The HfP chat thread – Monday 5th April

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• Andrew says:

  5 Apr5 April 17:19

  No further update on travel from Boris today then – “later in the week” we’ll hear more.

  • Anna says:

    5 Apr5 April 17:32

    So can we have self-catering holidays next week or not?!

    • Andrew says:

      5 Apr5 April 17:42

      Confirmed – can go ahead.

      • pauldb says:

        5 Apr5 April 19:16

        But “you should continue to minimise the amount that you travel where possible”. Couldn’t make it up!

        • Harrier25 says:

          5 Apr5 April 19:53

          Couldn’t make what up @pauldp? Makes perfect sense to me.

        • pauldb says:

          5 Apr5 April 21:26

          Well ok, to me this was the moment to clear if you can, or shouldn’t, take a domestic holiday. Which way do you read it?

    • Jody says:

      5 Apr5 April 18:43

      Yep, you can finally get your holiday!

      • Anna says:

        5 Apr5 April 20:05

        Yes – it’ll be a very socially-distanced change of scenery with us all vaccinated and/or tested and hopefully help my friend keep afloat as we’re renting her cottage! The weather forecast is dreadful so we’ll probably spend a a good chunk of the week hunkering down by the log burner with a nice bottle or two of red, lol.

        • Jody says:

          5 Apr5 April 21:36

          Sounds great! There’s an awful lot to be said for a change of scene.

          We’ve got a lodge holiday booked at the end of the month and I couldn’t care less if the weather is terrible, just be nice to be somewhere different.

• DK says:

  5 Apr5 April 17:52

  Is it possible to book reward VA economy flights and call later to apply vouchers to upgrade? Subject to reward availability in premium obviously

  • tom1 says:

    5 Apr5 April 17:59

    pretty sure it is, yes. Virgin tend to be quite flexible.
    I’ve used half a voucher before and left the other half open until award space became available.
    if you read one of the articles about the Virgin Credit Card+ when they changed the upgrade vouchers, it may be mentioned there.

• Tim Rogers says:

  5 Apr5 April 18:45

  I’m planning to top up my ISA with ii tomorrow to celebrate the new tax year. Are there Bendy opportunities here?

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    5 Apr5 April 18:54

    I would like to know this too. Tried Natwest Reward CC underlying and it failed but I still got stuffed for a cash charge plus interest. Didn’t work for me with Solihull either so then gave up. Maybe Beardy would work?

    • Jonathan says:

      5 Apr5 April 19:45

      Beardy will hit you with 5% cash fee (min £5) for a lot of ISA providers so try with £100 first.

      • Yorkie Aid says:

        5 Apr5 April 20:01

        Thanks Jonathan. Tim, perhaps if you try it with Beardy would you be kind enough to report back?

      • Alex says:

        5 Apr5 April 21:19

        I tried Bendy-Beardy ISA with II and it rejects the transaction, no idea why. Would be interesting to hear from others

        • Yorkie Aid says:

          5 Apr5 April 22:23

          What a shame. I’m mourning those 30000 Beardy points that will never now be born.

        • Travel Strong says:

          6 Apr6 April 01:13

          Em Be n Ay works with Bendy and II ISA
          Beardy does not, Solihull does not.

  • Gavin says:

    5 Apr5 April 23:08

    Hilton via Curve works here

    • Yorkie Aid says:

      6 Apr6 April 07:21

      That’s interesting Gavin, I wish I had been able to get that one but wasn’t eligible having another Black Vulture card. Travel Strong, thank you for the Useful information. So it would appear no points earning potential for me.

• Magarathea says:

  5 Apr5 April 19:20

  I have a booking for a multi-night reward stay at the IC Festival City Residence Suites in Dubai for November this year. It was booked when the rate was only 20k IHG points per night and new bookings at this time are now 30k points per night. I may need to amend this booking to reduce the number of nights and would ask if anyone knows if the remainder of my trip will stay at 20k per night or if this will be repriced at 30k per night. I will be asking IHG about this but it would be useful to have any feedback from anyone who has done this recently.

  • Blair says:

    5 Apr5 April 19:22

    Reprice alas. Check Crowne Plaza and the other IC Festival City too, see if they’re still 20K, and you could call them to cut a deal at the IC Residence. I once while browsing my future bookings cancelled an IC points booking accidentally and immediately called IHG and the hotel but no dice.

    • Magarathea says:

      5 Apr5 April 19:42

      Thanks for the quick reply Blair but ouch!

  • Jonathan says:

    5 Apr5 April 19:47

    For future reference it’s worth considering booking as single nights & then e-mailing hotel to link. You maintain full flexibility to cancel individual nights without reprice.

    • Anna says:

      5 Apr5 April 20:00

      I was just going to say that – at times like these you realise it’s worth booking all those nights individually!

      • ChrisC says:

        5 Apr5 April 20:23

        Indeed. I have booked nights for stay this Novemner as follows

        Tuesday
        Wednesday – Friday
        Saturday
        Sunday
        Monday
        Tuesday

        Now some of that is not knowing at the moment if my Trip is Tuesday – Monday or Wednesday – Tuesday

        But either way it meant I could rebook the first Tuesday when the points fell and when (at a different time) when Saturday and Sunday fell.

        A couple of weeks before the stay I’ll email them to ask them to link them all together.

        • The cyclist says:

          5 Apr5 April 21:18

          Jeez, what do you do for fun?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          6 Apr6 April 00:20

          Count all the cash they save.

• Blair says:

  5 Apr5 April 19:27

  Amex International Airline Program: I wouldn’t touch an intermediary for flight bookings at present but assuming normality returns next year, what kind of savings have people made using IAP? I was getting a saving of £47 on a £2400 Emirates itinerary today but for the sake of £47 in 2021 decided to go direct with Emirates.

  • John says:

    5 Apr5 April 20:31

    In early 2020 I used it via Centurion for some BA F flights c. 6.5k total, pricing was exactly the same as ba.com

    While for a five-city Club itinerary that ba.com wouldn’t even let me book, they quoted about 10% less than ITA matrix found and booked it with no issue.

    From past experience, Amex can be helpful if there’s a problem, for anything complex/risky I’d sooner book via Amex than direct.

• r* says:

  5 Apr5 April 19:43

  Sounds like the IHG devaluation was intentional. The awful redemption rates now reflect the price (lol) and demand.

  • Harry T says:

    5 Apr5 April 19:59

    Well, I hope for their sake they U turn, as this is not a savvy business move. They already had the worst rewards scheme of all the major contenders.

  • Anna says:

    5 Apr5 April 20:10

    What are you basing that on? There are some really ridiculous points pricing options with these changes – 100k for the Kimpton Fiztroy can’t be sustainable – I’d rather have 8 nights in a HIE for that! Fingers x’d they’re just trying to encourage cash bookings over the next few months when people are desperate to get away.

    • meta says:

      5 Apr5 April 20:24

      This even not dynamic pricing, there is now no correlation between cash price and redemption. Loyalty Lobby has a statement from IHG. They can set up redemption rates however they wish. Very bizarre move from IHG.

    • ChrisC says:

      5 Apr5 April 20:26

      Not sure about the price / points link

      For one trip

      Wednesdsay – £ 157 or 29k points

      Thursday – £157 or 56k points

    • r* says:

      5 Apr5 April 21:38

      IHG statement on OMAAT – ‘Under our new model, the number of points required for Reward Nights will vary with demand and seasonality’

      • TGLoyalty says:

        6 Apr6 April 00:24

        I’m pretty sure they’ll realise their dynamic pricing model is playing up and fix it.

  • Travel Strong says:

    5 Apr5 April 20:41

    On a property i’m familiar with. Usual redemption rates of 15k or 17.5k are now 17k for next few weeks, 17k for anytime December onwards…. And anywhere from 30 – 40k in the time between!

    Looks like a massive ramp up for the upcoming ‘peak’ season, then back to normal.

    Thankfully I booked up all my Ernie earnings a long time ago at the lower rates!

    • Travel Strong says:

      5 Apr5 April 20:42

      (And cash rates are flat on every single day this year, £100-£110, so zero correlation there)

    • Anna says:

      5 Apr5 April 21:12

      +1 – got the Kimpton Charlotte Square and a few others booked for half the points price currently showing. Also booked via Emyr for 3 nights at the Fitzroy, at £230 per night (been upgraded to a junior suite), points price is nearly 300k for the 3 nights we’re staying.

      • old bob says:

        5 Apr5 April 21:30

        The happy hour is really good at the Fitzroy, some good food offerings and free wine. Though I have mentioned it before, I went a bit overboard and spent the evening in the delightful company of a couple of eastern European ladies, I was awoken by the barman about four hours later minus my wallet. Incidentally the Fitzroy used to be the Russell hotel, its where the Russell group of leading universities got their name, supposedly they whittled down the candidate Uni’s in the Chambeli curry house about 300 metres down Upper Woburn place, but decided on the Russell group rather than the Chambeli Group as they didn’t think it had the same ring or indeed gravitas befitting these seats of learning. Ironic really as students spend half their lives pissing it up and eating curries!

  • Aston100 says:

    5 Apr5 April 22:55

    I’m amused by 60k+ per night for some HIX in New York, with an intercontinental being 70k and a Crowne Plaza 90k at the same time.
    Cash prices are illogical and have no bearing on those points prices.

    Meanwhile in the UK, I’ve seen some cash prices drop to the same or below my reward nights prices, so have cancelled and rebooked some stays for cash.

    Baffling, and seemingly without logic.

• Fola says:

  5 Apr5 April 20:21

  Thanks for all the suggestions regarding the question about a trip to NYC in October

• dev says:

  5 Apr5 April 21:46

  Hi all, any thoughts on UK/USA travel being allowed from May 17th onwards? I’ve multiple rumours that Biden’s going to allow it….any thoughts?

  • Harry T says:

    5 Apr5 April 22:57

    I think we will be able to visit the US this summer but I wouldn’t make any non flexible bookings. BA have already cancelled the bejesus out of the cheap ex europe flights I booked last year, so I will rebook/reroute them at my leisure. All hotels are booked using flexible rates. This is for august.

    • dev says:

      6 Apr6 April 00:28

      I have booked for May 27th LHR>LAX (perhaps a tad optimistic). Reward flight so fully flexible. Guy on the phone tells me that loads of people are booking UK to USA for late May early June…..

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