The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 1st June

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• bafan says:

  1 Jun1 June 11:20

  Can I get an FTV on a return flight? Want to go away this weekend but may need to come back early but BA don’t have the weekday availability, so I’d have to nix the BA flight and come back with EZY.

  • Sam G says:

    1 Jun1 June 11:28

    Yes you can

    • bafan says:

      1 Jun1 June 12:28

      Cheers. One more question (for anyone really), they had to send my booking change to the ticketing team and it’s in a queue. My baggage allowance has disappeared. I feel like that’s normal until it’s ticketed again but can anyone confirm? I’m a Silver on an Economy Checked Baggage ticket.

• Oli says:

  1 Jun1 June 11:28

  My flight to Quimper (France) on a Thursday was cancelled and BA automatically rebooked me on their following flight which is on Saturday, 2 days later. As I need to be in France on the Friday and BA’s only alternative would be to fly to Paris which is a 6h drive from Quimper (not acceptable in my view), I plan to fly to Rennes with Air France (2h drive from Quimper). I will then MCOL BA for the AF flight and the car rental.
  What should I do with the BA flights? I received an email from BA asking me to confirm the Saturday booking. I guess I should call them to ask them to rebook me on AF, which I know they will refuse. Should I then cancel the BA flight, or should I keep it to do the MCOL and it will be a no-show?

  • Sam G says:

    1 Jun1 June 11:32

    If you haven’t accepted the new booking yet then you aren’t confirmed you could safely leave it. But best to Twitter DM them and ask for the unconfirmed segments to be removed as it isn’t a suitable alternative for you. Don’t cancel or get a refund. Then MCOL

  • Patrick says:

    1 Jun1 June 12:57

    If you haven’t already done so, check Brest airport, there are flights to the UK if I remember correctly

    • Oli says:

      1 Jun1 June 13:20

      Thanks – yes there are flights to Brest from Southend from July. I’m having to go to France at the end of June

  • Lady London says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:23

    Yes give them the opportunity to reroute you.

    IIRC doesn’t Easyjet do Rennes or somewhere very near?

    • Oli says:

      1 Jun1 June 13:40

      Flybe used to do Rennes from Southend… Ryanair used to do Dinard from Stansted… but there are no flights at the moment.

  • Oli says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:44

    Thanks everyone. I’ve just called the Avios team (it was a RFS booking) and asked to be re-routed with AF. The lady said she can’t do it but will release the segment and put a dummy segment to keep the booking live (so it does not show as a no-show); then she said i’ll later be able to raise a claim.
    Are car rental and petrol claimable under MCOL on top of the AF flights given i’ll land about 200km from my original destination?

• r* says:

  1 Jun1 June 11:35

  Has anyone renewed a passport recently if so how long did it take to get the passport back?

  Govt site is saying allow 10 weeks.. I have a flight in 6 weeks, tho really could do with the passport back in 4, is that likely?

  • Paul says:

    1 Jun1 June 11:41

    8 days from sending off to having new one back, mid May

  • ChrisC says:

    1 Jun1 June 11:43

    I know this was last December but I got mine back in just under 2 weeks.

    One week if that was Royal Mail getting it from Brighton to Liverpool!

    If you do the form online and upload the photo so their systems can check it meets the requirements then that should speed up the process.

    Isn’t there an expedited option as well?

  • Gavin says:

    1 Jun1 June 12:48

    Only took about 1 week, using normal service. Did the whole application online including uploading new photo, and sent my old passport to them by special delivery.

    • Gavin says:

      1 Jun1 June 12:48

      This was mid-May btw.

  • Sean says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:31

    Did my application 16 days ago and have had the passport in hand for 4 days.

  • Louie says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:35

    Sister applied for hers Wednesday week ago and received it the following Wednesday.

• Brucey says:

  1 Jun1 June 11:48

  Hi All – a couple of questions re: U.S. Platinum Card. I’m lucky enough to have a postal address in the U.S. through family.

  1) Would I be able to use the Amex Global Transfer scheme to apply for a U.S. Platinum Card? As we’re all aware the U.S. card offers significantly more benefits and also has a 0% FX on foreign transaction – so it could essentially be used as a daily driver in the UK.
  2) If so, would I be able to use something like Revolut to pay the card off each month? Or will I need a U.S. bank account (and therefore have to transfer from GBP to USD from my UK bank account and incur fees).

  Cheers!

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    1 Jun1 June 12:39

    Don’t know about your question (1) above but the answer to (2) is yes, you should be able to transfer USD from Revolut to any other USD denominated bank account free of charge. I have used it successfully to pay off the USD balance on my Amex IDC.

    You just need the payment reference to quote your 16 digit Amex account number so the credit gets matched to your account – all USD exist within the US banking system and non-US entities like Revolut us an underlying correspondent US bank for such transfers so the Amex system will have no problems with accepting such payments

    • Pete M says:

      1 Jun1 June 12:47

      I also can’t comment on q1, but on q2 – we pay it off using what is effectively a direct debit from a Wise account. Wise is clever enough to now use your USD balance first and if that’s not enough it auto-converts other currencies to make sure the payment is made.

      In terms of benefits – there are tonnes of US Amex offers, but they are virtually all only applicable to spend in US stores. There is ostensibly no FX fees, but the exchange rate is generally 1-2% worse than what you’d get from someone like Wise, so the cost is simply not disclosed. But otherwise the benefits are decent and it is a fair bit cheaper than the UK one. We mostly use it for spend outside the UK.

  • bafan says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:24

    When I moved to the U.S. and did Amex Global Transfer they wouldn’t open the account without a certified copy of my Social Security Card (which I had). Had to go to the bank and get someone to sign to say they’d seen it. The Post Office can also do it. Do you have either a SSN or an ITIN? If so then you’re all set. Once my credit profile was established never had an issue opening accounts again.

    • John says:

      1 Jun1 June 13:50

      I’ve been curious about this myself – how folks are getting US Amex’s issued without providing a valid SSN/ITIN. In my experience they’re sticklers on this – even for supplemental cards, which automatically get disabled after 30 days unless a valid SSN/ITIN is supplied (and they do check it’s not simply the main cardholder’s SSN provided again).

      • Brucey says:

        1 Jun1 June 19:17

        Alas no ITIN/SSN so I think this plan will need to be shelved. Thanks all!

  • Sina says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:49

    You should be fine to apply, you can even apply online and use your UK credit profile/score. just beware that when you pay in USD and pay off in GBP, you’re paying a difference of exchange rate due to Buy/Sell rates, so it’s not totally free, I have a US card and have to time it so that when the USD rate is high buy, and sell GBP when it’s High, could even make you money if you do it right!

• Simon says:

  1 Jun1 June 12:26

  On the theme of US cards, could anyone with experience of a US card point me the right direction with regard to the points counter within a US Amex online account?

  My British wife started using her US Marriott Amex about 3 weeks ago, having spent in the region of $1,750.00 in that time across 8 or so transactions. Her Marriott account number is displayed within her online US Marriott Amex account, but her “YTD” Marriott points total equals zero. Are points only totted up at the end of a monthly billing cycle in the US as opposed to every 1-2 days with the UK Marriott Amex?

  Many thanks in advance.

  • bafan says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:26

    I don’t think they have one. They trialed it because when I set up a Delta Amex Gold it was there. Now I’m working on a 45k bonus for the Green card it’s not available. I filter my transactions by payments from bank and work out how much I’ve spent minus refunds that way.

    • Simon says:

      2 Jun2 June 18:12

      Many thanks, bafan

  • John says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:47

    Not certain if it will help but… on the Hilton Amex, whilst individual transactions’ predicted points are visible 2-3 days after purchase, they don’t actually point until the eom when the statement is generated. The statement also mentions what your YTD earning has been points wise, too. Have not seen any other counter, apart from the ‘free night’ counter that I can see on the main page.

    • John says:

      1 Jun1 June 13:48

      Don’t actually *post* until the eom

      • Simon says:

        2 Jun2 June 18:14

        Many thanks indeed, John — that’s extremely useful to know. Much obliged! 🙂

• JandeW says:

  1 Jun1 June 12:58

  Does anybody have experience of Air Malta? In September, I will be flying there from Paris on an Air France ticket? Full routing is AMS-CDG-MLA-CDG-AMS Will I get Flying Blue points for that leg or does Air Malta have its own points scheme? Air France were unable to offer me seat reservations for the Paris-Malta-Paris legs – how can I pre-book seats?

  • Blair says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:07

    If AF flight number then you will get Flying Blue points. AF route might be on Hop! which never allows reservations before check IIRC.

    • kitten says:

      1 Jun1 June 13:25

      Hop! closed I thought

    • JandeW says:

      1 Jun1 June 14:41

      Thks Blair. The ticket is not on Hop. I could reserve seats on both the AMS-CDG and the CDG-AMS legs (AF operated flights) but not on the longer flights to and from Malta.

• Blair says:

  1 Jun1 June 13:11

  VA R+ mastercard question: due my first voucher very soon. As a single traveller with no VA status and Upper Class being the only option I’ll consider, I want to use upgrade rather than companion. Checking prices to say JFK, UC is about £1400-1600. PE is just shy of £700. Assuming I buy PE for £700 and activate the upgrade voucher, and assuming the additional UC ‘taxes’ are £600, my total saving would be anywhere in the range of £100-300. Does that sound about right? Just trying to calibrate my expectations to avoid disappointment.

  • Mart says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:19

    My Vegas return flight was about £200 difference between pe and upper

  • YC says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:31

    Additional surcharges between PE and UC shouldnt be £600. check on IATA matrix for fare breakdown but would think ballpark closer to £200(?)

  • Sean says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:37

    my latest vegas flight (booked in Upper) cost 55000 miles + voucher + £663. As some of that is true taxes and charges – agree extra surcharge can’t be as high as you think.

  • Graeme says:

    1 Jun1 June 13:58

    I booked VS PE for £550 return cash in last sale MAN-LAX then used their whatsapp to upgrade when UC Availability opened up. All they charged me was £95 each time I called. So £190 total.

• Paul Pogba says:

  1 Jun1 June 14:09

  On the Lloyds Avios rewards credit card, will transactions that have a transaction (not posted date) of 31 May be eligible for Avios or will they fall into cash back?

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