The HfP chat thread – Friday 11th June

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• PK says:

  11 Jun11 June 10:53

  Sorry I am pretty new to this Seagull/Solihull thing. Just wondering how long do I have to wait after reaching the £700 rolling week limit, before attempting a £300 payment to Seagulls – is it 1 full week?
  Thanks.

  • Anna says:

    11 Jun11 June 10:57

    I don’t understand why people are still having problems with this, if you bring Che to the party these limits don’t apply!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      11 Jun11 June 15:10

      Interest does and it’s really not an issue it’s still £2800 a month.

  • Genghis says:

    11 Jun11 June 11:16

    day 0+7 days

    • Genghis says:

      11 Jun11 June 11:58

      Remember it’s £300 / day, £500 / 3 days, £700 / week.
      So if you’re doing £300 on the Monday, £200 on the Tuesday, £200 on the Thursday, then you can do £300 again on the Monday.
      But if you’re doing £300 on the Monday, £200 on the Saturday and £200 on the Sunday, you’ll have to wait to the following Tuesday to do £300.

      • PK says:

        11 Jun11 June 12:09

        Thanks Genghis. It all makes sense but I am struggling with the “wait to the following Tuesday” logic for the second scenario. Shouldn’t it be Monday for scenario 2 as well, if it is indeed Day 0+7 days?

        • Genghis says:

          11 Jun11 June 12:26

          In scenario 2, I guess you could do £100 on the Monday, taking it up to the £500 limit over 3 days, but would have to wait to the Tuesday to do a full £300.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    11 Jun11 June 11:33

    I believe a week is 7 full days. Have they changed the definition?

  • DT says:

    11 Jun11 June 12:03

    Top up Revolut with as much as you want from your IHG card, without the need for Curve. Then pay off your Amex with Revolut. No more messing about with small payments every few days and you still get your IHG points

    • Ste C says:

      11 Jun11 June 12:10

      can you use beardy without a charge instead of IHG?

      • Reney says:

        11 Jun11 June 14:43

        No, massive discussions last year when codes changed and beardy started charging cash transaction fee. A lot of people were caught out. As a one off charges were reversed but it is not a long term thing.

        • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

          11 Jun11 June 14:52

          What you CAN do is double-dip by paying Solihull with Beardy and then on to the Seagulls…

        • DT says:

          11 Jun11 June 15:47

          Amazon CC -> Virgin -> IHG -> Revolut -> Amex gets you a nice double dip of points with a bonus of £10 Amazon vouchers.

    • PK says:

      11 Jun11 June 12:11

      Thanks Anna & DT for suggesting Che, but I walked away from Che after they froze my account and asked for s**tloads of documents.

    • Louise says:

      11 Jun11 June 13:41

      Do IHG charge interest on payments to Revolut?

      • Ryan says:

        11 Jun11 June 14:02

        Yes

      • Reney says:

        11 Jun11 June 14:43

        yes but if you paid off on the day or pre paid then the final charge should be minimal and no cash transaction fee

      • DT says:

        11 Jun11 June 15:50

        Yes, but I avoid this by accumulating a balance on IHG and then paying the balance twice on the same day, then topping up Revolut by the value of the IHG balance.

        Both charges usually come off pending on the same day and clear each other off without accruing any charges or leaving the account in credit.

        • Reney says:

          11 Jun11 June 21:56

          DT, just checking there are no fees to paying virgin with amazon? First time I have seen this and excited to try!

    • Mr. AC says:

      11 Jun11 June 20:50

      As much as you want, really? I got a stern talking-to after trivial sums (<£2k overall). Luck of the draw, maybe.

  • Toppcat says:

    11 Jun11 June 13:52

    I am also new to Solihull. Do they treat payments to Ernie/Seagulls etc as a cash like payment (and therefore have to be cleared the same day to avoid interest charges) or is it just treated as a purchase? Thanks.

    • SteveJ says:

      11 Jun11 June 14:28

      Ernie via bendy not treated as cash

      • Louise says:

        11 Jun11 June 14:48

        is ernie subject to the £700 limit then?

        • Genghis says:

          11 Jun11 June 14:52

          Give it a go; the only way to learn in this game

    • Reney says:

      11 Jun11 June 14:45

      seagull via curve for me has not been treated as cash like and for those i don’t paid off on the day. I do pay off on the day for Che. If i was going both on the same day then I paid off both, since i don’t know if the system recognise that you are paying off one and not the other if you see what i mean?

    • Toppcat says:

      11 Jun11 June 17:48

      Fair point, Genghis, but always nice to benefit from the wisdom of others!

      It’s a new card, so I am giving it a month of normal spend pattern before I kick off any MS. Maybe overkill, but I would rather not draw attention to myself straight away.

      • Genghis says:

        11 Jun11 June 19:19

        I always ease cards in a bit.

• Mr. AC says:

  11 Jun11 June 10:55

  Curve chargeback data point. Had an Air Europa flight booked in December (before the variant discovery was announced) via Curve, flight cancelled after I got to the airport already due to weather. Alternatives offered (2 days out) didn’t work so I didn’t take the trip. Airline employee at the airport said they’d refund me, this was later reiterated twice by their call center and once in writing. Refund didn’t come, so after 4 months I initiated a dispute via Curve Customer Protection (which I think is just a fancy wrapper for the MC chargeback process).
  Contacted Curve within 120 days of the date of the flight, they asked for details, screenshots, tickets and any other info, and then gave a timeline of 2 more months. 2 months went by – dispute resolved in my favor (I assume Air Europa didn’t reply at all), money landed back onto the card. Process of interacting with Curve quite painless. The only small issue: the ticket in CHF was charged in GBP to my underlying card originally, but the CHF refund went back directly to the card so my bank converted it back to GBP using their rate. I asked Curve about it, and they said it’s possible to ask for the refund to go to Curve Cash ahead of time, but they can’t undo it once it happened.

  • Char Char says:

    11 Jun11 June 11:44

    I assume Curve did the original CHF to GBP transaction so its a little strange they didn’t do the same on the refund

    • 747_Brat says:

      11 Jun11 June 12:19

      I actually had a very different experience on this. When I raised a dispute for my flights on Turkish booked through Avianca Lifemiles charged in USD, they refunded everything to Curve Cash without me asking for it. And since the amount was circa US $100, they credited it to Curve Cash without any documentation as a “goodwill gesture” because apparently I am a “valuable customer” to them for feeding Ernie! 😎

      • Sam G says:

        11 Jun11 June 13:46

        I had a refund go to curve cash (and didn’t realise, so I’d been chasing Turkish airlines unfairly!) – they couldn’t refund the original payment as it was originally processed via Wirecard who are now dead

        • Char Char says:

          11 Jun11 June 16:03

          I had a refund which I chased Curve about and they couldn’t find it until I eventually found it had been credited to Curve cash, curve cash is great when you can just pay something off with it.

  • John says:

    11 Jun11 June 19:37

    I had an odd situation. I bought something in euros with a euro underlying card.

    The card’s currency was set to GBP in curve. The website timed out. Because of using Curve, the amount was charged to the underlying card, even though it was only an authorisation.

    I then had to repeat the purchase. I changed the currency to EUR in curve.

    The next day the authorisation dropped off, but Curve refunded the second (successful) transaction, not the first (failed) one.

    The underlying card has a weird fee structure thus occasionally it is better to set it to GBP in curve. I made a mistake and it would have been better to set it to EUR for this transaction. But because the forex fee is charged on refunds, if the first transaction failed and was refunded, I would have received £20 less back; however, because Curve assigned the refund to the second transaction in EUR, there was no charge for the refund, so my mistake only cost me £10 but the website’s error would have cost me £20 if not for curve….

    My explanation is probably too difficult for anyone to understand.

• Andy says:

  11 Jun11 June 11:11

  What are people’s thoughts on European travel next Easter? Not the usual destination for fellow HfPers, but looking at a Belgium CentreParcs for April 2022. Do people think testing and quarantining will still be in place? Although France and Belgium are behind UK for vaccinations they are making good progress. It’s possible that Winter 21/22 and further variants will emerge that affect things, but I’m looking at 10 months away! I’m guessing governments just can’t look that far ahead. Are people just covering the risk through companies giving good covid cover. I’m not keen on going if it means tests on arrival and departure and quarantining on return – i.e. current situation.

  • Toby says:

    11 Jun11 June 11:19

    Fwiw I think we’ll be doing tests for the next 2-3 years minimum. However, they’ll become a lot cheaper and faster. I don’t think there will be quarantine from Europe come summer ’22

  • Anna says:

    11 Jun11 June 11:35

    It’s very difficult to say – refundable bookings are the way to go and check your insurance if that’s important to you, you might not be covered for any trip you book while FCDO advice is in place not to travel (which would include Belgium at the moment).

    • Andy says:

      11 Jun11 June 13:01

      Thanks! I was concerned about booking while FCDO advise remains as it is. Unfortunately I can’t see it changing any time soon.

• r* says:

  11 Jun11 June 11:29

  Is anyone going to SS DV on the intern rate in june?

  Do we know yet if ambassador benefits will apply there?

  • Rob says:

    11 Jun11 June 11:32

    I am booked in for late July but clearly dependent on the quarantine rules changing. We actually have the top room and the 2nd top room for a few nights.

  • Genghis says:

    11 Jun11 June 11:59

    I’ve liaised with the hotel. They don’t know if they will offer AMB. But I got a deal on the meal plan.

    • YC says:

      11 Jun11 June 12:14

      What is the deal you managed to get?

      • meta says:

        11 Jun11 June 14:19

        If you download the SS app there is info about meal plans.

        @Genghis did you get an unpublished deal?

        • Genghis says:

          11 Jun11 June 14:37

          Yes – need to negotiate directly.

        • BP says:

          11 Jun11 June 19:51

          Any hint on discount % to aim for?

  • Pid says:

    11 Jun11 June 13:08

    Selfishly I am hope Portugal does not open up until mid Aug so I can go! 😉 Last year had to cancel our late summer trips as we could not go any earlier so was very jealous reading about others trips.

    I thought the t&cs stated the benefits Amb would get? If not might try to get a better deal on the meal package as well

• Richie says:

  11 Jun11 June 11:31

  Any chance of hotel reviews from the Greek Islands, particularly those that may be amber but the UK FCDO allows travel?

• Alan S says:

  11 Jun11 June 11:36

  Anyone ever stayed at the Westbridge Hotel in Stratford before?

  Not normally one for staying outside of the chains when in London, but flying in & out of London City in August and I booked a refundable rate a couple of months ago for basically £40 a night. Few nights pleasure trip, so it seemed like an interesting base.

  Seems to get a fair enough write up in the usual places.

• AJA says:

  11 Jun11 June 11:43

  Just had this week’s TAP newsletter arrive in my email. Weirdly it’s in French!

• Louise K says:

  11 Jun11 June 12:19

  Does anyone know if I take a voucher for a cancelled BAH, I can use this towards a car hire only booking?

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