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The HfP chat thread – Friday 4th June

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Comments (425)

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

  • Anna says:
    4 Jun4 June 04:58

    Morning all. Does anyone have a link to a readily-understandable guide to PCR testing requirements for Spain (although I realise it might change in the next 2 months!)
    Seems bonkers that you still need to have (and pay for) a day 8 test if you can have one on day 5 and be released from quarantine, but it all does seem less about infection and more about profit-making and/or dissuading people with less money from travelling!

    • Sam G says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:19

      Anti gen or PCR to come back before you leave Spain (locally or Qured via video or similar)
      Day 2 + 8 PCR package
      Optional day 5 to release

      Nothing required outbound

  • Anna says:
    4 Jun4 June 05:06

    And 2nd question (heat keeping me awake), I’m pretty sure this will work but in case I’m missing something –

    Have 2 J seats to MIA booked with avios which I need to cancel as I don’t want to tie up that much cash in FTVs (probably need it to pay for PCR tests!). However, the 241 I used will expire in October. Presumably I can cancel the MIA flights for £35 pp, then use the returned 241 to book a cheap RFS then cancel again for a FTV?

    • Michael C says:
      4 Jun4 June 05:20

      I understand that’s the case, Anna – someone who’s done it will no doubt confirm this morning!
      Now I’m starting to look at how midge-y Scotland is at the v end of Aug/start of Sept….

      • Anna says:
        4 Jun4 June 05:30

        I think late summer is the worst, though the higher you go the more of them there are! I’m always bitten comprehensively as soon as I arrive anywhere there are blood-sucking insects so pack Jungle Formula as standard as this is the only thing which keeps them off me!

        • Michael C says:
          4 Jun4 June 05:50

          Thnx…maybe Kerry instead ;o))

        • Erico1875 says:
          4 Jun4 June 07:00

          “Smidge” helps

        • Chris Heyes says:
          4 Jun4 June 07:05

          Anna I’d hold off J Biden in UK 13th June maybe fingers crossed good news week after he says hopefully lol

          • Anna says:
            4 Jun4 June 07:11

            I’m going to wait till the start of July to actually cancel but I can’t see restrictions being lifted by then, tbh. Biden’s advisors have been telling him it gives the wrong message to allow visitors just because they come from countries rich enough to vaccinate everyone, plus so many Americans are taking domestic vacations this year their travel industry isn’t suffering that much. (Though anyone can fly in from Mexico – don’t get me started on that!!)

          • TGLoyalty says:
            4 Jun4 June 07:40

            But they haven’t banned travel from everywhere and I don’t think any of them are considered too poor to have vaccines either

            Restrictions are on

            China
            Iran
            European Schengen area (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City)
            United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
            Republic of Ireland
            Brazil
            South Africa
            India

        • kitten says:
          4 Jun4 June 12:04

          Avon So Soft apparently used for this

      • Erico1875 says:
        4 Jun4 June 07:01

        End of Aug is the start of winter 🙂

      • Peggerz says:
        4 Jun4 June 07:52

        Avon “Skin so Soft” does the trick with midgies apparently. I walked the West Highland Way a few years ago and the pubs en route had this for sale for the roughly-toughty walkers of the 96 mile trail. And it does wonders for your complexion at the same time.

        • Michael C says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:24

          That’s been our Asian anti-mozzie go-to: fantastic, and so unstinky!

        • Nicky says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:38

          Yes, Avon skin so soft is all I use and mozzies come nowhere near me, before I started using it 20 years ago I was starter, mains and dessert for midges. Over the years skin so soft has improved so much, it is not as greasy now – cannot recommend it enough

        • Gavin says:
          4 Jun4 June 09:56

          Apparently they’ve changed the formula so it no longer repels
          midges

        • Guernsey Globetrotter says:
          4 Jun4 June 15:21

          Looks like Avon now do a dedicated line of Skin So Soft “Bug Guard Plus” sprays and lotions – https://www.avon.com/category/bath-body/skin-so-soft – does that mean you need to use these now instead of the changed ordinary formula lotion?

    • ChrisC says:
      4 Jun4 June 05:31

      Yes cancel for the £70 in total.

      Yes to then booking a cheap ticket then cancel that for an FTV. Remember that the names must be the same on this new booking as the one you will actually want to make later,

    • Andrew says:
      4 Jun4 June 06:20

      You’re pulling the plug on the US already? I’m holding on to hope for late September for NY, but agree it’s not looking good now.

      • Anna says:
        4 Jun4 June 07:04

        Thanks all – yes, I feel that Europe is just generally a safer bet this year due to shorter flights (and from our local airport), GHIC means that we don’t have to worry about emergency medical treatment if insurers start being awkward, easier to get back at short notice if it changes to red (or at least head to an amber country!)

        • Anna says:
          4 Jun4 June 07:05

          Though it beggars belief that 12 months on you still have to call BA to get a refund!

        • Harry T says:
          4 Jun4 June 09:02

          @Anna
          Whilst I see your points about Europe, you have to remember that the US has had a far more effective vaccine rollout than the EU. Opening up to other countries for travel largely depends on the rate of vaccination in a country.

          • Anna says:
            4 Jun4 June 09:21

            Agreed, but that won’t have any impact on the US opening to us!

      • BJ says:
        4 Jun4 June 07:31

        Suspect travel is had it again soon, was always likely to be and nothing has changed. At very least I see Scotland, and possibly the whole GB, locking down or facing substantial restrictions again at the beginning of September to get cases down before COP22 in November. Even if the vaccines have the result we are all hoping for I think that will not be enough in itself to save the day. I seriously doubt the Scottish and UK governments will want to risk thousands of cases per day in November as it would be a public relations disaster and politically embarasing, they will try to get them down.

        • Anna says:
          4 Jun4 June 07:36

          I can’t see how this could be realistic once everyone has had the vaccine who wants it. Also very low numbers of vaccinated people are requiring treatment for covid infection.

          • Yuff says:
            4 Jun4 June 07:43

            Deaths and hospitalisations haven’t risen as much as cases, but there is a lag, which I’ll become clearer over the next 10 days.
            The vaccine figures are looking pretty good so far, so if they stay that way let everyone who has had 2 doses carry on as normally and restrict people who have refused to get vaccinated.
            Easily done with the nhs app now, or make up-vaccinated people take a test

          • BJ says:
            4 Jun4 June 07:56

            All about appearances and perceptions. Too many world leaders, too much publicity. Even if we can herald the success of vaccine roll out and this does reduce transmissions, hospitalizations and deaths at the end of the day it still doesn’t look good if there are thousands of cases a day.

          • BJ says:
            4 Jun4 June 08:06

            @Yuff, it will not be about rational realities related to public health, it will be about political realities managing the spin. Quite ironic really because that is a something of a reversal of the situation to date. Anyway, there is hope I think if vaccines and herd immunity can substantially suppress cases, we should know that in the next 2-3 months.

          • JRC says:
            4 Jun4 June 09:11

            Delta variant. Only 66% protection after 2 jabs. Early data but indicates much worse protection than against Alpha (Kent) variant.

        • Anna says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:19

          They fail to learn again and again though. In Bolton and Blackburn covid is spreading like wildfire among teenagers yet there is no talk of moving to remote learning or vaccinating school children. At my nephew’s school they are insisting that even Year 11s stay on until mid-June, despite having completed all their GCSE assessments weeks ago, despite a sizeable number of them currently self-isolating due to outbreaks in school!

          • Anna says:
            4 Jun4 June 08:21

            I know vaccines haven’t been approved for under 16s yet, but even if they vaccinated the 16 – 18 year olds it should have a measurable effect.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            4 Jun4 June 09:02

            Or you just let them carry on because those cases won’t lead to their hospitalisation and certainly not death.

            90% of 40+ would have had their first dose by this weekend (going on last Sunday’s stats)

            The at risk are now fully vaccinated in extremely high numbers 90%+ of over 60’s those most likely to die, 60% 50-59 those most likely to end up in hospital (as at Sunday) in two weeks time they’ll have the full effects …

          • Anna says:
            4 Jun4 June 09:23

            But they are infecting other family members who could be vulnerable and/or unable to be vaccinated for medical reasons, and also teachers!

          • TGLoyalty says:
            4 Jun4 June 11:35

            And they still will. The at risk need to protect themselves with a jab to help stop severe illness.

        • ChrisC says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:33

          I would find it abhorrant if the government locked down its citizenry just so they could hold an international conference.

          If they want a lock down then lock down the conference attendees!

        • IanM says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:34

          You mean COP26? Not a chance of another lockdown in Scotland, other than perhaps a minor twiddling with levels. This is becoming a very doom and gloom site

          • BJ says:
            4 Jun4 June 08:51

            It is just that I have a very doom and gloom perception of politicians 🙂

        • Lady London says:
          4 Jun4 June 12:10

          spot on, BJ.
          as you’ve said previously

          • Yuff says:
            4 Jun4 June 12:27

            It is going to get harder and harder to carry this on, IMO.
            Yesterday’s removal off the green list has not gone down well and people are rightly getting irritated.
            The vaccine is better than expected and the 66% figure quoted above is early indications, bearing in mind that most only recently had their 2nd jabs that figure is only going to get better.
            Governments can’t expect to get everyone vaccinated then refuse to give those vaccinated the benefit of the protection………….
            If some people want to believe all the guff about microchipping and infertility from the jab let them shield at home and let everyone else enjoy their freedoms…..including travel

  • The Lord says:
    4 Jun4 June 05:44

    Any recommendations for cheapest test to release test provider?

  • KBuffett says:
    4 Jun4 June 06:01

    I’ve got multiple transactions coming up which will lead to significant Stamp Duty and Capital Gains bills.

    Can anyone advise how I can pay these directly (instead of via a solicitor, no lender involved) and also the best ways of collecting points. The only non Amex and I have is Hilton Barclaycard and Curve Legacy.

    I have some time, so all strategies welcome and I want to plan this well and collect a haul of points. Rather than my usual last minute approach with self assessment where I collect diddly squat.

    Also, if anyone can recommend a good conveyancer that can do transfer of equity and allow me to pay the stamp duty directly, that would be helpful.

    Thanks I advance. Lots of points at stake!!

    • Donna says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:48

      In my (recent) experience solicitors insist on payments via bank transfers and verification of source of funds, so would be tricky to open a revolut and then top up for this purpose. You also mentioned payment of the tax bill, do you have the legacy tesco debit card? Whilst you cannot transfer to avios, you could transfer to virgin.

      • KBuffett says:
        4 Jun4 June 12:03

        Hence why I’m looking for a good conveyancer rather than these robot guys. Happy to show the money trail.
        No Tesco card unfortunately.

    • Dave says:
      4 Jun4 June 08:01

      Capital Gains is declared via self assessment and paid online to HMRC in the usual way, you can use Curve for this (can’t remember if it needs Metal as I only have metal).

  • Ant says:
    4 Jun4 June 07:27

    We are due to fly back from Malta on 27 June so 3 days after the next update to travel list. Any idea if when they move a country to a green list is it with inmediate affect or does it take a few days?

    • Anna says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:31

      They’ve given 5 days’ notice for Portugal to go from green to amber but previously I think it’s been a week so basically whatever ministers feel like at the time!

      • meta says:
        4 Jun4 June 07:52

        However, you’ve been to an amber country in the past ten days, so amber country rules apply.
        This is different from last year when you could avoid self-isolation when the countries turned green.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          4 Jun4 June 11:38

          I not sure what that means? If they come back from Malta when it’s green they don’t have to isolate. Doesn’t matter if it was amber in the previous 10 days.

          Just like it won’t matter if Portugal was green before Tuesday.

          • meta says:
            4 Jun4 June 16:02

            That has changed. If you have been to Malta in the last 10 days and only the last 2 days Malta was green then you need to self-isolate.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:47

      Suspect you’ll 1.5 days earlier

      The review is every 3 weeks so expect the next announcement on 24th June and go live at 4am 28th June.

      • meta says:
        4 Jun4 June 07:54

        And that was supposed to be the first big review, but they obviously scrapped that and won’t show any data…

        • TGLoyalty says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:16

          They didn’t scrap anything? The announcement happened yesterday as expected …

          The June 28th is the review of the travel restriction methodology/ testing requirements etc

          • meta says:
            4 Jun4 June 08:23

            They did scrap the watchlist element… They said that changes won’t happen as often and countries will be first placed on watch list for 1-2 weeks, now people are given 3-4 days notice…

          • TGLoyalty says:
            4 Jun4 June 08:36

            Well Portugal may be because they are citing this Nepalese variant as the reason … I can understand why you maybe want to close off travel quicker in that case (because they have a fear of variants right now)

            Not necessarily scraped as a methodology In the medium term though

  • M says:
    4 Jun4 June 07:30

    Hello, could someone please send me a BAPP referral with enhanced bonus?

    My email is: defensiveindicate at gmail dot com

    Thanks!

    (I asked Rob, but he doesn’t have it, so he suggested asking here).

  • BJ says:
    4 Jun4 June 07:38

    Signed into amazon this morning, noted it was offering £100 to take their business credit card.

    • The Streets says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:44

      Yeap saw this at the weekend. Rob has an article lined up over the coming days

      • Toaster says:
        4 Jun4 June 09:06

        I signed up for this a few days ago, I think the bonus gift card is usually £25 and didn’t want to risk waiting for the £100 offer to disappear. Gift certificate appeared in my Amazon account a couple of days after applying.

        • Rob says:
          4 Jun4 June 09:06

          Will be there for a while, because Amazon wants to approve our article and that will take a couple of weeks!

    • 747_Brat says:
      4 Jun4 June 14:00

      1. Do you need a limited company for this card or can I apply as a sole trader?

      2. And does signing up for this card affects possibility of signup bonuses on other personal and business cards?

      Sorry I tried to find an article on this card, but it is not listed under credit card reviews section and the category search on Amazon also returned nowt.

      • Rob says:
        4 Jun4 June 20:49

        1.Sole trader is fine
        2.No impact

        A search for Amazon business credit card would (I suspect) have brought up the content 🙂

  • Anna says:
    4 Jun4 June 07:40

    Probably been mentioned before but several of the flight/tour operators like Tui, Ryanair etc are offering discounted packages of PCR tests.

    I still can’t get my head round why you have to pay for an extra day 5 test and not just use your day 8 test instead if you are going to be allowed out with a negative test at day 5!

    • BJ says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:48

      Agree it’s odd because if I understand correctly a negative test of of a person self isolating in the UK due to contact with a confirmed case is sufficient to release that person from self isolation. Might be wrong though, I gave up following all these details months ago. I will heed them if the need arises.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        4 Jun4 June 08:18

        Don’t think that’s correct unless the original contact was just a suspected case but the PCR came back negative so everyone is released.

        • BJ says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:54

          Ok thanks. Just checked and it states that self-isolation must be completed.

    • Jonathan says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:49

      I’ve heard that ending quarantine early imposes a high fee, I haven’t been abroad since Jan 2020 (before anyone had any idea what was coming), but I’ve heard through word of mouth that it’s not at all cheap to end the quarantine early. If they made the cost for day 5 test to release the same as day 8 test (returning from amber list countries) then everyone would be doing it!

    • Ian M says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:50

      They want to make more money and punish people for travelling.

    • Ian M says:
      4 Jun4 June 07:52

      It seems the majority of people in the UK don’t want their freedom back – https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/poll-shows-half-brits-think-24245608

      Blows my mind

      • TGLoyalty says:
        4 Jun4 June 08:02

        Ruled by fear!

        • BJ says:
          4 Jun4 June 08:19

          Irrational fear at that. One of my close relatives has come into contact with as many as a hundred or more peoplle daily five days a week since the pandemic began. None of those she works with has even had symptoms let alone tested positive, yet she still perceives cases are huge and it is very easy to get it despite her own experience to the contrary.

      • ChrisC says:
        4 Jun4 June 08:46

        If people want to stay at home and not want to go to the pub or cinema then they can make that decision for themselves.

        I’m an adult let me make decisions for myself.

        By the 21st June I’ll have had my 2nd vaccine plus 14 days so I’ll have maxium protection.

        And depending where I am and who I’m with I’ll wear a mask when I think it’s approriate whether I’m inside or out.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      4 Jun4 June 08:00

      Same reason you’re allowed out as soon as you land but need a day 2 test … Boris needs to fund his genome sequencing project.

    • meta says:
      4 Jun4 June 08:04

      Because at the border they will ask you for proof that you booked for Day 2 and Day 8 test. It is too difficult for them to check and comprehend that someone can take day 5 test to be released early.

      It’s just another individual PCR test, so you can use one of the discount codes on BA for individual tests. Randox one reduces the price to £60. I might need this in August.

      Does anyone know if you can take your day 5 test on day 4, like the day 2 test which you can take on arrival (Day 1)?

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

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