The HfP chat thread – Friday 19th February

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• Charlie says:

  19 Feb19 February 10:52

  With the Ebay £1 max selling fee…. could I in theory sell something to a friend for £1000 and pick up 1000 nectar points for £1?

  • Alex D says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:12

    Yes

  • Rich says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:17

    I think eBay are pretty good at tracking this sort of behaviour, aren’t they?

    You suddenly list an item for £1k and a buyer just happens to click on a URL taking them straight to your listing.

  • Jonathan says:

    19 Feb19 February 12:00

    You can only earn 300 base points per item, so buying a smartphone for say £500, you’ll only earn 300 nectar points. The base points limit is separate from any bonus points offer that may be available.

    The PayPal fees imposed on sellers will also wipe out the benefits of getting nectar points through ghost items like this scenario

    • Charlie says:

      19 Feb19 February 12:05

      Good to know. Thanks

  • Andrew says:

    19 Feb19 February 13:55

    Not really worth it for this purpose but perhaps to cash out your nectar points.

  • Anuj says:

    19 Feb19 February 15:04

    No because PayPal still charge 3.4%

  • Travel Strong says:

    19 Feb19 February 16:52

    Has been shared several times through Jan/Feb: You do not have to receive funds through PayPal anymore – ebay will send straight to your bank. So £1 can be a true £1.

• BJ says:

  19 Feb19 February 10:53

  Any Marriott or Oxford experts got any thoughts on relative merits of Courtyard Oxford Belfry versus Courtyard Oxford South plase? I would prefer Belfry but we will be travelling by car so I’m thinking South might be the better option. I am looking to clean out my remaining Bonvoy balance on a 5 night stay at a Cat. 2 or 3 hotel around Easter 22. Options seem limited, possibly Moxy Southampton or York (it’s going down to Cat.3) but that’s about it as I’m not considering the ABZ or INV hotels.

  • Scott says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:20

    Do you mean DoubleTree Oxford Belfry – which is a Hilton property?

    I have only stayed at Courtyard Oxford South and on the various occasions I was there the hotel has always been clean and decent value for a Cat 2 hotel.

    Just to add, I have stayed at Moxy Southampton once. I was upgraded to a room with really poor soundproofing and a toilet which didn’t flush. Either it is a badly maintained hotel or I may have been unlucky with the room.

    • BJ says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:33

      Oops, no, I meant Courtyard Oxford City Centre. Thanks for that and the other feedback too.

  • Andrew says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:47

    What are you planning on doing when you are visiting Oxford?

    The Belfry is in the middle of nowhere but easily approached from the South, and has two routes into Oxford either via the A40 and P&R or via the A329 and country roads. Also handy for the Bear at Stadhampton or the place at Milton that leaves you hungry.

    Courtyard by Marriott South, is well, on a roundabout on the outskirts of Didcot. There’s a McDonald’s next door.

    There is a Marriott in the centre of Oxford (but no parking), you can leave your car at the Park & Rides for 3 days for £12.

    • BJ says:

      19 Feb19 February 12:15

      Thanks, especially for the tip on 3 days parking at P&R. That would work I think as the idea would be to both visit the City and explore the surrounding area.

      • Michael C says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:31

        Hi BJ: aside from obvs. car option, there are a lot of direct buses to v nice villages around from the centre of Oxford, and the fast train to Moreton-in-Marsh, in case you fancied a couple of pub-lunch days!

        • BJ says:

          19 Feb19 February 16:18

          Thanks, it would be worth thinking about as I have a bunch of LNER vouchers we could now use on Cross Country.

  • abc says:

    19 Feb19 February 12:43

    Both the “Oxford Belfry” and the “Courtyard Oxford South” are misnamed as they are actually miles away from Oxford. If you actually want to visit Oxford the Courtyard Oxford City Centre is quite well located.

    • NC says:

      19 Feb19 February 13:35

      City Centre Courtyard is quite new and very nice.

    • BJ says:

      19 Feb19 February 16:20

      Thanks both, I think it’s looking like City Centre.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        19 Feb19 February 16:24

        Good choice and bargain on points over the weekend.

        • BJ says:

          19 Feb19 February 18:06

          Yeah, was a bit surprised. Seems like it might be one of the best Marriott deals in the UK.

  • Magic Mike says:

    19 Feb19 February 19:05

    Stayed in the Moxy Southampton, it’s fine. Easy access to the city centre. Park in the multi storey next for for 5 pounds a day.

• Harry T says:

  19 Feb19 February 11:07

  Does anyone think Japan will be letting in foreign tourists in June this year?

  • Lee says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:20

    no chance considering they have a slow vaccination roll out

    • Rhys says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:30

      They’re hoping to vaccinate priority groups by the end of June. Depends if they pull it off or not I imagine. An efficient rollout is the sort of thing I imagine Japan is quite good at.

      The big bottle neck, globally, is supply, but hopefully as the year progresses things really start to ramp up.

      • Harry T says:

        19 Feb19 February 11:39

        Thanks, Rhys. I’m not sure it’s going to happen then, as my trip is mid June. I have been vaccinated but I suspect that won’t help open borders for me…

        • TGLoyalty says:

          19 Feb19 February 16:24

          Not enough low dead space syringes either …

    • Gavin says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:50

      Japan is also unfortunately quite a vaccine-sceptical country which might hinder the rollout

  • Geoff says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:22

    No

    • meta says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:43

      Just spoke to my Japanese friends this morning. They’ll only let some visitor for Olympics if they happen at all. There is a growing public opposition to Olympics given the recent scandals with Organizing Committe and the pandemic. Regarding vaccination rollout, while it started, it’s already not going according to plan.

      My friends think no chance this year at all. I’ve now started rebooking for next year.

      • Geoff says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:12

        I also believe that they’ve maintained strict border restrictions throughout (rather than open up in the summer like Europe did) so I can’t see them taking anything other than a cautious approach when it comes to tourism.

      • Harry T says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:37

        @meta thanks, good to hear the opinion of people on the ground there.

  • BJ says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:38

    I think not; postponed my trip to 2022. My guess is that they will not let anybody in until about a week before the Olympics start, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they are ultimately held behind closed doors.

    • Harry T says:

      19 Feb19 February 11:39

      @BJ so I should find a plan B, then? I’m thinking Spain and Italy in July might be a safer bet.

      • meta says:

        19 Feb19 February 11:45

        Definitely.

      • BJ says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:06

        Probably but unless you need to cancel you have the luxury of sitting on it a while yet. I cancelled mine both because I think it’s unlijelybto happen and because J fidn’t wantbto spend those months wondering if it would or not. If it helps, there are better times to visit Japan than June.

        • Harry T says:

          19 Feb19 February 12:37

          @BJ thanks. Booked Japan for June because they were the latest dates possible in the 50% Avios sale. May wait and see if I can rebook if they cancel.

      • Aston100 says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:08

        A UK domestic holiday would be an even safer bet.
        What happened to your Snowdonia plans?

        • Harry T says:

          19 Feb19 February 12:38

          @Aston
          Snowdonia booked as Plan C or D!

        • Andrew says:

          19 Feb19 February 13:22

          A domestic holiday is also a troublesome bit of planning.

          There’s the May Scottish Parliament elections first with the QAnon style cries of “Freedom!” and Sturgeons repeated threats to close the border.

      • Michael C says:

        19 Feb19 February 12:34

        Guess you can’t delay, Harry? I imagine there’ll be some juicy hotel pickings post-Olympics! We’ve done this a couple of times that I remember, visiting Sydney in Nov. 2000 and Rio late 2016.

        • meta says:

          19 Feb19 February 14:07

          Already happening way into 2022!

      • Darren says:

        19 Feb19 February 13:20

        Oh Harry, please don’t go to Italy! My August trip will look shaky if you do!

        I was so close to Portugal last year I could taste the sardines.

  • marcw says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:54

    I think it’s very unlikely.

  • Yorkieflyer says:

    19 Feb19 February 12:41

    Sadly still waiting on ANA to cancel our April flights booked through Virgin, return off sale so just waiting. Won’t be rebooking for later as I have no visibility on when they might open up at all?

  • Hotelier says:

    19 Feb19 February 13:14

    Had 3 weeks booked for Japan through this Easter all the way from last March which obvs has been cancelled. Planning on rebooking for Easter 2022 and still I am sceptical about that going ahead …

    • Andy says:

      19 Feb19 February 13:26

      I[m booked for May to Japan and fully aware it won’t happen. Also going to book for Easter 2022 but i’m pretty confident about that happening. Japan and the UK should be vaccinated by then. YMMV though!

      • Hotelier says:

        19 Feb19 February 13:59

        Quite sad BA scrapped the Osaka route, very useful for open-jaw with the 2-4-1 voucher. Spent a considerable amount of time during lockdown 1.0. organising the whole itinerary to maximise time, Rail Passes… will have to do a few adjustments.

        On the other hand, will change my ”Cattle class tickets” for J as a treat considering almost no other redemptions this last year and quite a few cancellations, so Avios balance higher than usual.

        • meta says:

          19 Feb19 February 14:09

          Yes, I am ditching BA and 241 all together and booking ANA and JAL for next year. Need to burn those points.

• MT says:

  19 Feb19 February 11:36

  Anyone else having an issue paying their Amex with a metal curve card. It goes as far as sending the curve app the authorization but then the website kicks me out and ask me to log in again. Seems to do it for multiple accounts!

  • Jay says:

    19 Feb19 February 11:47

    Had problems paying Amex by card but doesn’t matter if Curve or someone else. My issue was the session cookies that are used between the payment processing pages were being blocked so the payment couldn’t handover correctly. Try disabling all cookie blocking software in your browser and give it a try.

    • jason says:

      19 Feb19 February 12:46

      ditto, working ok on app

• Keely says:

  19 Feb19 February 11:39

  I signed up for the mymail earlier this week then got distracted and didn’t complete (just as well really..! ) . Just had a very underwhelming offer- add my nectar card for 150 points….. I wonder if it will increase if I wait …..?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    19 Feb19 February 12:10

    You need to add you nectar card to the account in order for them to target you with nectar offers

    • Scott says:

      19 Feb19 February 13:26

      Haven’t added mine yet.
      My mother has an in-app offer for 1500 Nectar points when she links accounts and adds a newspaper barcode at the weekend.
      Nothing for me yet, so don’t know whether to hold out a few days.

• John says:

  19 Feb19 February 11:50

  £5 airtime referral reward this weekend – if anyone is still yet to sign up feel free to use my promo code: APLQGNJT 🙂

• 747_Brat says:

  19 Feb19 February 11:59

  Airtime reward offering free £5 this weekend (their highest).

  In case you are looking for a referral to earn free credit, feel free to join using my code: E8HLJK4E

  https://airtimerewards.app.link/friend

  Thanks.

  • 747_Brat says:

    19 Feb19 February 12:01

    Sorry didn’t see John’s post. Feel free to use his code since he posted first. 🙂

• Graeme says:

  19 Feb19 February 12:42

  BA have pushed back the A380 return to service to May now for 5 jets. Personally can’t see a need for them at all this year but here’s hoping!!

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