The HfP chat thread – Monday 28th June

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• Anna says:

  28 Jun28 June 10:51

  I think any of the established providers will be fine. If the antigen test is acceptable as it is currently to the Canaries, Boots do a same day service at some branches – the main airports offer them as well. It’s £30 at MAN which I think is very reasonable.

  • Anna says:

    28 Jun28 June 10:52

    Sorry, reply to Patricyja which has gone astray somewhat!

    • Patrycja says:

      28 Jun28 June 17:18

      Just saw it! Thanks for the reply! Spain’s foreign minister confirmed on Twitter, entry criteria are changing for all Spain for Uk arrivals requiring vaccine certificate or PCR test.

      https://twitter.com/aranchaglezlaya/status/1409451800260980736?s=21

• bafan says:

  28 Jun28 June 11:17

  Hey Rob, is there enough interest for an article about the Phuket sandbox? Maybe not but I’m intrigued after @SamG (I think) mentioned it over the weekend. £533 R/T on Singapore Airlines and £350 for a 4*+ for the week doesn’t price up much less than Cyprus, and more of an adventure.

  • meta says:

    28 Jun28 June 11:40

    Before you book, think about the fact that if one person tests positive from your flight then you’re likely going to end up in a government facility.

  • marcw says:

    28 Jun28 June 11:50

    More of and adventure is relative. If you fancy going for holidays to a place were pretty much everything is closed, the risk of ending in state quarantine, turbulent sea (don’t expect turquoise water this time of the year), and a lot of if’s and unknowns, then it’s an adventure.

    For holidays, no thank you.

    • meta says:

      28 Jun28 June 11:55

      +1 I have flights booked for Christmas/NYE, but chances are still slim that it will be going ahead.

    • Sam G says:

      28 Jun28 June 12:04

      It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out but I agree, the theory is good but I wouldn’t be thinking of going until Nov-Dec time myself , give things chance to shake out and peak season to arrive. The weather in Europe is better this time of year & risks a lot lower. Thailand also puts you in “hospital” if you test positive even if you are well, so that’s another negative to consider.

      I suspect the main users for now will be people wanting to get back into Thailand for long term trips, family visits etc as citizens/residents/visa holders are allowed to use the sandbox facility to avoid hotel quarantine in Bangkok etc

  • bafan says:

    28 Jun28 June 12:24

    Fair enough – guess I’ll leave it to later in the year maybe 😂.

    • Wollhouse says:

      28 Jun28 June 12:48

      I’ve just come back from Samui. I quarantined for 10 nights in Bangkok. It was VERY efficient. Staff were lovely and the food was good. The room had a tiny balcony with doors you could actually open- DEFINITELY recommend this if you’re doing the quarantine thing! (Casa Vimaya if anyone is interested) Then we were in Samui for work. Yes, a lot IS closed but there was enough open to eat out at a different place every night. What’s “missing” was all the drunk tourists, go go girl scene etc. The “touristy” shops and markets aren’t open. But… what is open, was warm and friendly- locals delighted to see foreigners. The locals markets and shops are all open. Hotels are massively discounted, ditto spa hotels (Kamalaya in Samui is 60% off rooms and 45% off treatments for example). Samui hadn’t had even a positive test for over 24 days when we there as everyone had to quarantine on BKK first and then everyone (including Thais) have to show a negative PCR to fly to Samui. So, yes, I agree there’s a risk you might get something from someone on the flight, but (for me at least) that risk was more than offset by the chance to actually get some work done, with people who were desperately glad to see you. Samui felt normal- very few people were wearing masks, and my friends say it’s even less now. I appreciate that everyone’s approach to risk is different, but for me it was heaven as well as a very productive business trip. Just nice to remember what “normal” used to be.

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        28 Jun28 June 12:53

        Thai people are lovely, just don’t expect A* organisation!

      • Sam G says:

        28 Jun28 June 13:00

        I noticed Bangkok Airways have put the Phuket-Samui direct flight back on the schedule a couple of times a week from July 16th, so you can skip Bangkok and hotel quarantine completely now if you want

  • Catman99 says:

    28 Jun28 June 13:20

    Thailand is also pretty far. It’s about 12 hours flying direct and 15+ hours flying indirect. There is also a 6 hour time difference to consider, so for most people, jet lag can be a problem. Personally I think you would be crazy flying all that way for a weeks holiday and I normally recommend 3 weeks ….

    I am there now and it’s lovely and quiet….

• a270 says:

  28 Jun28 June 11:25

  BA have cancelled my end July flight. I was utilising my Marriot Travel Package voucher but the hotel has no standard room availability if I move my flights to August so I am really annoyed as I don’t want to pay extra Bonvoy points. We had pre-agreed an upgrade rate with the hotel so I don’t need the standard room to be available. However, when I call, I doubt Marriott would agree to book a room that is technically not available. I know I can change the hotel but I don’t like any other in the area and changing the destination is even bigger step. What are my choices?

  • Sam G says:

    28 Jun28 June 11:34

    Did you speak to the hotel? If they’re feeling helpful they could get the revenue manager to allow standard rooms to overbook by 1 for you to move your booking

    • Sam G says:

      28 Jun28 June 11:37

      Or fly another airline. If there is a big fare difference try ask Ba to rebook you to a suitable alternative as is your Eu261 right. They won’t but then don’t refund but write to them after the trip for the fare difference, might need to take them to MCOL or CEDR to get it

    • meta says:

      28 Jun28 June 11:37

      If BA has cancelled the flight, then your option is also to reroute on any airline. You didn’t say which destination, so don’t know the options. Don’t agree to a refund from BA as then you won’t be able to ask for reroute.

      • a270 says:

        28 Jun28 June 11:57

        Thanks all. It’s Turkey so I’m not sure if I have much of a case considering it’s on the red list. Their cases are much lower now so likely to go on amber by the time I travel. Right now it’s still red so BA might not re-route me on say, Turkish Airlines. I think I will try and move it to the earliest flight in August if the hotel agree to what Sam G has suggested. If there are any other options, please do share.

        • Anna says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:03

          Red list status is irrelevant – you could be travelling for an essential reason and doing hotel quarantine when you get back for all BA knows. Your EU261 rights still stand.

        • Sam G says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:06

          I think Turkey you’ll have a good chance of getting a shift to August, their bookings must be in the toilet & they’re usually a delightfully helpful bunch. Later the better in terms of it moving to Amber and you getting to go

          one thing to note is you might not want to rush to move the BA flight even if you can move the hotel ,you only need a seat to be available to do it, currently you’ve got an open ticket that you can refund or select any date as you please

        • a270 says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:34

          Thank you. My return flight hasn’t been cancelled though or does that automatically get cancelled if outbound doesn’t go ahead?

          I usually read here that rerouting is not something BA is happy to do. Is the procedure me calling them and just asking for rerouting as that would be the easiest option. However, if it stays on red list, will that mean I would lose my ticket as I wouldn’t travel if it stays on red.

        • Sam G says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:39

          They’d reroute you via a Lufthansa or Swiss flight if there is anything that works, they can’t reroute onto Turkish or Easyjet or Jet2 which would be your likely options.

          Personally I’d try move the hotel and then sit on the flight for a while and see what happens wrt Amber/ double vacced no quarantine / BA actually flying there in Aug etc.

        • Anna says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:43

          Sam G – they can and should re-route onto any airline, BA policy is not the same as consumer law.

        • Sam G says:

          28 Jun28 June 12:59

          yes sorry, I mean that’s what BA can do on the phone. you are free to reroute yourself as you please and go after them for the fare difference afterwards

        • Pete M says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:12

          Remember Turkey isn’t primarily on the red list due to their own cases, but because of its hub airport… Like Dubai. So whether it will be amber at some point soon is a big if!

        • a270 says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:31

          Since we are a family of 4, some of the tickets are booked with Avios while others are booked using cash. Does that impact in rerouting i.e. Do they need to be cash tickets?

        • Rob says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:51

          No legal difference.

        • Louie says:

          28 Jun28 June 13:38

          @PeteM – except that the majority of Brits travelling to Turkey over the summer won’t be going anywhere near Istanbul.

• M says:

  28 Jun28 June 11:46

  Hey everyone, sorry if this has been asked recently:

  I would like to travel from London to Edinburgh and back in July (considering flight or train). As far as I know, no tests are required for either mode of transportation, is that right?

  • KP says:

    28 Jun28 June 11:51

    Correct

    • M says:

      28 Jun28 June 12:09

      Thanks!

• Simon says:

  28 Jun28 June 12:04

  Q re The Economist / Avios sub offer • my apologies if this has been answered recently, but approximately how long are the 18K/15K Avios taking to post into people’s BAEC accounts once a subscription has been taken out? I appreciate that this may vary between people, but any rough approximation would be much appreciated. Many thanks in advance.

  • Sam G says:

    28 Jun28 June 12:13

    Mine took 8 days

    • Simon says:

      28 Jun28 June 12:32

      Many thanks, Sam. 😉

  • MW says:

    28 Jun28 June 12:15

    Took a week for them to show up here.

    • Simon says:

      28 Jun28 June 12:33

      Thanks, MW. 😉

  • Will A says:

    28 Jun28 June 12:59

    For me it was just over 2 weeks.

    • Simon says:

      30 Jun30 June 18:13

      Thanks, Will

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    28 Jun28 June 21:31

    Took out a digital sub on June 15 & the points posted yesterday (12 days). The £45 Amex credit posted on June 19 (4 days).

    • Simon says:

      30 Jun30 June 18:14

      Thanks, GG

• r* says:

  28 Jun28 June 12:22

  How does that prenetics/projectscreen remote return to uk lateral flow test work that was mentioned on page 1 if it doesnt require video calls?

  • a270 says:

    28 Jun28 June 12:41

    I did the Prenetics antigen test before coming back to the UK. You activate the test and start the timer when you say you are about to start the test. Then after you click you are done, it starts a timer. You are then shown pictures of options to choose from. You tick the one that is the same as your test result after which you have to upload the photo of your test result within 2 hours. They check that the photos match and email the certificate usually within 24 hours. Hope this helps. No live video.

    • Pete M says:

      28 Jun28 June 12:49

      Obviously anyone could take the test. But that’s the case with pretty much every test, even in person unless they ask to see ID.

      • ankomonkey says:

        28 Jun28 June 14:09

        Absolutely. There’s nothing stopping one person taking a test and, if negative, them then taking all the tests for the remaining members of their group. Same with the postal PCR tests (lateral flow before PCR to find a negative result to then take all postal PCRs).

    • ankomonkey says:

      28 Jun28 June 14:06

      Used Prenetics recently too and was happy with the service. The tests have numbers on them and have to be registered to a user on their site. The number will be visible on the photo you send. I found it all very easy 🙂

  • Rich says:

    28 Jun28 June 16:37

    I had a lot of problems with Prenetics – notably the website wanted a barcode for my lateral flow test, and there wasn’t one on any of the packaging. Maybe it was the barcode on the test strip, but I hadn’t opened it by then – zero instructions.

    Also, the submission form didn’t seem to work in Safari – I had to request a new barcode number from Helpdesk (by email, out of hours) and try it in Chrome.

    Leave yourself plenty of time. I would do it at the first opportunity;

• Anna says:

  28 Jun28 June 12:41

  Just a reminder if anyone is intending to pay off a BA holiday balance with a FTV, it’s taking up to 7 days to process so needs to be applied at least 4 weeks prior to travel.

  • Yvo says:

    28 Jun28 June 16:25

    @Anna – Ive been trying to get them to apply a voucher since 25th May, no response to the email, can’t get through, Twitter bods fob me off saying they are too busy. Put in a complaint, said I couldn’t use the voucher where the original email says “this email is your voucher”. Really really frustrated with Beatrix.

    • Yvo says:

      28 Jun28 June 17:42

      *BA

• Gavin says:

  28 Jun28 June 12:51

  Any way to make a saving on NowTV subscription? I will be subscribing for the Sports package for a month for the Lions tour.

  • Red Flyer says:

    28 Jun28 June 13:04

    Go5050 – just £15.99 per month and only a monthly commitment.

    • Sandra says:

      28 Jun28 June 13:21

      @Red Flyer – thanks for this we will try it too as also wanting a month just for Lions tour.

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