The HfP chat thread – Saturday 29th May

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• Rob says:

  29 May29 May 11:51

  Very stab in the dark question but what is the general HFP hive mind saying about travel to Asia for early next year. Have Japan booked for February but I have seen people discussing how most Asian cities likely won’t be accepting tourists by then.

  • Roger W says:

    29 May29 May 12:24

    No idea. Am hopeful. Have a cruise Singapore to Hong Kong via Phillipines and Vietnam.

    • Polly says:

      29 May29 May 17:42

      We have Singapore as a jump off for Bali in November, the yesterday booked HKG jump off for HKT fro Feb 22… a cruise booked from BCN to SIN for Nov 22. It’s a 22 day cruise, and F flights back from HKG. Can only hope.

    • Russ says:

      29 May29 May 17:43

      Very nice.

  • meta says:

    29 May29 May 12:26

    By March 2022, Japan should open up. They have just approved Moderna and AZ and the vaccination will pick up.

  • Sam G says:

    29 May29 May 12:48

    Highly unlikely I’d say – vaccination is picking up but sluggish in most countries and some countries like Malaysia are just starting to see case numbers rise to worrying levels for the first time and re-entering strict lockdowns.

    Countries like Singapore & Australia restrict local freedom quickly when case numbers reach very very low levels. These policies, along with border closures, are proving popular with residents and it’ll be a long slow path to convincing that it’s OK to have COVID circulating in the population and that it’s OK for foreigners to enter from “disease ridden” countries like the UK.

    When travel returns I think it’ll return first for residents to travel outbound for business/essential purposes, then maybe some limited “bubble” agreements with neighbours. Probably still involving some form of home quarantine / isolation on return. I believe most of APAC / Aus / NZ will be off limit for Europe / US tourists for most of next year, especially if we have issues this winter ourselves.

    Some exceptions to this – Thailand being one of them, they insisted again recently that Phuket will open to vaccinated travelers from 1 July. Once you’ve spent some time there you’d be free to travel on elsewhere (although got to check if where you are going wants you to come e.g. Bangkok no bars open currently, not much fun!)

    I hope I’m wrong but I believe this to be a realistic view. Great thing about Avios / miles is you can make some tentative plans at pretty low risk. But personally my thinking for W21 into S22 would be more towards Europe / US / Caribbean

    • meta says:

      29 May29 May 12:53

      I can tell you that my Japanese friends are not happy with border closures at all and that’s the general mood I’m reading in papers. They are unhappy about Olympics going ahead as they want efforts to concentrate on vaccination. They’ll open by next Spring as long as vaccination rate is high.

      • Sam G says:

        29 May29 May 13:54

        Absolutely are some (and a growing number IMO) that disagree but polls in countries like Aus show high support for such measures (most polls show 75-80% in support)

        Japan is one of the more likely to open I feel though and of course all these countries know they can’t stay shut forever! Fingers crossed as I’m desperate to get back to Asia but will make plans last minute once things are open (and proving stable, no snap lockdowns and policy changes)

• MCO says:

  29 May29 May 12:06

  One of my cards has the Tordoff’s 20% offer 3 times. It couldn’t stack could it?

  • Steve says:

    29 May29 May 12:45

    Two of them will (assuming you have the same offers as me). I have two for Tordoffs, and one for Tordoff Wines (different site). I had it the other way round a few months ago and ordered from Tordoff wines – that did trigger the two 20% off offers I’d saved. This time, my two are for the gifts and hampers site.

    I ordered a case of 12 reds, which were quite nice, but expensive. The 40% off brought the price down to about what I’d be willing to pay again.

    • Mco says:

      29 May29 May 19:12

      Thanks

• The cyclist says:

  29 May29 May 13:14

  Good afternoon fellow plane spotters, Given the lack of places to fly to, why not satisfy your inner AV geekery this half term and take the kids to visit one of the excellent museums around the country that cater for such things, I have Brooklands, the De Havilland Musuem close to London Colney, BA Heritage centre, RAF in Hendon, Duxford in Cambridgeshire and The Midland air museum all ticked off. Release your inner nerd, you know you want to….

  • Genghis says:

    29 May29 May 13:48

    Or even to Myrtle Avenue for free.

• PK says:

  29 May29 May 14:14

  ***BAPP Question***

  Got my first BAPP recently and hit the spend target for the sign up bonus couple of weeks ago. Just logged in to my BAPP account today to find the points balance reduced significantly.

  My first thought was that the statement was generated, and the points transferred over to my BAEC account. But the points are not in the BAEC account, and the statement wasn’t generated. Not sure where the points have gone! Under the status column, those points have “Redeemed” marked against them. Not sure what it means since the points are not in my BAEC account.

  Can anyone help please. Thanks.

  • Genghis says:

    29 May29 May 14:29

    They’ll prob turn up tomorrow in BAEC. Avios go over around 4-5 days before statement generation.

    • Lister says:

      29 May29 May 14:36

      For example my statement date is the 28th. Points sweep across on the 23rd and arrive in my BAEC on the 24th.

• Yorkshire rich says:

  29 May29 May 15:04

  After seeing the review on the Marriott in Leeds, and whilst now on the train back to Leeds I thought I would comment on my stay at the Hilton Deansgate last night.
  Booked the lowest room, (gold member) and after some thought I then tried to upgrade on the app for 22 pound to a deluxe room in the hope they would then upgrade me to the executive room and I could have access to the lounge. However I was informed that due to covid, no cocktails and only wine and beers etc. Anyway as it turned out, I was given the deluxe room but they waived the fee.
  Manchester itself was quiet-ish and there were ample tables outside slug and lettuce for example (no one outside at all) and when we asked if we could sit there for 20 minutes before we go for dinner, the answer from the doorman was “no they are reserved at some point in the night and I don’t know when they will turn up” I politely asked if he wanted to check but his reply was “would you seriously want me to get a manager?” All seems a rather silly strategy to me as some bars use alot more common sense.
  Anyway back to the hotel, we didn’t venture to the pool as times were extremely restricted. The breakfast we reserved a time but as our hangover wasn’t as bad as we thought we turned up earlier and they seemed to be pleased with that, and had no issues. It was a Buffett breakfast and served by staff on our requests. Drinks were re filled by staff and it was all extremely organised and well staffed.

  Finally, Manchester itself was sunny, Plenty of police out, and was filling up steadily with royal blue.

  • Rich says:

    29 May29 May 17:56

    Seems an odd way to put off customers. Round here (Newcastle), pub tables have reserved from signs on them. Punters generally happy to be told ‘Ok, but you need to be gone by 8’, and leave without fuss. Vast majority of time the reservation doesn’t turn up anyway.

    • kitten says:

      30 May30 May 02:00

      Just like it always was in the Escape Lounge in STN really.

• Reney says:

  29 May29 May 15:54

  Hi all,

  I wanted to ask about the experience of getting an Amex on low income. In my three player strategy, one has recently retired and has very little actual income as not old enough for pension payment yet (4 figures a year). When the Amex bonus was on, we tried to get a new card but was rejected (first time ever). I think it is due to low income as they currently hold BAPP. Would adding income from someone else in the household help?

  Between us we have three BAPP and 2 Virgin vouchers, so would like to cancel the BAPP. I’m worried that they won’t qualify again in the future. I am considering taking the Barclays Premier account instead since the voucher can be used by anyone, but it only upgrades one way for a couple so it is not as generous as BAPP 2-4-1.

  Grateful for your thoughts.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    29 May29 May 16:03

    Yes Amex look at the household income so it is less of an issue if the card holder as a low personal income.

  • Harry T says:

    29 May29 May 16:06

    My girlfriend earns considerably less than me (student) but we always put my income into the household income. She’s never been rejected for an amex, so it’s possible that household income is a positive factor.

• YC says:

  29 May29 May 16:23

  Quite disappointed with the university arms tbh. Service is pretty bad and they are massively understaffed. Rooms are pretty average and could hear footsteps outside and above. U would be highly disappointed if paying £300+ a night

• Ant says:

  29 May29 May 16:53

  Am I right in thinking if I use my Virgin credit card in the EU there are no fx fees? Thanks

  • Berneslai says:

    29 May29 May 21:09

    Correct

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