The HfP chat thread – Monday 8th March

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• Andy says:

  8 Mar8 March 10:30

  Anyone got any recommendations for an IHG/Marriott or even Hilton hotel for a few days walking holiday in the UK? I don’t drive so reliant on public transport which I guess might make it a bit of a stretch but thought I’d ask..

  • memesweeper says:

    8 Mar8 March 10:39

    Holiday Inn Express Bodmin – Victoria Junction is close to Roche station. I’ve not stayed but would seem to be in the middle of walking country.

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      8 Mar8 March 11:13

      Do you mean close to Bodmin Parkway?

    • Rob says:

      8 Mar8 March 16:06

      100% need a car for this. It’s attached to a services on a dual carriageway.

      • Rob says:

        8 Mar8 March 16:16

        We’ve reviewed this hotel, don’t forget

      • Charlieface says:

        8 Mar8 March 20:02

        You are technically allowed to walk on a dual carriageway, but I get your point

        • Graeme says:

          8 Mar8 March 21:25

          I did that once. Got hit by a car doing 50mph and broke both bones in my leg. Probably wouldn’t recommend it.

        • QFFlyer says:

          9 Mar9 March 04:00

          Unless it’s a motorway. Almost all motorways are dual carriageways (maybe even all now, there were only ever a very small number of single carriageway motorways), not all dual carriageways are motorways.

  • memesweeper says:

    8 Mar8 March 10:43

    Another I’ve not stayed in is Hilton Snowdonia… looks great for walking but the public transport might be a challenge — nearest station Dolgarrog. I’m booked for later this year.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:20

    The Maidstone Hilton puts you on the edge of the North Downs. There (was) a bus service that will drop you in the downs – I think the bus actually goes as far as Sheppey, which might be an interesting walk too. Hotel itself is adequate but unremarkable, has a serviceable indoor pool (with jacuzzi/sauna/steam room) which is probably a pleasant way to unwind after a day’s walking. Restaurant onsite only okay – good enough for one night but you might want to take the bus or taxi into town if you’re staying multiple nights. There’s a country park Marriott a few miles down the road too but I don’t think it had much in the way of public transport.

  • BJ says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:23

    Options at Glasgow Airport could be inexpensive for both points or cash. Buses from there to Loch Lomond readily accessible. Also from Glasgow city centre, would only add an extra 20-25 minutes travel.

    • Sandra says:

      8 Mar8 March 13:33

      Would be better to stay in Glasgow itself. Plenty of options for trains and buses from there out to various places to walk. For instance public transport out to Milngavie for a stretch of the West Highland way to Drymen with public transport back, Balloch for Loch Lomond or Arrochar on Loch Long which has plenty of walks and hill climbs. In the event of poor weather you’ve also got other options like the museums, art galleries etc.

      • BJ says:

        8 Mar8 March 15:05

        Agreed, suggested the airport in event cost might be a factor as rates or points required should be lower. However, eating out at airport would be a (horrendous) limiting factor I overlooked so definitely better in the city..

  • FG says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:38

    Bath offers a great setting for a walking holiday with plenty of routes to explore, along the river and canals or the “Sky line” walk around the city. Also plenty of very pleasant villages near by if you have had enough of Georgian or Roman architecture!

    For Marriott go with Abbey Hotel or the new IHG both approx 5 mins walk from the railway station. Rob or Rhys reviewed the Abbey Hotel not so long ago.

    • Rhys says:

      8 Mar8 March 11:39

      I did! https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/10/09/review-abbey-hotel-bath/

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 Mar8 March 11:45

      Or the indigo which looks far superior

  • Andrew says:

    8 Mar8 March 19:33

    How far do you plan to walk and what kind of walking?

    Book into the Crowne Plaza at Reading

    Day one – Bus to Oxford, walk Oxford to Wallingford, bus to Reading
    Day two – Bus to Wallingford, walk to Reading
    Day three – Walk to Marlow, bus/train back to Reading

    Lots of mix and match options with the Thames Path.

• Jane says:

  8 Mar8 March 10:41

  I need to book a return flight for next February half term either tomorrow or Wednesday – the outbound was booked last week – can I change the booking to add the return or do I need to book another single ?

  • Anna says:

    8 Mar8 March 10:57

    Assuming it’s an avios flight – if it’s long haul and the taxes will be high booking it separately, you can call up (at midnight if you think the seats will go fast) and ask them to add the flights to your booking. If it’s RFS I just normally book it separately as the cost difference is tiny, if anything. There’s a slight chance of complications if one leg gets cancelled, of course, which is a consideration in these times but I prefer to avoid speaking to BA if I possibly can!
    If cash booking then hopefully you haven’t booked a one-way long haul!

    • Jane says:

      8 Mar8 March 11:04

      not long haul, short haul for skiing, a lovely cheap cash booking as we seem to be on a different half term to most. I was thinking I would prefer it to be a return, as, like you said it’s easier if one leg gets cancelled and wondering if the book with confidence allows me to change it from a single to a return without change fees – mostly it seems to talk about changing dates.

      • Anna says:

        8 Mar8 March 11:35

        Ah – we have the usual double whammy of half term plus Valentine’s weekend pricing to contend with, so I’m hoping my £40 easyJet flights to Spain at the start of May will be cancelled!
        There would be nothing stopping you from moving both legs under BWC; I actually don’t know how it works with cash fares and whether you can get BA to add the return on, I’ve only ever booked return journeys.

• NickAnon says:

  8 Mar8 March 11:00

  Anyone used Fast Track at Barbados?
  Blue Sky Luxury are offering an add on for $58 to ‘Expedite your arrival through immigration and customs’ is it worth it?
  And, flying Virgin Upper Class, do we get fast track anyway?

  • The uncivil servant says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:17

    Yes, two years ago my two young sons were invited to the cockpit of the Virgin 747 upon landing, afterwards we got fast tracked much to the chagrin of those in the fast track queue that had paid for it. Its pointless to pay for fast track however as it does not guarantee that your bag will come out first at BGI. So save your money for happy hour, a large spliff or two, or the Uncle George fish fry on Friday night at Oistins

  • The uncivil servant says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:29

    yes, but my answer was banned (again) by board admin for reasons best known to themselves

    • Rhys says:

      8 Mar8 March 11:32

      Not banned, just went into the queue for moderation 🙂

      • Leighton says:

        8 Mar8 March 11:43

        I’m trying to find the guidelines for posting, can you point me in the right direction? ta

        • Rob says:

          8 Mar8 March 11:55

          Good luck with that 🙂

          Even Rhys and I do not have shared guidelines. We have a rule that we do not question each others decisions, partly because Rhys is more switched on as to what is acceptable in polite society these days than me ….

        • Rob says:

          8 Mar8 March 11:57

          If we published it, there wouldn’t be much point in having it.

        • BJ says:

          8 Mar8 March 12:31

          Sounds like they’re something similar to the British Constitution…

        • Lady London says:

          8 Mar8 March 13:04

          basically we’re all nice here except the odd troll particularly on a Sunday. although come to think of it the trolls seem to have given up recently probably due to the niceness they got back.

          Basically try to stay on a vaguely travel- related topic ( or the odd MS discussion that might help some people support their travel habit), you can challenge anyone provided you do it in a respectful way. so some words like iddiots may make your post disappear.

          Links to providers on the site do help the site keep going and pay for people like the lovely Rhys/Anika/Sinead – so mentions of other affiliate channels to those same places we may buy are not polite and also likely to be removed.

          As one of the naughtier and sometimes off-topic posters here I am profoundly grateful to Rob for his tolerance (although I’m extra careful when Rhys is on patrol).

          Welcome @Leighton there’s a lot to learn here and people are fun, interesting and mostly helpful

        • Rob says:

          8 Mar8 March 14:26

          Sounds about right …. play the ball, not the man etc

  • Peter K says:

    8 Mar8 March 12:55

    I’ve not used it but in “normal times” the queue can be long and slow to get through the hot airport. Our plane arrived after 2 others and it took about an hour IIRC to get through immigration.

  • Diydegsy says:

    8 Mar8 March 19:57

    I would completely disagree as we travelled BA business and we were not given fast track and it’s one of the worst airports that I have been to for the queues so if I went again I would definitely pay unless you don’t mind the queuing? The best hit for us was we came back in first and we were able to use the IAM check in which the best I have ever experienced. It’s a totally separate building, only 2 other people in the lounge, personal service and taken to board the plane by limousine, very good.

    • GaryE says:

      8 Mar8 March 20:15

      If you are upper class you should be one of the first off the plane so should have no issue getting thru the airport. The only issue as mentioned above if you arrive after another plane ie BA or Jet Blue then the wait can be long. Suggest you check arrivals for your date and then work out whether it is worth paying for it.

      • NickAnon says:

        9 Mar9 March 20:38

        Good idea, its been soooo long since I planned anything, I cant think how to look for arrivals that far ahead. How can I find that out?

• Aston100 says:

  8 Mar8 March 11:01

  Weekly Sainsburys Nectar offers continue to worsen for me.
  10 offers loaded today, totalling 140 points.

  The highest was a few weeks ago where I was offer I believe about 550 points for somewhere around 10 items I think.

  So as I said last week, I’m pretty much ready to go back to Tesco and other supermarkets as I am not getting anywhere near the offers reported by the masses on here.

  Curious if anyone is seeing a decline in their Sainsburys offers.

  • Scott says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:13

    Much the same for a lot of us.

    Still had a 2 or 3 decent offers this week, but not going out of my way for 10 points on something to be honest…..but to coin the Tesco phrase, “Every little helps”.
    Most of what I buy at Sainsbury is specifically bonus point offers anyway.

    Have managed to pull in around 600 points this week with some offers (<£20 shop) and petrol.

  • Sam says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:15

    Same here but I did the main shop elsewhere for a week or two so wondered if that impacts the offers. Max 40 points for an item this week. Previous weeks have had 200 with a few 1×0 ones

  • BJ says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:26

    Only six here, all 10 or 20 points.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 Mar8 March 11:46

      Same though I managed to get 400 for £40 spend

    • kitten says:

      8 Mar8 March 13:07

      I’ve bern getting the same for weeks. But the one time I went into Sainsbury’s I forgot to use my Nectar card. Duh. No wonder Nectar think I’m useless.

      • BJ says:

        8 Mar8 March 15:08

        Just tak your receipt to CS desk next time.

  • Red Flyer says:

    8 Mar8 March 12:41

    Same here and my wife says the paper coupons at checkout have stopped now too – are these replaced by the weekly app offers instead? Shame if so as used to always have a 400 for £35 fuel pop out which was handy.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 Mar8 March 13:12

      Yup no till spits for my last 4 shops.

      Don’t know if it’s related to the current lockdown as I hadn’t been since December prior to sainsburys tie up
      With avios.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        8 Mar8 March 13:16

        I haven’t had a till thing in probably 6 months. I’d genuinely thought they had stopped doing them and thrown away the machines…

    • Anuj says:

      8 Mar8 March 14:20

      I regularly get till ones despite having the app. I got one last week for 440 points if I bought a £5 Nivea face cream. I’m assuming it was due to Mother’s Day.

    • Andrew says:

      8 Mar8 March 14:54

      What’s really annoying is when you can here the voucher printer print, but there’s clearly no paper in it.

  • Peggerz says:

    8 Mar8 March 13:03

    Hi @Aston100.
    I’m glad you acknowledged this. I have been a Sainsbury’s shopper for 20 years, it being my local supermarket. Over the last 4 weeks I have received 15-20 offers weekly and have gained an extra 700+ Nectar points on £50+ spend. This week it was a derisory 240 for the same spend. This is highly unusual, and I wonder if it is a ‘re-set’ due to the Nectar/Avios recent link. If it goes on for much longer I may take a break from Sainsbury’s. Or maybe that would be the answer anyway, cut the spend to entice them to ‘up’ the offers?

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      8 Mar8 March 13:13

      Min has been cut in half this week, the lowest I’ve had in probably a year.

      Something odd is going on here, mayve they gave away too many baked bean cans to new or reactivated cards out? Anyway out of protest I shall buy my loaf of bread, apples and milk elsewhere tomorrow 😜

      • The real John says:

        8 Mar8 March 14:37

        Sainsbury’s is the only supermarket I can get to without hassle, so my shops will just cost what they used to before new nectar

  • Jay says:

    8 Mar8 March 14:29

    Huge decline, now not worth the slog to collect points for 10 points here or there.

  • Andrew says:

    8 Mar8 March 14:52

    I’ve switched to Tesco for my main shop for last, this and next week.

    Cash is king and as they’ve been kind enough to send me three £10 off £40 vouchers – it would be rude not to use them.

  • AndyW says:

    8 Mar8 March 15:07

    Exactly the same, gone from very generous to lots of 10 bonus points..

  • AJA says:

    8 Mar8 March 16:02

    HI Aston Yes the Nectar bonus offers have reduced for me too. I still had 18 items but the majority were 10 or 20 points although I did have a couple of 200 points. Total of 720 points if I bought every item which is significantly down on the 1300 points I was getting. I went shopping today and only used offers giving me 310 points but I tend not to just buy for the sake of the points. No paper vouchers at the till for the last 3 weeks either.

• Track says:

  8 Mar8 March 11:03

  Wisdom of crowds: if drawing from UK ATM from Bendy linked to Clarity, will it go as cash or purchase?

  • The real John says:

    8 Mar8 March 12:11

    Purchase

• Alan says:

  8 Mar8 March 11:27

  For the last couple of days l have been getting an “invalid card number” error when trying to top up my Earnies via Bendy Metal.

  Before I make contact about this, is anyone else getting the same errors (others have mentioned declines but not to my knowledge invalid card number).

  • The Urbanite says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:34

    A lot of people are. Time to find an alternative.

  • Raveon says:

    8 Mar8 March 11:45

    Anyone had any success since yesterday? Or is it completely game over now?

  • The real John says:

    8 Mar8 March 12:12

    Curve isn’t working on many online purchases for me not just MS

    • memesweeper says:

      8 Mar8 March 12:27

      indeed — it’s *very* hit and miss at the moment

    • Anna says:

      8 Mar8 March 12:31

      Someone mentioned a 3DS (?) issue last week. Mine is being declined for everything except OVO Energy at the moment.

    • Wollhouse says:

      8 Mar8 March 12:49

      Yep, just had mine declined for an non MS transaction under £100! Not v helpful…

      • C says:

        9 Mar9 March 01:12

        Had mine declined for a £100 transaction. As the card was declined, I tried three times before using another card (real purchase, just have my profile set up with Curve). I now have 3x purchases on Curve and 1x on another card, but only 1 completed purchase (on another card). I have messaged Curve to complain – otherwise they’re profiting by £300.

    • Grant says:

      8 Mar8 March 13:21

      I think somone mentioned that they reported their card lost and got a new one which fixed the 3DS issue.

    • The real John says:

      8 Mar8 March 14:39

      Wonder if people failing ernie have tried it with smaller amounts? Maybe £50 or £25 (but may take too much time to be worthwhile)

      • andy says:

        8 Mar8 March 16:07

        I tried with £100 today and got declined

  • Harrier25 says:

    8 Mar8 March 15:13

    What are you planning on doing? Calling Curve CS and informing them that you can’t currently recycle money using their card with the government’s savings bank. Good luck with that, Alan 😂

• Jen says:

  8 Mar8 March 11:40

  Seeking some HFP wisdom,

  I was hoping to clear out my MR balance with Amex to BA Exec club before cancelling the card but I’ve had a name change due to marriage, this is updated on BA but not Amex, is there a sneaky way to get these to BA (via Iberia perhaps) without having to go through the faff and slowness of the Amex name change?

  Thanks

  • The real John says:

    8 Mar8 March 14:40

    If your BA account was already linked, try 1000 and see if it goes through anyway

  • C says:

    8 Mar8 March 15:09

    I found the Amex name change to be super easy compared to some banks, like HSBC who require you to physically go into branch with your marriage cert (which I’m not risking for a while) or send it to a branch by recorded delivery. You just fill in the form and send a pic of your marriage cert and new ID if applicable. Mine was updated within 2 days from what I remember.

• Nick ONS says:

  8 Mar8 March 11:55

  Guys I have earnt my BA companion voucher on a BAPP card. As I also have a Amex Reward card can I close my BAPP card and still retain the voucher?

  • Benilyn says:

    8 Mar8 March 12:12

    yes

    • Benilyn says:

      8 Mar8 March 12:13

      Obv just make sure it has posted to your BA account

  • The real John says:

    8 Mar8 March 12:12

    T&Cs say no but unenforced

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