The HfP chat thread – Friday 21st May

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• Anuj says:

  21 May21 May 11:23

  What do people think are the best Melia hotels ? I have some vouchers and status expiring soon so I wanted to make use of the 20% off.

  • ashraj says:

    21 May21 May 11:31

    The Gran Melia Collection look the most impressive- https://www.granmelia.com/en/

    If Spain opens up you have alot of choice and could potentially do a road trip from Marbella , Cadiz & Seville which all have Gran’s

  • Kai says:

    21 May21 May 11:57

    Consensus seems to be Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora

    • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

      21 May21 May 16:22

      Really? The red level bit is nice but it’s hardly the peak of luxury.

  • Sukes says:

    21 May21 May 21:20

    Melia Vienna where The Level is worth it for the lounge benefit. Melia Fuerteventura – isolated but super relaxing & all inc is amazing value. Need to get Panoramic Sea View rms, cheaper rooms face inland & don’t get sun.

  • Sukes says:

    21 May21 May 21:24

    Don’t forget Melia has extended points expiration til end Sept 21 & status expiration til end Dec 21. See end of page at https://www.melia.com/covid-19/covid_en.html

• Connor says:

  21 May21 May 11:27

  Virgin just cancelled my flight to Washington at the end of July. No doubt it’ll be a battle trying to get it rebooked to a “convenient” date.

  • James says:

    21 May21 May 11:48

    Wasnt for me yesterday. Did it within minutes to dates I wanted with no fuss. Paid cash originally on an Upper return to Seattle.

• Ammar says:

  21 May21 May 11:42

  Need to buy gift cards worth 900 GBP for staff – what is the best way to generate points with it. Previously would have gone to Morrison’s when they had an offer on and get more points etc. Any clever strategies to maximize – TIA.

  • Benilyn says:

    21 May21 May 11:45

    do you have work discount schemes?

    • Ammar says:

      21 May21 May 12:34

      Not sure, i work in the NHS so will check.

      • Reney says:

        21 May21 May 12:57

        someone said perks at work is opened to nhs staff. If so that would be a good place.

      • Andrew says:

        21 May21 May 14:16

        Perks At Work is indeed open to NHS staff.

        Which vouchers are you buying though? The Amazon Business programme has a minimum purchase of £1,000 – maybe buy one for yourself to round up the cost.

        All the major chains eg John Lewis, Pret, M&S, have a business sales department for Gift Cards too.

        Discount to the cost of purchase should come before personal benefit to you. At the very least you should be buying Amazon Vouchers through Amazon Smile for your local hospital or department charity.

      • Char Char says:

        21 May21 May 14:35

        Buying Morrisons gift cards (4-5% off) then purchase whatever gift cards you want maybe a good option

• egold says:

  21 May21 May 12:00

  I’m sure I had an Avis offer in my AMEX. it seems to have disappeared. could it be it’s had the max downloads?

  • WaynedP says:

    21 May21 May 14:12

    The £20 back on £150 spend expired 09/05.

    • Eligold says:

      23 May23 May 09:08

      Oh. That explains it. Thanks

• Josh says:

  21 May21 May 12:18

  Anyone had their lovely stay at the Sheraton in Park Lane yet? Can you comment on your experiences? 🙂

  • APB says:

    21 May21 May 12:23

    There was some reporting re that on last Wednesday’s thread I think

  • Ed says:

    21 May21 May 12:24

    There were some maybe 2/3 days ago, including a link to someone’s blog post pointshaka.Wordpress.com

  • Rob says:

    21 May21 May 12:50

    Someone did and wrote a blog post on it, hopefully they will repost.

  • Harry T says:

    21 May21 May 14:26

    I didn’t partake in the intern related error rate but I did stay there last winter and I was upgraded to the suite below the one everyone booked. The hotel and room were gorgeous, and the staff were terrific too. I would strongly recommend the hotel. And I have done a fairly thorough audit of the Marriott Bonvoy options in London!

  • Metty says:

    21 May21 May 15:23

    Hello Josh et al, just checked out.

    Was slightly nervous but no surprises, stayed 3 nights and only extra charge was £30 x 2 for our two 20something children who stayed over with us for one night. We reckon that this is an absolute bargain, given the ability of our kids to demolish free alcohol in the Club Lounge and enjoy £30-40 each worth of breakfast, never mind liberating a few bottles of Molton Brown that they prefer to their usual Lidl stuff. So my top tip for anyone with a booking is to think about inviting others to join you on a rollaway 🙂

    As I mentioned the other day, despite a slight worry that the Grand Suite may not actually materialise, an email arrived a few days prior with the usual booking reminder and then another email from Giulia who looks after ‘VIPs’. We asked her about rollaways and whether £30pppnt got Club Lounge access and breakfast, she confirmed this. She asked when we’d like afternoon tea, what time we’d be arriving and was there at check in to greet us and show us to the room. All was completely normal and no ‘wow what a great rate’ comments, unlike my days of Priceline a decade ago, so very professional and throughout our stay we were treated royally.

    The C-19 cleaning policy was to service a room every 3 days or on request; we happened to ask for a new shower cap and as a consequence had a complete room service.

    Breakfast was a la carte waiter service in the Palm Court on Wed and Thurs but they’d started rolling out a mini- self service for cereal, juice, pastries this morning. One of the staff suggested that room occupancy midweek was 4-5% so service isn’t normal and one of the restaurants still closed. The included afternoon tea wasn’t available on Tuesday but was on Wednesday; I’m guessing that there was no demand on Tues, so if staying one night only and occupancy doesn’t pick up, try and sort this out prior to arrival. Afternoon tea was fine, not as good as the Ritz perhaps – which incidentally had fair availability – but great for ‘free’.

    Club lounge was open, soft drinks all day, cake in the afternoon and IPA/lager/wine 1730-1930 but they seemed very relaxed about 1930 closure while we were there.

    As Rob suggested, we went to find the ballroom, accidentally interrupting a chap in a suit filming a video. He turned out to be the GM, Justin. He chatted for ages and I was dying to find out how we got a £1600 room for £200 but didn’t dare ask! Fab time, thanks HfP. Enjoy.

    • Metty says:

      21 May21 May 15:30

      Mrs Metty would like me to point out that our offspring only removed the partially used complimentary small bottles of Molton Brown toiletries!

    • Mike says:

      21 May21 May 22:02

      Great to hear you had a fab time – thank you for sharing- it was lovely to hear all about it

      • Metty says:

        22 May22 May 11:42

        Don’t want to cause undue alarm but a friend who booked the same deal for a night in June had an email saying the Grand Suite was double booked so they’ve put him in the category below, Grand Park View suite…..

        • Rob says:

          22 May22 May 12:44

          Not exactly a disaster for £200 ….

• Ja says:

  21 May21 May 12:27

  Looking to change my energy supplier to Octopus.

  Do people recommend them?

  Does anyone have a spare referral code?

  Thanks

  • Michael says:

    21 May21 May 12:34

    I’ve been with them a few months and so far would definitely recommend them. Here is my referral code for you to use. share.octopus.energy/pure-jade-591

    • Ja says:

      21 May21 May 14:05

      Thanks Michael

      I assume they will give me a code at some point that I can then pass on

  • kevbar says:

    21 May21 May 12:35

    I find them really good, very flexible with payments. I switched a few people but when it came to switch again they all wanted to stay with Octopus! I tried to explain that is not how the game works…

    I’m sure someone will have a code for you, make sure Octopus are cheapest or close to cheapest for you.

    • Steve R says:

      21 May21 May 13:02

      There is also 5000 Virgin Red points if you go through the VR site

      • Ja says:

        21 May21 May 14:05

        Thanks Steve

  • Rhys says:

    21 May21 May 13:45

    Yes, more info here: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/03/28/which-energy-suppliers-let-you-pay-your-bill-with-amex/

  • Char Char says:

    21 May21 May 14:37

    Unless you have an EV I wouldn’t bother, their customer service is rubbish if you actually have a real problem despite the referral pushers claiming exceptional service (Often for meaningless enquiries)

    • Hugo says:

      21 May21 May 20:27

      So far their service has been a lot better than the big six

• Anuj says:

  21 May21 May 12:28

  Has anyone noticed of somewhere that accepts one4all gift cards and sells apple gift cards?

  • Anuj says:

    21 May21 May 12:29

    Potential shops I’ve seen are Argos, Curry’s and John Lewis. Will have to go in and check unless anyone knows

    • Andrew says:

      21 May21 May 12:57

      Apple or iTunes? I think the only place you can buy Apple gift cards are Apple stores/online. But the others all sell iTunes I think.

    • Char Char says:

      21 May21 May 14:38

      I doubt you can use one4all gift cards to purchase gift cards at Argos, Currys or John Lewis.

      • Rob says:

        21 May21 May 14:58

        one4all cards are prepaid Visa debit cards and so should work ok.

        • Olly says:

          21 May21 May 20:18

          @Rob, not sure about that as I found out trying to swap the USELESS one4all cards I bought from Morrisons and wanted to change them to Morrisons gift cards. CS in store explained I would need to have the receipts from the original purchase and Morrisons have to contact the company promoting them for authority to do it first.

      • Anuj says:

        21 May21 May 15:20

        If you add it to Apple Pay the person manning the till won’t even see what you’re using, and it’s a visa prepaid card so I doubt any checkouts are set to block it.

• kevbar says:

  21 May21 May 12:29

  As BA silver I get free seat selection at time of booking for everyone on my booking, what happens if I am not on the booking, can I still select seats?

  Sorry if obvious but I have searched and cannot find answer, maybe it is no if I cannot find it stated anywhere! TIA

  • Pete M says:

    21 May21 May 12:41

    I don’t think so, no.

  • Genghis says:

    21 May21 May 12:48

    No

  • Rob says:

    21 May21 May 12:50

    No

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