The HfP chat thread – Thursday 1st April

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• The real John says:

  1 Apr1 April 08:17

  I have an O2 SIM which needs to be topped up £10 every 6 months to keep alive. Does anyone know if an airtime rewards redemption counts?

  I am asking because I recently got a new additional SIM and cashed out £10 from airtime rewards as the first top up. The money arrived but it didn’t activate the SIM. I was told that I had to top up by card in order to activate it. But they couldn’t answer my question above about whether future airtime rewards would count.

  • Jman says:

    1 Apr1 April 09:17

    The real john, you can also make a call/text every couple months. I just have a reminder set up
    I keep my second o2 on my phones second sim

  • Terry says:

    1 Apr1 April 09:21

    It does count as a top up.

    O2 needs a chargeable call or text every 180 days and a top up every 999 days to keep a pay as you go sim active.

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:22

    As well as making a chargeable call or text every six months you do need to top up O2 every 12 months in order to keep Priority benefits like free coffee at Caffe Nero. However Airtime topups do count. Does anyone know of any good ways to spend built up O2 credit? I used to pay for Google Drive with mine but that isn’t supported anymore.

• meta says:

  1 Apr1 April 08:25

  Following on from yesterday’s Lloyds voucher saga for cancelled flight. They came back and said they can’t rebook me, but they agreed to full refund and extension of vouchers till 31 October. I mean I can now just rebook.
  Is that a new trick? I wonder whether they want to hold on to surcharges longer in the hopes I make a new booking before I get the old surcharges back.

  • Anna says:

    1 Apr1 April 08:57

    Does something go on your account to show that the voucher has been extended? I would want some sort of confirmation that it has been in case I got an agent who didn’t know about it when I tried to rebook. Experiences seem to vary a lot with avios.com agents just now. Some people getting extensions and some being denied, especially when the voucher has expired.

    • Mikeact says:

      1 Apr1 April 09:21

      It obviously doesn’t show on your BA account, but Avios agent can see it has been applied…no problem.

    • meta says:

      1 Apr1 April 09:25

      Have it in writing in an email.

      • Mikeact says:

        1 Apr1 April 09:26

        That’s excellent for you.

    • Mikeact says:

      1 Apr1 April 09:25

      And just why should it be extended if it has expired? Too difficult to make a diary note ?

      • Anna says:

        1 Apr1 April 09:29

        It can expire after you’ve made a booking, so making a note in the diary won’t help! People have reported that they’ve had flights cancelled and been told by avios.com that they’ve lost their voucher because the expiry date had passed prior to the cancellation.

        • Lady London says:

          1 Apr1 April 11:52

          ….which is illegal I am sure. Once you’ve bought a ticket and, to ensure clarity, you’ve made sure it has been issued (or re-issued if you made a change) then you have full rights regarding each ticket as a ticket regardless of how or what you paid for it.

          Anything else such as the extension of a voucher is something offered by provider or airline and voluntary by them. You should weigh up what you’d be keeping/gaining losing by taking any airline concession as compared to your statutory rights (eg downgrade compo which is significant, right to choose refund or rebook at a potentially much later date that suits you etc.).

      • meta says:

        1 Apr1 April 09:30

        @Mikeact please read yesterday’s chat. I had a booking with Lloyds voucher which was cancelled by BA and Avios.com refused to rebook even though the rebooking I wanted was within ticket validity.

        • Mikeact says:

          1 Apr1 April 17:16

          @meta I might run this again tomorrow if you don’t pick it up.
          Hi, I’m still not sure I understand your predicament . Is it similar to my option going forward ?
          My next Lloyds voucher expires at the end of October. A week or so before I will be looking to book a long haul to,say. Cape Town for the following October (22)
          This gives me 12 months to think about it, and the destination, as I may change it to somewhere else in the same Zone, which is all you can do with a destination change . If BA cancel the flight (Oct 22) then as at present, the voucher will be returned or BA will accommodate you on a different flight to get you there. Of course, no one can foresee where we will all be at that time…but this was from the ‘horses mouth ‘….in writing.

  • Matthew says:

    1 Apr1 April 09:03

    They did that to me when BA cancelled the Helsinki route and refused to put me on Finnair. Kept on saying as a TA they had no responsibility unless
    cancelled within 14days of trip. I gave up in the end and got a refund. I thought the TA had to get a solution from the airline but who knows?! The link between BA and Avios.com is always ‘when it suits’. Any issues and BA always refer you back to Avios.com and vice versa. Avios.com say they can only ever rebook on BA. The fact that the new Barclays voucher can be used via BA account is a major plus for me.

    • Mikeact says:

      1 Apr1 April 09:31

      I always found the Avios.com booking rules really straight forward…easy to forget sometimes. The lloyds voucher was always clear in its use, even though it was BA only and had to be ex UK.

      • Anna says:

        1 Apr1 April 09:50

        Lloyds voucher didn’t have to be ex-UK, this was one of its advantages over the 241.

        • Mikeact says:

          1 Apr1 April 18:05

          Sorry, day 1 it was and then changed.

    • Lady London says:

      1 Apr1 April 12:06

      Matthew I am disappointed that you accepted that. For anyone else in same situation with airline or any agent or other frequent flyer plan or avios.com the steps to avoid this are discussed across several levels of detail in this thread close to daily.

      If where you booked it and the airline keep pointing at each other or denying responsibility then ensure both receive the same request and by then if it goes that far, name both as defendants in MCOL or bring both into CEDR and let whoever judges it decide who’s responsible for what.

      Those later stages are easy to do and not costly plus MCOL gets your small fee back when you win (highly likely and mostly you won’t even have to attend a hearing it will be judged by post/online).

  • Lady London says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:56

    @meta you are asking what’s the trick here.

    You mentioned to wanted to rebook your cancelled flight to August Bank Holiday and I think they are trying to avoid giving you your right to those seats for free. They would hope to sell them for more even if they haven’t risen to the level they will reach yet.

    If you take a refund you are at the mercy of future seat prices and conditions although extending the voucher might help with that.

    • meta says:

      1 Apr1 April 13:25

      But I just rebooked for August bank holiday for the same price… Same flights and everything. I tried to point it out to them.

      • meta says:

        1 Apr1 April 13:26

        I guess that’s what they wanted. It’s only £100 in surcharges, so not like I am massively out of pocket, but for others it might be significantly more. So you do really need to weigh up.

        • Lady London says:

          1 Apr1 April 17:00

          @meta there is no reason for them to charge you any more. They have quite deliberately and against the law, ripped you off by not providing your replacement flight at zero extra cost to you.
          Personally I’d be tempted to MCOL them for that £100.
          It will end up costing them a lot more than £100 to defend it.
          That is really out of order.

• Jtz says:

  1 Apr1 April 08:36

  Can a shareholder apply for the amex biz gold/plat, if their name is also on the business bank account?
  Thanks

  • Andy D says:

    1 Apr1 April 09:06

    What does it say in your shareholder agreement? 🙂

• Optimus Prime says:

  1 Apr1 April 09:13

  Avios redemption cancelled by BA – is it possible to choose another date on the website? I’ve tried different browsers and always say ‘Invalid get itinerary details request’.

  • Anna says:

    1 Apr1 April 09:52

    People have managed to do it via the app when unable on desktop. It doesn’t seem possible if you’ve got a connecting flight, though.

    • Optimus Prime says:

      1 Apr1 April 10:19

      Thanks, just tried and got the same error. Just wondering if it’s a glitch or they’ve broken it on purpose to fob you off once you call – you know, the typical ‘you can only rebook for dates with Avios seats available’ blah blah….

      • kitten says:

        1 Apr1 April 12:17

        give it 3 days or a bit more after the cancellation if there’s time, to let the systems catch up then try again in MMB.

        Reports are it doesnt work on bookings with connections or if changed before

      • SimonP says:

        1 Apr1 April 21:38

        I had Avios flights cancelled and could not rebook on MMB or app. Got through on phone and spoke to VERY helpful people who changed the flights within minutes. After all the horror stories I was most relieved to have it resolved quickly and amicably. Now I just have to hope we can actually travel in September …

• Drennan Duplooy says:

  1 Apr1 April 09:14

  Have managed to book a Six Senses stay using the IHG mobile app in case anyone’s unable to on the IHG site.

• Anna says:

  1 Apr1 April 09:28

  I might well be late to the party but I noticed when looking to re-book our VIE trip to next year that Jet2 flights (and city breaks) from MAN include 10kg of hand luggage as standard, which seems better and much less complicated than EJ and Ryanair’s baggage options!

  • Harry T says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:33

    Jet2 are just the best. I think that’s normal for them.

    • yorkieflyer says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:29

      except for the fact that they regularly cancel with less than a weeks notice, are happy taking bookings at similar short notice presumably knowing they will cancel, being ridiculously expensive compared to Ryanair and Easyjet on multiple search’s for the same routes and dates, stuffed full of package tourists and to cap it all that bloody song being endlessly played……

      • Grant says:

        1 Apr1 April 11:38

        They even have the audacity to issue refunds promptly. Didn’t anyone tell them how to run an airline properly?!

      • Harry T says:

        1 Apr1 April 11:39

        Ryanair and Jet2 flights are generally crammed full of awful troglodytes, it’s true. EasyJet have strangely provided a more tranquil in flight experience for me but their new baggage policy is pants. Jet2 are fast on refunds but EasyJet have provided the best rebooking policies for sure. I have some cheap EasyJet Edinburgh to Milan flights from summer 2020 that have magically become bank holiday June 2022 flights from Manchester to Prague.

• Stephan says:

  1 Apr1 April 09:40

  Does anyone have issues when trying to transfer Iberia avios to BA? Iberia miles I got from the economist due to expire and would like to transfer them to my account. Not sure if its because I have a BA family account

  • Optimus Prime says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:34

    You have to pull them from Avios/AerClub and then transfer them to BA.

    • Pete M says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:40

      Apparently it’s the family account that messes things up and Optimus Prime’s solution is the way forward.

    • Stephan says:

      1 Apr1 April 19:23

      Great thanks! I’ll give that a go.

• AlanC says:

  1 Apr1 April 09:55

  When we get back to some sort of normality and travelling again which of all the chains is your recommended UK hotel executive lounge? Although Honors Lifetime Diamond i found my best UK lounge was the Hyatt Regency Churchill Club Lounge in London!

  • Harry T says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:42

    I reckon this is a good question for @TGLoyalty.

    Personally I never seem to stay anywhere with a club lounge that is open! All the London hotels I visited with nice club lounges last year weren’t running their normal service.

    • Harry T says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:43

      Chain wise, I reckon Marriott will give you the most club lounges opportunities in with status in the UK, just because they have more properties with them.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      1 Apr1 April 19:11

      Generally the best lounges are in ME and Asia

      best UK lounge is probably the chambers club @ The Ren but you only get access as a Titanium

      Generally the UK lounges are drab. IC PL gets good reviews but you’re in central london I’d rather spend my cash elsewhere

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