The HfP chat thread – Thursday 25th February

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• Jonny says:

  25 Feb25 February 16:18

  Further to my earlier posts about BA not willing to entertain changing my Avios booking to later in the year after they cancelled it, their Customer Relations “Executive” has just emailed me to say the following:

  “I’ve thoroughly reviewed all the information you’ve sent us, and I can confirm that we believe we’ve dealt with your case fairly and appropriately. We’re unable to respond to any further requests for changing your booking for December on commercial availability. If you’re still unhappy with the outcome, and want to take it further, you can refer your complaint to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution. ”

  So that’s me told I guess. Outside of the 14x days from the original booking they aren’t prepared to release Commercial seats to meet re-routing of Avios redemption bookings. I intend to leave the cancelled booking in place until the very last minute (19th April) in the hope that some more Avios seats will be released. But I don’t hold out much hope.

  Thanks for everyone who replied with advice.

  • meta says:

    25 Feb25 February 17:01

    You could actually start CEDR procedure now as you’ve got the final no. It won’t cost you anything and it might get resolved before 19th. The booking will stay live in the system and you can still check and withdraw from CEDR if the system lets you book another date.

    You could also do MCOL procedure as well which will cost you depending on the claim amount. I didn’t do anything to my flight booking from Portugal when BA cancelled and it was live in the system for nearly 3 months after the original flight. BA returned Avios and taxes just before we settled.

  • Alex D says:

    25 Feb25 February 17:02

    Please do CEDR or MCOL – the more people do this, hopefully they’ll start thinking they can’t always just get away with it when the law is clearly on our side! Also let us know if anything else develops

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    25 Feb25 February 17:10

    CEDR it, you’ll win and it won’t cost you anything but it costs BA a few hundred pounds

  • Jonny says:

    25 Feb25 February 17:40

    What would I be asking CEDR to “win” for me. My preferred choice of flight dates in December?

    • Mouse says:

      25 Feb25 February 17:52

      I’m trying to work this out too – would they force BA to make the booking for you? Or make BA pay you for alternative flights that you book of your own accord? If the latter would they have to be booked before going to arbitration?

    • Anna says:

      25 Feb25 February 17:52

      Whichever option you choose to exercise under your EU261 rights. I used CEDR 18 months ago for a delay claim BA refused to pay, they were excellent; BA caved in immediately and paid up.

      • Alex D says:

        25 Feb25 February 17:56

        I believe they will make BA reimburse you if you purchase other tickets(buy fully refundable), however it could cause BA to let you choose the seats you want without issue. As Anna says, it can be very helpful in showing BA you’re serious. Many people would give up at this point, thinking it isn’t worth it.

    • Rob says:

      25 Feb25 February 17:59

      BA has to offer you flights which are ‘convenient’ for you, but ‘convenient’ doesn’t mean ‘when you can have a cushy holiday with the best weather of the year at a time when there are lots of Bank Holidays so you need less time off work’.

      Unless you can prove that there are no other dates that you could travel I think CEDR will side with BA and claim you are taking the p*ss, once BA show the cash cost of Christmas flights vs the cash cost for the dates you originally booked.

      • Mouse says:

        25 Feb25 February 18:04

        Has anyone kept score of HFP readers’ wins/losses on this? There must have been quite a few cases since the pandemic started…

        • Rob says:

          25 Feb25 February 18:06

          Lots of people last year were deliberately booking flights they knew would be cancelled, and rebooking within the 12 month window as BA allows.

          If you book one of the new Maldives flights today, and it ends up getting cancelled due to extended covid restrictions, you can rebook for Christmas irrespective of Avios availability.

          It is a different question when it is outside the 12 months.

        • Mouse says:

          25 Feb25 February 18:13

          My position is I booked tickets to an Asian city in the half price avios sale late last year for travel this May, which are cancelled and I want to rebook for next Jan/Feb (when there is still even Avios availability on the route). No attempt to take advantage by booking flights that would be cancelled or trying to rebook at a peak period. But I’m scupperd by this infuriating and arbitrary 12 month ticket validity.

        • meta says:

          25 Feb25 February 18:21

          Global airline systems allow this. BA just has to re-ticket as does any other airline. I had no problem re-ticketing beyond 365 days on Singapore Airlines, American Airlines and Aegan.

          The proof that system actually allows this even on BA is the Maldives flight for which I was issued a new ticket number under the same PNR.

      • meta says:

        25 Feb25 February 18:15

        Jonny said on the previous pages that he had flights for April when the weather is good. He would have no problem countering BA’s argument that he wants December flights because it’s the same type of weather. He also didn’t say anything about wanting Christmas flights either.

        • memesweeper says:

          25 Feb25 February 18:28

          If you have the cash, book refundable BA tickets for the dates you want, write them a letter before action, given them 14 days, and then CEDR/MCOL for the cost. At any point BA can relent, rebook your Avios tickets, and you can cancel your cash tickets if needs be. If they put up a fight and loose you’re booked, paid for and ready to go. If *you* loose, which I think is very unlikely, you can also cancel the tickets back for cash if you want.

      • Danny says:

        26 Feb26 February 00:05

        From a legal standpoint I don’t think what you’re saying would hold up. The law is not that BA can give you anything they like as long as it’s convenient to you. It’s that you can choose a new flight at a “later date at [your] convenience”. That is surely any date you like, regardless of reason.

        • Rob says:

          26 Feb26 February 08:50

          The courts are very even handed in this country. If I was overseeing it and I thought you were taking the p*ss from BA I would tell you to get lost.

          Remember that there is no legal precedent set by CEDR or MCOL cases so it is purely down to the judge / arbitrator on the day. There is no way I would spend £10k on two replacement flexible J tickets to the Maldives for Christmas in the 100% certainty BA would be ordered to repay me.

  • babyg_wc says:

    25 Feb25 February 20:38

    Not sure why you’re having such an issue, so long as it’s with ticket validity (1 year from ticket purchase) BA have been very good about rebooking cancelled avios bookings into any seat, is there more you’re not telling us?

    • meta says:

      25 Feb25 February 22:42

      He’s not alone in having this problem…A few of us were lucky, but BA are definitely inconsistent in their policies and that’s not good.

• Anuj says:

  25 Feb25 February 16:31

  Does Amex have an email for contacting them?

  • Rhys says:

    25 Feb25 February 16:32

    Why not just use the chat function from your account? Responses have always been immediate for me.

    • Aston100 says:

      25 Feb25 February 16:37

      +1, though there is an increased chance of getting a sub-par overseas agent.
      Phone is best IMO.

      • Rhys says:

        25 Feb25 February 16:39

        Never had an issue with the chat agents

        • BJ says:

          25 Feb25 February 16:59

          Rhys, can you define ‘slightly’ please? It means different things to different people…

• meta says:

  25 Feb25 February 17:16

  It seems Maldives is going to be year round going forward (Fri-Sun rotation). Got loads of Expert Flyer notifications and just checked and many seats available.

  • Rob says:

    25 Feb25 February 17:57

    Thanks!

• BJ says:

  25 Feb25 February 17:21

  Despite signing up for the Virgin Money account via the 15k points link on the Virgin Red website I have just received an email to claim the wine offer. Anybody else?

  • M says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:42

    Yup same here, I have not tried contacting them yet.

    • BJ says:

      25 Feb25 February 20:09

      I’ll probably call tomorrow morning and report back on tomorrow’s chat thread. I suspect everything will be fine though.

• Stephen says:

  25 Feb25 February 17:49

  Quick question in relation to the ICC $ card – Rob’s article states that if you transfer UK MR to the Euro or $ ICC the points get adjusted up by the relevant exchange rate. I am looking to transfer a load to my $ Plat but the guy I just spoke to says there is no FX-related adjustment. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? Is the guy I spoke to wrong? Does anyone know of anywhere on Amex website where this is covered?

  • Alex D says:

    25 Feb25 February 17:59

    You definitely benefit from the exchange rate. So 100,000 MR from uk to ICC $ would get you 141,000 MR. My friend did this mid-jan at 1.37 and got 137K so i think the person you spoke to is incorrect.

    • Alex D says:

      25 Feb25 February 18:00

      at today’s rate for 1.41* obviously it changes daily, but they honour the day you do it, not the day they go through if delayed

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:38

    They probably use a different term, not ‘fx adjustment’

    • Cabal of rabid baboons says:

      25 Feb25 February 21:16

      Just be careful, it’s one transfer per year, if you move them you can’t move them back for another 12 months.

      • Alex says:

        25 Feb25 February 22:48

        I hope you’d just spend them!

        • Cabal of rabid baboons says:

          25 Feb25 February 23:39

          Transferring them from your ICC AMEX to your intended scheme isn’t always straightforward or quick and you may choose to send some back to Blighty however you can’t for 12 months.
          When you’re into your second year and if they’re still in your ICC then its another membership fee for little reward.

• Sina says:

  25 Feb25 February 18:24

  Just bought Harvey Nichols gift card through my work – Perks at work (16% off) with my Virgin credit card (+10%) which is registered on Airtime rewards (10%) giving me a total of 36% off!

  • EwanG says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:00

    10% off at HN this weekend too. Andrew will be along in a moment to explain how you can use a GC for an online purchase 😉

    • Stephen says:

      25 Feb25 February 20:07

      And get avios through the shopping portal 🙂 I did this in January when I used Amex Gold £30 off £150 spend to buy gift card and then got gift card credited against what I spent by ringing customer service 🙂

      • Tw33ty says:

        25 Feb25 February 20:15

        Did you just create an order and leave it in your trolly and call customer service and complete the order that way to use the gift cards?

        • Stephen says:

          25 Feb25 February 20:31

          They told me to put through the order as normal and then ring up customer service, quote order number, gift card number and then they would put a refund for the amount back on my card. It all seems a right faff in this day and age – really cannot understand how a company like Harvey Nichols can’t easily facilitate the use of gift cards – after all most people dont live anywhere near one of their stores anyway!

        • Stephen says:

          25 Feb25 February 20:31

          Probably worth calling them first just to check process hasnt changed

    • Andrew says:

      25 Feb25 February 21:14

      Well not wanting to disappoint Ewan as clearly I’m known as being the Harvey Nics expert, Stephen is correct this is the process. Also to note this process means that you get double the Harvey Nics rewards points as you will earn points on the purchase of the gift card (if you buy it directly from them, instore or online) and then points for the item you purchase (the points aren’t clawed back after the manual refund).

  • Sina says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:36

    I’ve used this on HSBC card before and it stacked, I don’t think Virgin would know what you’re buying.

  • 747_Brat says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:48

    Did KPMG switch from Xexec to Perks at work?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    25 Feb25 February 22:19

    Your perks at work is has a money off deal via your bank and airtime?

    How’s that work?

    If you bought a grift card from your perks at work provider you won’t trigger any airtime or bank deals as you didn’t buy anything from HN

    • Sina says:

      25 Feb25 February 23:28

      No I didn’t buy the gift card through Perks, made the purchase through them like other shopping portals.

      @747_Brat Brat No perks is from my Thomson Reuters time! Still have access! 😂

      • Andrew says:

        25 Feb25 February 23:40

        The PAW T&C’s specifically exclude Gift Card sales from the 16x WOW offer.

        It’ll probably track then decline. You might be better buying actual stuff.

        • Sina says:

          26 Feb26 February 00:17

          They all say gift cards not included, but based on my experience it tracks and pays out as well.

• John says:

  25 Feb25 February 18:39

  Need both to be honest. Been so long…

  https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/38percent-of-americans-would-give-up-sex-for-a-year-just-to-travel-again.html

  • Hotelier says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:37

    I definitely would.

  • Andy says:

    25 Feb25 February 20:32

    Same for me and I live with my wife 😬

• BJ says:

  25 Feb25 February 20:17

  This article on the BBC suggests there is little enthusiasm amongst EU leaders for travel this summer.
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56202645

  • Andrew says:

    25 Feb25 February 21:09

    Indeed. Probably because their vaccination programme has hardly scratched the surface and all the bad press they were giving AZ means people are refusing to take it so it’s going to be moving even slower now.

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