The HfP chat thread – Monday 1st March

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• Benilyn says:

  1 Mar1 March 11:05

  Heard some talk about PayPal payments not counting towards AMEX spend? Or did I mishear? Signed up to the Gold Biz account… need to get spend lined up…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Mar1 March 11:23

    When you say Amex spend what do you mean?

    They count as spend for bonuses

    They don’t count if you have spend £x save £x/x% at a retailer as you’re using a 3rd party inbetween

  • Travel Strong says:

    1 Mar1 March 11:23

    That was specifically with reference to a bonus spend offer on personal gold – check t+c on your own offer to check if it excludes payment aggregators. In the past PayPal has always counted to initial spend/signup bonuses.

    • Benilyn says:

      1 Mar1 March 11:24

      Ok cool business as usual then!

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:35

    Bought £1100 of brush seals for hangar doors, and the company didn’t take Amex but took PayPal.

    Statement credit of £150 on my Amex Biz Plat four days later:

    PAYPAL *FORMSEAL. -£150

• Crafty says:

  1 Mar1 March 11:26

  Anyone successfully changed their password for IHG Rewards recently? I have tried at least 5 times now to change mine, but despite confirming (on screen and by email) that it’s successfully been changed, it hasn’t.

  This leaves me exposed to hackers as I know via Bitwarden my old one is out there.

  Customer service don’t have a clue. Lost count of the number of irrelevant emails I’ve had, from a different person every time.

  • Aston100 says:

    1 Mar1 March 12:10

    Live chat seem to have the ability to unlock your account and send you a password reset email link.

  • Mark says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:02

    use a different web browser – I’ve same issue using Edge and resorted to using my ipad to get it to work properly.

    the issue is logging into the site – your password does change, the real issue seems to be logging in.

    • Crafty says:

      2 Mar2 March 09:55

      Thanks for the tip Mark, I shall give this a try.

  • Kevin says:

    1 Mar1 March 21:57

    I did it couple of week ago and went alright

• BA-Flyer says:

  1 Mar1 March 12:04

  Are there new restrictions on redeeming Avios for Cathay Pacific? Can’t see a single flight from HKG to BKK – the only option offered is a late-night Royal Jordanian departure.

  • Andy says:

    1 Mar1 March 12:16

    Cathay Pacific changed the way they release awards a year or two ago. No longer are there loads of flights and loads of availability months out. It’s the same for their Asia Miles programme where you often end up having to book waitlisted flights and then wait and see if they clear.

    I gave up waiting and am doing RJ HKG to BKK and then cash fare with Cathay for my BKK to HKG leg. That Avios sweet spot seems to have disappeared for now. I think there are usually dates close to travel but it’s obviously a risk if you want to plan ahead

  • Louie says:

    1 Mar1 March 12:16

    Almost certainly married segments, Cathay are famous for it intra-Asia.

    • chabuddy geezy says:

      1 Mar1 March 13:04

      Royal Jordanian a not a bad option BKK to HKG. The food is arguably better than CX for a short flight in business class.

• Dace says:

  1 Mar1 March 12:25

  Does anyone know if Qatar are allowing people with the teacher voucher to change their flights yet?

  Many thanks

  • Aston100 says:

    1 Mar1 March 13:16

    Hi Dace, they are allowing you to change dates & destinations with travel to be completed by 30th Sept 2021.
    Destinations within 500 miles are free. Anything beyond that will require fare difference to be paid.

    I strongly suspect they will move the 30th Sept deadline back, as they did that recently for the medical promo (moved that one back by a year).

• Andy says:

  1 Mar1 March 12:46

  Anybody know what the checks for outbound travel are like at Heathrow at the moment? Got a friend who needs to go back home (not a Uk resident, though she’s been here for a few months to stay with relatives), so she has a valid reason to travel but is worried about the check he might be subject to prior to security?

  Read on here in the past that people have seen others with skis, etc. at Heathrow travel without issue, but any more recent examples would be good to calm down her nerves

  • blenz101 says:

    1 Mar1 March 12:56

    If she had a valid reason to travel (or more accuratley leave her house) then it really doesn’t matter what checks are or aren’t in place.

    A one-way ticket out of the UK and a non-British passport would clear up any confusion pretty quickly if she was stopped and asked.

    • Lady London says:

      1 Mar1 March 13:20

      going home is fine

    • Andy says:

      1 Mar1 March 13:26

      Some people do get nervous about travelling and the current environment doesn’t help, hence wanting to have a little more clarity on the checks she can expect.

      Beyond that there is no doubt the reason for travel is completely legal, and it is a one way ticket to the same country as the passport, so no reason to have any issues.

      • C says:

        1 Mar1 March 15:16

        Family members of mine have returned home to their country of origin without hassle.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:57

    There is no definition on any documentation YET so if anyone asked just say you’re going back home.

• RussellH says:

  1 Mar1 March 12:49

  Re Tesco=> Virgin Points offer.

  The 2000 bonus Virgin points offer was supposed to pay out the 2000 points by yesterday.
  Got 1000 on 8 Feb, but the rest have still not posted.
  Anyone else still waiting?

  • SJ says:

    1 Mar1 March 13:39

    Mine came through on 12th February

    • James says:

      1 Mar1 March 14:11

      I had the 2,000. They were staggered, 1,000 first then a couple of weeks later the other thousand.

  • lumma says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:58

    I’m still waiting for the other 2k

    • RussellH says:

      1 Mar1 March 15:24

      OK, I guess I shall wait a little longer before raising a missing points complaint.

• 747_Brat says:

  1 Mar1 March 13:02

  I need to open a donor account for Barclays Premier. I was thinking of opening a Starling or Monzo, but I have had both of these accounts opened and closed within last year. I reckon I saw a comment here couple of days ago that Starling prevents you from opening an account again, is it the same with Monzo?
  TIA

  • Andrew says:

    1 Mar1 March 13:15

    Just open a No 2, 3, 4… account with your main bank.

    • 747_Brat says:

      1 Mar1 March 13:19

      Okay thanks Andrew. Let me try Lloyds or Halifax.
      Cheers.

      • Dave says:

        1 Mar1 March 13:26

        Pretty straightforward to open another current account with Lloyds. Took me 5 mins within the app.

      • Jamie says:

        1 Mar1 March 14:13

        Pretty sure this was suggested the last time you asked?

• Rui N. says:

  1 Mar1 March 13:48

  Happy to hear the thoughts of the community on the following 🙂 My water provider sucks and are so incompetent that they keep sending me letters threatning me legal action if I don’t pay my bills. All good here, the problem is that they send these letters with posting date 2-3 after I make the payments! They’ve started doing this during the first lockdown.
  I’ve already told them to stop and complained to the “Consumer Council for Water” (waiting a response from the latter).
  Any grounds here to initiate a procedure under MCOL? If they can threaten me with legal action I only see as fair that I can do the same! Jokes aside, if yes, on what grounds should I file this under? TIA,

  • FFoxSake says:

    1 Mar1 March 13:59

    Maybe try paying your future bills a week earlier and just let it go? You’re hardly likely to be earning enough extra interest on that “lost week” to cover all this unnecessary stress you are putting yourself through!

  • Doug M says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:05

    What would you MCOL them for? Why not pay a few days earlier and watch as the problem goes away.

  • memesweeper says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:21

    Forget MCOL

    trading standards can become annoyed when companies chase money they are not owed — complain to them and point out if you were elderly/confused you might pay double

    • Aston100 says:

      1 Mar1 March 16:05

      Are you able to contact your local trading standards directly?
      Ours stopped being contactable at least 5 or 6 years ago, and we are now told to raise issues with the CAB who may or may not pass the issue onto trading standards as they see fit, and we may or may not ever hear back.

  • Rui N. says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:47

    How on Earth can I pay a few days earlier if I pay on the day I receive the bill?! Given their incompetence I certainly won’t prepay anything with them (not even sure if it possible, and frankly don’t care). And if they post the threats 2-3 weeks later after my payment, I’m not terribly sure why would that help. If it was the other way around I’m sure they’d find a way to sue me for harassment and for making false claims about them, I was just checking if anything like that could be done via MCOL. But I do apologise for thinking that a company that I’m forced to do business with should not treat me like a criminal, threathing to start legal action and to send debt collectors to my address based on a complete lie!
    Good point about trading standards @memesweeper 🙂 Not exactly old, but on the first few times I did indeed get confused and had to check whether I paid or not.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Mar1 March 14:59

      Citizens advice may be interested too there could be many more confused / worried people out there getting these letters.

      • RussellH says:

        1 Mar1 March 15:22

        Citizens Advice are certainly interested in this sort of thing.
        You may want to look at https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/water/water-supply/
        If you’d like to speak to an adviser, the Citizens Advice consumer helpline is 0808 223 1133.
        When contacted on that number you can ask about referring things to Trading Standards too. And givenTS have suffered a lot of cutbacks over recent years, they are probably more likely to take action if something is referred to them by Citizens Advice.

        • Rui N. says:

          1 Mar1 March 15:36

          Thanks a lot both. I’ll for sure talk to Citizens Advice.

        • Lady London says:

          2 Mar2 March 00:51

          It’s almost as if your water company knows this tactic is scaring customers into paying them double and may be aware the elderly or vulnerable may pay them double.

          Trading Stds or CAB first port of call.

          I would also consider sending their Head Office a signed-for letter with a list of bill receipt dates, payment dates and method, and date of unwarranted harassment letter(s)against each bill.

          State being harassed systematically without cause is onerous and costing you time and repeated stress. Mention any earlier attempts you have made to ask them to desist. (At least one or two would be good).

          State having made attempts to ask them to desist and yet unwarranted harassment is continuing, should any further similarly unwarranted harassment letters be received your charge for handling each of these unwarranted communications in future is £5 per letter as from [date 14 days hence]. This is your official notice that you will be invoicing your handling fees for each such commuication received as from [date]. You will pursue any unpaid invoices as far as necessary until payment is obtained.

          Sincerely, you.

          Where a water company is doing this it may have come up on MSE’s forums – could be worth a check.

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