Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 14th April

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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Comments (338)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • PK says:

    I did recommend a friend for Gold Card for 24k points from my amex platinum link and have received the points. Would I be able to receive 24k membership reward points if I recommend the same friend for Amex Nectar card?

    • Benilyn says:

      Yes you can

      Out of curiosity how long did it take for the bonus to post?

      • PK says:

        for the first card 36 hrs and waiting for the other to post as its been approved this morning.

  • Benilyn says:

    Anyone have experience with Babylon Virtual GP? Thinking whether to sign up for new born…

    • Tariq says:

      Do they accept patients under 18? I got the impression that they only accepted easy to service patients, that never needed to see a GP, so they could register lots of patients and collect their capitation payments with the minimal cost to serve. I would love to signup, as it’s been more than five years since I last had to go and see my GP, but you have to live within a certain distance one of their physical clinics.

      • Jonathan says:

        This! Exactly how all private sector involvement in healthcare works in this country: cream off the easy, low risk stuff & leave all the tricky stuff to the actual NHS.

        Problem is, thanks to the way tarifs work, your local hospital
        /GP needs a stream of these “profitable” cases to subsidise the loss making emergency/obstetric/complex patients.

        Nice little earner if you’re well connected to the Tory party as the Babylon guys are though.

      • ChrisC says:

        Belive me as a former practice manager ‘capitation payments’ were never the road to riches.

        The money is made from the Quality & Outcomes framework (and it’s developments) for providing a certain level of care for mainly long term conditions and services such as flu jabs to the at risk groups, minor surgery, cervical cytology and childhood immunisations. the latter of which are target dependent – don’t reach the target and there is no payment.

        And this takes a lot of work to administer to call patients in for checks even of they don’t come in for them and it all has to be recorded

        You could be in your GP practice every week with all the aches and pains under the sun and not be generating any income for the practice.

        You could just be registered and still cost your practice money.

        BTW almost all GPs aren’t NHS employes they are private contractors. Their practice staff – manager, receptionists, practice nurses are employed by the practice partners and aren’t NHS employees.

    • KP says:

      Yes. I use it through the pvt medical care I have with my employer. Very easy to get appointments. GP are good. Prompt follow up notes and prescriptions. 5 stars all round

      • Alex says:

        Same experience for me. Not sure I’d pay for it myself but I’ve got no idea how much it costs

    • bafan says:

      No no no no no no. I just left them. Care was awful. Ran screaming back to a regular GP. Had to file a complaint against them in the end. But maybe it depends on which provider you get.

      Also threatened to sue CQC when they raised concerns about “the safety and effectiveness of the company’s digital health services.”

      https://www.digitalhealth.net/2018/08/babylon-threatened-to-sue-cqc/

    • Paul says:

      I’m very happy with Babylon. I left my previous GP surgery, who typically had a minimum 1wk wait time to get an appointment, and forced me to attend in person during working hours just to continue to get repeat prescriptions etc. Compare that with Babylon; the few times I’ve needed them I’ve been able to secure same-day appointments, including evenings, and from my phone so wherever I am. Check you’re near one of their centres – if you are then should be good. I’ve been to their sites in person for flu jab etc.

  • Dan says:

    Any one see the new Tesco debit card on the Tesco groceries app – Clubcard pay?

    Double clubcard points for 3 months…

    • Ali M says:

      oooh whats that

        • Genghis says:

          Not appearing on my Clubcard app.

          Can only be funded by bank transfer?

          So “double points” for 100 days at Tesco, reading the terms, is the same as I get anyway with Clubcard + legacy Tesco debit card spend?

        • NC says:

          There’s a specific exclusion for “If you pay funds into savings accounts including NS&I accounts”…

          • Dan says:

            I wasn’t suggesting it as a potential MS opportunity. I was merely suggesting it as a new product that folk may not have heard of as it seems very new and no publicity so far as of yet.

            I do agree though, it doesn’t really set the world on fire in terms of its benefits

          • lev441 says:

            LOL that they wrote this.. I wonder if in practise, you’d get points anywhere.. The debit card has been veeeery beneficial to me.

          • BP says:

            Perhaps there will be a bendy bypass…

          • Toby says:

            Yeah. Probably not then. I was wondering if they’d catch it, as I’ve never been clear who the bank sees as processing the transaction (I suspect it’s outsourced). Maybe I’m being overly hopeful here — there must be a way to earn miles on childcare….

        • memesweeper says:

          “While you can collect Clubcard points on most of your debit card transactions, there are some exclusions, which include:“

          … what follows is a list of the ONLY things I use a debit card for!

    • 747_Brat says:

      Looks like a new version of Tesco current account. which was closed to new applicants.

      • Dan says:

        This one pays an interest of 0.10%. Every little helps I guess.

        • Joe says:

          I see what you did there …..

        • Rob says:

          Is is just me, or is it saying that – after Day 100 – you basically earn NOTHING extra at Tesco beyond your usual 1 point per £1 but will earn on external payments?

          • TGLoyalty says:

            looks like it

          • Genghis says:

            Exactly!

          • James says:

            As it says double/2 points per £ for using this new card for 100 days in Tesco, I’m hoping it means after this using the card would come with 1 point per £ and you’d get the other 1 point for scanning the standard clubcard. Though this isn’t at all clear and may well be wishful thinking!

          • James says:

            Just read it again with more time, and yes, it says the new CCpay card is your clubcard, which means just back to 1 point per £ after 100 days and so absolutely nothing extra.
            And on that sour note, goodnight.

          • TGLoyalty says:

            It’s pretty clear that you only earn the single clubcard point you would normally earn when you expend the blurb

            “For the first 3 months (100 days to be exact) after you open your Clubcard Pay account you’ll collect 2 Clubcard points for every £1 you spend using your Clubcard Pay debit card, on qualifying products in Tesco and on Tesco Fuel (excludes Esso). That’s one extra Clubcard point for every £1 you spend. After 100 days, you will go back to the Clubcard points collection rate you usually get in Tesco when using your Clubcard.”

      • Blenz101 says:

        This is terrible news if they migrate existing debit card holders or have plugged the gap by blocking points on the exclusions list!

  • TJ says:

    I’m returning to the U.K. via Heathrow. Does anyone have experience of using VeriFLY to streamline border checks? Specifically does it cut down on waiting times?

    • Liam says:

      VeriFLY has no impact on border checks. It’s useful if the airline you’re flying with accepts it as proof that you’ve completed all the necessary paperwork before checking in, as that will save time in my experience (both BA and AA check-in agents have been happy, and pleasantly surprised, to discover I’ve used it), but the border agents will want to see the individual documents, whether printed or on your phone, and you’ll be in the same line as everyone else.

  • Tony says:

    Anyone got any tips for generating a few AAdvantage points for my AA account to avoid points expiry which I can see coming up soon? Just need to generate some activity to save losing them. Thanks.

    • bafan says:

      https://www.aadvantage40th.com/

      I’ve been getting a few points here and there from this. You should win even 20 miles which will extend the expiry date.

      • bafan says:

        You reminded me to do mine and I won 400 miles – not bad for 30 seconds of work.

        • meta says:

          I play every day. Already won nearly 20k miles. 4x 4000 miles, 8 x 400 miles, 5x 40 miles and a few of those worthless codes. I reckon I’ll have enough for one-way business class intra-Asia by the end of the promo. Not bad for 1-2 minutes every morning. You get several extra spins at the start of each week if you click on various links and 2 every day if you also check daily fact.

          • Liz says:

            Meta – you have done well. I’ve only had 2 x 400 and 3 x 40 and a car hire upgrade!

          • Lyn says:

            Liz, you’ve also done well. We’ve only got 1 x 400 and 3 x 40 between the two of us.

            Meta, very well done. Do you have status with AA by any chance?

      • Tony says:

        Perfect. Nothing today, but will try again tomorrow. Very useful – thanks.

      • John says:

        Thanks for this!

      • AJA says:

        Isn’t this promotion only valid for people living in the USA? Is your address in your Aadvantage profile a US address?

        • Louie says:

          60 odd goes between us. Not won a thing. Supposed to be random but it doesn’t look that way.

        • bafan says:

          To be fair the points game dances on the line between what is permitted / not permitted in general so…change it to a US address lol.

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      Think you get some points if you comment on the AwardWallet blog. Google it.

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      Award Wallet blog comment earns 5 Pts & keeps your account live.

  • Brighton Belle says:

    DataPoint. Re Gold Card extra MR points

    You can’t use Sainsburys plastic gift cards online to buy groceries. You must use an E voucher and convert that to a spendable value online. If you buy the Sainsbury’s e gift cards they’re processed by a third party payment processor called Hemmingway. Probably Amex wont recognise that as Sainsbury’s spend so you wont get any bonus points. Of course they don’t tell you this until after the transaction has run and completed.

  • Johnny5a says:

    HI there, I need to pay off my late brother-in-law’s debt one of the payment options is to you PayZone at my post office. Does anyone know wither I can use my Curve Card with Payzone? Thanks

    • Dan says:

      Why would you use curve when you could use your Visa or MC?

      • Johnny5a says:

        Oh I thought I could only use debit cards, thanks I\ll give it a go

    • Andrew says:

      Why do you need to pay off your late BiLs debts?

      Unless you’re doing it as the executor of course.

  • Jonny says:

    My wife has upgraded her Amex Green card to a Platinum card (over the phone), so as to benefit from the 20k points offer for £4k spend.

    The upgrade was processed successfully and Green card is already showing as covered to a Platinum card in the app. Does anyone know if spend prior to receipt of the physical Platinum card will count towards the £4k target? thanks

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