The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 24th March

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• BP says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:00

  IC Edinburgh – The George now available for booking from 17th May. Rewards nights included. At 52,500 points quite expensive compared with the Kimpton.

  No Hogmanay availability but I’ve already snagged a room at the Kimpton for that anyway.

  • Yorkieflyer says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:05

    What comes around goes around eh? I’m sure I stayed at the George when it was IHG 15 or so years ago?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:30

      Yes it was an IC before it was bought by Principal.

  • Anna says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:31

    Odd that they going with the opening dates for English hotels. Most of the Scottish ones seem to be reopening on April 26th, though The George was closed for quite a lot of the past year IIRC.

  • Kai says:

    24 Mar24 March 11:06

    Does it no longer offer Club Intercontinental to all guests?

    • BP says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:55

      No sign of club mentioned anywhere. It was the first thing I looked for after booking. If the website hadn’t been updated and I’d have taken a screenshot and argued the case for Club access.

      • Anna says:

        24 Mar24 March 14:06

        I thought they didn’t have a club lounge as such, it was just something they came up with last year to get round the restrictions on serving food and drink which were part of the Covid regulations in Scotland? That’s the impression I got when I booked a stay for last December (which obviously got cancelled!)

• Yorkieflyer says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:00

  Curve cash withdrawals, are the the limits on a calendar or rolling month?

  • The real John says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:17

    I’ve occasionally exceeded £200 assuming both calendar and rolling and never been charged.

    • Genghis says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:22

      The £200 limit mentioned in the FUP is calendar month. De facto, just don’t take the mick.

  • Imran says:

    24 Mar24 March 15:59

    It is definitely a rolling monthly limit. I had the same question few months ago, so I sent them a message on Twitter. They came back and confirmed it is a rolling limit.

• Yorkieflyer says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:02

  Hilton points expiry was always less than generous requiring points earning activity every 12 months. Has this been relaxed?

  • The real John says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:18

    No but any points that would have expired / be due to expire will only expire on 1 Jan 2022

    • The real John says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:19

      … and thus not expire if you have activity in 2021

      • kitten says:

        24 Mar24 March 20:15

        Eek! would a points stay or a points purchase count?

        • yorkieflyer says:

          24 Mar24 March 22:06

          eligible activities (a) stay at a hotel within the Hilton Portfolio pursuant to the terms herein; (b) earn Hilton Honors Points through any third party source of Hilton Honors Point accumulation, including a Hilton co-branded credit card, pursuant to its terms; (c) purchase Hilton Honors Points; or, (d) donate Points through The Hilton Honors Giving Back Program.
          Not sure if points stays included

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:21

    Yes, it’s now 15 months

    • yorkieflyer says:

      24 Mar24 March 21:56

      Sorry I’m lost with these comments. My understanding was that the policy was stated as “A pause on the expiration of all Points scheduled to expire between March 12 to December 31, 2020” . I did an Amex trf last May, the last earning activity, so I’d expect my points to vanish this May unless I take some action?

      • yorkieflyer says:

        24 Mar24 March 22:00

        ok, checking the terms and agree with Andrew its now 15 rather than 12 months. Not well communicated in my view, some folk could be in for a nasty surprise shortly

      • Louie says:

        25 Mar25 March 06:43

        According to my account “Extending Points Expiration. We’re extending Points expiration, so that no Points will expire until December 31, 2021.”

• Optimus Prime says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:03

  Barclays Avios Rewards – I’ve opted in and linked my BA account yet every time I open the Barclays app it tells me I need to link it again. Is this happening to someone else? If so, have you initiated the bank account switch or are holding off till this has been sorted out?

  • 747_Brat says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:21

    It is a known IT bug. Just ignore it until they fix it.
    The switch shouldn’t really be affected because of this. If it says you are enrolled in Barclays Avios Rewards, you are good to switch.

    • Optimus Prime says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:32

      Thanks

• The real John says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:12

  I have 2 half price avios tickets to HKG plus infant. Due to HKG ban, outbound should get cancelled in due course and inbound is going to be shifted by 8 hours if not also cancelled.

  Some people have been able to move flights online to beyond 12 months, but not sure if this will work with infant ticket attached.

  Furthermore infant will be 2yo soon and no idea when hotel quarantine will end which makes it hard to pick a date, not sure if shelling out an extra 150k avios for child is worth it.

  What would you do?

  • Nadeshka says:

    24 Mar24 March 13:10

    We had 2 trips like this (booked in 50% sale + with a 241 + infant)

    On one I was able to shift the booking a few months later for the adults to retain the sale fare (was technically more than 12 months from original ticket date, but not the latest cancellation), however they insisted on a fresh ticket for the now child at full price. It was short haul and I didn’t bother arguing as it would probably cost more in time than the avios saving.

    The other is a long haul similar to yours, and I also baulked at the idea of paying 150K for a 2 year old. I did try pushing the booking but they were adamant I couldn’t get past October (12 months) which doesn’t work for us. I instead cancelled and rebooked for next year using a 241 to take an additional family member (i.e. 4 for 2). Softens the blow of paying for the child and also means we have some childcare on the holiday 🙂 Obviously not an option if you don’t have 2x 241s, and you’re relying on fresh availability. I monitored for a while and was regularly seeing 7+ business seats being released, so risked it.

    Hoping there will be some normality by next spring…

  • The Streets says:

    24 Mar24 March 17:26

    There are still flights most days of the week – but they have been chopping and changing the schedule. I’m actually booked on one back to London next week leaving at 15.30 which will be quite novel

• BSI1978 says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:12

  Can some kind soul share the Virgin WhatsApp number please? tried to scroll back through a few threads whilst on a call(!) but no joy thus far…..

  • DJ says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:15

    +44 344 874 7747

• Pete M says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:12

  Morning all! You may remember back in January I asked for your collective help / confirmation I am not going crazy regarding BA refusing to cover my boyfriend’s train ticket to Berlin, after they kept cancelling all their flights there and their best alternative was to travel a week later. All their responses were very much “not our fault / job / problem, go away, we don’t care about your laws”. So I put a thorough pack of evidence through to CEDR.

  BA finally replied yesterday via CEDR and tried to settle via refunding the original RFS ticket cash and Avios + the balance of the train ticket cost. After more useful advice on here we rejected that and they settled in full today. Let’s see how quickly the money shows up. But in any case many thanks for all your input and help!

  It definitely is frustrating, though, that even in a simple case like this they did their best to avoid complying with the law. I understand most people won’t follow through and hence they are saving a packet in compensation and alternative travel costs, but it does leave a bit of a sour taste. But then we will obviously continue flying them, as they’re basically the only show in town, so hey-ho!

  • Anna says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:17

    Great result. When I used CEDR a couple of years ago BA asked for my bank details at the same time that they agreed I was due delay compensation, so once I’d provided those we got the money within a week.

    • meta says:

      24 Mar24 March 12:12

      Great result! My MCOL settlement also arrived within a week.

  • Polly says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:27

    Pete, good result. Thank goodness for advice on hfp. Feel sorry for the general travelling public who get pawned off at the 1st post by BA and other airlines. Good to get the feedback.

• 747_Brat says:

  24 Mar24 March 10:19

  Data Point:
  Morrison’s purchase made on 19th March tracked on Airtime Rewards (on 22 March) and Virgin (on 24 March).

  • Polly says:

    24 Mar24 March 10:25

    Good news, but did you use visa or mc in Morrisons? Or did they track with Amex? Must join airtime, but thought it’s only visa and mc, so didn’t bother.

    • 747_Brat says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:32

      I actually used a Santander Credit Card which had 15% offer on it. Amex on the other hand was offering me just 7%, probably because I put a large purchase through when the offer was around in November.

      So I stacked up Santander (15%) with Airtime Rewards (10%), Virgin eShop (8%) for a meaty 33% off!

      In case you are looking for a referral to join Airtime Rewards, feel free to join using my code: E8HLJK4E
      Thanks.

      • KP says:

        24 Mar24 March 10:39

        used your code

      • Pete M says:

        24 Mar24 March 13:20

        Used your code too, let’s see what all this fuss is about! 🙂

        • 747_Brat says:

          24 Mar24 March 13:41

          Thanks KP & Pete 🙂

    • Optimus Prime says:

      24 Mar24 March 10:33

      Airtime Rewards doesn’t support Amex.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      24 Mar24 March 11:33

      Airtime doesn’t accept Amex.

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