The HfP chat thread – Friday 5th February

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• Colin MacKinnon says:

  5 Feb5 February 13:34

  Hi,

  BA cancelled my UK- San Diego, with a 241.

  Booked last May as a Edinburgh-London with an expiring 241. Flights, were then cancelled by BA – as I expected – which gave me a FTV and extended the 241 until 2021?

  Rebooked UK-SAN for Xmas. Then cancelled and rebooked in 50% avios sale. Then BA cancelled Xmas flights.

  Rebooked for Easter 2021, now BA cancelled flights.

  Have now run out of time to rebook within a year of initial ticket issue: BA say that was May 2020.

  If I cancel, what is the validity of my 241 now?

  Do I put it into a FTV and then book a short flight I am sure will be cancelled and then I can get all the avios, fees and 241 back in my bank account/BA account?

  And what would 241 validity be then?

  To be frank, getting 241 extended would be nice – but not even certain I will be able to use it in the next year. Getting the cash and the Nectar points back would be nice.

  • Anna says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:40

    FTVs have had their validity extended to April 2023 which would protect your 241. Otherwise it has the original expiry date, plus whatever extension BA gave it.
    Yes you could get a refund, book a cheap RFS then cancel that for a FTV valid till 2023.

  • Nadeshka says:

    5 Feb5 February 16:32

    I’m surprised BA are saying it’s May deadline when you cancelled and rebooked in the Avios sale, surely that was a new ticket?
    We had flights booked in April 2020 (for 2021) which we took a FTV in October 2020 in order to rebook seats in the Avios sale for February. When it was cancelled I was able to reschedule for end of June, no mention of hitting the 355 days.

    • Colin MacKinnon says:

      5 Feb5 February 18:08

      To do it all when I was on the phone, YouFirst put the ticket into a FTV and then used that. And that – seemingly!! – kept the original date.

      Certainly, on the BA app, every single flight since May is listed under the booking reference!

      • Colin MacKinnon says:

        5 Feb5 February 18:39

        BA You First stand firm on ticket runs out end of May.

        Rebook for this Xmas and you have to get a FTV, find seats and then use FTV and pay difference in Avios.

        So, do I do this and then go to MCOL for return of the extra Avios?

      • Nadeshka says:

        5 Feb5 February 19:02

        My booking was the same – though not via youfirst – they created the FTV for me and then used it to book the flights on the same call. Changing from long haul to domestic also meant I got all the extra avios and cash back and not still in a FTV.

        We also saw all the previous iterations of the flights on the same reference – which was 2 different attempts to get to Japan and then the eventual change to Scotland!

        Getting the flights moved to June involved other issues with the booking (infant on the booking turned 2) but at no point did she say anything about June being past the window I could move it to. I didn’t ask what the limit was since we were happy with the dates.

• Mco says:

  5 Feb5 February 13:34

  Does any travel insurance cover travel right now to a non red list country? I will be working away for a couple of weeks but due to the flight schedule I get a few days to unwind too so need a travel insurance that covers both.

  • Anna says:

    5 Feb5 February 13:42

    Ordinary travel policies don’t usually cover you for work trips. For the leisure side you need to check the Ts and Cs of each policy with regard to Covid as they’re all different.

    • Mco says:

      5 Feb5 February 13:53

      Someone mentioned on here a a while back about travel insurance that covers you in these times when the govt does not allow it. How does one get covered for work then? I have always just bought normal insurance in the past thinking it was only winter sports etc that was not covered.

      • ChrisC says:

        5 Feb5 February 14:00

        Your employer should have insurance for you if you are travelling in their behalf!

        Just like it should have public liability insurance or buildings insurance.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          5 Feb5 February 14:30

          If you have self employed or run your own ltd company then obviously you are your employer.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Feb5 February 14:28

    Battleface.

    • WaynedP says:

      5 Feb5 February 14:46

      +1

      Ideal if you’re looking for medical insurance cover to somewhere that conventional insurers could argue nil liability due to absence of UK Govt “safe to travel to” advice, which is the reason I bought a single trip, 14 day Battleface policy last year (around £60 if I recall which I thought was reasonable). Cover is provided by a Lloyds of London syndicate.

      Beware their cancellation cover is bare minimum, so if that’s your major concern, you might want to look elsewhere or buy additional cancellation cover.

      • Mco says:

        5 Feb5 February 15:24

        Thanks.

      • Mco says:

        5 Feb5 February 15:39

        Battle face doesn’t seem to cover costs if you need to quarantine in a hotel. Anyone know of any other companies.

        • WaynedP says:

          5 Feb5 February 16:45

          Try highriskvoyager dot com

          They seem to have quarantine cover as an additional add-on under Option D 1.c.iii in their policy doc wording, but I would verify with them if I were you to ensure it will ensure what you want. I think you also have to prove your trip is essential business purposes otherwise cover is null and void.

• Rob says:

  5 Feb5 February 13:40

  Yes, no problem.

• gareth says:

  5 Feb5 February 14:29

  Quick cc paying off question- beardy to buy Ernie via bendy. Then pay off beardy with Hong Kong. Is this route ok for no fees? Currently I do with holiday inn instead of beardy,
  Also I know people hate the code names and everyone knows what they all stand for but I enjoy it!!

  • Travel Strong says:

    5 Feb5 February 14:51

    Just test the Beardy to HK bit of your proposal to find out. It’s a very different situation to when you had holiday inn in the middle.

    • gareth says:

      5 Feb5 February 17:29

      Ahh issue found!

  • babyg says:

    5 Feb5 February 15:00

    Perhaps just try a small transaction yourself? There are lots of opportunities out there but the more people talk about them the quicker they will get closed.

  • Dr C says:

    5 Feb5 February 15:46

    Yeah not so sure Beardy will like Hong Kong

  • geoff says:

    5 Feb5 February 16:03

    yes, please report back because we need more options to use this hsbc hong kong for free points now tesco is gone

    • Chris K says:

      5 Feb5 February 16:48

      Bendy Honkers to top up an ISA/Share account with Bristol still works

  • Jonathan says:

    5 Feb5 February 17:33

    HSBC’s IT is fairly useless but they are ruthless as soon as they get a vague whiff of playing games like this so proceed with caution.

    I’d avoid credit cycling as well as there’s never a valid explanation if/when you trigger a review. Guess it depends on how much you value your relationship with them but considering they’re consistently one of the cheapest mortgage providers I’d prefer to stay off their blacklist.

• Colin says:

  5 Feb5 February 15:02

  375 virgin points just landed from Tesco – now wait the 2000 to fall in . Managed to earn just enough to auto convert after exchanging all outstanding to avios on a legacy 250= 800 deal, interesting in that I lost that for a while, but they then merged accounts and gave it back. I guess Tesco never wanted 250tcc to equal £6.40 ( or more) spend in Sainsburys

• 747_Brat says:

  5 Feb5 February 16:13

  Now that the gravy train from M&M card is going to end soon, what are the ways to rack up a good chunk of points before they cancel the cards in early April?

  P.S.: Paying Seagulls off them has started to attract cash advance charges. So this one is off the list, unless anyone has tried it recently and has had a different experience.

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 17:43

    Pay a huge sum to HMRC and then have it refunded in cash.

    I (genuinely accidentally, due to inability to forecast the continued decimation of our profits) overpaid by £28,000 to 31/1. HMRC is now repaying me my bank transfer.

    • EwanG says:

      5 Feb5 February 21:25

      Whilst you’re at it (and if you have the funds and ability) you could also ‘accidentally’ pay the previous year’s Corporation Tax instead of the current bill, which will also be refunded!

    • Alan says:

      6 Feb6 February 02:31

      Did the same with £15k, will be getting a cheque. Not sure why a cheque but not complaining.

• PaulC says:

  5 Feb5 February 16:48

  On average how long does a companion voucher take to hit your BA account?
  Also it is possible to have more than one at anyone time?

  • Geoff says:

    5 Feb5 February 16:54

    Pretty quick – and yes you can have several

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 17:41

    3-4 days.

    Yes.

• Debbie says:

  5 Feb5 February 17:28

  We had a Capetown BA flight booked using a 2 for 1 . Companion Voucher. The flight’s been cancelled. If we take a Future Travel Voucher will can we rebook on any flight or is it dependant on 2 for 1 availability?

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 17:40

    Any date up to 365 days from the day you booked. If you booked a year ago, you are stuffed! If you only booked at Christmas, your options are huge.

  • Anna says:

    5 Feb5 February 18:20

    For a FTV you can now travel any time up to April 2023, but you will need avios availability for all passengers on a new booking. You’re effectively starting from scratch with a new booking.

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