The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 9th February

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• andy says:

  9 Feb9 February 13:52

  I understand that i must book the outbound flight of 2-4-1 voucher before it’s expiry date but is there a limit on the inbound? could I even book it for 10 months after i fly?

  • HarryB. says:

    9 Feb9 February 13:56

    Yes you can andy. It’s the outbound that has to take place by the voucher’s expiry date, the inbound has to be technicaly within 355 days of the outbound.

  • Rob says:

    9 Feb9 February 13:58

    Totally fine – although you can only book 12 months ahead so it would mean booking your outbound very close to departure in order to ensure you can get the return.

    Also note that whilst you can change the date of the return, you cannot cancel it entirely and you cannot push it beyond 12 months from the date of ticketing. Book today for, say, travel on 9th April and you could book the return for 28th January 2022 which is the end of the booking window. You couldn’t extend beyond 9th February 2022, however, and if you wanted to stay longer and cancelled the return you would get nothing back – the Avios are lost.

• HarryB. says:

  9 Feb9 February 13:58

  Hey fellow HfP, any online exchange bureau that you would recommend?

  • Rich says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:08

    What do you want to change. For buying large amount of currency, I tend to check on MSE’s Travelmoney checker.

    For sending in odds and sods to go back into GBP, Thomas Exchange has always been easy and good rates.

    • Rich says:

      9 Feb9 February 16:35

      Actually, scratch that. Just found some old JPY and fired up a quote from Thomas Exchange. £16.90 there vs £19.80 elsewhere. Maybe they’ve gone off the boil.

      • John says:

        9 Feb9 February 20:03

        Covid has killed them, they must have been stuck with millions of pounds of random currencies in March. They make money from selling in branch but nobody is going on holiday

        The other place I suspect sends currency off to its home country by special courier

  • Eugene says:

    9 Feb9 February 17:27

    I like Transferwise

• Anon says:

  9 Feb9 February 14:06

  Great, forced PCR tests for people returning to UK. How long will this rule last for?

  • Anon says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:06

    forced and paid* to be correct

  • Andrew says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:12

    They aren’t “forced”, it’s your lifestyle choice to enter a country that requires them.

    I’m on 5 Covid tests a fortnight, it’s all a bit business as usual. Handy to get a colleague to help me prod out my tonsil stones as they are swabbing me.

    • Pete M says:

      9 Feb9 February 14:21

      Are you paying for them at £100 a pop though, Andrew?

      • Andrew says:

        9 Feb9 February 14:26

        Nope, but it’s my lifestyle choice to work for an employer who requests them.

        With all the “disadvantages” of being requested to have my Pfizer jab 6 months before I’d normally be allowed one.

        • Pete M says:

          9 Feb9 February 14:33

          So I am not sure what your point is – you are on a travel blog, obviously people will not be over the moon about these latest developments…

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Feb9 February 14:45

          but it’s my lifestyle choice to work for an employer who requests them

          Not many people have the luxury of their work being a ‘lifestyle’ choice.

        • Brian says:

          9 Feb9 February 15:54

          “So I am not sure what your point is – you are on a travel blog, obviously people will not be over the moon about these latest developments…”

          Not a surprise though surely? There won’t be any return to mass tourism any time soon and this doesn’t really change that

• Ana says:

  9 Feb9 February 14:22

  Does anyone know why Ethiad still has 3 flights a day to the UK? I was hoping they would cancel my flights but I guess not?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:46

    You are free to leave the UK if you fulfil the criteria and Etihad will be carrying lucrative air freight

    • TGLoyalty says:

      9 Feb9 February 16:48

      Btw they only need to cancel your return, if you have 1, which must be cancelled as they are not able to carry any passengers to the UK (residents or not)

      It’s a game of chicken really.

• Tom says:

  9 Feb9 February 14:38

  Anyone had any luck with getting a retention offer from Amex on BAPP? Year ends next month and contemplating whether to cancel.

  • Andrew says:

    9 Feb9 February 14:55

    Extra 1 Avios per GBP spent.

• Alan says:

  9 Feb9 February 15:10

  I have just seen last night’s interview with Sir John Bell’s interview on C4 News. It pretty much explains the draconian travel restrictions announced today.

  In summary he says the changes seen in the SA variant make it effectively a new disease, one that you can catch after already having had Covid or being vaccinated.

  The SA study showed that the vaccine is not effective against the mild disease and gave no data about its effectiveness against severe disease as only young healthy people took part. Quite different from the hopeful line being pushed by the government.

  Our already 3 times moved October holiday to California is starting to look unlikely.

  • Ryan says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:17

    Isn’t it crazy! I’m actually seriously worried that they’ll start adding Covid 19 vac to the mandatory vacs list such as Yellow Fever etc?!

    • Brian says:

      9 Feb9 February 16:48

      Some countries have already said this will happen. Greece for example

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 Feb9 February 17:04

        When everyone screws their head on properly they’ll release that’s a silly requirement which has very little benefit IF their own at risk population is vaccinated.

        1) you can’t and won’t stop people catching and passing on every possible variant
        2) vaccination is about protecting the person from severe disease and death and the community benefiting from one less at risk person in hospital.

        • Tariq says:

          9 Feb9 February 19:25

          Sadly too many sheeple suck up the Government rhetoric. Free and rational thinking is endangered. The sooner the futility of pursuing zero Covid is realised, the better.

      • Rob says:

        9 Feb9 February 17:51

        You can be pretty certain that you are going nowhere this Summer without a vaccination certificate (free from your GP).

        The irony is that all over 50s will be fine by July. However anyone in their 30’s or 40’s won’t have had the 2nd shot by then and so can’t go away in the school holidays.

        • ChrisC says:

          9 Feb9 February 18:17

          I wouldn’t be so sure that a vaccination certificate would be free.

          Unless the government has changed the GP contract to provide for that GPs can and more than likely will charge for a certificate especially if involves more work than just printing it off the computer as it would count as a private servive.

          And that assumes that details of vaccinations (including date given and batch numbers) are being entered into your medical records if the vaccination is given at another venue.

        • Rob says:

          9 Feb9 February 20:42

          The Government has a central database of everyone who has been vaccinated. Created on purpose to allow for vaccine passports if required.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Feb9 February 18:36

          There will be somewhere. Perhaps not Greece or Australia but somewhere

        • Tracey says:

          9 Feb9 February 18:55

          My NHS record, accessed through the NHS app I have on my phone shows that I have had the vaccine (first dose). Wouldn’t be hard to either accept the NHS record or for a certificate to be generated from referencing the app.

      • Ryan says:

        9 Feb9 February 20:16

        For something that has over 99% survival rate for the vast majority of people, calling that massive overkill is an understatement

    • James says:

      9 Feb9 February 19:59

      Why would that worry you Ryan? Worried Bill Gates will be able to track you?

      • Ryan says:

        9 Feb9 February 20:20

        Pffft there’s clearly a 5G nanoSIM in each vac?!

        Understandable in the short term (2021) but going forward just isn’t needed

  • marcw says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:27

    Clarification: it’s the AstraZeneca vaccine.

    Pfizer and believe Moderna DO provide protection towards the SouthAfrican variant.

    As I said yesterday, it’s very suspicious that they chose a cohort of participants with an average age of 31 years. AstraZeneca knew it beforehand it wouldn’t work – that’s the reason why the average age is so low – imagine the massive (negative) impact if they had recruited elderly patients.

  • Andrew says:

    9 Feb9 February 16:07

    Agreed, travel is going to get harder not easier over the next 6 months.

• Dace says:

  9 Feb9 February 15:15

  Is it possible to use Bendy backed by Black and Orange to deposit into Revolut?

  • Berry says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:18

    Technically yes

  • Greenpen says:

    9 Feb9 February 15:23

    Don’t know; I have used a cold chisel to cut through a padlock if you want details of that!

  • Anna says:

    9 Feb9 February 16:57

    Leave bendy out of it, that’s over-complicating it!

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  9 Feb9 February 15:29

  10 days in a Holiday Inn in Scotland for all international arrivals.

  So now cancelled our April 241 to San Diego and another April F to Denver for Mrs MacK.

  Which cheap one way do people recommend for high cancellation probability so as I can put the 241 – expires end March – into a FTV?

  Not sure that we will ever use the 241 now, and so wouldn’t want to spend £70 on cancellation fees if we can avoid it.

  • Anna says:

    9 Feb9 February 17:03

    That’s harsh – at least if it was a Holiday Inn Express breakfast would come free!
    Do you mean BA has cancelled your Denver trip and you’ve had everything refunded? Otherwise you could just turn that into a FTV?
    But you don’t need BA to cancel to request a FTV, you can do that at any time under the current policy. I booked Man-Lhr-Vie one way with an expiring 241 last year then before I booked the in bound OH got his leave cancelled so I just turned the outbound leg into a FTV and hey presto my 241 is now valid till April 2023. I’m not planning to use it for our big summer trip when OH retires next year, probably starting in one US city and departing another, with a side trip to the Caribbean in between.
    Mutant Covid strains permitting, obvs!

    • Anna says:

      9 Feb9 February 17:05

      *I’m NOW planning to use it! BTW, is Mrs MacK still in Lanzarote?!

      • Colin MacKinnon says:

        9 Feb9 February 18:32

        Hi Anna,
        Mrs MacK in Lanzarote, Ms MacK returned a few weeks ago. So beer and pizza every night 😉
        My car now SORNed since Mrs MacK’s uses less fuel and I suspect she won’t be back until Easter! You can get a couple of months in Lanzarote for 10 days in a HI !
        BA had cancelled the flights, but I was holding on in case things were going to open a little and I could change dates – but instead they are closing! So took the cash and avios.
        Family in States thinking of moving to Europe, so not much use for a 241 to Denver. Last couple of times got £1,000 cash flights in CW anyway and a few days in mainland Europe.
        No use for BA CE, rather fly direct with the low costs.
        But have to say, I really, really can’t see how airlines are going to survive in the current owners’ hands. I think governments are going to have to nationalise them – like happened in 1970 with Rolls-Royce – with the hope of selling on later).
        And that may mean lots of routes being abandoned for now. Stelios was saying that half of Easyjet’s routes never make a penny in 2019 when he was pressing for cancellation of their new aircraft order last year.
        I’ll maybe have to bring Mrs MacK back in a microlight!

        • Anna says:

          9 Feb9 February 20:03

          My 2 most recent bookings have been for October and December with easyJet. Planning to treat a couple of friends to a mini break at the IC Bordeaux with some of the points/free nights I’ve been hoarding!
          I don’t think I could voluntarily let a 241 expire as they are central to our LH travel – I would book, say MAN-LHR for 4000 avios plus £17.50 x 2, the apply for a FTV, thus tying up the minimum amount of avios and cash and extending the voucher to spring 2023. It’s another 2 years to plan a trip.
          I would love a trip to Lanzarote or Scotland! Walking round my local area has got really boring.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 17:28

    Phoenix? always been a minor route.

    A while back Rob recommended checking iagcargo dot com as a flight al
    appearing on there was less likely to get cancelled.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Feb9 February 17:30

    Phoenix? always been a minor route.

    A while back Rob recommended checking iagcargo dot com as a flight
    appearing on there was less likely to get cancelled.

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