Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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.

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Comments (287)

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

  • Lord Doncaster says:

    Was HfP responsible for thousands of bogus Daily Mail subscriptions?!

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      No it woz the Sun wot dunnit

    • BJ says:

      Nothing bogus about them, we signed agreements in good faith and paid for them.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        And they confirmed

        Thank you for subscribing.

        We are delighted to confirm your subscription to the The Ultimate Pack + £150 worth of Nectar points

        • EwanG says:

          Absolutely. If you subscribed before they added the text to the landing page (in a different font/size, nice!) to say its is only for invited customers, then I think it’s a fair challenge back to them to honour the deal!

    • Anna says:

      It was no Iberia 90k avios. Not heard anything about what happened to the accounts that ended up with -90k for a while!

      • Lord Doncaster says:

        I’m still amazed they paid out all those avios…

      • Callum says:

        I closed my account before it could go negative. I’ve opened a new account since then and it was fine for a while. This prompted me to log in and it has “restricted access” now – so don’t know if they’ve caught up with me!

      • Andrew says:

        I just spent mine on QR from Iberia directly – and the Iberia award chart worked more favourably than BA’s anyway.

      • Rh says:

        My account still shows as minus 90,000!

        • EwanG says:

          Not to worry, the negative Avios will expire after 3 years of no activity, just like the positive Avios, won’t they?? 🤣

          • Lady London says:

            If we’re unlucky Iberia will generously increase their expiry period to 5 years.

  • Roberto says:

    Anyone know if this number to call for Avios to Nectar conversions is here to stay?
    It was working lovely before and I remember thinking what a fabulous user friendly system it was.
    Seems like a right pain in the rear if so.

  • DK says:

    Just got an email from Revolut with new fees. Tough times so taking free stuff away from free accounts mainly

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      What’s changing? Don’t have an account, but curious

      • Harrier25 says:

        The changes are mainly around stock trading, atm withdrawals and international money transfers.

  • Harry T says:

    Marriott Bonvoy points sale is now live. Unfortunately, other blogs are saying this is a 50% bonus sale but I appear to only be able to get a 40% bonus. Guess I’m not buying any points!

    • meta says:

      You need to log in for 50%.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      0.6p/Bonvoy doesn’t do it for me right now.

      Also the 100k limit is painfully low to make it work for those really expensive hotels on a 5 for 4 points deal.

      • Rob says:

        It’s 40%.

      • Harry T says:

        This is the main issue for me, @TG. With some of the best remaining Bonvoy redemptions being for expensive hotels which now require a ridiculous number of points per night for category 7 and 8, buying points with such a low purchase cap sometimes seems a bit… pointless.

    • YC says:

      If its 50%, its pretty close to best deal. I think GBPUSD has appreciated c.5% since Marriott did the 60%. I’m tempted to top up some points but need to figure out where I may likely spend it this year first

  • Eppleby Green says:

    When did the Daily Mail add the changes to their T&C’s for the Avios offer?

  • John says:

    Anyone know what currency exchange rate Capital on Tap uses? Ie standard visa rate?

  • KBuffett says:

    Does anyone know how how to get a discount on Ocado SmartPass?

    • LST says:

      Give them a call and say you are thinking of cancelling it, they are pretty good at offering a discount. I pay 4.99 a month for the anytime pass.

    • Lady London says:

      volde-sites used to do a lot of ocado so could be worth a look. There might be a promotional route in through whichever supermarket/s they partner with now.

  • ChrisC says:

    Anyone have any direct experience with unsold dot com?

    Particularly with timeline for refunds.

    I’m aware of their business model i.e. offer a “secret room” such as Expedia, Hotwire and Priceline offer.

    Some of their offer rates look exceedingly good.

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