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The HfP chat thread – Friday 12th February

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We have decided to run this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page.  If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here.  This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

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General

Comments (320)

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

  • xcalx says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:14

    The missing 1K virgin points from the Tesco auto sign up have just landed.

  • Harry T says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:23

    Anyone stayed at Parklane in Cyprus? Rates look good for October, was wondering what the elite treatment (I am Titanium) and general experience is like? I was considering a Domes resort in Greece but they all want deposits, which is stupid.

    Also interested in experiences of Bodrum EDITION.

    • Rob says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:29

      Emyr has agreed with Domes that bookings via him will not require a deposit.

      • Matthew says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:43

        I concur with this. No deposit required at booking, 50% due 30 days before and remaining balance at hotel. Much better policy and hence I booked. Emyr did a great job negotiating this with Domes.

      • Harry T says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:47

        Ah, now that’s interesting! I’ll get in touch with him. The deposit requirement is ridiculous, especially as we know the hotels will play games and probably be backed by the government.

      • Harry T says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:48

        Now, which is the best Domes for an October visit, then?

        • Rob says:
          12 Feb12 February 14:02

          Elounda weather was dodgy (hot on good days but we lost a few hours on a few days to rain) for us but apparently was shockingly bad the week before we arrived. Elounda closes on the last weekend of October – it only seems to stay open to catch the UK half term.

          • meta says:
            12 Feb12 February 14:28

            Go to the west side of Crete. Rent a car and go to southern beaches daytime as it’s much warmer and less wind (closer to North Africa!). We only had one morning of rain in the last week of October and surprisingly our last day which was 1 November was the hottest day! However, weather is so unpredictable…

          • Harry T says:
            12 Feb12 February 20:06

            Thanks!

        • Peggerz says:
          13 Feb13 February 00:37

          @Harry T. I know the Domes etc resorts of the north coast of Crete are popular here, but the sun is on the south coast of Crete due to the mountainous spine of the island. Go South young man (to paraphrase – with apologies!).

    • YC says:
      12 Feb12 February 14:44

      Parklane has great recognition not sure how different it would be if its busy. I was there late sept – upgraded to a suite in the main building, free minibar (restocked daily with alcohol). Nice hotel if you want to relax by the pool (utilised their tennis courts too). Beach was not great and have a third party watersports on site (typically a bit pricey). There are other hotels near-ish for posh food which I don’t recommend (Nobu/Locanda Locatelli – London prices). Overall 7.5/10 and would return if looking for sun in early Oct (given rest of Europe starts to get cold)

    • lev441 says:
      12 Feb12 February 15:36

      Stayed there in early September. Service was great (the hotel was not very busy but anything we asked was never a problem – was recommended some great eating spots in Limassol).

      Breakfasts were really tasty- best orange juice i’ve ever had in the world – I’m still dreaming of it!

      The adult pool was where we ended up for the majority of the stay. I was a platinum at the time, but ended up getting a double upgrade to a suite. One thing i’d definitely advise is that a car there massively helps as it is outside of Limassol – we drove in to the city centre most evenings to eat/drink/wonder around.

    • OHR says:
      12 Feb12 February 22:34

      Edition Bodrum is a very good hotel – has been said to be better than the Aman. That said, a very specific type of crowd – not the October half term one Rob references

  • Martha says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:24

    I have transferred my MR points out of my amex card today. Do I need to see them in the account I transferred them to before I cancel my amex or is it safe to cancel immediately?

    • Harry T says:
      12 Feb12 February 11:27

      I’d wait.

      • Martha says:
        12 Feb12 February 11:29

        Thanks. Hoe long do HH and Marriot transfers from MR points usually take?

        • Harry T says:
          12 Feb12 February 11:32

          I haven’t transferred to Hilton but Marriott only takes a couple of days.

          • Harry T says:
            12 Feb12 February 11:33

            There might be a bonus on transfers to Hilton at the moment – there was last time I was on the transfer page.

        • Genghis says:
          12 Feb12 February 11:33

          From recent experiences, HH was two days, Marriott overnight. YMMV.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        12 Feb12 February 11:35

        agree I once had my points bounced back numerous times (even after going through relinking on the phone with an agent)

        It was an MR account I’d used to send points to bonvoy already so everyone was baffled.

        • Harry T says:
          12 Feb12 February 12:00

          I’ve never been able to link my VS account to MR, which no one seems to understand

          • TGLoyalty says:
            12 Feb12 February 21:00

            Had that Issue too when I tried to send the points from a pre bonvoy travel package to virgin.

            Ended up going to BA

  • Jon G says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:33

    Is there a functionality/are there plans to include functionality to get an email when someone has responded to your comments? There are a number of occasions where I have asked questions but v difficult (but not impossible) to find my original comment and track responses after a couple of hours.

    • Aston100 says:
      12 Feb12 February 11:42

      ***Is there a functionality/are there plans to include functionality to get an email when someone has responded to your comments? There are a number of occasions where I have asked questions but v difficult (but not impossible) to find my original comment and track responses after a couple of hours.***
      No, the whole experience is frustrating.
      However, Rob says a forum of sorts is in the pipeline.
      It can’t come soon enough IMO.

      • Travel Strong says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:54

        This new *** duplication *** habit of yours in every reply is much more annoying than the tempremental reply threading. Your reply posts are now prominent over everything all of the time, greedy Aston! 😂

        I also will miss the comments approach greatly if a forum is created. For all of it’s flaws – you see all sorts of ‘live’ information this way, rather than just discussing specific topics as is usual in a forum setting, with weeks/months of discussions occurring at a glacial pace.

        • kevbar says:
          12 Feb12 February 14:38

          I agree, much prefer comments to forum despite the flaws. If I wanted a forum I would go to flyertalk.

        • ChrisC says:
          12 Feb12 February 15:09

          The thinking is that a forum would help divert some of the conversation to specific fora so that if you are interested in credit cards you can find all the info there and so on so that the same question does not get asked day after day (and sometimes more than once the same day!) and if you aren’t interested you don’t have to plough through those same topics.

          People could still post in the ‘wrong’ place but it could be moved away fairly quickly.

          Having fora and threads does not stop people posting – just look at flyer talk – but their format allows for topics to be moved and threads closed if they are duplicative.

          • Aston100 says:
            12 Feb12 February 15:25

            Indeed.
            I can’t think of any tangible benefits of a comment system such as the one you are looking at right now, versus forum software.
            The benefits to a forum are numerous.

    • tom1 says:
      12 Feb12 February 20:22

      What I do is this…. (and I’m sure someone else has a better solution).
      If I want to track a comment that I, or someone else has made, I copy the link that’s embedded in the date/time in the top right corner of that comment.

      Then just paste the link in to notepad somewhere and then have a list of links to revisit at a later date.

      Would love to know if someone else has better idea!

  • Axel says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:43

    1000 MR points for £200 spend on Amex Gold offer today

  • Simon says:
    12 Feb12 February 11:44

    Beardy app issues • is anyone else having problems moving money from Beardy, via its app, to HH via Bendy?

    I keep getting “Declined by your bank” on the Beardy app. I have tried two different supplementary HH cards, all failed. I then swapped HH to Clarity in Bendy (to see if it was an HH problem), but this was declined too. The amount was £815.00, in case that might matter.

    Is anyone having similar issues?

    (Bizarrely, I have been able, via my OH’s Beardy app, to move debt from her Beardy, via my Bendy, to my Creationist.

    I also never had any issues with Beardy to HH via Bendy when it was simply the Beardy website.)
    I have Bendy Metal, just to add.

    • Anna says:
      12 Feb12 February 11:59

      I’m not entirely sure what you’re trying to do, but HH won’t let you pay your bill with bendy, if that’s what you mean, they will only take real money!

      • Simon says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:10

        Thanks, Anna. No, I meant paying Beardy off with HH (via Bendy).

        No issues for the last couple of years doing this. Suddenly now there are issues when using the Beardy app where no such problems existed previously via the now-defunct Beardy website.

        Weirdly, my OH’s Beardy app does allow settlement with via Bendy (linked to Creationists).

        The failed amount was £815.00.

        I have Metal Bendy, so not sure why this would be?

        There’s been no £700.00 weekly limit (as with this kind of txn vis-a-vis Creationists) to date with HH, so I wondering if it is a temporary IT issue or else an HH MCC change? More might become clear if anyone else is experiencing similar? I recall some saying that recently they were not receiving the amount of HH points that ordinarily they would have done, so I’m wondering if there are some HH changes behind the scenes or else something else.

    • Jay says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:12

      HH stopped this a while back so no bendy now, regardless of whoever is sitting behind them.

      • Simon says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:19

        When did that happen, Jay? This was working less than seven days ago for me?

        To be clear: do you mean paying off HH debt with Bendy — which has been dead for a good while now — or do you mean paying off Beardy with Bendy/HH?

        As I say, the latter has been working fine for me via the Beardy website as recently as last week, but now not via their app.

        • Harrier25 says:
          12 Feb12 February 17:44

          Barclays announced that they were stopping allowing payments to all their credit cards with Curve cards a while back, by may only have come into play recently if you were able to do it recently.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    12 Feb12 February 12:01

    Good nectar offers for me this week. 14 offers totalling approx 1000 points. All except one I think I’ll buy this week.

    Building back up after I switched back to Sainsbury after a few months break (lack of delivery slots!)

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      12 Feb12 February 12:13

      For clarity, I always do my day to day shop at Sainsbury but only just switched my big weeklies back to Sainsbury

      • Jayne says:
        12 Feb12 February 12:33

        Thanks for that clarity, I was starting to panic 😉😘

      • Aston100 says:
        12 Feb12 February 15:27

        I think you need to amend your username somewhat:
        Super Secret Sainsburys Staff

        • Super Secret Stuff says:
          12 Feb12 February 16:58

          Hahaha I don’t work at Sainsbury 🤣

          If you meant stuff, it is tempting given the amount of questions that now keep coming up (mainly the same ones)

  • MKB says:
    12 Feb12 February 12:08

    Has anyone managed to negotiate any further discount on the, already low, rates at the Hyatt Place, Hayes, if they are not actually staying beyond the first night?

    If so, do you have any contact details?

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

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