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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 22nd April

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

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General

Comments (279)

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

  • Tarmohamed says:
    22 Apr22 April 04:45

    We (the wife) got the Amex Business Platinum due to the 100k offer. Is it still correct that the wife would be eligible for the sign up bonus on a personal platinum/gold?

    • Jonathan says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:22

      No. Need a 6 month gap without an MR earning card to get SUB on a Business Plat/Gold or a 24 month gap for a personal Platinum. Personal Gold is 24 months with no other Amex card (including Nectar, Bonvoy etc).

      The MR account is in your wife’s not the business name which is what counts.

  • Steve says:
    22 Apr22 April 06:23

    Tried to pay Solihull direct with Abbey last night and it failed (more than sufficient credit was available), paid with Hong Kong and it went through fine. Is this new, anyone else starting to experience issues paying Solihull directly?

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Apr22 April 06:57

      No issue for me just now with Avios MC

    • Red Flyer says:
      22 Apr22 April 07:52

      Creation app blocked for me last night and I have a security call with them today – £5k Ernie last month when I paid a bonus in for PB’s seems to have been the trigger?

      • John says:
        22 Apr22 April 08:56

        I’ve put way more than £5k through to Ernie last month via creation. This time, it is legit – year end divs being temp stored

      • Red Flyer says:
        22 Apr22 April 13:37

        Just called and was a failed £2k Revolut transaction for something I needed to pay in Spain legitimately. All sorted now. 👍

    • Mike1 says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:44

      Has Bendy/IHG work for Hargreaves Lansdown historically?

      • BuildBackBetter says:
        22 Apr22 April 09:02

        Yes, but was added to the red list last year.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        22 Apr22 April 10:16

        No but it did for a while during the summer when a MCC bug worked its way into the system

        now fixed

    • Genghis says:
      22 Apr22 April 09:07

      Combo fine for me just now.

    • Venturelog says:
      22 Apr22 April 09:30

      Couldn’t get into the app last night. And this morning both chip&pin and contactless failed. Was in a rush so used curve which had another card, worked fine. Definitely an issue with Creation

  • johnny_c-l says:
    22 Apr22 April 06:46

    New offer on my ARCC this morning, 2k MR points for adding a supp card.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      22 Apr22 April 06:59

      Are you seeing that in the app or on website?

      • johnny_c-l says:
        22 Apr22 April 07:07

        On the website listed with the rest of the offers. Clicked the link and it directed to ‘page not found’….going back and it had disappeared from the offer list! It said the end date was 31st July.

        • Sandgrounder says:
          22 Apr22 April 07:24

          https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/supplementary-cards/
          There do appear to be offers for some cards until 31 July, inc green, nectar, bonvoy, not seeing ARCC though.

          • Secret Squirrel says:
            22 Apr22 April 07:44

            Thanks Sandgrounder, been looking for a supp bonus on Bonvoy.

          • Harry T says:
            22 Apr22 April 08:11

            I can confirm adding a Bonvoy supp does indeed trigger a new bonus of 3000 points, instantly. Just done it.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            22 Apr22 April 08:34

            Thanks hadn’t ordered a Nectar supp yet. 3k posted instantly. 2nd supp didn’t but can sometimes take over night

        • Reney says:
          22 Apr22 April 09:06

          I saw this last night, but when I clicked back in and it was gone. I looked for it every where, in the end gave up. Have ordered a gold sup card, points have not turned up yet.

    • George K says:
      22 Apr22 April 09:43

      Harrods card pushes 1000 extra points for supps. Just opened up last night.

      • meta says:
        22 Apr22 April 11:57

        My partner and I just added a supp card, but none were instant. Whenever I added a supp card in the past, it was always an overnight posting.

  • Matt says:
    22 Apr22 April 07:14

    Question about cancelling an avios flight within 24 hours of booking… should I be expecting to pay nothing or £35pp? Thanks.

  • APB says:
    22 Apr22 April 07:18

    For those that booked the discounted Grand Suite at the Sheraton Park Lane, my booking has come out of pending on my card and been charged – game on 😄

    • Ed says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:12

      Same here. Still expecting some form of battle over this one.

    • BSI1978 says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:13

      Ditto, but like Ed I expect check-in will be interesting…..

      • APB says:
        22 Apr22 April 08:38

        Working in hospitality myself I can’t imagine that they would leave it until check in to deal with it. No surer way of having it blow up in your face. Hoping that Rob is right and they mark it down to experience and take the money. Or better still it was an offer

        • Sam G says:
          22 Apr22 April 09:20

          Check in may raise a private eyebrow at the first of these they see but they won’t give you any hassle, not their job to worry about it and it’s not like it’s a fiver or some silly price. I stayed at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore last year before lockdown on a bargain staycation deal and got an amazing upgrade (not sure why!) and in fact the front desk were very excited by my deal!

          As an ex-hotel world employee I am quite sure at the moment they’ll just let these go, I can’t imagine many of these would be sold for cash anyway and it’s still a nice “ADR” , risk of bad PR if they cancel a key workers London treat etc etc is not worth it

          • meta says:
            22 Apr22 April 09:46

            My experience at Waldorf Astoria in Ras is different. Last year I had booked the top Imperial Suite for the same price as Junior Suite on a FHR rate. A month before travel they contacted me to say that they’ll downgrade me to Tower Suite (one category below) as it was obviously a mistake fare. I didn’t go in the end due to restrictions, so I wasn’t fussed and also no payment taken.

            Here it’s different, payment has been taken and I expect them to fully honour the booking as per UK laws.

    • Tracy says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:54

      Been charged now too 🙂

    • Jack says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:54

      Likewise, charged to my card. Surely a contract has now been formed? If they come back in a few days and cancel I could understand, but a month or too later I’m not sure I would.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      22 Apr22 April 09:03

      Those who booked – are you confident of no change in plans? Any date change will result in rate change.

      • BSI1978 says:
        22 Apr22 April 09:13

        Personally, I’ve booked twice, 2 nights early June and then a night in September.

        More positive re the latter but assuming no uptick in rates etc then will happily do the former as well and make a weekend of it.

        (We may not be even leave the suite!)

    • A says:
      22 Apr22 April 09:27

      Same for me for a booking very late this year. Suspect there will be a few HFPers going well before me so will have a view as to whether there’s likely to be an issue or not! Please do share your experiences here

      • APB says:
        22 Apr22 April 09:43

        Yes it would be great to find out what happens as people start to stay. It’ll give me an idea of how my feigned surprise at no five senses package will go down 😏

        • A says:
          22 Apr22 April 09:44

          It seems we had the same plan. I’d even been preparing my shocked face in the mirror…

          • APB says:
            22 Apr22 April 09:55

            It wouldn’t have been as convincing as my wife’s genuinely shocked face when I revealed to her that I hadn’t mentioned in the booking that it was her birthday 🙄

        • Nick G says:
          22 Apr22 April 12:14

          Mines gone through now as well….do you get the five senses ‘kit’ and sound package that I see on the photos included?

      • Toppcat says:
        22 Apr22 April 10:17

        Yes, good point. Who has booked the earliest date?? I am mid August, so I suspect there will be a few HfPers before me. It should be pretty clear by then what sort of reception I will get…

        • Memesweeper says:
          22 Apr22 April 12:11

          I’m going mid-May. Checkin report to follow!

          • Si says:
            22 Apr22 April 12:25

            I think I worked out the issue. Looking on desktop website, it had all the different rooms price reductions stated (whereas app had just flat price and no mention of reduction).

            All rooms for entire year were discounted by give-or-take 15% except the grand suite which discounted by 85%….

            I think they basically put the numbers/formula in backwards so quoted price is actually the amount the room was meant to be discounted by rather than price to be paid.

            Taken them a few days to realise but now the grand suite is also discounted by the circa 15% amount too

            Money is taken now and booking looks all lock in on my Marriott app – hoping they honour it!!

          • BSI1978 says:
            22 Apr22 April 13:00

            Best of luck memesweeper 🤞🏾

            By mid May, is this after the 17th? Just wondering whether the lounge & other amenities will be fully operational

          • Toppcat says:
            22 Apr22 April 13:09

            Good luck! Looking forward to hearing back!

          • Babyg says:
            22 Apr22 April 15:13

            May 17th here…. anyone earlier than that?

  • Blair says:
    22 Apr22 April 07:34

    Re Hilton upcoming bonus; it generated a few questions on the level of doc checking being done by Hilton. I believe this has stepped up recently with more fussiness after one of the (open) London hotels had a spot visit by police who went through the entire booking records asking for records on file. Is this police over-reach? Possibly. Does it make spurious stays at Hilton more difficult? Definitely

    • Anna says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:15

      Police enforcing the law is over-reach?

      • Blair says:
        22 Apr22 April 08:25

        Some of us think a major police force ought to have more to do with their time than arguing the toss with hotel receptionists over whether a given work email is sufficient evidence.

        • BlueLabel says:
          22 Apr22 April 19:31

          We’re going on 22/5. I had an email from the Front Office Manager to say Your booking was made on a special offer rate, which requires full prepayment, however your AMEX card on your Marriott account was declined (I’ve been churning… got a new one now 😉 – I just paid with my new BAPP and all good. Asked for 2 rollaway beds for our kids and paid extra £30. So I reckon they’ll honour it. They couldn’t say if the lounge would be open.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        22 Apr22 April 08:36

        There’s actually nothing in law to say what you should have as proof

        How does someone prove they are visiting their bubble (valid reason) other than their word?

    • Andrew says:
      22 Apr22 April 08:50

      When the content is so vague that it doesn’t name which (Hilton?) Hotel or Police Force, it immediately goes into the urban myth bin.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      22 Apr22 April 09:05

      Are people abusing the exemptions? Possibly. Are people overreacting to reasonable restrictions during a pandemic with 130k excess deaths? Definitely.

      • A says:
        22 Apr22 April 09:51

        Are the current restrictions an overreaction now that anyone vulnerable has had the option of a vaccine and so those of us who would like to get on with life as normal should be able to make risk-based decisions for ourselves? Possibly.

        • Yuff says:
          22 Apr22 April 10:48

          I dont think there is any possible about it, restaurants should be open, without a doubt, in covid secure environment.
          Vaccination proof of at least 3 weeks with one dose or a negative LFT to go in.
          The vaccine is way more effective than first thought why are we still waiting to do everyday activities……
          I dont agree with people having birthday parties and posting their rubbish on Instagram but if the government had acted on the data not dates as they said they would, more places would be open as figures have dropped way faster than they could ever have hoped…………

        • Chris Heyes says:
          22 Apr22 April 11:04

          A I Agree with you anyone who would like to get on with life as normal, should be able to make their own risk-based decisions.
          The only proviso to that i would make is if a person or persons decide to travel to a country not on the “Green List”
          if they test positive they should have to pay for the “full cost” of their treatment if they fetch Covid back.
          After all they did their own risk-base decision

          • A says:
            22 Apr22 April 21:26

            Open to that idea from a policy perspective, but only if the idea of making individuals who make risky decisions bear the costs of their decisions applies more broadly too (eg you play football and break your leg)

  • Yuff says:
    22 Apr22 April 07:45

    Let’s hope the House of Commons transport committee gives Schapps the kick up the ar*e he obviously needs.
    They state more clarity needed by 1st May…….doh!!!!!!!

  • Gavin says:
    22 Apr22 April 08:12

    That’s why I’ve had my letter from employer photocopied the past 4 months.

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