The HfP chat thread – Thursday 20th May

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MadeUpName says:

20 May20 May 13:47

So, how are the queues in terminal 5 at the moment? Anyone had any recent experience?
- roberto says:
  
  20 May20 May 14:42
  
  Live from T5.
  Took 7 mins from getting off the plane (gate 508) to get fully through. Used eGates and no paperwork was required. Amazing
  - Rich says:
    
    20 May20 May 15:41
    
    Did you have to provide evidence of booked test etc on your PLR?
    - roberto says:
      
      20 May20 May 20:43
      
      No.
      No one looked at the paperwork
      PLF done online yesterday
Optimus Prime says:

20 May20 May 14:02

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-travellers-half-our-flight-were-turned-back-from-spanish-border-5gxkdkszt
- Yuff says:
  
  20 May20 May 14:15
  
  Supposed to be flying there on 29th May ……..
  Hopefully they will change it by then or I need to delay until 31st May
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    21 May21 May 03:01
    
    1st June.
Aston100 says:

20 May20 May 14:03

Revolut.
Last week, I mentioned how Revolut blocked a transfer and were investigating it.
If you recall this was for an amount under £150, and was sent to someone with the subject of “For Dave” (I removed the standard “Sent from Revolut” description).
At the time, an agent contacted me to enquire the nature of this transfer and who Dave was.

I am pleased to announce that after chasing and escalating for 9 days, they have finally agreed the transaction is fine and unblocked it.

If it wasn’t already clear to you, this should be a warning that Revolut are a bunch of amateurs with shocking customer service. They have no contact number and all communication has to be done through the app. A conversation takes forever because they tend to take anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours to reply to each of your own responses.

In my case, this was a totally legitimate everyday transaction.
Think carefully if you are going to be holding large sums for the purposes of money cycling.

I am unsure what recourse was available to me. Their complaints procedure involves a form on the SurveyMonkey site… I’m not even sure if the financial ombudsman can be contacted for this given the grey area that Revolut operates in (Are they even a bank?).

Cowboys.
- lumma says:
  
  20 May20 May 14:26
  
  Need to be careful with those comical notes on money transfers going forward then…
  - Phil says:
    
    20 May20 May 18:20
    
    Yep, “*Readers Wives Ltd Subscription Refund*” was always my go-to when sending to friends with joint bank accounts!
    - James says:
      
      21 May21 May 01:16
      
      It’s not the 1970s anymore.
- BuildBackBetter says:
  
  20 May20 May 14:36
  
  They’ve applied for a uk bank license, probably noticing people avoiding fintechs without one.
  They indeed have awful customer service. And probably the worst in treating employees
- mark2 says:
  
  20 May20 May 18:14
  
  Sounds like Curve, Monese and Pockit.
- James Pleasant says:
  
  20 May20 May 18:45
  
  I sent a few £thou to ‘Marcus’ from YBS and they blocked it and asked me to explain.
  
  A few seconds’ check on the sort code would have told them.
  - Aston100 says:
    
    20 May20 May 20:10
    
    How long did it take them to unblock it?
    - James Pleasant says:
      
      20 May20 May 20:13
      
      On the phone call, ie immediate.
      
      They only stopped the transfer, I should clarify – not block my a/c (sorry if I wasn’t clear).
Alex Sm says:

20 May20 May 14:28

Is it going to be T3 or T4?

Passengers arriving at UK airports from red and amber countries could be segregated from June, says Shapps

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said he wants passengers arriving from amber and red list countries to be segregated in airports.

“A lot of this is to do with the practicalities, of course, and everybody has to be tested before they are even able to get on to a flight to the UK,” he told the BBC.

“But I do want to see people separated out as much as is practically possible and we have asked, and I think Heathrow will respond to this at the beginning of next month.”

There was “excess space” due to the low level of travel and Heathrow is examining using a “spare terminal to bring in perhaps the red flights separately”, he said.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  20 May20 May 14:34
  
  Sounds like something he’s making up unless the government will fund a full terminal’s operating costs.
  - will says:
    
    20 May20 May 14:48
    
    I’ll be an interesting situation for sure.
    The government can make rules up for any entity on how they can legally operate.
    
    Usually it’s up to that entity to figure out how to comply with that and fund it but wasn’t it recently the case that heathrow was denied being able to charge more money to cover pandemic losses.
    - Lady London says:
      
      20 May20 May 15:20
      
      too bad that’s a business risk and cost. Same as for other businesses in Covid.
      
      If the current owners of that monopoly gravy train known as Heathrow don’t want to get off their a$$es and do what’s required as many other businesses have had to do then the government can easily get someone else to do it.
      - bafan says:
        
        20 May20 May 18:10
        
        +1 LL. I often hear Americans criticise their corporations saying that they “privatise the profits, socialise the losses” – exactly what’s happening here. If LHR don’t like it, sell it.
      - Memesweeper says:
        
        20 May20 May 19:01
        
        Absolutely
        
        Anyone compensating half-open pubs? Socially distanced football stadia?
      - Will says:
        
        20 May20 May 21:26
        
        No sympathy for Heathrow myself but in the case of pubs they’ve not been told they must cap their prices when They reopen.
        It’s my understand that Heathrow has been told this
        
        https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/05/04/caa-rejects-heathrow-airport-compensation-claim/
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        21 May21 May 03:07
        
        The government can’t easily get someone else to build a massive airport just outside London.
        
        Flight of fancy if you think Heathrow would only do it because flights are back on across the world and it makes sense to open another terminal or they get paid to do it.
- kitten says:
  
  20 May20 May 15:14
  
  T1?
  - Anna says:
    
    20 May20 May 16:10
    
    What about the B & C satellite terminals, they can’t be being used much at the moment?
    - ChrisC says:
      
      20 May20 May 17:38
      
      There isn’t a separate exit to landside and no Border Force facilities there – you can only enter landside from T5A – and then you’d be mixing everyone up which they want to avoid
      
      Same applies to T2 at the moment as well.
      
      So would have to be T3 or T4
      
      T1 is basically an empty shell so not practical.
      
      But unless Ms Patel ramps up Border Force staffing you basically still have an enormous petri dish of potential infections.
      - Anna says:
        
        20 May20 May 18:05
        
        She’s managed to find enough staff to carry out 10k quarantine checks per day, apparently!
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        21 May21 May 03:04
        
        Outsourced the checks.
Kevin D says:

20 May20 May 14:42

Hi guys
I have to go to Italy for work Saturday to Monday. Flying Dublin to Bari via Amsterdam and home Bologna to Dublin via Amsterdam. First time travelling as an Amex Platinum card holder. Does anyone know if lounges in these airports are open and if so which ones? Do I need my Priority Pass card? (misplaced it). I’m only booked economy class (KLM), does that matter?
Thanks for the help
- Rich says:
  
  20 May20 May 14:59
  
  You can check on the Priority Pass website which lounges (in which terminals) are open, and whether they accept digital cards. Most do, I think. You can download the PP app.
  
  The Plat card itself will work in Plaza Premium lounges. Not sure that your route has any. Class of travel doesn’t matter,
- Lady London says:
  
  20 May20 May 15:25
  
  Download the PP app it has a virtual card in it. A few airports cant read it though but suspect a solution will be found.
  
  Italy is quite poor for lounges esp third party ones so restrain your expectations. They almost always have at least one decent coffee bar and many have several.
- Ikaz says:
  
  20 May20 May 17:29
  
  Make sure that you log in to the app before arriving to the airport, you don’t want to be searching for the login details in the lounge queue
Super Secret Stuff says:

20 May20 May 14:46

Big up Emyr! Just sent him a rather complicated request for a trip to London just after 11. Got an email from him with a price that is over £50 better than direct and includes a host of benefits for Conard St James. Can even stack it with my Hilton offer!

What a wonderful man. Glad the service exists!
- Super Secret Stuff says:
  
  20 May20 May 15:07
  
  *Conrad
Lord Doncaster says:

20 May20 May 15:03

Amex Plat Retention

Received 15K last May and 35K last October, but no further points available if I were to cancel today (British operator) and no other offers available to entice me to stay. Long spiel about £175 Waitrose offer and Shop Small and how Amex has more than compensated for lack of benefits. Been a member for 5 years. I’ll have a think about whether to call again.
- meta says:
  
  20 May20 May 15:55
  
  Now that I think about it. You called too soon. Your last bonus was in October. Amex usually only give one retention bonus per year. That was the case even before pandemic though during pandemic they’ve really upped the amounts.
  - Lord Doncaster says:
    
    20 May20 May 16:51
    
    Yes… I’m willing to wait until close to renewal to see…
- Sean says:
  
  20 May20 May 16:44
  
  Had the same – only offered downgrade to gold. Decided to cancel and “save” the £50 per month.
- Lord Doncaster says:
  
  20 May20 May 16:50
  
  I agree actually. 50k points last year plus the bonus offers (M&S, John Lewis, Harrods, Waitrose) have compensated me but thought I’d chance my arm 😂
  
  It was rather disingenuous of her on the phone telling me about the travel insurance benefits and saying they’d be useful for my postponed holidays… I had to tell her they’d be useless to me if i went to Spain while it’s Amber…she then paused for several seconds and said she isn’t an insurance expert 😂
OLR says:

20 May20 May 15:05

Another data point if of interest. I’ve been with Amex Plat for 20+ years. Annual fee due in June. Just called and got straight through to Brighton. Was offered 50,000 points with no prompting. Also given strong hint of a repeat of Waitrose offer to all “some time soon”
- Lord Doncaster says:
  
  20 May20 May 15:18
  
  Seems they are very willing to offer retention points prior to renewal then. She did say to me that should travel still fail to open up that Amex would continue to support cardholders. Only option I was given was a downgrade to Gold that would be free for the first year.
  - meta says:
    
    20 May20 May 15:48
    
    Not true. My renewal is in November and I got 50k last week. You might have not played their spiel well about the benefits. I rebutted all their spiels one by one. You have to be prepared to challenge them on all points. It’s not that hard at all.
    - Lord Doncaster says:
      
      20 May20 May 15:55
      
      She was quite stern in saying that because I had points in October last year that she couldn’t provide any more points this time.
      - meta says:
        
        20 May20 May 15:57
        
        Yes, that is the reason. Called too soon…
      - Lord Doncaster says:
        
        20 May20 May 16:01
        
        Ah ha yes – I will play the waiting game and try my arm a few months down the line.
- bill says:
  
  20 May20 May 15:46
  
  i phoned and dealt with the overseas call centre. i got 50,000 offered to me
  - Aston100 says:
    
    20 May20 May 20:14
    
    For once, the Foreign Legion are better than the Brighton Brigade.