The HfP chat thread – Thursday 25th February

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• Matt says:

  25 Feb25 February 09:50

  I’ve got a reservation at the Langley for a Tuesday + Wednesday at the end of March, booked off peak on points. I’ve now had an email saying they’ll be closed until the lockdown restrictions reduce in May. I can either cancel or move the reservation. The email says that for points bookings I would have to pay any extra points required.

  Any advice on how best to deal with this? Am I likely to have any success moving it to a weekend later on? Any chance of not having to pay the points difference?

  Thanks

  • Harry T says:

    25 Feb25 February 10:03

    The Langley will make you pay the points difference, even though it doesn’t affect the money they receive from Marriott. It’s rubbish but they treat customers paying with points as second tier.

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:

    25 Feb25 February 10:29

    Take your points somewhere else

  • Anna says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:50

    Someone posted about this yesterday. The Langley will make you pay the extra points and say Marriott makes them do this, I don’t know if this is accurate!
    When I looked last week there were still a handful of days in May/June at 36k points per night if you’ve got the flexibility to stay then immediately after the restrictions are (hopefully) lifted.

    • Harry T says:

      25 Feb25 February 12:14

      They will be 40k now, unfortunately.

      • Anna says:

        25 Feb25 February 12:34

        Ah, I thought it lasted till the end of this month! You are right, every award night in June is now either 50k or 60k or “not available”.

        • Harry T says:

          25 Feb25 February 14:10

          Off peak sale ended the day before Boris released the road map 😂

    • Paul says:

      25 Feb25 February 14:31

      I’ve had the same email, I booked the 16th May to 19th May, I asked them to cancel the 16th. My booking has changed from 36k points to 40k points.

    • the_real_a says:

      25 Feb25 February 15:38

      Start giving them zero reviews on trust pilot 🙂

• Crafty says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:26

  Is anyone clear on what happens to an IHG credit card free night that was booked prior to its book by date (31/12/2020), but for a stay that is before the planned reopening of hotels (my stay is booked late April at the Indigo Bath). Under normal circumstances, moving the date results in forfeiting the voucher, but this doesn’t seem entirely fair.

  I’ve emailed the hotel asking to move to later in the year, but suspect they’ll have no visibility of voucher validity and refer me to IHG. Just wondering if others have had to deal with this.

  • Alex says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:02

    Would be interested in this as well, as I have a stay in EDI Kimpton in late May, and am not sure Scotland will have allowed tourist hotel stays by then…

    • Colin MacKinnon says:

      25 Feb25 February 11:48

      If you are any good at plastering, I can get you a job sorting out our Edinburgh flat! Then it’s a work trip!

  • Anna says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:56

    My experience is that hotels tell you you have to cancel and re-book a free night yourself, or contact IHG. I am currently in contact with IHG/Ambassador having asked them to extend the bonus free night for renewing Ambassador but not getting much beyond the likes of, “We are truly looking forward to hosting you when hotels re-open!” and “We have reached out to our corporate office to make them aware of this issue!”
    If they don’t give a bit of wriggle room on this promotion they pushed at people last autumn they won’t be getting many paid stays from us next year and we won’t be renewing our Ambassador memberships (which I’ve told them).

  • Benilyn says:

    25 Feb25 February 17:44

    From what I understand hotels can’t (or is it they won’t) move stay to another date. And I guess would be fraudulent if they cashed in your certificate and you don’t stay…

• Mark says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:36

  Does anyone have any recent experience regarding Virgin redemption rebooking flexibility when they cancel flights?

  We have Upper Class bookings to Antigua in April which will presumably be cancelled but probably not until a couple of weeks in advance. They’ve advised on WhatsApp chat that I would need redemption availability to move it even if they’ve cancelled the original flights but there’s nothing going for the end of the year and they don’t even appear to be releasing new availability at the moment at the 330 day mark.

  I had a redemption booking for a flight from Sao Paulo for which they offered a reroute when it was cancelled, so experience suggests they can be very flexible but perhaps not so much now as they were…

  Wondering whether I should rebook to Miami instead whilst there are seats available and risk the added complications of additional cross-border travel (and being allowed into the US) to get to somewhere in the Caribbean, or hold out and see what happens.

  First World problems… 🙂

  • Anna says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:58

    If you refer to the numerous posts about cancellations (including today), it will be clear that you are covered by EU261 for this and it’s immaterial whether there are award seats are available (or even if Virgin are flying to your destination).

    • Mark says:

      25 Feb25 February 13:13

      I’ve read the comments today about BA and their policy to offer flexible rebooking within 365 days. It’s not clear what Virgin’s policy is, though if it is the same I’m looking to rebook outside of the 365 day window from original booking anyway. Also not clear to me what EC 261/2004 actually requires under the circumstances if they cancel > 14 days out. I can have a full refund of cash and miles without the cancellation fee if they cancel the flights and I can opt to change them FOC anyway under the flexible rebooking policy. However neither helps in rebooking if there is no redemption availability where (and when) I want to / am able to travel.

      Does anyone have any specific recent experience of this situation with Virgin (I’ve searched but not seeing anything that is directly relevant).

      • Anna says:

        25 Feb25 February 15:32

        EU261 covers cancellation at any point, not just within 14 days – this is just the period when compensation is payable in normal times.

        • Mark says:

          25 Feb25 February 16:27

          Thanks Anna. I’ll look into that further before deciding.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      25 Feb25 February 13:21

      But, to be clear, that’s if VS cancel the flight not if the OP makes the decision to do it themselves proactively

• Chelseafi says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:51

  Could someone please confirm the points earned on cards on BA Holidays is it – 3 BAAP and 2 Free BA? Thanks

  • Rob says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:06

    Only 1 on free BA – you only get double Avios on the BAPP card.

    You will, however, earn the 1 Avios per £1 spent on BA Holidays but this comes from BA Holidays irrespective of how you pay.

    • Jonathan says:

      25 Feb25 February 11:29

      Yes I don’t know why Amex are so stingy like this, with the Virgin Atlantic credit cards, it’s double the rewards when booking directly with VA or Virgin holidays regardless of whether or not your card carries the annual fee.

      Amex should at least offer this with direct BA / BA holiday bookings for the BA blue card

• Russ says:

  25 Feb25 February 10:58

  Does anyone know where I can get a bespoke travel insurance policy from? All the usual internet insurers won’t cover me for longer than 120 days since I came out of hospital. I know it’s going to cost but it’ll still be cheaper than flying back to the UK every 120 days. Thanks

• Manny_D says:

  25 Feb25 February 11:07

  Anyone have experience with flight cancellations from Delta? Got an internal USA flight in May, but will not be able to make it due international travel not starting up till 17th May the earliest.

  • Anna says:

    25 Feb25 February 12:02

    If they cancel it, you are entitled to a full refund as per US DOT regulations, however if it’s you cancelling it will be down to Delta’s Ts and Cs. I am on a FB group with quite a lot of Americans who travel from the US to GCM each year and they’ve generally said that the US airlines have been very good about refunding or re-scheduling flights which can’t be taken.

  • James says:

    25 Feb25 February 16:17

    I’ve cancelled internal flights with Delta in February, March and April. Done it through modify flights on their app. It’s been so easy and everytime they have fully refunded me with the money back in my account 2 days later. Best customer service of any airline I’ve come across.

• Mr. AC says:

  25 Feb25 February 11:08

  Returned to the UK a couple days ago from a non-red-list country, with a toddler in tow. Border queues still extremely long. No “family lane” set up in LHT T2, had to flag down an employee and convince them to let us go ahead. They initially told us that they couldn’t help us, otherwise they’d have to let other go ahead as well. We pointed out there’s just 3 families with young kids in the line and nobody would realistically complain if the screaming stopped. That helped.

  Prior to arriving, you need to book mandatory COVID tests, which are 2 self-test kits per person mailed to your address after you arrive, at a cost of £210. One kit was missing a swab, still trying to sort it out, but nobody answers the support hotline or responds to e-mails… MCC code for the test payment is 4722 (“Travel Agencies”), in case someone has a card that gives bonus points for that (but I don’t think any UK-issued card does).

  • babyg says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:14

    do a chargeback… get your £210 back.. the whole testing thing is for show IMHO… i doubt they would even fight the chargeback!

  • Anna says:

    25 Feb25 February 12:05

    These days I’m just thankful it’s not my kid screaming any more! Given that pupils are going to get free test kits to swab themselves twice a week so they can go back to school (albeit lateral flow), £210 is an absolute scandal.

    • meta says:

      25 Feb25 February 12:37

      I’d just post back empty vial with a note that swab was missing.

      • Tracey says:

        25 Feb25 February 13:47

        That won’t give you a negative result, they will probably decide it is inconclusive and suggest you repeat the test.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          25 Feb25 February 22:06

          Beats a £1000 fine for not doing it!

• Chelseafi says:

  25 Feb25 February 11:18

  What are the referral points from personal Gold please

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:40

    6000 MR

  • Anna says:

    25 Feb25 February 12:05

    Check your account, some of us have got 12k as of yesterday.

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