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The HfP chat thread – Monday 15th March

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Comments (347)

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

  • Bunter says:
    15 Mar15 March 08:00

    Should I accept 300,000 Virgin Flying Club miles plus two companion vouchers/UG vouchers in lieu of a £2000 cash refund for a cancelled flight? Newbe, thanks!

    • Rob says:
      15 Mar15 March 08:51

      In theory the two options are roughly equal with the added value from the upgrade vouchers. However, you need to take a view on Virgin Atlantic surviving long enough for you to use the miles. In your scenario I would be taking the cash because the miles offer is not ‘too good’.

      • Benilyn says:
        15 Mar15 March 09:06

        Are the upgrade vouchers subject to reward availability or can they be used anytime, that might be worth considering.

    • Joe says:
      15 Mar15 March 09:22

      In the long term, and if you take a view on VA surviving, that’s a reasonable offer in my view, but £2k is a lot of money to gamble with!

      • Lady London says:
        15 Mar15 March 12:37

        You could book again immediately using a UK credit card for at least £1 of the total cost assuming total is over £100 each flight. This would give you Section 75 cover.

        In some ways taking the voucher(s) and doing this would be even better than the free move to another flight EU261 law would give you.

        We all wish Virgin well as they seem to be a very decent company to work for and Richard Branson has given huge extra amounts of support that he didn’t have to give. However if Rob is now saying consider possible futures I’ll just note this is quite new from Rob. We wish Virgin well.

        • ankomonkey says:
          15 Mar15 March 13:53

          You mean Rob’s transferring VS to HH?!??!!!!?!!!!

          • Rob says:
            15 Mar15 March 14:48

            I would have said the same if Avios had offered a similar deal. It simply isn’t generous enough to warrant locking up £2k.

          • Mouse says:
            15 Mar15 March 17:51

            Rob, has your mind changed since the article last year about the BA offer to take avios at ~0.8p/avios instead of a refund? That article was neutral-to-positive on the offer

          • Rob says:
            15 Mar15 March 18:05

            As you can always cash out via Nectar at 0.8p, taking Avios at 0.8p is not a terrible idea but it really depends how many you have of course. Chance of IAG going bust is slim. You can probably buy them back at 1p in a future ‘buy Avios’ sale, albeit not 0.8p.

          • Peter K says:
            15 Mar15 March 19:31

            😁

  • Juni says:
    15 Mar15 March 08:06

    Deposited into Ernie with Curve yesterday. Charge hit my curve and underlying card but no money showed up in my Ernie account and there is no history of it in my transaction history list. Anyone else have this issue before? Should I just wait 1-2 days to see if it delayed? If nothing shows up is it best to call Ernie?

    • Genghis says:
      15 Mar15 March 08:09

      Wait until Wednesday whereupon the rec should have happened. If it doesn’t show then, speak to NSI.

    • Daniel says:
      15 Mar15 March 09:30

      I’m having the same issue… made a deposit on Friday, money already out but no sign on Ernie. Was told by the chat function that it can take 7 days. I did make the point that previous attempts were instant and I got the email receipt straight away.

      Was the underlying card, Beardy out of interest?

      • Genghis says:
        15 Mar15 March 09:55

        It’s happened to me a couple of times now. First time it happened was with £25k as I was moving some money around. I called them up and was told having cookies turned on and not using a VPN was integral to the process. I don’t know whether this is true or not. But that there is a reconciliation at t+2 working days to pick up payments which have been received but not applied to accounts. When it has happened since, it has sorted itself out.

      • Juni says:
        15 Mar15 March 10:17

        Keep me updated on what happens in your case! Seems like this weekend maybe there were issues with their system now things are delayed/backlogged.

      • Jane says:
        15 Mar15 March 10:26

        I deposited Friday and money showing in NS&I already so you need to keep an eye on it. underlying IHG.

  • JamesH says:
    15 Mar15 March 08:33

    Manchester – Sydney for us today. Etihad lowest bid upgrade to Business accepted for the second leg (probably an empty flight) and I’m just rather excited to be back moving again!

    • AJA says:
      15 Mar15 March 08:40

      I’m pleased for you. Hope you have a good flight. And enjoy the move back to Oz.

    • Juni says:
      15 Mar15 March 08:44

      Aussie is letting you into the country?

    • Manya says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:26

      7 or so years ago 4 of us paid ~£250 each to upgrade the AUH – BKK leg on Etihad. Having only flown on BA Club World prior to this point, it was such was such a pleasure to sample a real business class service. Enjoy.

    • dragonfly says:
      15 Mar15 March 11:16

      👍

    • kitten says:
      15 Mar15 March 12:40

      what did you bid?

  • Stu p says:
    15 Mar15 March 09:33

    Anyone know why Qatar haven’t added their DXB flights for the winter schedule?

    • Tyler Durden says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:50

      probably due to the UK government putting DXB on the red list, Qatar are probably waiting for that to be lifted before allowing bookings?

    • Benilyn says:
      15 Mar15 March 16:04

      Waiting for this too. September/October is already available

  • Jody says:
    15 Mar15 March 09:51

    easyJet have now cancelled my inbound Corfu – Gatwick flight in May (outbound was already cancelled last week). Good news for me as it means I can just let the cancelled flights sit in my account until I’m ready to rebook.

    • Matthew says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:31

      Played it perfectly 👌

      • Jody says:
        15 Mar15 March 10:45

        Lol, cheers Matthew! And thanks for your encouragement for going for it again. I do wonder how many people there are that have played the system to get flights wherever and whenever they want for cheap!

        • Matthew says:
          15 Mar15 March 11:24

          Not many. The flight dates I’ve moved to are £3200 return for 4 now. Feeling pretty happy paying £200 odd total including hold luggage 👍

    • Alan says:
      15 Mar15 March 14:48

      Is there a limit on how long you can let them sit unused.

      Thanks to Anna’s tip off about booking cheap soon to be cancelled flights, I now have 5 return, with hopefully a couple more to come, cancelled flights.

  • Simon says:
    15 Mar15 March 09:56

    Sorry if this had been mentioned upthread, but is anyone else still awaiting Virgin points to credit their FC account post-statement? Typically, my statement arrives on the 11th of each month and points are either in my FC account simultaneously or at worst 24 hours later. This month no points have arrived and it’s been four days since my statement. Just curious how widespread this might be? I saw a brief comment a couple of days ago, but nothing since, so just wondered if this was limited to the very few or else it was a broader issue?

  • Bobri says:
    15 Mar15 March 10:07

    Marriott question: booked a stay for 8 nights, now only plan to stay 4 nights and then move to another Marriott that just opened and wasn’t bookable before. If I edit the 8 night stay online the website tries to rebook me at a current rate, which has gone up by EUR 30 per night. Can I just show up at the hotel and on day 1 let them know it will be a 4 night stay only and stay 4 days at the original (cheaper) rate? The rate is a Bonvoy member rate, booked via website.

    • Stu p says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:28

      I’ve had this in the past and just emailed the hotel direct to amend the booking and got it at the original rate.

      • Bobri says:
        15 Mar15 March 11:09

        Called them – same result. Stay shortened with the original rate honored

    • TGLoyalty says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:31

      Depends on the rate as they can be subject to repricing.

      If its just gone up and it isn’t because there was a special offer i.e stay 5 nights+ save extra % then they should just let you leave

    • ChrisC says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:33

      They would reprice it to a 4 night stay at the current rate when you check in.

    • DJ says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:46

      It’s better to phone the hotel in advance. If you just show up at the hotel and ask at check in, then they might charge you early departure fee.

  • Vasco says:
    15 Mar15 March 10:45

    You get free supplementary Gold cards if you have an Amex plat. Can you give one of them to yourself?

    • Genghis says:
      15 Mar15 March 10:47

      Yes

      • Blair says:
        15 Mar15 March 10:50

        What’s the advantage to doing so?

        • Ste Cox says:
          15 Mar15 March 10:57

          I do it to separate spending, me and my other half use the supp gold cards on my account as a kind of joint account and keep the platinum (and supp plat) for our own spending

        • mark2 says:
          15 Mar15 March 11:16

          and for ShopSmall

          • Ste Cox says:
            15 Mar15 March 11:21

            and for when amex mess up and put the 100% back on £100 spend at waitrose on every card 😛

        • ao40 says:
          15 Mar15 March 12:51

          They were offering 5,000 MR points for requesting a supplementary card, which included an extra one in your own name oddly. I also get almost all of the same offers as on the Plat, which can be handy for any I want to use more than once.

      • Vasco says:
        15 Mar15 March 11:23

        Thanks, follow-up question, do you then get the 2x points bonus on fx and airline spend?

        • Ste Cox says:
          15 Mar15 March 11:37

          Nope, its not a full Gold card. its the same points as the main Plat.

          • Vasco says:
            15 Mar15 March 11:42

            Ah, damn, I knew I wasn’t being as smart a I thought I was xD Thanks anyway

        • Blair says:
          15 Mar15 March 12:54

          Yeah without the bonus points for airline spend, not sure I can be bothered to have to juggle more cards. And clasp at my imaginary pearls whenever I think I’ve lost one of them.

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