Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Friday 22nd 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.

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Comments (252)

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

  • ChrisBCN says:

    You’re not getting in anywhere in Europe at all for Easter I’m afraid. Also note that the Spanish PM is this week talking about not letting non-EU citizens in until at least after the summer.

    • ChrisBCN says:

      Hmmm I’ve just observed how the comment posted in the wrong place, user error as I always expected.

      • The Lord says:

        Sure that the tourism and hospitality sectors were thrilled to hear that

        • Yuff says:

          As if things won’t change massively, due to vaccine rollout, over the next several months.

    • Anna says:

      You should actually be called Doommonger …

      • ChrisBCN says:

        I prefer factmonger…

        • Anna says:

          You obviously have a direct line to Pedro Sanchez, so keep us posted!

          • ChrisBCN says:

            You just have to follow the Spanish news, I’ll let you know what else he says!

        • Rob says:

          Costermonger.

          Anyone else have a favourites monger?

          • ChrisBCN says:

            I had to look that one up!

          • mark2 says:

            Cheesemonger, although Paxton & Whitfield in Stratford was closed during ShopSmall

          • kitten says:

            I’m a fan of Doom 🙂

          • Dance-Ace-Base says:

            Hungermonger

          • Chris says:

            charmingly i still get to buy my fruit/veg from a greengrocer but i insist on calling it the Fruitmonger….much to my wives chagrin

          • Nick says:

            Rob is in a Friday mood 😂

          • Doommonger says:

            You know I’m your favourite!

            The Doomster.

          • WaynedP says:

            Prompted me to google “english words with suffix monger”, then to google “muttonmonger” which I didn’t recognise. Instant regret, but did remind me that I’d only very recently learned that “muttonherder” was a Victorian slang term for the Old Bill, because during their nocturnal patrols they were responsible for moving on “mutton” who had congregated to ply their trade on the streets.

            Sorry, slow Friday afternoon

          • Nick_C says:

            Coster(monger)

            “he loves to lie a-basking in the sun”

    • James says:

      Its almost as if being in the EU allows countries to have control of their own borders, lol. Queue Anna et al…

      • Anna says:

        You need to move on, it’s been 4 1/2 years!

        Fellmonger is particularly obscure and doesn’t actually refer to open land!

    • memesweeper says:

      he may have forgotten he allowed Gib to join schengen area then!

      • Anna says:

        Now I have a spanish passport anyway, I can get in whenever I want! 🙂

        • ChrisBCN says:

          Glad to hear you got that! I’m glad your post brexit application went through ok. Just the other suckers that will be stuck in the slow queue eh! Nothing hypocritical about applying for it I’m sure.

  • Readhfpbeforebreakfast says:

    Was the £60 waitrose offer targeted?

  • Dance-Ace-Base says:

    Nectar: Instead of the usual 10-20 generous bonus point offers, today I have 3 very poor offers.

    Coincidence?

    Well, yes, of course it is. Unless…

    • Peter K says:

      I’m sure the core business is more important to nectar than the avios tie-up. Coincidence I’d have thought, especially as they don’t yet know who will swap nectar with avios.

    • MattB says:

      This morning I got 20 offers including the usual 100 points from 22p beans so BAU here.

    • AJA says:

      I got 18 offers this week totalling 1530 bonus nectar points. All things I regularly buy. That would equate to 956 Avios. And that’s before the nectar points you earn on the rest of the shopping or the Avios paying on the BAPP. I am going to enjoy this partnership. 🙂

  • Dstar says:

    In light of the Nectar/Avios excitement I thought I’d quickly check my Avios balance. Logged in and noticed that no Avios from my Amex card had been posted August-November 2020. Anyone else seen something like this?

    • Anna says:

      I haven’t been keeping as track as I’ve been spending so little, but I have no points posted for July, August or September. There’s a possibility I was in minus avios at the time due to so many refunds, but I’m not sure how I would check that!

      • Dstar says:

        Ah – that could be it. Got a refund for my train season ticket to the card. Do they just not post points until you have covered the impact of the refund? AMex statements show me continuing to earn points though…

        • Anna says:

          I’m assuming that they wouldn’t send any points over to BAEC until your balance goes back into positive avios.

        • AJA says:

          Correct. You have to have a positive Avios balance on the Amex card before they post to BAEC.

  • pointsarb says:

    Can anyone confirm if the bonus 10k MR offer for spending 15k on the personal Amex Gold charge card is also available for spending the same on the business Amex Gold charge card please?

    Seem to recall reading that the offer only applies to the personal card but not sure?

    Thanks!

  • Craig says:

    Nice of Amex to remind me of my Marstons Pub offer by email this morning!

    • Wally1976 says:

      Yes I got that too! I was quite looking forward to using that when it popped up in (I think) early December 🙁

  • kitten says:

    Where’s BJ since the Nectar news broke? out celebrating in Scotland?

    • Polly says:

      Yes, he’s the first person l thought of when l heard the nectar news.. always been a fan of nectar has BJ…

  • Sarah says:

    I currently have BA AMEX and am about to trigger £10K to get the 2-4-1. This will be my third 2-4-1 that I have with only one booking made for June (to US so I’m not expecting it to go ahead). Should I trigger the voucher and then downgrade to blue card and then take out a Sainsbury’s card? Which is best Sainsbury’s card to get?

    • Alex says:

      The Sainsbury’s bank nectar card has a sign-up bonus of 10K NP’s for £400 spend in 2 months so that’s worth getting. I would do eligibility checker first – I checked yesterday and was declined(perfect credit, high wages, rented accommodation, changed to own home and got 95% likely to get card) Once you hit the target you’re better off putting spending on BA free card still though

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