Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 17th March

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page.  If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here.  This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

Comments (342)

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

  • John Gallagher says:

    I overpaid my HMRC tax recently using my Curve metal card. I requested online a refund direct to my bank account but it has been credited back to my Curve Card.
    Is this standard practice or have I don’t something wrong here?

    • Matt Graham says:

      This happened on my Curve card recently for a refund. The reason turned out to be that the original transaction predated their migration from Wirecard. They agreed to transfer the balance to my bank account after a little bit of hassle.

    • John says:

      Yes

    • TGLoyalty says:

      It makes sense especially if it was in the past 90 days.

      Most companies do this as it’s part of their anti money laundering processes

    • Steve says:

      Must be a timeframe on it (maybe the 90 day suggestion). I ended up overpaying via Bendy and 9 months later was refunded by cheque after filing my return

  • Andrew says:

    Just to confirm re the BAPP extra avios offer posted on Monday, I put through a £2.70 spend at Tesco on Monday and have received:
    – 4 Avios base points (posted yesterday)
    – 4 Avios for “Avios Offer” (posted today)

    • Stu N says:

      I just hope they don’t send an email every time I use my BAPP until I’ve used the offer up, that will get tedious.

    • AJA says:

      Interesting, bonus still not posted for me although the base transaction on Monday has. I did receive the email confirming use. Also need to see if it was a one off.

  • Steve says:

    Creative via Bendy to Ernie data point. Works as normal, no issues at all.

    • John says:

      Do you have personal or commercial bendy

    • James M says:

      Declined for me on HSBC WE but worked on MBNA Horizon.

      Here’s where it was interesting; I have “fronted” off, the HSBC decline shows a fee in the payment amount; MBNA payment didn’t, possibly why it went through ok.

      Also personal / 5375.

  • Rob says:

    Hi is anyone else having problems with logging into the Hilton “buy points” page I keep getting an error Message

    • Jonathan says:

      Try a different server

    • southlondonphil says:

      Just tried logging in to my HH account and was able to bring the Buy Points page up okay. They’ve initiated (yet) another “100% Bonus” offer for purchases between 15th March 2021 and 11th May 2021.

      Unlike the previous bonus offer that ended a week ago this time the annual limit has been raised to 160,000 points so 320,000 points can be had for $1600 (~£1200). The minumum amount to get the bonus has also dropped from 15,000 to only 10,000 points.

  • Gruntfuttock says:

    Following up on the sighting of a BA A380 yesterday evening by some posters I can confirm it was a non revenue positioning flight from Madrid to Heathrow for maintenance there. BA9175 G-XLEL for those wishing to cross it off in their spotters book. 😊

    • Doug M says:

      Pretty reliable source on FT posted BA flights increasing in number in May, and A380 flights MIA/LAX/SFO starting in June or July, can’t remember exact.

      • Rhys says:

        BA has been keeping the A380s very active rather than leaving them for long term storage, which would support a return to service sooner rather than later.

        • DeB20 says:

          Yesterday I tried a dummy booking to Dubai for four days (possible business trip, I needed a quote) and the return flight was showing as being operated by an A380.

          Of course, they could change the actual aircraft at a later date!

          • DeB20 says:

            Should add that I was looking at BA only, although Emirates is slightly cheaper on those dates and also showing A380 operated flights.

  • CH says:

    Hive mind: can Morrisons gift cards be used to pay for another Morrisons (own) gift card, effectively extending the expiry? The T&Cs on the back suggest they have a hard expiry rather than from last use, I think.
    Need to decide whether to curtail my spending…

    • Polly says:

      Think that’s pushing it. Always Amazon, John Lewis/Waitrose, restaurant cards etc if getting close to expiry. And petrol, if you ever need to drive again!

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      Do they stock One4All gift cards? That can give you a lot of flexibility

      • Memesweeper says:

        Not much — they can’t be used for part payments online. A right PITA to use them up.

    • Amar says:

      Yes you can – I did that last November a few times just because I needed to change the denominations

    • CH says:

      Thanks all. Much appreciated.

  • Andrew says:

    For those aged 50 and older, the national booking service is now officially open for your vaccinations – although I think it was taking bookings yesterday before the landing page was updated.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      It drops a year every so often well before the page is updated to the next group

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    Thanks Crafy for your response to my post yesterday.

    I know there model relatively well, will do some more research on it. I will copy it by having a groomers and the position is next to a successful vets. Will have genuinely knowledgeable staff, not just ones capable of using Google for the answers. Will price match them as well when customers ask, couldn’t afford to do that all the time. Not going to sell live animals though, I view it is unethical.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      Unethical to sell pets from a shop because pets need a stable environment and finding ethically bred ones is a pain

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