The HfP chat thread – Monday 28th June

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GJB says:

28 Jun28 June 16:18

I’m staying in a Hilton sun-thur, however I have just been told I need to be elsewhere in the UK from tomorrow evening. Would Hilton allow me to get a refund or voucher for un-used nights?
- GJB says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 16:18
  
  Just to clarify, I am here right now so I am ‘mid stay’.
  - Harry T says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 16:42
    
    Ask the hotel – it will be up to hotel management.
    - David D says:
      
      28 Jun28 June 17:35
      
      Some of their rates when you book do have no penalty for early check-out. If you check in the app what the details of your rate is it may give you the required information as well.
  - Rob says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 18:02
    
    Depends on the rate you booked. Even some fully flexible rates have an ‘early departure’ policy if you leave now. Very little chance of getting a prepaid rate back.
Richie says:

28 Jun28 June 17:00

Today’s covid cases figures for the UK show a steep rise, is an EU ban for UK residents coming soon?
- Rich says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:05
  
  They’re not quite as steep as they look – there’s a few thousand in there that were bottlenecked. (But even so, yes they’re pretty bad).
  
  Europe definitely looks like it’s tightening up.
  - Yuff says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 18:04
    
    Rich
    How many were bottlenecked?
    - Rich says:
      
      28 Jun28 June 18:13
      
      I think at least 4k of those announced today, according to this tweet
      
      https://twitter.com/BristOliver/status/1409536006215417861
      
      Still not great, and the weekly numbers will have smoothed a lot out
      - Yuff says:
        
        28 Jun28 June 18:35
        
        Thanks Rich, , still rising but a bit steadier……..
- Anna says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:05
  
  You’re a bit late to the party, Richie!
  - Richie says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 17:19
    
    I’ve only just updated my risk assessment for a trip starting saturday, it’s tipped the wrong way.
- meta says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:07
  
  It will be up to individual countries. There won’t be an EU-wide ban as that’s not how it works.
  - Richie says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 17:45
    
    Do Angela, Ursula and Emmanuel see it like that?
    - meta says:
      
      28 Jun28 June 17:54
      
      Rules are rules. Only Brits think that one person can change everything.
      
      They can’t do anything about it. If tourism dependant EU countries want British tourists, there isn’t anything stopping them and they’ll decide how. And case in point are new rules in Portugal and Spain.
      - Anna says:
        
        28 Jun28 June 17:57
        
        Hasn’t Portugal just announced that all unvaccinated visitors from the UK have to quarantine? That’s going to mess up quite a few holidays even if it goes back on the green list.
      - meta says:
        
        28 Jun28 June 20:02
        
        Well, yes, but Germany bans even vaccinated. Slovenia asks for just one dose of AZ for example between 21and 84 days. Spain has it’s own set of rules. Poland another set and so on. It is not uniform and just goes to show that borders are not completely controlled by Merkel, Macron, Ursula or any particular person.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  29 Jun29 June 00:02
  
  https://twitter.com/ThatRyanChap/status/1409169413526466566?s=20
  
  “Cases” are no longer the measure for the situation in the U.K.
  
  The EU countries will restrict while they jab fully as many 60+ as they can.
Oliver says:

28 Jun28 June 17:17

Finally got round to taking out an Economist print subscription today (I got an email from Amex straight away to confirm I used the offer, so there’s still time).

They are now offering digital-only subscriptions for half price in their summer sale (£89.50 for the year). Unless you’re purely in it for the points, the Avios digital offer probably no longer makes sense.
- KS says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:28
  
  If I convert avios to nectar I would still get £120 to spend at Sainsbury’s. That looks better than £89.5.
Cabal of rabid baboons says:

28 Jun28 June 17:17

Our European friends have a superb strategy for keeping their COVID numbers down, they just don’t test as many people as we do? Sheer brilliance innit?
- Anna says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:28
  
  Indeed, and not doing much gene sequencing means they have far fewer variants, naturally!
  - meta says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 17:57
    
    Or the other way round perhaps. British government is pumping the numbers to keep us in the UK.
    - Anna says:
      
      28 Jun28 June 17:59
      
      It wouldn’t surprise me, @meta, though I still put my money on the Johnson honeymoon not taking place in a domestic setting! Or numerous other ministers’ and MPs’ holidays. They can all jet off to amber countries at the end of July then work from home for the rest of the parliamentary recess.
      - marcw says:
        
        28 Jun28 June 20:01
        
        Or maybe they get enrolled in a special program/trial once they return.
      - meta says:
        
        28 Jun28 June 20:10
        
        Yes, put off the decision as long as you can so people, airlines, companies are resigned to not going anywhere, make other countries put us on ban lists, then allow it at the eleventh hour and wash their hands and jet off on their private jets.
        
        It’s probably both.
      - Optimus Prime says:
        
        28 Jun28 June 21:43
        
        And write it off as a business expense…
- David says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 21:10
  
  What rabbit hole of nonsense do you people keep decending down?!
  - ChrisBCN says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 23:52
    
    David, it’s got worse and worse every day – as people get upset at their own trips being cancelled, they spout more and more nationalistic nonsense fed to them by their media sources… Even those from other countries are stuck in the same rabbit hole. Divisism rules!
    - David says:
      
      29 Jun29 June 00:28
      
      Indeed, and it’s the same group of no more than 10 ‘ultras’ every day, saying the same thing to each other, post after post, reinforcing this offensive nonsense.
Marie says:

28 Jun28 June 17:30

Hoping for mallorca this weekend. Anyone know at what covid rate per 100000 the government switch to amber?
Not sure if the stats presented on the Spanish websites are comparable.
Thanks !
- will says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:38
  
  I think Portugal was 37 when it went to amber.
  
  Think Balearics were 32 when they switched to green. They’re now 49.
  
  Make of that what you will.
  
  I’m thinking of booking too, but it really is a mine field. I think I’m going to book a speculative mid holiday avios flight home in case they put it back on amber mid trip.
  - Marie says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 17:46
    
    Good strategy.
  - Yuff says:
    
    28 Jun28 June 18:12
    
    The Balearic government have updated the British government as to the reason for the spike and 238 students are in isolation in Mallorca.
    Hopefully it’s a one off.
    They aren’t very happy here about it.
- Rich says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:46
  
  There’s no exact threshold. It’s a qualitative assessment: case rate, positivity, sequencing, direction of trend, vaccination rollout.
- Harry T says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 19:26
  
  The government are not transparent about the criteria they use to make decisions. Of course, that’s probably because they are just making it up 😊
Imran says:

28 Jun28 June 17:42

Need to hire a car for a month in the Midlands area. Are there any rental companies which offer discounts for booking a car for the whole month?

I am also interested in the elite status with car rental companies. I reckon Amex PRG offers a Gold with Hertz, if I am not wrong. Any tips or trick in gaining elite status are welcome.
Thanks.
- Rich says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:59
  
  Europcar have a monthly thing called Superflex. It came up with some decent priced for me last year, but I ended up just finding a better deal with a standard Hertz rental.
  
  Not sure status will get you much – for a long rental, they won’t be too keen to give away the Crown Jewels.
Dan says:

28 Jun28 June 17:44

Posted the other day but was very late so trying again to see if I get more luck:

Does reporting a card as lost or stolen mean that the new card being issued will have an extended expiry date?

My Virgin Free Rewards card is expiring in October ’21 and when I phoned earlier asking if a new one would be sent out closer to the date, they said very cryptically that “Virgin Money” will assess your account and then make a decision on issuing a new card”.

This kind of got be worried as I do use the card on channels that are well known in this forum (you know what I mean) so was thinking that if I can foresee and beat this by requesting a new card now?

Anyone have any experiences of this?
- M says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 18:07
  
  Surely if they want to terminate the relationship it does not matter if the card expires next month or in five years?
- Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 18:29
  
  Whether or not they will close your account has nothing to do with the expiry date on the plastic.
- Sandra says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 20:38
  
  IME on the few occasions I’ve been issued a new card, once due to loss & other couple of times due to attempted fraud on an account, the new card had the same expiry date as the original that it replaced.
Doug M says:

28 Jun28 June 17:57

LOL. Best comment since Ali’s one regarding the daily gathering of Epidemiologists.
- Doug M says:
  
  28 Jun28 June 17:58
  
  That was intended for Roberto
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    29 Jun29 June 00:06
    
    You’re easily entertained