The HfP chat thread – Saturday 26th June

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• Eric the Half a Bee says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:33

  Stating at Indigo Bath this weekend. Beautiful hotel, incredible kettle.

  • Eric the Half a Bee says:

    26 Jun26 June 09:34

    *staying

  • Andrew says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:32

    But what about the artwork?

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    26 Jun26 June 11:55

    What about the hangers? That’s the important stuff!

    • The cyclist says:

      26 Jun26 June 13:26

      I like a set of hangers. 🙂

  • Eric the Half a Bee says:

    26 Jun26 June 13:27

    Pleased to say that the hangers are pleasingly nickable.

    • kitten says:

      26 Jun26 June 16:27

      … were? or are?

      • Eric the Half a Bee says:

        26 Jun26 June 17:21

        Not really the point – as long as there’s the option for all those who have a hanger fetish!

  • Rupert says:

    26 Jun26 June 15:49

    Breakfast absolute shambles though…

    • Eric the Half a Bee says:

      26 Jun26 June 17:20

      Agree, too slow and quite chaotic when the hotel is full. Cancelled for tomorrow and will eat elsewhere.

• Eric the Half a Bee says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:33

  *staying

• Anish says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:36

  Anyone know if the regent st Amex offer works at apple? Location is listed as participating but feel like I’ve read previously on this forum that it doesn’t trigger? Any advice would be hopeful. Thanks 😊

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:05

    Someone mentioned that the mobile payment terminals used there aren’t recognised as a participating regent st store.

  • K says:

    26 Jun26 June 11:30

    I used it twice and got the £20 credit the day after the transactions posted.

  • Kevin says:

    26 Jun26 June 11:39

    I am having the same question and would welcome those experienced feedback on this so that can get something across Apple and keihl and trigger the offer. TIA

    • Lady London says:

      26 Jun26 June 12:47

      You could use a Harvey Nicks offer or a Harrods offer for Kiehl’s if you don’t need the Kiehl’s buy now to combine with the Apple to make up a sum. Also I think people have said the Apple Store in Harrods works on Harrods offers.

      Is Liberty counting as Regent Street? I know the main entrance is in Marlborough Street but I’ve got an idea they do maintain a Regent St. address. Do they still have Kiehl’s?

      • Kevin says:

        26 Jun26 June 14:39

        Afraid I don’t have Harrods nor Harvey Nicole offer and thus regent street offer appears better deal to me.

  • AY says:

    26 Jun26 June 14:22

    Definitely works I bought an iPad at Apple Regent Street and two days layer it credited.

    • Kevin says:

      26 Jun26 June 14:41

      That’s good. I am going to get something from regent st this weekend and will report back later.

  • Nick B says:

    27 Jun27 June 07:29

    Hi there. I used the offer the buy iTunes vouchers and although the terms and conditions stated mobile terminals would not trigger the offer, the cash back was paid. Cool

• Memesweeper says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:51

  What’s the current thinking about the future prospects for Virgin Atlantic? I know a few folks here took fright and cashed out their points to Hilton last year… do we feel they are on a sound enough financial footing now?

  • BP says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:06

    I’m interested in this too. Got almost 300,000 points and that’s an awful lot of sausage rolls to lose out on!!

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      26 Jun26 June 11:26

      The points are now owned by Virgin Red not Virgin Atlantic so sausage rolls should be safe but if VS collapse it might be the only decent redemption left.

      Hopefully VS will be fine, but nobody knows what u-turns the government is going to make.

      I did move my points to Hilton but in my case I probably would have done it anyway. I didn’t have enough points for a big redemption (most of my points were earned on train travel which wasn’t such a high earner) and I was moving away from the UK for a bit so I had no way to top up my balance through Tesco or getting a credit card so I thought better to cash out now rather than worrying about keeping the account alive.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        26 Jun26 June 11:57

        We’ll all be set for life if sausage rolls become the only option 😋

      • Tom1 says:

        26 Jun26 June 14:13

        I don’t know the technicality … but if points are now owned by Virgin Red, if VS went bust, would the Hilton transfer still be possible? Is it Virgin Red > VS > Hilton, or simply Virgin Red > Hilton?

  • Joe says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:09

    I’ve got plenty but I’m holding on – I think they’ll be fine. US/U.K. travel doesn’t look a million miles away, which will be crucial.

  • Rob says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:42

    If US travel reopens by year end I think they will be ok. Looking at LinkedIn they are hiring aggressively at HQ.

  • Harry T says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:56

    Yeah, I reckon they will be okay. US travel should open up by the end of year.

    • Lady London says:

      26 Jun26 June 12:49

      You were previously strongly bettibg on July Harry T 🙂

      • TGLoyalty says:

        26 Jun26 June 13:00

        There really isn’t any reason for UK USA travel not to open right now. Both have 45% of there total population fully vaccinated with highly effective vaccines.

        It’s a matter of when not if.

        • Paul says:

          26 Jun26 June 14:15

          There is ever reason to keep us out. The Delta variant is not running rife in the USA which is why we are not welcome there or almost anywhere else. Plague island needs to control spread not just vaccinate.
          The English should really stop interpreting the wording in the inside of the passport literally.

  • BJ says:

    26 Jun26 June 19:01

    Instinctively I feel they have weathered the worst (yet again) and will struggle on in some shape or form. I am now collecting Virgin points for flights for first time ever, my default was previously always to transfer them to Hilton. ANA and Euro short-haul with AF/KLM swung it for me.

• Jon says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:53

  Sharing my Barclays Premier switching experience (comparing this to First Direct).

  Registered online and got confirmation of request right away. About a week or so later got an onboarding email with links to services. Followed the links and then spent an hour trying to register for online access in absence of any information. Called their ‘premium’ line and got dumped into a normal queue. Eventually got an online access token to use with the app and could log in.

  Started the Avios linking online (it doesn’t work). Switched to the app and was told I don’t have an eligible account. More call centre waiting and I apparently have to wait 10 days for my account to activate. Waited. Managed to link my account to BAEC.

  Tried to start the account switching process and again I don’t have an ‘eligible account’. This time chat was available in the app. After a pointless chat I was given a number to call on Monday. Asked what the conditions are to retain the account and the agent hung up the chat.

  Looking at the Ts and Cs it seems that once you are eligible based on income criteria, you just need to pay £12 a month to get all the Avios benefits. If that’s true I’m not switching and will just transfer over the 12 quid a month.

  Anyway, long post and switchers beware! One call centre agent was at least honest enough to say the app wasn’t very good.

  • Gary says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:13

    Similar “no eligible account” experience with switching, and in my case was due to it’s a Barclays joint account – despite donor account being single. Easiest is via video banking (or branch) …. App/online won’t work.

    • Sam G says:

      26 Jun26 June 11:07

      To share a counter point, I got registered online , set up my online access and transferred from a Santander current account with absolutely no problem and no speaking to a human involved.

      My understanding is that they’re pretty hot on wanting to see actual income to maintain Premier and if you just do a transfer out of all your salary at the beginning of the month that’ll cause you problems. That said my OH has had a Premier account the whole time we’ve lived abroad (6 years) with virtually no transactions and nothing happened, so not sure what the reality actually will be!

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    26 Jun26 June 12:42

    Mate applied, was charged the monthly fee immediately but couldn’t get the online banking set up and was charged overdraft fees and interest on top of it.

    • Lady London says:

      26 Jun26 June 12:52

      Defo worth a complaint, should not lose for this. It’s not the charges it’s the marker on the account.

• stevenhp1987 says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:56

  WizzAir cancelled my return portion of our flights (17th July) to KEF.

  Seems they’re not flying that route for a while. Our outbound is on 10th July… they rebooked us automatically for the same flight back, so 40mins “in” Iceland.

  I rang them to get them to re-route us via EasyJet the following morning. They plain out refused. They would only offer a refund of the cancelled flight or rerouting via WizzAir (which they said isn’t possible as there are no flights back), and they expect me to take the outgoing flight.

  I’m correct in thinking they should re-route me to the EasyJet flight the following morning (18th July) as well as cover the hotel for the 17th (at the airport) under EU/UK 261?

  How do I go about this? I don’t want to accept the change, or accept the refund, yet, as the return leg is 40mins after landing their T&C state I accept the change if I don’t inform them of my choice 3 hours before… which would mean I “accept” the 40min turnaround if I don’t accept a refund… But my choice is not one they accept!

  • meta says:

    26 Jun26 June 10:02

    You should inform them that you are not intending to take a flight and insist that they put a note on your flight. I would record the call and also send a letter to that effect via recorded delivery or an email or all of the above. Explain also how utterly ridiculous this is. Then you’ll be covered. Don’t accept any change or refund, just leave it but do what I said above. Then I’m afraid you’ll very likely need to go to MCOL, but leave that for after you come back. Rebook yourself on Easyjet and book a night at a hotel. Keep all receipts for food costs as well. Then when you’re back deal with MCOL.

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      26 Jun26 June 10:49

      Thanks, pretty much what I thought unfortunately.

      Never had to go through MCOL yet!

      • Lady London says:

        26 Jun26 June 12:56

        Hey meta the orange airline seems to be pulling out of my favourite route solidly month by month now. One or two of the cancellations I was actually quite keen to fly.

        Do you think I’ll have any luck getting them to fund a BA replacement for their cancelled flight?

        • meta says:

          26 Jun26 June 14:41

          I put chances at 2% and that’s maybe generous😂

  • Paul says:

    26 Jun26 June 14:21

    The should re route but you will have a fight. This guy took on BA and won

    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2044931-eu261-cedr-upholds-right-rerouting-outside-ticket-validity.html

    The customer has 3 options

    (a) — full refund of the booking, and where appropriate a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;

    (b) re-routing to the final destination at the earliest opportunity; or

    (c) re-routing to the final destination at a later date at the passenger’s convenience, subject to availability of seats.

    One the customer chooses the airlines responsibility ceases…..until the next time

• rotundo says:

  26 Jun26 June 09:58

  Looks like it, expand the “If you want to change your Advance ticket” section here:
  https://www.lner.co.uk/customer-service/refunds/#Applyforarefund
  (They certainly don’t advertise it loudly!)

• George K says:

  26 Jun26 June 10:28

  Hey folks, there might be a ticket going for the sold-out Landor day out at Dunsfold. Pick up at event. If interested email pfcfederal at gmail.com

  (Delete if not allowed, obviously)

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