Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Monday 29th March

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Comments (321)

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

  • Tiger says:

    How many gift cards are too many gift cards?

    I bought gift cards worth £6k from Morrison’s and wanted to buy for £2k more before the offer expires.

    But I got into a fight over this topic with Mrs. Tiger (literally a Tigress 🐅) who thinks I am a plonker! Is this seriously too much because I know people here bought £10k worth of gift cards last time this offer was around.

    Not trying to compare myself against others but just looking for an honest answer about when it surpasses the limits of craziness!
    Thanks.

    • Jamie says:

      Yes, it’s crazy and your Mrs is right. Trouble is, there are too many equally crazy people here who make this look like normal behaviour (it’s not). No doubt they’ll be along soon talking into the echo chamber to convince you it is perfectly normal.

    • ChrisC says:

      It matters not how many gift cards other people have. It’s not a competition. There is no HfP Perspex award for you to compete for.

      What’s important is how much cash you have tied up in them in relation to your family finances. And that’s where perhaps Mrs T has her concerns.

      How long will it take you to spend six let alone eight thousand pounds in Morrisons even allowing that you’d be able to use them to buy gift cards for other companies?

      And you’d have the inconvenience of having to go to a store to use your Morrisons gift card to buy cards for a company you do want to shop at and then remember at the till that you have a gift card to use rather than hand your credit card and so on.

      Having the cash tied up in gift cards means you can’t spend it on other things that you need to buy or pay for

      You can’t pay your utility bills using gift cards. You can’t readily pay the chap who comes and cleans the gutters with them either and so on.

      What was your plan in buying them in the first place? Was it to be able to get some cash back on your credit card to actually generate a saving on buying something expensive at another retailer that you were going to buy anyway by paying for that using gift cards? That’s an easy purchase to justify “look dear doing it this way has meant we actually saved on buying that thing”.

      But I’m going to assume that you don’t have that sort of plan and again that may be generating Mrs Ts ire.

      Mrs Tiger sounds like a sensible woman. You are a plonker (though I imagine that’s the mildest name she called you).

      • Tiger says:

        Thanks Chris.

        Tigress sure is a sensible women. That’s why I have married her in first place! You need someone to put some sense in to you at times, and she is very good at that. 🙂

        I do have a plan to use these gift cards, which I have mentioned below. But thank you very much for your reply. It was helpful.

        • Lady London says:

          Excellent good sense from @ChrisC above.

          The main risk with gift cards is credit risk. If the company folds you lose your money with no recourse. I can recall so many names where gift cards expanded their availability in the 2-3 years or so before those names went bust. Unlikely with M but defo a risk with many others.

          Rules might also change after you’ve bought the cards eg tills might be reprogrammed to enforce not being able to buy some things…err possibly including further GC’s. That risk is higher the longer it takes you to eat your way through them 🙂

          If you have a specific use for them that you’d rapidly convert to, eg Argos for the new things connected with Sainsbury’s 🙂 , or JL cards to diversify your food shopping into Waitrose, then go for it.

          Otherwise consider carefully @ChrisC’s thoughts.

        • trader363 says:

          *Someone* bought 9k of giftcards and VS Flying Club refused the points and asked to see the receipt. He/She was expecting around 70k VS miles but got none . . .

          • Lady London says:

            @trader363 how did the “someone” deal with that? Surely there was no basis in Virgin conditions for them to deny?

    • IF1 says:

      Not crazy, it’s practically free money. As long as the amount is something your comfortable with. I’ve done about 8k with this Amex offer, it’s quasi cash to me, John Lewis gift cards for Waitrose, Morrison’s shopping, Amazon and even Wayfair 🤣

      Why not if you can afford to hold several thousand in gift cards, just make sure you keep the receipts so you keep track of which card is activated.

      • JerseyHi says:

        What is the offer?

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        If you are truly pricing the risk (insolvency, loss, theft, cards not activated 9 months after purchase, clawback of rewards or miles and anything else that could go wrong) at £0 then you’re frankly insane. It is a way to potential earn a lot of miles but it is not the path to riches

        • BuildBackBetter says:

          Wait, cards not activated after 9 months?
          Aren’t they activated when you buy them?

          • The real John says:

            Some cards need to be used within a certain amount of time, some cards are hard to do a balance check, Morrisons till occasionally doesn’t activate a card properly

        • The real John says:

          Amazon stole £100 of my GCs and I can’t be bothered to fight them.

    • The Streets says:

      Hope all of the gift cards work. It was such a farce last time trying to get my money back after not knowingly purchasing invalid Amazon gift cards that made it more trouble than it was worth

    • The real John says:

      It’s just money. I am now at the stage where I like an easy life because so many other things in my life are complicated. This means a max of 4 gift cards per Morrison’s transaction and only for purchases I am certain I will make in the next few days.

      With values of £15 to £100 you could have between 60 and 400 pieces of paper / plastic. You need to be very organised to not accidentally drop one somewhere or forget which number you have typed in.

      I’ve been there and done that with 100 3V cards. Miscounted somehow so had to go through every single card again. To the me of 2014 it was worth it, the me of 2021 would only do 2 at a time if they were still available.

      • Mike says:

        Oh 3v cards – those were the days – I went through hundreds and hundreds of them probably touching thousands

        • Simon says:

          Ha, me too, Mike. Looking at my spreadsheet (tab 28 🙂 ) it was 648 3v cards in the end for me so as to pay a CGT bill. Painful trips to Tesco Surrey Quays come flooding back!

    • BJ says:

      Last year I got about £2500 worth and only just finished using them a few weeks ago. About £1000 tops went on fuel, a small amount on groceries and the rest on amazon giftcards that have now all been spent. Despite that, I just didn’t feel comfortable having them. Always wondered if a card wouldn’t work or they would stop accepting them for fuel – it was a relief to get rid of them in tbe end.9 Consequently, this year I’ve taken only £550 so far and will add same again today or tomorrow. Happy with my £100 free gas an 8800 Red points. Just sharing my own experience and feelings, Chris and others have already gone into the rationale in detail. Ultimately it’s your choice, not for me to judge what your did or the detail of communications with your wife, but you asked so I hope you have a thick skin for the comments that will come your way today.

      • Rob says:

        Tempted to agree. A few years I had quite a few gift cards around and it did add an extra element of ‘faff’ to my life – effectively it was taking up brain capacity I realised I preferred to free up for other stuff. Even having £1k of Amazon credit left me uneasy, which is utterly illogical since they were never going bust and I would easily spend through it over time. Some people will understand what I mean, others I accept won’t have a clue, and perhaps if I was younger and poorer I would act differently.

      • Tiger says:

        Thanks BJ. Your comments make a lot of sense. It sure is a faff trying to use them all to the last penny.

        And I usually have a thick skin for all things in life, until it comes from Tigress directly! 😉

    • Steve says:

      Unless you have a specific plan of where you will spend all of these vouchers then yes, you’re being a plonker.

    • Peter K says:

      You need a plan to use the cards to reason with Mrs Tiger *and* the spare finances not to miss £6k.

      “But I got 10% off so saved £600” is not a plan. “But we spend £1k a month at Amazon and we have £20k sitting in a 0.4% interest account. We’ll use them up within 6 months. Then with the £600 saving we can have a nice weekend away” is a plan that might have traction.

      • BS says:

        If I have a gift card available, I tend to spend more! (Probably more than the 10% saving!)

        • memesweeper says:

          +1

          there’s a reason shops sell them to other shops at less than face value

      • TGLoyalty says:

        I agree with the sentiment but that’s not really how the mind works

        You’ll view everything as 10% off and just spend the same £1000 a month.

        I’ll spend £200-250 a week in M’s/Waitrose/JL/M&S/Amazon/Uber. £2500 is the maximum exposure I’d like.

      • Tiger says:

        Thanks Peter.
        I will try this holiday reasoning next time. It might work because the Tigress is yearning for a holiday desperately.

    • BS says:

      It depends – are you spending them immediately? I bought £2500 worth, but I was buying a brand new MacBook from John Lewis, and this got me 10% off.
      Remember you are responsible for the solvency of the retailer after you buy them. Very large quantities are not too sensible. If you are doing batches, and are spending them immediately on things you were planning anyway, it probably is sensible!

    • Chris Heyes says:

      Tiger if Mrs Tigress thinks your a “Plonker” Who are we on HFP to argue !
      We sometimes give gift cards at Christmas, but that’s an other level mostly it’s Pandora.
      One can be crazy with or without gift cards, look how many HFPs chase 500 Avios which are worth hardly anything.
      Or the daftness of some of Rob’s articles “you can save £3” or the mighty £5 saving. Is it worth it is up to the individual ?

      • Tiger says:

        Thanks Chris.
        People here on HfP can make things look like borderline madness! Just think of what happened with the Daily Rag bonus offer Rob tried to push, albeit with a disclaimer that it might not work for everyone. But people still pushed it way too much, to the point they had to cancel the bonus.

    • Number9 says:

      I’m just going to remind you of the old saying
      Happy wife happy life.
      What’s the point of rowing over points and gift cards.

      • BJ says:

        Is that an old wives tale Debs?

        • Number9 says:

          Apparently BJ….but there again I’m divorced twice and no plans on going for 3rd try 🤣
          So what do I know!

          • BJ says:

            What can I say … 😀

          • AJA says:

            @ No9 Fantastic comments! Love the saying and how it applied to you 🙂 Made me laugh out loud, so thanks for that 😄

      • Tiger says:

        @Number9
        Old habits die hard, but you are absolutely right:
        Happy Wife > Miles/Points

    • Andrew says:

      It depends on which Gift Cards…

      Morrisons, JLP, Amazon, M&S, Primark, SportsDirect, Visa – You’ll be fine. As are most of the major competitors that aren’t sold by Morrisons.

      But I wouldn’t put £10 on many others.

      • Tiger says:

        Thanks Andrew.
        I have invested mostly in Amazon and Morrison’s own gift cards but I plan to exchange Morrison’s for Argos, Currys. JL or Amazon gift cards closer to purchase. Don’t think Morrison’s is going belly up any time soon?

        • kitten says:

          exchange soon to spread the risks?

          PS if Mrs Tigress was like some on here another thing worth comparing was if it’s going to take you 1-3 years to use up that amount you’ve put into gift cards, how much more might you have made investing it in that same time?

    • Gavin says:

      I did something similar with 3V cards a few years ago, maybe not quite as much. But I had an immediate route for redemption for them. To be honest, if you were to work out the total time I spent getting hold of the cards, organising and redeeming them, it wasn’t worth the hassle!

      • BLT says:

        That’s true. It was a blessing when 3V cards ended, didn’t realise how much time it was taking- driving around Tesco’s to get them, scratching the codes, barcode scanning etc etc.

      • Polly says:

        Oh, l don’t know. Def worth it for us. Got quite a few 1st class flts to Asia out of them. Quite happy working our way through 100s of those 3v cards watching tv. Missed out on one major route but no regrets.
        Like BJ only just finished our xmas Morrison’s GCs recently. Bought them in multiples of £250. Thrn bought the usual JL, Amazon etc. Useful as plenty of birthdays require Amazon GCs. Did £1250 last week. Might do a couple more before it ends. Petrol might be on the cards again soon too!

    • Metty says:

      Happy wife…. is the mantra.

      Luckily mine saw the funny side of a joint trip to Morrisons where I bought £1k worth iTunes cards using her BA Amex as I needed a new iPad.

      Not only did the lady on the till give me a long chat about the inability to return the cards once purchased, she then spotted that I am male and don’t have a female name as per the card. Called supervisor who then asked a rather embarrassed Mrs Metty (as long queue of tut-tatters had formed) whether this gentleman was forcing her to buy gift cards.

      Eventually we left Morrisons with £1k iTunes cards and a frosty wife, who thawed into hilarity when I later reported that I couldn’t actually buy an iPad with said cards as iTunes and Apple Store are different entities. So now we have enough iTunes credit to last many years…..

    • Tiger says:

      Thank you everyone for your replies.

      I should have mentioned my plans for using the gift cards. I am not buying these gift cards blindly without a plan. We are buying a new kitchen and redoing the living room. We also need new appliances – washer/dryer and dishwasher. Mrs. Tigress was saying we need a new dining table too, though I am happy with the one we have.

      So, I am expecting a lot of cash outflow in the next few months. I see these gift cards as a way to get discount on these purchases. I have invested mostly in Morrison’s own gift cards but I plan to exchange them for Argos, Currys. JL or Amazon gift cards closer to purchase after I have locked in what I want to buy. I am just 5 minutes from the closest Morrison’s, so I don’t mind popping in to exchange the gift cards.

      And in worst scenario, I don’t use up the gift cards, I am happy to switch my grocery shopping from Tesco to Morrison’s until I empty the gift cards. I had never shopped at Morrison’s before the Amex offer came around last year, but I quite like them now and don’t mind switching to them for a short while.

      Thanks again for all the lovely replies. It was nice to hear views from both sides.

    • Don't Post Much says:

      Back in the day (Morrisons Fuel vouchers X pence off a litre) I managed to buy circa £25k of Amazon gift cards over a 2 week period. I made a small profit liquidating the whole lot in about the same time it took to buy them – was in it for the credit card spend.
      Its frightening how little physical space they actually took up when you had them in hand.

  • Anon says:

    No S75 protection on big purchases. What are you planning to buy with £8,000. Fresh produce?

    • BS says:

      Yes protection. If you are buying a £8000 kitchen, but £7999 on gift cards and pay £1 on your credit card. So everything is covered. I did this with a MacBook (almost feels like same sums involved…)

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Not necessarily you just need to stick £1+ on a credit card

      • KBuffett says:

        This is what did recently when purchasing a new TV from JL. Paid £1750 on gift cards obtained from Morrison’s and £50 on a credit card to protect the purchase.

        To the OP
        Probably not worth doing more, but perhaps reduce you risk my moving some into Amazon or John Lewis. Other than risks other commentators have mentioned above, Morrison’s could stop gift cards being purchased with gift cards.

      • Garry says:

        any success stories on a claim from cc? dont want them paying out £1 and closing the case, risky.

  • Green Plastic says:

    Morning all. Trying to redeem my IHG free night at The George in Edinburgh but can’t find any reward night availability via the app, no matter what dates I enter. Seems strange as I find availability at the IC Park Lane on every date I try. Any ideas what I’m doing wrong?

    • Steve says:

      Try using a browser instead of the app.

    • Anna says:

      The George removed all points and free night availability some months back. They now seem to have started adding points availability but possibly not free nights yet. Unfortunately IHG seem to ignore any issues raised re this. I also noticed that the Berlin Regent seems to have done the same thing, at least on the dates I was looking for.

      • Green Plastic says:

        Oh no 🙁 looks like I’ll have to do Park Lane then. I live in Aberdeen and was hoping to do The George as still not comfortable taking my 2yo on a flight, but looks like this might force my hand…

        • Anna says:

          What about one of the Kimptons (Edinburgh or Glasgow)? They both look lovely. I’ve cancelled stays at both in the past year lol.

          • Green Plastic says:

            Is Kimpton on a par with IC? I’m a newbie to the hotel loyalty game, been more involved in Avios up until the last 12 months!

          • Rob says:

            In theory they are slanted differently – IC is for the high-end business traveller, Kimpton for the high-end leisure traveller.

      • Green Plastic says:

        Cheers Rob, Kimpton sounds appealing in that case

    • Sarah says:

      Could be wrong but I’m pretty sure that the George hasn’t opened at all since the first lockdown. It’s mainly a business conference / wedding hotel. I had a booking there last summer which was cancelled because hotel was closed. I stayed at Kimpton Charlotte Square instead and it was lovely.

      • Anna says:

        The George is supposed to be reopening on May 17th – glad to hear you liked the Kimpton as we have a stay booked for earlier in May (if the Scottish reopening continues to plan, obviously).

    • Peggerz says:

      Realise you are talking about IC properties, but give a serious look to the Kimpton Charlotte in Edinburgh or Kimpton Blytheswood in Glasgow (where I have a booking at the end of April). Hotels in Scotland due to open 26th April (unless further issues with Covid), museums opening that day and Historic Scotland (Edinburgh Castle etc) from 30th April.
      As stated here, IC George hasn’t really been functioning since March 2020. I passed a week ago and there’s some work going on, but closed obvs until the 26th.

      • Anna says:

        Just seen this! +1 for Kimptons. You get social hour and Charlotte Square has also agreed to add breakfast to our Ambassador and points stays at the standard booking rate of about £17 per night which seems extremely reasonable.

      • Anna says:

        I’ve booked National Gallery tickets but I looked over the weekend and Edinburgh castle etc don’t seem to be opening till well into May, I will keep checking though! Otherwise we’ll try the Botanic Gardens if the weather forecast is good. Pre-booking still required for everything but I actually prefer that!

  • roberto says:

    Heathrow T5 was a breeze this morning. All the scare mongering about banning people flying & £5000 fines proved to be a non story as we walked from our sofitel hotel room to the First lounge in 15 mins tops.

    We had to check in at the desk as the online facility was disabled but other than that its was totally painless.

    The check in guy did say that there was an unusual amount on people travelling for funerals (despite booking their flight many months ago) but other than that it was business as usual.

    • Jonathan says:

      Good to know. I would point out that a regular poster commented yesterday that a number of people were refused boarding on his wife’s flight to Mallorca on Saturday so there is obviously some enforcement at times.

      I’m sure the odds are strongly in your favour if you’re chancing your arm with a funeral or property viewing but it’s the expensive testing & quarantine on return to U.K. that is probably the bigger barrier to travel than the exit controls.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        That’s probably because you need a strong reason to enter prior to March 31st not because you can’t leave.

      • meta says:

        On Saturday Stay at Home order was still in force, not today.

    • HBommie says:

      Did he use the air quotes symbol when saying “funerals” wink wink

    • Rob says:

      Remember that you can take a domestic flight, at least in England, with no restrictions from today.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Stay local is still “advised” until April 12th. Advice isn’t law ofcourse.

        • Rob says:

          Let me show you my daughter’s Instagram feed. I think she is the only kid in her class not in the Maldives or Caribbean house hunting this week.

          • Anna says:

            Lol! Are there many over-water villas for sale?!

          • Chris Heyes says:

            Rob Are you openly saying that all the parents of children on her instagram feed (not that i have a clue what that is)
            Are corrupt liars Who would say they are house hunting when in fact they are sunning it up

          • TGLoyalty says:

            Second Home visits are permitted within the UK and abroad from today 🙂

          • Mikeact says:

            Just shows you how the other half live.

      • AJA says:

        I guess that the LHR to NQY route will be busy….

    • WaynedP says:

      Thanks for your regular update, @roberto

      Although it’s likely to be many months before I pass through Heathrow again, I always find it interesting to hear what conditions are like first-hand.

    • The Lord says:

      I better get booking in with some Greek estate agents for early June then

    • kitten says:

      @roberto “travelling for funerals (despite booking their flights many months ago)” love it were you flying to Sicily ? 🙂

  • Mr B says:

    The whole thing is a disgrace and people should be ashamed of them selves, I’ve cancelled trips to BGI x 2, HAN, CAI and CPT x 2 over the last 12 months. Some doing all they can to follow gov guidelines in order to get things going again ASAP, some who don’t give a monkeys. We are all desperate to travel but majority playing the game.

    • Ben says:

      If you cant beat them…

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        Have to say that’s not the values I’m hoping to raise my own children with…

    • Paul says:

      Which whole thing? And who should be ashamed? Not being able to travel, or travelling?

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      Careful B, if you speak too much sense, you’ll be accused of ‘virtue signalling’…

  • KS says:

    Datapoint on Hyatt Bonus Journeys: I have received a second Category 1-4 free night award on completion of 20 nights. Offer terms stated only one free night award for first 10 nights.

  • Anna says:

    I found the “extra” IHG 25k points in my account this morning (but not my OH’s, even though we both qualified for Spire last year and I won’t re-qualify till next month). So it’s not clear who’s actually getting them!

    • Lee says:

      Anna, when did you and your OH claim Choice Benefit last year? I claimed on 23/10/2020 that still showing on Expired & Redeemed Benefits section, maybe it’s a bit close to claim again.

      • Anna says:

        We claimed as soon as we triggered Spire, probably halfway into the year for one of us and towards the end of the year for the other. IHG must have deliberately added the extra one to my account though.

        • Matt says:

          Anna, did the points get automatically added or did they appear as a spire benefit you could claim? I’m holding off requalifying for a month or two just in case…

  • Ambient says:

    Heads up I had trouble using Curve over the weekend where I made 4 attempts to make a transaction but all four were declined. These then appear to have actually charged the underlying card. Lesson learnt is If you experience a decline, it’s worth waiting a few days to see what happens, as I now have a mess to unpick.

    • Gothbe says:

      Worked this morning hmrc

    • TGLoyalty says:

      I’m 99.9% sure they will be reversed within a couple days.

      • Anna says:

        Ok for me Friday and this morning. Have you updated your app recently, Ambient? That seemed to resolve similar issues I was having.

        • Ambient says:

          Thanks for the response Anna. It looks like the curve app updated automatically overnight. However I don’t think this will be by issue as all attempted transactions were on a pc Web browser and I deliberately when for the sms validation rather than app.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        Or a week!

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