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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 1st June

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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.

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Comments (298)

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

  • Scott says:

    Any idea if anything has happened to the Sainsbury fruit and veg promo?
    Has been up on the app for the last few days, with a June 1st start date, but has now vanished (unless it reappears around 10am?).

    (Buy certain quantities of fresh / frozen fruit, veg etc. and get bonus points for hitting targets)

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      Hadn’t seen it – targeted maybe?

    • Andrew says:

      Yes was wondering the same – trailing it for starting today and now it’s gone. Maybe that’s the 10am announcement 😉

    • Youllnever says:

      It’s still in my app – I’ve just joined the challenge and am seeing my targets.

    • Andrew says:

      It’s just reappeared for me – along with this week’s offers. Even better, this week’s regular offers include:-

      200pts on cherries
      100pts on R&R nectarines
      100pts on Satsumas
      20pts on Bananas

      So that’s 17 portions of fruit, and first target and badge triggered.

  • Mark says:

    Fun fact, I can often judge a hotels quality by the application of the silicone sealant around the in-room sink and shower.
    I don’t know why anyone bothers with Tripadvisor, I’m thinking of starting off Siliconeadvisor.

    • Ja says:

      LOL

    • Blair says:

      So true. For me it’s whether lampshades are level. Wonky lampshades is usually an indicator of sloppy standards to come.

    • BJ says:

      I judge them by the quality of their scrambled eggs … must use real eggs and must not be overdone. .

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        Quality of eggs, sausages and hash browns for me. A solid indicator that rarely goes wrong.

        Bank holiday weekend, I stayed in a HI: Good eggs, sausages were very cheap and a bit over done, hash browns were nice. To me that says a polished turd. It was indeed, one of the bathroom lights was falling off the ceiling but the rest of the room was nice

        • Andrew says:

          I’d rather have a “well done” sausage than one that’s pale. You shouldn’t see the grease move under the skin.

          It’s the bacon I look out for. The fat should be browned and crispy, but the meat still soft and tasty. Black pudding should be steaming hot all the way through, but not cooked so harshly that you could play tiddlywinks with it.

          The most obvious sign of a clean room is when I pull the bedside chest forward to unplug the clock and room phone (bright LEDs!) – the filth that you sometimes find is outrageous.

          • Super Secret Stuff says:

            I agree that the sausages shouldn’t be pale but these ones where too far, on one day a couple more minutes and they’d have been solid

            I never move the furniture in a hotel room, why bother. Nothing good will come of it

        • AJA says:

          Cheap sausages can definitely resemble a polished turd…

      • Harry T says:

        Yeah, eggs are the best proxy measure for quality. I also judge hotels on their bathrooms – can’t abide a shower over a tub.

    • Patrick says:

      Siliconeadvisor? Sounds like a good name for a Californian or Floridian plastic surgery 🙂

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      My vote goes for Sausage Hash And Egg Advisor. Sure it will get a lot of visits very quickly…

    • swifty says:

      plus 1!

    • MKB says:

      At five-star hotels, a good indicator is whether the ties on bathrobes (if not actually attached) have been pre-threaded.

  • Louise says:

    T3 LHR opens as a dedicated Red list Arrivals terminal today.

    About time, this one was very obvious. Not sure who to blame for the delay, though.

    • Anna says:

      Quite – the government needs a panel of “common sense” advisors to work alongside the SAGE boffins!

    • David S says:

      Does anyone know just out of interest as to how many people are in hotel quarantine each week ?

    • sigma421 says:

      LHR as far as I’m aware. Government was pushing this for a while – LHR wasn’t happy at the cost

      • Rob says:

        Heathrow couldn’t give a monkeys if you’re in immigration mixing people but does give a monkeys about the cost of running another terminal, so I don’t blame them.

    • BJ says:

      Matt!

    • Aaron says:

      Then they plan to move it to T4. I guess LHR isn’t planning on being back to 2019 levels for a couple of years!

    • Braiden says:

      Except that flights from a lot of red list countries are banned, so will have no passengers. Therefore people are transiting in Amber countries and will still be mixing with everyone else…..

      • Sam G says:

        Yes can’t figure this one out. Better to allow Turkish Airlines / Qatar / Emirates / Ethiad etc to bring in passengers now and process them at T3 and reduce the number of passengers arriving on otherwise Amber flights. Most of them are sending in empty aircraft anyway currently to operate in service outbound

      • meta says:

        Not from all red list countries which I didn’t realise until this morning!

  • John says:

    2nd vax today, how long before it shows on the NHS App that I can then use as proof of vax to travel? Can I generate a PDF?

    • MJ says:

      In my experience, hours to 1-2 days.

      • Louise says:

        While you’re in the app, you can (if you are so inclined) choose to not share your NHS record for research purposes – I’m reluctant to let them have it I reckon somebody will exploit it for commercial purposes or worse. It’s in Your Health/ Choose if data etc. Or there’s another way, go to https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/

        Shouldn’t affect sharing your Covid-19 passport/ QR code.

        Deadline is June 23, then a week later your health records will be added to an NHS Digital database, which could then be shared, in anonymised form, with universities, pharmaceutical companies and technology companies.

        • Louie says:

          And the damage to you would be?

        • Jonathan says:

          Is using your data to develop new medicines/therapies (which may then be sold commercially) a big issue if it’s anonymised?

          As the NHS is the largest centralised healthcare system in the western world we have access to better quality data then any other nation on earth. A bit like organ donation, if you would be happy to benefit you should be happy to contribute.

          • James says:

            +1

          • kitten says:

            no such thing as anonymous sadly

          • Louise says:

            Yes – there is actually a disclaimer in their info that says your anonymised NHS data won’t stay anonymous under certain conditions.

            Even with the best will in the world, you are hoping that nobody hacks the data and does something with it that you don’t want.

            I just don’t trust that it is watertight.

            Fact (fwiw): I signed up for organ donation a long time ago, so it’s not as if I don’t want to be helpful. (Just hope I’m not that dead Indian woman in the news the other day who came back to life as they were lighting the funeral pyre 🙂 ).

        • kitten says:

          You have to contact your surgery as well apparently

          • meta says:

            And then what happens is that somewhere in the system they link your details with someone elses and it shows some health issues, operations that you never had and so on (happened to me!). You then have to spend two months to rectify it…

    • JDB says:

      Had my 2nd yesterday morning and it shows in the app and yes, there is an option to download as a PDF that shows the two vaccination dates etc. and a QR code.

      • John says:

        Will it have all of my details on the PDF? I’m hoping to use this as a vax certificate to enter Lithuania

        • Pete M says:

          It shows your name and DOB + details of the vaccinations (date, product, manufacturer, batch). Should be enough for everywhere, you’d hope!

        • John says:

          What purpose does the QR serve? I don’t believe the Lithuanian border guard will be equipped to scan it, I thought it might be a simple QR to a site to verify, like on a number of Covid tests.

  • Aaron says:

    I need a business bank account for a company to hold a couple of BTL properties. Won’t be huge money going though it but is there anything out there worthwhile from an Avios standpoint?

  • Anthony says:

    If I cancel an Economy plus ticket booked with cash will I receive a eVoucher or FTV?

    • ChrisC says:

      E voucher

      Basically a cash only fare = e voucher

      Anything with cash + avios or companion voucher or a BA Holiday booking = FTV

      • Anthony says:

        Thanks
        And can the eVoucher be used solely by the passenger that made the booking or does each passenger on the booking have to redeem their own eVocuher ?

        • Lord Doncaster says:

          eVouchers can be used by anyone AFAIK… Don’t know if you can use not than one at a time though?

  • J says:

    Does anyone know if any airlines are looking to allow 2+ year olds to only pay for their infant fares? Our little one is turning 2 soon, and we are looking to go abroad now that pandemic is gradually coming down, but it may well be after the baby’s birthday. We obviously have missed the chunk of the ‘golden period’ in which we would only have had to pay a small portion of adult fare for the baby….

    • BuilBackBetter says:

      The rule’s written into the systems, so doubt it.

    • ChrisC says:

      They take up a seat so of course airlines are going to charge you a good whack of the adult price.

      25% off the base fare is a good discount.

      And if you fly economy children aren’t charged APD either.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    Time to make a cup of tea…

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