The HfP chat thread – Monday 1st March

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• Mike says:

  1 Mar1 March 14:11

  For the BY Amex, must it match both first and last names to apply the nights credit to the BY account? Many cards only seem to care about the surname.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Mar1 March 15:00

    Bonvoy?

• Doug M says:

  1 Mar1 March 14:12

  I guess whether Nectar to/from Avios results in more or less Avios remains to be seen. But potentially this could mean a lot more Avios being issued. With the new Barclays deal this likely again increases the amount of Avios being issued. In overall terms these numbers may be tiny, but do you see a likely hit on availability? I guess with the currently available option to trade them for 0.8p at Sainsbury’s that’s unlikely, as BA would rather we fly than pay Sainsbury. Any thoughts?

  • Rob says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:36

    BA retiring a decent % of its long-haul fleet (ie the 747s) and a disproportionately large % of its First Class seats is likely to be a bigger problem. You need to hope demand is low on the remaining aircraft, but there could be a squeeze in, say, 2023.

    • Stuart Evans says:

      1 Mar1 March 17:35

      That medium term assessment of BA F availability seems gloomily realistic. However with a decent Bus Class (QSuites for sure; Club Suite maybe), it doesn’t matter so much.

      But I am puzzled why there seems to be zero F availability for late 21/early 22. There continues to be plenty of Bus availability, which is probably a clue about low levels of bookings. Do you think F award seats have all be snatched up? Or has BA not released them yet?

      Either way, it would be good to fit in a couple more F redemptions before they become a thing of the past.

      • ChrisC says:

        1 Mar1 March 18:04

        Remember BA does not promise to release any F rewards like it does for economy and club.

        It was a few years ago when either Alex or Willie said there were too many non paying passengers in F and they wanted to reduce the latter in favour of the former so that could be a factor. Why release rewards months in advance if you can get cash instead?

        • Stuart Evans says:

          1 Mar1 March 18:33

          ChrisC – I appreciate and accept all that. But over the years there have been enough F released (many times at Day 355) that I have generally been able to snare them. But that doesn’t seem true now. I wonder what will unfold over the coming months, or what the thinking is at BA

        • Lady London says:

          2 Mar2 March 00:10

          Pretty sure the thinking is F only on major routes where there is a volume of natural F customers.

          So JFK, Barbados, for differing reasons. I would have proposed Jersey and Nice but I think the F market is handled by private jet to those.

• RT says:

  1 Mar1 March 14:17

  Hi,

  A question about a bit of a fiddle.

  So far BA have cancelled South African route flights. I had one of mine cancelled. It was a cheaper using the half points promotion so I am loathe to go Voucher or Refund. Apparently there’s a 6 month rule and so I can’t move the dates past, well 7 months (I don’t understand the maths) which equates to 12 October for me, according to BA. I really want to put this flight off as much as possible, and Christmas would be wonderful. There are flights currently available in early April, before when we’re allowed to travel for leisure. So I’m considering the idea of changing the departure date to early April. A bit of a gamble.

  The best result will be another cancellation and so an extention to my dates.
  The worst result will involve me cancelling for refund or voucher.

  The question is, in peoples opinion will BA be likely to cancel flights to SA that depart before the review of international leisure travel which I believe is 12 April at the earliest?

  Thanks!

  • Paul says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:58

    Had our JNB cancelled few weeks ago, which was booked in October in the 50% Avios sale (on an Amex 241, which had been wrapped into an FTV due to previous cancellations by both myself and BA). On manage my booking, managed to change it to now (hopefully) departing Christmas day for 3 weeks of sun and fun.
    When I first looked at availability of new flights in MMB it appeared to be only where there were Avios seats available, which at the time, a couple of weeks ago, was OK except for December, but just kept checking back every few days and availability seems to be changing every day, so hope you get lucky with the dates you want.
    I was very reluctant to cancel and refund as would have lost out on the 50% Avios sale, some people seem to believe if you call up BA would ‘have’ to move to a date you’d like, but equally some (including Rob I believe, who may be slightly more ‘in the know’ than others) believe the new dates would have to be in the original sale offer timespan. Anyway, saved from all that hassle by just keep checking back and hoping. Good luck…

    • meta says:

      1 Mar1 March 15:10

      This is my experience too. Just keep checking, especially if your flight isn’t imminent.

    • RT says:

      1 Mar1 March 15:17

      Thanks for the replies.

      Sorry I should have mentioned that Manage My Booking is no longer an option. I have to speak to a call-centre. MMB was a lot more flexible and December dates were there. Sadly I didn’t get it in quick enough.
      Once the outboard flight date has past you lose the ability to use MMB (that button disappears and you are left with the Voucher application only), at least in my experience.

    • RT says:

      1 Mar1 March 15:27

      Also, thanks for that “sale offer timespan” bit. Not sure why they are quoting the 6 months thing but the date they’ll allow me to move the date to – 12 October ties in with the last day of the offer (minus a year), so that makes sense now. So yes, they won’t move it outside of that window it seems! (Even though MMB would have allowed it).

      By playing the April card I might be able to move this back into being more flexible, but of course all the seats will likely be gone I guess.

    • Harry T says:

      1 Mar1 March 15:30

      You are legally entitled to be rerouted on alternative dates of your choosing, not in a manner constrained by BA. However, some people would happily take BA to court to get their way but others want a more quiet life.

• EDA says:

  1 Mar1 March 14:23

  How long does the Avios to Nectar transfer take after doing it over the phone?

  • Buxton says:

    1 Mar1 March 14:36

    Quoted as ten days, not sure if working days or not. Had mine pending since last monday.

  • Dr C says:

    1 Mar1 March 16:48

    Said 10 days but not heard of any success

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  1 Mar1 March 14:37

  My Plat Biz is now offering 18,000 for me to refer and friend to get 105,000 MR

  • Ali M says:

    1 Mar1 March 20:06

    ooooh this is nice

    • Rob says:

      1 Mar1 March 22:08

      It has always been 18k off Plat Bus.

• Trudie Tebbutt says:

  1 Mar1 March 14:39

  Does anyone know anything about a rise in taxes on reward flights? I checked at the weekend for a 2 for 1 Business class return to Orlando and it was circa £1300, today it is £1800.

  • memesweeper says:

    1 Mar1 March 17:45

    Just did a check on JFK and GCM, both look to be up about £100 return in Business 🙁

• Stuckish says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:10

  Trying to get home to Jersey from a red list country, any suggestions for how to do that and avoid the UK hotel quarantine? Don’t mind the isolation so much as the fact that I could do it cheaper and in a location of my choice with a guaranteed outside space. Any suggestions for which European country has the shortest isolation requirements and will allow Dutch nationals in?

  • yorkieflyer says:

    1 Mar1 March 15:51

    You could try the Condor ferry to Jersey from France?

    • Lady London says:

      2 Mar2 March 00:22

      If you are Dutch national can you fly to NL then exit? If Condor option would work France is asking Covid test for entry and signed declaration of no Covid symptoms or contacts from EU. If geographically closer to ferry will BRU accept NL citizens landing?

  • yorkieflyer says:

    1 Mar1 March 15:53

    If you’re in transit through UK on a through ticket |I don’t think UK quarantine required but check Jersey entry requirements

    • Stuckish says:

      1 Mar1 March 17:18

      Spoke with the Jersey Gov, and seems like quarantine would apply, even on a same day transit. Condor isn’t running yet, so would probably book a rib or something to get us home.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    1 Mar1 March 15:54

    Where do you fancy going? Not so up to date on it all now but you can find a loophole if you look hard enough.

    I think the easiest loophole is Ireland (mainly Dublin) on separate tickets. Common travel area means you don’t have to go to a hotel. Or at least it did a few weeks ago

    • Stuckish says:

      1 Mar1 March 17:16

      I don’t really want to do the lying to the border force, get hit with a 10k fine thing.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        1 Mar1 March 18:48

        Thing is you’re not as I think its a common travel area flight so no border force.

        There’s an article about a Scottish guy that did it, paid for quarantine hotels and then got told to leave as he didn’t need to be there

        • Lord Doncaster says:

          1 Mar1 March 23:50

          That was a loophole though

• John says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:24

  Curve Metal.
  Need to buy some foreign currency.
  Am I charged if I use my curve card linked to Virgin?
  Thanks

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    1 Mar1 March 16:26

    MCC passthrough means it’s no different than if you paid using your VS card directly.

    I would expect a cash advance fee here.

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