The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 20th April

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Nigel W says:

20 Apr20 April 13:37

For those who have the Tesco Debit Card, does anyone know if doing a payment for a car at a garage allows you to earn clubcard points per £8 you spend?
- Mzungu says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 15:19
  
  @ Nigel W (in case the reply indenting goes wonky!)
  Yes, it worked for me – it was about 18 months ago, but I have no reason to suspect anything has changed. I paid a small holding deposit on a credit card (sadly no Amex), then moved funds from about 3 places into my Tesco current account and paid on collection on the Tesco Debit Card 🙂
  - Nigel W says:
    
    20 Apr20 April 16:06
    
    Thanks for this! Potentially have to do this, this weekend!
Graeme says:

20 Apr20 April 13:44

I’m sure I’m doing/seeing something wrong, but… Years ago I did the ‘book expensive flexible BA ticket to hit Amex spend target’ trick and cancelled everything fine. I’ve just looked at doing similar now (for a non-Amex card experiment on something) and have seen this in the ticket conditions:

“Refunds

If you cancel a refund is permitted, subject to recalculation of the fare for any journey flown. There are no cancellation fees.

Service fees

To cancel your booking it is £15 online or £30 by phone.”

Is cancelling free or £15?
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 14:09
  
  Cancelling for a refund is £15 online or £30 via phone
  
  Not free.
- Alan Todd says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 14:54
  
  Interestingly I did exactly the same thing and called last night to cancel and request refund. Was told would take 2-3 weeks to initiate refund, but no mention of any fee – agent said amount refunded would be the same as I paid for flights. I couldn’t find anywhere to cancel online, kept directing me to the voucher request form.
- pauldb says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 15:24
  
  It’s been so for many years. No particular reason to use BA. I think the only ever time I did this I used Air Canada.
- Rob says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 16:03
  
  £15. Been £15 for years, outside the first 24 hours.
- Louise K says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 17:10
  
  Look at booking on AA.com
- Graeme says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 19:27
  
  Thanks all. It’s clearly been more years since I’ve done that than I thought! I’ll explore the other suggested routes.
Eligold says:

20 Apr20 April 14:03

Can anyone help me gain clarity on the car hire insurance benefits from The Platinum Card (personal AMEX)
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 15:41
  
  What clarity are you looking for?
  - eligold says:
    
    20 Apr20 April 15:51
    
    what lever of insurance does it offer
  - Rob says:
    
    20 Apr20 April 15:55
    
    As the old insurance brochure used to say “you can say no to everything you are are offered”.
    
    That’s it. End of.
    
    The only caveat is a) some countries like the UK have legal minimums of insurance which must be included in your rental and they cannot be removed by the rental company even though technically you don’t need them, and b) the rental company has the right to ask for a credit card swipe to the full value of the car since they can’t prove that your Amex cover is valid.
    - C says:
      
      20 Apr20 April 16:51
      
      On the Plat ICC cards, the Ts&Cs also require that the rental either be outside of your home country, or in connection with a pre-booked overnight stay in your home country. Some car rental agents are aware of this – I once had one try to tell me that the Amex Plat car rental insurance wasn’t valid at all in the UK (I had a pre-booked overnight stay, so he was incorrect).
Grant says:

20 Apr20 April 14:07

IHG Free Nights / Reward Nights query – I’ve not used a free night voucher before so forgive the ignorance.

If I want to book two rooms for, say, a Fri / Sat / Sun, can I / should I make separate bookings for each room for the first (or most expensive) night using a free night voucher (I have two, so could cover one night stay x 2 rooms); then make a separate points booking for the remaining nights x 2 rooms; then contact the hotel and ask them to link the bookings?

Side question – does anyone know if either the Kimpton and / or George in Edinburgh have interconnecting rooms?

Thanks 🙂
- Anna says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 14:34
  
  You have to redeem each free night voucher separately so it makes sense to use them for the most expensive nights. You can also only make 1 points booking at a time (though this can be for more than 1 consecutive night. However, hotels are usually fine about noting that all bookings relate to the same people – it actually makes things easier for them in terms of housekeeping etc. The only issue might be if you book different room types – you usually get less choice with the free night certificate than with points bookings, where you can sometimes see 2 or 3 different types of room available for reward stays.
John says:

20 Apr20 April 14:17

Anyone have any experience of a really good Hilton group hotel in Miami or surrounding area?
Always stay at St Regis Bal Harbour but only enough Marriott point for 10 nights and away for 15.
Have 900,000 Hilton points but never seem to find anywhere great to book.
Thanks
- Anna says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 14:39
  
  There seem to be a lot of mediocre Hiltons in Miami itself – I’ve ended up booking 2 rooms for 5 nights in August at Baker’s Cay Resort in Key Largo which looks very nice. There’s also possibly a WA on Key West (unless I’ve got that completely wrong) but that’s a much longer drive, obviously. I’ve also got a similar number of HH points and cash rates are around $600 pn night so I decided it was time to spend them (just got to hope the USA is on the green list now!).
  - Doommonger says:
    
    20 Apr20 April 14:48
    
    Sounds pleasant, slight problem you still won’t be allowed into the country though.
    
    Regards The Doomster
    - Anna says:
      
      20 Apr20 April 16:09
      
      Good job points bookings are refundable then, Monger of Doom (though not so much doom, more Monger of Being Really Annoyed that it will be 2 years since we had a proper holiday).
  - Jane says:
    
    20 Apr20 April 15:59
    
    I’ve just had a look at Baker’s Cay and it does look lovely. That one is going on my list if we get to go in August.
    - Anna says:
      
      20 Apr20 April 16:11
      
      Jane – there are some iffy recent reviews of TripAdvisor, however if you go back a few months it gets much better write ups. I contacted them to ask if they could allocate our 2 rooms close together and they responded the same day and couldn’t have been more helpful.
      - Jane says:
        
        20 Apr20 April 17:09
        
        sounds promising – I think with recent reviews you have to take them with a pinch of salt as people’s expectations and hotel experiences may be miles apart at the moment and to be honest, if it’s got a nice pool, a good beach and a stock of gin (or rum, not fussy which) then I think I can live with any other niggles.
Anna says:

20 Apr20 April 14:22

With all the CEDR/MCOL posts on here, I was interested to get this response from the US DOT after I reported Cayman Airways a couple of weeks ago for not refunding our cancelled JFK-GCM flights. Refreshing to see such a robust response, especially as we’re not even US citizens and Cayman Airways isn’t a US airline!

“Dear …

This responds to your communication regarding Cayman Airways. The U.S. Department of Transportation seeks to ensure that all airline passengers are treated fairly. Complaints from consumers are helpful to us in determining whether the airlines are in compliance with the law and to track trends or spot areas of concern that warrant further action.

We will forward your complaint to the airline and ask the company to respond directly to you with a copy to us. Airlines are required to acknowledge receipt of a consumer complaint within 30 days and provide a substantive response to the complainant within 60 days. We will review the airline’s response. If you need to contact me, please include your name and case number (see above).

If our review of your complaint and the response from the company discloses a potential violation of the law, we may pursue enforcement action. Generally, we pursue enforcement action on the basis of a number of complaints which may indicate a pattern or practice of violating the law. Your complaint may be among those considered and may lead to appropriate enforcement action including the assessment of civil penalties. However, we have no authority to order compensation for individual complainants.

We have entered your complaint in our industry monitoring database, and it will be counted among the number of complaints filed against this airline in our monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. This report allows consumers and air travel companies to compare the complaint records of individual airlines and tour operators. The data in this report also serve as a basis for rulemaking, legislation and research. Consumer information for air travelers, including the Air Travel Consumer Report and our pamphlet Fly-Rights, a Consumer’s Guide to Air Travel, can be found on our website: http://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Sincerely,

Cathy Little
Aviation Industry Analyst
Office of Aviation Consumer Protection
U.S. Department of Transportation”

The CAA could learn a thing or two!
- bafan says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 14:50
  
  Yes Delta left me waiting 5 months for a refund. As soon as the DoT got involved they processed the refund and apologized for the delay. Great stuff.
- ChrisC says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 15:51
  
  Does the CAA have the same powers as the FAA though?
  
  A regulator (and I used to work for one) can only regulate the things it has the power to regulate.
  
  Same as with EU261 the CAA can only sanction airlines for failing to meet the obligations if it has been given those powers
Jack says:

20 Apr20 April 15:02

I know a lot of threads on this, but I issued MCOL for rerouting to Seychelles following cancellation of route. I asked to be rerouted at a later date (given pandemic) but to be clear these are all off peak dates, i.e. not Christmas. BA refused to reroute initially citing ticket validity issue. These were Avios tickets in F. Hearing date now is now set. BA now finally offering a reroute on Qatar, but only in Business given no F. Emirates/Ethihad fly in F. BA refuse to rebook these airlines. CAA Guidance on EC261 rerouting is very clear, if possible downgrades should be avoided. CAA Guidance also says ‘Although the CAA acknowledges that there will be scenarios where re-routing passengers will pose a substantial practical challenge for airlines, and indeed may expose airlines to material costs where re-routing is required on alternative airlines, the CAA does not consider that this should be a reason for passengers to accept inferior re-routing options.’ I think I should refuse to accept their inferior reroute, there is a clear alternative. A risk at the hearing that a Judge could go the other way, but based on the CAA guidance I think I have a strong case. BA chose to terminate the route and couldn’t wait to refund me, leaving me unable to ever use Avios to fly to SEZ in F. Would be good to get anyone’s thoughts on this.
- Rob says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 15:58
  
  As BA has offered you Qatar (presumably on the dates you wanted) I think you would win. The principle is already set.
  
  The cost to BA is presumably peanuts anyway. 12 years ago Lufthansa was happy to re-route me and my wife on Emirates First when Heathrow got snowed in and our LHR-FRA-DXB in Lufty First fell apart. There is an internal airline price list for this sort of thing.
  - meta says:
    
    20 Apr20 April 17:22
    
    You’ll definitely win. I would still try to negotiate with BA. The judge will want to see that you have tried to settle before hearing.
    
    Depends on what you would be happy with.
    For example if they put you on Qatar J, plus given you 75% downgrade compo and covered the cost of MCOL claim (fee, postage) and thrown some extra Avios that might also be a good way out. On the other hand, you might never get another opportunity to fly Emirates or Etihad F. So you need to weigh it out.
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 18:02
  
  It would be reasonable to continue to negotiate with BA Legal (not Customer Services) before the hearing. If you reach a satisfactory solution then it’s your option if you want to settle something with them . Obvs you dont want to look unreasonable.
  
  To the outside observer BA has not offered travel in comparable conditions. Most of us here would say they have come very close as QR J ain’t that far from BA F in quality. Do not admit this in any conversation.
  
  You can roll the dice and try to insist on being rerouted still in a class called F and hope that under pressure, BA does not find another airline whose F is worse but still called F.
  
  Personally I’d want to be seen by the judge to have considered reasonable solutions offered by BA. My response to BA would be that I would be prepared to consider QR however it does seem that they are offering to reroute in J and not F as booked. Could they confirm that the post-flight reimbursement provided for being involuntarily downgraded would be settled by BA when claimed after the flight on QR (state QR). Get it in writing if they agree and keep QR as the named airline stated alongside this when it’s written. But you can chat about what you might consider till then.
  
  Personally I’d accept 50% of what you paid for First reimbursement if my flight was on QR if they try to chisel the % below the 75% you’re entitled to. Do you want avios back? If so accept % avios plus the agreed % YQ. Have what possible % offers calculate out to, in cash and avios before you talk to them. You want to agree on the spot if they mention an acceptable figure – they will want to get it done and another conversation might change things. Ask them to confirm in writing immediately.
  
  MCOL would normally award 1.6p per avios back if it came to it as you could use BA’s standard selling price as a base. I personally don’t think you want to let this one go to MCOL unless you really want to roll the dice on getting Etihad or Emirates and are prepared to come out with a worse airline.
  - Jack says:
    
    20 Apr20 April 18:30
    
    Thanks all for your responses. Indeed they initially had offered the difference in Avios between Business and First to be rerouted in Qatar. They have now changed this to the 75% which I was going to point out anyway given I was entitled to it. I agree, my MCOL amount is for what it would cost me personally to buy the tickets, and clearly an airline will get a much better price, so I can’t understand why they continue to drag it out.
    
    I think if there were no airlines at all flying in F, then I’d accept J. In any condition to settle I’d require my fees, interest & downgrade compensation. However, it has taken literally months just to get to this position, that I should have been offered on day 1, which makes me less likely to accept this I think. Emirates and Etihad are the only two airlines flying, which I think either F is acceptable. Indeed these were direct flights initially and now have to change. We have a lot of Avios, so I’m a bit less bothered about the downgrade compensation in Avios.
    
    I agree I will continue to negotiate before hearing (as I have done several times up until now), as I am being reasonable. I also wonder if BA will let this go to a hearing, but I think I have to be prepared to accept that risk. I guess at a hearing anything can happen, so I have to be prepared to take that risk, which I am. Presumably I’d lose my claim/hearing fee but should still have the rerouting right on Qatar in that case.
    - Lady London says:
      
      20 Apr20 April 21:12
      
      Not sure why you’d lose the hearing fee when as Rob says BA has already conceded kind of.
      
      Frustrating though the length of time is actually once lawyers get involved, taking a long time seems par for the course.
      
      I get that you want the First experience and I get that ‘similar conditions’ means keeping a direct flight fulfils it better. I also get that the chance to do F on Etihad ( but be careful I think they retired the aircraft with the First that you want) or Emirates is a better experience and normally far more unreachable than QR J. So I think @meta got it right in his advice to you.
      
      BA have now offered you QR J plus 75% downgrade reimbursement plus mcol fees.
      
      Put it this way : if I was the adjudicator for a CEDR case I would award you the BA offer only. BA have made you whole enough for me. You’d have to come up with a d*mn good reason why a direct flight is essential or what is the special occasion you promised your wife a once in a lifetime trip in First for. That’s because in CEDR I am allowed to award what,’s reasonable and I can depart from the law a bit.
      
      As an MCOL judge I am obliged to follow the law which states travel in comparable conditions not ‘the value of’ ….and you are looking for that specific performance. If direct Etihad or Emirates flights are available I’d probably give it to you.
      
      Based on Rob’s answer to a different question I think BA may cave last minute but I think you may need to make sure it’s Emirates? due the equipment otherwise you might have been better off with QR+refund. Fees you get anyway.
      
      Good luck and please let us know how it turns out.
Aslan says:

20 Apr20 April 15:34

Yeah I only used mine for holidays/FX – obviously less of those recently. Always paid off in full. Limit gone from 6k to £250. Card probably only going to get used for a couple of meals abroad on each trip.
- Aslan says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 15:35
  
  Was a reply to Barclays credit limit post from earlier.
- lumma says:
  
  20 Apr20 April 17:31
  
  Haven’t used my regular Barclaycard for about 12 months. Zero balance and not even any balance transfer offers coming through. Credit limit still where it was for the minute