The HfP chat thread – Friday 7th May

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• xcalx says:

  7 May7 May 15:40

  Has anyone had success downloading the Morrisons receipt to Virgin shopaway re missing points. I have tried from Iphone, Ipad and scanning receipt on printer all to no avail, I just can’t get the receipt to send. Nearly at the 90 day time limit now. Thanks. 8024 virgin miles at stake.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    7 May7 May 16:19

    Did you buy GC’s at Morrison’s? If so, if you submit a receipt it could be rejected

  • Maximus says:

    7 May7 May 18:21

    Simply take a screenshot on your phone — that’s worked for me.

• Doogie says:

  7 May7 May 15:47

  Datapoint: applied for a third Amex late afternoon yesterday, referred by player 2. Referral points posted this morning.

  • Steve says:

    7 May7 May 16:22

    Charge, credit or a mix?

    • Doogie says:

      7 May7 May 23:51

      All credit

• James says:

  7 May7 May 15:51

  Am I correct in understanding my unused companion voucher will be revoked if I cancel my BAPP? Or is that a load of rubbish I’ve made up in my head?

  • Tom says:

    7 May7 May 15:59

    Amex will say that you wont be able to use the voucher but in reality any Amex will work.

  • WaynedP says:

    7 May7 May 16:03

    No, once it’s in your BAEC account (which is separate to your Amex account) it remains there.

    The only catch (I’m led to believe) is that Amex will tell you that you need the BAPP card that the companion voucher was earned on to pay the taxes when it comes to using the voucher.

    I believe that also appears in writing in the t&cs. However, widely reported practice in reality is that you can use ANY Amex card (even someone else’s) to pay the taxes, so few commentators here take Amex’s warning seriously.

    I guess the only risk is, if it does appear in the t&cs (I haven’t checked this personally) and Amex all of a sudden decide to enforce the letter of the t&cs more strictly than has been the case in the past.

    • Memesweeper says:

      7 May7 May 18:42

      It would be up to BA to enforce it, not Amex. Given the state of their IT I’d assume their technical debt backlog will mean this will never move sufficiently high up the priority list to actually get done. Not actually that hard to do, though, if they had the will.

  • Chris Heyes says:

    7 May7 May 18:37

    James Its unlikely to happen, But of course its very possible that at any time they could implement their rule
    Just the same as they could implement their rule of you lose “ALL” your points for self-referral, which they have already done in US
    So it’s you take the risk, a maybe, maybe not,

• CLAIRE says:

  7 May7 May 15:55

  Currently have a 2 for 1 BA flight to JFK booked during the 50% of sale flying on the 14th August and back on the 31st. I won’t be able to go as now having surgery at the beginning of June. Would like to rebook for next Easter as there is availability on the dates I want but if I change I would need to pay the extra avios I think. What do we think is the chance of it being cancelled (think New York flights are still mostly going ahead). As there seems to be reasonably good availability to JFK at the moment I am tempted to leave it a bit longer to see if it is cancelled but just wondered on others experiences. Thanks

  • Andrew says:

    7 May7 May 15:58

    You would need to pay the extra avios if you chose to change dates yes. You might be lucky and your particular flight might get cancelled as by August they still probably won’t be running a full schedule so will probably still be cancelling a few a week.

  • Alex says:

    7 May7 May 16:01

    Check on your booking as you might be able to change the dates, which you could move to a date you think is more likely to be cancelled or another date your happy with. I moved mine from June to feb for my birthdays with no fee

    • Claire says:

      7 May7 May 16:08

      Have just looked and option to change or cancel isn’t available, it says I need to phone up. This booking had already been moved once as was due to go this Easter so that might be why. If usa is not on green list then suppose they might try to consolidate flights and as you say I might be lucky.

• David D says:

  7 May7 May 15:56

  Do you think that having a higher monthly credit card balance would impact an Affordability assessment when applying for a mortgage? i.e. If I have moved a lot of my day to day spend from debit to credit (amex) in order to earn points. Would pay off in full each month.

  • Tom says:

    7 May7 May 16:00

    I think you would be silly to do this whilst applying for a mortgage, just give it a break for a few months.

    • David D says:

      7 May7 May 16:03

      Yes, that’s what I was thinking thanks – I will ease off for 3-6 months prior to application.

  • BS says:

    7 May7 May 16:00

    Would make no difference. They look at incomings and outgoings, which would remain the same. It changes if you carry a balance, in which case they will take in to account the interests and minimum payments on top.

  • Andrew says:

    7 May7 May 16:01

    If you’re still spending the same amount each month then it shouldn’t affect affordability check – it’s about how much you spend each month v how much your income is. I can’t remember the last time I used my debit card, not even sure where it is.

  • Alex says:

    7 May7 May 16:03

    Yeah provided you pay off in full each month it shouldn’t be an issue. Just lay off anything MS related. If you earn £1K a month and are “spending” £5K due to MS that won’t look great, if you pay it off or not.

  • TicknBash says:

    7 May7 May 16:20

    My mortgage advisor had to put in ‘outstanding’ amounts on my credit cards despite repeatedly pointing out that it is fully paid off every month – oh that’s a lot on the cards she said.

    There’s a hard search when my application was submitted and another search on completion / draw down date – so I kept a low profile until the transaction is done.

    • 747_Brat says:

      7 May7 May 16:32

      @TicknBash: Who is your lender, if I may ask? I am also in the middle of a house purchase but haven’t completed yet. After I received the mortgage offer, I checked with my mortgage advisor to see if there would be any further credit searches and he mentioned there would be none once the offer is accepted.

      So I went and applied for a couple of credit cards. Now I am worried if there would be a hard search on the draw down date. It might look like I am desperate for credit to the lenders with my recent card applications.

      • TicknBash says:

        7 May7 May 16:39

        I’m with Barclays Premier.
        As soon as my application was ‘submitted’ and approved for offer, I said to my mortgage advisor (who works for Barclays) I’m going on a Amex frenzy – due to the sign up bonuses and she panicked.

        She explained why and so as commented above.

        • 747_Brat says:

          7 May7 May 16:49

          Thanks. I am with Halifax. Hopefully they will have a pragmatic view of my card applications, if it comes to another search. Fingers crossed!

      • Peter K says:

        7 May7 May 21:50

        @748_Brat I was told by a mortgage broker in the past that some lenders do a last minute credit check just before releasing the funds but sometimes they don’t. He recommended avoiding anything that will negatively affect my credit score until the money was released.

    • Andy D says:

      7 May7 May 19:13

      My advisor actually winced when we looked at my spend through cards. At the time I was probably banging up to 10k a month through on company expenses (paid off in full).

  • Steve says:

    7 May7 May 16:24

    Credit cards don’t always report the Balance on statement date, is often a random date in the month. The best way to keep earning points but stay below the radar of the mortgage police is to keep paying down your balance throughout the month (not after the statement is due). Therefore regardless of when your CC company reports the balance it will always be low. Beats paying on debit card any day.

    • Memesweeper says:

      7 May7 May 20:17

      ^^^ this … I don’t have the discipline but @Steve describes the correct way to minimise the impact of the hobby on future credit applications — do not assume outstanding or statement balances are the ones that get reported

• Paul says:

  7 May7 May 16:23

  I need to go the USA for work.
  Do you know if it is possible right now? Or will USA not let me in?
  Thanks for any advice.

  • mutley says:

    7 May7 May 16:47

    You will need to go somewhere outside schengen such as Turkey for 14 days prior to entering the US, and also complete a Health Declaration form for the CDC prior to entry. If you do these and you have your visa ESTA then yes.

  • Paul says:

    7 May7 May 16:52

    Cheers Mutley

• James says:

  7 May7 May 16:27

  Regarding Malta – https://www.visitmalta.com/en/covid-19

  Just what does change from June 1st that affects tourism?

  From May 24th pools can reopen until 8pm for swimming only – Does that mean we can’t sunbathe until June 1st? So vague.

  • Sukes says:

    7 May7 May 16:48

    As I understood it it is a border entry issue – Malta announced Brits would be allowed in for tourism but not before 1 June.

  • Travel Strong says:

    7 May7 May 16:50

    I read that as tourist entry and tourist accommodation restricted in someway until June 1st, so not a May 17th holiday destination.

  • Simon says:

    7 May7 May 16:52

    Looks like you can sunbathe in a mask till 1st June, then throw it off and burn it.

• Alex says:

  7 May7 May 16:29

  Having real difficulties with BA trying to move 4 cancelled avios flights originally booked to KL in May, to the end of this year. Every time I call the helpline, I get a different response. latest one is, that their internal policy only allows amendments up to 12 months of the original booking (which would be October) as per their conditions of carriage. I pointed out 3b of their conditions suggested that the validity period is extendable but they wouldn’t budge and insisted that everyone is being treated the same and they are acting within EU law. Policy isn’t published and they don’t have to. When i asked to speak to a manger was told they didn’t see any point in taking my call ! Are BA right on the amendment point and if not what can i realistically do without getting more bogged down?

  • Lady London says:

    7 May7 May 20:15

    BA seems nastiest when they’ve actually cancelled the route. Whatever happens if you still insist on going where they’ve cancelled they know it’s going to cost them. Then it seems they try to force you into a refund to avoid the potentially much higher liabilities they face.

    I personally find it perfectly reasonable that someone might not be able to get leave from their work to travel, especially longhaul, except at certain times of the year. Some other people’s travel may be timed around a particular event, public or private.

    They’re going to have to reroute you on QR or MH (I’d really not want to fly MH even though QR will mean by extra change in DOH but that’s just me). Personally.I think you should persist and look back
    for postings by Jonathan ) meta / myself, amongst others, in particular how to.formally tackle them, make a backup booking without having to shell out while you wait for mcol or cedr date etc.

    @Charlieface shared that the 12-month-limit-from-issue-date limitation on tickets only applies for voluntary changes. IATA which issues such rules to airlines says for involuntary changes, such as your flight being cancelled, the limitation does not apply and the airline can endorse the ticket “INVOL” and just book a later flight.

    Let’s not forget it’s easy enough for an airline to issue a new ticket anyway if they want to.

    If it’s at least a week since your flight was cancelled, have you tried moving the flights yourself online in MMB?

    I wish we didn’t keep hearing these reports about BA trying to walk away from their legal responsibilities and as good as trying to bully passengers with full rights to reroutings, into refunds by stonewalling them when BA remains responsible even after their own planes are no longer flying the route.

    • Lady London says:

      7 May7 May 20:32

      Just to be clear BA’s preferences and rules are outranked by EU261 which is also now in UK law. Their policies really don’t matter you have a right to rerouting at no extra cost on a date convenient to *you* even on another airline if they can’t get you there.

      There is some discussion around the 12month thing but given it’s not your choice to cancel the flight my views are as above and people have reported a number of times no problem in being reticketed well over the 12 months.

      Of course it would be churlish of me to suspect BA may as yet be missing some pricing agreement with QR, MH or any other airline that far ahead and so be stonewalling. Annoying since they’d probably still have to give those other airlines a fraction of the retail price. So perhaps an MCOL claim for the fully flexible retail ticket price of a ticket you’ve had to get a decent travel agent to hold for you to be paid only when(if) ticketed very near to your replacement travel date could point up how much more cash this could cost them when you win the mcol.

      Try to change in MMB as I suggested or if not, call again in regular weekday business hours ideally near 08.30 if you can.

      • Alex says:

        9 May9 May 12:13

        Thankyou for you really helpful reply. I think the 12 month validity point does’nt stack up even on their own conditions which suggest that ticket validity can be extended. I booked back in October 2020 so have a limited time window, but difficult to see how i can make a booking before October this year BA insist i have given 1) the traffic light system in UK and 2) the restrictions (quarantine arrangements in KL and probably elsewhere). I shall try calling them again with your pointers in mind Lady London!

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