The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 3rd February

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

• RB says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:46

  It’s been 4 months since getting my bapp card and no Amex offers showing. Have called them multiple times and no luck to get offers to show. Anyone else had a similar issue and how did you resolve?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:26

    If you took a payment holiday that is probably why, or your account has been flagged for some other reason such as MS, abuse of offers or debt

  • tony says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:29

    Have you been using the card at all? I think they try and build a profile off that. Also, there was a slug of new offers added around the end of Q3 but IIRC they seemed to tail off after that, so you might have just missed the cut.

    Also worth pinging them on chat – I couldn’t see the £175 deal on my platinum card but AMEX were adamant it was there (and enabled it manually), so the tech seems a bit flakey, too.

  • Ja says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:36

    I have the BA card. With the exception of the shop small(which I had to ring up for) I had no offers from September until this week. I have had 6 in the last 4 days (all useless).

    • tony says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:46

      The offers are spectacularly poor at the moment, but I think that’s symptomatic of the unprecedented market. Those outlets where you can spend money are doing fine so why give stuff away, and the struggling ones aren’t allowed to operate anyway. Hopefully as we see a reopening, the offers will come back as the fight for our £££s resumes.

  • babyg says:

    3 Feb3 February 14:56

    deregister the card from the amex app/website.
    create a brand new amex login/account
    reregister the card to the new login
    do some spending, offers should appear in about a week (well thats worked for me twice now)

• Fab212 says:

  3 Feb3 February 08:51

  BA eVoucher question – I have an eVoucher (not FTV) for £50 expiring on 2nd March 2021: any tips / tricks on how to best use it (buy Avios?) or have it extended? (I am not looking at booking a BA flight until end of March at the earliest).

  • ChrisC says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:23

    Book a flight with it then a couple of days later claim an FTV which would then be dated April 2022 ?

    • Fab212 says:

      3 Feb3 February 09:57

      Thanks – when I get to use the FTV, could I add a 2-4-1 voucher to it?

      • Rob says:

        3 Feb3 February 10:01

        Unlikely. The FTV is your old ticket, frozen. It gets unfrozen and the destination and travel date changed. That is all they can do.

        • Fab212 says:

          3 Feb3 February 10:29

          Thanks – so I think i will do a 2-4-1 booking using close to the value of my eVoucher then cancel it later. That way I will also extend my 2-4-1 to April 2023.

    • ChrisC says:

      3 Feb3 February 10:56

      whoops April 2023! forgot about the extentsion

• ant says:

  3 Feb3 February 09:49

  What happens if I ask for an FTV for a trip that includes a Lloyd’s voucher that has now expired?

  • memesweeper says:

    3 Feb3 February 09:58

    It *should* be bundled into your FTV and usable until the cancellation date of the FTV.

    My recent experiences with the avios.com call centre have been poor, so be prepared for a fight.

  • Rob says:

    3 Feb3 February 10:03

    It hasn’t expired. It is frozen inside the FTV.

    • Matt says:

      3 Feb3 February 14:23

      Ahh… I didn’t even realise the Lloyds vouchers could be ‘extended’ in a FTV. Time for me to get booking then. Can I ask another question about this please…? If I book a short haul flight upgraded to CE with the Lloyds voucher, when this gets frozen in the FTV can I later use the FTV on long haul J and benefit from a bigger avios saving via the frozen Lloyds voucher?
      I hope that’s clear… Thanks as always. Matt

      • Rob says:

        3 Feb3 February 14:52

        Logically it should be possible. Has anyone ever done it? No idea.

        • Alan says:

          3 Feb3 February 15:02

          Am in a similar situation. got CW flight to SFO in May using Lloyds voucher [which had expiry date of 31 Jan]. Travelling then seems unrealistic right now. Would be interested to hear of others’ experiences of successful rebooking

• Chas says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:08

  I tried booking a Hilton yesterday, and their flexible rate could only be cancelled up to 90 days before, and required payment in advance. I was really surprised – that’s not normal is it? There is a big event on at the time of my stay (Covid permitting), so they’d have no problems reselling the room if the event happens. Hilton lost my stay as a result, and I’ve decided to forgo my points and stay at a more expensive hotel next door which is fully cancellable up to noon on the day of check-in, payment not taken in advance.

  • Peter K says:

    3 Feb3 February 10:23

    If there is a big event then that is not unusual. They basically want to lock in the business and don’t want lots of people speculatively booking a room and then cancelling the week before.

    They might be able to resell a few rooms easily, but not a large number at short notice when most people going will have already booked accommodation.

    • Chas says:

      3 Feb3 February 10:36

      I understand the logic. 3 months just seemed completely excessive. I’d definitely rather pay for flexibility at this time, so there’s no way I’m going to limit my cancellation rights to 3 months, when it’s possible that the event could be cancelled within that timeframe.

• David S says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:09

  On the subject of Lifetime status with Marriott, I have close to 500 nights of stays but over a long period. How do I know if I have met the 7 years of Gold for obtaining Lifetime status and does it have to be consecutive years at that level ?

  • Rob says:

    3 Feb3 February 11:05

    It tells you on the Marriott website. Doesn’t need to be consecutive.

    Log in on desktop. Go to overview. Click on the ’40 nights this year’ wording in top right corner. You get the page I screenshotted above, which also shows (but I cropped it out) your lifetime stats.

• Optimus Prime says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:19

  Not sure if this’s been mentioned before – Just got an email from Amex regarding my Business Plat card. There’s another £150 statement credit offer on purchases at Dell but now it works as 2×75. One until June and the other from July to December.

  “Get up to £150 in statement credits annually on purchases with Dell Technologies when you use your American Express® Business Platinum Card.

  By shopping for award-winning Dell PCs powered by Intel® or top-brand electronics and accessories on your enrolled card, you’ll receive a £75 statement credit from January to June and a £75 statement credit from July to December.”

• Andrew says:

  3 Feb3 February 10:52

  This week’s Sazbo’s offers from Nectar have just popped up for me.

  1460 potential bonus points. There’s nothing on there that I wouldn’t buy or use. Totting up the shopping basket cost, it comes to £28.15, so that’s an additional 28 points.

  Deduct the 3% turn I get for using my Spree card. Net is £27.31 for 1488 Nectar points or 930 Avios.

  So what’s better value?

  Buying 1000 or 1300 Avios for £31, or buying 930 Avios for under £30 and filling your cupboards as you scoff a couple of fresh custard slices (+60 pts) …

  • Aston100 says:

    3 Feb3 February 11:25

    Only started using Sainsburys recently (after a long absence with just the occasional visit for fuel or a sandwich).
    The 3 sets of nectar offers have been very low.
    Always 6 items.
    240; 330 and now 300 points worth in total.
    I spend around £100 per home delivery.

    At what point do the offers get better?

    • AJA says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:30

      I think you have to start building up a profile of spending regularly at Sainsbury’s again. That way they will work out what you spend and then the offers should increase.

    • FFoxSake says:

      3 Feb3 February 11:32

      Semi-related… Do your weekly Nectar offers trigger with Sainsbury home delivery or does it have to be in-store spend?

      • AJA says:

        3 Feb3 February 11:42

        @FFox Both online and instore spend will generate the bonus offers. Just remember to check the app before you click pay online to earn the bonus. You cannot claim the bonus Nectar points retrospectively.

        • FFoxSake says:

          3 Feb3 February 12:10

          Add all offers to App before online checkout. Got it.
          Thanks AJA.

    • John says:

      3 Feb3 February 18:39

      I thought I answered this question already. Took about 4 months from getting a new card and spending regularly before the number of offers increased from 6 to 20

  • AJA says:

    3 Feb3 February 11:40

    @Andrew It depends on whether you want to use the Nectar points for spending in Sainsbury’s or Argos or eBay insteadof Avios. On the other hand effectively you’re getting the Avios for free if you would be buying the food anyway. I am quite happy with this new partnership as I have just been accumulating Nectar points. I don’t redeem inside Sainsbury’s as the spending goes on the BAPP towards the £10k target. That said I did redeem £200 of Nectar points in Argos last year for a Samsung 32inch TV to replace the small kitchen one that I had for donkeys years after it finally packed in.

  • The cyclist says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:08

    Sazbos? I fear for the English Language.

    • Red Flyer says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:09

      Goes by Sainsbo’s instead in my part of the world here in NW England. 😀

      • James says:

        3 Feb3 February 15:57

        It’s clearly Sainsbugs

  • BJ says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:22

    Depends on your waistline, blood pressure cholesterol levels etc.

    • kitten says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:56

      Ouch.

      • BJ says:

        3 Feb3 February 14:03

        … but we only live once so who cares, let’s enjoy it 🙂 if we believed everything people say about food we wouldn’t eat anything!

• Navara says:

  3 Feb3 February 11:32

  Looks like my New Tesco to Virgin auto convert points have dropped into my account

  • David says:

    3 Feb3 February 12:18

    Have you received 2000 bonus points for auto convert.

    • xcalx says:

      3 Feb3 February 12:38

      No bonus added to mine.

    • Navara says:

      3 Feb3 February 13:34

      No… Takes up to 28 days

      • ChasP says:

        3 Feb3 February 14:12

        points showing in total but not in transactions – and no bonus yet

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