The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 8th June

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• Ian M says:

  8 Jun8 June 07:50

  So I discovered last night that BA’s You First line is no longer 24hrs despite the fact the BA website still says it is. This is probably old news but rather annoying!

  • Ed says:

    8 Jun8 June 08:29

    I fell foul of this a few weeks ago, 40 mins of waiting gave up. At that stage there was no indication when calling the lines were closed.

• gillydee says:

  8 Jun8 June 08:04

  Any recommendations for HP/PCP Gap insurance, please?

  • KBuffett says:

    8 Jun8 June 08:36

    I recently used a company called Ala Insurance. I searched for a discount code and it worked out half the price of the dealers quote. I’ve not claimed though, so cannot comment on the claims process.

  • mark2 says:

    8 Jun8 June 08:52

    Have a look at GAPinsurance.co.uk which I have used for some years.

    • kitten says:

      8 Jun8 June 09:58

      got a feeling gap insurance is a good search on volde-sites. you might find a deal for someone you’d possibly have chosen anyway

  • Jonathan says:

    8 Jun8 June 10:29

    Try Tidy Alloys at 01704-552112 .They use a GAP product through AutoProtect . Have bought / claimed through them and they seem competitively priced and more important very efficient .

• marcw says:

  8 Jun8 June 08:05

  Doesn’t look like airlines are very hopeful about US-UK/EU travel opening anytime soon.

  • Ian M says:

    8 Jun8 June 08:08

    If it did reopen just think how long the queues would be trying to clear passport control on return to the UK

  • Andrew says:

    8 Jun8 June 08:15

    I can’t see it opening in 2021.

    • Anna says:

      8 Jun8 June 08:31

      I’ve come to the conclusion that even if it does, the issues with insurance, FCDO advice etc would make it virtually impossible.

      • Sam G says:

        8 Jun8 June 08:49

        the other issue is going to be consumer confidence. It’s one thing rushing back from Portugal or Spain, abandoning a long haul trip and rushing home won’t be realistic for most and a good chunk of people aren’t willing to isolate + the possible add on the cost of extra day 8/test to release for a family isn’t insignificant unexpected add on to plan for.

  • berneslai says:

    8 Jun8 June 09:08

    What’s changed? I haven’t seen any news reports that makes it more or less likely recently.

    • Paul Pogba says:

      8 Jun8 June 10:01

      My two pence: From the UK perspective, international travel to India has introduced a new variant into the country that is now potentially delaying an unlocking that was expected on the 21 June. More international travel would look bad even if it were done more responsibly (with vaccine passports, testing, etc). From the US, they can see a new variant potentially spiralling out of control in the unvaccinated population of the UK (which has a fully vaccinated rate of 53%) while their fully vaccinated rate is 42.1%. It’s likely however that the Indian variant is already in the US due the large diaspora and that they’re just less aware of it due to lower levels of genomic sequencing.

      The combination of the optics/public perception and the principle of protecting your own domestic economy ahead of the aviation industry will probably win out.

      • Harry T says:

        8 Jun8 June 10:17

        Yeah, but it doesn’t really seem like the Delta variant actually kills or hospitalised a meaningful percentage of vaccinated people, so it’s unclear to me why there is a big furore. The only groups in the UK who haven’t been offered a vaccine yet are the ones who aren’t vulnerable to significant morbidity and mortality from covid anyway.

        It’s quite clear that the government doesn’t want travel to happen, but for reasons not related to public health.

        • Paul Pogba says:

          8 Jun8 June 10:38

          I think if you implemented travel corridors that allowed fully vaccinated people to travel to countries with equally high levels of vaccination the risk of planes becoming disease vectors would be low. BUT the politics mean the libertarian right is opposed to vaccine passports on spurious privacy grounds and the bed wetting left worry they’ll be discriminatory because minorities are more likely to refuse vaccination.

          Meanwhile the 80% of people that don’t sit at either extreme of the political spectrum wonder why their liberty to travel for a holiday is restricted or their job is being threatened because the planes are grounded and the hotels empty.

        • David S says:

          8 Jun8 June 15:57

          +1

      • Anna says:

        8 Jun8 June 11:13

        The government didn’t seem particularly bothered when 600 cruise ship workers arrived from India in May and weren’t required to quarantine due to their employment. But heaven forbid you should want a week in Mallorca.

    • marcw says:

      8 Jun8 June 10:34

      Nothing has really changed, but https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2021/06/07/uk-and-us-airline-and-airport-ceos-call-once-again-for-the-re-opening-of-transatlantic-travel/

• H says:

  8 Jun8 June 08:48

  Anyone looking for testing from an Amber country… Randox day 2 and 8 plus TTR for £129 using discount code Britishairways43

  • Pablo says:

    9 Jun9 June 06:43

    Coming up at £172 for me. 2&8 on its own is £129. How did you get TTR thrown in for free??

• Harry says:

  8 Jun8 June 09:07

  Hi there. I need to make an insurance claim for my baby needing a doctor abroad. I have nationwide flexplus and amex bapp or gold. Which is better to claim on?

  • Andrew says:

    8 Jun8 June 09:10

    Does BAPP or Amex gold have medical travel insurance included in their benefits?

  • JDB says:

    8 Jun8 June 09:25

    Whichever you choose to claim on, you will need to disclose the other policy, as they will ultimately share the cost if the issue is claimable on both.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    8 Jun8 June 09:48

    I would ask the one that has the lowest excess and inform them of all the potential policies you could claim on. Unless there is an odd exclusion etc. From memory, I think people say that Amex won’t ask to many questions if you didn’t follow the procedures to the letter

    • Lady London says:

      8 Jun8 June 10:01

      +1 IIRC Amex terms and practices were better when I looked at both so SSS is right let Amex drive the claim but mention both

• Scott says:

  8 Jun8 June 09:15

  Quick Revolut question.
  Assumed you have to “activate” the card by doing a chip & pin transaction first (same as bank cards, or at least the one I did the other day).
  Popped into Tesco, put the card into the reader and “no chip detected”. Wouldn’t do contactless either.

  Is this right, some card issue, a dodgy reader or what?

  • David D says:

    8 Jun8 June 09:51

    I remember having to activate the card by doing a chip and pin transaction. I could never get contactless to work on my card (even after activating contactless payments in the app). It may be a dud card. I am on the Standard (unpaid) plan.

  • Peter K says:

    8 Jun8 June 12:48

    Have you activated it in the app first?

  • The Urbanite says:

    8 Jun8 June 13:23

    Did you try giving the chip a good wipe? Usually does the trick when the no chip detected error comes up.

• DR says:

  8 Jun8 June 09:15

  I apologize if this has been asked before, where do you find a seat map
  for BA 777s 200 & 300(JFK/LHR 23/5 BA 174 & BA 176)with club suites, as it is not on the BA website or seatguru. I did of course see some of it via a dummy booking, but would like to see the full seat map as where the toilets are is important to my wife. I compared what I could see re the dummy booking against what I could find on flyertalk and BA source (showing seat maps with Club Suites), and nothing matches up against the BA dummy booking as to where the galley and toilets are,
  there is also the added concern of having a window seat without a window!

  • Doug M says:

    8 Jun8 June 10:08

    Have a look at https://www.aerolopa.com/ these maps are really detailed for window positions and other things you may factor in.

    • DR says:

      8 Jun8 June 11:49

      Thanks

• Mouse says:

  8 Jun8 June 09:16

  Can anyone please remind me what policy Virgin is currently applying towards people trying to reschedule where one leg has been cancelled? I have points tickets booked in the 2-4-1 offer late last year so don’t want to cancel + rebook. I know BA has been saying you need to fly latest one year after booking, not sure if Virgin is taking the same approach? (I know EU261 gives broader rights, but I’m trying to find out what I can get without going down the legal route.)

  • WaynedP says:

    8 Jun8 June 09:47

    Can’t speak for one leg only, but I had a similar return trip cancelled by VS, who have provided an “open” ticket for no change fee (only difference in fare, which I’m expecting to be small to nil if I choose my moment well) as far out as 30 April 2023.

    Can’t see why BA can’t be flexible beyond their “12 months from ticket purchase” if VS can provide such blanket flexibility.

    • Lady London says:

      8 Jun8 June 10:12

      be careful Open may still be restricted to 12 months or at least worth checking with them if it looks like you need to travel later. Even an Open ticket will have an issue date and I’m pretty sure VS tickets come under IATA as well.

      This may be a question you decide not to ask till someone tells you of any difficulty when you try to book. It’s easy enough for an airline to write a new ticket if they want to (and the audit trail to the old ticket can be maintained).

      Also IATA does allow beyond 12 month in case of irrops which your original flight being cancelled is technically. Let’s be charitable to BA when they deny this and say it’s due to a system problem rather than any unwillingness to accommodate a customer whose flight they cancelled.

      • Mouse says:

        8 Jun8 June 15:22

        Thank-you both

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