The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 3rd February

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• Tom says:

  3 Feb3 February 03:07

  Open jaw 241 question. IIRC open jaws are allowed as long as the distance between the destination airport and the departing airport is a shorter distance than both legs. I have a few questions.
  1. Is my memory correct?
  2. is there a source for what BA deem the distances? I am hoping to do some travelling next year and hope to fly into Tokyo and out from Seattle but the distances are very close.
  3. Is it possible to book first leg of 241 and then 3 months later make the 2nd leg and link the bookings?

  Thanks!

  • Frankie says:

    3 Feb3 February 06:19

    Type ‘open jaw’ into the search box here on HFPs. Rob has a feature on this with lots of useful comments.

  • Ikaz says:

    3 Feb3 February 07:58

    For point 3 just be aware that you cannot add a second leg after flying the third leg, I saw someone got caught out by that before.

    • Ikaz says:

      3 Feb3 February 07:59

      That should read “After flying the first leg”

  • memesweeper says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:51

    ` is there a source for what BA deem the distances? `

    I believe they follow the IATA rules. Great Circle Mapper should be adequate for planning provided you use the correct airport codes.

    • BJ says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:39

      They manage a small number to control which zone they fall into.

    • Louie says:

      3 Feb3 February 12:03

      They use the same mileage as they use for awarding Avios. Look up the route you are interested in to see how many Avios you would earn for whatever ticket class it is that earns 100% of miles.

• 1ATL says:

  3 Feb3 February 04:06

  Just google IATA mileage calculator
  I usually use http://www.webflyer.com/travel/mileage_calculator/

  From what I can see you’re right on the limit of this being a permitted openjaw:

  LON-TYO 5974
  SEA-LON 4780

  Openjaw distance between TYO-SEA is also 4780 however the rule says this distance needs to be shorter than either of the two flown distances (not the same as or longer). This could be a sticking point depending on interpretation of the rules. Otherwise your understanding of openjaw appears to be correct.

  There’s also a thread on Headforpoints all about openjaw

  https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2019/08/07/what-are-the-rules-for-booking-an-open-jaw-redemption-using-avios/

• BJ says:

  3 Feb3 February 06:22

  1. Yes.
  2. IIRC people use great circle mapper or just Google if the miles are close and they want to check. If Tokyo to Seattle does not work check if San Francisco or Vancouver does. Not certain as I’ve never flew to/from Canada with BA but my thinking is you would save a bunch on tax/fees coming back from Vancouver but others will be able to confirm.
  3. Yes

  • BJ says:

    3 Feb3 February 06:34

    Just check and you are right it is so close but zi think it is fine. It could hinge on whether it is HND or NRT distances BA has loaded. However, Vancouver is fine so check out the saving on price to see if it works for you.

    • DZOO says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:36

      SFO also works – have done 241 LON-TYO/SFO-LON

      • kitten says:

        3 Feb3 February 14:00

        A pity BA dropped PDX before it started. I think that might have got it. Much closer than SFO.

• Ian M says:

  3 Feb3 February 06:39

  Morning all.

  How often do HSBC offer a conversion bonus to Avios? I remember there being (I think) a 25% bonus a little while back. Is this something they generally offer once a year or..?

  • Aleks says:

    3 Feb3 February 06:53

    +1

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    3 Feb3 February 07:22

    None in the past 18 months.
    The bonuses talked about were offered by the airlines – Krisflyer in Dec and Asiamiles in Jan.

    • Genghis says:

      3 Feb3 February 07:38

      Last two were Aug 19 and Dec 19, both in last 18 months.

      Going forward, 🤷🏻‍♂️

      • Ian M says:

        3 Feb3 February 07:49

        Thanks. I didn’t see the value before but things have changed, hopefully we’ll see another bonus offered this year

  • James says:

    3 Feb3 February 08:10

    Waiting too. I guess the good news is there’s no harm in leaving them with a bank currently!

  • Rob says:

    3 Feb3 February 08:33

    Was annually but they skipped 2020. That said, I was told in 2018 that they were done with bonuses …. but then they did 2019.

  • 747_Brat says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:23

    @Ian M
    Off topic, but did you receive the Metro Bank switch incentive? I think you signed up using my referral code.
    Thanks.

• CF Frost says:

  3 Feb3 February 07:08

  Many probably aware but if it’s Nectar points and Caffè Nero coffee you want rather than Avios, NatWest rewards now convert to Nectar at 1:0.94 utilising avios as the intermediary and where rate is 1:1.175.

  • Andrew says:

    3 Feb3 February 07:27

    But surely converting to cash into your back account at 1:1 is better value and easier?

    • The real John says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:45

      If you value a Caffe Nero drink at £1.86 or higher the nectar route is better value.

      If you shop at John Lewis / Waitrose, Morrisons or M&S, you need to value a Caffe Nero drink at £1.93.

      • yorkieflyer says:

        3 Feb3 February 18:16

        but I can make a cuppa at home for about 10p…..

• Harold R says:

  3 Feb3 February 07:53

  I have tried apps like Money dashboard and Emma and now Snoop that Rob recommended however they all have a flaw that you can’t manually add data (Emma allows on premium but it’s too hard to do).
  Is anyone aware of a personal finance app that allows this ideally a csv upload from a statement?
  It seems a pretty obvious feature as even if they integrate all the banks in the world if I went and spent £100 cash in tesco one month the reports would become useless if it can’t include this.

  • memesweeper says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:54

    Yolt enables you to manually add balances for unsupported accounts.

  • Max says:

    3 Feb3 February 18:43

    Money dashboard lets you add an offline account and manually update the balance.

• KBuffett says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:05

  Are there any ways to get good discounts on Cafe Nero, Costa, iTunes?
  I’m feeling rather deal deprived at the moment, so itching to save a few pennies. Sad, I know!

  • Andrew says:

    3 Feb3 February 08:25

    Me too! Nothing useable on the Amex offers since Christmas apart from the PayPal one.

    • Harry T says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:31

      What about 15% off at Kiehl’s amex offer? That stacked nicely with their 30% off January sale!

  • Rob says:

    3 Feb3 February 08:32

    Nectar points for Nero – best use of them. Nero also seems to be on the new Virgin Credit Card app offers for some people.

    • Andrew says:

      3 Feb3 February 08:42

      One to two people are missing the “see all offers” after the first 6 that are displayed. It doesn’t help that it’s in the same red box as “see offer” immediately above.

    • WaynedP says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:32

      Yes 5% £££back on online Caffe Nero purchases until 21 Apr

    • BJ says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:44

      Ending around today IIRC unless they renew it again.

  • Tracey says:

    3 Feb3 February 08:34

    O2 priority moments, free drink at cafe Nero on a Tuesday or Wednesday. PAYG O2 sim, make a call every 3 or 6 months to keep it active and download the priority moments app.

    • ChrisC says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:31

      Sometimes O2 priority rewards are under rated

      Other then the almost weekly coffee I’ve had free periods of Disney+ (though that could have been an add on not a reward) and won a virgin experience voucher in one of their christmas competitions in 2019.

      Just before christmas they had a case of craft ales with a large discount (and not a way to secretly sign people up for regular deliveries)

      Recently I’ve seen free food at Leon as well.

      • Andrew says:

        3 Feb3 February 10:36

        Agreed, and before the world changed, it was a weekly pizza at pizza express for £5 (any classic pizza, eat-in only). And with my work phone being O2 as well as my personal phone it’s 2x everything for me each week.

      • Christopher says:

        3 Feb3 February 11:11

        In 2016 I won VIP box tickets at the O2 for the ATP Tour Finals final – just for clicking one day on the O2 Priority app.

      • BJ says:

        3 Feb3 February 11:46

        Good time to get Disney+ sorted, I heard it is going up £2/month.

  • Neil Spellings says:

    3 Feb3 February 08:41

    See if your employer has a corporate perks scheme like xExec or Perkbox – both offer discounts on all of those retailers. If you’re a small business, you can join Perkbox for about £80 a year per employee and its not classed as a benefit-in-kind and you easily recoup the cost on your weekly shopping.

    • Tony says:

      3 Feb3 February 21:46

      £20 per month – just had a quote.

  • The real John says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:48

    Costa is easy, just keep referring yourself. £1 for signing up and then £2 each for referrals once the new account buys something. Cash out your tee cee bee to costa at 10% uplift

    • memesweeper says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:56

      Unfortunately their coffee is very poor compared even to Nero, probably better spent on a cup of tea there

      • Doug M says:

        3 Feb3 February 10:52

        All the frothy milk chains which claim to be coffee shops are equally bad. As a black coffee drinker I prefer Pret or McDonald’s coffee to the 3 supposed specialists.

        • Aston100 says:

          3 Feb3 February 11:34

          McDonalds coffee and (especially) hot chocolate is surprisingly decent, and very good value for the money.

        • AnotherUser says:

          3 Feb3 February 12:59

          Pret’s filter coffee is decent quality and fairly cheap. Would be my choice, if there’s not a good independent shop around

        • kitten says:

          3 Feb3 February 14:08

          +100,000
          Once I could get over myself and actually admit McDo’s coffee isn’t bad.

          And sooo relieved to see Pret was often still open in 2 airports after lots of the rest had closed or severely reduced their opening times

        • kitten says:

          3 Feb3 February 14:09

          I used to think nothing of flying to Italy for a coffee. Sob! 🙂

        • SM says:

          3 Feb3 February 19:34

          Tim Horton’s would be my choice, however, shops are few and far between in the UK.

        • bafan says:

          3 Feb3 February 21:31

          @SB I think I read Timmies are expanding in the UK – I read somewhere. Emphasis on drive thrus IIRC. I’d love me a coffee and some timbits!

    • Sam says:

      3 Feb3 February 21:02

      How do you keep referring yourself at Costa? Surely they can see your email address is the same?

  • Wollhouse says:

    3 Feb3 February 10:01

    If you need health insurance, Vitality includes good benefits IF you’re active. I get “free” Amazon prime, Apple Watch, cafe nero coffee (and at the moment this also includes beans delivered). Plus discounts on a load of other stuff. This is based on if you do your steps or workouts each week.

    • Harry T says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:29

      There’s also that Vitality amex where you can get up to 3% c@shb@ck if you’re very active. They seem to be offering a £100 sign up bonus offer too now.

      @Rob time to update the vitality amex article?

      • Hotelier says:

        3 Feb3 February 12:01

        Was looking at the £100 sign up bonus… doesn’t show any requirements / exclusions?? I am right to think I would get the £100 even if I am blocked from Amex/BA sign up bonus? Would this card affect the 24 months period for new bonuses? It could be a great option, I have Vitality.

      • Rob says:

        3 Feb3 February 12:17

        I am not allowed to publish links to the Vitality card. You will see that my old article has been amended.

      • Wally1976 says:

        3 Feb3 February 19:24

        Is this worth having if you’re very active but don’t have any other vitality products?

    • kitten says:

      3 Feb3 February 14:11

      can you cheat and put the device on your dog?

      • Wollhouse says:

        4 Feb4 February 06:12

        Kitten, not sure about your dog, but…. I am very active and have a resting heart rate between 45-55. So, I would regularly do a class where i definitely worked hard, but my heart rate, although doubled, wasn’t “high” enough to get qualifying points…. my friend, doing the same class was nailing her points..so sometimes, due to her poor eyesight….she has to wear 2 watches during class;). I buy the cover because I want it, but I do think they have some excellent extras available, some regardless of your activity level, some tied to activity.

• Mikeact says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:28

  No comments available on today’s main article….Amex Membership Points ?

  • tony says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:34

    +1. I think the article misses a fundamental point, as it works largely on the assumption that MRs are the only way people accrue loyalty points, where I’d guess that many more folk will use MRs to top off existing accounts. That completely changes the valuation dynamics – I really can’t see AMEX being that bothered and anyway, given they bought a shed load of Avios recently, if this gets them through that pile faster, presumably it’s a good thing.

    • Harrier25 says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:42

      In my view Nectar is still quite thin on the ground when it comes to rewards and I know that Hilton is by far no where near the best in redemption value, but to me it comes down to how the redemption value is personally perceived, and I value a nights stay in a nice Hilton or Double Tree a lot higher value than buying groceries at Sainsbury’s or a lawn mower at Argos, regardless of the redemption value.

      • James says:

        3 Feb3 February 09:55

        +1

        • Rob says:

          3 Feb3 February 10:03

          This is illogical though, since you can buy Hilton points at 0.39p (so 0.78p for two) with a 100% bonus and cash out now via Nectar for 0.8p.

      • Harry T says:

        3 Feb3 February 11:35

        Hilton can be very good value if you use them at higher end properties – for example I’ve booked five nights at the Waldorf in Amsterdam for 76,000 points a night in August, when they are charging 650 euros a night (it’s meant to be the best hotel in Amsterdam). I purchased the points in a previous sale for about 0.4p a point. It’s hard to get above Rob’s basic valuation at the lower and mid range properties. I would rather buy Hilton points than waste MR on them though, as you can do far better with MR transfers elsewhere.

        • BJ says:

          3 Feb3 February 12:15

          Fancy hogmanay at Samui Residence @Harry T? 712,000 points/night … best just pay c@sh – about £1650/night but there is probably compulsory gala dinner on top too.

    • Rob says:

      3 Feb3 February 10:07

      You’re right, as a topping off exercise it is different.

      That said …. as you can currently buy Hilton points for less than the Nectar value, and the purchased points appear instantly, it isn’t necessarily a good idea even for that.

      When I needed a few hundred thousand Hilton points in December I bought them instead of transferring, because I didn’t want to risk losing the availability.

    • BJ says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:59

      Huh? The best use of MR points is absolute (for any given underlying assumptions) irrespective of what other reward currencies you collect and how you apportion their use.

  • Harrier25 says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:35

    I was going to leave a comment but it doesn’t give you the option to.

    • Rob says:

      3 Feb3 February 10:04

      Doh. Now fixed, sorry. I have no idea how the button to disable them got ticked.

      • ChrisC says:

        3 Feb3 February 10:19

        Sometimes I think a day without being able to comment on any article might be beneficial to all concerned!

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