The HfP chat thread – Saturday 13th February

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• Voltron says:

  13 Feb13 February 02:46

  Has anyone had any difficulties getting a refund from a cancelled amex? Merchant has processed refund and provided receipt, but amex still saying can’t find transaction 1 month after.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    13 Feb13 February 07:53

    I have been in this situation a few times, most recently in January of this year, and it has always gone back to the cancelled card without issue. I then request a cheque to receive the credit.

  • tom1 says:

    13 Feb13 February 12:56

    The only problem I have had is trying to get the Amex agent to understand I have had multiple cards that end 0000/0001/0002 etc. Once they look a bit harder for closed cards they usually find it.

  • the_real_a says:

    13 Feb13 February 13:09

    Merchants have a unique number for refunds that can be cross matched. For the life of me i cannot recall the name of the field for Amex. From this transaction number Amex can find the refund independent of card/accounts.

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      14 Feb14 February 00:18

      Acquirer Reference Number (ARN)

• cinereus says:

  13 Feb13 February 03:23

  How do we get the website to display with dark mode activated?

  • John says:

    13 Feb13 February 05:06

    Use a browser that has dark mode

  • Andrew says:

    13 Feb13 February 08:02

    What is with this dark mode everyone is on about? I just look at a website, not particularly bothered by its colour scheme.

    • Ken says:

      13 Feb13 February 08:21

      Rather than dark text on a white background, it’s light text in a dark background.
      A bit like green text on a black background for those that used early computers.
      Supposed to be better for your eyes.

    • Rob says:

      13 Feb13 February 09:43

      It’s a ‘thing’ now for people who like to read websites in bed. It inverts the colour scheme so you get white text on a black background, so less bright.

      However it is not that simple as we are finding out – or at least not that simple to do so it looks good. In particular, for us, the ‘gridlines’ in the design and the blue elements are problematical. This is why we need to have something coded specifically for us if we want to have an ‘official’ dark mode HfP version.

      • TripRep says:

        13 Feb13 February 09:46

        I know it sounds minor but after setting dark mode on twitter and then coming here it’s literally night and day.

      • Tarmohamed says:

        13 Feb13 February 17:17

        iOS has “reader view” which does make it white text on black. The article shows and is readable in dark mode, but not the comments as reader view doesn’t recognise it.

    • AndyS says:

      13 Feb13 February 16:51

      Dark mode is how computers were before windows!

      • kitten says:

        13 Feb13 February 20:43

        yes…orange or green with white text rather than black!

  • AJA says:

    13 Feb13 February 09:06

    Not sure whether your phone has dark mode capability?. Check your phone settings , then display , then activate dark mode. Then open browser to view HfP. Should display black screen with white lettering.

    • Steve says:

      13 Feb13 February 09:50

      On my phone (android) there’s an “invert colours” option in the quick settings bar, works well.

    • cinereus says:

      13 Feb13 February 10:28

      Phone browser and OS is set to dark mode at all times. On the latest version of everything. Even at min brightness, white backgrounds are massively jarring in the dark (try it yourself).

      I’ve not heard of any reputable company who do not provide dark mode versions of everything when doing a from scratch design in the last few years. Not not have a dark theme strikes me as odd. In any case, CSS toggles for multiple colour schemes is one of the more simple things to achieve regardless of things like blue highlights, there are so many resources for designing an aesthetically pleasing dark palette with nice accent colours and the theme, icons and typography on HfP are one of the easier examples. Just look at code snippets for something like monkeytype for examples. Any UI designer could knock up a few prototypes in an afternoon.

• S879 says:

  13 Feb13 February 07:49

  Yesterday someone mentioned an MR to Hilton bonus. Did that not expire in December 2020? Could someone confirm if its still on.

  • Rob says:

    13 Feb13 February 09:44

    Not on AFAIK

  • Harry T says:

    13 Feb13 February 09:50

    Seems to have expired.

• TGLoyalty says:

  13 Feb13 February 08:02

  Known Heathrow Quarantine hotels so far

  Ibis Styles London Heathrow East
  The Thistle Heathrow – poor souls! £1750 to stay here!
  The Renaissance Heathrow
  Novotel Terminals 2 and 3

  • Sloth says:

    13 Feb13 February 09:02

    I was hoping they would put everyone in a travelodge just for the entertainment value of all the moaning…

    • TGLoyalty says:

      13 Feb13 February 09:49

      Don’t worry there will be plenty from thistle

      • Yorkieflyer says:

        13 Feb13 February 11:13

        Stayed there once a few years ago, wished we’d slept in the Pod….

        • S says:

          13 Feb13 February 13:32

          My reservation at Holiday Inn Bath road got cancelled. HI and staybridge suites both showing no availablity until end of march

        • kitten says:

          13 Feb13 February 14:28

          🙂 That bad?

        • yorkieflyer says:

          13 Feb13 February 15:42

          touch and go, or rather don’t touch anything and just go….

  • PMC says:

    13 Feb13 February 12:15

    it’s ironic to do this when the UK’s lack of discipline caused the chaos.
    In the meantime you are free to travel within the country, with no tests or quarantine. This illogical border stupidity affects most countries though. It’s likely the least effective measure to stop the pandemic.
    Probably a scheme to prop up a failing UK tourism sector who is really hitting rock bottom and this is likely to continue for 1-2 years…

    • Lady London says:

      13 Feb13 February 14:38

      should have stopped passengers incoming from everywhere with severe outbreaks at the time one year ago. As several of us said at the time.

      But there was no leadership on this in government at the time. Gave me the impression Boris was frightened of offending the Indian Subcontinent diaspora which are a large proportion of the vote in the UK, the Americans, and for some reason the Chinese. Oh, and full schedule of planes with passengers landing from New York as their epidemic continued to its height

      Instead one year later we are imposing excess cost on people (£210 to contribute to the government’s variants data bank via a test is indeed a piss-take as TGLoyalty said) only the really urgent of them would travel, and the wealthy and government ministers who’ve been in the same countries are gonna just avoid it anyway.

      It’s a cross between Fawlty Towers and a Fellini film… an absolute farce. The vaccine mobilisation in the UK has been pretty much the only intelligent thing done promptly.

      • yorkieflyer says:

        13 Feb13 February 15:45

        quite agree, the whole fiasco resembles the Morecambe and Wise sketch with Andre Previn, all the right notes but in the wrong order

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    13 Feb13 February 12:38

    Could be worse I suppose? But the entertainment value from all the complaints will be priceless 👌

• John W says:

  13 Feb13 February 08:17

  This week’s shopping 1300 points nectar points ! . I was already shopping in Sainsburys prior to the announcement . Over the year , hope to accumulate some avios !

  • Andrew says:

    13 Feb13 February 09:06

    And I’m a convert to Sainsbury’s so I can cash in some of my vast wealth of Avios in everyday spending. Everyone’s happy it seems.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      13 Feb13 February 12:40

      Except avios, they’d prefer you to spend it on flights

• Mart says:

  13 Feb13 February 09:16

  anyone know how to book klm flights with virgin miles i am seeing availability but says availability changed after entering card details ?

  • Phil W says:

    13 Feb13 February 10:33

    I had the same troubles last year. Couldn’t get any availability to stick. I have up in the end.

    • Magic Mike says:

      13 Feb13 February 17:59

      Lots of AF/KL phantom availability on the web site. If you phone Virgin they will tell you what is real…

  • Charlieface says:

    13 Feb13 February 18:32

    Maybe check on Delta.com and see what matches up there

• Sam says:

  13 Feb13 February 09:26

  Would you allow your customers to spend money with your competitors?

  • Steve says:

    13 Feb13 February 09:43

    While Waitrose is a competitor I wouldn’t say John Lewis is!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    13 Feb13 February 10:08

    They sell JL and Amazon vouchers so seems like they have no issue with it.

  • Andrew says:

    13 Feb13 February 10:28

    Tesco has always sold JL vouchers – but they are branded without the Waitrose logo on them but can be used there too.

  • KBuffett says:

    13 Feb13 February 12:50

    Morrison’s, Tesco and Sainsbury’s do.

• Anna says:

  13 Feb13 February 09:31

  Are any airlines offering free cancellation at the moment (not date change)? Now BA has pulled all the direct routes from MAN I need an alternative to avios bookings for short haul.

  • Lady London says:

    13 Feb13 February 14:50

    Jet2 possibly – the rest of airlines keep offering new variations in their conditions that all mean “we keep your cash”.

    Easyjet’s t’s and c’s and Ryanair’s have always said no actual refund unless they cancel your flight – and even that was because EU261 required it.

    Jet2 grounded for Feb now, I think someone posted.

    • Lady London says:

      13 Feb13 February 14:52

      PS fully flex may turn out to be refundable on KL and AF but even if so I think AF can force a voucher that’s not refundable for a year or more, not sure about KL

      • Anna says:

        13 Feb13 February 15:42

        Thanks, LL, it does look as though Avios bookings are the best option as we have little flexibility on dates until summer next year. Just booked short haul from LGW as summer Plan B (A and C already booked lol), OH will pull a face but we can turn it into a bit of a road trip if it goes ahead!

        • Anna says:

          13 Feb13 February 15:43

          I looked at Jet2 but their cancellation blurb seems to indicate that refunds will only be paid if they cancel.

        • kitten says:

          13 Feb13 February 20:32

          Would have thought Manchester to Gatwick quite smooth – St Pancras and Kings Cross being literally the width of a quadrangle apart and Euston on the other side of St Pancras for the short walk to switch to Thameslink for Gatwick.

          I tend to exit and walk on the surface using the St Pancras side entrance as it feels shorter and you get fresh air.

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