The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 5th May

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• WaynedP says:

  5 May5 May 09:03

  Mine opened 26 Feb

  Annual fee (renewal, not initial) posted on 28 Feb this year.

  • WaynedP says:

    5 May5 May 09:05

    Sorry, meant as a reply to @Jonathan

  • Jonathan says:

    5 May5 May 09:54

    Thanks

• marcw says:

  5 May5 May 09:35

  Heathrow T3 doesn’t look like it’s going to open on May 17th.

  • roberto says:

    5 May5 May 09:40

    7th of June has been floated as the next possible date.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 May5 May 09:42

    Can’t see airports/airlines set up to actually fly until a few weeks after the green list is published and EU decide/announce when they will let people in.

    making an announcement on Friday is too late for most airlines to have operations running on May 17th

• Phil W says:

  5 May5 May 09:47

  Kimpton Question – My wife and I are visiting Kimpton Blythswood Square this weekend. I’m Spire Ambassador. Does anybody know how Kimpton’s are dealing with the Inner Circle Welcome Amenity, Wine Hour and Raid the Bar benefits since reopening? I believe a few loyal readers have been to Edinburgh and Glasgow Kimpton’s recently, it would be good to understand your experiences. Thanks in advance.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 May5 May 09:56

    Wine hour is available to all not inner circle benefit, Anna mentioned it was being delivered as in room dining at the moment.

    Isn’t inner circle equivalent to Royal ambassador? I don’t think you get those benefits as a spire ambassador at Kimptons.

    • Rob says:

      5 May5 May 10:49

      Inner Circle is Kimpton’s top tier status.

      Royal Ambassadors are given Inner Circle but not the other way around.

      Ambassadors are not given it (and not vice versa either).

      • Phil says:

        5 May5 May 11:45

        That’s strange, when I was at the Kimpton Monaco, Philadelphia they seemed to imply that Inner Circle was extended to me as well. I guess I must’ve got lucky.

  • Kai says:

    5 May5 May 10:52

    Was there last week, was offered £10 drinks voucher or 600 points. Took the voucher but points also arrived. No mention of wine hour though, guess it’s because they still can’t serve alcohol in the bar?

    Be sure to book the thermal experience beforehand (could use their website) as it’s really really good.

    • Phil says:

      5 May5 May 11:18

      Thanks Kai. Was the pool open?

      • Kai says:

        5 May5 May 11:50

        Yes, only the sauna rooms are closed.

  • Allan says:

    5 May5 May 17:00

    Also was there last week. Minibar is all free which compensates for the lack of wine hour.

  • Peggerz says:

    5 May5 May 19:46

    I was there last week. Offered welcome drinks in room or 600 points. Got both. No drinks hour or mini bar. On check in breakfast was offered – which I thought was odd – but did not turn up on my bill, so that’s a +.
    Pool open and I thought it was busy even having booked a time, Beautiful Salon room is closed, Bo & Birdy restaurant open and food is good.

• Rob says:

  5 May5 May 09:53

  Billhop

  Just receieved my statement through on my company Amex and I have 3 transactions just saying:

  Billhop – Sweden

  What on earth is that about? My bookeeper is going to give me a black eye! It doesnt mention anything about the actual recipient (building supplies in this instance).

  How have Billhop overlooked this on a business account and any advice from people that have used it?

  Thanks

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 May5 May 09:59

    You paid billhop not your supplier. They paid your supplier so I don’t see what your bookkeepers issue would be as long as you have an invoice from billhop detailing what the transaction was for.

  • The cyclist says:

    5 May5 May 10:38

    On the other hand it enables one to pay bills on a Business card that aren’t strictly Business (like school fees) in order to hit spend targets, without disclosing the final recipient.

  • KBuffett says:

    5 May5 May 11:05

    The way Billhop have presented it is correct in my view. If I were you, I would just send the suppliers invoice to your bookkeeper and highlight this as the matching entry. Tell them you used this payment service provider to make the payment.

    It’s really not an issue.

• Triath5 says:

  5 May5 May 10:06

  Potential newbie question here…does anyone know of a a search engine/spreadsheet/easy to use anything for finding (and pricing) oneworld avios flights?

  I’m playing with itineraries for a Spain trip (from UK to Spain, and then intra Spain flights) and just find it so painful to log into BA.com and then Iberia.com to deal with two sets of subpar websites and still be unclear on prices/availability for avios…

  How do people usually do this? For Spain I usually default to BA & IB as they seem to have a stranglehold on the country’s air traffic – if there’s any other mile using opportunities I’d also be interested.

  Thanks all.

  T

  • Erico1875 says:

    5 May5 May 10:28

    For Avios reward flight availability, seatspy and/or rewardflightfinder will give you BA availability

    • Triath5 says:

      5 May5 May 10:41

      Thanks – what about IB or any other oneworld one?

    • Rob says:

      5 May5 May 10:47

      SeatSpy will, RFF data is heavily corrupted at present (unless things have changed recently).

  • Triath5 says:

    5 May5 May 10:42

    And one other random question…does anyone know of any good car rental deals/aggregators in particular for Menorca? I’m getting fleeced just by looking at some of these prices for June…

    • Rhys says:

      5 May5 May 10:44

      I got a low price going via Hilton in Santorini last year.

      • Triath5 says:

        5 May5 May 11:07

        Hilton Car Rental? I didn’t even know this was a thing! Thanks for the tip – looks like it’s unavailable for Menorca unfortunately…

        Any benefits from Amex Plat through Hertz/Avis preferred? I find they always advertise things like “up to 15% discount” but I never seem to get any decent discounts or any tangible benefits from the memberships provided by Amex Plat…maybe it’s just me?

  • AJA says:

    5 May5 May 10:46

    If you’re just searching for cash tickets then use ita matrix to price up itineraries. Unfortunately you can’t buy directly from there (there is an add in which does allow this but I’ve never used it) but it is very good at breaking down the taxes, fees and other charges which are also applicable to reward flights.

• Erico1875 says:

  5 May5 May 10:32

  BA e store question
  Argos.
  Can I double dip by showing my Nectar card for a prepaid click and collect?

  • Genghis says:

    5 May5 May 10:39

    You enter it on your Argos account. There’s three layers of reward:
    1) going through a portal
    2) points earned with the retailer
    3) points earned on the spend with credit card co.

    • Tracey says:

      5 May5 May 21:01

      4) spend on a credit card registered for Airtime Rewards.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    5 May5 May 10:46

    Yes you can and as Genhis says, it can be very lucrative

  • Erico1875 says:

    5 May5 May 13:19

    Thanks guys

• BrianFLI says:

  5 May5 May 10:40

  Hi just a couple of questions on Virgin credit card voucher redemption that I was hoping to get help with.

  1. We both have around 30k points. Unfortunately the preferred flight is peak period and is 40k points in economy (based on a 241 booking). Can you use points across two accounts or would the full 40k points have to sit in the account of the voucher holder?

  2. We have a couple of vouchers each. Can you combine two or more vouchers in a single booking? e.g. use one voucher as a 241 then use another two vouchers to upgrade the 241 seats from economy to premium?

  Hope all that made sense. Thank you

  • YC says:

    5 May5 May 11:24

    Yes but I believe each person needs to be able to pay for at least 1 way

    Yes I’ve not tried but understand this is possible

• Super Secret Stuff says:

  5 May5 May 10:48

  Interesting email about Amex tickets for an outdoor “Luna cinemas” presale . Seems interesting, loads of options too

  • Michael says:

    5 May5 May 11:07

    …if you live in England

    • BrianFLI says:

      5 May5 May 11:18

      …actually no, for anyone attending an event in England, no requirement for you to ‘live’ there…

    • bafan says:

      5 May5 May 18:50

      England is 86% of the UK – not sure why Scotland and Wales and NI get so offended by that.

      • Alan S says:

        5 May5 May 21:53

        I’m guessing you mean population, because it definitely isn’t land mass…

      • BrianFLI says:

        6 May6 May 00:37

        ‘Scotland’ doesn’t get offended by that. ‘Some people from Scotland’ get offended by that. We aren’t all flag waving from bridges Nationalists.

  • Rob says:

    5 May5 May 11:24

    Indoor cinemas reopen in 12 days and they don’t get you wet when it rains 🙂

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      5 May5 May 13:44

      True but they also had the option of opening up in the summer and many chose to stay closed due to lack of demand. Plus £16 each (discounts for children and disabled) isn’t too bad

    • MKB says:

      5 May5 May 15:25

      As a movie buff, I don’t get outdoor cinemas.

      – The screen is generally flat 1.85:1 ratio, with any scope (2.35:1) films letter-boxed rather than being wider as the director intended.
      – Projection standards are typically poor with alignment and luminosity issues.
      – Outdoor sound quality is always going to be dreadful, and if they pipe it through your car radio speakers, you’re limited to two-channel stereo and small speakers.
      – Any seats are likely to lack comfort, and sight-lines/viewing distance could be an issue.

      Give me a proper cinema any day.

      • Rhys says:

        5 May5 May 16:07

        Agreed. I also don’t understand why you would want to go to a rooftop outdoor cinema (which I keep getting ads for on social media) when you can’t even enjoy the view because you’re watching the film!

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