The HfP chat thread – Monday 1st March

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

• Peter says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:32

  Just received my Business Platinum Card, I spent the last hour looking for the form where you activate Hilton and Marriott benefits but still can’t find it. Can anyone help? Thanks

  • Rob says:

    1 Mar1 March 16:05

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/hfp/american-express-benefit-registration/ (log-in needed)

• Anna says:

  1 Mar1 March 15:54

  Hotels seem to be aggressively hiking prices and reducing benefits with re-opening on the horizon. Just tried to make a booking via Emyr for the IC O2 this summer and it’s no longer participating. I appreciate hotels have had a rough time (though presumably have benefited from the furlough scheme) but it’s rather short-sighted to just throw away customer goodwill!

  • Navara says:

    1 Mar1 March 16:04

    They probably know you already have plan A,B,C,D and E in place so have you on the Red list.

    • Anna says:

      1 Mar1 March 16:13

      Different trip, only 1 plan!

      • The uncivil servant says:

        1 Mar1 March 18:14

        Relax, your retired, you have plenty of time to book and reap points/status benefits when the post covid rush settles down and prices and redemptions revert to normal

    • Jamie says:

      1 Mar1 March 17:51

      @Navara: funny 🙂

• Alan says:

  1 Mar1 March 16:06

  I now have 6 cancelled Easyjet flights.

  Does anyone know how long I can leave them in the cancelled state for, before I lose my right to rebook any flight to the same country.

  • Matthew says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:23

    I’ve left some for over 6 months and they are still there until recently when I chose the refund…

    • Lady London says:

      1 Mar1 March 23:41

      I dont think there is any particular time limit in law. I think I saw somewhere that maybe some attempt should be made by a year after the flight date.

      If anyone knows what the law is, because so far as I am aware you have rebooking rights on same route under EU261 duty of care but there is not a time limit IIRC. I would be really interested if anyone knows what courts or some law say

  • Ali M says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:30

    Pls fill out the form.There is an option to rebook too.I had two with them.all went smooth.

  • Ali M says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:31

    They were really good with my refunds

• Dr C says:

  1 Mar1 March 16:47

  Has anyone successfully transferred Avios to Nectar since their manual process?

  • memesweeper says:

    1 Mar1 March 17:47

    Someone reported here, today, after a 40 minute wait on the phone

    • Dr C says:

      1 Mar1 March 20:08

      Hi, i am referring to receiving them not actually calling about requesting one thanks

• r* says:

  1 Mar1 March 16:57

  Is it no longer possible to book Hilton stays via aerclub/baec for bonus avios referrer points? Not had to make a booking since pre-covid but now its no longer on there :/

  Does anyone know if there is any similar program that can be used for bonus points/cash when making Hilton bookings?

  • Harry T says:

    1 Mar1 March 17:06

    I don’t think any portals are currently offering anything for Hilton.

• Paul L says:

  1 Mar1 March 16:58

  Anyone else notice Reward Flight Availability has dropped within the last few hours?

  I was looking at Business Short Haul in October a few hours ago…now just the standard 2 seats where it was previously showing 9

  • Peter K says:

    1 Mar1 March 19:39

    Maybe they’ve been booked in that time period by others? Or maybe enough cash seats have been bought for the computer algorithm to reduce the redemption seat numbers down?

    • Rob says:

      1 Mar1 March 22:09

      Probably BA launching a sale 🙂 (Honestly don’t know if they are but Avios availability will often drop before one.)

• Aston100 says:

  1 Mar1 March 17:15

  Nectar bonus points offers for shopping at Sainsburys.
  I am convinced I am either really unlucky or am in a control group of some kind.
  Despite the opinions posted regularly on here that the offers improve with time, I am on to my 6th or 7th online shop and have just received 13 new offers totalling 250 nectar points. This is the lowest total I have seen thus far.
  There were 2 weeks where I had 6 or 7 offers totalling about 500 points, and on the other weeks the offers were somewhere between 260 and 330 points.

  I’ve had a nectar card for as long as I can remember – definitely well over 11 years and probably not that far off from the date they were first launched.
  I’ve been shopping on & off at Sainsburys, using my nectar card for years, though in the past few years this has diminished due to many reasons, including Tesco being more convenient and better value.

  I refuse to accept the view that everyone has better offers after they’ve been shopping a while – I’ve been shopping with Sainsburys for years!
  The latest offers are an all time low.

  Perhaps Super Secret Stuff and other Nectar experts could advise what I’m doing wrong, or else suggest he likelihood of a control group.

  Thanks.

  • Aston100 says:

    1 Mar1 March 17:20

    Just to add that my shopping is almost always around £100 or so at a time.
    To be honest, I don’t know why Sainsburys / Nectar would or should give additional or better offers to customers who are already buying the very items that the offers are being provided on.
    Offers should be to tempt new customers or to encourage people to purchase something different (more expensive?).
    Why would you continue to preach to the choir?
    I’m 50/50 on whether I should just go back to shopping at Tesco, even without the avios clubcard deal.

    • Ryan says:

      1 Mar1 March 17:36

      Maybe try (if you can) lower £ shops? I never go above £50 shops (often £10-£20) and I’m regularly getting “half price” or even more points on items than they cost (paying me to buy them)

      That’s the only thing I can think of, I’ve never had offers to tallying under 400ish

      • Aston100 says:

        1 Mar1 March 17:39

        I did wonder why they would target anyone who is already regularly spending a reasonable amount.
        Makes no sense to me. As I said earlier, why preach to the choir?

        • meta says:

          1 Mar1 March 17:53

          I am convinced it’s not just how much you spend, but on what you spend and how varied your overall shop is. After our last shop (it was 4th shop since the launch), my partner got over 1500 worth of bonus points. Before that it was between 300-500 usually. Apart from bonus on a few usual stuff we buy, the latest batch includes quite an eclectic mix – 300 points for prawns, 150 points for tiramisu, 60 for tomato soup amongst other things. We did buy prawns before, but not tiramisu or tomato soup.

        • The uncivil servant says:

          1 Mar1 March 18:07

          To get offers go in person into the store as opposed to online and buy as many different items as you can for under say £30. Don’t spend more than a £1 on any item. The items you don’t want donate to a food bank, and do the same again 5 days later but totally different items, I did and I am getting a ridiculous number of offers.

          Additionally buy £20 worth of fuel, you will get a voucher for 400 nectar points if you spend over £35, I have had 6 of these so far, when I spend £35.50 on fuel.

          Happy Shopping!

        • The uncivil servant says:

          1 Mar1 March 18:16

          I might add that although I have had a Nectar card for ages, I have rarely shopped there (except for fuel because its cheapest where I live) until the Avios tie up.

        • whiskerxx says:

          1 Mar1 March 19:24

          Aston 100 – you shouldn’t be doing too much shopping at either Sainsbury or Tesco. Just move the bulk of it to Aldi and Lidl, and if you must, use the money you save to buy Avios.

        • Aston100 says:

          1 Mar1 March 19:47

          I feel Whiskerxx is correct in principal.

          If only those places did everything I needed though. If I shopped at Aldi or Lidl, I would need to visit Tesco or Sainsburys anyway in order to purchase a bunch of stuff that Aldi/Lidl don’t sell.
          As I currently don’t have a car and am meant to be avoiding mixing it up with the public, I need to stick to online shopping / home delivery which again Lidl and Aldi sadly do not seem to do.

        • LST says:

          1 Mar1 March 20:59

          I never get any bonus points at the petrol station!

  • Harry T says:

    1 Mar1 March 17:22

    The quality of my offers seems to fluctuate tbh. Think I’m going to give Lidl a go.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Mar1 March 18:50

      Yup I’m missing out sainsburys until the offers improve.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        1 Mar1 March 18:59

        You’re both missing the point. Pun intended.

        The offers only get better the more you use sainsbury. Keep using it for a few more weeks and you’ll see the increased value of offers

        • Aston100 says:

          1 Mar1 March 19:44

          Or in my case, see the value of the offers decrease.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          1 Mar1 March 21:04

          Not the case I’ve seen them get progressively lower value and less of them.

    • Lady London says:

      2 Mar2 March 14:51

      make sure you sign up on their app

      • Lady London says:

        2 Mar2 March 14:51

        (nectar and lidl)

  • Oli says:

    1 Mar1 March 17:34

    I was a very irregular Sainsbury’s shopper until the end of January and had 6-7 offers a week. I then switched my weekly shops to them (about £80 a week) and last week offers increased to 13 (about 500 NP); this week I have 20 (about 1,100 NP).

    • LST says:

      1 Mar1 March 17:41

      We split our shopping between Sainsbury’s and Ocado, the Sainsbury’s portion is about £80 a week with bonus offers of 350-400 points usually. It’s not great but better than nothing.

    • Aston100 says:

      1 Mar1 March 17:51

      So there is a degree of inconsistency being reported here.
      I was hoping that it was perhaps a case of the best offers being given only to those who are doing smallish shops – i.e. logic.

      I’m not so sure now.

      • AJA says:

        1 Mar1 March 18:12

        I don’t know what the logic is. Are you buying any of products you are getting offers on? Do you buy the same item, if not necessarily the same pack or brand? I have shopped at Sainsbury’s for years spending on average £85 a week and I get offers ranging between 700 and 1500 points each week. My current offers total 1340 points for 20 products if I bought everything. I don’t actively buy everything on offer but regularly get anything between 200 and 750 points each week.

      • Aston100 says:

        1 Mar1 March 18:29

        I contacted Nectar support just now about the low number of nectar points every week.
        Their response was that they are sorry I have not had any offers this year, but here is 200 points as a goodwill and hopefully I might get my first offer of the year soon, but I should use the nectar app and not the website because I will get 70% better offers on the app.

        What a load of BS.

        • The cyclist says:

          1 Mar1 March 20:23

          I have just got back from Sainsburys, the till spat out a voucher 7000points for pet insurance, which I will use for my non existent cat named Aston!

        • The real John says:

          1 Mar1 March 21:17

          I suggest abandoning your nectar account and opening a new one. But remember for the first 4-5 months on a new account you may only get 6 offers a week, that was my experience.

          You do not need to provide a phone number to nectar – the 2FA for nectar >> avios will go to the email address if there is no phone

  • Ali M says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:34

    I do smaller shops with them and get good offers.Since getting their credit card have done 3 x 150 + pound shops online for home delivery.The offers are still standard of 6 a week and on stuff that I have bought.so feel that buying more or less doesn’t impact – I always get 6 offers per week

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    1 Mar1 March 18:45

    How old the card is has no relevance. Its to do with how often, how long and what you buy.

    Bearing in mind you’ve only been at it for 6 weeks or so. Be patient. It’s probably an algorithm that’s gone “this persons habits have changed, let’s try this….”

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      1 Mar1 March 18:46

      Also offers are a lot more likely but not exclusively on by sainsbury products. So really does depend what you’re buying

      • Scott says:

        1 Mar1 March 21:15

        Practically everything I get and also what my mother has ever gotten are own branded products.
        We both occasionally get “50 points on ANY soup”, and I’ve once had “150 points when you buy Piper’s Crisps” but they went back to the full price of £2.50 that week (had been on offer at £1.50 up to that point which is as far as I’ll go £ wise for crisps). Never had that offer since or for anything that wasn’t Sainsbury own brand (bar the soup).

        Still get points 95% of the time on regular products. Sometimes get something for avocados that I buy rarely. They do tend to rotate between sizes i.e. 150g raspberries one week, 225g the next (although my local store hasn’t has any stocked for the last week so missed out on 120 points, and if nothing by Saturday, another 90 points this week).

        Never had any offers for own brand milk or yoghurt yet 3 lots of cream in the last week or so between 2 accounts.

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          1 Mar1 March 22:28

          Yeh very rare to get branded items but it does happen occasionally.

          Milk is one of my very regular offers. I always buy a 4 pinter, semi skimmed own brand

  • Andrew says:

    1 Mar1 March 22:54

    Are you buying much in the way of Sainsbury’s branded goods?

    The best offers for me are always on Sainsbury’s own brand items, with the occasional extra one for generic condiments, jams or cereal.

    Quite partial to Sainsbury’s Ginger Beer (6x330ml) and that’s always on my weekly offers.

• Ryan says:

  1 Mar1 March 19:20

  Amex Plat / Dell offer:
  I don’t really need anything from Dell but looking to for something up to the £75 offer. Does anyone have any good finds? So far I’m looking at a keyboard / mouse set or some nice looking headphones…

  • Charlieface says:

    1 Mar1 March 22:46

    Their monitors are very good. Make sure it’s IPS and preferably Ultrasharp

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.