The HfP chat thread – Monday 12th April

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• H says:

  12 Apr12 April 11:50

  OT but does anyone have any recommendations for hotels / cottages for a long weekend stay in the Cotswolds. Point opportunities welcome but not necessary. Thanks

  • Michael C says:

    12 Apr12 April 11:58

    @H – I like Stow Lodge Hotel. Not luxury but def. cute quirkiness. Mainly I like to be based in Stow because there are half a dozen places to eat and drink in within 2 mins’ walk in the evening!

  • Steve says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:55

    How about Doubletree Cheltenham? Not stayed but looking at it myself too.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      12 Apr12 April 13:16

      I’d look at The Lucky Inion group properties

      • TGLoyalty says:

        12 Apr12 April 13:17

        Onion*

    • PMG says:

      12 Apr12 April 13:31

      My parents have stayed there (when I lived in Cheltenham), it is okay but not the best. Relatively old building in general and quite far out of town.

      Agree with @TGLoyalty that Lucky Onion Properties are nicer (No. 131 especially).
      Also can look at Hotel du Vin or Malmaison but not sure about points on those.

    • Harrier25 says:

      12 Apr12 April 18:10

      The Doubletree Cheltenham is the worst Hilton I have ever stayed in!

  • FlyingChris says:

    12 Apr12 April 13:02

    We quite enjoyed The Fish last year (via Mr & Mrs Smith). On the side of a very steep hill but featured quirky accommodations from standard rooms to treehouses and mini cabins. The same group has two other more traditional hotels on the same grounds. The best part was that they had a large private cinema room with sofas you could book just for your party free of charge at the time. They even brought popcorn! Made for a nice evening after dinner.

    • A says:

      12 Apr12 April 13:55

      Treehouses there are excellent if you have kids

      • H says:

        12 Apr12 April 17:24

        Thanks all for the recommendations.

  • James says:

    12 Apr12 April 21:01

    Second the Fish, also Dormy House lovely too and the Lygon Arms in nearby Broadway (though is perhaps a bit stuffy).

• Jonathan says:

  12 Apr12 April 11:50

  I’ve had same issue. I sent a message through App via. More->Help->Message Centre.

  I included a screenshot of credit card statement showing transactions.

  Not had response yet but only sent on Saturday.

• Aston100 says:

  12 Apr12 April 12:02

  When one of my flights got moved from LGW to LHR, BA didn’t even try to put up a fight and were happy to provide a full refund.

  Regarding Marrakech, I wrote a long post.
  The upshot was that if you’ve never been, then you should stay in a Riad in the Medina.
  These are all much of a muchness.
  Stay close to a main road, preferably at the south end.
  Contact the Riads directly and you will be able to negotiate a far better price than even on their own websites.
  Assume that everyone you talk to in the Medina is a scammer, including people who come up to you offering to show you short cuts to get out of the maze of alleyways, or to guide you to your Riad, or to carry your luggage or whatever.

  Tripadvisor reviews of Riads are full of fake reviews from people with just one post history.

  • Aston100 says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:02

    That was a reply to Jonathan from page 2.
    The reply bug strikes again.

    • Jonathan says:

      12 Apr12 April 12:04

      Haha

  • Jonathan says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:07

    I haven’t been to Marrakech before, and I’m well aware (particularly in places like Marrakech) of don’t assume a friendly stranger of being simply just trying to be nice and helpful

  • Rob says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:08

    Villa des Orangers has always rated well – we stayed there 15 years ago although I accept you can’t rely on that.

    • Jonathan says:

      12 Apr12 April 18:52

      I’ll check it out thanks

  • Kay says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:16

    Just stay at a hotel. We stayed at the Hivernage area

    • Aston100 says:

      12 Apr12 April 12:38

      Kay, do you ask for egg & chips when going to a Chinese restaurant?

      • Kay says:

        12 Apr12 April 12:53

        Don’t do Chinese restaurants, so wouldn’t know. But heres a read.. Refined, modern Hivernage is known for nightlife, with a casino, cocktail lounges, hotel dance clubs and chic global restaurants with live music. The Royal Theatre, with domes and Ancient Egyptian–style columns, stages concerts in an amphitheater. Nearby, the Menara Gardens, with a huge reflecting pool and mountains in the background, date to the 12th century, and El-Harti Park has fountains and a rose garden. ― Google

  • ChrisC says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:26

    Change of airport is regarded as a cancellation even if the same flight numers and times.

    IIRC when I called when this happened to me last summer the agent asked if I would prefer a refund or a rebook. I was calling just to ask to be rebooked to LCY instead of LHR as it wasn’t showing on the app

    In my experience in cases like this BA have refunded with no quibbles.

  • Jonathan says:

    12 Apr12 April 18:54

    Thanks for the help everyone,

    I’ll have a good around before I book anything

• M says:

  12 Apr12 April 12:21

  Quick Q re. Future Travel Voucher and BA 241.

  Once bundled into a FTV, if you struggle to use (I’m a doctor and pre-planned leave is occasionally a challenge) do you retain the ability to book a flight and get an Avios/Cash refund for £30pp?

  • AJA says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:39

    Yes, although the cancellation fee is £35 per passenger not £30. Remember though that the FTV gives you longer to use the 2-4-1 so cancelling might mean the 2-4-1 expires. Why not just use it to book a European break? You will get a refund of the Avios if the new flights are in a lower zone than you previously booked.

  • Rob says:

    12 Apr12 April 13:13

    I believe that you can ask BA to unwind the FTV and then pay the £35 pp to get everything back, yes.

    • M says:

      12 Apr12 April 17:04

      Great, thank you both.

• Haydn says:

  12 Apr12 April 12:24

  Hi Rob thanks for response ref the issue on Friday re images not displaying “The system now allows access from Bulgaria for headforpoints.com/feed, but only that URL.
  What might be causing it is that it has to pull the images from their URLs, which all look like https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/wp-content/uploads
  So …. what I will do is whitelist the path above. This should do it. Let me know.”

  I’ve tried this and it hasn’t worked. I’m now unable to load the feed at all (i.e no text and no images).

  • Rob says:

    12 Apr12 April 13:13

    Fixed, via a workaround. Might get blocked again because I need to find a way around this. 463 attempts from Bulgaria yesterday to access the site.

    • Haydn says:

      12 Apr12 April 17:22

      Fantastic Rob. All working now. Thank you for sorting.

• AJA says:

  12 Apr12 April 12:26

  It appears that the French parliament has decided to ban short-haul internal flights where train alternatives exist, in a bid to reduce carbon emissions.

  They’ve voted in favour of a bill to end routes where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.

  Apparently connecting flights via CDG will not be affected which suggests that there will still be some internal flights.

  I think this is not a bad idea although it does mean that you are at the mercy of whatever fares the train company offers.

  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56716708

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    12 Apr12 April 13:50

    The train company is owned by the state, much like most other things in France.

  • memesweeper says:

    12 Apr12 April 13:52

    “Apparently connecting flights via CDG will not be affected which suggests that there will still be some internal flights.“

    correct — you will not be able to board a short domestic unless you are connecting

  • Lyn says:

    12 Apr12 April 16:50

    Trains are usually much less expensive than flights within France.

    It is very different to the situation in the UK.

    • James says:

      12 Apr12 April 21:03

      Yes, and trains much better than here too.

  • Anuj says:

    12 Apr12 April 22:03

    My parents would happily get the train instead of driving but it’s so much cheaper to drive a car, even to places close by like Birmingham, Derby, Leicester, this effect becomes even more dramatic if there’s more than one person going.

    • Chris Heyes says:

      13 Apr13 April 08:08

      Anuj That’s not strictly true, I pre-covid used to travel regularly from Blackburn in the North to Bognor Regis in the South (around 400 Miles i think)
      Price of a First Class ticket around £34 booked 12 weeks (Advance Ticket)
      With RailCard (mine is disabled, allows 2 travellers, but any Railcard)
      That includes Breakfast if early, meal depends on train time.
      I Doubt you could drive that far for £34
      There was also some deals example up to 2 Adults and up to 4 Children for £100 from say Preston or Manchester to London, I would think from other towns that offer was only Avanti Trains though

• ChrisC says:

  12 Apr12 April 12:35

  Just got email from BA

  ‘Our sale just got better

  Enjoy up to an extra £300 off holidays£

  Offer ends midnight Thursday 15 April additional savings on holidays – a holiday is flight+hotel or flight+car.

• Secret Squirrel says:

  12 Apr12 April 12:35

  For anyone who does e-rewards. Just tried to redeem AVIOS this week & got an error message. The terms have been updated some time last week, only one redemption per every 30 x days now.

  • AJA says:

    12 Apr12 April 12:43

    It used to be that way before. I only discovered last year that you could redeem more frequently. That said recently I have been struggling to get enough points to redeem for the maximum 2,000 Avios every 30 days. I seem to be screened out on most of the surveys I attempt. At least you get a minimum 25 points every time!

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      12 Apr12 April 12:55

      I was able to redeem once a week until today. My last redemption was made on the 6th so it’s changed between then & today. I’m finding I could make 2000 AVIOS per week until today.

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