj says:

    19 Jan19 January 20:04

    Mine haven’t arrived ! Thanks for reminding me to go query it

  • Sloth says:

    19 Jan19 January 22:19

    Thanks for highlighting, same has happened to me…although it has also reset my main point balance expiry to next jan so wondering if it’s actually a good thing…

    Have tweeted them so will see what they say

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