The HfP chat thread – Thursday 27th May

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• Cabal of rabid baboons says:

  27 May27 May 12:59

  We had an excellent stay at the Conrad St.James organised by Emyr, a superb A la carte breakfast included served in the Blue Boar pub and the £80 credit easily covered 4 main courses in the evening.
  Executive Lounge open with Canapés and bar service 5-30 until 7-30.
  Hotel very quiet.

  • Paul says:

    27 May27 May 13:07

    Hi is there much difference between CP Marlow or Gerrards lounges open etc thanks in advance

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    27 May27 May 13:16

    Thanks for the review, have a stay booked there so reassuring to know! I take it you got upgraded?

    • Cabal of rabid baboons says:

      27 May27 May 13:24

      Upgraded to an Executive Room from a Basic

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        27 May27 May 13:54

        Nice! I have hope then…

        I have no status for them, do you? Might do a status match though…

• Toaster says:

  27 May27 May 13:09

  Tesco Clubcard Pay – someone made a comment a few days ago about using this combined with Legacy Tesco bank account to earn 6% on fuel. I have just received a Clubcard pay card and am struggling to see how to use it to get that much reward. Hoping the poster will see this and give some more details.

  • Rich says:

    27 May27 May 13:13

    If you have a Clubcard credit card (maybe debit too), you can add that card number as your Clubcard number, and it earns more on fuel for some weird reason.

  • Genghis says:

    27 May27 May 14:27

    I answered the question in relation to Pay+, which is what the person asked initially. Re the new Clubcard Pay, no idea. Does the debit card have a clubcard number on it? If so, just like with the legacy debit card which is what I use, probably easiest way is to add this number on Pay+ as the clubcard and the debit card as the payment card and then scan Pay+ to pay?

• Eric the Half a Bee says:

  27 May27 May 13:09

  Indigo Bath – just had a call to apologise that the 2 double bedded vault suite booked on points isn’t available for a stay next month (construction ongoing). Offered two interconnecting rooms for two adults + one child instead which I thought was a fair compromise. Shame though, as the vaults look pretty good.

  • ashraj says:

    27 May27 May 13:47

    Thanks for the update- i have the King vault suite booked for next month. Hopefully that will be ready!

    • Rob says:

      27 May27 May 14:21

      No construction ongoing, I was there yesterday.

      • Eric the Half a Bee says:

        27 May27 May 14:35

        Did you stay in one of the vaults, Rob?

        • Rob says:

          27 May27 May 15:12

          No. I had one booked for November but had to cancel it due to lockdown. Just booked a standard room, upgraded to superior as Spire. I had other stuff to do in Bath and it was only 1 night so not a major loss.

        • FlyingChris says:

          27 May27 May 16:56

          The Vault (non suites) aren’t actually that good. I stayed in one last year when they had just been built (after the HfP article!) and while they are brand new and the bathrooms excellent, the layout is all a bit confused because of the arches, so the minibar for example is in a tiny lounge section completely separate to the main bedroom. Also not much natural light. I don’t think you’re missing out to be honest. In retrospect I probably would have been happier in one of the main rooms.

  • kitten says:

    27 May27 May 20:43

    Yup they’ve sold your suite. Or they intend to.

    This hotel seems to be trying this on, over and over with suites.

    I’d tell them what Rob said, not identifying Rob, and resist or ask for an upgrade or some serious comping of meals

    • kitten says:

      27 May27 May 20:47

      I mean seriously . which UK hotel would ever schedule works in June?

      Could they have closed these suites till they get some money flowing in? Have they got sewage running down the walls from upper floors?

• Harry says:

  27 May27 May 13:13

  Hi there.
  I flew BA e economy yesterday and they did not provide the special meals requested for most of the party. The other and regular meals offered were not an option due to dietary requirements.
  What are my options for compensation?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    27 May27 May 13:18

    Think your official options are rather limited, best course of action might be to ring up and complain until they take it seriously

    • Harry says:

      27 May27 May 13:29

      Thank you triple S.
      This is after they cancelled my flight and earliest they had available was 3 days later.
      I will therefore be making 3 claims.
      1. Eu261
      2. Meals and expenses.
      3. Lack of meal on flight.
      Do you suggest 1 and 2 I file online claim and 3 I call about?

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        27 May27 May 13:57

        1 and 2 definitely do online and get a reference number for them. 3, I don’t think you have a legal case as I think the food is technically complementary. Maybe mention it online at the end. At best maybe a duty of care argument? However, best results will probably be when they give you a “good will gesture”

        • kitten says:

          27 May27 May 20:49

          3 I thought they suspended special meals for Covid?

      • Tracey says:

        27 May27 May 16:31

        Friends in this situation were offered 5,000 Avios each. The crew were also very accommodating, finding yoghurts and other acceptable snacks for them. Having sampled these meals, I would think it safer to eat at the airport and survive on snacks for ~5 hours.

  • Anna says:

    27 May27 May 13:28

    Use the online complaint from for each person and the likelihood is you’ll get 5k or so avios each. I did this once when they ran out of food before they got to us!

    • Harry says:

      27 May27 May 13:31

      Thank you Anna,
      Should I make the eu261 also individually?

      • Navara says:

        27 May27 May 15:18

        Does Eu261give compensation when the flight is cancelled to avoid being hit by a missile?

        • Anna says:

          27 May27 May 15:28

          Reason for cancellation is crucial.

• SteveJ says:

  27 May27 May 13:24

  Rudimentary question, when Hilton Gold, better not to pick room / check-in on the app in hopes of upgrade at the check-in desk?

  Wondering if checking in locks you into that room and closes the door on chances of upgrade?

  • the_real_a says:

    27 May27 May 13:32

    Look 12-24 hours ahead of your arrival – you will often see your upgraded room type applied to your booking.

  • Dave says:

    27 May27 May 16:10

    I’ve often been upgraded at the desk after I had already chosen my room.

    If you don’t choose your room you may end up with a worse room then you would’ve picked yourself.

  • Steve says:

    27 May27 May 21:06

    Thanks both, think I’ll book and then chat to them at check in

• Josh says:

  27 May27 May 13:25

  Anyone get an email regarding the BA biz Amex and 50k bonus avios?

  Will there be an article on this?

  Also just arrived in the US and a warning to those who are coming over as a spouse to a US citizen. This was the second time doing this and our experience was far poorer this time.

  We had to wait roughly 90 mins to be approved and things were a bit disorganised regarding BA trying to call the US to get approval. Two other couples also had to wait 2 hours.

  My advice is to get there earlier than expected.

  Otherwise, loved the bacon and hash brown breakfast rolls in the south club world lounge @ t5 and the QR code service was extremely efficient.

  • Rob says:

    27 May27 May 14:22

    We did an article on it ….

• Jon says:

  27 May27 May 13:27

  Anyone know if future travel vouchers for Avios bookings can be split into cash and an Avios re-credit? That is I get to use the cash portion of the previous Avios booking for a cash flight and the Avios are recredited to my account? I feel I’m going to struggle to use all my vouchers by 2023!

  • Jonathan says:

    27 May27 May 17:35

    Not possible unfortunately. Can try your luck using vouchers for flights which are likely to be cancelled therefore getting you full refund.

    • Jon says:

      27 May27 May 18:41

      Ah, yes. Cunning plan! Right off to cross-check FCO with BA availability

• Gary says:

  27 May27 May 13:41

  Interesting tactic by VS rebooking onto flights without agreement fr lead passenger (in our case onto very unsuitable flight times on same date due to VS currently flying once instead of twice a day), as opposed to leaving it as a open cancelled booking. Booked 4 upper seats LHR-TLV in Nov 20 to fly Jun 21 cancelled by VS in Apr 21. As it is a live booking, implications are 1) decision/any action had be taken before departure otherwise would be a no show (VS said cannot mark booking to say not turning up, was advised to take FTV when right to re-routing without reward availability would be lost). 2) Limits re-route date range to what systems allows (ie only up to Apr 22 atm, we wanted to travel Jun 22 which would only open up around Jul)- as VS knows any MCOL action is unlikely to be concluded before departure and booking already marked as no show!

  • Jonathan says:

    27 May27 May 17:45

    I think you’re over analysing this. Most people would want to be automatically shifted to another flight on same dates as that is preferable for vast majority rather than running risk of no availability when they call up to deal with it.

    Shifting you doesn’t get them out of EU261 obligations. Their defence would more likely be to query why you can’t accept replacement flight on same dates to a longhaul destination than to claim you no-showed. I’d be putting a good reason (& supporting evidence) for your specific departure time requirements in the MCOL claim.

    • ChrisC says:

      27 May27 May 18:30

      Rebooking like this is industry practice. BA would do the same thing as well.

      It simply means they rebooked you onto the closest available flight. It does not mean you have to accept it but what if they hadn’t done that and you then wanted to be booked on that flight but there were then no seats available – you’d be pretty unhappy and asking ‘but why didn’t they just put me on the other flight that day???’

      • Jon says:

        27 May27 May 18:45

        I’m well into double figures on the number of changes and cancellations I’ve had this past year. Last one was Qatar booked through BA for next February. I got lucky though as BA moved me to a non-codeshare Qatar flight with Qsuites.

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