The HfP chat thread – Thursday 6th May

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• Patrick C says:

  6 May6 May 08:36

  Quick question, is there any attention that I need to take when using the virgin card for MS?
  As in cash advance fees etc.

  Thanks,
  Patrick

  • Genghis says:

    6 May6 May 09:26

    Always. Tread carefully.

• Eligold says:

  6 May6 May 08:45

  Just got my (first) platinum card yesterday. Today it is already showing some offers
  1) did anyone get the £50 off £200 travel on the platinum?
  2) Is there any chance I’ll still get the offer at this stage, or do they release them as a 1 off?
  3) Has anyone seen the £200 off £600 this time?

  • Andrew says:

    6 May6 May 09:13

    1) yes I did
    2) ask them
    3) no, not this time, just this £50 off £200 one

    • Eligold says:

      6 May6 May 11:06

      Thanks

  • Reeferman says:

    6 May6 May 09:43

    You’re lucky.
    I received my platinum card 8 days ago and have already spent £2,500 on it in 12 different transactions BUT no offers others than the Addison Lee one that appeared on day one!

• Olver says:

  6 May6 May 08:47

  Hi all,

  Just wanna run my thinking by you guys and see if it makes sense.
  At the moment my partner has a business gold charge card through her business, if she refers me she gets 9K in statements points and I get 30K Avios when spending £3K within the first 3 months.

  For simplicity, sake lets value all points at Nectar point value 1 point = p 0.8 which would mean the following, 43.5K in points (39K points through sign-ups + 4.5K from spending) x0.8 = £348 in value – 48.75 (3 months annual fee) = total gain of £ 299.75

  I know the points can be exchanged for far better terms but still trying to learn the whole point game and am rather a bit conservative

  Hope this all makes sense 🙂

  • Rob says:

    6 May6 May 09:26

    Looks right – IF a BAPP referral off Bus Gold gets you 30k vs the usual 26k, given that Bus Gold is not part of this offer.

  • Travel Strong says:

    6 May6 May 09:38

    Assume you are planning on getting referred for a BAPP from the numbers above. As such, yes your numbers stack up – however the Gold card numbers look better for you: 9k referral + 32k signup/spend bonus + 3k spend = 44k MR to Avios x 0.8 = £352, no annual fee in the first year, and a couple of lounge passes.

    The usual driver for going for BAPP instead is if you are going to spend 10k and get the 241. In which case you’ll probably be keeping the avios rather than nectarizing them.

    Disclaimer: Above is based on referral offers I can see on my platinum, not biz gold! Replace the numbers in the calc with the biz gold referral offer if different.

• N says:

  6 May6 May 09:06

  Dell – Do they charge the card on dispatch or on order? Want to take advantage of the Bus Plat offer, but the mouse I want is not in stock till Aug.

  • Benilyn says:

    6 May6 May 09:15

    I think on dispatch

  • Ming the Merciless says:

    6 May6 May 22:07

    On order. Placed an order today, email receive that I have redeemed my Amex offer immediately.

• Eligold says:

  6 May6 May 09:08

  For a stay of 2 days in the UK. Coming from a green country, I’m trying to weigh up my options to avoid paying for the tests (that I don’t legally require)
  Perhaps choosing the transit option and showing proof of a flight within 24 hours? (A cancelled avios booking which will cost more than 50 pence)
  Shouldn’t the government have a 2 day option for people leaving on day 2?

  • kitten says:

    6 May6 May 09:54

    Didn’t you post this about 3 days ago? There were quite a few replies on that one.

    • Eligold says:

      6 May6 May 11:00

      I did kitten,
      The only solution was ticking the transit box.
      I’d love to hear what others experienced

• Michael C says:

  6 May6 May 09:09

  Standard US “resort fee” rant:
  -So I’d been monitoring the (lovely-looking) Hotel Giraffe in NYC.
  Pre-lockdown: resort fee included b/f and wine happy hour: perfect.
  Lockdown-ish: great rates, no fee, no goodies
  Email from front desk this week: You’ll be pleased to see our summer booking system is open! Now charging US$35/night for…water and wifi.

  Guess we’ll be back to a random Hilton GI!!

• Secret Squirrel says:

  6 May6 May 09:11

  I’ve hit my spend requirements for the Amex Plat MR bonus today, base MR points for the spend have updated but not the bonus. How long does the bonus MR usually take?

  • Benilyn says:

    6 May6 May 09:18

    Usually same day… be patient until tomorrow I would say

• Travel Strong says:

  6 May6 May 09:15

  Update: Thanks for the advice yesterday on my first 241 booking with BA. I am now booked! At 1am I saw 5 tix released rather than just 2, so in the end I decided to accept the risk and just wait until 8am to book over the phone using the UK number.

  The overall experience has been very eye opening as someone who usually books with other airlines! Review below…

  • Travel Strong says:

    6 May6 May 09:17

    Negatives:
    – Phone lines that cut you off when you say you want to hand over money and make a booking (‘try again another day’)
    – BA site closed for maintenance ’til 5am’ yesterday
    – Site still down 8+ hrs later at 1pm yesterday
    – Site gives wrong opening times for UK phone lines
    – Site only advertising old seat maps, no club suite maps or any mention of A350’s.
    – Have to go all the way past entering passenger info to see a seat map.
    – Can only do that on a browser, not the app.
    – Have to start everything all over again for every flight you want to check the seat map on
    – No way to book open jaw or combine inbound/outbounds without calling, and uncertainty about getting hold of someone at 1am
    – if this happens you are over a barrel with the whole ‘1am rush’ approach – someone booking a return online may have a 7hr headstart on someone who has to wait til 8am to speak to the UK
    – one route around this appears to be to use extra avios/cash to book seperately and clawback later, which may not be an option for everyone

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      6 May6 May 09:18

      That’s BA for you!

  • Travel Strong says:

    6 May6 May 09:24

    Positives:
    – UK agent was great when called at 8am, discussed our past road trip routes and future holiday plans, and had the tix booked in minutes.
    – BA A350 appearing on several appealing routes next year – Las Vegas and Denver, for example. This is a major differentiator of BA vs Virgin on the LAS route, as Virgin are still showing 787’s only with the coffin seat, no new seat.
    – BA 777 with club suite map appearing on the prime LAX route through next year (hopefully no substitutions!)
    – Beggars can’t be choosers… I am using miles here, many of which were easy gains from retention offers and referrals.

    • Babyg says:

      6 May6 May 11:08

      clubsuite only great for a single traveller IMHO, not ideal for family/couples… at least on virgin you can still buddy dine or take a meal/drink at the bar, also clubsuite in bed mode its not as comfortable as the old bed – has a big lumpy part when folded flat…..wish they just cloned the qsuite..

      • Travel Strong says:

        6 May6 May 12:47

        We both agree that the best long haul flight we ever had was the one where we were seated seperately! That said I absolutely would have preferred to try the new virgin seat instead, but there is no sign of a virgin A350 on the vegas route yet. Plan to book a virgin lax flight at some point to try it out.

        (Couldn’t find a way to outbound on virgin a350 and on the BA a350 without paying extortionate fees!)

      • Travel Strong says:

        6 May6 May 12:48

        *and return on

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