The HfP chat thread – Thursday 15th April

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

• Ukgeorge says:

  15 Apr15 April 11:33

  Thanks for everyone who offered advise on my rights under eu261 for a cancelled VA flight.

  VA have now put a note on my flight booking stating I can change the dates to any date of my choosing without any fair difference. So overall a good result.

  Apparently the situation is under review with their legal team at the moment so hopefully there will be some clarity soon for other customers in a similar situation soon.

  • Blindman says:

    15 Apr15 April 11:45

    The more people that challenge VS the better.

    Well done.

    Cash or Reward ticket?

    • Ukgeorge says:

      15 Apr15 April 15:25

      It was a cast ticket

  • Lady London says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:33

    Well done and thanks for letting us know.

    I can understand Virgin Atlantic “trying it on” but as soon as someone is prepared to stand up for their rights, it should be clear to Virgin just how much more actual cash refusing a customer the reroute they have a right to, is going to cost Virgin.

    Very pleased for you and hope others will persist in presenting the true cost to airlines who refuse or try to put incorrect restrictions on passenger rebooking rights after the airline cancelled their booked flight.

    • Magic Mike says:

      15 Apr15 April 16:53

      Well done – I’m currently playing chicken with VS on a flight I’m booked on in 14 days time but they haven’t cancelled yet. It’s not one they’re running for cargo (and the seat map suggests 6 pax only) so I’m just waiting for the last minute cancellation so I can have the argument about rescheduling. Booked on points in the Black Friday sale.

      • Lady London says:

        15 Apr15 April 17:38

        Don’t blink @Magic Mike. Let us know how long Virgin takes to officially inform you they’ve actually cancelled your booked flight.

        I presume you are finding it’s not showing as on offer when you search for flights that day and so that’s how you know it’s cancelled?

      • Blindman says:

        15 Apr15 April 18:01

        Most Non USA flights have been cancelled until 17 May IIRC.
        TLV and HGK until 28th April.

        • Magic Mike says:

          16 Apr16 April 04:46

          They’re still selling this one (VS105) for cash, but flightstats etc tells me it hasn’t been running the past two weeks at least. We shall see!

• Benilyn says:

  15 Apr15 April 11:59

  If a “Refer a friend welcome bonus” shows up in AMEX, is that because I hit the sign up bonus spend right? Annoying.. the main chunk of points haven’t posted…!

  • David D says:

    15 Apr15 April 12:31

    Have you referred anyone, if so the points will relate to the referred person taking out the card. This is based on assuming you have received points, and this is not an offer showing for you to refer people that has been mentioned on the site recently.

    • Benilyn says:

      15 Apr15 April 13:00

      Yes I referred someone.
      Odd, I have the Biz Plat, it’s 18k for a ref, but I got the 18k few minutes after posting + the 5k I mentioned above 🤷‍♀️

  • kitten says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:15

    SUB and referral bonuses are completely separate things

• The real John says:

  15 Apr15 April 12:26

  A bit of a weird situation, in December I purchased several items in store using Google Pay. On Monday I brought some of the items back for a refund.

  Their contactless pad was not working but as the items were bulky I decided to leave them in the store. Today the manager called me and said he had processed the refund – he discovered his POS system apparently allows refunds to Google Pay without actually tapping the phone.

  However in an attempt to MS I had removed my credit card from Gpay and put a debit card on – I wonder if I will get the refund to the current account or the original card?

  A friend said he had done this before but both transactions involved tapping the phone and were not 4 months apart

  • Lumma says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:13

    If it’s not even needing you to tap your phone, it already knows the card number that was used for the original transaction and it’ll go back to that.

    I got a refund from Sainsbury’s recently and had to tap the phone however.

• Rupert says:

  15 Apr15 April 12:33

  Anyone know what the BA first lounge in T5 is like currently? Re alcohol, food etc

  • Rhys says:

    15 Apr15 April 12:42

    No alcohol!

    • Rupert says:

      15 Apr15 April 13:16

      Thanks mate. Is the two rivers open in T5 ?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        15 Apr15 April 13:27

        Two rivers?

        No alcohol anywhere airside due to lockdown restrictions. May 17th at the earliest by looks of it.

• Sina says:

  15 Apr15 April 12:41

  I emailed IHG Ambassador team to see if they will extend the free night given last year as part of their promo, 5 minutes later they emailed me back saying they can’t extend but have given me 40k points instead! Great result as I can book a night in Phuket for october! (If I could go!?)

• WaynedP says:

  15 Apr15 April 12:54

  Interesting commentary on Heathrow Immigration queues.

  https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/heathrow-travellers-london-mps-england-b929667.html

  This sort of publicity should either get improvements made by 17 May (eg Pax Locator Form validation pre-submission, Egates programmed to re-open, more Border Force staff)
  OR,
  if govt reluctance to commit more Border Force staff is a deliberate “brake” on overseas travel, then things could get worse after 17 May.

  • kitten says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:22

    I had an idea the Immigration Officer unions did not originally want e-gates as it would take their jobs so I always suspected the lack of expansion of numberd of desks available at immigration and apparent go-slow and refusal to expand staff available to handle clearly predictable peaks was all somehow related to this issue of jobs vs machines.

    I would love to know if anything like this went on as the persistent refusal to adjust officers available when they’ve also got flight load info ahead seems especially negligent at Heathrow and arriving at Stansted at certain predictable times was absolutely awful.

    • WaynedP says:

      15 Apr15 April 15:33

      Yes, it would be a pity.

      Automation should always be seized as an opportunity to upskill people to do higher value-adding tasks, not simply reduce a wage bill.

      But I suspect that Border Force has endured same cost-cutting pressure as all civil service agencies for a decade now.

  • Andy says:

    15 Apr15 April 15:01

    I arrived into T5 a few days ago and it took me about 5 minutes to clear immigration. Egates were open although they set up a first checkpoint where they look at your passenger locator form, COVID-19 test and your passport (they check visa stampa too for example). After that straight through the egates with no issues.

    Granted I was flying in CE so there were probably 5 passengers ahead of me also on my flight, and seemingly no passengers from other flights, but certainly not a multi hour wait

    • WaynedP says:

      15 Apr15 April 15:37

      Interesting. Other commentators have also mentioned better times of day, eg early morning for shorter queues.

      And press more likely to play up the worst of it, than admit that at other times or circumstances, queues are minutes not hours.

      I’m just trying to get a feel for what it might mean post 17 May – better or worse.

• Secret Squirrel says:

  15 Apr15 April 13:10

  Has anyone had success claiming for missing VA points on their portal from Morrison’s using CC statements instead of receipts?

  • Joe says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:13

    No – but would be interested to know if anyone has been successful!

  • DarrenS says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:21

    I currently have two claims ongoing. Latest correspondence on Monday ‘still investigating’.

  • memesweeper says:

    15 Apr15 April 14:10

    Thanks for the heads up @secret — two big ones of mine didn’t track. Claim lodged, screenshot of recent activity from the Amex website used. The form asks for a *credit card* receipt, not the itemised or VAT receipt, so I don’t see why this wouldn’t work. If it doesn’t work, ce la vie, I always think of these portals as a bonus when they do track correctly. The kick-back from Amex worked fine, that’s the important one.

  • Jonathan says:

    15 Apr15 April 14:48

    Check my comment on page 4, I accidentally sent it there by mistake, I thought I was replying directly onto this comment thread

• The Original Nick says:

  15 Apr15 April 13:12

  Amex referral Q: How does 90,000 referral points per year work? January to January? Or card year?
  Thanks.

  • Joe says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:14

    Calendar year – Jan to Dec.

  • Rob says:

    15 Apr15 April 13:41

    Jan to Jan, and capped at 90k so the last one may be reduced.

    • The Original Nick says:

      15 Apr15 April 17:08

      Thanks Rob

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