The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 17th February

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• Tarmohamed says:

  17 Feb17 February 03:11

  Qatar Business Class Lounge – We had “R” tickets, so no lounge access. Presented priority pass/Amex platinum and boarding passes at the priority pass lounge (Oryx/Al Maha) and was advised lounge was full, but the reception lady rang the Qatar business class lounge and they accepted us as we had business class tickets and swiped our priority pass cards. It seems all lounges are run by Qatar Airways as the staff in the Oryx lounge had Qatar Airways lanyards/IDs etc.

  • 1ATL says:

    17 Feb17 February 04:25

    Yes it’s fairly common to be granted access to Al Maha Business lounge when the Oryx F and J lounges are at capacity. They really aren’t very big.

  • John Gallagher says:

    17 Feb17 February 07:08

    I’ve just had MLE-DOH-LHR flights cancelled by BA and rescheduled from J/C to both now in R. Sounds like I won’t have automatic access to Al Majourn now -( not exactly fair

    • chabuddy geezy says:

      17 Feb17 February 07:44

      BA issued tickets starting 125 still have access. Check out the Qatar flyertalk board for more info.

      • Andrew says:

        17 Feb17 February 07:51

        And I don’t think the One World Lounge is open still so if you have status you’ll still get access to Al Mourjan

• JamesH says:

  17 Feb17 February 07:02

  I was going to write it in yesterday’s page but people won’t see it – but thanks for advice on banks ahead of Australia move!

  I checked Westpac and HSBC… both paused their initiatives that allow people outside of Australia to set up ahead of moving. Will check out Commbank today too.

  For the Avios, I just leave them right? No need to transfer anywhere? It’s a shame the companion voucher needs to be used out of the UK.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    17 Feb17 February 07:26

    Depending on your plans to visit and how far out you can plan you could book return from Aus many months apart and have the ex-uk return in the middle going the other way

  • John says:

    17 Feb17 February 07:46

    You can open a NAB account outside australia which can receive money but not withdraw or spend until you show ID at a branch. I did this 10 years ago and the website doesn’t say it’s paused.

    I am an Australian citizen and the main advantage for me was that the NAB account doesn’t have any fees. I had a comm bank account from when I was a child and it started charging me monthly when I turned 18, so I moved all my money out even though I didn’t go to Australia to activate the new account for another 3 years…

    • Anthony Edwards says:

      17 Feb17 February 08:51

      I haven’t checked for a few years to be honest – but I have a Commonwealth Bank account that is free – I just have to keep $500 in it. Not sure if it’s still offered.

    • JamesH says:

      17 Feb17 February 16:33

      Nice – looking at NAB and they still offer it for free and in advance of arrival. As I mentioned above, some of the others seem to have paused it.

  • Christina says:

    17 Feb17 February 08:54

    Or you can open a TransferWise multiple currency account now and would have GBP and AUD immediately with a card. Also cheaper to transfer money from GBP to AUD than High st banks. https://transferwise.com/gb/multi-currency-account/

    • JamesH says:

      17 Feb17 February 16:32

      Have used transferwise before and been impressed. Didn’t know they did the multiple currency accounts so will definitely look into this. Thanks.

  • Sina says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:45

    You can also call Westpac directly and open an account over the phone, just an option!

  • QFFlyer says:

    17 Feb17 February 11:04

    Leave the Avios where they are, keep your BAEC account at a UK address (you can’t move it here anyway), the Avios are like gold on QF domestic flights.

    The Big-4 (ANZ, NAB, Commbank, Westpac) all allow you to open accounts from overseas, but you’ll need to visit a branch in person to ID-verify before you can withdraw $ or get a card (you can pay in fine before this though).

    https://www.anz.com.au/personal/bank-accounts/everyday-accounts/moving-to-australia/en/
    https://www.nab.com.au/personal/travel-and-overseas-banking/open-account-from-overseas

    • Nick says:

      17 Feb17 February 11:12

      BA is about to open up membership to customers with Australian addresses! So it will be an option soon. But yes, with a 2-4-1 best to leave it registered in the UK anyway.

• Tw33ty says:

  17 Feb17 February 07:56

  My IHG nights from last year have rolled over this morning.

  • Andrew says:

    17 Feb17 February 08:09

    Still nothing on mine. Someone said yesterday they had them, so I guess they are doing in batches.

  • Craig says:

    17 Feb17 February 08:44

    Yes, mine yesterday too, a colleague also had his.

  • BrianW says:

    17 Feb17 February 21:16

    Mine too.

• Anna says:

  17 Feb17 February 08:37

  @Lady London, re the reading thread from last night – Lisa Gardner writes decent thrillers set in and around Boston which are often free or cheap on Kindle.
  I’m going to have a look at Mark Billingham next!

  • Anna says:

    17 Feb17 February 08:51

    Also P J Tracy, especially “Snow Blind” if you haven’t read that.

  • Stanley says:

    17 Feb17 February 09:06

    Big +1 for Mark Billingham. In a similar vein – Tony Parson’s great series of DC Max Wolfe books. . Also John Niven for dark humour.

    • Lady London says:

      17 Feb17 February 10:53

      Thanks Stanley

      • Lady London says:

        18 Feb18 February 02:38

        …and Anna

• IanM says:

  17 Feb17 February 08:58

  Still chasing my 5000 point bonus from Creation for staying at IHG end of November – anyone had any luck getting that credited?

  Customer service is shocking….ie none!

  • Axel says:

    17 Feb17 February 09:13

    They told me I should get the 5000 points on next months statement.

    But I had to send Creation the terms and conditions before they would budge.

  • Peggerz says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:58

    I stayed December, was credited in January.

  • Ikaz says:

    17 Feb17 February 13:00

    I sent a message to IHG on this last month, silence since then

• Lady London says:

  17 Feb17 February 09:00

  Thanks @Anna

  • Polly says:

    17 Feb17 February 23:14

    Kathy Reichs v g also, on the lines of Karin Slaughter.. enjoy all those suggestions, you will have years of great reading ahead of you…all our fav authors. Been enjoying them for years. Once brought an entire stack of Jo Nesbo to France with us, one of our best trips, read so much…

    • Lady London says:

      18 Feb18 February 02:40

      Ta Polly. Also found Kathy Reichs a bit gruesome but I will take another look.

• cinereus says:

  17 Feb17 February 09:06

  VS redemptions on VS metal or ANA: is it possible to “reserve” flights to enable a longer trip without availability issues? Say I wanted to go for two months, obviously all outbounds would be booked up by the time the return is available. So instead of booking mar-may book mar-mar and then, when released, book may-may. then cancel may-may and call to amend the mar-mar to the now-available mar-may.

  Anyone know if this is doable?

  • Oli says:

    17 Feb17 February 09:20

    Yes, just did so last week. No change fees. You are also free to book say a return economy fare if you don’t have enough points just now and then move to J-F once you do, subj. to availability. Change in tax is payable

    • Oli says:

      17 Feb17 February 09:21

      Sorry meant to say my response was for VS redemptions on ANA flights

    • cinereus says:

      17 Feb17 February 13:18

      Thanks! But why no change fees? Surely you have to pay one since you’re going from 2 bookings to 1?

      Also, assume the reward availability appears back again immediately?

• Sundar says:

  17 Feb17 February 09:21

  Does anyone know if to move partial ISA as Cash from a Stocks and Share ISA to Vanguard, does the transfer request need to be initiated in the source or in Vanguard ?

  • AJA says:

    17 Feb17 February 09:38

    I’ve always done the initiating in the company where I want to transfer the ISA into. Or try calling Vanguard and ask them if they will initiate the transfer?

    • Sundar says:

      17 Feb17 February 10:33

      I tried online with vanguard and the options were only vanguard funds for partial transfer or full transfer only, which was kinda strange. Raising a secure message, they said to speak to the source isa provider. Hence checking if someone has any experience working with Vanguard as target for partial cash transfer ?

  • rams1981 says:

    17 Feb17 February 10:06

    Vanguard has a form on their website. You need to send an authority form as well.

  • Jay says:

    17 Feb17 February 12:38

    Initiate in Vanguard as a partial and ensure the cash value is correct as if it is 10% too high or low it will be rejected by the current provider. You can drop them a secure message to clarify and they will pop a note on Origo for 100% clarity for the existing provider (assumes of course the current provider uses Origo).

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