The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 16th February

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marcw says:

16 Feb16 February 13:37

President and CEO of Marriott Arne M. Sorenson has “unexpectedly” passed away. RIP. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer since 2019… and beginning of Feb asked to reduce his schedule to facilitate more demanding treatment – it’s not that unexpected then…
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 13:41
  
  The unexpected part might only a couple weeks ago he announced he was stepping aside for a while to concentrate on his treatment.
  
  RIP.
- BJ says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 13:48
  
  No, he had pancreatic cancer.
  - Rhys says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 13:50
    
    I doubt he would have undergone further treatment if doctors were expecting him to die within weeks. Clearly the hope was that the treatment would give him some more time which it sadly hasn’t. So it is unexpected.
    - marcw says:
      
      16 Feb16 February 14:07
      
      The average 5 year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is very very low [5-10%]. Pancreatic cancer is very tough with a very grim prognosis and you probably take whatever is available to you.
      In conclusion, if you are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer it’s unexpected if you survive for 5 years.
    - BJ says:
      
      16 Feb16 February 14:17
      
      The one year survival rate is around 25% falling to about 6% after 5 years (marginally higher in females). Seems likely the ‘treatment’ refererred to was final stage of palliative care.
      - Lady London says:
        
        16 Feb16 February 15:27
        
        Sad.
    - Julian says:
      
      16 Feb16 February 16:30
      
      Having had personal experience expensive private cancer doctors of the Harley Street kind are always extraordinary bullish about what further cancer treatment of even an apparently advanced Stage 4 cancer can do but fail to point out that their aggressive chemotherapy based approach only turns things around 10% to 20% of the time and in the case of the unfortunately majority with Stage 4 cancer frequently kills them a lot quicker in a lot more distress.
      
      Of course everyone who has a top level private medical insurance policy or the money to pay for this kind of treatment always tries to persuade themselves that they will be in the lucky minority. And I know my mother did and I know that I also still believed these charlatans until it all went wrong and they then refused to readmit my mother to the expensive Princess Grace Hospital and threw her out to die at the inadequate for the job Spire Thames Valley.
- George K says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 14:21
  
  It was unexpected in the sense that the guy was pretty much working and maintaining a visible presence up until a couple of weeks ago, and I suspect that the general sense is that when you start a new treatment, you and the people around you want to be optimistic. Not many people bother starting a new treatment knowing they won’t last days…
  
  A sad loss. I always enjoyed his heart-felt updates.
- Crafty says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 14:47
  
  Poor guy. Which is what I suppose a lot of the commenters meant to say but forgot?
  - Tariq says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 19:43
    
    Indeed. Seemed a lot more upbeat when it was announced that he was stepping back to undergo treatment. RIP
- Hotelier says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 16:34
  
  Sad to hear this. Met him while working at Marriott and he was genuinely nice with people.
AviosNewbie says:

16 Feb16 February 13:54

I’m trying to repay Brighton by Bendy – after I enter the card details and confirm in the app, the system just logs out. I tried a few times and it just keeps logging out after entering the debit card details. Anybody else make payment today?
- Aston100 says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 14:07
  
  Use a different browser, such as opera
- Walty says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 15:02
  
  Same…tried a few times. This usually happens every month. Switched to pay via the app and worked first time
  - Ken says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 19:04
    
    Same, very annoying as it got as far as verify your payment (within my Santander account) so it seemed like it had worked then fell over. The app worked 1st time
- avstar says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 15:41
  
  this glitch has been happening for 3 months. easiest solution is paying by app, esp if card details are already saved
Andrew says:

16 Feb16 February 14:16

Is Lidl dropping Amex?

Just had the “Earn rewards at all major supermarkets” email from Amex. They list Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda Morrisons, Waitrose, Iceland, Coop, Ocado and Fresh. But Lidl is missing from the email.

In the click through, Lidl is still there, but in a low position with a misformed logo whilst Aldi has the prominent and largest position.
- BJ says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 14:20
  
  Maybe Lidl negotiated a better deal so it’s amex payback.
- Super Secret Stuff says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 14:38
  
  Someone has to have the short straw…
- Julian says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 16:37
  
  Amex simply screwed up on the email by leaving the Lidl and even more incredibly M&S logos out of their supermarkets that take Amex email whilst including clearly much less important Iceland (clearly not a proper supermarket in terms of goods range and also avowedly downmarket) and also listing both Ocado and the virtually unknown Amazon Fresh supermarket goods logo in their email, when they do not have a high street presence.
  
  Then on the click thru page Lidl and bizarrely CostCo (only open to members paying a fee in certain kinds of work and also only aimed at large families and located on business parks) were added but still no Marks & Spencer, which must be the virtual number one choice for traditional Amex card shoppers alongside Waitrose (who’s logo does appear in the email and on the click thru page.
  
  A big screw up by senior Amex management that they will no doubt have to spend some time calming Lidl and M&S marketing people down about.
  - Julian says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 17:22
    
    Since Amex have now decided to open the very large can of worms of where does and doesn’t take their card (something only the very infrequently updated whoacceptsamex.co.uk tries to cover since Amex won’t do the job itself) can we also have some explanation from Amex about their long running spat with the B&Q and B&M stores chains that stretches back a few years (they both originally took Amex until the early 201*s) and their recent falling out with DVLA plus their non acceptance at Pets Corner (PetsAtHome does take Amex) plus their non acceptance by almost all other parts of UK government and UK Councils who accept Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards for payment.
    
    Perhaps they can also explain why Saga Insurance doesn’t accept Amex while Saga Travel does when they both claim to have the same ultimate Chief Executive at the top of the Saga group of three different companies. Ditto why will BUPA accept Amex if paying the entire subscription in one go but not if paying by monthly instalments.
    
    Another recent success by Amex however is with Sky who under the Murdochs never ever took the card but now the ownership has changed to Comcast of the USA now suddenly do take the card for both Sky itself and their cheaper Now Broadband subsidiary.
    - Julian says:
      
      16 Feb16 February 17:39
      
      Actually I see both Sky and Now Broadband still only take Visa and Mastercard for the regular monthly subscription but Now Tv accepts Amex to buy its one off Sky Sports, Movies, Kids etc passes.
      
      Curiouser and curiouser is all I can say about that………
  - Sandra says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 17:41
    
    I’d class myself as a traditional Amex shopper and I mainly shop at Lidl & Aldi, with the odd Tesco/Sainsbury delivery as a top up for things they don’t sell. Nearest Waitrose 25 miles away & nearest M & S about 20 so unless passing I don’t use either!
  - Callum says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 18:06
    
    This is clearly not a “huge screwup”, senior Amex management obviously aren’t the people creating those pages/emails and I highly doubt the Lidl and M&S marketing people even know about this apparently grave error, much less care.
    - Tony says:
      
      16 Feb16 February 22:44
      
      As far as I know – Iceland does not take AMEX directly – but you can use PayPal that does.
    - Crafty says:
      
      17 Feb17 February 23:01
      
      Everything is a huge screw-up to Julian.
      
      I don’t reckon he knows the market share data too well either.
Geoff says:

16 Feb16 February 14:28

What is the current situation with combine my avios? I want to retrieve some (400!) old IB avios that will otherwise expire.

I can log in to IB Plus, and I can log in to avios.com. But, the avios CMA page won’t recognise my IB log in details. The avios.com links, to forgot IB No and forgot password (PIN), are also broken, so it all looks a bit broken.
- Genghis says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 14:39
  
  Do you have an old “number” format PIN for IB? Perhaps change password on IB and then try again on avios.com, pull and push.
  - Geoff says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 14:51
    
    Thanks – yes done all that. Changed IB pw and can log in and out quite happily with IB – its the avios end that seems to be playing up.
    I can log in to BA from avios.com, and have successfully transferred some residual old avios.com avios, but cannot get from avios.com into my IB account.
    - Lady London says:
      
      16 Feb16 February 17:23
      
      Try pulling from Aer Lingus.
      - David D says:
        
        16 Feb16 February 19:05
        
        Though if you used to have an Avios account on the email address you use for an Aer Lingus account, you will have to phone up and ask for the email to be dropped from your old account to allow an Aer Club account to be opened. An issue I found out this week when I was opening an Aer Club account partly for this very reason.
Travel Strong says:

16 Feb16 February 15:21

241 newbie questions… I have read the articles but looking to confirm:

1) When booking “355 days out”, does the call centre always ‘win’ the race? Or is it possible for online bookings be done quicker than the call centre?

2) Who/when do you ring to bag a USA flight? Just the normal number? And I assume call before midnight, and be on the call with an agent by the time the clock strikes 0000?
- Rob says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 15:38
  
  Call centre wins, because they put the ticket on hold whilst an online user doesn’t get the tickets – even though you have them in your basket – until all passenger details are filled in and you hit ‘pay’.
  
  You need to call the US number as the UK is shut, albeit it may divert to the after-hours team in the UK. Call just before midnight.
TGLoyalty says:

16 Feb16 February 15:25

Have I completely missed the news that Virgin Las Vegas (the old hard rock) will joint Hilton Curio.
- Rob says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 15:36
  
  We didn’t cover it, if that’s what you meant!
- The Savage Squirrel says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 17:50
  
  Something of a surprise (to me anyway) as it appears to dilute the Virgin brand. Especially a surprise given that they’ve converted the Mandarin to a WA and Resorts World is nearing completion and will contain 3 Hiltons including a Conrad. Perhaps with travel from the UK curtailed, the obvious tie-up with Virgin Holidays will not get those rooms filled, so needs must.
- Stagger Lee says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 17:57
  
  The Hard Rock a great hotel in the early 2000s but they massively expanded and it just lost that something that could pull people over from the Strip. Will be interesting to see what it’s like as a Virgin hotel so I’ll drop in when I can get to Vegas again. It’s also only a short stagger to the Double Down Saloon 🙂
Alexis says:

16 Feb16 February 15:29

If I refer someone for an AMEX, they get declined, they appeal and get approved. Would the referral bonus be awarded as normal?
- memesweeper says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 16:29
  
  “If I refer someone for an AMEX, they get declined, they appeal and get approved. Would the referral bonus be awarded as normal?“
  
  … asks someone who has never worked in the IT department of a financial institution.
- Peter K says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 16:47
  
  While I cannot be 100 % absolutely certain, they basically reapplied without using your link via the appeal process. So no, there is no referral bonus paid.
Christina says:

16 Feb16 February 15:49

Trying to convert Avios to Nectar today: “Unable to convert from Avios
Sorry, we are currently unable to process the conversion of Avios to Nectar points online. If you need to convert Avios for Nectar points please call 0344 49 333 03 between 9am – 5pm (Monday to Friday) and we will be delighted to help. Please note we will process your request within 10 working days. You can still convert your Nectar points into Avios online as normal.”
- Jimbob says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 16:00
  
  Perhaps they had to stem the flood of transfers the “wrong” way 🤔
  - Lady London says:
    
    16 Feb16 February 17:29
    
    +1
    Clear.
    Similar to disabling the ability to request refunds on the BA website and forcing people to call ?
    
    I would love, just love to get the figures on how many transfers were made in each direction avios nectar and what total value was transferred each way 🙂
- memesweeper says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 16:30
  
  wow — that didn’t take long
- Julian says:
  
  16 Feb16 February 16:39
  
  I’m sure this is related to the old Combine My Avios sporadically not working problem with the BA, Iberia and Avios websites that has been going on for several years.