The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 6th April

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• Nick says:

  6 Apr6 April 17:55

  Anyone know if possible to buy sports direct gift card vouchers from Morrison’s?

  • rams1981 says:

    6 Apr6 April 22:11

    depends on store but I’ve seen them in some

• BP says:

  6 Apr6 April 17:57

  Attempted to buy Amazon vouchers from Morrisons on Sunday. Beardy payment failed for some reason so the purchase didn’t actually go through. I was still awarded the More points… Free money!!

  • memesweeper says:

    6 Apr6 April 20:05

    I’ve also had, and not had, More points on transactions… quiet random it seems and customer service can never fix it. Glad it worked for you 🙂

    • rams1981 says:

      6 Apr6 April 22:11

      I’ve found the newer self serve machines aren’t as generous

• Oli says:

  6 Apr6 April 18:01

  What’s best to rent a car for a day trip? Usual car rental companies (Hertz, Avis, etc) or something like Zipcar? I live in Central London and want to do a day trip to the coast. I have Amex Platinium, is the insurance also working with Zipcar?

  • Rhys says:

    6 Apr6 April 18:09

    Zipcar is expensive for more than hourly rentals. I personally use a local company in South London called Kendall Cars – always had great service and good rates (from £25/per day vs the £60+ for Zipcar)

    • Simon Barlow says:

      6 Apr6 April 19:04

      Kendall Cars are brilliant. Used their Guildford branch many times and always great.

  • Nadeshka says:

    6 Apr6 April 18:33

    For a full day hire or more I would say a more usual car rental company.
    Zipcar is good for more like 1-3 hour trips, especially one way ones within London.

  • N says:

    6 Apr6 April 18:55

    Driiveme

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 19:21

    We use Zipcar purely due to lack of faff. For a day trip I’d prefer to pay £60 for the car parked virtually opposite my house than pay £30 and mess about going to (and returning to) nearest Hertz etc.

    • Toppcat says:

      6 Apr6 April 19:59

      Agree with this. If you live near a traditional car rental company then that would probably be best, otherwise you have to question whether the saving vs Zipcar is worth it.

    • memesweeper says:

      6 Apr6 April 20:06

      +1 for Zipcar

      very convenient, and not too bad for longer drives if you use the daily rate wisely.

  • Magic Mike says:

    6 Apr6 April 20:25

    I don’t think amex insurance works with car clubs like Zipcar.

  • Lady London says:

    6 Apr6 April 23:31

    If it’s a weekend day it’s often just aa cheap to book both days esp if it’s Saturday you want. The trick is to hold it the Sat night. you could generally start with a pickup on Fri for 2days,say, and could work out no worse

  • C says:

    7 Apr7 April 02:17

    IIRC, Amex IEC Platinum insurance requires a pre-booked overnight stay. My understanding is that the insurance does work with Zipcar and similar, though YMMV.

    In response to others, I have found some traditional car rental companies have recently been offering very attractive weekend rates if one books in advance. I have found Friday or Saturday morning to Monday morning to be a sweet spot. IME, Hertz and Sixt have offered particularly good weekend rates over the past ~9 months. If living in Central London one does need to keep in mind the congestion charge, but there are a number of conveniently located car rental depots just outside the CC zone (e.g., Pentonville Road / Kings Cross / St Pancras area).

• dragonfly says:

  6 Apr6 April 18:14

  I have been saying that I have been happy with money transfer via wise (transferwise) as their rates were better than others. However, if you are paying with a credit card (instead of bank transfer) there is an additional charge by wise – on top of their fx fee – and, your credit card bank will treat the payment as a cash advance / money order and charge you yet another (higher) fee. So, beware! Lesson learned … wise does not make this clear – that your credit card bank will charge you interest on the amount as a cash advance 😩

  • AndyW says:

    6 Apr6 April 19:33

    Not exactly a shock this. A cash like transaction being treated as a cash like transaction.

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      6 Apr6 April 20:15

      Valuable input I’m sure the poster appreciates.

      My apparently superior reading comprehension told me that in fact it was a shock to the poster

      • MD says:

        6 Apr6 April 20:22

        Lol. Now, now Chris. 😂

      • KP says:

        6 Apr6 April 20:24

        lol

    • Blenz101 says:

      6 Apr6 April 20:41

      Card charges on debit are also hefty.

      • BuildBackBetter says:

        6 Apr6 April 22:37

        Someone has to pay the debit card fee is 0.2%
        Frankly, no one will use debit card if you can do a bank transfer for free

• Aston100 says:

  6 Apr6 April 18:21

  My 1 extra avios per £ ‘retention’ offer on my BAPP is expiring soon.
  Amex advised they won’t be offering any further retention offers to those who have already had one in the past year.
  Sounds a bit odd given the stories on here about multiple offers on Gold and Plat cards during the same card year.

  Anyone here managed to get an additional retention offer on their BAPP?
  Thanks.

  • TicknBash says:

    6 Apr6 April 18:35

    What was your first retention offer ?

    I’m £300 away from triggering another 241. Have you used your 241 ?
    They previously called me bluff and claimed that I’ll lose my 241s unless i downgrade to free BA card.

    Smells like old sea bass to me and wonders if there’s any truth in that.

    • Aston100 says:

      6 Apr6 April 18:43

      My retention offer is 1 extra avios per £1 spent on my BAPP, for a period of 3 months.
      Yes companion voucher is banked.
      They always claim you’ll lose the companion voucher, or that you’ll need the card it was earnt with when attempting to use it for a booking.

      • TicknBash says:

        6 Apr6 April 19:15

        Thank you. Time for a bit of poker tomorrow.

• BuildBackBetter says:

  6 Apr6 April 18:31

  Weird that Radisson hotels is now splitting itself into a Radisson hotels and Radisson hotels America’s.
  Did notice the two apps in AppStore last week but now there’s an email.

  • Rhys says:

    6 Apr6 April 18:36

    Yes, bizarre!

    • KBuffett says:

      6 Apr6 April 18:47

      Perhaps something to do with EU and data & privacy laws etc

      • David D says:

        6 Apr6 April 18:58

        No, it is to do with being owned by a company based in China, so for the purposes of data protection the US have forced the company to separate that business off with the data being placed in a bubble which cannot be accessed outside. Daft move really as it will still be accessed without their knowledge.

• pauldb says:

  6 Apr6 April 18:43

  BA seem to have added some extra shorthaul sun flights. If anyone wants to take an optimistic May half term gamble, I believe there are 4Y avios return seats on Saturdays to Tenrife, Thessaloniki and Kos. And on the Sundays, 4Y to Kalamata and 4J to Lanzarote and Corfu.

  • pauldb says:

    6 Apr6 April 18:45

    Actually that last one on 6 to Corfu and 9+ to ACE.

    • pauldb says:

      6 Apr6 April 19:15

      There also seems to be a liberal amount of availability to the US including MCO, MIA, LAS and LAX. BA204 LHR-MCO sticks out as a bonus rotation to me, and maybe BA281 to LAX too.

• Mart says:

  6 Apr6 April 19:01

  Signed up to Barclays avios rewards today. Meet all the criteria – is the 25k bonus not applicable if you have held ANY Barclays account EVER before? I had one 4/5 years ago at uni, think I closed it maybe 2/3 years ago…

  • Rob says:

    6 Apr6 April 19:18

    You’re fine.

    • Mart says:

      6 Apr6 April 19:22

      Cheers, thanks Rob. Couldn’t find anything concrete in the t&cs. Solicitor by trade so always crave certainty!

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