The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 20th January

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• Jonny says:

  20 Jan20 January 17:22

  Can one change a cancelled BA Avios booking after the original departure date?
  Have a couple of Feb half-term cancellations, but instead of getting a refund I’d rather wait to see if I can fly later in the year (potentially on dates where there is no current availability).

  • BJ says:

    20 Jan20 January 18:27

    Covered not that long ago, see link. In reality BA were always willing to exercise discretion on this on a case by case basis. They were accommodating when there was good reasons for it so give them a call and see what they say. https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/09/23/can-you-cancel-the-return-leg-of-an-avios-redemption-flight-after-flying-outbound/

  • GeorgeJ says:

    20 Jan20 January 18:29

    Jonny,
    You can certainly wait, however why bother, if they cancelled just call up and ask for the dates you want. Availability of award seats is not an issue under these circumstances. I have done this already; only reason to wait is if you dont know the dates you want.

    • Jonny says:

      20 Jan20 January 21:06

      thanks, that’s the thing, not quite sure what dates I want. Possibly the summer, possibly October half-term. Would rather sit on the “option”, if it is possible to do so…

• Harry T says:

  20 Jan20 January 18:09

  Heavily off topic…
  Need to hire a van for the day to move some stuff from old flat to new flat – will Amex Platinum insurance cover this? It seems to imply in the T&Cs that they will only cover you for car rental in the context of a holiday: ““Trip” means a journey outside Your Country of Residence which must commence and end in Your Country
  of Residence, or a journey within Your Country of Residence which must include a flight, or at least one night
  of pre-booked accommodation away from home. Trip is extended to include any journey within Your Country of
  Residence for Car Rental Benefits (Section 1.5) only.”

  • lev441 says:

    20 Jan20 January 18:16

    It doesn’t cover commercial vehicles – which is what a van is classed as…

  • BP says:

    20 Jan20 January 18:19

    I’m sure there’s also a clause around commercial vehicles or something along those lines…. I hired a pickup truck in Thailand and phoned to double check I’d be covered (I was as I was only planning to transport suitcases).

  • GeorgeJ says:

    20 Jan20 January 18:22

    I have always interpreted this as covering any car hire excess in my country of residence.
    However is a van a car under their definition?

  • kitten says:

    20 Jan20 January 18:27

    Questor will cover excess on vans

  • BJ says:

    20 Jan20 January 18:31

    Just search man & van in your local press and save yourself the hassle.

• Jonathan says:

  20 Jan20 January 18:11

  When is the best time to target the VSCC upgrade / clubhouse / 241 (2-4-1.5 for red members when using it for UC) voucher ?

  My renewal time for my premium card is around mid September, I’m well on course to hit the £10k spend for the voucher which I’ll use for an upgrade from Premium to Upper.

  I’ve already got a upgrade voucher that obtained during the promotion for the premium card that ran September-October last year.

  What I’d like advice on, is it better to try and get the voucher ASAP, or hit the £10k spend to get the voucher right before the renewal ?

  Based on the current situation, it’s anyone’s guess is to when travel will be able to restart

  • Mo says:

    20 Jan20 January 21:42

    If you have no immediate use then you might as well wait so you have a voucher that expires later, right?

• Anuj says:

  20 Jan20 January 18:49

  Annoyingly Qatar don’t seem to be extending their status memberships so the status match I got in June is likely to be over before I’m actually able to travel anywhere. Does anyone know when the 40 upgrade credits expire? Is it after 1 year?

  • Sandgrounder says:

    21 Jan21 January 08:01

    The original offer was for people expiring before 31 Jan I think, to hopefully an announcement is forthcoming. I was told I only need 135 to renew my gold, I could do that with a couple of Club Europe trips if things loosen up before June. Had to cancel a trip to ARN, left it a week too late in the autumn.

• Dominic says:

  20 Jan20 January 19:12

  Interesting offer currently available with the FT. 50% off the digital subscription (for one year) making it £154, plus I have a £25 off Amex voucher.

  One year of the FT for £129 is pretty good in my books.

  • Dan says:

    20 Jan20 January 20:22

    Was also interested in the offer – are there any subscriptions that are close to £30? Looking to get the maximum value out of the offer – as I have it across 3 cards!

    • mzb says:

      20 Jan20 January 20:56

      The monthly digital subscription is GBP 33. So effectively GBP 8 for the month.

      • Andrew says:

        20 Jan20 January 21:10

        Blimey – £33 a month to look at a website! Even at £8 it seems a bit steep.

        • Jerry says:

          20 Jan20 January 21:21

          A digital trial is only £1 for 4 weeks. Doesn’t help with the Amex offer though.

        • bafan says:

          21 Jan21 January 01:43

          who exactly is meant to pay the journalists and website costs?

  • Harry T says:

    20 Jan20 January 22:02

    Currently free if you work for the NHS! I will definitely pay for it after that expires though.

• Christopher says:

  20 Jan20 January 21:14

  A couple of days ago I was recommended on here to use Hotels.com to bring forward spend to hit my Amex companion voucher target.
  Amazingly the charge hit the card within 24hrs. More amazingly the Avios have posted on my Amex account with a flag to say I’ve earned my companion vouchers.
  So thank you for this.

  But…. I still have 3 days left of my card anniversary year. Is there any risk of having the voucher removed if I now cancel and refund the booking before anniversary completes?

  • Mo says:

    20 Jan20 January 21:31

    No, 2 for 1 voucher cannot be clawed back 🙂

  • Doc says:

    20 Jan20 January 22:07

    Just make sure the voucher is in your BA account first.

  • Charlieface says:

    20 Jan20 January 23:43

    Better do it this year otherwise you will have more to spend next year to hit the voucher

• Venturelog says:

  20 Jan20 January 21:47

  Query re Virgin free cc. I’m sure it’s been discussed before, but I noticed after i completed the 20k target I received the 2-4-1 voucher.
  But when I contacted the Virgin, they mentioned 2 expiry dates almost a year apart. Is there another voucher that others have received?

  • ChasP says:

    21 Jan21 January 03:49

    yes there have been several comments about extra vouchers appearing
    Got – and used – one myself
    Absolutely no idea why I earned it – and only heard about it during a conversation to use the voucher knew I had

• Tarmohamed says:

  20 Jan20 January 22:15

  Dubai PCR Test – we used Al Tadawi Medical Centre which is not far from the airport. 130 AED which is about £25 each. This for Emirates passengers. Non Emirates passengers are charged another 20 AED (£4). Gave our test at 9pm on Tuesday, paid for “24 hour” service and received results at 5am (8 hours later). They did offer 9 or 12 hour service for more money but we declined.

  Compared to expresstest at LHR, it is obviously significantly cheaper. HOWEVER, this is clearly a cash cow for them, and they took a sample from our mouth and another from our nose, both within 5 seconds. But we did have to wait about an hour amongst several others in a crowded waiting area, no social distancing, and it was apparent some people were not doing the test to travel.

  They do offer a home service, but an extra 100 AED per person, and for us it was inconvenient as they’re coming to us so you don’t know when they’ll actually come. Going there is a walk in service.

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