The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 6th April

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• KBuffett says:

  6 Apr6 April 08:58

  New AmEx offer on my Plat Charge for Niccolò P

  The owner is a regular reader here. I hope the offer does well for him in what I’d imagine is currently a tough trading climate.

  • Andrew says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:09

    Not heard of the brand – is it good quality? I’m assuming it’s menswear of some sort?

    • MinR says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:10

      It is menswear, and yes, great quality! I have a few of their Supima cotton Crew Neck t-shirts.

• Anna says:

  6 Apr6 April 09:05

  Interesting data point – in Wales, “self-contained accommodation” includes hotels with en-suite facilities and room service. From what I’ve gathered these will also be open to other UK residents from April 12th so a potential option for anyone who fancies a trip to Cardiff to use an expiring free night certificate!

  • Andrew says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:10

    Voco Cardiff is excellent. Of course you’d be limited to eating McDonalds in your room though, with restaurants closed.

    • Anna says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:33

      The Indigo has got a package where they will deliver Marco Pierre White food to your room!

  • Freddy says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:10

    We’re on the last week of bliss here in Wales before the English invasion

    • BJ says:

      6 Apr6 April 09:23

      Put your rugby shirts on people – they’ll all turn around and run off home in terror 🙂

    • Anna says:

      6 Apr6 April 16:21

      Apologies Freddy! In fairness, though, I don’t think a few HFP readers are the equivalent of the invasion force of Edward I, and hopefully they’ll spend more money 😊

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:50

    Is an apartment self contained accommodation in England?

    • Anna says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:32

      In England it seems to require that there should be no common entrances so if there’s a shared lobby or landing, then no.

      • Blair says:

        6 Apr6 April 14:00

        BoJo’s mulling an exemption if you promise to hold your breath outside the front entrance and don’t exhale till you’re through the lobby, up in the lift, in your room, and the door is shut. It’s a finely balanced thing though as some are more likely to emit from the other end if holding their breath.

  • Blair says:

    6 Apr6 April 11:38

    Or the Marriott offer! Only so many work nights I can squeeze in before 27th! Great tip Anna, Cardiff Marriott booked.

  • Jane says:

    6 Apr6 April 12:16

    Very interesting, we were wondering where to go 15/16 April as we have a couple of days off before the kids go back – I wonder if their pools will be open too (thinking Hilton) – generally pools can open from the 12th too so they should be

• BJ says:

  6 Apr6 April 09:20

  @Chrism and other Edinburgh readers, have your council tax paypoint transactions shown up on your online account yet? Mine from 1 April still hasn’t, and I cannot get through on the phone this morning. Wondering if their systems have crashed.

  • Andrew says:

    6 Apr6 April 10:44

    Today is only the next (banking) day from the 1st April.

    It’ll post and get backdated once the Edinburgh staff have done the download, then put the memory stick in the internal mail to the upload department.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    6 Apr6 April 10:59

    Can I use Amex to pay Edinburgh council tax?

    • Phil says:

      6 Apr6 April 11:49

      Yes, the co-op on Newington Road has a PayPoint and takes card payments (including Amex). Max transaction value is £150.00 but they let you put through multiple transactions.

      • mark2 says:

        6 Apr6 April 14:14

        It was a while back and at the other end of the country (Warwickshire) but I found that if you do two transactions for the same amount confuses the POS system.

    • Chrism20 says:

      6 Apr6 April 14:51

      Yes works fine at the Coop. For info though the McDonald Rd store is now closed until the end of the month as they are getting a new floor installed.

      • Colin MacKinnon says:

        6 Apr6 April 19:35

        McDonald Road just dandy – I’m at Gayfield

        Thanks

  • Chrism20 says:

    6 Apr6 April 14:52

    Nothing yet but suspect it’s due to the BH as others have said.

• Andy says:

  6 Apr6 April 09:32

  Has anyone used an FTV from an old companion voucher booking? I’ve been hoping my Tokyo redemption flight next month will be cancelled but nothing has happened as yet. I was originally going to wait for it to be cancelled, then use the 2 4 1 (which expires start of April 2022) to book a new flight. However as it hasn’t been cancelled yet I’m concerned by the time they do cancel it there won’t be any avios availability for my dates.

  So am thinking of applying for a FTV and the phoning up at 1am to use it to snag seats. Is this simple or is it a really complicated process? And which call centre number to use if so?

  • Rhys says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:45

    Yes, did this the other week with Bangkok. Very easy but you need to make it clear to the first person who answers the phone that you have an FTV with companion voucher and they will pass you to the Avios team. They will then ask you for your booking reference and simply rebook and reprice your flights.

    If you’re calling at 1am then you’ll want an office that’s open. I always use the US number which is easy to find if you google it.

    • Andy says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:02

      Thanks Rhys! Very helpful!

    • Jody says:

      6 Apr6 April 10:23

      I’m sure this is a very stupid question, however have never done the phoning another office at 1am to make a booking. If you’re phoning the USA or wherever, can you still pay in £s, or do you end up with a foreign transaction fee? Just curious really.

      • Rhys says:

        6 Apr6 April 10:24

        BA prices flights based on your origin. Return flights from the UK – £. One-way flight from Europe – Euro.

        • Matt says:

          6 Apr6 April 11:39

          If you’re phoning up you should be able to pay in whatever currency you ask for (within reason!). Online it’s as Rhys says.

          If you’re planning to phone the US number, get Skype set up in advance for the call – should be free, or at least much cheaper, to call.

        • Jody says:

          6 Apr6 April 11:43

          Thanks Rhys and Matt.

        • pauldb says:

          6 Apr6 April 12:34

          I thought avios flights were always priced in the BAEC home currency, i.e. generally £ regardless of origin.

          Andy – are you rebooking a single or return booking. Rebooking at 1am is a bit messy for a return booking, but hopefully you mean your intended outbound is available your inbound opens that morning?

        • Andy says:

          6 Apr6 April 16:47

          @pauldb

          Single as booked it as two one ways at the time and got them to link the bookings so i got half the avios refunded on the return. The return leg has already been cancelled and I got the avios back. So just now got a one way flight to Tokyo that I’d have the FTV for..

• QFFlyer says:

  6 Apr6 April 09:40

  Someone the other day asked whether anyone was having issues with the 50k/100k Amex bonuses posting – I’ve stumbled upon the reason.

  Both Biz cards I’ve had have had a delay in the MR account being set up, which results in transactions being made after activation, but before MR account, being manually added by Amex. These don’t automatically trigger the bonus.

  First card I didn’t notice, but the second I’d made two transactions totalling £5k (~£24 and ~£4,076), the first one being before the MR account was created. Points didn’t post, Amex just said it’d happen in 4 weeks (this was a few days ago), but yesterday I made a transaction of around £25, and today the 50k SUB has posted, linked to that additional transaction.

  It’s strange, as the refer-a-friend bonus triggered on exactly £5k, but it seems the SUB needed that extra nudge, thought the data point might be useful.

  • Jay says:

    6 Apr6 April 13:01

    +1 exact same experience.

• den says:

  6 Apr6 April 09:50

  What (if any) product do people use to deposit money into a stocks and shares ISA? Mine is with HL I was wondering if there was a way to earn points linked to AMEX CC. Does Curve work? Thanks in advance.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Apr6 April 09:51

    Curve doesn’t work with Amex.

  • Bobri says:

    6 Apr6 April 12:56

    Curve doesn’t work with HL

    • TGLoyalty says:

      6 Apr6 April 13:30

      It does … depends on what you’re using to back it.

      • Danny says:

        6 Apr6 April 14:38

        Yes just transferred £20,000 into my HL Stocks & shares ISA with curve!

        • den says:

          6 Apr6 April 17:41

          Was that a points earning transaction too?

    • Crafty says:

      6 Apr6 April 17:44

      It certainly does (with Hilton Barclaycard).

• mutley says:

  6 Apr6 April 10:13

  Paying Council tax bills with Amex, is it still possible to pay in a Post Office?

  • BJ says:

    6 Apr6 April 10:17

    Not in my local one, they will only accept debit card or cash.

  • Steve says:

    6 Apr6 April 10:28

    Paypoint, BP or COOP

  • Harry T says:

    6 Apr6 April 11:00

    Post offices seem to decline amex payments for council tax, IME.

• Imran says:

  6 Apr6 April 10:23

  Is the M&M card still working? I tried to do a small transaction of £1, which went through just fine, but any bigger transactions are declining!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Apr6 April 10:26

    I’d say it’s dead then …

    Be careful using a card you know has been cancelled for transactions.

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