The HfP chat thread – Sunday 31st January

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• Mark says:

  31 Jan31 January 09:24

  The joys ..Just tried to make a payment to HMRC with my curve card and the payment hasn’t gone through for some reason but is still showing on my Virgin balance.
  Does anyone have any experience of sorting this out or will it be sorted in time by Curve?

  • Jonathan says:

    31 Jan31 January 09:32

    It will almost certainly sort itself out in a few days. I wouldn’t waste any energy chasing it until a week has passed. It will most likely reverse at the point when normal transactions go from pending to confirmed so 24-48 hours for most cards.

    • Mark says:

      31 Jan31 January 09:40

      Thanks Jonathan. 👍
      I wouldn’t normally be too bothered but it’s a substantial amount.

      • Amy says:

        31 Jan31 January 09:41

        Even if it arrives late, IIRC they have extended the deadline by another month

        • Joseph Heenan says:

          31 Jan31 January 09:54

          The extended deadlines is for submitting your return, which you’d normally be fined £100 for not submitting before tomorrow.

          Interest will start to accrue on money owed to HMRC from tomorrow, as normal. (But I’d imagine for most people the awards earned will make it worth paying a few days of interest.)

        • Louie says:

          31 Jan31 January 09:55

          Not the payment deadline, just the tax return submission deadline. Interest will still be charged on late payments.

        • Rantallion says:

          31 Jan31 January 09:56

          But will still charge interest on the late payment.

  • Paul says:

    31 Jan31 January 10:09

    Mark, if you mean the transaction appears to have processed fine by Curve, but subsequently showed as declined by HMRC I’ve had that multiple times. The transaction status never updated in Curve to indicate anything but success but I always got the money (automatically) refunded to my underlying card in a few days. Multiple cards, multiple amounts, always refunded. I do mean refunded – the transaction seemingly processed, but then re credited as far as underlying card was concerned. In my case it was because Curve still had an out of date address registered as my billing address (despite having sent the card to my new address…) and providing the Revenue with my previous address as card address enabled me to get the payment through.

    • Mark says:

      31 Jan31 January 10:14

      Hi Paul, that seemed to be the issue here I think.
      Will keep a look out for the refund and pay the few days interest on the unpaid balance.
      Thank you

  • Andy says:

    31 Jan31 January 13:32

    I tried with Curve earlier in the week (backed by a debit card), and the transaction was rejected 2 times. I tried the 3rd time directly with the debit card and it went through without issue. A couple of days later the 2 Curve charges were refunded. Unfortunately they cost themselves a metal customer!

• Amy says:

  31 Jan31 January 09:41

  What is the refund policy around BA Avios redemption flights..
  Obviously changing the ticket will be free right given the current climate
  Do they still charge you £35 to refund each ticket?

  • Anna says:

    31 Jan31 January 09:45

    You still have to pay the £35 fee if you cancel, unless you take a FTV. If BA cancels you have all the EU261 protection. As far as I know, you can’t otherwise make changes to redemption flights.

    • Amy says:

      31 Jan31 January 09:50

      Oh that sucks then, the flight is only around £116 so thats around 30% just to have flexibility.

      What about part-payment of Avios + Cash? Is that more flexible?

      • Anna says:

        31 Jan31 January 09:55

        The Ts and Cs still apply – depending on whether you used cash to reduce the avios price or vice versa.

    • Jill ( Kinkell) says:

      31 Jan31 January 11:02

      Not sure what you mean about making changes to redemption flights. I had a 241 which I cancelled last year ( all refunded bar the £35pp) Made a another booking ,solely to extend my companion voucher then promptly cancelled and wrapped up in a FTV. . Made another 241 booking the other day. Decided to fiddle about with the flights, phoned up and changed them. Agent said I could do any amount of changes due to the BWC agreement.

      • Anna says:

        31 Jan31 January 11:43

        That’s interesting to know, Jill – did you change destination/dates?

        • Anna says:

          31 Jan31 January 11:45

          My avios flights to AUH were cancelled and the CSA told me the only change they would make was to move them to DXB and they could only be one day either side of the original dates. This was nonsense, of course, due to EU261, but I assumed that if it was me wanting to change the booking there would be similar restrictions.

        • Jill ( Kinkell) says:

          31 Jan31 January 13:20

          I changed date and time of one leg.

  • Anna says:

    31 Jan31 January 12:17

    Amy – here is a link to the BA BWC policy. On scanning it it certainly seems more flexible than what CSAs have been telling me recently.
    https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/latest-information

• Craig says:

  31 Jan31 January 09:58

  Quick question, Nectar CC 10k offer, does fuel count towards the £400 spend? It’s not excluded but does anyone have any experience?

  • Anuj says:

    31 Jan31 January 10:23

    Just to butt in, does anyone know if gift cards in store are fine ? I don’t see why they wouldn’t but you never know

    • avstar says:

      1 Feb1 February 11:52

      Fine. confirmed with Sainsbury Bank CS

• Mark Peterborough says:

  31 Jan31 January 10:27

  Re Hilton Dayrooms:

  I recall that somewhere there is a Hilton booking page that allows you to have rate that is a day room & night room combination with a 9am check-in and check out the next day. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

  • Rob says:

    31 Jan31 January 10:44

    Are you thinking of Marriott? They have 6am check in and 6pm (next day) rates.

    • Mark Peterborough says:

      31 Jan31 January 10:54

      Ah, thanks yes I might be.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      31 Jan31 January 12:43

      A very good deal over a weekend and they let me have it a little longer as a Platinum.

• Michael says:

  31 Jan31 January 10:39

  Can anyone help please? W due to fly with virgin LHR-SFO direct later this week and Virgin cancelled flight today and are offering me a connection via new York with 6hr layover (they said this is the only option) can I insist on them putting me on BA direct service like I was supposed to travel with them? Do they not have an obligation like for like, or can they force either refund or NY option? Any help would be appreciated?

  • Anna says:

    31 Jan31 January 11:52

    EU261 says you have to be re-routed “under comparable conditions” so you could argue that having a layover in NYC does not meet this requirement. Does the proposed new routing mean you will be arriving in SFO much later than you originally intended? I am assuming you have commitments at that end which you might not be able to change.
    I hope you manage to resolve this, it must be the last thing you need on top of the stress of actually getting to the US at the moment!

    • Michael says:

      31 Jan31 January 12:08

      Thanks for your help, yes I will either have to leave 12 hr early or arrive 12hr later. I have been arguing the case with them but they have not agreed, not sure how to proceed?

      • Anna says:

        31 Jan31 January 12:30

        @meta and others have practical experience of this, but in the first instance you need to contact VS and give them the option to move you to the direct flight, or categorically refuse and state formally that this is their final position on the matter. It’s going to be complicated by the fact that your flight is not that far off now. (It’s not clear if you’ve spoken to someone already or just got the information in the booking details)

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          31 Jan31 January 12:59

          Once you have achieved the above. You can book BA and send virgin the bill via an arbitration thing (i forgot what its called)

        • Jonathan says:

          31 Jan31 January 14:34

          I’d be wary of rebooking yourself on BA. Legislation doesn’t define comparable conditions so will be for the judge/arbitrator to decide what is reasonable. It’s definitely not the slam dunk case that it would be if they were only offering a refund not a reroute.

          Unless you’re comfortable with a risk I’d estimate to be in the 10-50% bracket of not getting your money back I’d proceed with caution.

          I assume the BA flight would be substantially more than what you paid Virgin?

        • kitten says:

          31 Jan31 January 18:02

          Jonathan : I kind of agree with you which is why I’ve advised what I’ve advised.

          However going to SFO via New York is a very, very long way round so I think Virgin is taking the pi$$ a bit to expect it to be automatically accepted. They are asking the passenger to fly to thr West Coast via the East Coast. In other words to have an extra layover in New York of 6 hours then do a transcontinental extra flight of 5? hours. If there are other airlines flying direct that can get the passenger there around the same time then demanding the passenger do al this via the Eas Coast is unreasonable.

          If Virgin miles was paid for the the flight then a refund is worth avoiding in which case exceptionally I would allow Virgin to switch me to another West Coast destination (Seattle, Las V, LAX) but I am not sure VS has any left. I might be even be prepared to pick up, say, the cost of an Alaska Air flight to SFO from one of those (but I’d try to get it off Virgin anyway).

          Getting Virgin to rebook onto Delta would seem to be the best path.

          If it was MIA and not SFO if course Virgin might be just about able to get away with it but it’s not.

  • kitten says:

    31 Jan31 January 17:15

    Tell them you have to arrive at the original time to meet commitments that are the prime purpose of the trip and tell them to put you on Delta/AA/BA direct instead.
    Request slightly earlier departure time and day if you can. Technically I’m not sure you have a right to earlier, but it backs up what you’re telling them and keeps you out of the “if you can land 2 or 4 hours later then why cant you land 12 hours later” duscussion.

    Personally I think they have been very dirty in cancelling this late and for sure their reason is economic but it’s up to them to know they are obliged to still honour your rights.

    Connecting in JFK is a miserable experience with not.so friendly Immigration IME.

    Research the flight(s) as above before you call and request them. State your EU261 rights. Personally if they wont rebook me direct then I would advise them I require an immediate refund and remindbthem EU261 requires me to be paid this in full within 7 days and youbhave the right to demand more each day beyond that ir 8% statutory interest.

    This one has a bad feeling about it and they may mess up any return as well. Personally I’d take a refund and buy on someone else direct as Virgin is not acting properly here.

    • kitten says:

      31 Jan31 January 17:17

      PS request Delta direct first (this is the one they should have least problem witg) then AA /BA

• pinperl says:

  31 Jan31 January 10:45

  Hi.
  anyone know if amex platinum offering retention offers at the moment?

  • Andrew says:

    31 Jan31 January 10:53

    See discussion on page one of this thread.

• Graeme says:

  31 Jan31 January 10:58

  Curve query, accidentally used another CC to try and pay off Virgin CCinstead of switching to Debit It was declined and in transaction on Curve, says Fee £15 | Fee applied for using Curve Fronted
  Anyone seen this before? Where does the fee get taken from?

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    31 Jan31 January 11:59

    Curve fronted fee. 1.5% for paying a credit card off with a credit card using Curve.

    Curve will charge your underlying card the fee on top of the amount.

    Go back in time the transaction to a Debit Card and the fee will be reversed. If the transaction was declined then no need to worry about it. Its just showing what transaction amount that was attempted.

    • Graeme says:

      31 Jan31 January 12:54

      Thanks, I underatand now. As you say, notging charged as declined

      • The real John says:

        31 Jan31 January 16:07

        It was declined because you haven’t enabled Curve Fronted – if you enable it then it will go through with the fee stated

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    31 Jan31 January 13:47

    From the underlying card

    Why while you use curve instead of the debit card in the first place?

• High Grade says:

  31 Jan31 January 11:18

  Morning all, I was wondering if anyone has had any retention offers from HSBC World Elite or BAPP cards. I see lots of Amex platinum card holders sharing stories of their retention offers. I haven’t seen any mention of anything from the HSBC card that offers main benefits of unlimited lounge access and travel insurance, things few of us can use at the moment.

  • Dan says:

    31 Jan31 January 11:39

    I mentioned on here a couple of weeks ago already…but I managed to get the A/F of the HSBC WE refunded by the Customer Service Rep. I mentioned the inability to use the lounge access and travel benefits – to which the agent was very sympathetic towards. Had to nudge slightly as they said no at first but more probing prompted her to speak to her manager who offered this gesture of goodwill. You may want to try this but equally there have been reports on here that they were not so lucky…

    As for the BAPP, following the this forum over the last couple of weeks I think the best people are getting offered is an extra avios per pound spent for the next 3 months.

    • Eric says:

      31 Jan31 January 12:54

      Wow, I’ve tried for HSBC WE and they said no 3x. Will try tomorrow!

      BAPP – only offered 1 extra Avios per pound spent.

    • SM says:

      31 Jan31 January 13:02

      I too managed to get my annual fee refunded.

      • DJ says:

        31 Jan31 January 17:36

        Just phoned, offered £50 compensation. The operator said that there’s nothing else he could have done for me, as the fee is not refundable.

  • High Grade says:

    31 Jan31 January 17:39

    Thanks for the replies. To be honest I’ll take what I can get. I will keep both card regardless of any offers, so an extra point per point is quite useful especially as I put a lot through my card. Refunded annual fee would be fantastic. I’ll give it a try.

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