The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 9th June

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• Ant says:

  9 Jun9 June 14:20

  We are due to fly to Malta with Airmalta this Saturday and back on 27 June. They just sent an email that the 27 June flight (1700) has been cancelled & they have placed us on the 0700 same day.
  This doesn’t work for us as we are coming back from Sicily the night before so will ask to move it to a few days later.
  Are we entitled to compensation as the outbound is in 3 days time? Flights are on one ticket
  Do I need to advice them of my preferred return flight before we fly the outbound? I would like to wait till later next week as then we will have more news regarding the 21 June and our company will decide when we are going back to the office. If remaining wfh we could stay for a few weeks longer.
  Any thoughts? Airmalta are one of the worse for refunds & compensation still waiting for a refund from last May!

  • Aston100 says:

    9 Jun9 June 14:22

    Before the covid malarkey, I got eu261 compo from Air Malta for a same day notice of flight departing a few hours early.
    They offered it proactively after I complained to their customer services.
    TBH, I was quite surpised.

  • Simon says:

    9 Jun9 June 14:42

    I’ve been promised a refund from Air Malta in “28 days”. They have now changed this to “28 working days” !?! They are a joke. I have disputed the charges with Amex who have already credited me the disputed amounts, and closed the case….. Is that the end of it ? Or will Air Malta still make a refund then I let Amex know to take the credit back off me? Very poor show from Air Malta.

    • Phil says:

      9 Jun9 June 17:46

      Unfortunately not, I had this with Ryanair, Alternative Airlines and Eurowings last year. If the airline responds, with literally any document (it could be a newspaper) the automated process at Amex reverses the credit. You then need to go through the process of informing Amex that they been duped and they recredit it. Hopefully it’s improved but Ryanair knew the system – they submitted documents that had absolutely nothing to do with my booking just to trigger the reversal.

      • Stanley says:

        9 Jun9 June 20:31

        Urgh. At least I have the email from Air Malta confirming the time frame for the refund. So they can’t dispute they owe me the money. BA have been a breeze in comparison.

• FM says:

  9 Jun9 June 14:36

  Have got a stay at the IC O2 booked for early August, paid to upgrade a free night certificate booking. With its current status as a quarantine hotel, not sure if this will be going ahead. What are my options? Should the hotel accommodate me elsewhere or should I cancel and keep the vouchers for later use (seem to remember they’ve been extended to end Dec)?

  • Anna says:

    9 Jun9 June 16:20

    They’ll probably tell you you have to cancel and rebook yourself, but if your voucher is valid for a while yet you’ve plenty of options.

  • Chrism20 says:

    9 Jun9 June 17:53

    They will just cancel your reservation after sending you an email making out that the government have commandeered the hotel and they have had no choice in it.

    I’d have a back up in place just incase.

    They appear to have stiffed a few people over the bank holiday weekend by leaving it till the week before to start cancelling.

    • FM says:

      9 Jun9 June 19:35

      Thanks, will make some refundable bookings

      • Anna says:

        9 Jun9 June 20:57

        Don’t forget the credit card free night isn’t like the Ambassador 2nd night free, you have to cancel it before you can make another booking with the certificate.

• David D says:

  9 Jun9 June 14:41

  It looks like the £45 Economist Amex offer does not stack with the Avios offer – I see the original post has been updated to highlight this. Pity as I was hoping it would.

• Reney says:

  9 Jun9 June 14:56

  IHG data point, so I received the random 25k points that Rob wrote about a few weeks back (I qualified for Spire via card spend last year). I have since requalified for Spire via card spend. But no 25k for qualifying.

  I recognised that I got my 25k points either way. It just seems odd to me that I got something for doing nothing, but actually qualifying again per normal got me nothing. I am assuming people who didn’t get the random 25k points but qualified for Spire actually got their 25k points?

  • Aston100 says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:17

    “I am assuming people who didn’t get the random 25k points but qualified for Spire actually got their 25k points?”
    I did.

    • Grant says:

      9 Jun9 June 15:32

      Me too

      • Reney says:

        9 Jun9 June 16:06

        did anyone get the 25k twice?

        • Hilly says:

          9 Jun9 June 17:05

          Yes I got 25k x2, both posted on the same in March.

    • Anna says:

      9 Jun9 June 16:22

      +1 – but I had to email IHG and point out that the 25k “goodwill” points was a completely worthless gesture if they then weren’t going to give me my 25k for re-qualifying for Spire, which they did concede after a bit of toing and froing!

      • Aston100 says:

        9 Jun9 June 17:07

        Not sure it is wise to look the creative gift horse in the mouth TBH.

        • Char Char says:

          9 Jun9 June 17:34

          Well it makes sense as it was supposed to be for last year, so if you qualify this year then you should expect the points

        • Anna says:

          9 Jun9 June 20:58

          It wasn’t a gift – I’d earned it anyway! It worked, though.

• Wollhouse says:

  9 Jun9 June 15:01

  Rob May have covered already, but a change with the revised BA Amex cards that is hidden in the t&c’s states that if you get a refund Amex will deduct Avios at your CURRENT earning rate, not at the rate that applied at time of purchase. So, should you get any accelerators under a promo, and you get a refund during this, you could end up losing more Avios than you earned up front. Apologies if this has already been highlighted and I’ve missed it!

  • Rob says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:11

    This has always been Amex practice I think, even if not specified in the rules.

    • Wollhouse says:

      9 Jun9 June 15:16

      Really? Guess I got a non-clued up rep as I successfully got Avios recredited! I did argue that the uplift was done to retain me as I was going to cancel and this taking extra Avios off me seemed self defeating, and they agreed. But guess I got lucky;)

  • Genghis says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:12

    I thought this was de facto how things work currently?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      9 Jun9 June 17:32

      Works in your favour after a downgrading ofcourse …

  • Doug M says:

    9 Jun9 June 16:47

    On the gold card I bought an Alaska flight in US$ and got double MR, normal + Outbound (non-GBP currency). Queried it and agent insisted that was correct. When it was inevitably refunded they deducted 3x MR, normal, outbound and airline. When I called them they insisted this was right, only after considerable arguing did they re-credit x1 so that it matched the original award. Was 130MR or similar, just really annoyed me. I pointed out repeatedly that the T&C’s were unclear on whether outbound and airline stacked, and pointed to other examples where it did. Agent still wouldn’t concede and claimed credited MR was goodwill. Was bored with it all at that point, but logic and understanding seemed a stretch on this issue.
    This is another reason why churning is more valuable at the moment, refunds on closed cards less likely to result in loss of various points. I may have missed out on the Plat retention offers, but equally I haven’t spent £550 on a travel card in a period of no travel.

• Yuff says:

  9 Jun9 June 15:06

  0 0
  Print
  The British ambassador, Hugh Elliott, stated in an interview with Europa Press Television on Wednesday that, “in principle”, the situation in both the Balearics and the Canaries will be studied separately when the UK government undertakes its travel review towards the end of June.

  The ambassador said that there are “very good communications” with the Spanish government and the governments of the Balearics and the Canaries. Their requests for the islands to be listed separately will be taken into account, but “in practice we will have to see what the scientists say about the situation on the ground”.

  • meta says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:11

    They are not following science. Everything else is just a lie that public continues swallowing.

    • Yuff says:

      9 Jun9 June 15:44

      It’s a freaking joke, Mrs yuff and daughter are currently isolating at home because they went to an area that has 90% fewer cases, than an area 20 miles away, with much stricter covid measures…..
      They really are showing themselves to be a bunch of 🤡

  • r* says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:13

    Doesnt a destination being added to the green list basically come down to how many Conservative ministers have holidays planned there after the end of july?

    • meta says:

      9 Jun9 June 15:29

      I suspect not as they have a found a way to avoid home and hotel quarantine by signing up for the “pilot scheme” where they get tested every day…

      • Sam G says:

        9 Jun9 June 16:11

        That was for COVID exposure, not foreign travel

        • WaynedP says:

          9 Jun9 June 16:34

          Covid exposure during or on return from a football game played in a foreign country. Same diffs in my books.

          I wonder how many of the other poor hoi polloi who travelled with the odiously-behaved one were lucky enough to avoid isolation by signing up to a convenient trial ?

  • Anna says:

    9 Jun9 June 16:17

    My feeling is that nowhere will go back on the green list before September, they are clearly hell bent on stopping people flocking to the beaches of the Med over the busy summer period and have got the rising rates of the Delta variant to call on as an excuse not to change the traffic light ratings for at least another 2 months. Come September the vaccine programme should be pretty much complete and far fewer people will be able to travel anyway because the kids will be back at school.

    • Rob says:

      9 Jun9 June 16:19

      The Daily Express has given me their ranty comment column again tomorrow to discuss this which I’m sure will have a major impact 🙂

      • WaynedP says:

        9 Jun9 June 16:28

        Just to be clear in my own head ..

        They’ve given you the opportunity to contribute to their comment column, or they’ve given you early sight of tomorrow’s comment column ? Or something else ?

        • Rob says:

          9 Jun9 June 16:59

          They asked me to write it, which I have.

        • WaynedP says:

          9 Jun9 June 17:17

          Oh good. I’d be interested to read, but will have to find an alternative means to access, as I stopped patronising the printed press over a decade ago. Won’t even take a free paper when handed out alongside bottled water at WHSmith.

        • Rob says:

          9 Jun9 June 18:00

          Not on online, at least wasn’t last time.

      • Phil says:

        9 Jun9 June 17:35

        I assume, as it’s the Express, you’ve discovered Diana is still alive and she’s going to fix Covid for the World.

        • Ash says:

          9 Jun9 June 21:50

          Oh god here we go..

    • Alan says:

      9 Jun9 June 16:40

      But visiting Blackpool where lots of people will be carrying the Delta variant, social distancing/mask wearing is widely ignored and is the streets beaches are packed is apparently ok.

      • Anna says:

        9 Jun9 June 16:56

        Yes, Blackpool isn’t even on the Lancashire Covid support package! Yet people from the plague pits of Bolton and Blackburn will be mixing freely with all and sundry, including the Scottish visitors whose homeland they are not even allowed to enter just now. It’s an absolute farce.

      • meta says:

        9 Jun9 June 18:39

        Going to a shop, to work, to public transport, to a restaurant then back home all without mask and without social distancing. People are slowly starting to ignore the rules. I mean Delta variant is here to stay until the next variant and so on…

    • Yuff says:

      9 Jun9 June 16:52

      People don’t want to travel to be ripped off in the Uk in holiday destinations with the chance of awful weather, although everyone should thank me as I left the beautiful half term weather in England and brought out awful weather to Mallorca for half term 😀
      The moment mrs yuff went back to the Uk the sunny mallorcan weather returned…….
      I am jinxed…….

  • TGLoyalty says:

    9 Jun9 June 17:33

    Bojo doesn’t even know what Science is let alone follow it 😂😂😂😂

• Andy says:

  9 Jun9 June 15:31

  Signed up for Amex Plat via the boosted 70k referral link. On the app it’s showing the spend count to a 30k bonus instead. Is this normal, should I already check with Amex now or once I’ve hit the spend target if the other 40k don’t post?

  • Mark says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:35

    Rob has written about this, there’s an article somewhere. Essentially you will get all your bonus but might take a few queries and/or up to 3 months.

    • Rob says:

      9 Jun9 June 16:17

      Totally normal, Amex never adjusts this spend counter.

      • Andy says:

        9 Jun9 June 17:34

        Thanks Rob, Mark

• Navara says:

  9 Jun9 June 15:31

  Not sure if TUI shares are rising because travel is looking good or they have sold off their share in the empty hotels.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    9 Jun9 June 15:59

    Looks like it is in response to them planning for less travel than expected this summer.

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