The HfP chat thread – Sunday 28th February

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• BuildBackBetter says:

  28 Feb28 February 08:03

  Interesting. I converted Morrison’s gift cards to JL and used it for Waitrose delivery. The initial order value is deducted from the gift card, but when I reduced the order value ahead of delivery, it returned the diff to my credit card!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    28 Feb28 February 08:07

    Yup best to use a debit card so you don’t lose any points.

  • BJ says:

    28 Feb28 February 08:21

    Interesting indeed, thanks 🙂

  • E says:

    28 Feb28 February 08:24

    It does that for small amounts. If the whole order has been cancelled or a high cost item is out of stock, they refund to the gift card. Think the threshold is £20.

    • BJ says:

      28 Feb28 February 08:31

      Opportunity dashed already 🙁 But thanks for saving me the trouble.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Feb28 February 08:34

        And if you buy online from JL then return they give you a evoucher which can now only be used online!

        • E says:

          28 Feb28 February 09:31

          I got caught by the JL evoucher and I rarely buy online at JL. Nothing I can do about it but I would have spent the refund at Waitrose rather than JL so a bit annoying to now have £12 sitting in my JL account.

        • Christopher says:

          28 Feb28 February 23:24

          Which also means you can’t spend your voucher in Waitrose.

          Really bad customer service and I threatened them once with court action over it.

  • tom1 says:

    28 Feb28 February 15:52

    Yes ~ if you want to use the Waitrose gift card for delivery, best thing to do is to setup the order with credit card payment, then at very last minute (I.e. Day before delivery) add the gift card. It basically blocks the value from gift card. Refunds still go to credit card though IME.

• Nick G says:

  28 Feb28 February 08:42

  Am I total optimist to even think October half term might be a time to plan an international holiday?

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    28 Feb28 February 08:46

    Some parts of Asia are good to visit in autumn. Obviously the biggest constraint is the flight time.

    • The real John says:

      28 Feb28 February 09:27

      The biggest constraint this autumn would be the relaxation of entry restrictions.

      • BuildBackBetter says:

        28 Feb28 February 12:59

        If UK vaccination continues successfully, I can see countries opening up for UK residents but not others by autumn. So it’s not a major risk, atleast for UK residents who have had vaccines.

        • Lady London says:

          28 Feb28 February 14:33

          +1

  • Anna says:

    28 Feb28 February 08:50

    I’m still optimistic for the summer, as clearly are millions of others who have holidays booked! The problem is where we’ll be able to go, of course, and what will happen when we get back.

    • Nick G says:

      28 Feb28 February 09:31

      That’s why I’m thinking UK in the summer to support home businesses then back to somewhere warm (hopefully) in October….anyone been to the Conrad Abu Dhabi? I can’t find the hotel email address to confirm if it still has an exec lounge

      • Rob says:

        28 Feb28 February 10:10

        We reviewed it when it was a Jumeirah. Would be surprised if more than a handful of UK citizens had visited since it switched a few weeks ago given the Abu Dhabi restrictions.

  • Andrew says:

    28 Feb28 February 08:57

    I think by the early autumn we’ll be seeing USA starting to open. Less confident about Asia. I’d like to go to both, so here’s hoping. Do we think Dubai could be an option again soon?

    • Yuff says:

      28 Feb28 February 09:29

      I had flights at Easter, switched to May half term and October half term.
      Hoping May half term will be doable🙏🏻

      • Nick G says:

        28 Feb28 February 09:33

        Inside I’m optimistic about May but my financial head says hold off!

      • Anna says:

        28 Feb28 February 09:36

        I’m planning to use lots of IHG and SPG points and certificates to have an utterly sybaritic few days in the UK over May half term, and by that I mean no cooking …. 🤣

    • blenz101 says:

      28 Feb28 February 09:40

      Starting to head into the summer months now in Dubai so you wouldn’t really want to be here until September anyway.

      Dubai will almost certainly be open and is hosting the rescheduled Expo 2020 from Oct 1st. The UK”s decision on the continuing need for mandatory hotel quarantine will be the limiting factor on trips here. Given ‘red list’ decisions are not driven by the number of infections in a country but rather the optics of UK citizens travelling to somewhere without such a draconian lockdowns then there is a still a big question mark.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Feb28 February 10:25

        UAE recently approved AZ with 10 week gap so suspect everyone who wants it will be vaccinated with at least one dose within a few months

        • kitten says:

          28 Feb28 February 14:35

          @TG was there a clinical basis for the 10 weeks?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          28 Feb28 February 16:07

          Believe that the who advice 8-12 weeks between doses so guess they’ve just chosen half way.

  • Rich says:

    28 Feb28 February 08:58

    I would be reasonably optimistic for autumn, though i’d still be expecting there to be barriers. Flexibility still needed!

  • Harry T says:

    28 Feb28 February 09:44

    I’m planning on a few summer holidays!

  • Andrew says:

    28 Feb28 February 10:41

    Well, the calculations seem reasonable for England’s borders to reopen then.

    All UK adults are expected to have their first jab by late July. Add 15 weeks and that takes you to the end of October for the English half term.

    For Scotland, not sure. Their “tattie howking” holiday is 3 weeks earlier, and who knows who will be First Minister in May.

    As to International borders. With J&Js single jag approved in the US yesterday, it wouldn’t surprise me if they were amongst the first to reopen. Hopefully Canada will get going with their vaccinations too.

• KS says:

  28 Feb28 February 08:57

  Question regarding Barclays, I switched from Barclays Premier to HSBC Premier around Dec 2019. Naively, I did a full current account switch because I didn’t see any value in continuing with Barclays at the time. Am I likely to face any issues getting back into Barclays Premier now?
  Another datapoint to it, I’ve tried opening a normal current account online and that failed.

  • Steve says:

    28 Feb28 February 09:47

    The fact you’ve previously closed a Barclays account shouldn’t preclude you form getting one now. Not sure why your online application would have failed, but it won’t be down to you having been a previous customer that had closed your account.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      28 Feb28 February 10:29

      Usually that’s the case however there are exceptions.

      Starling doesn’t allow you to open a new account for 12 months after you’ve closed one 🙂

      • Jay says:

        28 Feb28 February 10:41

        Good luck trying to open a Starling account once closed. The app just won’t let you apply once your details are on their system for a closed account or even aborted application. Call CS and it’s like talking to a 5 years old, can’t get any sense!!

  • Genghis says:

    28 Feb28 February 10:48

    “ Another datapoint to it, I’ve tried opening a normal current account online and that failed.”

    Same when I tried last year. I last held Barclays prem in 2017 and also switched out. No hard credit search so internal file failure. Didn’t follow up.

    • Reney says:

      28 Feb28 February 12:12

      I tried to open the Barclays premium account when they last offered the Avios bonus. I was not accepted, and the last time I had a Barclays account was probably 2010 ish. I put it down to recently moving back to the UK and therefore had a break in adddress history. I never considered it was because I had an account before.

  • tom1 says:

    28 Feb28 February 15:56

    Any rumours about Barclays and avios? I know hfp will publish when allowed but I saw someone say there was chatter all over Facebook – I don’t know where to look. (Sorry, impatience has set in).

    • tom1 says:

      28 Feb28 February 16:09

      Ignore – have read the other comments today.

• DavidC says:

  28 Feb28 February 09:19

  Interesting?

  British Airways told to return £5,000 to customer who wasn’t allowed to change his flight
  Read in Which?: https://apple.news/AWQganHmPQL6zuuuQ365WJw

  • Lady London says:

    28 Feb28 February 09:53

    No idea how he could have won that.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      28 Feb28 February 10:33

      Because T&C’s have to be fair and clearly displayed. big companies think they can write anything in them and they can be the smallest font hidden behind some read out T&C’s hyperlink and they are completely legally enforceable.

      The fact He gave 6 months notice and they could and probably did resell the seat shows how crap this practice is.

  • Harry T says:

    28 Feb28 February 09:59

    There must be more to the story here. No one should have won that case. If you’re too stupid or lazy to read T&Cs before spending 6k, you deserve to lose your money. This seems awfully unfair on BA. Most airlines tickets are non refundable.

    • Anna says:

      28 Feb28 February 10:25

      It hinges on how clear BA made the Ts and Cs, there have been a few cases like this with other companies.

    • meta says:

      28 Feb28 February 10:31

      The judge is right. Under consumer law, any significant terms should be highlighted and easily identified. You shouldn’t have to click on any separate link to know the terms of your ticket. It must be obvious when you book. The judge said also noted that there needs to be big red arrow pointing to that term.

      It is the way the BA website is designed. When you book you have an option Lowest price or Flexible ticket. Lowest price does not necessarily mean non-refundable. When you proceed with booking on the app you need click on the separate link to read the terms. On the desktop website the terms are below the Continue button. There are precedents for this. There are rulings that terms need to be before any such buttons.

      I know most of us here are automatically trained to check the terms, but other passengers are not.

      • Rob says:

        28 Feb28 February 10:43

        However …. we had the case recently where CEDR threw out a claim from a reader who didn’t get his seat reservation fees refunded when he cancelled.

        The small print for that is genuinely hidden away, in a place where no-one is likely to find it. Unlike this case, it is also illogical (most ‘reasonable’ people would expect a seat reservation fee to be refunded if they cancelled their flight). The guy lost this case though.

        I think “Mr Average” would understand that flights today are typically non refundable unless you pay a substantial premium and so the rules do not need to be spelt out in 5cm high text on every page.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 10:51

          CEDR is not always good at interpreting the law. The reader should have gone to MCOL. He still has that option and judge will most likely rule in his favour.

          Airlines always advocate for CEDR because they know that in some cases they will rule incorrectly. This is why I will never personally use CEDR.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 10:54

          @Rob In regards to understanding of ticketing rules. I think that argument might be valid for economy class ticket, but the person in question purchased business class tickets. Most average passengers think business class tickets are always refundable.

        • marcw says:

          28 Feb28 February 11:51

          He wasn’t complaining about “non-refundable”. He wanted to change his flights (6 months before the actual flight departure), but BA said no.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 11:55

          @marcw still doesn’t change the fact that average passenger thinks that business class tickets are flexible as well. After all the prevalent image is that such tickets are usually aimed at people who would need such flexibility.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          28 Feb28 February 13:26

          Isn’t CEDR just mediation?

          The actual law is applied by the courts?

        • Rob says:

          28 Feb28 February 16:19

          Yes and no … Small Claims Court / MCOL also isn’t a ‘court’ as such, to the extent that it is bound by precedent and the decision made can set a precedent.

    • Ken says:

      28 Feb28 February 11:19

      I was surprised at this , however the onus is on companies to spell out clearly their significant t&c’s.
      Relying on ‘everyone knows the fare isn’t flexible or burying terms in a load of small print rarely is a useful defence.

      There is also the long established principle outside of air tickets that companies shouldn’t be unjustly enriched, if for example they have adequate notice & they resell the goods.

      From the buyer point of view it also shows the importance of considering insurance at the point you book rather than when you fly.

  • Dr C says:

    28 Feb28 February 10:27

    It makes sense as BA doesn’t lose out by refunding if they are likely to resell the ticket, I don’t think non refundable tickets are reasonable for the foreseeable future with all these stupid lockdowns

    • Doug M says:

      28 Feb28 February 10:33

      They could easily provide loads for the flights and establish they couldn’t resell the seats if that was the case.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        28 Feb28 February 10:35

        The fact the customer still wanted to fly BA and to that destination shows how stupid this practice is.

        They’ve now lost out on £5.5k and I suspect the customer actually flew with some other carrier because they refused to be flexible 6 months out.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 10:42

          BA will continue doing this because there are still enough customers who don’t pursue legal action compared to those who do. Once that changes, BA will stop the practice.

      • Rob says:

        28 Feb28 February 10:40

        It’s called travel insurance.

        If you ran a business where your customers could reserve your time / stock / inventory and then cancel at any point with no penalty, leaving you without income, I doubt you think that way. We have weeks on HfP where we could sell our ad slots 2-3 times – if you book them and we turn other people down, don’t come trying to cancel at the last minute without a decent alternative plan that makes it up to us.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 10:46

          It’s not the problem that you want to do this, it is the way you alert your customers to it.

          I hope HfP makes sures that these terms are obvious to the advertisers when they book space. BA does not make it obvious.

        • Rob says:

          28 Feb28 February 12:58

          We don’t have published terms and conditions, actually. We operate entirely on a handshake basis with our clients, including Amex, BA etc.

          The people we deal with are spending their employers money and not their own money, however, which makes them more amenable.

        • Ken says:

          28 Feb28 February 11:28

          Business to business transactions are completely different to consumer ones.
          Imagine a similar case for physical goods and the vendor had 7 months notice to resell them.
          They would be laughed out of court if they offered no goodwill or made no reasonable efforts to resell them.

          If the customer had cancelled with 2 weeks notice I’d imagine it would have been different.
          It’s like booking for a Michelin restaurant and paying a lumpy deposit. Cancel 3 month out and who’s going to claim they can’t sell that Saturday night table.
          Cancel the day before and they should rightly forfeit their deposit.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 12:01

          But the crux of the case is that you need to make aware customer of such terms in an obvious way, not bury it in small print or another page. When I book a Michelin star restaurant with a deposit they usually verbally spell out the terms or if I do it online it is very obvious.

          BA designed its website to not make it obvious. They could have easily put as the option Lowest price (non-refundable) or just move the ticketing terms above the continue button. It is not too difficult to do that. They are knowingly doing this.

        • Rob says:

          28 Feb28 February 12:53

          Think about all the other consumer transactions you do each day, though, where the terms are not spelled out. Is there a sign in Waitrose saying that you need to pay for the goods immediately and not take them home and pop back later to settle up? No. You are simply expected to know ‘some stuff’. This is actually good for both sides, because if all ads were filled with 200 lines of small print the important stuff would get lost.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 13:08

          There are myriad daily transactions where this is obvious, but average customer doesn’t buy airline tickets on a daily basis. The court has ruled time and again on this, so airlines should know better!

        • TGLoyalty says:

          28 Feb28 February 13:29

          The fact that travel insurance is expected to pick up the cost of unfair practices is part of the problem.

          The insurance companies should help the consumer to persue the airlines.

          I don’t think it’s at all unfair to expect the airline to be flexible with months of notice.

        • AJA says:

          28 Feb28 February 14:35

          Rob I agree travel insurance has a place in this but without knowing the specifics of the change in circumstances or whether an insurance claim is possible and also without knowing the specific ticket purchased it is difficult to judge. That said I did a search on ITAMatrix for business class flights London to Honolulu in December 2021 specifically with BA flight prefixes on all sectors and the price varies between £2,300 and an eye-watering £8,344 for a single ticket. To the well informed HfP reader the former is clearly non-refundable while the latter clearly is going to be fully flexible but interestingly there are a range of flights for around £2,986 which are a mixture of D, J and R class.
          The reality is that by choosing a fare somewhere in the middle price point you have some expectation that the fare is more flexible than the cheapest available.
          The interesting thing is that if you choose this fare for £2,986 the following text appears:
          “Cancellation of this ticket will incur a penalty fee.
          This ticket is non-refundable.
          Changes to this ticket will incur a penalty fee”
          Ignoring the fact that you cannot buy a ticket via ITAMatrix, on the surface, that suggests this fare will allow changes for a penalty which is what the passenger wanted to do – he did not want to cancel.
          Now unless you read the rules fully you would think that this fare would allow changes. It is only when you click on the fare rules and when you get to Category 16: Penalties, which is 14 detailed paragraphs down that you find the pertinent fare rules. Even then it does not simply state “This fare is non-refundable but allows changes”. You must wade through rows of text.
          It seems to me that BA is not being as upfront about the fare rules as it could be. In fact, when you do the booking on the BA website the ticket conditions are not clearly laid out. Right at the bottom beneath the price there is a wording that says, “By submitting continue I agree to the fare conditions” Even when you click on the fare conditions link all that does is make the page move to a bit titled “Your ticket conditions” It does not set out the full fare conditions. There is a further link for “charges for changes and cancellations” under the words “Changes to your ticket”. Even when you do that it is not clear whether the fare is refundable or whether changes can me made. It should not require you to click more than 2 times to find out the applicable fare conditions.

        • meta says:

          28 Feb28 February 15:03

          @AJA as per court rulings you shouldn’t be clicking at all.

  • MKB says:

    28 Feb28 February 13:06

    The airline industry has gotten away with impenetrable fare conditions for far too long. Only yesterday, I was looking at booking a business-class flight next January, and the fare conditions were a stream of thousands of unformatted words, all in capital letters, with no punctuation and using terminology that most flyers would not understand. I wanted to know the penalty for voluntary cancellation, and was none the wiser by the end. It was one of the worst examples I’ve seen.

• Nicky says:

  28 Feb28 February 09:23

  Can anyone please give me the e-Mail for the chap that can book hotels (Emeyr)? I don’t seem to be able to find it. Thanks

  • KS says:

    28 Feb28 February 09:27

    Here: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/virtuoso-agent-london/

    • Nicky says:

      28 Feb28 February 09:46

      Thank you

• Mike says:

  28 Feb28 February 09:46

  Anyone have any thoughts on the new mortgage ruling where you can take up to 95% LTV for houses that are <£600k? Probably gonna drive house prices up?

  • Sandra says:

    28 Feb28 February 10:10

    I suppose your view is dependent on if you are already a homeowner and can benefit if prices continue to rise and where you live. For example, where I live prices for first time buyers aren’t completely out of reach for most first timers with two incomes unless they are in very low paid work like agriculture. However, personally I wouldn’t encourage my children to take out a 95% LTV partly because of the lack of a buffer if prices fell but also because they’d be unlikely to get a decent, low, interest rate with a 5% deposit. Mine are lucky and we can afford to help them/have saved for them but I appreciate many aren’t and a 5% deposit will be the only way they may be able to get on the housing market as long as it doesn’t drive prices up quickly and price them out again …

    • meta says:

      28 Feb28 February 10:35

      This is nothing new. It’s like help to buy scheme.

    • Eric says:

      28 Feb28 February 11:32

      Yes, not too different to HTB except this scheme can be used for homes that are not brand new so that’s a huge difference there as new builds always have the premium baked in.

      I’m a first time buyer in London so I think this could be interesting for me. I wonder what sort of interest rates will the banks be loaning out for 95% LTV. Of course maxing out the LTV is beneficial for me given the likelihood of me getting more than 2% returns is quite high from investing my money.

  • Charlieface says:

    28 Feb28 February 12:54

    Both this scheme and Help to Buy are just going to push prices up.
    The only thing that will pull them down is building more houses, or reducing the population.

    It is also just a gimmick, as affordability checks are still in place. Therefore the only people able to get such large mortgages are those who would in any case build up the deposit after not a very long time. This does nothing for the large numbers of people held back by stupid checks.

    • memesweeper says:

      28 Feb28 February 14:16

      ‘The only thing that will pull them down is building more houses, or reducing the population.’

      … or taxing them properly, annually on a percentage their value, and removing sales tax (stamp duty) to provide an incentive for people to move and ‘right size’. we have tons of empty and under filled housing stock in the UK, and very little in the was of policy to drive it back onto the market, either for sale or rent. the penalty in stamp duty for most home owners for selling and buying again is pretty high right now.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        28 Feb28 February 15:55

        I’ve always thought stamp duty is the least fair tax in existence. How regressive can you get that the person with no money (they’ve just poured their life savings and a ton of debt too into a house) has to pay, and the person who has just received a 6 figure sum in cash doesn’t? As it hits upsizers, it’s essentially a tax on people having families that they support themselves, which is societally a poor idea too. I’d support the change to either sales or occupancy based taxation despite being at the stage of life where it would likely make me worse off personally.

      • Rob says:

        28 Feb28 February 16:17

        Help To Buy is particularly dodgy though. Historically new homes sold for the same as old homes. Now new homes have a 20% premium because demand is higher than for 2nd hand stock due to HTB.

        The snag is …. once you’ve bought your house, it becomes a ‘second hand house’ and immediately falls 20% in value because when you sell it, first time buyers aren’t interested – and it is probably a typical ‘first time buyer’ property (ie small).

        Homes have effectively turned into cars, dropping 20% the second you pick up the keys.

• Chris Heyes says:

  28 Feb28 February 09:58

  Hi, HFPs, If any readers within the last couple of weeks has received an email from someone saying “they have hacked into your computer and looked at all your activities over the last two months including passwords and bank account details ect (a long email) i haven’t got it anymore so cant “cut n paste” exact email
  (i have a different set up here, than most if not all HFPs i have an un-protected computer whose sole purpose is to invite hackers, because it’s designed to automatically alert my son the second a hacker enters it)
  i should add i also have a fully protected laptop for my use
  Back to my point if you have received the same or similar email asking for money to free the computer.
  PLEASE forward it to “report@phishing.gov.uk”
  This is a genuine address please write in two words SPAM, BLACKMAIL “nothing else”
  that will make sure the correct person receives it.
  You can of course (and it’s a good idea) place the report@phishing.gov.uk address in your address book and forward “ANY” spam you receive just put “SPAM without the word blackmail
  Thank you
  ps I’m not allowed to disclose any other info due to DPA, I won’t even know about the case

  • Chris H says:

    28 Feb28 February 13:31

    Thank you for this post. I know it is not normal HFP stuff, but it is reassuring that others have security in mind too.
    I too received similar emails and these were from many months ago, and I sent them straight to the Phishing.gov.uk address. These despicable criminals rely on people panicking and paying up (I guess to a bitcoin account). I would fully expect that if I paid once, then I would get another and another demand later for even more money.
    Can I add to this advice by suggesting, if you do not do this already:
    1. Backup your important files regularly so if they genuinely do have access and lockup your accounts (which they probably don’t), you can reset everything and get all the important stuff back.
    2. If they say they have access to your cameras, bank accounts etc, just run an up to date virus check and confirm your machine is clear. Cover your camera with tape if you are worried, and change your passwords.
    3. Never reply to an email from unknown sources, or click on a link in an email from a stranger (or even one from someone you know if the subject seems strange) just to see what it is.
    I could give lots of other advice, and when I run an OUTLOOK course security is a specific topic, but you get the idea. Keep your privacy, keep your hard earned points, and don’t let these ba****ds win.

    • Chris Heyes says:

      28 Feb28 February 14:56

      Chris H, Most hackers think they can’t be traced back but most can very easily if the person knows to do it,
      and of course has permission to bypass DPA a few years ago he wrote a book along with 3 co-writers who are now employed by top security business around the world
      They meet up and give lectures one or two times a year at internet security events around the world if you are remotely interested the book is called (Web Application Obfuscation ) I can tell you it’s mumbo jumbo to me,
      I Can let you know the Hacker has been identified, the reason for the earlier post requesting emails to be posted with blackmail on is to increase the jail sentence he receives

      • Chris H says:

        28 Feb28 February 17:05

        I hope he / she gets exactly what they deserve.

• Jonathan says:

  28 Feb28 February 09:59

  Anyone else been hit by fees for trying to top up Revolut via beardie plus ?

  I tried a test of £20, and got hit with cash advance fee of £1 and interest £0.01.

  Luckily my test was such a low amount, and being hit by the fees was half expected

  • TGLoyalty says:

    28 Feb28 February 10:36

    Yes this was widely reported a few months ago.

    • Jonathan says:

      28 Feb28 February 13:42

      If it was here on HfP I didn’t see anything.

      Oh well

      Does anyone know any other benefits of Revolut ?

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