The HfP chat thread – Monday 31st May

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• Voltron says:

  31 May31 May 04:08

  Anybody regret converting their avios to nectar after the recent news of more seats? I’m personally still happy moving all of my stash over, as was always a hotel points collector than airline due to having family, and alot easier redeeming for a hilton / marriott as availability was always there.

  • Andrew says:

    31 May31 May 05:36

    What’s there to regret. You can just move them back to Avios.

    • pauldb says:

      31 May31 May 06:52

      Spending them on ready meals and laundry detergent?

    • John says:

      31 May31 May 06:57

      Not if you spent them…. Why would you move them to nectar unless you wanted to spend them. Avios accounts are a more secure place to hold the points

  • Peter K says:

    31 May31 May 09:49

    No regrets at all. The money saved by not paying cash at a supermarket is being put to one side to pay the fees on a redemption. In a sense it makes the redemption even cheaper.

  • Mike says:

    31 May31 May 11:13

    Not with Mumm champagne currently at £18.75 with buy 6 get 25% offer !!!! Although it would take a while to transfer my 1,650,000 avios into bottles of Mumm !!

• Sandgrounder says:

  31 May31 May 05:10

  I was planning to move enough points over to Nectar to cover my Amex Plat fee, leaving the MR I got from retention/double referrals with Amex. However after doing 10k I have realised I just can’t stomach Sainsbury’s and the plan is off.

  • Lord Doncaster says:

    31 May31 May 10:22

    If you can’t stomach Sainsbury’s, wait until you try Asda…

• Manya says:

  31 May31 May 06:27

  Can I use Concorde room at LHR on outbound leg if only the return leg is in first?

  • roberto says:

    31 May31 May 06:45

    Nope….

  • ChrisC says:

    31 May31 May 07:17

    And you don’t get the F baggage allowance on that leg either.

  • Lord Doncaster says:

    31 May31 May 10:23

    You can use it on the return leg if you’re connecting at LHR though.

• Duster says:

  31 May31 May 06:32

  Best points redemption hotel in the UK for a large family? With easy travel still feeling like a long way off I’m looking at short notice night or two away in the UK for my large family this week (4 children, between 5 and 12 years old). I have a “shed load” of miles in Amex and also across Hilton and Marriott. Any advice on good hotel for a family would be much appreciated. We are in Hertfordshire but very willing to travel. Given the numbers I assume we are looking at least a couple of rooms, maybe a suite plus a standard.

  • Harry T says:

    31 May31 May 08:58

    I know Rob has said in the past that he has benefited from the Marriott system where you can pay points and cash (or sometimes extra points) to upgrade from the basic points room to a bigger room that can accommodate a family. These rates are often only available on desktop. However, four kids probably means you’re looking at two rooms either way!

    For value for points, I would recommend Trump Turnberry and the University Arms in Cambridge. I’ve stayed at both properties and enjoyed them – we stay as a couple but I think there would be a lot of activities for kids to enjoy at Turnberry. The Langley used to be good value but it’s gone up a lot of categories over the last year and a bit, and it’s always booked at weekends for points.

    I’m less of an expert on IHG but I know they’ve added some Mr and Mrs Smith properties outside of the cities. Middleton Lodge in Yorkshire looks nice but I can’t speak from experience.

  • Peter K says:

    31 May31 May 09:58

    I suppose it depends on what you are looking for and how posh you want?

    If less posh is okay then..

    A beach holiday? Then Hampton by Hilton Torquay.

    An adventure holiday? Hilton Garden Inn, Snowdonia.

    A city break? You are spoiled for choice.

    Don’t rely on Mr & Mrs Smith by the way. I’ve found redemptions to be non existent on the 5 or 6 I’ve looked at.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    31 May31 May 16:29

    Amex points + large family? Radisson family room redemptions are your friend. For example stayed in a Radisson family room in Edinburgh city centre last week with 2+3 kids and was easily space for a fourth child in the room we got.

• Berneslai says:

  31 May31 May 07:01

  What’s the best Hilton hotel for Heathrow T5 (quality rather than convenience, I’m not using public transport)? I’ve got an existing booking for the HGI but noticed that all the hotels are reasonably priced for my dates.

  • SteveJ says:

    31 May31 May 08:09

    Hilton Heathrow (close to T4) or Hilton T5 would be my choices, in that order.

    • Tariq says:

      31 May31 May 09:02

      Yes, either of these. I’ve heard Hilton T4 has very recently been refurbed, was OK before so now it might just pip the T5 (not on the airport site) Hilton which was the newer build.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      31 May31 May 09:05

      T5 has a decent Indian.

      Actually so does the Sheraton.

• ChrisC says:

  31 May31 May 07:15

  Now that the BA booking window has ticked over into May 2022 a heads up that the BWC guarantee doesn’t apply to trips that include elements for after the 30th April.

  Was pricing up some BA holidays and noticed that the red BWC blurb disappears for bookings that include dates after 1st May.

  Fly back in the 30th April and you’re covered but fly back on the 1st of May (even if you departed in April) then you’re not covered by BWC.

• Claire says:

  31 May31 May 07:28

  Hoping for some clarification. I currently have 2 bookings for USA flights this summer. Both using 2 for 1 ba voucher. One booked during the 50% off sale. My daughter is the companion on each of the flights (One voucher was mine, other husbands). We will have to cancel both (have been waiting to see if ba cancel first, they are august). We are planning on trying to try to fly for April 2022 to New York so would like to use then. If we take both as future travel credit how would that work for our daughter as she is on both bookings or are we best to cancel one of these, eg the one using the 50% off. I suppose what I am asking is is there any advantage to having a voucher in my name and daughters name if we can’t use my daughters component, because we can cover that from the other voucher. Hope that’s clear. Thanks

  • Michael C says:

    31 May31 May 08:21

    Claire, I understand that IF it’s an e-voucher (as opposed to FTV), you can use the amount for anyone – but don’t know how they decide between issuing you one form of voucher or the other?! (booking date? inclusion of Avios?). Some kind soul around here will be able to advise you better!

    • Jonathan says:

      31 May31 May 08:33

      E-vouchers are only for basic cash bookings. Anything with Avios involved is an FTV so would lock in passenger names for the 241.

      I think what Claire is saying is she had 2 different bookings with 241’s that won’t happen. 1 is Dad/Daughter & the other Mum/Daughter. Claire now wants to go on 1 holiday with Claire/Dad/Daughter in which case you definitely want to cancel 1 booking paying the £35pp fee and take an FTV for the other.

      Book the new trip using FTV then separate ticket for either Claire or Dad.

      It doesn’t really matter which of the original bookings you cancel & which you FTV to use for NYC trip. I’d probably FTV whichever has the 241 which expires first.

      • Jonathan says:

        31 May31 May 08:47

        Just to follow up;

        You could play chicken with BA & see if they end up cancelling one of the flights giving you option of free refund. I’d say there’s potential for further cancellations if USA doesn’t open up. If you really want NYC in April ‘22 & availability is there now I’d probably take it now though.

        Definitely book NYC for April not May ‘22 as May is beyond the scope of current BWC policy which is at least 50:50 not to be extended. It’s slightly less of an issue for Avios bookings but still a loss of “free” cancellation.

        If you take an FTV for a 241 booking I don’t think you can then use the FTV voucher for 1 person & get the leftover Avios/Fees/241 as a new FTV. Spare Avios & fees should come back but I may be wrong. The definitive answer on that would come from Karfa or CWS on the BA Flyertalk forum. I’d trust them over a BA CS rep but equally if they say something is possible by the letter of the law it doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to achieve without a fight.

      • Claire says:

        31 May31 May 09:08

        Yes exactly that. 1st booking with 50% off was new york. 2nd tampa out Orlando back. If I used the 2nd booking to book new york would the surplus avios still be tied to a voucher as new york is lower zone than tampa/mco? New York for our dates has loads of availability so will leave for bit longer as you say might get one bit cancelled however both 2 for 1 expire before the dates we want next Easter so will need one as ftv.

• Michael C says:

  31 May31 May 07:43

  If I get a 3 x basic economy returns LHR-Nice, am I right in understanding that adding one bag for one passenger on the return leg costs 40 euros?

  • Jonathan says:

    31 May31 May 08:22

    That sounds a bit much for the difference between basic & plus fares for a flight of that length. I’d expect it to be nearer 20 Euros.

    Are you looking at adding a bag to a basic fare? Generally that’s more expensive than just buying a plus fare. You can mix basic fare on one leg & plus on other but you can’t have different fare types for different passengers on same booking so would need to book as 2x basic return & 1x basic out/plus return.

    • Michael C says:

      31 May31 May 09:17

      Yep, that was the conclusion I reached, Jonathan! May end up sitting apart (only 1 silver) but hey-ho…can’t go to that part of the world and not bring back perfume/oil!
      This calculator shows one way for one bag would be GBP 30 ex UK or €40 ex Nice,
      https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/checked-baggage-allowances

      • Lord Doncaster says:

        31 May31 May 10:26

        I remember going to a street market in Nice and smelling the most beautiful Lavender oil for €3 🤤

        • Michael C says:

          31 May31 May 11:37

          High on the list, Lord D!

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