The HfP chat thread – Thursday 1st April

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• George K says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:00

  Waited up until just before midnight to pull the trigger and transfer 120+k MR points to Krisflyer before the new rates kicked in this morning. Obviously the view is to get into a suite sometime in the next three years. Hoping this will prove fruitful, especially after being stung once with Etihad pulling all their A380s (and leaving me with a stash of points for no reason..)

  Fingers crossed!

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:38

    Weirdly, they don’t seem to have updated the rate on the Amex International Card account side yet – if I chose the option today to transfer membership rewards to KrisFlyer it still shows as the conversion ration as 1:1

    Hope you didn’t have an unnecessarily late night George!

    • meta says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:24

      ICC card rate not changing yet.

    • George K says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:47

      Ha – I’m a night owl.. My best work comes after midnight!

      I think the ICC cards have different rates, and there was no note saying those were changing.

      • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

        1 Apr1 April 13:47

        My bad – should have realised you were referring to the UK card rate – so that’s gone to 3:2 now while the International Dollar Card is still 1:1 and you get the USD-GBP exchange rate uplift on transfers of membership rewards from UK account to IDC also. Makes the IDC annual fee viable if you still want to generate KrisFlyer points then!

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    1 Apr1 April 12:49

    No suites until end of the year I think, though situation might change.
    They are using efficient planes like 787 and a350 until demand recovers.

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      1 Apr1 April 12:51

      Even when it recovers, I’ll be surprised if redemption availability is good as just one usually is available per flight and there’s plenty of miles rich people in US and SG

      • Sam G says:

        1 Apr1 April 12:57

        Yep – with some of the A380s/ all the 12 suite birds going it’s going to be tough. Traditionally from Europe Zurich had more potential than London so that’s something worth considering once the A380 is back to Europe (Frankfurt is the other likely destination) . Good luck with it! I’ve got a boat load of Krisflyer from cancelled flights that I might end up blowing on the same if I don’t use them for something else in the meantime.

• Anna says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:05

  Just got an email from hotels.com saying my nights won’t expire this year. Quite impressed as my last booking with them was in 2017!

  • Chris Heyes says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:28

    Anna Yes also very impressed with Hotels.Com I had a booking with them last Sept, to Colorado Chautauqua National Historic Landmark Boulder.
    Part of which was non-refundable.
    After me speaking direct with Chautauqua. Hotels.com, told me if the hotel is willing to move so are we.
    booking now for this year no extra cost
    I’ve heard a few not so good reports so glad to add a positive one.
    Tip if your after a refund and shouldn’t really get one speak to the hotel manager first then contact hotels.com
    I Think you’ll find if the hotel is willing hotels.com will agree

    • Gavin says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:02

      I’ve even had a couple of refunds from hotels.com on non-refundable rates in the past when the hotel didn’t agree! Presumably hotels.com took the hit in those cases

  • BP says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:53

    Hotels.com customer service has always been excellent

    • Mouse says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:37

      +1

• Louise K says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:05

  I have a £9 off £60 spent at Tesco from Clubcard.

  Anyone know if this can be used against wine purchases?

  • Anna says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:14

    The Ts and Cs will be on the back of the voucher (or in the small print if digital). Alcohol is quite often excluded in theory, but I think people have got the vouchers to work with it previously!

    • mark2 says:

      1 Apr1 April 10:21

      Agreed; gift cards are also excluded, but I have always bought them in the past and got the money off.
      Hope this means that ‘money off’ coupons are returning!

  • Andrew says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:39

    I use those vouchers against wine all the time, so no problem at all. Especially if you go to self-serve checkout. I got these vouchers yesterday, mine was £10 off £70, I think they just set the threshold at whatever you normally spend. Also have double clubcard points on 2 shops.

  • 747_Brat says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:43

    Data Point:
    I received money off coupons from Tesco in the post yesterday. Can’t remember the last time I received them. It has been ages since I have had one in the post.

    It was a £10 off over 3 shops in next 3 weeks (£4, £3 & £3) with minimum spend of £30. I was going for groceries anyway yesterday, so it was a pleasant surprise. I did not jump ship to Sainsbury’s when the Avios deal happened, so it was nice to see Tesco rewarding my loyalty.

    I should mention that I didn’t use the vouchers for gift cards though, just groceries.

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      1 Apr1 April 12:54

      They waited until nectar offers reduced to 10 / 20 points per item. Clever.

  • Andrew says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:18

    Depends on where you are.

    Minimum pricing laws mean that discount vouchers tend not to be accepted on alcohol purchases in Scotland or Wales.

  • Louise K says:

    1 Apr1 April 16:06

    Thanks everyone.

    Didn’t bother with wine this time and just restocked chocolate and their nice balsamic vinegar!

    It does exclude alcohol on the back of the voucher but will give it a go next time with some wine. Just to see.

• Travel Zombie says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:14

  Question about getting a refund for a flight cancelled by BA.

  I used BA eVouchers to buy flights for April/May 2021. Payment was 100% in eVouchers. BA has just cancelled the outbound flight so I understand I’m entitled to a full refund for the whole trip. (They gave just over 2 weeks notice so compensation doesn’t come into the picture.)

  Am I entitled to a refund in cash, or can BA force me to take eVouchers? Trying to work out what my rights are before I call BA.

  Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere. I haven’t been able to find a clear answer even though quite a lot of people must be in a similar position. Thanks in advance for any help!

  • Anna says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:10

    By evouchers, do you mean Future Travel Vouchers from previous cancellations? You are entitled to a full refund of what was originally in those vouchers (i.e. cash or cash plus avios). Obviously if there’s a 241 involved another voucher would extend this to April 2023 but this might not apply to you.
    Don’t feel too bad re missing compo as this isn’t being given anyway (generally) at the moment due to the pandemic.
    You’re also entitled to re-booking if that’s an option you want to pursue. BA is not making this easy for a lot of people, though.

    • Travel Zombie says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:25

      They were all called eVouchers when I received them. No mention of Future Travel Vouchers. I got them last year for BA flights that I’d purchased with cash — BA didn’t cancel the flights in 2020 but I took the eVouchers as the trips were no longer sensible.

      Sorry if I’m missing some subtle distinction between eVouchers and Future Travel Vouchers.

      I’m not interested in re-booking. Just want a refund — preferably in cash not vouchers!

      • Anna says:

        1 Apr1 April 11:34

        You should get all your money back.

      • Lady London says:

        1 Apr1 April 11:35

        you should have the right to cash back as I understand it. IIRC we have had peopke reporting this in same situation.

        just phone and ask for a refund and listen while they work through it. The agent will probably have a try at giving you a voucher but just say nicely you’d prefer a refund.

        Let us know how you get on

        • Travel Zombie says:

          1 Apr1 April 20:10

          Update: Got through immediately to an agent and he was happy to give a full cash refund. He did mention the alternative of issuing an FTV (which can only be redeemed over the phone) which I declined.

          The cash refund will go to the original form(s) of payment. Because I used 2 eVouchers to make this booking, they will trace back to the 2 old bookings which I exchanged for eVouchers last year, and make refunds to the 2 different cards used to pay for those 2 old bookings. That’s my understanding anyway. What could possibly go wrong…

          The refund will take “at least 3-4 weeks” to process. Nothing to do now except crossing my fingers.

          Thanks to the posters above for the advice!

• lumma says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:24

  8000 nectar points from the pet insurance have posted to my account

  • John Caribbean says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:26

    Same here. Can just cancel the DD now and not even call up, right?

    • KBuffett says:

      1 Apr1 April 10:38

      As a general comment, I would never just cancel a direct debit and assume the agreement is cancelled and monies are not owed.

      • kitten says:

        1 Apr1 April 11:38

        It’s also polite to call or email. Plenty of people have lost pets, given them away or cant afford to keep insured.

        • Tariq says:

          1 Apr1 April 17:09

          I sent a message in the online pet insurance portal and they emailed me back a couple of days later to confirm cancellation.

• Dominic says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:34

  My Japan flights have (thankfully) been cancelled by BA. Question; can I re-book on a flight at a later date for the same 50% off Avios, or will I need to pay the new increased price?

  No issue if not, I was hoping they’d cancel anyway as I cannot go…

  • Optimus Prime says:

    1 Apr1 April 10:44

    Yes, you can rebook. Let me know if the website/app works for you though… it doesn’t for me right now.

  • andy says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:11

    Didn’t work for me on my cancelled Japan flight when i tried this morning…

    • Lady London says:

      1 Apr1 April 11:41

      give it about three days and systems might catch up and let you do it yourself in Manage My Booking.

      You have right to move to new date that suits you without extra cost or charges regardless of how or what you paid, sale seats, 241’s both seats etc.

  • Sam G says:

    1 Apr1 April 12:59

    Should be possible but only within 1 year of your original date (so early Oct I guess) unless there is a glitch in your favour allowing you to go past (the app is better for this apparently) . But even October seems unlikely sadly!

    • Sam G says:

      1 Apr1 April 13:00

      original *booking date

  • Len says:

    1 Apr1 April 17:34

    What month were the cancelled flights? Just hoping mine in October might get cancelled too.

    I changed some of my other cancelled flights from the 50% off sale. But only had success doing it through the app

• KBuffett says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:41

  Has anyone stayed at the W on The Palm?
  What are your thoughts?

• Reney says:

  1 Apr1 April 10:50

  Does anyone know how far ahead VA cancel flights? I have a LHR to HKG flight on 3rd May which we won’t be taking. The app suggest it is still going ahead, just wondering if it would still be cancelled, so I should wait before calling. Purchased it on the reduced flight club points event, am hoping I can rebook if not will take the £30 per person cancellation costs. Interested in similar experiences. Thx

  • Lady London says:

    1 Apr1 April 11:43

    Reports that Virgin is cancelling obviously cancelled flights very late. Presumably daring people to pay a change fee or extra fare cost to change if they bottle.

    Is your flight still for sale? watch carefully.

  • John says:

    1 Apr1 April 13:16

    It is almost guaranteed to be cancelled as passenger flights from the UK to HK are still banned

  • Blindman says:

    1 Apr1 April 14:24

    It is cancelled only up to 16th April so far.

    Virgins COvid Ongoing Travel disruption Timetable

    LHR-HKG only 21 April

    They have been cancelling about 10 days before.

    • Blindman says:

      1 Apr1 April 14:25

      Whilst everything (Not USA) is cancelled up to 16th May.

      • Blindman says:

        1 Apr1 April 14:35

        And if VS do cancel then you need to push hard to get a new flight at the same cost and convenince.

        Sucess story on this FT thread
        https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgin-atlantic-airways-flying-club/2034589-uc-date-change-huge-difference-anything-i-can-do-7.html#post33138690

        • Reney says:

          1 Apr1 April 16:20

          Thanks everyone. Basically wait it out till a few days before. I can do that. Even if they don’t let me change, I’m ok with getting all points, money and voucher back. I have always budgeted in the possibility of losing the cancellation fee anyway.

        • PJJ says:

          1 Apr1 April 16:32

          @Blindman
          Re your post yesterday to hit spending target and comments re Council Tax
          With our local Council the bill comes with a barcode and at our local Post Office you can make the payment using Amex
          Worth a char with your local Post Office

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