The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 9th June

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• John Caribbean says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:34

  Is the Causeway Lounge in Belfast no longer on Priority Pass, so not available on Amex Plat? It’s not showing up on Priority Pass or Amex searches, but Aldergrove being Aldergrove it is still listed as a Priority Pass partner on the airport website

• KBuffett says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:35

  Can Capital on Tap be used to pay HMRC if it’s behind Curve Metal? Can I preload the card to earn more points than the credit limit?

  • Peter K says:

    9 Jun9 June 07:47

    Yes, I did this yesterday.

    You can’t go into credit as far as I can tell.

    • Tonyb says:

      9 Jun9 June 07:52

      Was that with curve metal business or personal?

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    9 Jun9 June 07:49

    Can’t you make the payment, repay the funds, make another payment, repay the funds etc? I thought it was only Virgin the limited the points to the credit balance?

    • The Urbanite says:

      9 Jun9 June 09:19

      You can but for some reason HMRC transactions sometimes take a few days more than others to clear. You can’t repay the balance until the transactions have cleared. I’ve been doing this through Curve Metal but noted that the 5375 90 BIN attracts a lower fee on the HMRC website than the 5375 91 BIN.

• Andrew says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:38

  BA and Ryanair investigated over not giving refunds to destinations you couldn’t legally fly to:

  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57410459

  • Richie says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:04

    Does the CMA have sharper teeth than the airline funded UK CAA?

    • kitten says:

      9 Jun9 June 10:54

      undoubtedly.

      as would a chocolate fish.

      • Richie says:

        9 Jun9 June 12:08

        They could do with teeth from Jaws.

• Andy says:

  9 Jun9 June 07:56

  Anyone had the Amex credit for the economist subscription yet? My £179 transaction has posted but still no credit/email saying I used my offer and it’s also still sitting in saved offers

  • JP-MCO says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:08

    Same here. My £179 transaction has posted today and no sign of the Economist statement credit offer. I applied through the link on here.

    • Andy says:

      9 Jun9 June 08:16

      I’ll be pretty annoyed if it doesn’t post as the only reason I did it was because of the article here telling me what good value it was with the statement credit!

      • KP says:

        9 Jun9 June 08:22

        And if Rob tells you to jump off a cliff you will….!

        It will post, or chase Amex after a few weeks

        • Andy says:

          9 Jun9 June 08:45

          Well I do trust Rob that if he says it’s a good deal and worth doing then it is. I have enough wherewithal not to jump off a cliff which isn’t quite the same as buying avios for under 1p!

      • JP-MCO says:

        9 Jun9 June 08:51

        Is this what AMEX have told you and are they going to fix it?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 Jun9 June 09:31

        Talk about jumping the gun … it’s not even been 24hrs since the charge posted!

        Worry in 3-4 days time.

        I don’t get emails 90% of the time I use an offer.

        • Andy says:

          9 Jun9 June 09:39

          @TGloyalty Had formal confirmation it’s not eligible so it’s not jumping the gun by cancelling!
          Well assuming they let me anyway!

        • Andy says:

          9 Jun9 June 09:46

          Yes that’s what surprised me about this one Rob but they were quite clear this was a specific offer that you had to follow the link. He could see that it wasn’t marked as eligible. And told me to read the t&cs in future!
          Oh well cancelled it now so all done.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Jun9 June 10:06

          I don’t believe them

      • Andy says:

        9 Jun9 June 09:37

        I’ve just spoken to Amex and they confirmed the transaction isn’t showing as eligible and you had to sign up using the specific link in the offer otherwise it’s not valid for the credit. So going to cancel my subscription now

      • KS says:

        9 Jun9 June 09:47

        I went for print+digital so its not one of those stupid IT errors with > vs >=. I would imagine none of the payments are tracked is a good sign, should be easy for Amex to fix.

      • Colin says:

        9 Jun9 June 12:51

        I took the £215 deal. so that isn’t the reason. They may fine a mass cancellation !

      • JDB says:

        9 Jun9 June 15:50

        I spoke to Amex about it yesterday as I hadn’t had an email, the offer still shows in the app as ‘saved’ rather than ‘used’ and no credit. The transaction has posted as ‘mail order’ which is excluded under the T&C’s and also the T&C’s specify the link you must use in order to get the £45, but that page obviously doesn’t have the Avios offer. It seems designed not to stack, so need to ask Amex to fix!

  • Shub says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:44

    Very odd, Economist subscription was showing as Pending for me till yesterday evening. Today I can’t see it in transactions at all.

    • meta says:

      9 Jun9 June 12:29

      Same here. My subscription does show as active though…

      • Shub says:

        9 Jun9 June 14:15

        My is still showing Active.

        • Shub says:

          9 Jun9 June 14:16

          sorry, misread, Thought inactive. Let’s see if it changes.

    • Maharishi says:

      9 Jun9 June 16:43

      Same here – just got my statement. No charge on there, but no longer pending either. The offer still shows in my ‘saved offers’. Would be incredible if the Avios would post anyway, but I don’t suppose they post until after the cooling-off period is done. I can still log in to the Economist. Wondering whether to cancel and try again.

  • Nadeshka says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:50

    I’ve noted a slower posting of credit – used a couple of offers and it was 2-3 days after the transaction cleared that the offer was marked as redeemed, and then a further 2-3 for it to appear on the statement.
    Just this morning had the credits for transactions done on 3rd/4th June.

  • Patrick Cold says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:38

    I have called them and they said that everything looks in order and that 5-90 days is the refund timeframe.

  • Jon says:

    9 Jun9 June 12:51

    The link provided by Amex on the offer itself doesn’t actually work! Did the link Amex provided to sign up to the Economist ever work? It’s not working now.

• Dave says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:00

  Sturgeon’s government is refusing MSC’s UK cruise from docking In Scotland.
  I nearly booked a Greenock departure. Glad I didn’t now.
  Scottish passengers already onboard aren’t even allowed to disembark and enter their own country. No-one is allowed to board at Greenock either.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:13

    Funnily, it is because of the rules that have been in place well before the ship sailed.

    So is it the Scottish government that is to blame – or the cruise line?

    • Craig says:

      9 Jun9 June 09:52

      So a Scot can drive to Southampton, get on a cruise ship but not disembark in Scotland? Utterly bonkers.

    • Dave says:

      9 Jun9 June 10:14

      Scottish government policy doesn’t make sense. People can easily drive up or take the train from England. In fact the Northern Belle came up to Edinburgh last week full of tourists with no testing at all. Yet if you arrive by ship you are refused entry.
      It’s only UK passengers on the cruise and the majority of them are fully vaccinated, and had recently tested negative.

    • Andrew says:

      9 Jun9 June 12:33

      Well, it would be utterly humiliating for the Scottish Goverment to allow a 4,500 capacity luxury cruise ship, where building commenced in February 2019, to be seen on the Clyde alongside the two “world class” ferries that are nowhere complete and were started in 2015.

  • Sandgrounder says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:15

    As they aren’t going to dock, both boarding and disembarking would likely prove impractical and rather unsafe.

    • Tracey says:

      9 Jun9 June 08:19

      Man the lifeboats!

      • James says:

        9 Jun9 June 09:29

        Man the dinghies!

    • Dave says:

      9 Jun9 June 10:31

      They could have used their onboard tender boats, even just to allow Scots to board/ disembark.
      Instead, people who need to board/disembark at Greenock now have to travel to/from England, likely by public transport, further increasing the risk of virus spread. Absolutely daft.

  • WaynedP says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:26

    Have cruised with MSC many times, sometimes to places we’ve been to before or no interest in disembarking.

    On those days there is plenty to do and enjoy on board. Fantastic ships, never been disappointed with the spa or sun decks.

    Am booked on that sailing later this month. It’s Scotland’s loss, certainly not mine.

    • Jody says:

      9 Jun9 June 10:07

      It is certainly a loss to the people who were due to embark today at Greenock, and only found out yesterday that it wasn’t going to be allowed. Seems as if Greenock has been cancelled for the rest of the month, I feel really sorry for anyone who has been desperately looking forward to their cruise and is now unable to go.

      It does seem as if there has been at best, a misunderstanding somewhere along the way by MSC. The Scottish government said back in May that they would update in June the situation for these staycation cruises. MSC seem to have gone ahead and booked Greenock as a port for people to both get on and get off the ship without having the required update. Then yesterday they were told they definitely couldn’t stop there.

      I know I would be very unhappy if I’d been put in that position.

• Anna says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:09

  It says T3 on my LHR-GIB booking but I’m assuming everything is going from T5 at the moment?

  • Rob says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:50

    Yes.

    • Jonathan says:

      9 Jun9 June 09:22

      I thought that T3 is being used for red list arrivals, I don’t want to go anywhere near people arriving from those countries on the list!

      I think they’re going to move red list arrivals to T4 I think I heard when the airport becomes more operational

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 Jun9 June 09:33

        You are aware that’s direct flights only and you could be sitting next to someone coming indirect from a red list country for your whole flight?

        The red list is a load of BS the tories have dreamt up to keep its core voters happy and opinion polls favourable.

        • Anna says:

          9 Jun9 June 10:14

          Oh yes it’s a nonsense. We would happily have gone to an amber country but insurance plus self-isolating plus all the tests makes Gib just a much more palatable option!
          I think Gib is being quite strict about red arrivals though (though I think their list isn’t even exactly the same as the UK one 🤦‍♀️)

• Tim Rogers says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:25

  I’ve booked my COVID vaccine through the national online system and I have my first next week and my second in September.

  What’s my best bet if I want to bring those both forward? If at all possible, I’d like to squash down the gap between the doses.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:43

    Earliest you would be able to get the second one is mid July, medically there has to be a 4 week gap. Once you have had the first one try and re-book the second and see what availability you get. Somewhat risky but will probably be alright

    Alternatively, in between you can try and turn up at a surge vaccination center

  • Joe says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:07

    Let me know if this works for you – I have 2nd dose booked for early Aug (11 weeks) but would like it ASAP!

    • Tracey says:

      9 Jun9 June 20:08

      Walk in options at mass vaccination centres, we had as many walk ins as booked appointments today. We were allowing anyone to have their second with a gap of at least 8 weeks.

  • Anna says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:16

    The online system can be quite inflexible – I recommend seeing what walk-in options there are from 4 weeks after your first jab. Hopefully they will still be running some vaccination centres which offer this by then.

  • Youllnever says:

    9 Jun9 June 10:22

    From what I could see with the system after doing a few booking cancellations and rebooks, the second shot will always be 77 days after the first shot, at the earliest.

    If you need to have the second shot by a particular date, I would subtract 77 days from the second shot’s date.

  • Toby says:

    9 Jun9 June 11:40

    I wouldn’t worry Tim. The NHS seems to be encouraging more and more people to bring their booked jab forwards to circa 8 weeks, which is possible via the online system. I would be fairly confident they’ll increase flexibility and encourage earlier jabs once the adult population is all able to get jabs.

• MattB says:

  9 Jun9 June 08:30

  I was reading last night about hotel quarantine and a group of British military families in Nepal had to come back to the UK and were put up by the MOD in a Park Plaza in the ‘Waterloo area’ for quarantine. Anyone know which PP this is exactly as I assume it would be closed for the public and we have a few bookings over the next couple of months from the £89 offer.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    9 Jun9 June 08:45

    I think military personnel are exempt from quarantining. So could well be a hotel open to the public that is cheaper than the gov mandated scheme . After all it is tax payers money and MoD are basically broke…

    • MattB says:

      9 Jun9 June 08:53

      No it’s the proper quarantine, but just for their families (the actual military guys were staying in Nepal) they were complaining about the food, very little outside space for exercise etc

  • Laura says:

    9 Jun9 June 09:04

    I was booked at PP Waterloo and a few days before we got moved to Westminster Bridge as Waterloo was closed. Saw some staff outside smoking when I went past…

    This was a couple of weekends ago

    • Tonyb says:

      9 Jun9 June 09:07

      I have a booking for next weekend and I had an email yesterday telling me they are moving me to the Riverbank

      • Tonyb says:

        9 Jun9 June 09:08

        From Waterloo

        • Rob says:

          9 Jun9 June 09:46

          That’s an improvement I think.

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