The HfP chat thread – Monday 7th June

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Doog1000 says:

7 Jun7 June 12:40

Just tapping the collective wisdom here. It appears lateral flow tests are accepted for arrivals to Italy – would the standard NHS testing work for this purpose?
- AJA says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 12:48
  
  I thought that NHS tests were not acceptable for travel purposes.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 12:56
    
    Not on the return. Up to Italy to decide if they are acceptable
    
    Everyone gets 2 free lateral flow to use regardless. Seems like an expensive mistake if you get there and it’s not accepted though … day 10 isolation
    - Doog1000 says:
      
      7 Jun7 June 13:08
      
      agree probably not worth the risk but theoretically acceptable
- Memesweeper says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 12:51
  
  No
- Soo says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 16:47
  
  No. Certificates need to be uploaded to BA booking in advance for verification, and also at check in desk. Only £30+ so why the fuss?
Memesweeper says:

7 Jun7 June 12:49

DP: Just had an HMRC VAT overpayment refund. Sent back to the original debit card, not the bank account linked to my tax account.
- John says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 13:01
  
  same happened with me -(
  I was told it now has to go back to the same card as original payment
  - Rob says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 13:22
    
    That’s a shame. I got one from my Oct-Dec payment which went into the bank.
    - KBuffett says:
      
      7 Jun7 June 13:55
      
      They are tightening up. Multiple reports of them now going back to source.
bafan says:

7 Jun7 June 12:49

At Heathrow ATM – lady at DutyFree said she couldn’t redeem my Heathrow Rewards – I downloaded the Dufry app and got 5% off instead. Is this just a technical issue or a bigger problem?
- barnaby100 says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 19:29
  
  heathrow rewards has been down for a while. Cant log in or redeem
Phil says:

7 Jun7 June 13:17

For anyone visiting Edinburgh I’d highly recommend The Lookout on Calton Hill. The views from the restaurant were amazing, the food was delicious and the service impeccable. The restaurant is quite small, so would recommend booking well in advance of your trip.
Craig says:

7 Jun7 June 13:19

Are there any Sainsbury’s pet insurance Nectar offers at the moment?
- Super Secret Stuff says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 13:32
  
  Check the app in the partner insurance section
  - Craig says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 13:39
    
    Thanks SSS.
    - Super Secret Stuff says:
      
      7 Jun7 June 13:47
      
      No problem, glad I could help 🙂
- AJA says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 14:18
  
  I have an offer in the partner offers on the app offering 7000 points when buying pet insurance.
Anuj says:

7 Jun7 June 13:23

How many points do you get for upgrading green to platinum ? I’ve never done it before. Can I do it soon after opening the green card ? Are there any offers for upgrading to the gold card ?
- Sandgrounder says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 13:35
  
  https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/upgrade/platinum-charge/index.html
  
  20k, pretty much straight away, not that I’ve heard about, it’d have to be the charge which was still available for plat downgrades but not heard it mentioned for a bit.
- Super Secret Stuff says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 13:48
  
  If you can probably better to be referred
Princess says:

7 Jun7 June 13:49

Sorry if this type of update has been shared, but last week I haven’t had much time to check the chat.
We have just come back from Porto, landed at Heathrow. Border checks were super fast (I guess Monday morning is a quite time)
In Portugal they checked passenger locator form (including where day 2 test code is going) and COVID test result before boarding.
In London they only checked passenger locator form.
To get there we used Eurofins and they made a mistake with one of the test, we managed to fly only because our flights was at 9:30am and they have a phone line opening at 8:30, the guys on the chat couldn’t do anything only over the phone we managed to get it rectified. The waiting was awful, not knowing if we would have get it back in time!
- Rich says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 14:38
  
  Sounds stressful. What was the mistake? Some sort of admin error?
  
  I don’t think anyone was paying close attention to my test certificate. Just a 2 second glance – I reckon I could’ve waved anything at them. (Boarding in both directions and immigration at Porto).
  - Princess says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 15:29
    
    First, they were late. After 48h we were still waiting for results. (They say on the website 24h). We contact them via the chat (because it was over the weekend, so no phone line available) and they said they would escalate and call us.
    They never called us but after 2/3 hours we received the results, but one of my kids got 2 certificates (with 2 different references) and my husband none. (Looking at the code we knew that one of them was the one from my husband). We were on the chat for 4/5 times and they just told us they would escalate the issue, but they couldn’t do anything. In the morning we went to the airport anyway hoping for the best and luckily at 8:30 (when phone line open) my husband managed to speak with someone and they correct the name and sent a new one. Our flight was at 9:30.
    It was really stressful, of course Eurofins is cheap but you would expect a minimum standard!!! Anyway I’m holding booking other flights until last minute now….too messy!!!!
  - Princess says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 15:30
    
    They actually checked ours quite in detail both way…
Harrier25 says:

7 Jun7 June 13:55

Visiting Bournemouth this weekend for 2 nights, want to use points for stay and wondering what people think of the Hilton and Hampton by Hilton there, as there is only a 10,000 a night points difference between the
two. Thanks
- Rh says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 14:02
  
  Hilton a lot nicer IMO, have stayed at both.
  - Harrier25 says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 14:21
    
    Okay, thanks.
  - Rob says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 15:02
    
    If you have Hilton status (and so free brekky) it is a no-brainer. If you have no Hilton status then clearly free Hampton breakfast may swing it. They are in the same building albeit not connected so no difference in location.
    - Dan says:
      
      7 Jun7 June 15:25
      
      I was there bank holiday. You MUST book breakfast. I got turned away. Spoke to reception – same guy who checked me in the night before. I asked why didn’t you tell me to book breakfast? He said it was all on the leaflet to save time. He showed me the leaflet – I’ve seen smaller print on credit agreements! I don’t think they have space for everyone that books breakfast to have breakfast. He waived parking as I was kicking off – not like me but queued 30 minutes for no breakfast. The Wetherspoons fortunately did a lovely eggs ben on the 1st floor terrace!
      - Tariq says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 16:01
        
        Similar experience at Hilton Brighton last summer, not enough capacity in the restaurant to provide bookings for everyone who had breakfast. Since then, I always check in advance if possible, if reservations are required for anything!
      - KBuffett says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 16:44
        
        Contact Hilton by Twitter to complain. I managed to get around 30k points, a refund and a free night at any Hilton when I complained about booking a twin room and receiving a double. Original booking was around £60 and I used the free night at Park Lane
      - Lawro says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 22:05
        
        Was also there on Bank Holiday and had the exact same issue with the breakfast – very frustrating!
    - Harrier25 says:
      
      7 Jun7 June 18:41
      
      Thanks Rob. I’ve now read your review from May 2018.