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The HfP chat thread – Monday 21st June

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

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General

Comments (470)

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

  • M says:
    21 Jun21 June 11:32

    Prime day. You get extra £7 when buying £50 gift card top up.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/?node=26279482031

    This is not my link, just a general one. Was alive when I bought at 11:05. 60000 first users only. Prime members only.

    • John says:
      21 Jun21 June 11:43

      Thanks!!

    • bafan says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:07

      I had already signed up for a “Get £60 when you top up by £50” and was surprised to see they stacked. £13 back on £50 nearly paid for my 23&Me kit :).

    • Barbara Wakely says:
      21 Jun21 June 18:42

      Thank you M for the link! I just bought £50 top up and it instantly registered as £57!! That’s a great return on investment.

  • 747_Brat says:
    21 Jun21 June 11:38

    About to qualify for Spire Elite. Just wondering how long is the IHG elite status valid after you achieve it?

    I reckon IHG follows calendar year, so if I achieve Spire Elite now, will it be valid until 31 Dec 2022?
    Thanks.

  • Pete M says:
    21 Jun21 June 11:49

    So American Express in the US have introduced a way of sorting offers: https://ibb.co/xzFCLNt. Still can’t hide the ones you don’t care about, but a step in the right direction! Maybe one day the UK will also be afforded this luxury 🙂

    • TGLoyalty says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:18

      The U.K. website already offers filtering?

      • Pete M says:
        21 Jun21 June 12:36

        So it does! Never noticed the drop-down menu before!

      • bafan says:
        21 Jun21 June 12:44

        The new U.S. system is much much much much better than the U.K. system. Hopefully it will ‘filter’ over soon.

        • Andrew says:
          21 Jun21 June 14:02

          And we can uncheck the box for offers relating to sweaty sports clothes!

  • Andrew says:
    21 Jun21 June 11:50

    Lots of little changes at First Direct.

    My £250 overdraft facility that I’ve had for 30 years has been withdrawn. Not that I’ve used it in at least a decade…

    Apparently they are switching sides from Visa to Mastercard too. “Your card will have a new look, and some exciting new features, which we’ll tell you more about in the coming weeks.”

    Hopefully they will be sticking with the classic black design.

    • Anna says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:04

      I haven’t used the overdraft for years either, which is probably a good thing since they announced they were slapping 39% interest or something ridiculous on it.
      One of my best financial decisions ever was going against the advice of our mortgage advisor in 2008 when he was recommending a 5% fixed rate and opting for the FD tracker mortgage at base rate plus 0.99% … saved us a LOT in interest payments.

      • The Savage Squirrel says:
        21 Jun21 June 12:59

        I had to give up a base + 0.2% lifetime tracker due to a house move once. No idea how I got sucjh a good rate. I still miss it – having your mortgage with less than 1% interest for years is great when you’ve been used to 5% plus (though thankfully not 10% plus like my parents as I’m not that old).
        The scary thing is that a huge chunk of the population now think of this as the only normal rate – talking to a colleague getting a new first house and she was confident the bank rate would never go up to anything “crazy” like ……. 2%!

        • Anna says:
          21 Jun21 June 14:36

          We were paying 8% on our first mortgage in 1994. Fortunately house prices were a different universe then, our 3 bed cottage cost £42k! We have been immensely lucky that interest rates have come down as house prices went the other way.

          • JDB says:
            21 Jun21 June 17:36

            How young you are! Mortgage rates were 15% when my wife and I started our careers in the 1980s! We both worked for banks and mortgage subsidy was a standard perk – subsidised down to 4%, so a very valuable and not a taxable benefit as was the non-contributory pension. Company cars were good too, very lightly taxed to start with.

          • Tracey says:
            21 Jun21 June 19:47

            We once paid 15%, I think in the late 80s. By luck rather than judgement we are now on a BoE+0.75% lifetime interest only offset deal.

    • Sam G says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:04

      Santander have switched to MC too, seems like they’re having a push in the UK debit market

      • Andrew says:
        21 Jun21 June 12:13

        It goes round in circles. My first First Direct card was a Switch Card. Switch merged with Maestro (owned by Mastercard) and I had a Maestro Card issued instead. Then about 10 years ago HSBC switched sides and I had a Visa Debit Card. Now it’s back to Mastercard.

    • Alan S says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:14

      Definitely switching sides. My wife just had to replace her card following our marriage and it’s a mastercard rather than Visa this time – customer demand apparently…

      Still a black card but slick design and details printed on the back rather than front embossed.

    • gareth says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:39

      The black design is going

  • Richie says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:08

    If you change a BA booking to a cheaper flight, do you get the difference as an eVoucher at all?

    • Sam G says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:13

      I think you need to get the voucher first and book the new one. Then you’ll get a voucher for the difference

      • Richie says:
        21 Jun21 June 12:15

        Thanks, do you have to call to get the voucher?

        • ChrisC says:
          21 Jun21 June 12:34

          No do it on line and they email the voucher to you.

          you then enter the 125-XXXXXXXXX number into the new booking

          If there is a credit then you get another voucher

          Best to keep a record of your vouchers though

  • Chris says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:25

    I wanted to understand more about why UK PCR tests are considered a “rip off”. My understanding testing on the continent is much cheaper … if so what’s causing the difference?

    • Rhys says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:26

      Day 2 tests from Green List countries are all more expensive because any positive test needs to go for sequencing, which isn’t required of others (eg. test to depart)

    • Andrew says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:31

      Because UK residents aren’t accustomed to paying for Healthcare. £43 doesn’t sound too shocking really.

      I’ve had 20 PCR tests and they haven’t cost me a penny…

      • TGLoyalty says:
        21 Jun21 June 12:35

        Who is offering PCR for £43? Seems very reasonable.

      • Chris says:
        21 Jun21 June 13:40

        One thing I did notice was in ROI arrivals get a free PCR test at day 5 … but in ROI GP visits AFAIK are chargeable at ~€60 … so why the decision to provide the arrival PCR free compared to UK’s decisions for a mad network of individual organisations providing them.

  • mikescores says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:40

    Hello again all – please help.
    Can someone tell me what I need to do in order to travel to Gran Canaria. Canary Tourism states one of three things – vaccination certificate OR test (PCR or Antigen) taken no more than 48 hours before travel OR certificate of having recovered (not applicable for us).
    Is my NHS App info of my vaccinations record accepted as a vaccination certificate (suspect not but worth asking) ? Is the PCR test the only practical test to fulfil the timing requirement and proof/certification that it happened ?
    Any help – in words of one syllable please – much appreciated.
    As always HTP’ers thanks and stay safe

    • mikescores says:
      21 Jun21 June 12:55

      meant HFP’ers of course (damned computers )!!!

      • Pete M says:
        21 Jun21 June 13:06

        I’d print out the PDF the NHS app generates and show them that.

    • DRJR says:
      21 Jun21 June 13:06

      I’ve booked Lanzarote and I assumed that the NHS App certification would suffice but if you’re not sure why not email your hotel and/or the Canarian Tourist Board for clarification.

    • Anna says:
      21 Jun21 June 14:41

      My understanding is that currently you just need one of these, so your proof of vaccination should be ok (but they can and do change requirements regularly!). I would agree that printing the PDF from your NHS record is a good idea in case you can’t get a signal or something when you need to show it.

  • Dave says:
    21 Jun21 June 12:43

    I’m booked to stay at the Hilton Hampton near Blackburn as my first overnight stop-off on my way down from Scotland to Cornwall. As the tartan dictator has made it illegal for me to travel to Blackburn is there any way she can enforce this? Should I assume I’ll not get arrested on my return to Scotland? I’m starting to look for alternative hotels nearby along the M6.

    The bizarre thing is many areas of Scotland (eg Dundee) have similar covid rates without the same travel ban.

    • Nick says:
      21 Jun21 June 13:09

      You may find hotels will cancel your booking (or turn you away) based on home address.

      • Aaron C says:
        21 Jun21 June 13:22

        Why? The hotel in England isn’t obliged to follow Scots law.
        Clearly a Scottish hotel may decline a booking from a Manchester address but I’ve never been expected to show proof of address when booking into a hotel in the U.K.
        I don’t see how the Scottish authorities will enforce it either.

        • Dave says:
          21 Jun21 June 14:17

          It’s not reciprocal anyway is it? Just Scotland to England.

          My friend’s booking at Conwy Youth Hostel for his family was cancelled based on his England address, when Wales “shut” its border.

          • Anna says:
            21 Jun21 June 14:44

            It’s both ways in Scottish law, but see my post below about the hotel not actually being in Blackburn!

    • Grant says:
      21 Jun21 June 13:17

      HI Lancaster or Marriot Preston are good alternatives in the same broad location, with very easy access to / from the M6

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      21 Jun21 June 13:57

      The HI Preston had a complete refurbishment in 2019 (was well needed), very good now and near everything you need. Standard rooms are what you expect and Suites are basically 2 rooms put together: 1 bedroom and 1 lunge.

      Stayed there a few times, Breakfast has always been good for me and the staff are really nice (last visit was late 2019 I think?)

    • Andrew says:
      21 Jun21 June 14:11

      Holiday Inn at Warrington is my Friday night stop-off of choice to maximise a long weekend in Perthshire. It’s one minute off the M6 on the North side of the Thelwell viaduct.

      It would be fun to say I evaded the Supreme Leader’s state troops on the 6 occasions I crossed the border during lockdown. But there wasn’t anyone checking.

    • Anna says:
      21 Jun21 June 14:43

      Dave – The Hampton Blackburn isn’t actually in Blackburn with Darwen, it’s (just) in the neighbouring borough of Hyndburn, which as far as I know hasn’t fallen foul of wee Nicky yet! So you wouldn’t be doing anything wrong even if the staff even know about the Scottish regulation, which they most likely won’t.

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

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