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The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 20th 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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Comments (214)

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

  • 747_Brat says:
    20 Jan20 January 02:38

    What are the churning rules on the World Elite card – 6 months cool off from date the previous WE card was cancelled or 6 months without any Premier card (including the free card)? In case of the former, does holding the free Premier card disqualifies you from getting the bonus again on the World Elite card?
    Thanks.

    • Annie says:
      20 Jan20 January 07:04

      It’s 6 months without WE card. You can still have the free premier credit card – just upgrade it again after the 6 months. Process is a unnecessarily long winded though when I did that.

      • BuildBackBetter says:
        20 Jan20 January 07:11

        Do we have to call them? Or can it be done online?

        • memesweeper says:
          20 Jan20 January 08:13

          Online? ha ha! Imagine a long phone call, plus a huge *paper* form, followed by another couple of phone calls. If you’re a serious spender just keep the WE, it’s not worth the agro to churn.

      • 747_Brat says:
        20 Jan20 January 09:14

        Thanks Annie. Cheers.

        • Polly says:
          22 Jan22 January 09:34

          Brat, if you can cope with the pages of paper work, it’s a good earner…to build up whilst waiting out the 24 mth Amex imposed wait…

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    20 Jan20 January 04:04

    A long shot – but has anyone had any experience applying for the BA Visa card in Italy? I never did receive a message saying if my application was accepted or declined also a follow up message I sent them was never replied to either. I’m not sure how banks in Italy tend to communicate the results of an application

  • Platinum Remoaner says:
    20 Jan20 January 04:40

    I guess now we may stop seeing the “im not sure if the platinum card is worth the fee posts etc ” 🙂

    • Oli says:
      20 Jan20 January 09:44

      For me it’s worth it solely for the travel/car hire insurance. I’m happy to pay £575 for having an insurance that is flexible and don’t try to avoid pay outs.
      My little one wanted to help and clean the car we hired in October, he scratched it, I paid £300 to Hertz and Amex refunded within a week no questions. We also use the insurance sometimes for doctors when abroad, for the kids, or for hospital last year for my wife. Always pays out quickly, with no excess which the HSBC credit card has.

      • Jay says:
        20 Jan20 January 11:34

        Has Amex Plat personal still got a £50 excess? I know Biz doesn’t but always thought personal did.

        • Ste Cox says:
          20 Jan20 January 11:56

          Mine did when I made a claim last year.

          • Miles. On point says:
            20 Jan20 January 15:07

            £50 excess seems to apply to all Amex Plat insurance claims apart from medical. Had to claim for emergency doctor appointment and some prescription items in Costa Rica last year and there was no excess to pay on that.

    • Anthony Edwards says:
      20 Jan20 January 15:21

      I’m still okay with saving the £50 a month. My standard take away adds 30% to the menu when I use Deliveroo anyway! Will get platinum again when I can use the travel benefits.

      • Christopher says:
        20 Jan20 January 20:31

        Same for me.
        Travel insurance, car hire insurance, lounge access. None of these if use for the foreseeable.

  • Princess says:
    20 Jan20 January 06:36

    Good morning! I keep getting email from Virgin that they are switching off the online service and to use the app.
    They also say to register the main card on the app and keep using online service if you have more than one card.
    This seem a bit contradictory…does anyone have more info? I have the app with one card off course (I personally don’t like the app) but a bit concern about the lack of solutions offered.I thought by now they would have solve it?

    • Dance-Ace-Base says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:50

      I’m sure they won’t turn the web access off until they’ve released an updated app that allows multiple cards.

      Making a solution that serves web and mobile isn’t hard but this is cost cutting. It’s easier to focus only on mobile and they know most people have mobile but only some use web.

      The likes of Revolut have been adding web access, but they’ve got money to spend on IT while Virgin is probably a few months away from listing all their laptops on ebay.

      • Dance-Ace-Base says:
        20 Jan20 January 08:54

        Talking nonsense aren’t I. Need my coffee. Virgin Money – unlike Virgin Atlantic – has lots of money I’m sure, so the only reason they’re taking this decision must be because they’re seeing 70+ % of traffic coming via the app.

        • Rob says:
          20 Jan20 January 09:20

          To be fair, I’d not been on the MBNA website for well over a year until I went on to research the Smart Rewards article. The app is fine.

          • Chris Heyes says:
            20 Jan20 January 09:42

            What’s a app ?

          • Dance-Ace-Base says:
            20 Jan20 January 10:23

            Nothing unfair about saying it saves them money and most people use the app. There’s also a security advantage.

            For all banking apps I’d like it more if they showed transaction references, merchant category codes, and any fees and charges right next to the transaction instead of having to wait for a statement. The virgin app is one that _does_ show at least the MCC.

    • Catman says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:51

      I think they are saying that additional cardholders can’t use the app but can use telephone banking instead – a bit useless IMO

      I suppose the app may get better if they no longer have to support the website. I also prefer the website as it remembers my payment details

  • pacman says:
    20 Jan20 January 06:50

    Is BA Best Price Guarantee valid on flights where the long haul is operated by BA and the short haul connection by a oneworld partner? All on one ticket. Thinking of booking MNL with BA+CX and travelup is £39 cheaper.

  • BJ says:
    20 Jan20 January 07:05

    Anybody managed to get reward seats in any cabin from BKK or HKG to LHR in January 22? Nothing showing at the moment and even tried a couple of nights at midnight without success. I’m finding it hard to believe that the guaranteed 4Y as well as the 2J are all being snapped up over the phone at midnight. Does the guarantee on reward seats still apply for every flight?

    • Matthew says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:05

      I had this last year. When it went from peak to off peak they didn’t show and the site returned an error. Try calling to book instead.

    • Dave says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:23

      Yes I have, I stayed up till midnight last week to book a flight in CW from HKG to Lon on the 2nd Jan. did it online and went all the way through past payment to creating your booking reference. When it promptly said it was an error and clearly someone had nabbed the tickets on the phone. There were two BKK seats in CW for the same date but I was too tired to make a decision on them. They were gone in the morning but I stayed up till midnight to book the HKG seats the next night and nabbed them. So yes they are but it’s a competitive time of year and route,

    • BJ says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:38

      Thanks both, I’m flexible with dates and even other flight origins so I’ll monitor a while. Just seemed odd to me that even the Y flights are so popular as I’m sure it is still easy to get a semiflexible one way back from Bangkok to the UK in J with the likes of Sri Lankan or Oman for about £800. I might just do that and use the return of my 241 for flights from HND later in the year.

  • Gothbe says:
    20 Jan20 January 08:10

    Can someone give me a trading212 referral link for the free share promo

    • Rhys says:
      20 Jan20 January 08:42

      Here you go! http://www.trading212.com/invite/FMlcDpsx

      • Ste Cox says:
        20 Jan20 January 08:44

        Damn, too slow again… Do you approve the comment then post your link straight away? 😛

        • Rhys says:
          20 Jan20 January 08:51

          Occasionally, but often Rob approves the comment and I miss out (there was one yesterday, for example).

          My advantage is that it is literally my job to trawl the comments so I tend to see what gets posted fairly quickly unless I’m knee-deep in an article!

          • Rob says:
            20 Jan20 January 09:22

            I had a job for Mail Online comment moderator pop up on LinkedIn yesterday. I cannot think of anything more soul destroying than having a job which involves night shifts and weekends where you have to spend all day reading the Daily Mail comments 🙂

            Salary, unsurprisingly, was not disclosed.

          • BP says:
            20 Jan20 January 09:41

            I often read them for free. The occasional article does prompt some quite amusing comments.

          • Aston100 says:
            20 Jan20 January 12:37

            The Daily Mail has moderators?
            I would never have guessed.
            I wonder how awful a comment needs to be in order to get moderated over there.

          • Charlieface says:
            20 Jan20 January 14:36

            I get the feeling it’s the moderator posting garbage TBH…
            🙂

        • Dance-Ace-Base says:
          20 Jan20 January 08:59

          I’ll take a referral link please

          • John says:
            20 Jan20 January 09:13

            Would be grateful if you used mine, yet to have anyone use it! 🙂 Code is: FzFqYEKI

    • ashraj says:
      20 Jan20 January 10:06

      Newbie investor here -Does anyone here use etoro? I opened an account a few months back and have been getting to grips with how trading works etc. Was wondering if i should start investing larger amounts there or switch to trading 212. Thanks

      • Alan says:
        20 Jan20 January 14:25

        I have used it for around a year now, so far without any problems, sign up process is slick, very easy to use and far cheaper to trade than the likes of HL.
        I signed up as an easy way to buy/trade crypto currencies.

        • Super Secret Stuff says:
          20 Jan20 January 15:02

          Whatever you do, do not use copy trader automatically. The people who make those trades pay no fees and get paid by eToro, so they don’t always trade in your best interests

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      20 Jan20 January 11:09

      Why does everyone use 212? What is the advantage? Do they have an ISA option?

      I am with HL and to be honest the news and insights (which is why I went with them) isn’t that great

      • Anon says:
        20 Jan20 January 11:32

        They have an ISA option but really people are just signing up because you put £1 in and get a free share, which you can sell and withdraw the money after 30 days. (Or you can use it as your trading platform going forwards but there’s not much that’s special about it.)

  • Brian says:
    20 Jan20 January 08:34

    I have been trying at midnight for the past week to get reward biz flights back from bkk to lhr and the operator was booking them at the stroke of midnight and 15 seconds later she is telling me they are gone. I got the economy seats last night. Hong king and Singapore is same. Gone in seconds it’s just your luck everyone wants the same seats. There’s seats from Delhi in biz 4th to 7th jan

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

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