The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 30th June

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Frankie says:

30 Jun30 June 16:29

Does anyone know if I need to be flying with BA to use their Qured discount code for fit to fly for return to the U.K.? I’m flying with another airline
- Steve says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 16:37
  
  You definitely don’t.
  - meta says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 17:01
    
    Prenetics/Virgin one is cheaper (£26) and doesn’t require a video call. Also think about taking a spare one in case the result is inconclusive.
    - stevenhp1987 says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 17:12
      
      How does the prenatics one work? You simply take a photo, send it over, and they issue a certificate?
      - Rich says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 17:24
        
        Yep. You register the test online, click an image which corresponds to your result, and then upload an actual photo as confirmation. My email came through in half an hour.
      - stevenhp1987 says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 21:04
        
        Thanks,
        
        I’ll order some for my Iceland trip then. Doubt I’ll get it cheaper out there…
      - Sandgrounder says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 21:34
        
        You can get a lateral flow for UK return in Reykjavik for 4000 ISK/approx. £23.40 (or a PCR for 7000), book at travel.covid.is
Yorkieflyer says:

30 Jun30 June 16:39

E gates open at Alicante today, stamp in passport QR codes checked and through without any queues today. Interestingly the first time since last summer that I’ve been on a nearly full flight and not had a spare seat
- Anna says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 16:43
  
  Lots of people must be ok with quarantine on return and also not being insured!
  - Steve says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 16:47
    
    Insurance is probably not that hard to get, is it? I just used staysure for about £10 for a week in France.
    - Anna says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 16:50
      
      Including covid cover/travelling against FO advice? I’ve read that people have been quoted £100s.
      - Steve says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 16:54
        
        Yep, specifically including that. My only pre-existing conditions are v minor though, I don’t know if that makes a difference.
        
        Quotes for a planned 6 week trip to the US are a very different story, unfortunately.
  - Rob says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 16:48
    
    EHIC is enough insurance for Europe. How many people do you think buy travel insurance for European holidays normally?
    - Anna says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 16:49
      
      Most people I know, we must be a very risk-averse bunch!
      - Aston100 says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 17:21
        
        Me too Anna. Everyone I know either has an annual policy, or they will take out insurance for every trip abroad, no matter how near or far.
        This is from before Covid times.
    - Steve says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 16:55
      
      Agreed that EHIC is enough, I would have gone without if the quote had been much more than 10 quid to be honest. I imagined that most people just had annual travel insurance policies but I guess “most people” probably doesn’t literally mean the majority of people.
    - JDB says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 17:07
      
      The EHIC only gets you so far, in France at least. You need to pay upfront and some elements of a hospital stay are reimbursed while others are not. Almost all senior consultants charge more than the social security limit and the difference is payable by the patient or their French health cover, usually from work. As a foreigner you end top paying lots of fees and charges that you can only get back on holiday insurance. The hospital will keep the upfront payment until anything they actually get the money refunded via EHIC. Basically unless you have a ‘carte vitale’ you are a nobody!
      - Steve says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 17:15
        
        My past experience was that I got everything back from the UK government having presented an EHIC at the beginning – admittedly this was only ~£200 of out of pocket expenses, I don’t know what would happen with a major hospital stay.
      - Sandra says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 19:13
        
        We have insurance for top up especially unforeseen like repatriation which the EHIC won’t cover. Ours is annual included with our £15 monthly bank fee and has excellent worldwide coverage. I get really p….d off when I see idiots who never think about these things crowdfunding to get themselves/family/friends home!
    - John Gallagher says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 17:11
      
      Elderly parents 80 and 84 UK passports going to Menorca in mid-July. Any reason to get anything more than the EHIC?
      - Anna says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 17:51
        
        Yes – one of them could have (e.g) a fall and need extended care plus repatriation. Plus costs of the other one for a longer stay. Unless they are wealthy enough to cover these costs insurance is a must.
    - Rich says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 17:13
      
      A lot of (unsophisticated) travellers I know would unquestioningly buy travel insurance for Europe. Whatever their holiday operator or bank suggests.
      
      I try to get them to think about it by asking “what do you want to insure against”, but the inevitable response is not to consider (or understand) the question, and that they just want “normal travel insurance”.
      - mark2 says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 17:25
        
        Delay, lost luggage, public liability, medical expenses ……
      - JDB says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 17:35
        
        I want to insure against the unexpected, and that includes all the things listed by @Rich! In my case above, my wife needed an emergency operation and even with the EHIC I had to pay 3,000 Euros upfront of which only 800 (the cost of the day bed) was reclaimable on EHIC and the hospital refunded me that sum once they had been paid back by the NHS. The balance 2,200 plus taxis to/from hospital and medicines was picked up by the travel insurance. Insurance of all types sometimes seems expensive until you have a claim.
      - Barraclough says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 18:26
        
        I never bought travel insurance until some years ago I read that someone had a car accident in France and need protracted hospital care. He had to pay 10k to be airlifted to a hospital in the UK. Travel insurance should cover that. And a friend broke a leg skiing in the Alps. He was helicoptered to a hospital and fortunately travel insurance covered it.
    - Richie says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 17:38
      
      Can you buy standalone single trip europe medical repatriation to England cover for countries which the FCDO advises against all but essential travel to?
    - Rui N. says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 18:25
      
      The only people that I know that have travel insurance for EU holidays are the ones that get it as part of their package holidays. I’d say that most don’t even bother to get the EHIC, they’ve heard that travelling to the EU gives you the right to use their healthcare and assume that is automatic. People that comment on this website (and others like this one, not only HfP of course) tend to assume that everyone knows about travel as much as they do.
      - Rui N. says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 18:39
        
        (And yes, I’ve told quite a few people throughout the years to get the EHIC)
  - Yorkieflyer says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 17:01
    
    Nationwide for us and I guess EHIC for many is ok for health cover. fortunately working at home for us ok, all terribly unfair on so many hard working families in Boris’s Red Wall I guess
    - Yorkieflyer says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 17:02
      
      Beach at the end of the runway is great for some first or last rays, in the buff if you like
      - Anna says:
        
        30 Jun30 June 17:52
        
        That must make for interesting views on take off or landing!
Guernsey Globetrotter says:

30 Jun30 June 16:39

Amex Shop Small unexpected bonus – I completed one of their forms to nominate my favourite local retailers that participates in ‘Shop Small’ and subsequently found out this week that I’ve won a £250 voucher to spend with them. As I nominated my local curry house I foresee a slap up meal celebration soon 🙂 Apparently there were 100 x £250 prizes given out, funded by Amex, so well worth the minute or so to take part – got to be in it to win it!
- Rich says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 17:14
  
  Nice. Never saw that. Glad to see that somebody wins these things!
- Aston100 says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 17:23
  
  Well done. I usually ignore/delete such things, thinking I’ll never win.
Liam says:

30 Jun30 June 16:56

A marketing email from Virgin Atlantic just arrived touting a number of reasons to visit New York. I know they’re probably hoping for some advance bookings but it feels a little off given 99% of UK residents aren’t allowed to fly directly to the US right now, and there’s no indication that that will change any time soon.
- Travel Strong says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 17:37
  
  They don’t mind if you can’t go, just happy to have the cash loan 🙂 they are still selling tickets for a flight that they cancelled at the beginning of the week (according to the email about my booking on same said flight).
- Rob says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 17:49
  
  Leisure trips like this are booked 3+ months ahead so timing is not necessarily off.
  - Louise K says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 22:18
    
    Do you and TG know something that we don’t??
    
    I’m double jabbed with AZ and concerned my cheapo Hawaii flights might not happen next spring.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 18:10
  
  No indication? There’s strong indication it will change just not when it will happen.
  
  If I was to bet on going to NYC in 3 months id say yeah. If it was 3 weeks id say no chance.
Phil says:

30 Jun30 June 16:58

EasyJet Query – My wife and I originally booked EDIMUC return for July-21. EasyJet cancelled these flights in May. As it was still our intention to go on holiday, we took a Future Travel Voucher and rebooked EDILIS for July-21. EasyJet have now cancelled those flights. Following the cancellation, I went through the online portal and requested a refund to the original payment card.

EasyJet have now advised that, “We have checked our records and can confirm that you originally used a Flight Voucher to pay for this booking. On this basis, we are only able to process a refund in the form of a Flight Voucher.”. On the basis that EasyJet have cancelled flights on both occasions, I believe this to be complete nonsense and I am entitled to refund to the original payment card.

Would appreciate if someone could confirm my understanding is correct, and from experience what is the best way to resolve this with EasyJet? I am going to assume it will end up being a S75 claim through the payment card but I want to give EasyJet an opportunity to remedy their mistake.
- stevenhp1987 says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 17:16
  
  You paid for this flight with a Flight Voucher, therefore you will get refunded with a Flight Voucher.
  
  If you wanted the ability to get a cash refund, you should not have accepted the voucher in the first place.
  - Phil says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 17:27
    
    Turns out calling customer services was a lot less painful than I had anticipated. They confirmed that as easyJet had cancelled flights on this booking and the original booking I was entitled to a refund.
    - Anthony says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 18:05
      
      Yep this happened to me too – got the same message online but a quick phone call and they confirmed the linkage from cash to the newly cancelled booking (through two other cancelled flights and vouchers) and refunded me in cash. I have even got to keep the £40 extra they give you for taking a voucher in the first place, as it is on a separate voucher.
  - Anna says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 17:55
    
    Not correct – your rights to cash refunds are not affected by the payment method used, I.e, you start from scratch with each new booking.
Allan says:

30 Jun30 June 17:41

Amex Business Gold – signed up on 5th April. The article on HfP says apply by 9th for the 50,000 bonus. I have now spent the £5k but amex say the account opened on 10th April. Was it application date or approval date that mattered?
- Rob says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 17:47
  
  Allan, have a look at this – https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/05/05/save-100-on-easyjet-holidays/ (ignore the URL title!)
  - Allan says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 22:19
    
    Thanks. I’d missed that article.
Zana says:

30 Jun30 June 18:35

Accor (ALL) experience tickets for Taste of London – I just got the PDF tickets emailed to me. Recalled someone asked a few days ago whether anyone has received anything.
Marie says:

30 Jun30 June 19:00

Mallorca !!!
So it seems this is the 4th time I will cancel a holiday for next week.
Predictions please as to when it will go amber .I am willing to test and release to some sun- rest of family not so sure
Thanks
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 20:36
  
  How long is a piece of string? Sounds like they are going hard on these students to show it’s isolated.
- Anna says:
  
  30 Jun30 June 21:04
  
  Why, what’s happened with Mallorca now?!
  - Marie says:
    
    30 Jun30 June 22:05
    
    Covid rate doubled in a week !
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      30 Jun30 June 22:33
      
      Students on a party now in hotel isolation. So it’s probably very much a one off