The HfP chat thread – Friday 7th May

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• Zoe says:

  7 May7 May 07:17

  Is anyone else concerned about the potential Border Control queues if travelling this summer? We often fly into Southampton or Bournemouth and both usually have 2 border agents plus a floating police officer. I realise that the union’s suggestion of 15 minutes processing per passenger might be high but it suggests over 70 person hours to process one plane load of passengers. So 35 elapsed hours assuming no breaks.
  The value of front row seats could be considerable.
  How long are you happy to queue for?

  • Rob says:

    7 May7 May 07:21

    If an airport is only processing Green flights then it won’t be an issue – you may need to pick your airport carefully.

    • Zoe says:

      7 May7 May 07:34

      Won’t even ‘green’ passengers need to show evidence of a negative test before the return flight and a booked PCR test?

      • Rob says:

        7 May7 May 09:22

        In theory it is all tied to your passport so it flashes up on screen that you have submitted everything and you are in. This is why egates will reopen at some point.

    • HBommie says:

      7 May7 May 08:43

      I switched a trip from Manchester to NCL for that reason, just need Portugal to be green today!

  • Chris Heyes says:

    7 May7 May 07:27

    Zoe No not a bit concerned couldn’t care less on way back, happy to queue for as long as it takes, wont be in any hurry after all we will have been.
    More worried about going lol
    Not even bothered over quarantine in uk, would like to pick our own Hotel though after all we will be paying for it,

    • Pete says:

      7 May7 May 09:20

      In some ways I think the worse it is, the quicker it’ll get fixed… But not particularly looking forward to being in the test groups! Wish me luck on the 17th!

      • Zoe says:

        7 May7 May 09:36

        I think a stool that folds flat enough to fit in your hand luggage and noise cancelling headphones might be in order! Maybe chocolate and a drink too. Have fun on your trip Pete and let us know how getting back in works out.

        • Pete says:

          7 May7 May 09:55

          I won’t lie, Zoe, those accessories have crossed my mind!

• Mike says:

  7 May7 May 07:27

  The unexpected extra 10,000 avios bonus has just been clawed back – “Points reversal due to technical issue -10,000” – I wasn’t expecting that !

  • Mark says:

    7 May7 May 08:26

    Had mine reversed too. But the original points that posted have gone over to my avios account. I’m tempted to cancel this card now how would Amex view this?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      7 May7 May 09:08

      they wouldn’t unless you do it multiple times

• Anna says:

  7 May7 May 07:35

  For Keely, from yesterday –
  If you decide it’s worth paying the Billhop fee, just try putting the payment through. It’s the finance company which decides whether to accept it, not Billhop. It will just bounce back to you if it’s rejected.

• Jenny says:

  7 May7 May 07:47

  What time is the Green list going to be announced?

  • The Lord says:

    7 May7 May 08:09

    5pm

    • Ed says:

      7 May7 May 08:15

      Does ba still offer 24 hour feee free refund …. might be worth hedging some bets across a few destinations and then cancelling after list is revealed.

      • James says:

        7 May7 May 08:35

        Yes, they do.

      • Braiden says:

        7 May7 May 11:16

        I’ve done a 72 price hold on a couple of bookings.

• M says:

  7 May7 May 08:05

  My Virgin Credit Card direct debit amount seems wrong – shyI be worried?

  Details (amounts rounded for simplicity):
  – my April statement shows 2100 to pay off
  – I paid off 2000 before direct debit was taken
  – at this stage the direct debit amount was reduced to 100 as expected
  – then I spent another 1000 (in May, definitely after the April statement was produced)
  – now the direct debit amount changed again to 1100

  I was expecting the direct debit amount to stay at 100 and the new 1000 to only be due after May statement.
  I am checking the direct debit amount in the app.
  All the transactions in transaction history have settled (nothing is pending).

  Should I contact Virgin Money to clarify?

  • Alex says:

    7 May7 May 08:29

    It will be because in the app you have selected your DD to always pay off the full balance and because it’s before the DD date that’s what it’s doing. I have the same issue which is why I now turned of DD and just make sure to do it manually so I know when and how much to do.

    • Yorkie Aid says:

      7 May7 May 08:38

      +1 I was particularly shocked yesterday after I had reduced my Virgin Balance to zero last week that they still took nearly £4k by DD. I have now changed the DD to only take the minimum payment. I don’t know of any other card that does this.

      • M says:

        7 May7 May 08:41

        Ah okay, makes sense now! Thanks for the explanation.

        • Secret Squirrel says:

          7 May7 May 09:28

          Have you all received your latest monthly Virgin credit card points yet? Mine are late by three days now?

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    7 May7 May 09:33

    I never pay credit cards by direct debit. Quite risky given it tries to take payment on the due date.

    • YC says:

      7 May7 May 09:55

      Slight tangent but on DDs and switching accounts. Any issue if DDs takes £0 each month? e.g. Min payment DD but I pay off before this is due

      • Yorkie Aid says:

        7 May7 May 10:12

        The only issue I have had is with the Halifax current account. If any DD isn’t claimed for 12 months they unilaterally cancel it without telling you. Supposedly a security feature but in reality just a PITA.

• avstar says:

  7 May7 May 08:12

  received the folowing when trying to rebook LHR-SYD with Qantas:

  “As a direct response to the coronavirus, the Australian Government halted all international flights in early 2020. Qantas initially cancelled flights in stages, but was forced to cancel all international flights by October 2020 when it became clear that the global pandemic would be ongoing. Your flights were affected at this point in time.

  I can confirm that your flights were not cancelled for commercial reasons, they were cancelled due to the coronavirus. This means that EC261/2004 does not apply. The coronavirus has been deemed an extraordinary circumstance by the European Court of Justice. Your booking remains able to be held in credit or refunded. ”

  Are they right?? I thought EU261/2004 (or UK equivalent) rerouting applies even for corona cancelled flights, its only the compensation element which does not?

  • Mouse says:

    7 May7 May 08:20

    Extraordinary circumstances get-out only applies to compensation right, not re-routing right.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    7 May7 May 10:16

    They are right in terms of compensation but wrong on the re-booking front. Also, as they can still operate international flights with a maximum of 30 people, personally I would say it is purely commercial profitability that made them cancel it

  • Lady London says:

    7 May7 May 10:29

    EU261 still applies in full.

    However the compensation payable under EU261 is able to be avoided currently by airlines due to EU261, which is still fully in force, allowing airlines not to pay if cancellation of your specific flight was due to ‘exceptional circumstances’. Currently Covid in most cases would count as a prevailing exceptional curcumstance. This means you don’t get about £600 lump sum compensation which is the rate for longhaul cancellations less than 14 days ahead.

    However airline is liable for duty of care also – this is a separate part and there is no exceptional circumstances exception, not at all. So you have full rerouting rights, full refund rights, your choice not theirs, applying to your whole ticket even if only one part of it is changed.

    Additionally, if you choose to reroute on a flight as close as reasonably possible to your cancelled flight, the airline is responsible for whatever the market cost is of a replacement flight at the time it’s needing to be found even on another airline. In this case they are also responsible for your reasonable local accommodation costs to wait for your new flight and all meals (+non alcoholic refreshments) while you wait for your flight. If you choose to reroute much later then you dont get intervening accommodation, meals, transport to and from the hotel, and comms expenses during your wait.

    All the above comes under duty of care and rock solid you are still entitled to at zero extra cost to you.

    For award tickets and sale tickets and offers such as 2for1 all these rights still apply to every seat. Notably for award tickets, the airline is supposed to rebook you to any seat available in your booked cabin class. They can’t insist on an award seat being available. Test : is this seat being sold for cash. If so then it’s yours for no extra cash, fee, nor any extra points or avios if the airline cancelled your flight.

    This is covered most days on here and flyertalk is excellent too. Posts here are often by Jonathan (excellent on steps to take if airline is denying), meta, myself and a few others.

    Qantas is talking out of its a$$.

    • Lady London says:

      7 May7 May 10:35

      PS just to be clear all these duty of care rights apply in full even if the airline cancelled your flight more than 14 days ahead (even a lot more than). Compensation requires the cancellation to be less than14 days ahead, but duty of care doesn’t.

      EU261 applies to Europe/UK based airlines, no matter where in the world flying from and to. It also applies to any flight departing Uk/Europe on any airline even a non-EU one.

  • avstar says:

    7 May7 May 18:02

    Thanks for all the considered replies.

    I’ve seen this sort of query come up regularly (and great advice given) on these comments pages but the hard stance of Qantas and their refusal to budge made me second guess my stance!

• Mouse says:

  7 May7 May 08:18

  Can anyone suggest a non-tedious way around ITA matrix’s limitation that multiple departure point searches can only be done with departure points in the same country? Would like to plug in all the EU Qatar starting points to find the cheapest fares.

  • Alex says:

    7 May7 May 08:30

    As far as I’m aware, there isn’t one sadly

  • Bam says:

    7 May7 May 09:00

    To the right of the departing From box, there is a ‘Nearby’ link – try using that

    • BH says:

      7 May7 May 09:04

      That will show airports in other countries, but when they’re used in the query it will fail.

    • Bam says:

      7 May7 May 09:05

      Sorry – new you could select different countries but had not tried it previously – it will not allow it

  • Lady London says:

    7 May7 May 10:44

    Google bought ita matrix and castrated it. Google Flights is what the re-employed ita matrix for. It’s like they took a space craft and forced it to be used as a station runabout.

    Either use Google Flights which is still not a bad starting point or keep a file of 5-at-a-time-in-same-country city codes separated by commas and paste each set into the tool per search.

• Fm says:

  7 May7 May 08:21

  My wife has received an IHG offer for a free night certificate (40k) for 2 stays before the end of July. Seems to be targeted as I can’t register for it, but worth checking your offers if you aren’t registered to receive emails.

  • Andrew says:

    7 May7 May 08:36

    Seems to be different variants – mine was just 5k but on a one night stay before end of July, no registration needed it seems.

    • Aston100 says:

      7 May7 May 09:09

      +1 Andrew

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