The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 1st June

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• George says:

  1 Jun1 June 15:39

  I’m looking for a budget friendly hotel for 1 or 2 nights in or not too far from London with a spa, for my partner and I. Four Seasons Hampshire etc are out of range (looking for closer to £200/night than £600). So far I’ve come up with Sopwell House or Hilton Syon Park. Any other recommendations?

  • George says:

    1 Jun1 June 15:44

    I should add, I have about 100k MR points which I’m happy to put to good use, it’s the cash prices which are driving my budget.

  • Harry T says:

    1 Jun1 June 16:34

    Convert some of those MR to Marriott Bonvoy points and book a couple of nights at the Langley. 100k MR will give you 150k Bonvoy, which should be enough.

  • Ken says:

    1 Jun1 June 17:48

    One of the small luxury hotels currently on the Amex spend £300 get £100 back.
    Ideally pay using 2 cards if you have the offer.

    • George says:

      1 Jun1 June 20:32

      I can see an offer for Hyatt, £100 off £250 spend, Hilton £50 off £200 spend and Small Luxury Hotels £100 off £300 spend. Any suggested hotels from these offers?

      How would I pay with two cards? Would the hotel be fine with this on the day?

      • Rob says:

        1 Jun1 June 21:16

        Never a problem splitting payment.

        There is a ‘hotel reviews’ tab in the HfP menu bar, under ‘reviews’, which has all of our hotels reviews on it. Not really any SLH but if you search SLH we discuss some options in the articles we’ve done on their Hyatt partnership.

        The Hyatt and SLH deals don’t work together though because the participating hotel lists have no crossover.

  • Rob says:

    1 Jun1 June 18:56

    FS Hampshire has gone bonkers since it reopened, since their customer base is 100% ‘made a pile of money during lockdown and looking to spend it’ (well, 99% because that doesn’t include me obviously, although it does include my wife). It was £775 for the cheapest room at a weekend when I checked, assuming you find one of the few weekends they still have rooms. Used to be £375 would do it precovid.

  • Cat says:

    1 Jun1 June 22:41

    The best thing is to have a list and just search and find something within your price range over various dates (because the prices vary so much from one day to the next).

    My favourite for an absolutely blindingly amazing spa is Pennyhill Park. Luton Hoo is very nice too, as are South Lodge and Cottonmill (but The Club is the nice bit, and is quite pricey). If there are no nights for any of those that are within your price bracket, try somewhere like Hanbury Manor, which is really quite lovely for the price, or get a day pass at one of the spas above and stay nearby.

• Gavin says:

  1 Jun1 June 15:56

  I understand currently that Amex Platinum card holders can refer, and the signup bonus is 70000 MR (double the 35000 MR which is regularly in place).

  Is my understanding correct? What’s the referral bonus for the card holder who refers? And what’s the expiry date of the offer?

  Thanks

  • Ste Cox says:

    1 Jun1 June 15:59

    Yeah, you would get 70k for a £4000 spend. Cant see an expiry date but I would get 24k for referring.

    • Gavin says:

      1 Jun1 June 16:19

      Thanks!

      • Ste Cox says:

        1 Jun1 June 17:24

        If Rob doesn’t have that offer I would be happy to refer you – Just ask Rob to pass on my details

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    1 Jun1 June 16:20

    Only thing to add is that it is a targeted offer, only certain people can give out higher bonuses

• Alan says:

  1 Jun1 June 16:03

  I recently got back from Lisbon and have just dropped off my final test. We travelled out on Thursday for the bank holiday and had expected the plane to be full both ways.
  However the flight was only arounf two thirds full on the way out and one third full on the way back.

  It looks like a lot of people decided it is not worth travelling to Green countries under the current test regime. Flight prices that went sky high after Portugal was put on the green list seem to be back to normal.

  the lack of passangers was just as well given the problems many were having with providing evidence of a pre flight test and post flight booking. The couple in front of us could not get the Passanger Locator form to accept their booking reference and didn’t make the flight. Others were having problems with the self tests they had booked in the UK

  NB Someone mentioned yesterday that the Portuguese tests are a pretty agressive. I can confirm this, a huge length of swab dissapeared up my nose and my eyes were streaming by the end.

  • Pete M says:

    1 Jun1 June 16:14

    Intrigued by the PLF – booking reference comment. I am fairly sure the PLF doesn’t check those against a live database, so how on earth did that happen?!

    • Alan says:

      1 Jun1 June 18:31

      It may or may not be checking against a database but if not it has fairly tight format validation. I first tried the reference on the test itself then a couple of more numbers contained on the invoice none of these worked. I eventually found the correct reference on the initial email that confirmed the purchase (this is for RANDOX).

      All this faffing about turned up a problem with the PLF itself. During the time taken to find the correct reference the link with the database behind the form had timed out so when I first entered the correct ref that returned the same error message. A page refresh solved that but not everyone would know to try that.

  • Anna says:

    1 Jun1 June 16:29

    I’ve noticed that Manchester to Faro is around £150 pp in August as long as you don’t want to fly on a Saturday which is quite extraordinary. Considering booking in case neither Spain nor the US makes the green list. Has anyone stayed at the Hilton Vilamoura? Harry T recommended the Conrad Algarve but it’s fully booked in August (though there might be some speculative bookings which may get cancelled before then!)

    • Pid says:

      1 Jun1 June 20:34

      Never stayed at the Hilton as had to cancel the trip last year. Gutted as we had an excellent room rate.

    • Louise K says:

      1 Jun1 June 22:08

      I’ve stayed at Hilton Vilamoura a few times.

      Nice enough with good spacious rooms and the resort itself is nice.

      It’s located a good 20 min walk from the marina but they offer a shuttle bus. I quite like the walk though.

      Spa is very good if that’s your thing.

      Have never really dined in the hotel as prefer some the restaurants in the marina.

      I stay at the Hilton if the Tivoli is full.

      Lovely beach at Faleisa – think they also offer a shuttle here.

  • Will_ says:

    1 Jun1 June 17:02

    Which lab did you use in Lisbon out of curiousity? I’m going over next month and currently looking at options.

    • Alan says:

      1 Jun1 June 18:38

      We had planned to use one of the red cross sites but when we arrived these, and others we found online, were booked up at least 5 days in advance. Fortunately the hotel was able to recommend a local pharmacy that being “offline” had plenty of availability. Price was a pretty standard 25 Euro.

      • Will_ says:

        2 Jun2 June 10:13

        thanks – never realised you could use lateral flow on the way back (unless that was a really cheap PCR)

    • HaroldJH says:

      1 Jun1 June 21:01

      Germano de Souza (Lisbon and Algarve) are excellent – but cost is 120eu.

  • Rich says:

    1 Jun1 June 17:33

    The Ryanair MAN-OPO I was on last week was still selling for £10 the night before departure, went half full. And a FAO-NCL I’ve been looking at has stayed resolutely at £20, although I’m returning to MAN on TAP. I think they may have overestimated demand

    On the ground, there are Brits here, but it’s not as frenetic as I was expecting
    I’ll be taking my Prenetics LFT for the return tomorrow. Self administered, will report back on the ease (or lack) of registering it and filling in the PLR.

    • Louise says:

      1 Jun1 June 18:39

      I am still thinking about when to book my 2 weeks in Spain. I know it’s Amber on my return at the mo and that doesn’t bother me, I would keep to any quarantine rules. You are allowed out to buy food. So not as if you would get too bored watching Netflix and drinking loads of wine.

      Current thinking is there should be an announcement on new Green countries tomorrow or soon after. With implementation a week later. What do you reckon? (Spain?) I guess I could do an island at a pinch. I’m beach ready.

      So I don’t care if I go TO an Amber country, I’d just prefer to come BACK from a Green country.

      • Louise says:

        1 Jun1 June 21:03

        Don’t do that to me TGL! I’ve got a friend in Salamanca. (free)

        Yep – an island beach, if I must, I’m beach body ready apart from a year of sitting around on furlough lol

      • TGLoyalty says:

        1 Jun1 June 23:12

        Well that’s bizarre didn’t think I said anything to warrant my comments being deleted!

        Keep an eye on Ibiza … then on to Salamanca if it goes green on June 28th

      • Rich says:

        1 Jun1 June 23:16

        Balierics are a better bet than mainland Spain. Good chance that they will turn green on 10 June, allowing immediate return. If they don’t, then add 3 weeks for next chance

    • Alan says:

      1 Jun1 June 18:43

      I think the airlines were surprised by the low numbers of passengers. EasyJet are still offering the ability to change flights at 2 hours notice and I suspect many booked passengers will have used this option when the promised low costs tests did not materialise.

      Overall, I think we about broke even as the cost of the tests was offset by getting the hotel at not much more than half the normal price and with breakfast thrown in.

  • Mike1 says:

    1 Jun1 June 21:16

    What are the cheapest PCR tests in London these days?

• Richie says:

  1 Jun1 June 18:02

  If BA flight bookings can be cancelled within 24 hours without penalty, is there a link to this and is the cancellation by phone? Thanks

  • bafan says:

    1 Jun1 June 18:05

    They can. I always have to call up for whatever reason. But they are very helpful.

  • Travel Strong says:

    1 Jun1 June 18:08

    It is displayed on the T+C’s pages when you make your booking, click through on your chosen flights to see the exact rules for your fare (do not need to make payment to see it).

  • TheInsiderFly says:

    1 Jun1 June 18:20

    Pretty sure you can do this on BA.com Manage My Booking in most cases too. Note that the rule doesn’t apply if you are booking within 24hrs to departure.

• Fred S says:

  1 Jun1 June 18:30

  do Blacklane still do promo codes?

  • Rob says:

    1 Jun1 June 18:48

    Not seen one for a while but there may be a ‘10% off first ride’ floating around, they used to be common – plus the Amex statement credit if you have it.

• ianM says:

  1 Jun1 June 18:42

  If you have the Hilton £200 get £50 back on both Platinum and supplementary plat – will they both work???

  • Rob says:

    1 Jun1 June 18:46

    If you split the bill and pay £200 on each, yes.

    • ianM says:

      1 Jun1 June 18:57

      Thanks – I just meant on two occasions, not necessarily to split a £400 bill !

      • Andrew says:

        1 Jun1 June 19:49

        Yes, if you’ve loaded to both cards you can use it on both.

• Andrew says:

  1 Jun1 June 19:00

  Is the Hyatt spend £250, get £100 new today? I’m losing track.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    1 Jun1 June 19:47

    Nope been there for a while

• Dave R says:

  1 Jun1 June 19:58

  Hi all,

  I had to postpone a trip by 12 months due to the pandemic, and the 6 month voucher extension from BA leaves the validity of my voucher about a week short of my new planned departure date.

  Has anyone had luck getting BA to extend a 241 voucher slightly? If so, is the main customer services email the best option to request this?

  Many thanks

  • Connor says:

    1 Jun1 June 20:17

    Book any flight with the voucher, cancel for a FTV then rebook as it extends the expiry date to 2023.

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