The HfP chat thread – Sunday 14th February

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

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.

Category

General

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

Wally1976 says:

14 Feb14 February 08:27

Daily Mail offer – I decided not to bother yesterday as I don’t want to risk £53/£80 and not end up with any points.

Then I thought I could put the vouchers on eBay and reduce the liability. However, when I search for “Daily Mail vouchers” or similar on eBay I get nothing. Are they banned from being sold on there or something?
- Andrew says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 08:50
  
  Probably just not something people needed to do previously. Now eBay will be awash with vouchers.
- Martyn Ford says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:50
  
  Having signed up yesterday I rang this morning and the Daly Mail confirmed that only people directly invited to apply for this promotion would receive the Nectar points. I cancelled and paypal refund was immediate.
  - Andrew says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 09:56
    
    Thanks. Glad I didn’t bother then.
  - Harry T says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 09:57
    
    On the other hand, it doesn’t say that anywhere in the T&Cs and many of us have emails promising our nectar points pay out. You’re also assuming that the Daily Mail has the IT nouse to discern who was actually targeted…
    - Martyn Ford says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 10:06
      
      I read the “paper” for 90 seconds; it was not a difficult decision.
    - Yorkieflyer says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 10:55
      
      I’m of the same mind
      - Yorkieflyer says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 10:56
        
        Answer to Harry T
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 12:15
    
    Most call centre staff have no idea what is really going on and certainly have no idea how IT is coded/behaves.
Martyn Ford says:

14 Feb14 February 08:31

I`ve just had a look at the Daily Mail online. I have no political axe to grind but reading the articles felt as though I was reading a comic. Someone mentioned Viz yesterday and I now understand why.
Graeme says:

14 Feb14 February 09:19

I UuA a few weeks ago but the difference in YQ hasn’t been charged yet. When is it usually taken? When ticketed? Thanks.
- Charlieface says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 12:39
  
  No, it goes into a backoffice, that sits on it til about a month before departure.
  
  If you still haven’t been charged by then, call up. Otherwise the system may cancel the ticket automatically
  - Graeme says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 12:48
    
    Thanks. Not flying until October so plenty of time.
Debra says:

14 Feb14 February 09:34

Can someone provide advice on a cancelled flight or a rescheduled, within 4 hours, flight for BA please? If BA cancel my original flight but rebook me on the next one which is within the 4 hour window, does this count as a cancellation (full refund etc) or a reschedule (limited options)? Thanks
- Jonathan says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 09:39
  
  If the flight number changes then it’s a cancellation end of discussion. You may get the run around from a BA phone agent, if so then hang up & call again.
  - Debra says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 09:46
    
    Thank you.
- BA-Flyer says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 11:33
  
  BA cancelled my LHR – GLA flight and automatically put me on another one a few hours earlier. I still had the option to cancel or rebook online for no extra cost. It actually worked out well for me; I switched to the LCY flight I always wanted, but was £70 more expensive when originally booking.
PaulC says:

14 Feb14 February 09:52

So I ballsed up last night. With only 11 nectar points short of the 1,600 for the offer ending tonight I thought I’d fill up with petrol after my takeaway delivery job ended at 10pm last night only to find the kiosk and self service pumps closed…
Anyone know a way to get 11 nectar points that will be added instantly today allowing me to transfer 1,600 to Avios and get the 2x points and 500 Avios bonus?
- Martyn Ford says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:14
  
  Redeem a bonus voucher instore.
  - PaulC says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 10:17
    
    Sadly I don’t have any as I’ve already used them all up for this week.
- Sam says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:38
  
  Think actual shopping in Sainsbury’s is instant. Bonuses follow a day or two after
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 10:49
    
    Other way round voucher bonus instant. Base points arrive over night.
- Dr Tom says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 11:39
  
  Buy something for £1 or more in store, then you should get the scratchcard game on the app. Play it and hope to get 11 points. If not, repeat (you might possibly have to visit a different Sainsbury’s Local or similar).
  - ChrisC says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 12:11
    
    Wouldn’t rely on that.
    
    Not had a “scratch card” for a couple of weeks.
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 12:17
      
      Was going to say it’s been a while and I only ever got 5
    - Super Secret Stuff says:
      
      14 Feb14 February 12:46
      
      They only give you a scratch card when you don’t get any bonus points
      - James says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 18:31
        
        That’s incorrect Kitten. I’ve had them both with and without bonus points from my purchases.
      - kitten says:
        
        14 Feb14 February 23:55
        
        @James Che? not sure who your comment was addressed to but I was not in the discussion you’ve replied to me in..?
        
        .
  - lumma says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 22:57
    
    No, as long as you’ve played the scratch card, you’ll get another one with another purchase over £1
- Chris Heyes says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 12:21
  
  PaulC Not worth the run-around 500 Avios worth around £2.50 at most
  i think a lot of people caught up with offer
  without thinking “remember £2.50 Tesco vouchers got you 600 Avios or 800 in my case” shame Avios pulled the plug
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 15:11
    
    You’ve got your numbers wrong
    
    500 avios are worth £5 and now worth atleast £4 considering the nectar floor value.
- AJA says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 12:39
  
  I think you’re stuffed. The only thing I can think of is to try to sign up for the nectar equivalent of e-rewards and do a survey. Not sure if they post instantly?
  - Dan says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 16:04
    
    This works – it’s called Nectar Canvass – and post Immediately IIRC
- John says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 15:32
  
  Do you have an amex MR card?
Anna says:

14 Feb14 February 09:53

Sunday tech support question! How do I change my username for sites where they make you use your email address? Struggling with BA, which doesn’t seem to have the option, and IHG, which doesn’t respond to the request for a reset link!
- Doug M says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:05
  
  BA can be done on the website. Manage exec club, manage account, personal info. If you have an Avios account via aer club that’ll need changing to match.
- Doug M says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:06
  
  Also any flights already in BA with old email address won’t change to new.
- TJ says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 10:30
  
  IHG: you can log in using your member number (or email). If you still want to change your email address you can do this within the app under manage profile.
- Charlieface says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 12:41
  
  Little trick: GMail accepts any emails sent to myemailaddress+whatever@gmail.com and it is received in the inbox of myemailaddress@gmail.com, so you can see exactly who leaked your email address by using myemailaddress+ba@gmail.com
  - Steve says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 15:01
    
    @Charlieface great tip, never knew that! I did know that fullstops don’t matter in a Gmail address. You can add and remove as many as you like, the email will be delivered.
    https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150
  - Lady London says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 15:06
    
    nice one thank you @charlieface
  - Lady London says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 23:58
    
    Harry would like that one. He was the one who told us about the ‘full stop’ feature first too.
- Chris Heyes says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 12:48
  
  Anna on BA you can change your e-mail address to log in with numbers
  that’s what i use “just need to remember the numbers lol
  your e-mail address will come up as error after unless you select either
IanM says:

14 Feb14 February 10:18

So I had two excellent customer service experiences yesterday, firstly with Delta who I contacted through Twitter and got an almost immediate response from an advisor who dealt with my query within a few minutes in respect to a Delta One redemption booked through Virgin.

Secondly BA had cancelled an avios booking for March without telling me (flight connection at LHR had changed making it impossible for me to catch it so system had deleted it)! But it was sorted very quickly from their call centre with the booking moved to September at no additional cost – got through almost immediately on the phone.

Just FYI
Adam says:

14 Feb14 February 10:20

Has anyone else had issues redeeming Melia gift cards online? I bought from Amazon a while back and trying to redeem the code now on the Melia site but when I enter I just get an error message ‘Sorry! This page is unavailable’.
- MattB says:
  
  14 Feb14 February 11:12
  
  I always have some sort of trouble, both redeeming then actually booking. If I recall correctly using a different browser helped redeem the code. The issue then is that the points aren’t always instantly usable, so I have to use the app to make a booking
  - Adam says:
    
    14 Feb14 February 15:14
    
    Thanks, will definitely try another browser.