The HfP chat thread – Monday 15th March

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Chris says:

15 Mar15 March 05:32

A useful offer on my BAPP card this morning. Spend £1 get 2 extra avois up to a total of 4000 avois.
- Andrew says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 05:58
  
  + 1
  
  I also have £100 back on a £500+ Qatar Airways spend on my Plat. Valid until 15 May / first 10,000 users to save.
- SwissJim says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 06:19
  
  +1
  
  But the offer is badly worded. We all already get 1.5 Avios / £ so the assumption is it’s 2 bonus Avios / £ (not 0.5 bonus Avios) – especially as the offer says anywhere and we already get 3 Avios / £1 at BA.
  
  Will is stack with (or muck up…) other existing offers e.g. Morrisons?
  
  It is one time or cumulative – must be the latter surely else avoid £1 first spend!
  - Anna says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 06:39
    
    It look clear to me that it’s 2 avios per £1 and not 2 bonus avios, unless the wording is completely wrong. I would imagine it will stack with other offers though.
    - SwissJim says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 06:55
      
      It is. Except then they’d have reduced the avios for BA spend, which can’t be right ! Either way not life changing so let’s wait and see
  - Kevin C says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 09:20
    
    I have made two purchases this morning and have received two ‘you used your offer’ emails so definitely cumulative.
- Andrew says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 06:42
  
  My reading of it is that we now get a total of 2 Avios per pound rather than 1.5 and this is good for the first £2000 of spending (earning a total of 4000 Avios instead of 3000) so basically it’s a max 1000 Avios bonus (£8) so not hugely exciting but better than nothing.
  - ChrisA says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 08:27
    
    I queried this via chat, and received the following response. The second sentence provides some clarification.
    
    “These are only offer bonus avios, not in additional to the usual avios. For example, you earn 1.5 avios on usual purchase, as per offer terms, you’ll earn 2 avios per £ spent”
    - AJA says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 08:37
      
      That’s interesting. In which case don’t go buying any flights on BA as you won’t get a bonus.
      
      It says in T&Cs “Spend £1 get a flat 2 Avios.”
      
      I think its more likely to be a bonus 0.5 Avios although you could read that as getting 2 Avios per £ in addition to the normal Avios you earn.
      
      Going food shopping later today so will see what posts in a few days and report back.
      - ChrisA says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 08:40
        
        Yes that’s what I thought – that, and the fact that I have received inaccurate information via chat on a couple of occasions before. I think, as you say, the best thing is just to see what posts.
    - pauldb says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 09:19
      
      My chat answer was the the offer is independent of the base: you’ll get 1.5 plus 2.
      - Andrew says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 09:40
        
        Sounds like the chat agents have no more information than we do and are just reading it and guessing as we are.
      - SJ says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 10:48
        
        likewise, i just got told it is 2 bonus avios on top of the usual 1.5
      - Rob says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 10:51
        
        So why do the terms say a ‘flat’ 2 Avios?
      - pauldb says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 12:11
        
        Flat as in not varying by merchant: no BA premium? I’m stretching here! 🙂
      - Anna says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 12:15
        
        I’ve got a £2k refund from BA, does this mean they’ll take 4k avios off me?!!
Paul465 says:

15 Mar15 March 06:27

Anyone else having problems with Curve Card again? Seemed to have been fixed last week but again yesterday and today card declines both in a shop and paying my Amex bill.
- Ian M says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 06:30
  
  No problems for me, but I never try to pay Brighton with it
- PK says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 06:59
  
  Yesterday I had problems with the app in android ,so switched to ios and worked fine yesterday in paying amex bill .Still not working in android.Keeps getting errors like no internet connection and this request cannot be processed now.
  - PK says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 07:07
    
    I tried now , payment went through yesterday and today it’s a decline.
- lumma says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 07:09
  
  Declined in both amex app and through mobile browser this morning
- Sprout says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 08:54
  
  Could someone please remind me if paying Brighton via Curve METAL with Beardy behind incurs cash advance fees? I’ve made a small transaction to test it but I don’t think any fees show up until the statement date which is some way off.
  I was stung in the past when using the Blue card and am trying to avoid a repeat occurrence. thanks for any advice.
  - Jonathan says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 11:11
    
    If you got hit with fees on underlying card previously then you will do again regardless of your Curve status.
    
    The only thing Metal does is remove the Curve 1.5% fronting surcharge. Curve still pass through the same MCC to your credit card so from Virgin side the transaction appears the same.
    - Sprout says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 15:03
      
      Thanks – I’ll wait for the statement and the result of the small transaction.
  - Connor says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 16:30
    
    No fees with Beardy. Fees appear about a day after transaction posts normally.
- Jay says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 19:54
  
  +1 declined for Ernie.
Yuff says:

15 Mar15 March 06:34

Germany have relaxed the quarantine restrictions for Germans returning from Mallorca, although Mallorca isn’t relaxing the lockdown any further over Easter to protect the summer tourist season.flights from Germany sold out in hours, people want foreign holidays.
Manya says:

15 Mar15 March 06:52

Any suggestions on how to use the Mandarin Oriental spend £500 get £100 back at a non-listed location? Would like to use the offer at either the Bodrum or Dubai properties but they aren’t on the list.
- Chrisasaurus says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 07:12
  
  I would doubt very much that you can
- Harry T says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 07:58
  
  You won’t be able to use the offer at a hotel that isn’t on the list. Your only possible option would be to somehow buy a gift card from one of the hotels that is on the list, and then use it at another MO that isn’t. I don’t even know if that’s possible though, and it’s a lot of faff to use an offer that isn’t even that useful in the context of how much your average MO will cost.
  - Lady London says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 12:48
    
    Would strongly recommend anyone who will stay at an MO join their programme.
    
    Like MO it’s true that it’s aimed at the Amex Centurion class (or better) but there are some nice benefits. The newsletter they send out is a good read too – reminds me of the time I was a student in Paris and dreamed of the bits of the world I would see…they get the tone just right.
Bs says:

15 Mar15 March 07:03

Rob/Rhys: when I try to access the site with my VPN (NordVPN) on, I get an error 403 – forbidden by Nginx. I can only get around this by turning the VPN off. Which I don’t want to do. Have you changed settings? Your site has worked with this VPN before!
- Rob says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 08:53
  
  What country is the VPN set to? We blocked a German hosting company that was trying to hack the site.
  - BS says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 10:20
    
    Country set to UK
- KS says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 09:19
  
  I have the same from some of NordVPN servers. Just disconnect and reconnect, most of the time it works.
  - Rhys says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 09:40
    
    Where is the VPN location?
    - APPL says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 10:40
      
      Had the same problem with NordVPN and and UK IP yesterday.
      - kitten says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 12:51
        
        Nordvpn has really deteriorated and I will be following @TGLoyalty’s advice to switch to Purevpn quite soon.
      - Aston100 says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 14:48
        
        I feel it is better to go with a less popular VPN.
    - KS says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 21:49
      
      Generally I set it to UK. Rarely I set it to US. I don’t think I faced any issues while routing through US.
Mike says:

15 Mar15 March 07:32

I have the offer on my BAPP ” Get 2 Avios up to a maximum of 4000 Avios for every £1 anywhere until 6 June 2021. Offer only available to the first 80,000 Cardmembers who save the offer to their Card” – is this an extra 2 Avios per £1 or an extra 0.5 Avios as I already earn 1.5 Avios per £1 ???
- Anna says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 07:52
  
  See the first post of the day …
- AJA says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 08:27
  
  The 6 June date is confusing as the actual T&Cs state “Offer Valid until 15 June 2021”
Andrew MS says:

15 Mar15 March 07:35

I rebooked my Qatar flights to Hanoi yesterday for December. Really disappointed that my new ticket does not include lounge access or free seat selection- it did when i made my original booking
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 07:45
  
  Cash or reward seats?
  - Andrew MS says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 08:10
    
    Cash ticket
- Andrew says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 07:53
  
  You will still get lounge access if the original ticket was booked before the change.
  - Andrew MS says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 08:13
    
    when i view my booking i am given the option to pay £30 for Oryx lounge or £80 for another lounge when transiting in Doha and £300 to pay for seat selection (x4) so i appear to be in the “classic “ seats
    - Andrew MS says:
      
      15 Mar15 March 08:15
      
      And i originally booked in January 2020
      - Andrew says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 08:18
        
        Yes that’s just showing the standard information – the lounge agent will check the original booking date and you’ll be allowed in.
      - Andrew MS says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 09:14
        
        Qatar just sent me a message
        “ We have checked and the ticket has been reissued the new fare rules apply to it. The seat selection and lounge access are now purchasable. For further assistance please let us know.”
      - Andrew MS says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 09:16
        
        Their lounge in Stockholm only opens three hours after the flight has departed so i was never going to get in that one anyway
      - Andrew says:
        
        15 Mar15 March 09:25
        
        Well it’s certainly worth checking at the lounge entrance in Doha, you know how call centre staff don’t always know the on the ground operating procedures very well.
Bobri says:

15 Mar15 March 07:45

Rob, any remote chance that a Marriott £50 off £200 spend is making a comeback?
- Rob says:
  
  15 Mar15 March 09:15
  
  No idea, I don’t get advance notice of these.
  - Bobri says:
    
    15 Mar15 March 10:03
    
    Thanks