The HfP chat thread – Friday 5th February

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• Marko says:

  5 Feb5 February 03:36

  Rob, do you think BA will extend the deadline for using the vouchers or enable us to convert it to cash? A lot of people will not be able to travel by March 2022, especially when it comes to long-haul. I am struggling to see how I could spend the amount I got stuck in vouchers.

  • Harry T says:

    5 Feb5 February 04:09

    Haven’t they already recently extended the vouchers to April 2023?

    • Anna says:

      5 Feb5 February 05:01

      Yes for FTVs, it was covered a few days ago.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    5 Feb5 February 06:47

    Already happened- so article from a few days ago.

    The current belief is the airlines will be forced into redeeming vouchers for cash on expiry (certainly in the EU, hopefully in the UK) which is the reason they’re extending them

    • Doug M says:

      5 Feb5 February 10:00

      Agreed. Given the ruling it makes no sense for airlines to hold to an expiry date. I guess the only reason it’s a gradual extension is to both drive people to use them (albeit for booking as likely to be cancelled), or because of IT issues.

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      5 Feb5 February 11:21

      Any news on 2-4-1 vouchers? Have I missed it?

      • Rob says:

        5 Feb5 February 11:21

        No news.

• Anna says:

  5 Feb5 February 05:25

  The hotel quarantine proposals from Feb 15th sound like a shambles. Private security guards (with no powers) to patrol hotels and escort “guests” outside for fresh air and/or smoking. (Not sure if the ones who want fresh air will get a different area from the smokers). Nothing to stop them just walking off, though, much like the British citizens who were evacuated from Wuhan last year. Government will pay for all this up front then “recoup” the costs from guests (how, exactly? The NHS, for example, needs an entire department to claw back costs from foreign patients).
  It’s going to be an expensive mess; they need to do it like Australia or not at all.

  • Harry T says:

    5 Feb5 February 05:33

    It’s not logistically possible in the UK, especially with the cabal of rabid baboons that currently occupy cabinet positions.

    Private security worked really well in Melbourne though, so perhaps I’m wrong 😉

    • Tom1 says:

      5 Feb5 February 05:59

      I think you’re missing the point. I don’t think anyone is expecting it to work 100%.
      It should be a deterrent firstly to make sure that only those who really want/need to fly. To minimise travel and the reduce the risk of bringing in new strains that undermine our vaccination rollout.

      The point about security guards having no powers – yes I’m sure there will be some who abscond, but the number of these would be significantly less than those who currently “self isolate” at home. There are police currently knocking on doors checking – in theory these would be freed up. Depending on the reason to enter the U.K. I also suspect/hope people think twice about absconding – if they came to The U.K. for work reasons, I know for sure my company would not tolerate me breaking the rules/laws.

      There are plenty of Instagram and tiktok accounts of those who have documented their hotel quarantine in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore etc.

      As for whether it’s logistically possible in the U.K. and how to pay I’m not sure. Thankfully there are other countries who have been doing this for some time whose procedures should give us a head start.

      • Harry T says:

        5 Feb5 February 06:09

        Police are not knocking on doors to enforce self isolation – the government farms it out to a private company who just ring you and ask you to pinky swear you’re at home, if they ring at all.

        I don’t think a lot of people realise how much travel there is in and out of the UK, when compared to countries like Australia, even for essential purposes. The government has not thought this through and it looks set to be another omnishambles dumpster fire.

        • Tom1 says:

          5 Feb5 February 06:16

          Yes agree on the amount of travel.
          But police are knocking on doors – it seems to have taken a step up since the braz/saf strains. Go and check the Facebook travel forums (actually don’t, it’s painful 😂) Not sure how much though and if it’s certain areas.

          But anything that is a deterrent will help, wouldn’t it?

        • MattB says:

          5 Feb5 February 06:43

          They have in my area.

        • Mark says:

          5 Feb5 February 09:50

          Police knocked on my door when my daughter, who was in quarantine because she had just flown back from Copenhagen before Xmas, didn’t answer her mobile to an unknown number (which was Border Force checking up she was at home).

      • Dubious says:

        5 Feb5 February 11:11

        The countries you reference all require upfront payment for quarantine facilities else you don’t get in to the country.

        Even then it is not perfect. New Zealand had found last week that intermingling in the hotel meant someone at the end of their quarantine got infected by someone who only just entered it!

        I would be worried about the private security staff in the UK hotel becoming a vector.

    • mark2 says:

      5 Feb5 February 06:34

      Thank you baboons for purchasing the vaccine for my injection on Tuesday.
      Of course sensible minsters would have joined the EU vaccine fiasco.

      • The Hunter says:

        5 Feb5 February 06:53

        😂

      • Harry T says:

        5 Feb5 February 07:00

        I think we have Kate Bingham to thank for the vaccines.

        No-one sensible would have agreed to the terms of the EU joint vaccine venture.

        • Yuff says:

          5 Feb5 February 07:09

          Let’s face it doing what Australia and New Zealand did is impossible in the UK for multiple reasons.
          How many migrants try to cross from New Zealand to Australia every day?
          I doubt NZ and Australia had as many international flights pre covid as Heathrow has currently with a 90% reduction in flights.
          It’s great criticising the “baboons” but I don’t see many suggestions from the opposition to sort out solutions…….perhaps Rayner is rubbing her hands in glee before she sticks her massive foot in it with another sound bite……

        • Number9 says:

          5 Feb5 February 07:41

          Raynor is to busy sticking her massive paws in the trough of the tax payer to be worrying about doing anything positive for U.K. citizens.

        • Harry T says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:09

          It’s quite possible that the opposition would also have done a terrible job. It’s also quite possible that people can be critical of the actions of the present administration for sensible reasons, not partisanship. Criticism of the current government isn’t necessarily an endorsement of the opposition.

      • Andrew says:

        5 Feb5 February 07:06

        Absolutely!! It seems some people are just poised at home waiting to find fault in anything the government tries to do and shout “shambles” at the first opportunity.

        • Harry T says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:07

          Has the government rolled out the vaccine at a good pace? Yes. The 12 week dosing strategy was a gamble and time will tell, but jabs are going in arms at an admirable speed.

          Has pretty much every other action or policy by this administration been a complete shambles? Also yes. Just look at the failure of test and trace, the PPE handouts to the chumocracy, and the laughable levels of small business loan fraud. Numerous U turns over schools, barely comprehensible rules and public health messaging, Cummings saga, opening pubs before schools…

        • Anna says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:10

          Not at all – I don’t think the government has done particularly better or worse than those of comparable countries and the vaccine rollout is nothing short of miraculous, but the quarantine process I do think is a shambles!
          Starmer as a human rights lawyer knows full well that people can’t be locked away in hotel rooms against their wishes but is also aware that such travel restrictions are a vote winner just now and can comfortably carp from the sidelines as it’s not going to come back and bite him personally!

      • Optimus Prime says:

        5 Feb5 February 07:33

        Those facts aren’t exclusive.

        The government is doing a great job on the vaccine rollout? Absolutely.

        Is the government responsible for more than 100k deaths and tanking the economy? Of course.

        • Harry T says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:04

          This^^

        • Bazza says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:37

          Comment of the year right there!

        • AJA says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:39

          You’re forgetting that it’s all our responsibility to follow the rules however confusing they are and however shambolic they may be implemented. Its very easy, and human nature, to blame anyone else for the problems that have occurred.

          I am not demeaning the deaths of over 100k people, that is a terrible tragedy and should have been avoided but to simply blame the government is a cop out.

          I would not want to be responsible for coming up with the rules for the country to follow as there would be thousands criticising me for getting it wrong. Or saying that the rules don’t work or are nonsense. Just think for a few minutes on what rules you would put in place and then consider what others might say. It is not easy, we do not live in a police state or under martial law. We rely on imported goods including food to survive. To cut the UK off from the rest of the world is not practical.

          As for this latest hotel quarantine scheme it too may be a shambles but it should not be necessary if we all individually took action to observe the lockdown and did not travel unnecessarily nor bent the rules to suit. That applies to every single person from Cummings to Rita Ora and the Instagrammers and social media “working” from Dubai idiots, to my aunt and uncle who I discovered last Friday had been inviting all their friends to lunch for months. They have learnt the hard way though as they have been infected with Covid and had a very rough January. Fortunately for them they survived unlike the 100k.

        • Christopher says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:59

          Is the government also responsible for the other 450k deaths in 2020 that weren’t Covid?
          This idea that we can cheat and avoid deaths of very frail people is quite ridiculous.

          And before anyone responds with a comment of Covid killing ‘healthy’, younger people – please check the numbers. The overwhelming majority of those 100k deaths are very old and very frail.

        • BuildBackBetter says:

          5 Feb5 February 11:24

          Government is not responsible for 100k deaths. We cannot compared ourselves to Singapore or even Australia.
          Government responsible for 30k excess deaths compared to France / Spain / Germany? yes, absolutely.

      • Bazza says:

        5 Feb5 February 08:34

        They won’t like that on here! Look at the language they use! Terrible double standards from the left as always

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          5 Feb5 February 09:01

          What exactly is ‘the left’?

          Did the government waste billions on bad contracts that coincidentally benefited companies which they had connections to?

          That right there is the issue. Governments using a crisis as an excuse to funnel away more public money.

          How can anyone support a government that does that? They all have in the past but this government is more blatant about it than any I’ve seen before.

        • Aston100 says:

          5 Feb5 February 11:50

          I see from many of the recent comments on here that people are now slowly starting to forget the catalogue of errors, cronyism & borderline fraud, incompetence etc that this government has done.
          All because of the vaccine rollout.
          If more people had principles, this government would be held accountable.

      • John says:

        5 Feb5 February 08:57

        They’ve got the vaccination programme very, very right. It’s an excellent piece of work and should have enormous impact on the well-being, prospects and freedoms of everyone in the UK.

        But does that make up for virtually every other decision that they’ve got wrong, delayed, or both, resulting in one of the highest death rates in the world? Not in my book.

        • Lee says:

          5 Feb5 February 09:22

          +1

        • A says:

          5 Feb5 February 10:26

          Exactly this. Shockingly, it is possible to simultaneously think the government did thing X well, but things Y and Z badly. It is OK to have mixed feelings.

        • bafan says:

          5 Feb5 February 17:36

          Exactly. Someone earlier cited we had to follow the rules – I think most people have been baffled as to what “the rules” are – they changed constantly, and for different areas, for a whole year. Lockdown sucks but at least it’s consistent and we know what we can / can’t do.

• Scott says:

  5 Feb5 February 05:50

  How do I set up auto converting Tesco points to Virgin miles? Couldn’t find anything in the clubcard section that gives me the option, just 250 CCP = 625 miles.
  Too late for the 2000 mile bonus as well?

  • S879 says:

    5 Feb5 February 06:38

    I think cut off date was around end of January for this quarter.

  • lumma says:

    5 Feb5 February 06:41

    There’s a section on the website to set up autoconversion. I think it’s called “Voucher Schemes” and let’s you choose to save your points until Xmas, automatically send to Virgin or just stick with the normal vouchers.

    You’re probably too late to get the auto convert bonus now so I’d wait until it’s offered again.

• Bobri says:

  5 Feb5 February 05:57

  Currently a Marriott LT Gold with 444 nights and 9 total years as a Plat. Last year I managed 18 genuine nights, +13 free credits from Marriott + could have gotten 15 from Bonvoy Amex. These could have gotten me very close to the 10th year of Plat, leaving only a ~150 nights hurdle to the LT Plat.

  Questions: 1. Do the Marriott “free” night credits count towards the lifetime status (in my case, 13)? Do the Bonvoy Amex credits count towards the LT status?

  • Harry T says:

    5 Feb5 February 06:10

    Yes and Yes.

    • Bobri says:

      5 Feb5 February 06:54

      Thank you Harry

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    5 Feb5 February 06:52

    One more Q do award stays too?

    • Ryan says:

      5 Feb5 February 07:01

      Yes

    • Harry T says:

      5 Feb5 February 07:02

      Yep!

• Matthew says:

  5 Feb5 February 06:50

  Hilton’s Curio Collection Royal Senses Crete is now bookable for dates from July 1st onwards if anyone is interested…

• BuildBackBetter says:

  5 Feb5 February 07:22

  Bulb – transfer from previous energy supplier completed yesterday. Reduced DD to £5 today and topped up with Amex using Apple Pay. Wish other energy firms had systems like this.

  • DJ says:

    5 Feb5 February 07:51

    Octopus. You can do that via their online portal. I set the direct debit to £2.01 just to get rewards from NatWest …

    • Polly says:

      6 Feb6 February 23:49

      Peoples energy do this also for us.. v useful.

  • Yvo says:

    5 Feb5 February 08:26

    Aha! Thanks for confirming.
    I have started making overpayments on both Bulb for us and Octopus for parents bill with Amex.

  • kpk1981 says:

    5 Feb5 February 08:35

    Can I ask how you reduced DD to £5? Been with Bulb for 2 years and it only lets me go from £73 to £65. Also when I try to overpay it only lets me top up £185 max. Would love to get points from energy bills but not sure how I can maximise it with these amounts.

    • Oli says:

      5 Feb5 February 09:05

      First put your account in credit by topping it up with Amex. Then you have to reduce the direct debit little by little, as the system permits: you reduce it, then it lets up (immediately) reduce it a bit further, etc

    • The real John says:

      5 Feb5 February 10:26

      Just add £500 and then ask them to lower it

  • Hotelier says:

    5 Feb5 February 12:05

    Managed to cancel the Direct Debit altogether with Bulb last week and topping up with Amex now. Just a kind reminder from the agent to don’t go into debt or they will chase me!!

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      5 Feb5 February 14:26

      There have been terrible stories of people missing to pay and racking up interest and charges and credit profiles destroyed. Always better to leave the DD on which can be changed later. Plus helps in some cases where you get benefits from current accounts.

  • Jay says:

    5 Feb5 February 16:22

    It won’t last… once they do a review of your account and know your usage, they will increase the DD to 1/12th of the annual forecast usage. The option to reduce the DD will then be say for example from £70 to £65. May be worth cancelling the DD and doing as @Hotelier states. I have found Bulb to be a nightmare and treat customers like 4 year olds who won’t pay their bill.

• Yuff says:

  5 Feb5 February 07:31

  BA cancelled our flights to Dubai yesterday and I managed to re-book for October half term.
  So simple to do, online, in seconds.
  No Avios availability required just seats. 14 seats and only 7 were left before I booked 4 of them. They even allocated us 1A 🙂
  However how come BA have cancelled flights to Dubai but Etihad have daily flights to Abu Dhabi still departing by the looks of it, I thought flights to and from the UAE were banned currently, amongst others.

  • Anna says:

    5 Feb5 February 07:56

    Hi Yuff, I’m in the same position, however OH can only travel at Easter so our options are cancel or hope travel has re-started by then and BA either reinstates the flights or lets us change destination.
    Incidentally, if BA does reinstate a cancelled flight, are you entitled to your original booking (if you haven’t accepted the cancellation)?

    • Number9 says:

      5 Feb5 February 08:18

      Nothing to do with your question Anna, but I’ve not seen Lady London post anything for ages. Hope she’s ok.

      • Genghis says:

        5 Feb5 February 08:29

        Change of handle: Lady London -> kitten

        • Rhys says:

          5 Feb5 February 08:45

          Even I missed this! Makes a lot more sense now…

        • Number9 says:

          5 Feb5 February 09:04

          Argh thanks Genghis.

        • AJA says:

          5 Feb5 February 09:18

          I thought that was Cat renaming herself kitten! 🤔😸

      • Anna says:

        5 Feb5 February 10:08

        Hi Number9, been missing you as well! Hope you’re doing better. I would never have guessed kitten though, but someone else outed her recently. I am terrible at spotting name changes.

        • Jonathan says:

          5 Feb5 February 16:11

          I spotted it pretty quickly as the style of writing was so similar. Think there was a reasonable overlap of the two though which was a bit confusing.

    • Yuff says:

      5 Feb5 February 08:45

      Hi Anna

      I don’t think they will re-instate the flights.
      However I will look at ways I can get there as my return is with Etihad at Easter and I would still like to go if it’s allowed.
      I won’t be booking anything just yet though but maybe AUH or DXB via DOH. Q suites would be nice

    • Yuff says:

      5 Feb5 February 11:40

      Hi Anna
      Not sure if this is any help but I have just booked 4 seats in J, for the same date at Easter as my cancelled BA flights, from Man with Etihad.
      I think I am covered under their covid guarantee if the trip doesn’t go ahead.

    • Ben says:

      5 Feb5 February 11:49

      I’m in a similar position… a couple of questions: 1. will BA re-route eg on Emirates or Qatar based on original Easter timing? 2. Any speculation on whether restrictions will lift by Easter?

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:07

    ‘cos Etihad makes a lot more money. It isn’t just funnelling people from the UAE, it is funnelling people from the rest of the world into the UK. I’m not saying it is profitable to operate empty flights FROM the UK but they wouldn’t be selling any tickets at all from, say, Bangkok to London if they didn’t.

  • The real John says:

    5 Feb5 February 10:27

    I think the flights are empty on the outbound

  • Ralph says:

    5 Feb5 February 12:07

    Etihad and Emirates are operating still operating some inbound flights to London without passengers…

• Paul says:

  5 Feb5 February 08:14

  I still have not had my ‘expired’ free night put back into my IHG account that they promised would be extended till July.
  Has anyone else had this issue?

  • Paul says:

    5 Feb5 February 14:37

    Any one?

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