The HfP chat thread – Thursday 27th 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.

TJ says:

27 May27 May 15:14

Quite a lot of availability has opened up for BA flights to the Caribbean in CW around Christmas (esp Barbados). I’ve just booked mine.
- FlyingChris says:
  
  27 May27 May 16:51
  
  Same with Japan. Had a Seat Spy notification earlier and just nabbed Easter holiday flights to Tokyo that were sold out days ago.
- Ikaz says:
  
  27 May27 May 19:33
  
  Thanks for the comment! I also just rebooked my Japan flights for next easter, unfortunately Club was sold out on the way out (possibly booked by FlyingChris!) so I booked WT+, but I managed to get seats on the exact flights that I needed there and back.
  - FlyingChris says:
    
    27 May27 May 22:48
    
    Ha quite possibly, glad my comment helped! Made a change from the disappointment a couple of months back of staying up late and being pipped to it a couple of times by 1.01am!
Harrier25 says:

27 May27 May 15:43

Does Hilton Honors Barclaycard spend count towards next year’s tier status by any chance?
- Anna says:
  
  27 May27 May 16:38
  
  You remain HH gold as long as you spend £10k per year on the card.
  - Harrier25 says:
    
    27 May27 May 17:08
    
    Thanks Anna, I know that but as they’ve reduced the tier points for Diamond from £120,000 to 60,000 this year, which I’ve already accumulated from credit card spend, I was hoping that it would be treated the same as Creation IHG spend and take me to the top tier, but probably not!
    - Harrier25 says:
      
      27 May27 May 17:11
      
      Of course that should read 120,000 points, not £120,000 🙄
      - Peter K says:
        
        27 May27 May 18:02
        
        It’s base points that count for status. UK Barclaycard Hilton card only earns bonus points ago does not count towards status.
      - Harrier25 says:
        
        27 May27 May 19:36
        
        Thanks Peter.
Andrew says:

27 May27 May 15:48

It’s a bit lazy of BA to email me as a Gold member the offer to upgrade my airport experience if I spend the required amount on a BA holiday – surely they could filter the email list to not send it to people who already have access to the First Wing and not overly bring attention to those who have earned status to have access to it that it will be overrun by people who don’t normally have access.
- James says:
  
  27 May27 May 16:01
  
  While a don’t disagree in terms of what they should be able to better do in targeting those its relevant for, isn’t the sentiment a bit precious?
- will says:
  
  27 May27 May 17:28
  
  I suppose you could argue that a gold booking for a group of 3 or more in CW will still benefit from it so it may be relevant to them.
- ChrisC says:
  
  27 May27 May 18:53
  
  As some of us were told (rudly) the other day on the double TP offer not being available to solo travellers
  
  Get over it
  Not all offers are for everyone
  Just skip over the email
- BearingUp says:
  
  27 May27 May 20:10
  
  Hmm, I apologise in advance if incorrect and may be wrong but I’m assuming you’re Gold on the back of corporate travel paid for elsewhere?
  If others have actually earned access to First Wing who are you to be critical of their right to use it?
  - BuilBackBetter says:
    
    27 May27 May 20:27
    
    +1. Also corporate travel isn’t getting back to pre-covid levels. BA needs to encourage leisure travellers to aim for elite status.
- Lady London says:
  
  27 May27 May 20:14
  
  Fair enough
  - Lady London says:
    
    27 May27 May 20:16
    
    *That’s fair enough to Andrew’s sentiment
meta says:

27 May27 May 16:11

Marriott changing Points Advance bookings. You have 60 days from today to get points for all existing bookings otherwise they will be cancelled. Moving forward it will be 60 days from reservation day or 14 days before whichever comes first.
- Benilyn says:
  
  27 May27 May 16:15
  
  Great!
- YC says:
  
  27 May27 May 16:22
  
  Yeah just saw this… Devaluation. Will likely cancel my Le Meridian maldives points advance. Its still a useful benefit and they are the only chain with points advance bookings.
  - BuilBackBetter says:
    
    27 May27 May 17:00
    
    Waste of points there. Cash rates are good. Save ur points and spend elsewhere
    - meta says:
      
      27 May27 May 17:16
      
      It might be for you, but paying £700 per night vs 40k points still represents a saving of more than 70%. Some of us also earn at least part of our points for free as the employer pays (or used to pay before pandemic).
  - Rob says:
    
    27 May27 May 17:24
    
    Not really a devaluation …. just a way of managing availability.
    - YC says:
      
      27 May27 May 17:55
      
      Quasi deval. Being able to lock in a room without having the points is a big benefit. For example IHG/HH, if there is a good points deal, you are forced to buy points today vs locking in and earning up the points. A program devaluation is similar to a points devaluation. End of the day, there is a £ cost to your customers
    - Genghis says:
      
      27 May27 May 21:28
      
      Exactly. Stops people bookings loads of nights that they don’t intend to actually use, blocking nights for others. Sensible in my book.
- Anna says:
  
  27 May27 May 16:39
  
  It always was a bit too good to be true!
  - meta says:
    
    27 May27 May 16:47
    
    There is nothing to stop anyone to keep rebooking every 60 days unless of course the rooms stop coming back to inventory. I’m postponing my decisions till mid-July.
- Lady London says:
  
  27 May27 May 20:22
  
  Nasty. Inept.
  Marriott should have announced this for new bookings only effective immediately.
  
  But not put 60 days suddenly onto existing far out bookings, when people had a plan to earn the points but not in 60 days.
  
  If this is their way of forcing stays soon by putting members under this sort of pressure by moving the goalposts then it’s tacky and even if I could do it, it would annoy me.
MW says:

27 May27 May 16:28

Club Suite question – I have changed dates of a CS booking and have a choice of either row 7 (last row of the smaller CS cabin) or row 10 (second row of the larger CS cabin). Which is better?

Not a huge fan of being close to the galley so wondering what the noise is like and whether I should go for row 10 instead?

(It’s a B777, not an A350 if that helps)
Amy says:

27 May27 May 16:33

Trying to book LNER from King’s Cross to Leeds, but IIRC I read about massive LNER cancellations here. And I can see the timetable has reduced services as many of the trains are not running. Is it advisable to book a train ticket on LNER at the moment?
- Craig says:
  
  27 May27 May 17:14
  
  It’s one of the problems with the franchise system, the train operator doesn’t always get lots of notice from Network Rail about planned works. They often hold back on releasing tickets until they are certain what is happening. All I would say is if the tickets available then you are safe booking direct.
  - ChrisC says:
    
    27 May27 May 17:43
    
    The TOCs get a minimum of 12 weeks notice of detailed dates and locations of planned engineering works though in practice they get far more than that.
    
    Plus since most engineering works happen at weekends it shouldn’t affect when they put week day tickets on sale. I think Virgin West coast used to sell week day tickets on their own website for more than 12 weeks in advance because of that but national rail enquires stuck to the 13 week rule.
    
    But Amy hasn’t said when she is travelling.
    
    If it’s next weekend for example (including Friday afternoon) KIng’s Cross is basically closed as part of the huge scheme of track works beign done there. And LNER have known about those dates for at least a year.
    
    https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2021/05/26/no-trains-at-kings-cross-over-the-first-weekend-of-june/
- Rich says:
  
  27 May27 May 17:15
  
  The cancellations due to defects in the new trains are now largely over. Any remaining gaps in the service are likely to be Covid reductions or engineering works at Kings X.
  
  If the train is there to book, I’d be confident it will run
- Super Secret Stuff says:
  
  27 May27 May 18:06
  
  As stated before, trains where pulled due to a defect. If they’re on there now it will be fine.
  
  You need a booked seat on LNER to travel, so I would go ahead and book it
Ian M says:

27 May27 May 16:38

Long shot but does anyone happen to have an email address for reception at the Waldorf Astoria Panama City?
Alex says:

27 May27 May 16:43

For anyone expecting a lounge pass refund from DragonPass, maybe check your account and see if you’ve received it. I contacted DragonPass asking which account they refunded to, and they replied that the refund had been returned to them. Now I need to send them my bank account details, so they can process a refund that way.