The HfP chat thread – Thursday 15th April

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• Rob says:

  15 Apr15 April 09:59

  Looking for some help with China visas for anyone with good knowledge.

  I’m wanting (pending opening) to visit China in March using the 144 stopover visa.

  However I read yesterday that the visa only covers movement in certain provinces. I actually wanted to arrive in Shanghai and then get the train to Huangshan, however Huangshan is just over the border into the next province (Anhui)

  Is that correct that you can’t leave certain provinces and how strictly is this enforced? If memory serves I remember having overly frequent passport checks in China.

  Thanks all

  • Craig says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:03

    There’s quite a good thread and some expertise over on FlyerTalk, I think you’d get a better answer there. It was useful when I was planning last year.

  • Craig says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:03

    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china/708095-china-24-72-144-hour-transit-without-visa-twov-rules-master-thread.html

  • Rob says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:27

    Whilst I have done this, we never left Beijing.

    However, where the Chinese Government is concerned, I think you’d need to be off your head to take a chance on the law not being strictly enforced, because the downside is probably a few years in prison.

  • Lee says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:43

    I can’t see visiting China for next two years without restrictions or even hotel quarantine.

  • will says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:50

    I did this a few years ago, landed in Shanghai, I think it was either 72 or 96 back then.
    The rule was cannot leave Shanghai city limits.

    I did and went to Ningbo, got stopped by the police randomly as I was travelling late at night with a Chinese supplier I have. They checked all of my documents and supplier was able to explain our way around it but I certainly would not do it without being accompanied by someone Chinese. My supplier already advised me that I should not be checking into a hotel outside of Shanghai without a proper Visa.

    Police in China will ask for your passport if you are stopped by them in my experience but also they were very calm and reasonably in this case.

  • Lord Doncaster says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:51

    Your passport is needed when buying a train ticket and the passport number will be printed on the ticket. You’ll need to show the passport when they check your ticket on the train.

    Usually they aren’t interested in the passport stamps but sometimes they are. Hotels definitely look for them.

  • The real John says:

    15 Apr15 April 12:00

    It is likely that you will need a Chinese covid vaccine to enter China next year.

    • Tiff says:

      15 Apr15 April 12:59

      For clarity, don’t refer to this as a “stopover visa” and certainly not as a “transit visa”, which is something quite different. Always say “transit without visa” to avoid any possible confusion at check-in, as you are not getting any type of visa at all.

      You also must leave to a third country (or Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao) and not return straight back to your origin.

    • Robbyrob says:

      15 Apr15 April 18:11

      Yes. That’s the one that has50.7 pct effectiveness…

  • Jonathan says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:58

    As far as I’m aware the Chinese government aren’t issuing tourist visas anytime soon, they’ll only let people in who have a genuine reason for visiting, like seeing a relative.
    I’ve also heard that they want a traveler to have one their vaccinations against the virus, and won’t recognise for instance the AstraZeneca vaccine

    • kitten says:

      15 Apr15 April 15:54

      You mean the Chinese vaccine they’ve admitted this week is only 50% effective?

      • Rob says:

        15 Apr15 April 16:42

        The UAE is now giving 3rd doses of this because 2 doses are not producing enough antibodies.

  • Jonathan says:

    15 Apr15 April 14:08

    I also remember reading that in order to use the visa waiver scheme (assuming it isn’t currently suspended) that you can’t buy a return plane ticket (from day here in Europe) solely to visit an area / region where it’s in place, they want to see evidence that you’ll be moving onto a third country to take advantage of the scheme, like flying from London to Shanghai for a couple of days then flying to Japan or South Korea (or wherever) from what I understand is perfectly fine, I’m almost certain it’s the same for the flight(s) back. In any case you must be able to satisfy the Chinese border guards you’ll comply with the Visa Wavier conditions, or they’ll turn you around

    • Tiff says:

      15 Apr15 April 16:05

      You need to satisfy your carrier that you are compliant when you board your flight to China. Most problems occur there, and not on arrival in China. For example, LON-CDG-PEK-AMS-LON on AF/KL counts as a valid transit of China, but some agents might need convincing. That is also why you should use the phrase “Transit without visa” because that is what an agent will check for in Timatic, and not “visa waiver”, “transit visa” etc. Anyway, it’s irrelevant for now because the scheme is suspended at the moment.

      • kitten says:

        15 Apr15 April 17:33

        Yes. Your next stop after the one city in China has to be a third country. Not China and not the country you came from.

        • Tiff says:

          15 Apr15 April 18:55

          Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan also count as third “countries” for this purpose. LON-PEK-HKG-PEK-LON is a valid itinerary for transit without visa (twice). LON-HKG-PEK-HKG-LON would not work without a visa.

• mark says:

  15 Apr15 April 10:06

  I put all my cash back into an investment fund.
  In 20 years time it will of hopefully compounded itself into a very nice sum and best of it all is it cost me nothing!

  • Genghis says:

    15 Apr15 April 11:59

    Just mental accounting though isn’t it? Whether you invest the cash you’ve earned from CB or other cash you’ve got makes no difference given cash’s fungibility.

    • mark says:

      15 Apr15 April 12:26

      Agree it just feels more like something for free and from that perspective I can push the lever more and don’t mind pushing the envelope in that basket of risk.

      • kitten says:

        15 Apr15 April 13:38

        I thought @Savage Squirrel’s suggestion to use part of a windfall as a “float” for the odd bit of MS instead of putting it into some kind of savings account, was *inspired*. As it’s money you didn’t pay for maybe same could be considered here?

• Chris says:

  15 Apr15 April 10:19

  I’d like some advice on choosing a points Mastercard for when my BAPP isn’t accepted.

  I’m looking at the free VS and the white IHG card – I’m unsure which would be better for my circumstances already owning the BAPP.

  I already have an airline card in the BAPP so I was thinking to go with the IHG for hotels? I didn’t think it would be ideal to have the VS going as well as the BAPP for miles, but I could be looking at this the wrong way however.

  Thanks

  • Rob says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:25

    The thing with VS is, with no short-haul flights, you need a lot of credit card spend to get anything decent. Virgin Red has changed the maths on this a bit, admittedly, because there are lots of non-flight things on there you can get worth 0.5p per point, but that is still the key issue.

    Virgin lets you part-pay for cash flights with miles, of course, so if you pay for occasional Virgin flights then you will get value this way regardless.

    As IHG has ‘points and cash’ you can do stuff with lower balances.

    Don’t forget the key point though: as Virgin Points convert 1:1 into IHG, albeit in chunks of 10k, you can arguably get the best of both worlds.

    • Chris says:

      15 Apr15 April 10:33

      Ah I completely forgot that IHG was a 1:1 partner – that changes things!

      I was thinking along the same lines as Avios where most hotel redemptions are not very good value.

      Think I will look to likely sign up for the VS, especially as I know they have some decent long-haul offerings over BA.

      Thanks

    • Hugh says:

      15 Apr15 April 12:52

      But I thought short haul with AF and KLM were now possible or have I misunderstood that?

      • Rob says:

        15 Apr15 April 12:58

        They are, but it is a relatively thin list unless you are willing to change in Paris or Amsterdam, which isn’t ideal for short haul.

        • Hugh says:

          15 Apr15 April 13:22

          Thanks for clarifying Rob. I too am wondering whether to go VS or IHG with lloyds closing. I suspect if I go VS it will be to redeem against a flight to either Amsterdam or Paris, but actually not sure that there is much benefit, even with points, over just flying with one of the Low cost carriers!

    • Yorkie Aid says:

      15 Apr15 April 13:44

      Even better, Virgin points convert 2:3 to Hilton Honors.

• Jody says:

  15 Apr15 April 10:28

  Thanks to everyone who offered advice the other day regarding my son and the dodgy driving licence application site. After 4 strongly worded emails (each email they sent back completely avoided the question of a refund but talked about how secure their data was and they were registered with ICO – absolute rubbish) they agreed to a refund and he has the money back in his account.

  For those of you who said just let him get on with it as he is 23 – I can see your point to a degree. However, his dyslexia is so severe he was statemented in year 6, and this statement continued with him throughout secondary school (in spite of that, his reading age remained that of approximately a 10 year old). All his exams were done with a reader and a scribe, and he has taken his English GCSE 5 times to try and achieve a C grade (unsuccessfully unfortunately). Perhaps people could try and be a little bit more understanding of others that don’t have the skills they take for granted and realise that a bit of help can go a long way.

  • Jenny says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:39

    Well done pleased for your result, it was unfortunate to fall for the trap

  • Anna says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:43

    Glad you managed to get this sorted out Jody. People often don’t realise that dyslexia isn’t just about having difficulties with reading and/or writing (my son has Asperger’s and dyspraxia and weirdly is an outstanding reader but can’t spell for love nor money!) but can also involve other neurological vulnerabilities. As someone very neurotypical in the academic world it’s been a sharp learning curve to understanding these kinds of difficulties and the kind of strategies you need to come up to try and put your child on a level playing field.

  • Lula says:

    15 Apr15 April 10:59

    Really glad to read this Jody. I was quite shocked at the nature of some of them comments in response to your original post.

    • Jody says:

      15 Apr15 April 11:44

      Thanks Lula and everyone else. I was a little surprised too, but as Anna says, a lot of people just don’t realise how much of an impact something like dyslexia can have on every day life. He’s had parking tickets before because he wasn’t able to read the details properly (and to be fair to him, he hasn’t even told me about these until way after the event, so he doesn’t expect me to sort out everything in his life!).

      Aston100, maybe he was lucky in getting a refund. However, they clearly know they are on a sticky wicket, as the final email he sent them asked for their ICO registration number (which they claimed to have) and also the full name and business address so he could check if they were on the register as they claimed. There wasn’t so much as a contact number on their website, never mind an address. It was only after this email that they agreed to refund, and also failed to provide anything that was asked, suggesting that everything they had said and they were not registered at all.

      You are also supposed to get an application number which you can get then use to check the DVLA website to see how your application is progressing. They didn’t provide this, suggesting they hadn’t made the application, and given that my son sent an email within 6 minutes asking them to cancel, so I’m not entirely sure why he shouldn’t expect a full refund, especially as there legally should have been a cooling off period, of which there was no mention of on their website (and most of their terms were gobbledygook that contradicted each other).

      Sites like that may be technically legal but they shouldn’t be allowed, or they should be made to plaster all over them in large easy to understand writing that they are offering a service that is either free or much reduced if they go to the official website. You only have to read the trust pilot reviews to see how many people have been caught out, and that they didn’t realise they were paying money when they put their card details on as it said £0 (my son actually said this, he thought he was putting his details in for them to verify his identity) and it wasn’t until they’d pressed submit that it then came up with the £79 charge (or more depending on what they were doing).

      • The real John says:

        15 Apr15 April 12:02

        It seems their business model is “make people too ashamed to ask for a refund”. But a dyslexic person has nothing to be ashamed of if they get cheated because they had trouble reading.

  • Aston100 says:

    15 Apr15 April 11:00

    Jody, I am pleased you got a refund from this, but you were lucky.
    Sites like that are not breaking the law or doing anything illegal so it is very difficult to prove any wrongdoing.
    There are sites like that covering all sorts of things that are supposed to be free (or a lot cheaper anyway) such as visa applications, passports etc

    While I sympathise with your circumstances, I doubt they would be taken into consideration if the company refused and the matter were to progress further through some legal channel.

    Anyway, well done.

  • Jay says:

    15 Apr15 April 12:15

    Great news 😉 So glad it got sorted and thanks for letting us know. Best wishes to you and your son.

• Mark says:

  15 Apr15 April 10:58

  Any advice on airport transfers from Birmingham to Heathrow? Good companies etc?

  • Andrew says:

    15 Apr15 April 11:05

    Black Lane do a fixed price and are on Amex offers at the moment.

  • Ed says:

    15 Apr15 April 12:16

    I’ve used British Airport Transfers a couple of times and found them reliable. You can put your postcode in on their website and get a quote.

  • Nick Burch says:

    15 Apr15 April 14:17

    Train to Euston, walk 10 minutes to St Pancras then Piccadilly line to Heathrow? Train to Euston, walk a few mins to Euston Square, tube to Paddington then HEX?

    • Mark says:

      15 Apr15 April 14:28

      We’re quite far south in Brum (just on the Worcestershire border) so would add a lot of
      Time to a trip to try and go by public transport. Plus I just want to get off the over night flight on the return and get in a car. British airport transfers have come out cheapest so far so might go with them!

• Lula says:

  15 Apr15 April 11:00

  I signed up for the free LHW membership the other day, and each time the website hung and wouldn’t process the application, it added a year on to the membership. I’ve now ended up with an expiry of April 2024. No idea if it’ll be corrected, but wondered if others had had similar.

  • Rhys says:

    15 Apr15 April 11:05

    Mine hung as well. Just signed up and only until 2022!

• Aston100 says:

  15 Apr15 April 11:03

  Cancelled my BAPP the other day.
  No further retention deals were offered (already had the 1 extra Avios per pound spent).
  Wondering if anyone has been offered a 2nd retention deal of some kind?

• 747_Brat says:

  15 Apr15 April 11:29

  Marriott Bonvoy has disappeared from my PRG MR hotel transfer partner. Anyone else facing the same issue?

  • 747_Brat says:

    15 Apr15 April 11:31

    hotel transfer partner list*

    • Rob says:

      15 Apr15 April 11:40

      So it has.

      I am tempted to put this down to an IT issue, especially given the advance notice we had with the KrisFlyer change. We’ve also been speaking to Marriott this week and no-one mentioned this.

      • 747_Brat says:

        15 Apr15 April 11:44

        Soothes my nerves! Thanks Rob.
        I wanted to make a transfer to suddenly find it has disappeared. I will wait until they fix the IT issue.

    • Ben says:

      15 Apr15 April 11:46

      I can’t seem to add my new account number for the past few days

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