The HfP chat thread – Monday 24th May

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• Richie says:

  24 May24 May 07:41

  Apparently, the Daily Mail has ‘triple Nectar points’ on the top left corner of the front page today, any further details regarding this?

  • Andrew says:

    24 May24 May 07:47

    Probably triple nectar points you earn by entering the daily mail codes on the my mail website.

    • Richie says:

      24 May24 May 08:03

      Thanks, not that interesting then.

    • BJ says:

      24 May24 May 08:20

      Yes, that’s it. Applies 24-28 May only.

• Ant says:

  24 May24 May 07:53

  Hi, I have an HBO flight booked for Spain can this be upgraded to Club using avios? It won’t let me do it on MMB so before I called BA I would like to know if it is possible and how much it would cost.

  • ChrisC says:

    24 May24 May 08:32

    HBO / Basic books in the O fare and those aren’t upgradable (along with Q and G)

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/02/20/upgrade-british-airways-economy-flight-with-avios/

  • KP says:

    24 May24 May 08:33

    No HBO can’t be upgraded using Avios. Cash upgrade is possible.

    • Sam G says:

      24 May24 May 09:15

      This isn’t quite correct. HBO can be upgraded but O, Q (the cheapo) fare buckets and G (usually used for holidays) can’t be upgraded

      Since changes are free currently if you call you might be able to do a fare difference change up to N class and then UUA.

      Personally I’m not finding UUA good value currently due to the increase in Avios required

  • Memesweeper says:

    24 May24 May 08:33

    See if there’s Avios availability by trying to book a redemption on the same flight. If there’s availability you can upgrade, if not you can’t.

    • Memesweeper says:

      24 May24 May 08:37

      Missed the HBO in the original post – KP and Chris are correct

      • roberto says:

        24 May24 May 09:49

        Offered a HBO to Club upgrade @€79 lhr to AGP yesterday. Declined as had lounge access and an exit seat anyway.

        • ChrisC says:

          24 May24 May 13:46

          That would be an AUP (Airport Upgrade Promotion) only available on the day for cash (if space available) so fare bucket not relevant.

• Dave says:

  24 May24 May 08:07

  I’m sure this has been asked loads recently, but what’s the cheapest option for 2 & 8 testing? Eurofins is currently out of stock unfortunately

  • Pete M says:

    24 May24 May 10:23

    I’ve had a good experience with Randox – the BA 50% off discount makes it £120. Do note the slightly odd ways of sending the tests back though. More details here: https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/covid19-tests

• Ross says:

  24 May24 May 08:15

  In addition to Dave’s query.

  Any recommendations for Test To Return to the UK?

  Thanks.

• BlueLabel says:

  24 May24 May 08:25

  We took advantage of the intern rate at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane on Sat night. Unfortunately the Plats in the Grand Suite the night before exercised their right to a late checkout – probably some fellow HFPers! Facing a choice of the Grand Suite some time after 5pm, or a Park View Suite at 3.30pm, we took the Park View Suite. This is still a very nice suite, just missing the extra loo vs the Grand Suite from what I could see, so we were happy. The Club Lounge was big but very limited goodies – ‘afternoon tea’ just two types of cake. Excellent a la carte breakfast in the Palm Court included in room rate. Didn’t charge us for 2 rollaway beds. Really friendly and helpful staff. Perfect location. Very happy with this bargain, thanks whoever highlighted it!

  • Harry T says:

    24 May24 May 08:27

    The Park View Suite is lovely – I was upgraded to it last time I stayed, as a plat. Glad you enjoyed your stay.

  • meta says:

    24 May24 May 09:11

    Or they just pretended that Grand Suite is not available… There is $100 guarantee compo for Plats and above if your Guaranteed room type is not available. It has to be requested at the hotel though and it’s paid in local currency.

  • ed says:

    24 May24 May 09:24

    Did you get some compo for the room not being available? The room reservation is clear that check in is at 3pm.

    • BlueLabel says:

      24 May24 May 10:51

      No compo – I expressed my disappointment but they were not forthcoming with anything, and with wife and kids in tow I didn’t push. The bigger frustration of the day was the Glasto livestream TBH!

      • meta says:

        24 May24 May 11:22

        Are you Bonvoy Platinum or above?

        • BlueLabel says:

          24 May24 May 21:02

          A lowly Gold

  • David says:

    24 May24 May 09:36

    What is the Interm rate code ? – sorry for being thick !

    • Rob says:

      24 May24 May 09:41

      The hotel got their intern to load all the rates into the system, and they decided to price every room at £200.

      • David says:

        24 May24 May 10:16

        Is there a code for it or has it gone.

        • Rob says:

          24 May24 May 10:20

          Gone, this was a few weeks ago.

        • David says:

          24 May24 May 12:45

          Will stick with the Healthcare workers code then £75 a night at the Andaz if you add in the Amex cash back

  • Metty says:

    24 May24 May 19:17

    Hi Blue Label, we stayed 3 nights in the Grand Suite – review in Friday’s chat – from Tues and checked out Friday 1400, so it wan’t us! We were charged £60 for one night when our twentysomethings joined us, which is a great deal as they definitely ate and drank way more than £30pp.

    A friend, booked for one night in June was contacted by the hotel and told the Grand Suite was double booked, so downgraded to the level below. Still a great deal but hope they don’t do this too often!

• Degsy says:

  24 May24 May 08:26

  For those who like posh beauty products there’s a bumper offer currently for Kiehl’s on the BA shopping portal – 25 Avios/£.

  • Andrew says:

    24 May24 May 08:33

    And 15% back with an Amex offer

  • DT says:

    24 May24 May 08:35

    15% back on Amex too, guess it’s time to top up on some products!

    Code: “ROUTINE” also gets a bunch of samples when spending £60 or more. (Not an affiliate or refer code, just standard code from their newsletter)

    • TGLoyalty says:

      24 May24 May 08:48

      Careful with samples will invalidate the 25/£ Avios and they live a clawback

      • TGLoyalty says:

        24 May24 May 08:49

        Love a clawback*

  • Andrew says:

    24 May24 May 09:19

    And 20% online discount if you are beloved NHS.

    (The local physical outlet has also been doing 20% “Friends and Family” discounts)

    • Harry T says:

      24 May24 May 10:56

      How do you get an NHS discount?

      • Andrew says:

        24 May24 May 11:10

        Register with Health Service Discounts using your .nhs email address.

        Then you can click through to get a single use discount code.

  • cinereus says:

    24 May24 May 09:45

    Lol, wonder what the profit margin is like in these…

    • Rob says:

      24 May24 May 10:24

      Profit is a very random concept when you’re a retailer. The cost of the product is peanuts compared to the cost of your stores, staff, rent, rates, VAT etc.

      Gross margins at luxury retailers are around 80%, however, so a £1,000 handbag which is £833 after VAT would have a manufacturing cost of around £165. It’s still very hard to make money even at this level.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        24 May24 May 11:34

        for a manufacturer gross profit (revenue-material cost) means nothing …

        They’d probably consider Variable Profit after allocations for manufacturing, warranty, logistics etc as their “margin” which will be much lower than c650p.u.

        Once you’ve taken into account other fixed costs like marketing/stores etc the EDIT is in the 10-15% range.

        LVMH is probably one of the better ones with a EBIT of 15-20% and 10.5% net income

  • Louise K says:

    24 May24 May 12:03

    I got 20% last week using SALE when buying 2 products (facebook promo)

• Eligold says:

  24 May24 May 08:30

  Has anyone been on Iberia business recently?
  There seems to still be no food on board blaming covid. Is that correct?

  • gtellez says:

    24 May24 May 08:59

    In long haul flights it is pretty much the same rubish as before Covid.

    • Blair says:

      24 May24 May 10:09

      None?!? They run wide bodies to LHR daily and still no food on board? Good god. I’ll save my pennies for another day.

  • marcw says:

    24 May24 May 11:52

    On European and Domestic market, food is now Do&Co (bar service is still limited to Beer / Wine + soft drinks), both on IB and Ib Exrpess.

    On long haul, it’s a mixed bad. North American routes have adopted Do&Co (with limited bar service, but most SouthAmerican routes have not adopted the “new” Do&Co, but remain on the “old” preCovid service.

• Robert Jenkins says:

  24 May24 May 09:14

  Hi, I’ve had an Amex gold card for a few weeks, just waiting for the bonus to hit, if I was to get a BA Premium Amex am I still eligible for the bonus offers or does the fact I already have a gold card exclude me?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    24 May24 May 09:39

    I take it you mean personal gold? Yes you should be fine for BAPP. You don’t really have any other choice

    Think there are still higher targeted referal welcome bonuses

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.