The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 17th March

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• Jon says:

  17 Mar17 March 08:45

  Has anyone had any experience of getting BA ticket validity extended / booking beyond original ticket validity, for a BA ticket that has already been rerouted onto another airline, on a route BA no longer flies?!

  I booked LHR-KUL for August last year using Avios and a 241 voucher. Flight got cancelled and was re-routed (with some difficulty) onto Malaysia Airlines for June 2021. I’ve been offered an alternative date, but it’s less than ideal as it now makes for a shorter trip, so I’m looking at options to rebook for later in the year.

  The problem is BA is saying that because the first rebooking itself went beyond the original ticket validity, they cannot extend it again (original booking was Feb 2020 so ticket validity to Feb 2021, cancellation/rerouting happened in July 2020, for travel in June 2021 – so they did book beyond original ticket validity first time round).

  The options I appear to have now are either to fly on the proposed dates (and have a shorter trip), or the usual full refund or future travel voucher. The latter two mean I could travel up to Feb 2022 or April 2023 respectively, but with BA no longer flying to Kuala Lumpur would mean I’d have to go via somewhere else on BA’s network and separately buy a ticket from there to KL (or hope they reinstate the route before the voucher expires, maybe). None of these options is ideal.

  As it’s the airline that has cancelled the flights, do I have any grounds for insisting they extend the ticket validity and rebook me at a future date? Or is it a case of suck it up?

  Thanks all.

  • Jon says:

    17 Mar17 March 08:46

    Damnit – forgot to say – the rerouted flight has now also been cancelled. Apologies, didn’t really make sense without that 😉

    • BS says:

      17 Mar17 March 09:21

      Ah apologies – missed this.
      EC261 applies to the operating carrier, and when BA re-route you under EC261 on a different carrier, this obligation rests on BA still should something happen to the new flights.
      That said, BA are very intransigent in re-routing now. And it is unclear how much at your convenience they have to re-route you. If it is vaguely near your original flight, I would say they are bound to re-route you. If you want a flight a year later, which is also slap bang in the school holidays I suspect you would not be able to argue you are due re-routing.
      Ultimately your options will be suing BA (via MCOL) or CEDR to get a re-route, or to get a FTV/refund. If your trip is near original dates and you want a similar length trip, and they are flights available in a similar accommodation to your original cancelled flights, I would go down the first route by rejecting BA’s offer of new inconvenient flights in writing, asking for the flights you want, and then getting a deadlock letter when they refuse them. Book them yourself with cash, and claim the costs off BA.

      • Jon says:

        17 Mar17 March 10:38

        Thanks @BS. Good to know – I had a feeling EU261 rules should still apply even to an already-rerouted ticket. Not planning to take the **** with any further reroute, but pushing the dates back a bit would be good. I’ll try talking to them again, then follow your suggestion. Apologies again for the confusion caused by my inept writing – I somehow managed to miss out the all-important key point!

  • BS says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:13

    They’ve offered you the re-route on Malaysia, which is what is currently ticketed and is what their duty is.

  • Aston100 says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:43

    Jon, I’d be keen to hear any further updates as they occur.
    We’ve got similar’ish situation.
    BA currently telling me to either accept a flight earlier in the week or a refund / voucher.
    Not prepared to entertain any suggestion of extending ticket validity.

    • Jon says:

      17 Mar17 March 12:08

      Will do – and likewise. I’m in two minds about whether to keep trying and hope I eventually get an agent that can help, or whether to accept that because the flight is now on non-BA metal, it’s going to be an uphill battle. I also have another case currently with CEDR, which I’ll report back on once it gets to an outcome, although they’ve extended the defendant response time from 15 working days to 60, so I imagine it may be a while before BA responds…

      • Aston100 says:

        17 Mar17 March 13:11

        It is frustrating for sure.
        On the one hand, the MH experience is almost certainly going to be better than BA, hence I would like to hold onto the MH flights, but on the other hand, Malaysia are very unlikely to let us in before our ticket validity expires (September 2021 I think) so we’d probably end up with an avios & taxes refund and have to work out some other way of getting to KUL next year.
        If you manage to succeed with your attempts, I can perhaps cite precedence or something (not that this is guaranteed to work with BA, who seem to lie through their teeth at times in order to get out of their obligations).

• Al C says:

  17 Mar17 March 09:03

  There’s been a lot of chat on here recently about Curve and NS&I not working. Well I just got a successful NS&I transaction on Curve Blue with Virgin as the underlying card.

  • Steve says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:06

    What’s Curve?

    • ankomonkey says:

      17 Mar17 March 10:51

      I also don’t recognise NS&I or Virgin.

    • Garry says:

      17 Mar17 March 10:53

      Oh you mean bendy?

      • Steve says:

        17 Mar17 March 11:47

        Thanks Garry, makes more sense now 😉🤫

  • Aston100 says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:47

    Yeah keep openly posting things like that and eventually you won’t be successful anymore, ever, and neither will the rest of us.
    Bigger picture and all that.

    • Garry says:

      17 Mar17 March 15:33

      Curve are advertising it themselves, google curve fronted its on their own page and they are quite happy about it

• Mr. AC says:

  17 Mar17 March 09:08

  Advice requested. Pret a Manger coffee subscription – recently noticed a recurring charge on my wife’s Amex, she was under the impression she cancelled in November. Haven’t used since then, so 3 full months and counting. Charged 80 since then. Support says to go away, basically, everything according to T&S.
  Does anyone know if it was possible to actually use the subscription while the UK is in lockdown? Any grounds for a chargeback?

  • BS says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:10

    In the absence of any evidence of cancelling (itemised call to Pret CS/email etc), almost certainly not I’m afraid.

  • Andrew says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:12

    Most Pret branches have remained open for takeaway and so the service has continued to be offered. Sounds like it wasn’t cancelled properly, either by you or by them, but without any screenshot to evidence the cancellation, you probably have no means to challenge and will have to chalk the £80 up to experience and a lesson to check your Amex statement regularly and carefully.

    • Rob says:

      17 Mar17 March 09:24

      Whilst most of the ones in the City remain shut, most Pret shops remain open – I was in one an hour ago.

      • George1976 says:

        17 Mar17 March 10:35

        Half of Pret stores are closed currently

        • Rob says:

          17 Mar17 March 10:55

          They are, but most of them are in the City. SW3 / SW7 is 100% open as far as I have seen, if you discount the tiny Petit Pret inside South Ken tube. The ones at Victoria are open too.

        • John says:

          17 Mar17 March 12:20

          If it’s one less than half, saying most is also accurate

    • Mr. AC says:

      17 Mar17 March 09:41

      Got it, thank you. Well, lesson learned I guess.

      • KBuffett says:

        17 Mar17 March 10:17

        If you had requested cancellation, dispute it with AmEx.
        I can’t see Pret providing evidence to the contrary.

  • Jon G says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:47

    It was possible (I had the subscription for a while). That said, if you escalate with Pret to a decision maker they MAY be kind enough to refund, assuming that you never used the subscription. You’ll have to get past the first line of customer service though.

  • ChrisC says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:28

    Unless there was some sort of error – Pret not actioning a cancellation request then there is nothing to charge back for.

    As far as Pret are concerned you had an active subscription but didn’t use it. That’s not their fault. They were providing the service as paid for i.e. a coffee subscription.

    And Amex will likely go with Pret on that.

  • lumma says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:32

    I stopped signing up for the pret subscription free trial. Every time I did, we entered lockdown shortly afterwards

    I don’t think you have a leg to stand on, but it seems a pretty poor showing on Pret’s behalf to not give a goodwill refund if you haven’t used it

    • TGLoyalty says:

      17 Mar17 March 13:21

      disagree OP has noticed months later

      If they noticed a few days after the first billing then perhaps

    • Benilyn says:

      17 Mar17 March 13:23

      But Pret probably cash strapped so you can hardly blame them not refunding IMO

  • mart says:

    17 Mar17 March 19:49

    I definitely read about some cancellations not being processed – check trust pilot etc – even after requested. So worth challenging imo.

• Mco says:

  17 Mar17 March 09:18

  Looking to buy a Dell G5 desktop. Any ways to get better then a 5% discount at dell to go with my Amex cash back.

  • Andrew Mc says:

    17 Mar17 March 10:26

    Employer discount scheme has 10% off G series. Worth checking, if you have access to anything similar.

  • Aston100 says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:55

    You can often find Dell codes posted on the hot UK deals site (not sure if this comment will get blocked).

    Code DAEDG15 works on g5 laptops and gives 15% off (I tested this on a g5 laptop). Try it on the desktop and see if it works?

    Alternatively, a quick glance on that site suggests that currently SBINSP8 will give you 8% off.

    • Mco says:

      17 Mar17 March 13:27

      Doesn’t seem to work with the 8% ones. Does anyone have a 10% employer discount one please?

      • Andrew says:

        17 Mar17 March 14:50

        Enjoy 10% discount on Inspiron 7000 series, XPS, AW and Dell Inspiron gaming (G series) with the code DELLNJPC102

        Might not work if you have’t clicked through from a suitable site though.

        • Rob says:

          17 Mar17 March 16:32

          There is a 4-day Dell sale next week, starting Monday.

        • Mco says:

          17 Mar17 March 23:36

          Thank you. This one worked.

• Anna says:

  17 Mar17 March 09:21

  I have just noticed that my Nectar Sainsbury Credit Card is only giving me 2 Nectar points per £1 spend for Sainsbury grocery shopping instead of 3 points – has anybody else had that??

  • Craig says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:30

    I think the third one is the one you get using the Nectar card?

    • Anna says:

      17 Mar17 March 09:38

      Ah OK, didn’t think about that, thanks.

  • 747_Brat says:

    17 Mar17 March 10:22

    @Anna
    Do you know if buying gift cards worth £400 would trigger the sign-up bonus? I am still waiting on the fence for this one, and would only apply if gift cards trigger the sign-up bonus.
    Thanks in advance for your help.

    • James says:

      17 Mar17 March 11:15

      Why wouldn’t it, how would Sainsbury’s bank know what you’ve actually bought? All they get is the amount per shop, so yes this will work.

      • 747_Brat says:

        17 Mar17 March 14:58

        I think Sainsbury’s Bank have access to your purchase data because of the linked Nectar Card.

  • Aston100 says:

    17 Mar17 March 12:06

    I’m still unsure how many points one is due if they’ve used the Sainsburys Nectar Credit Card and have done the nectar to avios transfer. I thought both of those triggered double points (not sure if they stack).
    On my Nectar app, under activity, it is showing just one point per pound spent, and the bonus points for buying specific items. Currently no signs of any additional points.

    • John says:

      17 Mar17 March 12:21

      Double points for transfer will come in april afaicr

• Mr Lyon says:

  17 Mar17 March 09:25

  Has anyone had experience of drawing ATM money from Curve and being charged a cash fee from the Credit Card company. I used to draw £200 a month from curve linked to my Barclaycard and never noticed a charge, but I haven’t done this for some time now. I tried to draw £20 using my IHG Creation card, and I think I was charged for a cash advanced.
  So, has anyone recently drawn money using Curve with either Creation Marriott or IHG cards or from Barclaycard Hiltons CC, without being charged a fee?
  Thanks

  • Lula says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:27

    I took out cash last week on IHG, and don’t think I’ve been charged a cash advance fee. It may show up on my statement in a few days though I suppose.

    • Genghis says:

      17 Mar17 March 10:54

      Any cash advance fees on Creation show up with the transaction itself. Interest on statement generation.

  • FFoxSake says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:35

    Hmmm…. cash…. I vaguely remember that concept!

  • Jane says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:48

    I’m not seeing cash fees for IHG at the moment

    • Ben says:

      17 Mar17 March 09:55

      Is anyone seeing any for Hong Kong? They seems to take 2 months to show up so its a very long wait for a little test for me.

  • aDifferentSimon says:

    17 Mar17 March 10:51

    I did my first cash withdrawal in about a year recently. Curve backed with lloyds. £220. No fees at any point.

  • James says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:17

    I withdraw £200 a month from IHG via curve, never been charged any fees or interest.

    • Suck My Points says:

      17 Mar17 March 12:09

      I withdrew cash on IHG Premium via Curve Black Legacy in March 2020 and was charged “interest on cash”, so have never done it again.

  • Magic Mike says:

    17 Mar17 March 13:07

    cash withdrawals on beardy don’t attract a fee, yet

• Ben says:

  17 Mar17 March 09:40

  Bit of a heads up so others dont get caught out. Topping up the Revolutionary using HK (bendy in the middle) does not work. Getting cash charges through now.

  • Garry says:

    17 Mar17 March 15:30

    Curve is curving downhill with popularity here

• Reney says:

  17 Mar17 March 09:46

  Hi, on the Morrison offer. I have a couple of questions, looking for data points.
  1. Has anyone’s airtime or perks at work tracked yet? I did a transaction on Saturday nothing yet.
  2. Does the offer work more than once on Virgin CC (mine has tracked and offer appears to be still here), Airtime and PAW?
  3.I am tempted to buy amazon gift card because I have a relatively expensive item to buy but I was really burnt last time. Has anyone had problems purchasing this time? Last time my gift card did not activate.
  Thx

  • KBuffett says:

    17 Mar17 March 10:24

    Try a small value Amazon gift card transaction. Make sure you get the receipt and the gift card activation slip (two bits of paper form the till.) Before you leave the store, ensure the gift card activation slip says activated at the bottom (sometimes it’s on the reverse). If not, take it up with the store manager and if that fails, dispute it with AmEx and send them a copy of the slip.

  • Daniel says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:28

    I also made a purchase on Saturday – but yet to show on Airtime.

  • Andy says:

    17 Mar17 March 11:58

    It says on their support page (I won’t put a link in case it gets this message put into the mod queue) that it can take up to 14 days for a transaction to appear on the account, and then it will be a further amount of time before it is available to be applied to your account.

    I’ve done 2 transactions with them so far since signing up last week (at Greggs on Saturday and Argos yesterday) and neither transaction has appeared.

    It does make me wonder how you’re meant to complete the welcome bonus when it can take 2 weeks for a transaction to show.

    • John says:

      17 Mar17 March 12:26

      The transaction will appear with the original date so the welcome bonus can track

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