The HfP chat thread – Monday 8th February

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• Keely says:

  8 Feb8 February 15:26

  Afternoon all , quick question please…going forward I have a bill of around £1200 per month to pay for mil care home fees (not from my own money I hasten to add) . Council invoice (wanted DIrect debit, I don’t think so!) , doesn’t take Amex . Currently I have BA Amex paid version, and IHG MasterCard so I’m putting it on that . Am I missing a better option? I think with this and my own Council Tax and hubby’s golf holiday (no Amex on that agent ) my average non Amex spend will be c £20k. I’ve thought about Virgin but will this get me anything meaningful ? Live v near Heathrow so make good use of £35 reward flights and don’t really spend enough to divide between Virgin and Amex . Thanks!

  • John says:

    8 Feb8 February 15:36

    Are you self employed? I put £30000 care home fees through COT last year. Can have avios, deduction from bill or 1p.
    Nothing from COT to say no.

    • Keely says:

      8 Feb8 February 15:38

      I’m not self employed . £30k – wow!! Not sure what COT is ..?

      • John says:

        8 Feb8 February 16:40

        Capital on Tap

    • Colin MacKinnon says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:49

      Aha. A use for CoT – I have 50k a year of care home fees!

      Got banned from Revolut after a year or so. But got Spire Elite!

  • Anna says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:41

    Keely, does your council take Paypal, mine does (for council tax anyway), so that’s how I get round them not accepting Amex. But after that, IHG card is far and away the best option IMO, you’d earn a good chunk of points doing that.

    • Keely says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:03

      Thanks Anna – no they don’t take Amex annoyingly …..

    • Keely says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:03

      Sorry just reread your comment. I’m going to double check the PayPal …thanks

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    8 Feb8 February 21:27

    If you can get hsbc premier, their world elite card is good.

• Dougie Forde says:

  8 Feb8 February 15:30

  I have an Avios flight booked to Rome on March 12th. While I realise we won’t be going I’ve just had an email saying that the flight time has changed from 12:40 to 08:55.

  Does this give me any additional leeway when it comes to cancelling? Or should I still wait until the last minute to see if BA cancel the flight?

  Any opinions much appreciated

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Feb8 February 15:44

    Supposedly BA have changed T&Cs to say 4 hours instead of 2

    But you could argue that 8:55 doesn’t work for whatever plans you have.

  • Pablo says:

    8 Feb8 February 16:06

    Check the flight numbers. The original flight may have been cancelled in which case you can get a refund. Otherwise wait until closer to departure.

    • Dougie Forde says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:32

      Flight number is the same. I was planning to wait as there are no Friday flights to Rome now in February and restrictions are unlikely to change by March so I will hang on. Thanks all

• Andrew says:

  8 Feb8 February 16:04

  With all this talk about the AZ vaccine providing minimal protection from the South African variant, I can imagine the government being even less likely to ease travel restrictions/quarantine before the summer now.

  • Rob says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:20

    That’s not how it is. You will still catch it, but you won’t be hospitalised and you won’t die. Whether we decide that is a problem or not is a different question.

    • Andrew says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:30

      I think the government will certainly want to avoid it becoming the dominant strain in the U.K. due to this.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Feb8 February 17:42

        There will be many variants in the future.

        Cutting hospitalisations and deaths is key.

    • Sandra says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:43

      I would be more inclined to say it is unlikely you will be hospitalised and unlikely you will will die (rather than won’t) as there will be protection but there needs to be more evidence of how much/little and there may be someone with unknown underlying problems/it doesn’t provide the positive immune response in.

    • marcw says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:44

      Frankly, we do not know this. The participants in the study were all quite young (average 31 yo) so they demonstrate that the vaccine does not provide protection against mild and moderate disease. Against severe disease could not be assessed *all participants very young* (we should all question why the average age is so low…. ).
      What we know is that the antibodies produced by the AZ vaccines has only a 10% neutralising efficacy vs “normal strain”.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Feb8 February 20:30

        The evidence it had any neutralising ability was limited anyway.

        Real life without all these restrictions is what really matters.

        • marcw says:

          8 Feb8 February 20:47

          The study was done in patients is SA. It showed NO protection to mild and moderate COVID disease.
          In-vitro, it showed no protection.
          Those are all IRL clinical trials and experiments.
          It matters. AZ vaccine is crap.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Feb8 February 21:19

        With an average age of 31 and about 200 people in each group what are the chances they were going to have severe cases anyway?

        It was a crap study regardless of the vaccine being crap or not.

    • Brian says:

      8 Feb8 February 18:00

      It’s not just if the U.K. government decides it’s a problem, it’s also relevant if it becomes the dominant strain here (not sure it will as there’s only a few cases and it doesn’t spread any faster than the Kent version) as then other countries won’t let Brits in (much like the situation at the moment- even Liverpool’s footballers aren’t being allowed into Germany, for example).

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:41

      Well, that is not how it is either, there’s no significant data on that point.

      It is what we hope, certainly and for me, that would be a good enough solution to allow travel until boosters etc catch up.

    • maccymac says:

      8 Feb8 February 20:00

      It is a problem because if it doesn’t prevent mild/moderate disease then it does not prevent transmission.

      The cohort studied were aged 31 on average with no co-morbidities IIRC so there is absolutely no understanding of the impact on older age groups (50+) and those with co-morbidities.

      The refusal of the gov to close the borders will be the next fiasco if the SA variant takes hold in this country. We already have 147 cases detected, you can be sure that the real number circulating is at least 10 times that.

      In addition to the 33 on the red list, a further 30+ countries have the SA variant circulating including Austria, Denmark, France, Greece, Japan, Kenya, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada and the United States.

      The borders need to be closed so that the limited capability of the UK’s track and trace system can be used to identify and isolate this new variant, without further adding to the case burden by anyone and everyone doing the Dublin/Doha hop or carrying it from any other of the many countries not on the red list. The incapability to act decisively early on risks prolonging this misery we are all enduring.

      • Mouse says:

        8 Feb8 February 21:20

        Closing the borders now would be pointless as we already have widespread community transmission. We just need to deal with the consequences

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Feb8 February 21:31

        “It is a problem because if it doesn’t prevent mild/moderate disease then it does not prevent transmission.”

        Whoever promised anyone it would stop transmission? It’s a virus that has 4000 different variants already it won’t take it long to evade any vaccine.

        It’s all about limiting severe illness and death to keep the pressure off the NHS and manage it at home. Just like any other cold and flu.

  • Harry T says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:45

    I reckon we will probably have a second round of vaccination this year, with vaccine variants that are more effective against the SA strain. Possibly just for the clinically vulnerable and elderly though (perhaps healthcare workers too). But the real issue isn’t mild to moderate covid – it’s hospital admissions, morality and serious morbidity. If the NHS can function properly, then you have to start weighing the benefits of trying to prevent mild to moderate covid (maybe post covid syndrome too) versus the very serious negative impacts of lockdown on physical and mental health (and the economy). Personally, I’m not convinced we need to keep society locked down because of post covid syndrome and people feeling unwell but not needing hospitalisation.

    • Harry T says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:46

      *mortality!

      • Andrew says:

        8 Feb8 February 17:58

        Agree with all of that and once cases are manageable here, and the mortality rate is tolerable, then restrictions can be eased. But I wonder the impact on borders and travel that new variants can bring and the nervousness by government of a new variant being imported for which our population isn’t as well protected and therefore the lockdown cycle begins again.

        • marcw says:

          8 Feb8 February 18:00

          Border restrictions/closures are now being tuned toward new variants / strains rather than overall infection/transmission rate.

        • Brian says:

          8 Feb8 February 18:23

          Johnson today said that border restrictions are most useful when cases are low….

          Make of that what you will.

        • Brian says:

          8 Feb8 February 18:27

          Overall, I think the key point is that predictions are a waste of time at the moment. Less than 8 weeks ago Christmas was going on as normal and then not long later, London moved from tier 2 to tier 4 (people didn’t even think tier 3 would happen) and then schools closed and there was another National lockdown.

          I’ll just book something at short notice if things open up. Most people who have finances that are secure enough for a family holiday will have saved quite a lot over the last year so paying extra shouldn’t be as much of a big deal as usual.

      • BJ says:

        8 Feb8 February 20:13

        … having quickly cleared up any confusion as to morality, I guess you have simply now left a few readers scratching their heads about mortality and morbidity 🙂

        • Harry T says:

          8 Feb8 February 22:28

          @BJ 😊

    • marcw says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:57

      You can have borders closed (or restricted) but no lockdown.

      • Brian says:

        8 Feb8 February 18:29

        Exactly. Much like China (apart from a few areas), New Zealand and Taiwan have at the moment, for example.

        • bafan says:

          8 Feb8 February 19:27

          I love travel but yeah at this point I’d settle for being able to eat out, go to my office and work out at the gym over opening the borders.

        • Andrew says:

          8 Feb8 February 19:36

          Couldn’t agree more

        • marcw says:

          8 Feb8 February 21:12

          Totally the case bafan. Just a simple thing like having a tea or coffee in a cafe. A pint in a pub.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          8 Feb8 February 22:48

          Eat yes, gym absolutely, office I could live without.

• Bob says:

  8 Feb8 February 16:16

  From my calculations, just passed £10k spend on my virgin + card a few days ago. How soon should I expect to see the voucher online? I don’t think you receive a notification do you but rather a line in the online activity on your virgin atlantic account from what I’ve read on here prior? First time I’ve earnt it so not sure what to look out for.

  Thanks

  • Alex D says:

    8 Feb8 February 16:44

    It’ll appear as a line on your next monthly statement, once you have this it will then also show on in your Virgin Atlantic account online.

    • Bob says:

      8 Feb8 February 16:49

      thanks!

    • RichW says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:17

      Where do virgin vouchers show as have not spotted this before and I never know where I am with them 🙈

      • Alex D says:

        8 Feb8 February 21:38

        On the statement of the month you earned it or login to virgin account, go to your account/activity and then just search through it and you’ll find it eventually.

• BP says:

  8 Feb8 February 16:56

  NS&I Source of funds check. Any idea how long this takes? I have savings elsewhere that can cover the amount frozen so not hugely bothered but I only use it for MS so this could get interesting!

  They want bank statements but actually it’s all from bendy and the creative one. Not quite sure what to send!

  • BJ says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:12

    Is this new; have others had this with NS&I? Are you happy to share with us how much, how frequently and how long it stayed in your account before withdrawing? I am thinking it might be time to take our foot off the gas; I sent them £2500 yesterday and after your comment I’m now hoping it wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back.

    • Roberto says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:23

      MS sucks for this in my opinion, its always going to happen eventually, those who are sharp need to come up with legit ways to earn points, there are so many ways to earn 7 figure points every year without circling money around using MS.

      • BJ says:

        8 Feb8 February 18:03

        @Roberto, the problem is that when you earn 7 figures you then want 9 🙂

        • Roberto says:

          8 Feb8 February 18:19

          LOL well don’t be such a greedy so and so.

    • xcalx says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:37

      I have been doing £9k every 3 or 4 days x 2 accounts since Curve lifted the limit. Touch wood nothing as yet re any checks I am just keeping some savings in ernie to play the game instead of looking for a new 0.5% home.

      • Roberto says:

        8 Feb8 February 17:41

        Wont be fun when your 9k gets frozen.

        • xcalx says:

          8 Feb8 February 17:57

          I am not relying on the funds clearing to pay off the CC

      • BP says:

        8 Feb8 February 17:45

        About £40-50k a month in £5-8k increments. I keep £5k in there so I’m not clearing the balance. The balance rarely hits more than £20k before I withdraw so I could probably claim it’s from my employment income as I do have quite a high income and a tax return to prove it.

        • BJ says:

          8 Feb8 February 17:58

          Similar to mine last year but I left them with at least £12k at all times, and withdrew a maximum twice in a month, to try and keep them happy. I wasn’t even going to pay in yesterday but wanted to see if my new bendy was as pleasant as the last one. Did they send you a letter, email or call?

        • Bigmaggot says:

          8 Feb8 February 19:39

          I think I need to up my game, interesting to hear the outcome

      • BJ says:

        8 Feb8 February 17:49

        I’ve actually slowed down as I was getting worried after last year. My £2500 yesterday was the first of the year, not sure what timescale they consider but your comments give me some comfort. Majority of mine is just my own money running around. I can show that but I’d hate the hassle of doing so.

  • Jonathan says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:27

    When you can’t demonstrate you actually have the funds to invest (vs funding from a credit card) they’ll either close your account or give you a final warning. Either way, that MS route is now over for you.

    No point trying to talk your way out of it as that’ll just prolong the period the funds are frozen. Fess up, take your medicine & be grateful it lasted as long as it did.

    • BP says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:46

      The game restarts in my wife’s name I think you mean.

      • Jonathan says:

        8 Feb8 February 19:40

        40-50k a month cycling through an account every month is always going to get you noticed pretty quickly. Don’t think the income argument will wash unless you’re earning >£500k pa.

        If you want to get your wife on the CIFAS watch list as well then better hope you don’t need a mortgage in the next 6 years.

        If you’re blatantly taking the proverbial then you’ll get burned sooner or later.

        • Charlieface says:

          8 Feb8 February 22:30

          Not sure which CIFAS marker they could put on you. MS is usually not fraud.

          Most likely they will just see it as a risk they don’t want to contemplate, so they decline business.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:28

    Send the credit card statements for Creative.

    That would show the transactions to them on it.

  • Anna says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:43

    How much are we talking about?!

  • Genghis says:

    8 Feb8 February 18:27

    A few of us have had it. Send the statements showing the movement of monies and source of funds evidence and be (vaguely) honest with them.

    • memesweeper says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:01

      I had an inquiry into potential ’fraud’. One of the better KYC/SOF checks I’ve had: polite, efficient and a sensible outcome.

    • BP says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:03

      So both bendy, creative one and the bank account that money is withdrawn to?

      • Genghis says:

        8 Feb8 February 19:54

        No, yes, yes. Show paying off Creation. They probably also asked for SOF evidence so show money coming into your bank account. Ie if you can show it’s an almost closed loop, ie no “placement”, they should be fine.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          8 Feb8 February 22:51

          make it look like you’re sticking your income away for a few weeks then paying bills getting paid then away again …

          40-50k through one source a month! Jesus!

• Navara says:

  8 Feb8 February 17:07

  Can anyone recommend a Hotel for the London Marathon as a Runner

  • Scallder says:

    8 Feb8 February 17:32

    Not s specific hotel, but an area – somewhere either around bank/tower bridge would work well. You can get the DLR out in the morning and then get the tube back on the District/Circle line from St James’ Park.

    Cannon Street/London Bridge/Charing Cross could also work getting Southeastern to Lewisham or Blackheath in the morning.

    Alternatively Greenwich – shorter DLR in the morning to Lewisham, and can then either get train back or hop on the boat.

    • Anna says:

      8 Feb8 February 17:44

      The O2 would be a nice treat after a marathon! Not sure what cash prices are like around a big event like that but points prices can be as low as 28k on occasion.

      • Anna says:

        8 Feb8 February 17:45

        As in the IC, not sleeping in the arena!

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Feb8 February 18:10

        I think it’s a points bargain.

        The clipper bar is quite a nice place to spend some time with some free drinks from the vouchers too. I wasn’t a fan of the Skybar.

  • tom1 says:

    8 Feb8 February 21:57

    congrats!
    I had quite a nervy morning – panicking that I might have won a place! Not sure what I was thinking when I entered.

  • Chris Heyes says:

    8 Feb8 February 22:10

    Navara Good for you i did the 2nd London Marathon as an elite runner never managed to get to Olympics though (close a couple of times )
    Did New York when Salazar (of drug fame) won it
    Had Olympic qualifing time time for a few years,
    So keep at it you never know, injury put paid to me, but no regrets
    As for Hotels I Stopped in a time-share when i did Marathons swapped mine The Osborne Devon for wherever i was running so can’t help there was in 1984/5 my last race. look for a good Hilton and ask for lounge access you never know
    Good luck with training, if you can do 20 miles once a week Sat or Sun you’ll get a good time I used to do 10 mile a day plus 20+ on Sunday. if your good aim for 5.5min a mile or 6min a mile if you want under 3 hours
    Main Tip get proper “running shoes”

    • Chris Heyes says:

      8 Feb8 February 22:19

      ADD I mean 5.5 or 6min a mile “Every Mile” if you are at 6 min a mile and feeling good don’t speed up you’ll regret it later
      A marathon isn’t a race until later and then all most all are slowing down not speeding up,

• Andyh says:

  8 Feb8 February 17:50

  Apologies if this has been answered, I have just been downgraded to club from first, 4th Feb for our flight in June to Dubai.
  Booked 2-4-1 and 50% discount on avios
  Had to call agent to accept downgrade and was informed when asked for alternative options that no first class flights were available. Also told there wouldn’t be any for the foreseeable future so I felt I had to accept the downgrade .Flight is now on A350 so not an issue, however no way did they offer me Concorde lounge.which I complained about but to no avail. I was refunded 4000 avios? No compensation?
  After checking website 2 days later seats were available on the later flight. There were also seats available the following day in first but I was not offered these alternatives as they are not award seats (BA agent told me this after call on Sunday)
  Do I complain again? Am I entitled to compensation under the EU rules? Can’t find info on fare breakdown so not sure what the 4000 equates too. Any advice would be welcome.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Feb8 February 18:59

    Unfortunately, you were duped

    You don’t need Avios availability if they cancel your flight or downgrade you.

    Also you shouldn’t have taken the points refund and claimed the 75% downgrade compensation after you’d flown the flight (may have been too far away for that to work but it’s involuntary)

    I’d phone back and fight your claim to seats on any first class flight to Dubai as per your eu261 rights as the first agent bullshitted you about your rights.

    • memesweeper says:

      8 Feb8 February 19:06

      Immediately ask for a copy of the call recording … you may need it if this turns into a proper dispute. ‘Misrepresentation Act’ might be relevant (you new booking is a new contract).

  • AJA says:

    8 Feb8 February 19:05

    Oh dear. You should not have accepted the downgrade. You would have been entitled to 75% of the Avios for the involuntary downgrade from First to Club but only after flying and that would have been paid to both passengers (it does not matter that you used a 2-4-1)

    You had until June to do something. Never phone up immediately unless you are within 72 hours of flying as other options will invariably become available.

    As for refund of 4000 Avios that sounds odd. I think BA simply refunded 50% of the difference between First and Club for an off-peak fare although I calculate that should have been 4,500 [(68,000 – 50,000) / 2]

    Unfortunately no EC261 compensation as it has been suspended due to Covid and it is more than 14 days before the flights.

    You could phone BA up and ask for confirmation of how they arrived at the 4,000 Avios. Also what about the return DXB – LHR? Was that in First as well or Club?

    • Charlieface says:

      8 Feb8 February 22:32

      Not sure “accepting the downgrade” means you don’t get compo. If you are not offered any reasonable option and are effectively forced to downgrade, why shouldn’t compo be applicable?

      As to delay or cancellation compo, depends what the reason is. If it’s because of plane going tech, or pilot drunk or something, then compo should still be payable.

      • AJA says:

        8 Feb8 February 22:45

        To be eligible for the 75% downgrade compensation you need to be placed in the position of being offloaded if you don’t take the seat in the lower cabin, in other words it’s a last resort.

        Unfortunately OP has accepted the seat 4 months before the flight and has also accepted 4,000 Avios. BA will argue this constitutes acceptance of the seat in the lower cabin. End of liability. Which is why they should have waited to make their decision.

        There is no delay compensation and neither is there cancellation as the flight is still going. But I agree that EU261 compensation can technically still be payable even in these Covid times for a technical delay or crew over time limit. But it would be a fight.

        • Magarathea says:

          8 Feb8 February 23:49

          I was downgraded by BA from First to Club several months in advance of a trip to Dubai in 2019. BA refunded the difference in Avois at the time I was informed about the downgrade. After the trip I put in an EU261 downgrading claim which BA rejected for various spurious reasons. I took them to CEDR and won the 75% cash reimbursemt. I don’t therefore agree with the various comments above that acceptance of the downgrade and the Avois difference disqualifies you from the 75%. After all, once you are downgraded you have to accept something. It was quite a bit of work but very satisfyingly to win and I would not hesitate to do it again.

• Travel Strong says:

  8 Feb8 February 18:22

  Amex Plat insurance via AXA have now paid out both my claims in full for 2 failed trips. (1 medical cancellation, 1 change in FCDO advice.).

  This is despite me thinking I originally may not be able to claim, and despite the booking of the FCDO cancellation being very close to the ever changing advice.

  Thank you to all on here that pointed out the key points that were not immediately obvious I.e. paying with another Amex is was OK, and paying Wizz air with a MasterCard was OK as they don’t take Amex (albeit you have to say on the first page of application that you paid for the trip on the card… then later explain that it was on the MasterCard and why).

  I do not think I would have got either paid out in a million years with a standard policy from a price comparison site.

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