The HfP chat thread – Sunday 4th July

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a270 says:

4 Jul4 July 08:22

Any thoughts on Turkey coming on the amber list at the next announcement? Have a booking for end of July. I don’t see it on the list of countries blogs/newspapers think will make it but cases are not that high.
- Andrew says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 08:46
  
  The same reason that Qatar and UAE are on the red list – it’s the hub nature of their airports, not case numbers or vaccination rates that keeps them red.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 09:14
    
    If you believe that BS you’ll believe anything
  - JP-MCO says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 09:32
    
    The whole thing is an utter nonsense. Dubai is on UK’s red list. UK is on USA’s banned list. Dubai is on USA’s allowed list. It has nothing to do with it being a transit hub just like travel restrictions have nothing to do with science!
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 09:56
      
      Or the fact that Doha was actually the biggest transit hub in the world when Dubai was added to the list and didn’t go on the list until 5-6 weeks later.
      
      Some of it is just closing off the most popular holiday destinations but lots of U.K. citizens are being shut out by this. UAE has one of the highest levels of full vaccination in the world.
  - Louie says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 09:46
    
    That doesn’t make sense to me. Most Brits will not be flying into Istanbul; in summer they will be flying directly from the UK into Bodrum, Dalaman, Antalya etc. In any case, Istanbul is hardly a popular transit point in comparison with Doha or Abu Dhabi or Dubai. If that was the reason though, why not put Germany or France or Spain on the red list on the basis that Berlin, Paris, Madrid are hubs for foreign airlines?
    
    There’s no reason for Turkey to be on the list now, never mind in the future. Not that reason has much to do with anything.
    - Nick says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 10:09
      
      There absolutely is reason for Turkey to be on the red list. It was put there when it became obvious thousands of passengers flying from Pakistan and India were spending 2 weeks there as tourists to avoid red list hotel quarantine on arrival in the UK. They were so blatant in flaunting it and it was so clear the risk of spreading the variant was very high that the UK government moved to close this route down. Turkey won’t go off the red list now because otherwise this will happen again.
      - Louie says:
        
        4 Jul4 July 10:18
        
        Turkey has stopped flights/direct travel from Pakistan, India, South Africa and Brazil, amongst others – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/travel-news/turkey-bans-flights-from-six-countries-including-india-due-to-covid-variants/as83984483.cms. So if that was a reason in the past, it is no longer one now.
      - Sandgrounder says:
        
        4 Jul4 July 10:21
        
        How we would love to have India’s case rate right now! The whole system looks pretty haphazard, but I don’t think we can trust test results from Turkey tbh.
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        4 Jul4 July 10:27
        
        They spent two weeks elsewhere that was happy to have them in an Airbnb instead of forced is to some shit hotel and that’s an issue because they may have spread the virus. However where’s the data that supports Turkey now having a higher case rate than U.K.?
        
        Delta is spreading everywhere in the world including Australia (poster child for Covid protection) because it’s a virus that doesn’t care about borders and hotel quarantine.
      - Mark says:
        
        4 Jul4 July 10:54
        
        After 14 days in Turkey what are the odds you still have the virus?
        Also we have testing and home quarantine once you land in the Uk anyway!!!!
        It’s ridiculous.
        They should be Amber at a minimum.
      - Lady London says:
        
        4 Jul4 July 15:04
        
        +1 same as happened to Maldives
      - r* says:
        
        4 Jul4 July 17:09
        
        If you fly back to the uk, theres 10 days quarantine.
        
        If you fly to turkey first, it was still 10 days quarantine.
        
        It was purely about the govt wanting to look like they were the ones in control
- Harry T says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 10:13
  
  Turkey is on the naughtyish list because they lied about their covid figures for a long time and got caught with their pants down.
  - Aston100 says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 13:09
    
    What Harry T said.
    The Turkish government lied through their teeth about Covid figures last year and were caught out.
    This year there was a sudden sharp decline in reported cases which did not seem to match any trends elsewhere, so it felt like they were fudging again.
    I for one would keep Turkey at arms length until they come clean about their Covid figures.
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 13:24
      
      Or they did give a rats about Covid cases because hospitalisations and deaths is all they care about?
      
      Only the U.K. seems to be still obsessed with cases
      - Aston100 says:
        
        4 Jul4 July 17:08
        
        No, Turkey deliberately fudged their figures last year in order to avoid a decline in tourism.
Number9 says:

4 Jul4 July 08:27

I’m a right in thinking it’s best to trigger my new 241 after September 1st? I’m trying to keep up with it all but moving house has eaten into my time big time!
- Anna says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 08:29
  
  Morning! I think unless you’re wanting to use it in conjunction with another 241 triggered prior to Sep 1st, you are better off leaving it as you’ll then have access to the increased number of award seats BA is promising. That’s what I’m doing anyway.
  - Number9 says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 08:43
    
    Thanks Anna that was my understanding as well. Right I’ll hold off till 1/9.
- Rob says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 09:40
  
  On a BAPP, yes, unless you are a family of 4 and already have one voucher banked (because you can’t combine pre and post 9/21 vouchers).
Sam G says:

4 Jul4 July 08:47

No.1 court tickets currently available via myWimbledon for tomorrow
- Rob says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 10:03
  
  Raducanu is on No1 tomorrow, final match.
  - ChasP says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 10:16
    
    thats a touch pessimistic 🙂
    - GS13 disciple says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 10:28
      
      last match of the day’s schedule…
- Roger says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 10:16
  
  It is worth checking regularly. I got centre court tickets for Monday at about 10pm Saturday night
- Sam says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 12:36
  
  Due to work commitments I won’t realistically be able to go to Wimbledon (If I get tickets) until this Friday. Which day should I be aiming to look at MyWimbledon for tickets for Friday? Not sure anyone good will be playing on No1.
  - Rob says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 18:29
    
    10am Wed if you want to buy off Ticketmaster. Via MyWimbledon, could be any time during Wed and Thu looking at what we’ve seen.
    - Sam says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 19:57
      
      Thanks Rob!
Matt says:

4 Jul4 July 09:06

Thoughts welcomed: planning holiday in Peru next summer so looking for J flights LHR-LIM. Don’t expect direct flights to have restarted so guess I’ll need to change in MAD or MIA. Have a Virgin voucher, a Lloyd’s voucher, loads of miles and Bonvoy which can go to AA.
Seems to me that using Virgin voucher to MIA, and onwards on AA, will work out slightly “cheaper” overall, but not by enough to offset bother of transiting in the US. Therefore leaning towards IB.
Any opinions on this please? Also thoughts on the relative merits of the J product as I haven’t done business on VS or AA?
- Sam G says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 09:16
  
  If you book IB then book out of Madrid using IB miles (transfer from Avios) – much cheaper taxes than one ticket from LHR or booking IB via BA. I’m taking the BA 787 lunchtime flight down the day before on a separate ticket before flying to Colombia next year.
  
  Coming back I’d risk going through the same day – ideally book a cash ticket so you can use same-day standby in case of any delays.
  
  I don’t really like the VS Upper Class seat and AA operate a lot of narrowbody out of Miami which isn’t ideal on such a long flight. It’s also a bit of clusterf*ck of an airport at busy times so you’d want to build in an overnight on separate tickets. I’d go via Madrid personally. IB seat and food is solid, service bit hit and miss from what I’ve read
  - Oh! Matron says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 10:06
    
    Have you checked out the new VS product on the A350? I’ve done business / first on many airlines and never really slept. It’s the first time ever, coming back from NYC last march, that I’ve had a good night’s sleep.
    
    However, transiting via MIA is not something I would ever suggest. Truely terrible airport
  - Nick says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 10:14
    
    If Virgin’s route to GRU is back in the schedules then I would use your voucher to fly there and take LAN across the mountains. Otherwise yes, the US is the best way. Thankfully you likely won’t be in a shorthaul aircraft from there to Peru. DFW and LAX also have (or at least had) flights to LIM as well if MIA isn’t working out.
    - mzb says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 10:32
      
      Don’t see Virgin flying to GRU next summer; they never actually started flying there (cancelled the route before inaugural flight)
    - Matt says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 11:32
      
      Thanks for your reply Nick. Don’t expect VS will work for GRU but might be able to get some value out of Lloyds voucher on that route. I’ll check it out.
  - Matt says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 11:07
    
    Thanks Sam, some useful thoughts. Yes, plan would be low fee ex-MAD, can use otherwise unused Lloyd’s voucher to get there. Will think again about cash fare, but really keen to finally use up some miles…
    Enjoy Colombia!
    - Sam G says:
      
      4 Jul4 July 12:37
      
      I was thinking just cash on the MAD-LHR so you get the flexibility / insurance if your inbound is late to do a same day change. But actually I just realised that booking LIM-MAD-LHR on the return (so doing the long haul as 2 x one way) doesn’t add much to the taxes and then you’d be able to check your bags through and be protected
- Jek says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 12:36
  
  We did the trip to Peru with Iberia in 2019. Flew to MAD on cash ticket and spent a few days in MAD. We booked tickets MAD-LIM and LIM-MAD-LHR on miles. We didn’t want to risk having two separate tickets on the way back. Lounges in MAD were great.
  
  I would never consider going via the US anymore after having missed connecting flights due to long queues at immigration.
Guy G says:

4 Jul4 July 09:36

Morning all,

Just wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem. I am flying to Mallorca on Tue and am filling out my Spanish passenger form, which they require you to provide your seat number. Yet on BA they wont let you check in unless you have provided proof of covid status and the Spanish passenger form – so a chicken and egg scenario.

Has anyone else had this conundrum or know what other people have done? Obviously tried calling BA to click through 3 options to then just say they can’t take any calls right now.

Alternatively, if we have everything in order for when we arrive in Spain i.e. QR codes for COVID vaccination and the Spanish form, is it an issue if I just click the exemption buttons on the BA form?

Thanks if you are kind enough to help!
- Anthony says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 09:45
  
  BA will assign you a seat before you check in and you can change it 48hrs before departure. Roughly 24 hrs before departure BA will ask you to add you vaccination/negative test certificate to your booking along with your Spanish health/locator QR code. several hours later BA will verify these and allow you to check in, this will save you queuing up at the airport to do it. You then just show your Spanish QR code as you enter the baggage reclaim hall. I arrived in Mallorca yesterday and the process was very smooth.
  - Guy G says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 10:11
    
    Cheers, found this now so should be good. And thanks for reading HFP forums on your holiday!
- Pieter says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 09:47
  
  Just ‘estimate’ your seat number and submit the paperwork…
  - Guy G says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 10:12
    
    Found it after digging around a bit – trying to take the risk free approach!
TGLoyalty says:

4 Jul4 July 09:53

Lloyds will only pay if the retailer is paid directly ie no PayPal / curve etc

Discount codes usually invalidate points via BA portal.
- meta says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 10:42
  
  Amex Regent Street offer includes Coach if you want to buy it in store.
Andy says:

4 Jul4 July 09:54

Any Priority Pass lounges open at Edinburgh yet?
- APB says:
  
  4 Jul4 July 11:27
  
  The Edinburgh Airport website says all the lounges are still closed. I’m sure I read on her that the No.1 lounge is now closed permanently. We’re flying EDI-LHR on 17/7 and I don’t hold out much hope for then either
  - Rob says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 18:30
    
    No1 definitely shut permanently. Aspire is reopening quite quickly now though so some hope there.
  - Patrycja says:
    
    4 Jul4 July 20:21
    
    We flew out this morning and no lounges were open but a few coffee shops at least are starting to open up
BJ says:

4 Jul4 July 10:11

Another amazon code for eligible accounts. DISCOUNT5P for £5 off £25 spend on items sold and delivered by amazon. Check DISCOUNT10P first though as it might not have reached the limit.