The HfP chat thread – Saturday 6th March

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• mark2 says:

  6 Mar6 March 12:25

  Apparently in Finland they are using dogs to test for Covid at the airport
  https://www.dw.com/en/dogs-detect-coronavirus-fast-and-reliably-why-not-use-them-everywhere/a-55340369

  • Jay says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:11

    Whilst China has introduced anal swabs… take your pick ;-0

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      6 Mar6 March 16:01

      They’re now mandatory apparently…

      • Lord Doncaster says:

        6 Mar6 March 16:41

        An experience for sure…

        • Anna says:

          6 Mar6 March 18:53

          Maybe the dog could just sniff your derriere, like they do anyway?!

• Mouse says:

  6 Mar6 March 12:38

  I’m stil trying to understand the small claims decision agains BA for non-refundability of £5k business class tickets that was one of the articles on HFP last week. Can any of the regular posters with legal minds help? My confusion is about why the lack of prominence of the cancellation conditions was relevant. Looking at the CRA 2015 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/part/2), “prominence” only enters into things in section 64 if the a contractual term would normally be excluded from the possibility of being considered unfair because “(a) it specifies the main subject matter of the contract, or (b) the assessment is of the appropriateness of the price payable under the contract by comparison with the goods, digital content or services supplied under it”. If the term is not prominent then it can be unfair even if it is in those categories. But the unfair cancellation term didn’t fall into those categories, so why was prominence relevant in the judgement?

  • The real John says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:27

    Reread what you wrote. If what you say is the case, hiding terms and conditions in small print would be OK.

    Section 64 says that the fairness of the main subject is out of scope of the act. For example BA could charge £5000 for an economy ticket. This would seem to be unfair, but it is not for the govt to say that you can’t choose to pay £5000 for an economy ticket, provided that the price and the fact it is in economy is transparent and prominent.

    However, if BA tried to obfuscate the full price (perhaps by saying the fare is £100 and the taxes are £4900), or tried to hide the fact that it is in economy class, then the court can assess the price or subject of the contract for fairness under the CRA.

    Clauses about refunds I would not say are the main subject and thus always assessable for fairness.

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:27

    It was a Small Claims Court judgement which does not necessarily follow estabished practice (and indeed settlements do not set precedents in their own way). I can only believe that the £2,500 ticket price coloured the judgement of the court. If you took BA to court claiming that it wouldn’t refund a £19 flight to Spain I doubt you’d win.

    • meta says:

      6 Mar6 March 15:59

      But Small Claims Court will follow previous precedents and they did in this case. Not everything needs to be legislated by Parliament.

• Mco says:

  6 Mar6 March 12:44

  International travel is allowed mid May if all goes as per plans. Does that mean people can potentially go away for holidays for half term?

  • Jon says:

    6 Mar6 March 13:09

    I’ve booked St Lucia and will happily take a voucher if I need to cancel or cash if BA cancel. Anse Chastenet booked through booking.com cancellable the day before. I did the same thing for February half term and Easter multiple times and have lost nothing. So I definitely believe it’s worth a punt if you can easily cancel leave at work

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:23

    Depends what the quarantine rules are when you arrive home (unless you want your kids off school for a week) and indeed whether you have been vaccinated by May as few countries will let you in without it. You are looking at close to £1,000 for tests for two adults if not – £300 for 2 PCR tests before you go, £450 for the compulsory Government tests on your return plus whatever you pay for a pre-flight test before you depart for home. Kids over 12 may need to pay for testing too.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      6 Mar6 March 16:15

      That’s not true.

      Cyprus for example Will let you in with a test if you haven’t been vaccinated.

    • Lady London says:

      6 Mar6 March 16:33

      Someone tell me why PCR tests in the UK cost these ripoff prices.

      Going rate is around £50 – or even a bit less – in a number of other countries that are similar advanced Western economies

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        6 Mar6 March 20:15

        Set up shop selling them at £45 then!

    • Tyler Durden says:

      6 Mar6 March 16:37

      + kids over 5 need to book the day2/8 test on returning to the UK, so thats another £210

  • Aston100 says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:02

    I’m not going to bother rebooking anything for May half term.
    Chances of hassle and stress whether the holiday goes ahead or not are too much for me.
    Will try an Anna style plan C for late summer though.

    • Anna says:

      6 Mar6 March 15:10

      Plan D – rent a sunbed.

      • AJA says:

        6 Mar6 March 15:31

        🙂

        • Yuff says:

          6 Mar6 March 17:07

          End of May is quite a way off still.

• kitten says:

  6 Mar6 March 12:56

  someone said JL cards were available at some Sainsburys.

  • LC says:

    6 Mar6 March 17:21

    Thanks both

• KevMc says:

  6 Mar6 March 13:43

  Has anyone got any experience of moving a cancelled 2-4-1 ticket involving a lap infant who will no longer be lap infant age for the new dates?

  • Toby says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:07

    Hey Kev. We got told it was impossible so had to cancel, take ftv and rebook. I wasn’t pleased but couldn’t find another way.

    • KevMc says:

      6 Mar6 March 14:10

      I’ve been on the phone to them and explained that the website allowed me to move it, but wouldn’t confirm if she’d have a seat before I clicked ‘confirm’.

      She asked me to do it whilst she was on the phone, and it moved the booking, but my daughter was still on as a lap infant. She passed it over to management who have said they might be able to get her on, or at worst force an extra avios seat available (which I’d probably take tbh).

      I was more wondering what the law states on this; I assumed they’d have to move all passengers.

      • Nadeshka says:

        6 Mar6 March 14:21

        On this point if you book over the child’s birthday then they book the ticket as a lap infant, and then they book a separate seat for the child on a different PNR for the return for free. So in theory they could do the same on this case. The ticket I want to move my daughter already has a seat for the return for this reason, so really it’s just one flight they need to do but I think they’ll refuse…

  • Nadeshka says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:15

    I moved one which was a cancelled fare and was told that I would have to pay full fare for her. The two adults were booked in the 50% sale so I didn’t want to lose that discount, so they agreed to remove the infant from the ticket and shift the adults free of charge.
    We didn’t need reward availability for the new dates but the (now) child did, so findinf 1 rather than 3 seats made it easier.

    Comments here suggest in a cancellation there is no legal reason they shouldn’t provide you with a seat free of charge for the child, but ours was a domestic fare and I didn’t feel like fighting. As it was getting that ticket shifted was hard work – took nearly 2 hours on the phone with a very helpful agent, BAs IT is terrible for this stuff. In the end she still couldn’t ticket it and had to send it off.
    So yes they maybe they technically should provide it but getting an agent to agree do it and the system to agree may be impossible. See all the aggro around the 1 year ticket limit – nothing legally to say it has to be but a lot of agents will insist. As an aside this trip was a 3rd attempt at travel and was more than a year from original ticket so at least we got that!

    We have an international trip we need to shift too, so if you do manage to get it sorted please report back!

    • KevMc says:

      6 Mar6 March 14:49

      This was originally booked in Nov 19 for Oct 20 (wife’s 40th). We then had to cancel and rebook in July 20 for April 21, because of the 365 rule, so I was very surprised their online system even allowed me to move it forward to October tbh.

      It’s a booking for CPT, and we are restricted to the school holidays, so reward space isn’t available for Oct half term, and it’s always hard to get 2, never mind 3 seats direct, so as I mentioned earlier, I’d happily take paying for an extra avios seat for her if they force the availability at this stage.

      I’ll report back what happens once they get back to me (they said it may be up to 2 weeks, but hopefully within 72 hours).

  • Charlieface says:

    6 Mar6 March 20:33

    They should legally be providing you a seat for free. Getting them to agree might be hard though

• Ali M says:

  6 Mar6 March 13:56

  Curve metal card not recognised on nsandi any more 🙁 All I wanted to put through were some genuine savings 😭😭😭 says unrecognised card…fearing it’ll do that with the HMRC bit as well and then there’ll be no need to carry on with curve metal

  • Jay says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:12

    Was it a 5375 91 or 90 card number?

    • KP says:

      6 Mar6 March 14:31

      5375 91 doesn’t work for me

      • BP says:

        6 Mar6 March 16:11

        537591 is blocked by NS&I

        • Jay says:

          7 Mar7 March 10:26

          Yep, 91 blocked here, but 90 is still OK.

  • KevMc says:

    6 Mar6 March 14:50

    I have had a few transactions to Brighton work today and a few fail but still charge the underlying card – mixture of Solihull and beardy, so think (hope) it might just be a temp issue at Curve’s end.

    • Suck My Points says:

      6 Mar6 March 15:19

      I’ve had a few Curve transactions declined by the merchant, marked as refunded in Curve when I look in transaction details (shown under Go Back In Time), but charged to the underlying card.

      Never had this kind of problem with Curve before. Will it work itself out in a few days or do you have to contact Curve? Or the underlying card issuer?

      • KevMc says:

        6 Mar6 March 18:02

        I’ve had it a few times in the past and it normally works itself out within a week (ie the payment shows as pending on the charging card but is not actually taken). I have once had to contact them to sort a refund and it was sorted very quickly

  • Ali M says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:02

    537591…can this be changed?

    • Ali M says:

      6 Mar6 March 15:06

      but this had worked until Dec 2020 for me for that

    • Jay says:

      7 Mar7 March 10:31

      If you have a 91 card and ask for a replacement, they will send you a 90 personal card which ‘seem’ to work.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    6 Mar6 March 16:26

    Call them and ask

  • Eric says:

    6 Mar6 March 16:46

    How long after putting through money to NS&I can I withdraw it without it being flagged etc?

    • James. says:

      6 Mar6 March 17:14

      it takes 7 days after deposit for the funds to become available.

      With regards to withdrawing, not sure. So far I have not been queried and I deposit and withdraw more or less the same day. (don’t want to keep to high in there in case for KYC)

      • Eric says:

        6 Mar6 March 17:22

        So technically people can churn the points every 7 days…interesting. (assuming one don’t over do it and get flagged)

        • memesweeper says:

          6 Mar6 March 21:44

          blimey thats aggressive! i’d not do that repeatedly

      • kitten says:

        7 Mar7 March 12:58

        leaving for several months and rotating out more sensible.

        Look on it as a cost of doing business.

• KP says:

  6 Mar6 March 14:35

  NHS covid results not accepted by airlines anymore to my knowledge and also the RT-PCR is 99 pounds at Luton airport compared to 120 pounds at heathrow by Collison group.

  • lumma says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:34

    I think this came from the government as you’re only meant to get an NHS PCR test if you’re showing symptoms. They don’t want potentially infected people mixing with people without symptoms. If you want to book a test without symptoms you’ll be directed to a lateral flow test site.

    Ferry terminal at Harwich has stated for a couple of months that the NHS test isn’t valid for travel.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Mar6 March 16:18

    Expresstest @ Heathrow is £80 if you give a Heathrow flight number.

• HeadingForNoPoints says:

  6 Mar6 March 15:01

  How long are manual avios -> nectar conversions taking? I called last month and its been more than 10 days to move 50k avios…

  • Freddy says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:36

    When I did it at launch it was instant, haven’t tried recently though

  • Buxton says:

    6 Mar6 March 18:52

    Had my one from the 22nd completed yesterday, so nine working days. Also BA on the phone didn’t know if it would be ten calendar, or working days.

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