The HfP chat thread – Saturday 6th March

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• Anuj says:

  6 Mar6 March 15:09

  Have the government announced what will happen to quarantine requirements on return back to the U.K. from June ? It’s hard to keep track of all the changing rules

  • Anna says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:11

    No.

• Janeyferr says:

  6 Mar6 March 15:11

  My outbound avios booking to BCN in June has been cancelled. (The rebooking email moves me from 14:20 to 9:25) Does this mean I can cancel both ways for refund without penalty?

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:31

    Yes

    • Janeyferr says:

      6 Mar6 March 15:46

      Many thanks 🙂

  • Harry T says:

    6 Mar6 March 17:39

    If they are on the same PNR, then yes.

• r* says:

  6 Mar6 March 15:20

  A friend has a flight booked with air india from lhr, AI are only cancelling flights like 2 days before the flight date and its almost certain the flight will be cancelled.

  They need to fly as close to that date as possible but AI have already said that if its cancelled they wont rebook on BA (and also, bizarrely, that theres no indirect availability either for like 2 weeks after which doesnt line up with what they are selling on their site).

  Presumably if theyre forced to make a cash booking due to AI only offering a refund they would be able to MCOL the cost but would they be able to get the ticket booked via an S75 instead, considering they’d need the s75 completed in like 24-48 hrs?

  • John says:

    6 Mar6 March 15:35

    Ask the credit card company.

    S75 just means you can sue the cc company for the cost of the ticket too

    • A says:

      6 Mar6 March 15:44

      Credit card companies are not as a matter of law liable jointly and severally liable for statutory obligations like EU 261 rights – so don’t assume you will be able to recover from them.

      • kitten says:

        6 Mar6 March 16:29

        But they are liable for the fulfilment of the contract and for reasonable consequential losses (eg higher price of last minute replacement ticket).

        So if s.75 claim presented correctly, result should be the same for ticket and reasonable additional costs such as out of pocket costs for hotel and food in location stuck in till replacement flight.

        • A says:

          6 Mar6 March 17:19

          Yes, absolutely agree – subject of course to the inevitable terms in conditions of carriage containing either an airline-side cancellation right or a limitations on liability (query enforceability though)

      • Charlieface says:

        6 Mar6 March 19:18

        Where do you get that from?

        AIUI they definitely ARE liable for statutory obligations, as they are jointly liable under the contract, and the contact obviously includes any statutory obligations.

        I’ve heard of cases of people successfully claiming 600 EUR compo from credit cards

        • A says:

          6 Mar6 March 19:35

          Re-read what you wrote – they are jointly liable under the contract – so for contractual obligations (together of course with negligence claims arising out of).

          EU 261 is not a contractual obligation – unless an airline has contractualised it – now some have, because their T+Cs may say something to the effect of “if our T+Cs conflict with EU 261 then EU 262 shall prevail”. If they say that, then T+Cs will be interpreted in accordance with, and so will effectively imply into it all rights under, EU 261.

          But it it doesn’t (and there’s no misrepresentation around the agreement eg on the website saying if your flight is cancelled and out entitled to EU261 protection which they later don’t provide you) then your claim against airline is for breach of stat duty only – and that’s not something a CC company is liable for under s75.

          This is different from sale of goods statutory rights that are implied into contracts by virtue of SOGA.

          Can’t comment on cases I haven’t heard about or have zero details of – there are reasons above that may be the case – but but the above is a fairly standard Interpretation of the extent of s75.

  • KP says:

    6 Mar6 March 18:09

    Moral of the story is never book with AI, they will leave you high and dry !!

• Sam says:

  6 Mar6 March 16:29

  Question : I’ve booked the Hilton Salwa Beach Resort in an executive room for later in the year. Some friends want to join us but they seem to have removed the ‘executive room” option and so I’m wondering whether we will actually get our lounge access ?
  I know Rob has booked this too so just to make you aware that there could be an issue ………..Trying to get in touch with Hilton as I type this.

  • Rob says:

    6 Mar6 March 18:17

    If you mean me, Rob, I haven’t booked this. I know another reader did say they had.

    • Sam says:

      6 Mar6 March 18:31

      Sorry , just re-read your post about the resort and realised you said that you looked at it for October half term but didn’t book it. Still have no idea why our friends can’t book an executive room though ?

  • BJ says:

    6 Mar6 March 19:19

    Booking an executive room will not by itself guarantee you access to the lounge unless that is stated in the rate details and/or policies. If you are Diamond you will get lounge access regardless of room booked. Obviously, dependent on lounge being open.

  • Jay says:

    7 Mar7 March 10:36

    Hotels will often remove removes from sales inventory to manage (force) people to book other room types. Cal the hotel and speak to someone in Rooms Division and ask them to advise on the situation. It is common in Asia particularly to manage inventory like this.

• Eric says:

  6 Mar6 March 16:45

  Flight to Athens on BA CE was moved to a day earlier. Understand I can claim a full refund or call them to change my ticket to an ‘open dated’ ticket to use within 365 days of booking.

  If I decide to go for the latter, can I in the future request for a cash refund if I’m struggling to use it within 365 days? Got quite a cheap fare at £180 return so was hoping to use it still.

  • Anna says:

    6 Mar6 March 17:27

    I’ve not heard of an “open dated” ticket but the usual options are full refund or move the flight to a future date of your choosing (BA policy is to only re-route within 365 days of the original booking but several people have managed to get round that recently). Or a FTV, but there’s no reason to get one of these unless you want to extend the expiry of a BAPP companion voucher.

    • BJ says:

      6 Mar6 March 19:22

      Me either, started to get excited for a moment 🙂

  • Jonathan says:

    6 Mar6 March 17:37

    You do nothing until you’ve decided if you want refund or new dates. Once you’ve opted for new dates & ticket issued you can’t then ask for a refund (unless new flight also cancelled).

    • Eric says:

      6 Mar6 March 17:56

      Thanks both. So if my flight was meant to be 30/3 and was moved to 28/3, and I don’t want to decide on my future travel dates just yet, can I not ‘hold’ this ticket as an ‘open dated’ to use within 365 days?

      Do I not have to act on the new flight dates / accept or reject the changes?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        6 Mar6 March 18:02

        No you can’t hold it for 365 days as an open ticket.

        You have your new flight date to decide what you want to do (refund or choose new dates) otherwise it’ll get trickier if they put you down as a no show for you new flight

        • Eric says:

          6 Mar6 March 18:17

          Gah! So best option probably to just get refund as frankly hard for me to plan in advance (Covid + work)… Thanks all.

        • Lady London says:

          6 Mar6 March 18:38

          you could just call them and say the alternate flight doesn’t work for you and you will be back in contact when you have been able to work out what later date is convenient to you to rebook to ( of course you do also have the right to choose a refund instead if it turns out that works better for you).

        • meta says:

          6 Mar6 March 18:50

          Fyi some airlines such as Singapore Airlines allow open ended tickets if they cancel the flight. It basically means you have to call before your original flight. Your ticket is then put on hold and when you know the dates they will re-ticket it. It doesn’t even have to be within original ticket validity.

          However, BA is not one of them. They should learn a thing or two from other airlines. They would have to dish out far less refunds and people would book more.

• Anuj says:

  6 Mar6 March 16:57

  It seems if you’re 56 or above you can now get the vaccine. However, if your local centres are still 60 plus, you can use the national booking site instead which lets you book for 56 or over but has fewer locations.

  https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/book-coronavirus-vaccination/

  • Andrew says:

    6 Mar6 March 18:05

    Are you able to book anywhere or does it have to be near to your GP postcode? I’m not living near my registered GP anymore and wondering if that will affect things.

    • Dave B says:

      6 Mar6 March 18:19

      just put in the postcode you are living at. It will show your nearest set of centres , but time slots change by the minute.

      • Andrew says:

        6 Mar6 March 18:34

        Thanks Dave, useful to know.

      • Zoe says:

        7 Mar7 March 11:05

        Also having a slot ‘in your basket’ doesn’t seem to lock it, so unless you complete quickly it might not work. My husband found choosing the second or third time band offered, then picking a time part way through that band worked well.

  • Helen says:

    6 Mar6 March 18:56

    Is there anything similar for Scotland ?

    • BJ says:

      6 Mar6 March 19:30

      No, have to wait for your invite I think but those in group 8 are already being invited in some areas.

• BJ says:

  6 Mar6 March 19:35

  Should be, but be warned I cannot get it to work despite complaining multiple times. I guess I should escalate it.

• Craig says:

  6 Mar6 March 20:16

  Avios rewards appeared a few days after I opened the account. Started the switch after signing up.

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