The HfP chat thread – Monday 24th May

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions. With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind. At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article. This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page. If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here. This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

Category

General

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

Lady London says:

24 May24 May 09:25

PS if you have to call them be aware if any seat is selling for cash in your cabin you have a right to be rerouted into it at no extra charge if BA cancelled your flight. They are not legally allowed to insist on an avios seat being available any seat will do.

And if they start rubbish about being able to reroute only in following 14 days or previous 3 days or whatever then HUACA as that’s rubbish too.
- Lady London says:
  
  24 May24 May 09:27
  
  *above for @Manya.
  
  Wordpress evil reply misplacement issue again
  - Sam says:
    
    24 May24 May 12:49
    
    Are you on a phone or comouter?
    
    Above the box where you type your message, does it say
    LEAVE A COMMENT CANCEL REPLY?
    or
    LEAVE A COMMENT?
Mr. AC says:

24 May24 May 09:31

Need to do fit to fly PCR tests for me and my family this week (upcoming flight with a transfer in Amsterdam). I cannot find a single in clinic option cheaper than £110 in central London! Does anyone have any advice? Otherwise we’ll have to make a trip to Heathrow and back for the 59£ tests…
- Blair says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:11
  
  Collinson at LCY? You must be an upcoming traveller, from LCY or other airports.
- The Lord says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:22
  
  Boots have £99 in store tests
  - Mr. AC says:
    
    24 May24 May 10:24
    
    Thanks for the info, probably makes sense to go with Boots then…
    - The Lord says:
      
      24 May24 May 10:47
      
      Been looking for myself this morning. Also up at Brent Cross they have a drive thru and walk thru test for £80
Fm says:

24 May24 May 10:15

I don’t seem to have any hotel offers on my Marriott amex – wasn’t sure if this is because it’s a Marriott branded card or I’ve just been unlucky. There was some mention of having the Hilton offer added manually via the call centre yesterday, am I likely to have any luck with this or is it a no-no on a Marriott branded card?
- fivebobbill says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:45
  
  Wouldn’t that be like Tesco telling you the beans are cheaper at Aldi
- Memesweeper says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:46
  
  You should only ever see Marriott offers on the Marriott card. Sadly I have had none this year so far.
  - meta says:
    
    24 May24 May 11:07
    
    Not true. I had Hyatt and Hilton offers appearing in the past on some of my Marriott cards. Last time around it was Hilto one of my partner’s supps. Amex IT at its finest. Though I’m sure you won’t be able to add it manually.
Steve says:

24 May24 May 10:19

I’m a bit confused about the BA book with confidence policy, if I only want to change the date of the ticket, am I still bound by the April 2023 rule? Can I change the date for free to any date, say 2024? Cos I don’t think I’m available to fly until then.
- Rob says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:20
  
  No
- Genghis says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:33
  
  It’s travel by Apr 23.
George K says:

24 May24 May 10:47

A small change to a niche Amex card. Letter came through last week

The Harrods card has its spa benefit replaced with a full body cryotherapy session (£95 value)
https://www.harrods.com/en-gb/faqs/harrods-rewards

Previous Moroccan Spa 20-min session was ‘valued’ at £65, I believe (never had the pleasure…)
- mr_jetlag says:
  
  24 May24 May 10:50
  
  putting their clientele on ice until things improve, the rulers must know something we don’t… 😉
  - George K says:
    
    24 May24 May 11:05
    
    Just put me in the freezer till all this is over…!
- Andrew says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:20
  
  Following the detailed survey Harrods sent out to some a month or so ago (and paid us £10 in Harrods points for completing it) asking about how we thought they could improve the Harrods Amex, I would imagine there are quite a few changes coming. They even asked what we thought of the design of the card (which I’ve always thought was a bit of a strange colour to have chosen).
  - Rob says:
    
    24 May24 May 11:30
    
    Did they send that to you as a cardholder?
    
    Would have made more sense to ask people who have used Amex to shop at Harrods why they don’t apply.
    - KBuffett says:
      
      24 May24 May 13:49
      
      They sent it to me as Black Tier (non Harrods Amex, but other AmEx holder)
      - George K says:
        
        24 May24 May 16:29
        
        I also did that for a tenner, but I am a Harrods amex holder. Who knows what’s in the pipeline though…
Craig says:

24 May24 May 11:03

I think with things starting to reopen I think I’ll lock in a 241 for a FTV. What’s the cheapest way of doing this?
- Lady London says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:13
  
  lon-ams, par, lux, bcn ,man, edi, newcastle etc 2fo1 give it week then ftv. ftv won’t be around forever
  - Craig says:
    
    24 May24 May 13:01
    
    Any reason to wait a week?
    - SteveJ says:
      
      24 May24 May 13:33
      
      You want to let the 24hr cooling off period pass at least. A couple of days is enough. I’ve done the same and can confirm it worked. (Inverness was what I chose FWIW)
      - Craig says:
        
        24 May24 May 13:36
        
        Thanks Steve.
    - Lady London says:
      
      24 May24 May 17:33
      
      good taste 🙂
- aDifferentSimon says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:18
  
  any off peak zone 1 I would have thought. I would also think you could get away with just booking one leg. So £35+9500 avios at the standard option.
  - aDifferentSimon says:
    
    24 May24 May 11:20
    
    I forgot to half (2for1)the avios!
- Rob says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:31
  
  Manchester or another 9k return route. Remember you are also locking in the name of the 2nd passenger – this can’t be changed.
  - Anna says:
    
    24 May24 May 11:48
    
    Works with a one way booking. So an off-peak MAN-LHR should cost 4k avios plus £35 with a 241, I think. It will look like the worst ever use of a companion voucher!
    - Rob says:
      
      24 May24 May 11:53
      
      OK. Personally I wouldn’t risk it though. Best to have a return flight in place in case they cause trouble about turning it into a return.
  - BuildBackBetter says:
    
    24 May24 May 12:19
    
    If I request an FTV with 2-4-1 now and use it for a booking in 2023, can I add a child (age 3) to the ticket?
- Craig says:
  
  24 May24 May 12:49
  
  Thanks all, 2nd name won’t be a problem unless I get divorced in the next couple of years! It would be the least of my worries at that point.
Richie says:

24 May24 May 11:06

A (minor) question about “pre-take-off drinks” on BA which has got me perplexed and I thought you guys might know the reason. So, I flew the other day to Portugal (in economy) and just as we boarded and took our seats, a member of the cabin crew rushed up to the couple opposite me (i.e. also in economy) and asked if they wanted a drink, champagne, tea, coffee. This was before we had taken off and needless to say (and understandably) no one else was offered anything.

The exact same thing happened on the way back (different couple), but this time i was in the Business cabin. Again, no one else was offered a drink, but 1 couple was (and gushing offered the drinks!)

It just seemed odd! And i was wondering why? What was so special about the couple in economy, and then the couple in business, to get drinks pre-take-off drinks when no one else was offered anything.

It can’t be a BA Gold card thing, I’ve got one. It can’t be a business -v- economy thing, as it happened in both! Any ideas? Maybe they were celebrities that I didn’t know.
- N says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:09
  
  Gold? GGL? Prem? Cabin crew? Staff?
- meta says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:10
  
  A friend of mine had this because they flew on the exact day of 10th anniversary of them joning Executive Club.
- Andrew says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:24
  
  I’ve had this a few times as Gold, Cabin Manager came to say hello during the flight, asked if he could get me a drink from Club (ie free). Once I went to use the Club toilet and the Cabin Manager asked if I wanted a glass of Champagne when I came out. But plenty of times I’ve got nothing – it would be nice if like Finnair, as a BA Gold you are offered a drink of your choice as policy (including single serve Champagne bottle) for you and a travelling companion when they come through with the BoB economy trolley.
- TheInsiderFly says:
  
  24 May24 May 11:28
  
  Sometimes happens in Economy if they were a downgrade because Business was full. But most likely suggestion is they were crew or friends/family of the crew. Got to have some perks.
- Anthony Edwards says:
  
  24 May24 May 12:45
  
  I think there is multiple triggers for this. It happened to me once while only a Silver – although I’d flown 60+ (cheap economy) BA flights over the previous year. They came up, thanked me for continuing to choose British Airways, and asked if I wanted anything from the bar.
  
  I presume they have all the passenger info on their iPad, and can choose what to do with it.
- Richie says:
  
  24 May24 May 14:07
  
  Ah, great insights – thanks everyone!
- stevenhp1987 says:
  
  24 May24 May 15:15
  
  This happened to me and my wife on her first flight after she got upgraded to Silver.
  
  They asked if we wanted some champagne from Club (We were in Economy).
- Jill ( Kinkell) says:
  
  24 May24 May 16:42
  
  I was offered a drink whilst in economy, no one else. Perhaps my Gold status was the reason as I can’t think of anything else.
- MW says:
  
  24 May24 May 17:07
  
  I was once flying with the Mrs on a short-haul (LHR-AMS) in Economy just after she got upgraded to Gold. She was offered champagne. I jumped on the opportunity as well, between us we managed 3 small bottles before landing.
  - Magic Mike says:
    
    24 May24 May 20:40
    
    Mrs Magic got this quite often (in the Before Times). She was “only” Gold but on the random routes she flew probably had one of the highest CIV scores on the plane…
Josh says:

24 May24 May 11:17

Flying CW with BA on Wednesday from T5 – what’s the lounge situation like at the moment? Any recent experiences?

Thanks!
- Tim says:
  
  24 May24 May 19:08
  
  It’s brill. Gold/F checkin is open for all in Biz or Silver and above. QR codes at tables makes the lounge experience brill, and if you’re Gold you’re being given physical menus and pro-active table service on the Concorde Terrace.