The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 26th January

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• Tony says:

  26 Jan26 January 10:20

  I have used the Tesco Mastercard for as long as I can remember to earn Avios (as a backup card for when AMEX not accepted). I have ordered a Nectar Mastercard Credit card as I shop at Sainsburys. Is there any reason to keep my Tesco Mastercard?? Assume there is very little between the cards when shopping outside of Tesco/Sainsburys?

• Tony says:

  26 Jan26 January 10:23

  Just received creation card. What’s the quickest/easiest way to hit spend threshold without making a hotel booking? Does topping-up Amazon gift card work? Direct or via bendy?

  • Jonathan says:

    26 Jan26 January 10:32

    Buying gift cards or topping up Amazon etc. is always fine, it’s legitimate spend. Definitely no need for Curve/Revolut or any other intermediary.

    Quasi cash or credit cycling are where you’re on a sticky wicket if they audit you.

  • Andrew says:

    26 Jan26 January 11:23

    Prepay your 2021/22 Council Tax bill in full.
    Load credit to your utility bills.

  • Steven says:

    26 Jan26 January 13:47

    When did you apply? Seems to be a technical error with the website preventing applications being submitted just now.

    • Tony says:

      26 Jan26 January 15:44

      Applied 14th Jan

• Pete M says:

  26 Jan26 January 10:27

  Has anyone had issues activating a new Curve card recently? Any tips on what helped to make it work? I signed up last week, everything went through and I activated the Curve card through the app and added an underlying IHG card. I can’t, however, get the Curve card added to Apple Pay nor does it actually work online. I’ve contacted them via the app and phone and been told to wait for an email with instructions/a fix, but it’s been nearly ten days…!

  • 747_Brat says:

    26 Jan26 January 10:30

    I am facing the same issue for the card I ordered for my Wife. Raised a complaint with Curve but haven’t heard back from them!

    • Pete M says:

      26 Jan26 January 10:57

      Hmmm! Good to know I am not alone, not so good it seems to be a wider problem! Thanks for replying!

    • 747_Brat says:

      26 Jan26 January 12:46

      No probs. Let me know when you resolve the issue with them.
      Cheers.

    • 747_Brat says:

      26 Jan26 January 13:43

      @Pete M

      I just got a response from Curve:

      Hi XX,

      Thanks for getting in touch. We are looking into this and will be back in touch as soon as possible.

      Team Curve

      • Pete M says:

        26 Jan26 January 13:47

        Yup, that’s where I am too 🙁

  • Toppcat says:

    26 Jan26 January 11:11

    Same issue for me, except Google Pay. I sent the company a message over the weekend, but no response yet.

  • Dr C says:

    26 Jan26 January 12:21

    What the exact problem or error? I had this problem, had to sign out of icloud and sign back in to be able to re add a curve card

    • Pete M says:

      26 Jan26 January 12:57

      I get as far as accepting the Apple Pay / Curve T&Cs and it then tells me “card not added, contact your card issuer for more information”. I suspect it’s an issue on Curve’s side, given I am unable to use the card online either…?

      • Sina says:

        26 Jan26 January 14:25

        I had the same problem and contacted curve, got the general response, but after about 5 days tried adding to Apple Pay again and it worked!

        BTW @747_Brat used your T212 link to sign up x2! 👍🏼

        • 747_Brat says:

          26 Jan26 January 16:51

          Thank you very much Sina 🙂

• Russ says:

  26 Jan26 January 10:28

  10.28 and I can’t believe no one has asked how we max out points and current hotel deals from Boris’s forced quarantine deal.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    26 Jan26 January 10:30

    Was discussed two days back. Qn is whether the travellers will be given a choice of hotels? The hotels have no incentive to provide any benefits as they are guaranteed income.

    • Russ says:

      26 Jan26 January 10:39

      Groan I am so behind with everything at the moment.

      So what happens if prior to travel we make a booking at a hotel on the Bath Road with parking , let’s say for 28 days, drop the car off, get on a plane, come back, surely we can go back to the hotel where our car is and which has already been paid for in advance. Would that work?

      • Anna says:

        26 Jan26 January 10:48

        I’m pretty sure they haven’t factored anything like that into the plans!

        • Russ says:

          26 Jan26 January 11:20

          I’m sure you’re right Anna.

          First opportunity I’m just going. The 10k fine’s looking better value every day 😉

      • The real John says:

        26 Jan26 January 13:20

        The way it works elsewhere is that the entire hotel becomes a quarantine hotel which can’t be booked by the public except through a special quarantine site. How else can they ensure that everyone stays in their rooms if they accept non-quarantining guests?Everyone gets on one bus which takes you to one hotel.

        • kitten says:

          26 Jan26 January 13:27

          On one bus… ensuring cross-infection

        • Nick_C says:

          26 Jan26 January 14:06

          “On one bus… ensuring cross-infection”

          Well as you’ve just been sharing the air with other people on a flight, I’m not sure a bus to the quarantine hotel is going to be much of an issue.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          26 Jan26 January 15:57

          not true. the filteration and fresh air will be completely different on the plane to a bus.

      • kitten says:

        26 Jan26 January 13:26

        You can waive at your car parked in the hotel car park on the Bath Road alongside Heathrow as you go past in the G4S security truck towards the Britannia hotel in Scarborough the government has designated for your stay

• Stagger Lee says:

  26 Jan26 January 10:30

  Bugger. Been waiting for BA to cancel my Feb Caymans flights so I can switch it to as far ahead as possible. Just checked and they are currently running one flight every fortnight and just my luck is that it’s that ones I’m booked on!!!

  Guess I’ll just have to sit of out to the last minute and then take the FTV or refund. The latter would mean I’d almost certainly lose a 241 that expires in Aug.

  On a brighter note, I get my first vaccine jab on Thursday

  • Pete M says:

    26 Jan26 January 10:36

    That’s annoying! Similar situation with some Miami flights here… Excellent news on the jab, though!

  • Anna says:

    26 Jan26 January 10:50

    @Stagger Lee, how unlucky is that! Both my GCM flights (April and August) have had at least one leg cancelled by BA so I’ve been able to ask for a refund.
    Were you only going one-way though, i.e. is there a chance your return leg would be cancelled?

    • Stagger Lee says:

      26 Jan26 January 12:35

      I just checked the BA timetables page and these fortnightly flights currently go out on a Thursday and back the day after. Of course my flights are exactly that. What were the odds on my bookings being on those exact flights.!!

      I guess any new restrictions could affect that but I’m kind of resigned to having to cancel myself.

      Still, it’s a tiny issue in the grand scheme of things so I’ll just take the refund/FTV and make new plans as and when the world opens up again.

      • Anna says:

        26 Jan26 January 14:06

        That is really unfortunate, especially as you wouldn’t even be allowed to board the flight without a travel authorisation from the Cayman government!

• Pierre says:

  26 Jan26 January 10:58

  I just noticed on my Amex Nectar card that earlier this month I unexpectedly received 4,500 bonus Nectar points for some reason. The activity is called ‘Dec 20 More Points’. While I’m not complaining, it’s not obvious to me what these bonus Nectar points relate to – is anyone aware of a promotion on the Amex Nectar card at the moment?

• Andrew says:

  26 Jan26 January 11:19

  Meeting about the hotel quarantine not happening until tonight, so an announcement not expected until tomorrow now

  • Russ says:

    26 Jan26 January 11:25

    *starts packing carry on*

    • Anna says:

      26 Jan26 January 11:27

      Share your plans with us Russ, we need some entertainment!

  • Anna says:

    26 Jan26 January 11:29

    What’s the plan for anyone with an onward connection from London, e.g. to Scotland? Will they be allowed to continue their journey and quarantine at the end or will they be intercepted at LHR/LGW (and very possibly bussed to a quarantine hotel in a different part of the country anyway?!)

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      26 Jan26 January 12:20

      You probably won’t be allowed to continue (if they have any sense) as you’ll be mixing with domestic passengers so will be hard to keep track or contain the virus.

      Also why even bother going abroad, all around its a bad idea at the moment. I’d say until July at the earliest its a write off

      • Anna says:

        26 Jan26 January 14:10

        It’s purely hypothetical. But in that case they would have to include in the regulations that you must terminate your journey at your first point of entry to the UK and comply with the instructions regarding quarantine at that time.

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      26 Jan26 January 12:41

      Depends on Nicola’s plans?

      • Jill ( Kinkell) says:

        26 Jan26 January 12:52

        Given half a chance ,she’d have Checkpoint Nikki !

        • kitten says:

          26 Jan26 January 13:28

          Watch this space

    • Colin MacKinnon says:

      26 Jan26 January 12:45

      What about connecting in London to a flight to Dublin? Then have your fortnight in a nice hotel of your choice in the countryside?
      Maybe a wee stroll into Northern Ireland…..

      • The real John says:

        26 Jan26 January 13:21

        The first bit would work if everyone flying into DUB has to go into quarantine.

• gary says:

  26 Jan26 January 11:40

  Looking at booking some flights for a Portugal trip either in June or September, or maybe both to hedge my bets. Anything to look forward too after booking and then having to cancel trips of late.
  BA are coming out with some very good flight plus hotel deals, far better than i can do independently of each other. I am getting confused re the cancellation options so wonder if someone can help on this. Basically am i ok to book and be able to personally cancel even if the flight isn’t cancelled and get a voucher for the flight and hotel costs?
  Presumably if they cancel i get a full refund anyway?
  many thanks

  • Pete M says:

    26 Jan26 January 11:45

    Yup, that sounds right, although haven’t booked a BA Holiday in some time. Would certainly be the case for flight only.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    26 Jan26 January 12:22

    Yep both of those statements are correct

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