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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 22nd April

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General

Comments (279)

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

  • Mighty Hunter says:
    22 Apr22 April 12:00

    Our flights for a short break in Seville in July have been cancelled by BA. I bought them in a sale and very cheap for J tickets – about £125 return each if memory serves. We thought we would change for September but the days of the week flown/flight times are very inconvenient. Is there any way of changing them for another destination without being clobbered for the full fare difference? Thanks

    • Michael C says:
      22 Apr22 April 12:05

      Maybe ask for Málaga or Gibraltar, as they’re within 300 kms?

      • Mighty Hunter says:
        22 Apr22 April 12:13

        Would that work? I was thinking of Faro as plenty of flights, but prices much higher at the moment so not worth paying J prices fror a short break. I can’t find any reference to the 300km rule but I thought I read it somewhere.

        • Sam G says:
          22 Apr22 April 12:16

          300km (or miles?) should be OK as long are the dates are similar.

          • Mighty Hunter says:
            22 Apr22 April 13:21

            Excellent result. Called the agent who allowed a change within 350km and 12 months of original booking, so now going to Faro in September. Current flight prices are 3 times what I paid originally!

    • Michael C says:
      22 Apr22 April 15:31

      @MH great result – gorgeous time of year for Faro. Lovely market in Loulé!

  • @mkcol says:
    22 Apr22 April 12:02

    Random data point: buildings & contents renewal arrived yesterday.
    The premium is 14% less than last year, without any other changes to the policy.

    • Anuj says:
      22 Apr22 April 12:52

      I’ve never heard of a auto renewal being cheaper before. What brand is it ?

    • Peter K says:
      22 Apr22 April 13:26

      My car auto-renewal was £100 cheaper than last year. Cheaper than the nearest equivalent comparison site quote as well.

      • Alex says:
        22 Apr22 April 13:31

        For car insurance it’s much more common to decrease – home building and contents much less

    • Nadeshka says:
      22 Apr22 April 13:52

      +1 our home insurance was about 8% lower when the renewal came through last month. We’re with More Than. First time I haven’t had to switch companies due to an above inflation hike.
      I wonder if it’s because everyone’s home a lot more premiums are coming down due to reduced risk? Then again I got an automated email from a price comparison site I used in previous years and the More Than quote was cheaper than any of theirs.

    • Reney says:
      22 Apr22 April 14:06

      my renewal went up, but was a lot cheaper than others so have to stick with them.

    • Ja says:
      22 Apr22 April 14:38

      My buildings insurance was cheaper last year to the year before by about £100 . I actually rang Axa up and made sure the cover was still the same.

    • Tarmohamed says:
      22 Apr22 April 15:29

      Ours also decreased form £210 to about £180 and then haggled them down to £160

  • Amy says:
    22 Apr22 April 12:31

    Comments from fellow poster Genghis yesterday were very intriguing when it comes to Amex churn strategy one should follow. If I have got it right, Genghis switches between BAPP & Platinum cards every 2 years in order to qualify for sign-up bonus, or does one person holds a BAPP and the other person holds a Platinum (in a 2 player mode), and then alternate to the other card every 2 years? If you are reading this Genghis, please can you clarify.

    Also, looking forward to hearing other Amex churn strategies people are following. It looks like I have a lot to learn from this forum.
    Thanks.

    • Genghis says:
      22 Apr22 April 12:35

      Player 1 and Player 2 each get a Plat and BAPP every two years with other cards (Marriott and Nectar between hitting SUBs)

      • Amy says:
        22 Apr22 April 12:58

        Thanks for getting back Genghis. I assume Marriott and Nectar cards fall under the personal card category. Doesn’t it disqualify you from getting the SUBs?

        • Genghis says:
          22 Apr22 April 13:04

          Correct. But means we have an Amex available (offers / S75 etc) and points earned from initial and subsequent referral.

        • Joe says:
          22 Apr22 April 13:05

          Not for BAPP and Platinum.

      • MattB says:
        22 Apr22 April 15:35

        Just so I understand, do you mean using the following example:

        1st Jan 2021 – both take BAPP
        1st Jan 2023 – both sign up for Plat and both cancel BAPP
        and repeat

        • Genghis says:
          22 Apr22 April 15:49

          No.
          Jan 21 Player 1 BAPP
          Feb 21 Player 2 BAPP
          … …
          Aug 21 Player 1 Plat
          Sep 21 Player 1 Plat
          ….
          Feb 23 Player 1 BAPP…

          • Genghis says:
            22 Apr22 April 15:49

            Sep 21 should read player 2

          • JRC says:
            22 Apr22 April 15:58

            But doesn’t that mean you have to cancel the player 1 BAPP within a month? Otherwise your timelines don’t make sense.

          • Amy says:
            22 Apr22 April 16:14

            Interesting Genghis. At what point do you cancel these cards then? I assume as soon as SUB is in the MR account (for Plat) and as soon as the 241 is in the BAEC account (for BAPP)?

            Also, where do you empty the SUBs received – Avios or somewhere else?

          • Genghis says:
            22 Apr22 April 16:30

            Come on ! This was just an example timeline.

            Cancel as soon as SUB hit or £10k hit if I want a 241.

            In recent example just now, my BAPP was done in 3 weeks and wife’s BAPP will be in two months, just waiting for avios to sweep across

          • Genghis says:
            22 Apr22 April 16:34

            @Amy I presume you mean where I empty MR accounts to? Last topped up Radisson and Eurostar to reset the clock and exited most to Marriott as I find those hardest to earn. Now with the 0.8p / avios min with Sainsburys Group, I’ll reconsider for next ones, not that we need any more avios…

  • Linda says:
    22 Apr22 April 12:34

    Does anyone know how long BA take to return a cancelled flight Companion voucher I will be coming up to two weeks this weekend from when I rang up. Many thanks

    • Anna says:
      22 Apr22 April 13:12

      Hi Linda, I responded to you the other day on a different thread but it should come back straight away – you need to contact BA as it sounds like something’s gone wrong. What is the expiry date on the voucher, is it definitely still valid?

      • AJA says:
        22 Apr22 April 14:32

        +1 to Anna’s response. Contact BA as it should not take two weeks to get the companion voucher back. The two companion voucher bookings I’ve cancelled in the last year have reappeared online by the end of the call to BA.

    • Rob says:
      22 Apr22 April 15:21

      Something has gone wrong. This is not unusual – just means the call centre person queued it up wrongly (bit like when you have an unsent email). Call back and they can look at it for you.

  • trader363 says:
    22 Apr22 April 13:20

    Looking at Etihad LHR-AUH on SeatSpy and see there are seats at ~66k airmiles in business. When I go to the Etihad site its showing 127k miles for the same seat (on all dates!) – Am I missing something?

    • meta says:
      22 Apr22 April 13:26

      Are you trying to book on desktop or via app. It seems that Etihad calculates higher miles price as all taxes are included. It should work correctly on desktop, but if not give Serbian call centre a call and they’ll quote you the correct miles price.

    • Benilyn says:
      22 Apr22 April 14:57

      It is showing the taxes paid in miles. What SeatSpy has is correct.

  • Travel Strong says:
    22 Apr22 April 13:33

    To confirm: When making a Club Europe RFS booking with Avois – it’s the xxxxx miles + £50 option that is optimal, right?!

    • Alex says:
      22 Apr22 April 13:38

      Correct. £35 for economy and £50 for club.

      • Alex says:
        22 Apr22 April 13:40

        Optimal isn’t probably the right word as the price per point for the other options could be better but unlikely, you also need to factor in the price of the flight for cash. For example I booked LHR-CFU in Club and the “best option” wasn’t the £50 one due to flying peak season when tickets can run nearly £1K return.

    • Genghis says:
      22 Apr22 April 13:40

      You’ll prob have to do your own calcs. What’s your own value of avios?

      Perhaps put a 0.8p value, or maybe a small haircut to say 0.7p, on your avios and then see which one is the cheapest? I do this as I have sold points for less.

    • Memesweeper says:
      22 Apr22 April 16:25

      It used to be that simple, but BA has been playing around and sometimes you’ll get good value with less cash than £35/50. You won’t go wrong at £35/50 however.

  • Simon says:
    22 Apr22 April 14:42

    What’s the best call centre currently to add return flights on my companion voucher when they become available at 1am?

    • Nadeshka says:
      22 Apr22 April 15:45

      I’ve called the US no (+1877 7676 7970) on Skype which redirects to either UK or India call centre. Recommend calling just before 1am so you have cleared security and they are ready to grab them at release.

  • Steve S says:
    22 Apr22 April 14:43

    Can someone remind me when the spend 10k on the Hilton card 12 months starts? Is it January or card start date?

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