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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 25th 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.

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General

Comments (269)

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

  • Raveon says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:33

    Rob, any provisional plans for a HfP summer gathering / party this year? It’s been a while.

    • memesweeper says:
      25 Mar25 March 12:13

      It would be lovely… How many can gather? And where? would be very hard — no, impossible — to plan for… and I can’t see many travel industry folks donating a lot of prizes right now for raffles (gedditt?) right now.

      A few super-keen commenters in Soho round a table outside? why not…

    • Rob says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:43

      Very unlikely – it would need to be before the schools finished, which only gives a 2-week window assuming all restrictions drop at the end of June.

      Christmas looks more likely. Whether we stick with 500 or cut it back to 250 as it was pre 2019 is a different question.

  • Steve in Croydon says:
    25 Mar25 March 11:47

    Has anyone looked at SeatSpy and RewardFlightFinder today or recently? I’ve just looked at BA Avios LON-SYD – they are showing wildly different figures. SeatSpy says almost everything is available from November, RFF much less, but more than I’d expect to see for SYD. I haven’t checked via ba.com or looked at other routes. I do know that LON-SYD has not shown correctly for months with many ghost seats appearing.

    • Steve in Croydon says:
      25 Mar25 March 12:01

      Sorry got that around the wrong way – RFF says lots of seats SS less so. Just checked around 25th Dec on ba.com – SS seems about right but RFF is way off.

      • JDB says:
        25 Mar25 March 12:04

        Yes, RFF seems to be confused – I got a notification for an alert on seats to Mexico City saying F available every day for about 10 days which it isn’t. Emailed them yesterday no reply. SeatSpy has the same glitch from time to time.

    • Anna says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:23

      RFF has gone right downhill again suddenly. It was 10 days behind on releasing availability until a couple of days ago, it’s caught up now but showing availability that just isn’t there on ba.com. The map feature doesn’t work properly either. I’ve sent a couple of emails as I pay for the enhanced service but they are quite slow to respond at the moment.

      • Rob says:
        25 Mar25 March 13:38

        SeatSpy is now accurate to within 30 minutes, RFF is not. This is because SeatSpy now has a different relationship for data collection. As you say, RFF is now only updated every 7-10 days.

        • Anna says:
          25 Mar25 March 13:45

          I thought that was a glitch! If they’re not releasing on a daily basis I’ll be cancelling my subscription!

      • FatherOfFour says:
        25 Mar25 March 16:19

        Datapoint – received an alert this morning from RFF about NEW availability on my preferred route inbound for late May. Just checked BA.com and it is indeed genuine availability. Shows also in Seatspy and RFF in the online GUIs.

  • Tracy says:
    25 Mar25 March 12:07

    Does the virgin credit card 10% cash back work if I buy amazon gift cards?

  • Peter Taysum says:
    25 Mar25 March 12:38

    I cancelled my June First Avios (discounted) rewards flights NCL to SEA return yesterday by phone (BA Gold line). Avios returned immediately, awaiting refund for taxes to Amex. Very helpful agent said that YESTERDAY it was being updated so can cancel online; I phoned because it wouldn’t let me cancel online.

    Just thought I would share…

    • Peter Taysum says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:16

      As in “not for voucher”… sorry wasn’t clear

      • Anna says:
        25 Mar25 March 13:25

        As in, you can cancel online for a refund, even if BA hasn’t cancelled your flight (like in the old days)? That would be really good news.

  • Reney says:
    25 Mar25 March 13:21

    Virgin CC limit increase, so I found the form on the app, and have asked for a limit increase. Got an email to say they have received it and are working on it. Anyone knows how long that takes and if they will ask for more info?

    • Ste Cox says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:30

      Every time I have asked for an increase I have been turned down, which resulted in me paying for my car in 7 transactions over a few months as I had to max it out and pay it off – thankfully it was before they said you can only earn points upto your limit each month.

      • Reney says:
        25 Mar25 March 14:13

        The points earning cap is indeed driving my request for an uplift.

    • Benilyn says:
      25 Mar25 March 13:36

      I can’t remember exactly 🤭but it was all wrapped up under 7 days. I got a letter saying give a call, on the 📱 they said requested amount was rejected but can do +£2k I said 👍 They didn’t ask why etc. which is what I was 😖 about since I’m paying alimony to Solihull mainly

      • Reney says:
        25 Mar25 March 14:13

        Alimony to Solihull 🤣.It will be one week tomorrow for me so hopefully soon. Thanks for responding.

    • Mike says:
      25 Mar25 March 15:48

      Have always been rejected on Virgin with the pre-checker. Applied last week and got approved instantly with £8k limit. Surprising!

    • BP says:
      25 Mar25 March 16:51

      Can we perhaps request to bring the statement date forward to pay it off earlier and trigger the ‘monthly’ points more often?

    • Tom1 says:
      25 Mar25 March 19:29

      I called about something else, at the end of call asked for An increase and got another 2.5k , and was effective immediately.

  • 747_Brat says:
    25 Mar25 March 14:05

    Data Point – Lufty card just refunded the annual fee pro rata. Guess they are all ready for closure next week.

  • Hugo says:
    25 Mar25 March 14:08

    Would somebody be kind enough to provide me an octopus energy referral code? Thanks

    • Lee says:
      25 Mar25 March 14:23

      £50 credit when you switch to Octopus Energy
      https://share.octopus.energy/sand-dawn-100
      #OctopusEnergy

    • FFoxSake says:
      25 Mar25 March 14:38

      For those who asked about Igloo Energy and how to reduce the Direct Debit, I emailed them requesting a reduction to a nominal £1 and that has now been done 🙂 It took about 5 days to be approved and setup.
      I had already prepaid the account (up to £1000) via my Amex card to earn 3% interest. DD is now a nominal £1 so can just make further topups via Amex if necessary as bills are charged.

      Obviously compare their prices first, but for me they were fine. If you are a low user then a £50 switch bonus and no lock-in means it’s easy to move on again after the bonus has posted too.

      • Jane says:
        25 Mar25 March 15:25

        you did well, they gave me some blurb about needing to wait 6 months and that I could reduce it by about 20% but that was it – I have send them another message and asked to put it to £1.

        • Amar says:
          25 Mar25 March 15:43

          Me too! They refused to reduce to £1!

        • FFoxSake says:
          25 Mar25 March 19:35

          In my message to them I mentioned that I had transferred in from Octopus where that kind of reduction of the DD was possible. Perhaps that helped 🙂

      • Ryan says:
        25 Mar25 March 15:43

        Paid Igloo with Amex? I can’t for the life of me see how to pay with an Amex on there!

        • Amar says:
          25 Mar25 March 15:45

          Click on “Billings & payments” then make a one off payment

          • Ryan says:
            25 Mar25 March 15:50

            Very weird, I tried an Amex before and it didn’t like it

            Worked now, cheers

  • Aston100 says:
    25 Mar25 March 15:42

    Activated the Hertz 5 star gold upgrade late last year.
    Nothing happened.
    Spoke to the IHG live chat people who reckon the upgrade is still in progress and to wait a further 4 weeks.
    Sounds like the usual incompetence from IHG live chat.
    Anyone managed to get the upgrade when they first hit Spire? how long did it take and is it worth pursuing? looking at the list of benefits on the Hertz site, it seems to me that only the one level upgrade is of use – maybe the free additional driver too.

    Thanks.

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

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