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The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 17th 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.

Category

General

Comments (287)

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

  • Nick S says:
    17 Feb17 February 11:46

    One I cancelled took 8 weeks for the refund, One BA cancelled and I had the refund within 5 days.
    BA told me the reason was all customer cancellations are done manually, all flight cancellations are done automatically……….

  • Adam says:
    17 Feb17 February 11:53

    How to access previous days’ “hfp chat threads”? They are no longer listed if you just scroll down through the home page.

  • BuildBackBetter says:
    17 Feb17 February 12:17

    Sainsbury’s shareholders not going to be happy when they look at the marketing expenses for Q1

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      17 Feb17 February 15:46

      They won’t care, the growth in sales and sustaining that after Covid is really important to them.

      Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s are the real supermarket winners from the Covid panic buying (Sainsbury’s had virtually no supply problems) and delivery infrastructure (Tesco delivery slots nearly always available). They’d want to keep it that way

  • Michael C says:
    17 Feb17 February 12:17

    Insurance question: we’re looking at booking a Xmas apartment on IOM, but where we go always asks for a GBP250 non-refundable deposit.
    The “only” reason we won’t go is if quarantine is still on there: would any insurance policy cover us against cancelling for that reason, and allow us to recover the deposit?

    • Sandgrounder says:
      17 Feb17 February 13:32

      Probably not if you book it now, because you know you can’t visit the IOM right now, and there is no end date on the restrictions.

    • The real John says:
      17 Feb17 February 13:37

      You basically want someone else to take the other side of the bet that the Manx govt will end quarantine by Christmas; maybe a betting exchange would be more appropriate?

  • James says:
    17 Feb17 February 12:29

    Just rang up the BA-Nectar transfer line to convert some Avios and had a quick chat with the agent to understand a bit more. The agent said all they had been told was that a fault had been identified wrt Avios -> Nectar transfers and they hoped it to be fixed within the next four weeks. Until then everything needs to be done manually and that judging by how busy they were today it would take the full 10 working days to effect the transfer (though it would still count against my Feb allowance even if the points weren’t moved until Mar).

    • Andrew says:
      17 Feb17 February 12:43

      Interesting. Hopefully it’s the security issue they are fixing and perhaps the need for an OTP or at least personal details to match when transferring. Interestingly the conversion tool has been updated since yesterday’s message and has removed the 10 day line, perhaps suggesting it will be less less, or perhaps more! Obviously the landing page still says conversions both ways are instant as per the original text.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        17 Feb17 February 12:47

        Having no name / address match was a serious flaw.

        I’d prefer 2FA though obviously so they can be “moved around”

        • The real John says:
          17 Feb17 February 13:39

          Someone actively decided to allow transfers to and from 4 different accounts per year, so there couldn’t be any matching by design.

    • Colin MacKinnon says:
      17 Feb17 February 14:13

      Getting a blank screen when I try to select Avios to Nectar

  • Sam says:
    17 Feb17 February 13:40

    Hi all, this may be a stupid question but it has always confused me and never quite understood it! I have a Stocks and Shares ISA with Vanguard – I opened this account this tax year and am up to the limit of 20k.

    Come the start of the new tax year, I will open a new Stocks and Shares ISA with Vanguard again or another provider (undecided yet). My question is the Stocks and Shares ISA I currently have with Vanguard, I can’t add to it can I after the end of this tax year (so it rolls over in to the new tax year) so I can carry on investing in the same ETF’s – I have to open a new ISA? Have I got that right? So people end up with lots of Stocks and Shares ISA with the same or different providers over a number of years?

    Thanks!

    • Sundar says:
      17 Feb17 February 13:44

      No, u can add money to the same ISA account in the new FY. You can add only to 1 Stocks and Share IsA acct in a year though.

    • The real John says:
      17 Feb17 February 13:46

      You can deposit £20000 of new money into an ISA per tax year.

      If you deposit into the Vanguard ISA next tax year, you will still have one account, with contributions from two tax years.

      Just to be clear, because some people seem to think this is the case: the 20k is not the limit on the total value of the account – there is no limit (yet).

      If you’ve been depositing the max amount into the same S&S ISA every year for the past 20 years, you might have several million in that account by now.

      • Sam says:
        17 Feb17 February 13:52

        Thanks both, that makes sense now! I can carry on putting money in the same account but start from the new FY!

        Presumably however once you have 4 years worth of the allowance of 20k each year so 80k with the same provider/platform, does the FCSC of 85k protection apply? Or do you mean there is no actual limit and your money is protected even you have more than 85k with the same provider?

        • Genghis says:
          17 Feb17 February 14:01

          I suggest you read up on this on Monevator. There’s lots to be said.
          In short though, there’s a balance to be struck between FSCS coverage, cost of having various brokers (there’s only so many low cost / fixed fee brokers to go around) and increased admin. Consensus seems to be to split balances between two or three brokers and underlying fund providers but not to worry too much about FSCS limits. The underlying assets remain registered in your name. There could then be unreconciled differences in broker omnibus accounts that on a broker winding up could become a cost to holders / administrator expenses etc, but these should be covered up to FSCS limits.

        • The real John says:
          17 Feb17 February 14:04

          FSCS protection is up to £85k.

          You are not protected from losing money on your investments.

          If you had £85k sitting in cash in the account, and the broker went bankrupt then that would be straightforward reimbursement.

          If you had the money invested, then you would still own the investments (such as ETFs) even if your broker went bankrupt. If this happened your investments would probably eventually get transferred to another broker which could take years potentially. In the meantime you would not be able to trade (though you shouldn’t really be trading passive trackers, just holding).

          The FSCS might also come into play in cases of broker fraud where you gave them the money but they didn’t actually buy the investments you thought they held for you.

        • BuildBackBetter says:
          17 Feb17 February 14:16

          Unless you are leaving cash in your ISA account, opening accounts with multiple platforms is pointless. Look at what funds you invest in – they have the cash, not your platform. Diversify your funds, not platforms!

          • Genghis says:
            17 Feb17 February 14:43

            Whilst I agree with your points, I disagree with your conclusion. Should you have all your investments with Trading 212, say, and then Trading 212 goes bust, it might be some time until (all) monies can be accessed. You could then be on the hook for administrator charges, unreconciled differences in omnibus accounts, fraud etc, like I mentioned. A bit of diversification can go a long way.

  • Alex says:
    17 Feb17 February 13:53

    Option for transferring Avios to Nectar disappeared for me, does anyone know what might be the reason? There is no such option in Nectar app anymore, and when I’m trying to do online at ba.com, I get the following message. I moved 16k avios in January and 32k avios in February, so assumed that I still can move 18k.

    Avios to Nectar conversion unavailable
    We are sorry, Avios to Nectar conversion isn’t currently available online.
    If you want to convert your Avios to Nectar points please call us on 0344 49 333 03 between 9 am – 5 pm (Monday to Friday)
    You can still convert your Nectar points into Avios online as normal.

  • Doommonger says:
    17 Feb17 February 14:13

    Hackett.12 days since order confirmed and still waiting for delivery AND still no bonus Avios. They are officially rubbish.

    The Doomster

    • Harry T says:
      17 Feb17 February 15:22

      Have you rang them? I’ve made three orders in the last two weeks and everything has gone smoothly. Avios don’t arrive for some weeks after you get the order though – but they should arrive.

      • Doommonger says:
        17 Feb17 February 17:08

        I rang them and they said it was due to adverse weather last week in the UK, then Interestingly, I just got an email citing.
        “Unfortunately, the deliveries were subject to delays due to the new Brexit border control restrictions and we are sorry for that.”
        I wont hold my breath!!
        Doomey.

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