The HfP chat thread – Monday 5th July

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• Raveon says:

  5 Jul5 July 09:55

  Re: IHG Spire / Platinum Elite, “$30 In-Room Spa Credit” benefit, is there a way of finding out which hotels are “participating” or not?

• The Lord says:

  5 Jul5 July 10:16

  Reckon BA will keep masks as mandatory from 19th?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Jul5 July 10:22

    Yes. I don’t see the legal requirement on public transport going away on the 19th though.

    And even if it does I expect BA will keep it simple and mandate until a majority of its destinations stop mandating. so here for a while.

  • Rory says:

    5 Jul5 July 10:26

    I was in the USA when the mask mandate was lifted. It still applied for airports and flying. I imagine something similar here.

  • Andrew says:

    5 Jul5 July 10:59

    I think as it’s international travel related and different countries will still require it, it will remain but I would expect it to be removed as a legal requirement on domestic trains etc.

    • Peggerz says:

      5 Jul5 July 12:00

      The problem with trains and long distance bus journeys is the cross border issue within the UK.
      Travel LNER from KGX-EDB after the 19th July with no masks required on trains etc. according to Johnson. Are you instructed to put a mask on whilst crossing the Berwick Bridge going North? Scotland are timetabled to be in Level 0, where it’s expected masks will be worn.
      Will this be the same to enter Wales from England?

      • Andrew says:

        5 Jul5 July 12:20

        When you’re crossing the Royal Border bridge, you are still in England.

        Look out for the caravan park on your right as you head North out of Berwick and there’s a sign shortly after that when you cross the Border.

        It’s generally wise to obey the law of the country you are visiting.

        It works both ways, I once saw a misbehaving child getting his legs slapped on the train on the approach to Carlisle.

        • Nick says:

          5 Jul5 July 13:35

          TfW did have different rules on their trains last year depending whether you were in England or Wales. As you approached the border they made announcements about the rules where you were going. Hard to enforce, of course, but they did try.

      • Lord Doncaster says:

        5 Jul5 July 14:10

        Considering the way LNER makes its decisions… It’ll be the last train company to remove any mask mandate…

• BuildBackBetter says:

  5 Jul5 July 10:23

  Amex Hilton offer – I guess the new Fellows house hotel is not going to be added to the participating hotels list?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Jul5 July 10:40

    Never seen the list change after the offer went live.

• stevenhp1987 says:

  5 Jul5 July 10:40

  Last night arrived into STN at ~ midnight.

  Huge, slow, queue at the egates.

  No-one at the “all passports” queue. Changed queue and through in minutes. Border officer didn’t bother to check anything other than our passport similar to my arrival via egates in LHR last weekend.

  • Sam G says:

    5 Jul5 July 11:05

    STN are selling the fast track passport product from 27th July, I’ve got a 9pm Sunday arrival in Sept and will probably spring for that if it’s running by then, though the real queues are usually later as you discovered last night!

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      5 Jul5 July 11:11

      There was signage for the fast track queue and it did appear to be open last night…

      • Sam G says:

        5 Jul5 July 13:00

        https://www.stanstedairport.com/at-the-airport/security-fasttrack/ says it’s closed currently but hopefully they’re reopening it soon then

• Joints&Piles says:

  5 Jul5 July 11:11

  Can you pay amex from revolut without fees?
  I assumed you could and paid a small amex balance but the transaction showed in rev as “Amex ATM”, so I wondered if that is counting towards the £200/month fee-free ATM withdrawal limit.
  I know I could just try and see, but I don’t know if rev would warn there’ll be a fee and give me chance to abort.
  Thanks

  • trader363 says:

    5 Jul5 July 11:38

    Yes it works – but topping up Rev will incur fees if from a credit card

  • Aston100 says:

    5 Jul5 July 12:01

    You can pay without any problems.
    You may encounter issues topping up Che though, depending on how you do it.

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    5 Jul5 July 13:33

    This sounds odd- all my payments on the Che platform to Brighton show as “AmX Services Europe Ltd” transfers – are you sure you didn’t input the name in that format yourself as all transfers should should the full recipient’s name? As for the top up question there are definitely no fees incurred from Solihull but you will get hit if you use Beardy…

    • Aston100 says:

      5 Jul5 July 15:09

      I have a mix of both.
      I am not sure why.

• LessCleverAndrew says:

  5 Jul5 July 11:14

  I was targeted for the British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card, 50,000 welcome bonus and decided to sign up – via the link of course. When the welcome bonus did not show up on my online account as an earnable bonus I contacted Amex customer support (within a week of receiving the card). they promised to look into it – of course nothing happened and they never contacted me. When I contacted them again 2 weeks later they still appeared confused and said that the welcome bonus on my account was the normal bonus, not the 50K avios.

  I gave them the link I used to sign up but again have not heard from them.
  Is anyone else in this position?

  • Sarah says:

    5 Jul5 July 11:17

    Same happened to me, I got 20,000 instead of 50,000. I used the chat function on AMEX app. I was told to check again in 7 days but the extra points ended up posting on the same day after my chat.

  • den says:

    5 Jul5 July 14:04

    Yep in the same position as you. The person on the chat function didn’t have a clue and pied me off with the “will get back to you in 10 days”

    • j says:

      5 Jul5 July 14:50

      Chat functionality is incredibly poor atm. I’ve had some issues with welcome bonuses recently at I’ve stopped using the chat as they have reached the point of insulting with their inability to know their own T&Cs + everything requiring “5-10 business days”

      I’m on my 4th “5-10 business days” now for the same original issue of no plat amex welcome bonus.

• N says:

  5 Jul5 July 11:17

  Randox is now on my naughty list.

  Purchase made for 2/5/8 days well before travel.

  No email confirmation. No courier confirmation. No response to email query. 1hr45 minutes on hold before speaking to agent who promised to resolve. No resolution.

  Now no tests have arrived at house. No clue if they will. No reassurance that Day 5 will actually arrive and test on time.

  No wonder their Trustpilot review has dropped.

  Disappointing, as I used them before without issue. I was so impressed I recommended them to friends. Victims of their own success? Oh no … could my recommendations have caused this?!

  No.

  It looks like after BA, they established discount partnerships with Ryanair, Easyjet, Iberia, Malaysia, Tui, Jet-2, Wizz Air. Based on their phone hold times, it seems they didn’t model demand.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    5 Jul5 July 12:49

    If you didn’t get a confirmation email, did your purchase actually go through? Have they taken the money?

    • N says:

      5 Jul5 July 13:16

      Of course. Money taken from card, agent confirmed purchase.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        5 Jul5 July 15:22

        Then that sucks!

  • Jamie says:

    5 Jul5 July 16:20

    Same issue here – ordered day 2 tests a week ago today, received an initial order confirmation but no dispatch confirmation or any further communication since.

    Was going to phone this evening if no response to e-mails – did you have any luck with them over the phone / what did they tell you?

    • N says:

      5 Jul5 July 16:59

      Expect hold times up to 90 minutes on the phone, multiple levels of phone system, if you get through then a chat with a sympathetic agent who will send a message on for you, and no action taken or return contact.

      • Jamie says:

        5 Jul5 July 22:28

        Cheers, might have to give that a go tomorrow and hope for the best!

• Anon says:

  5 Jul5 July 11:29

  Does anyone know if Wembley vaccination centre is still accepting walk-ins for Pfizer second doses (without mandating 8 week gap?). Any other centres around west / central London doing so?

  • Kai says:

    5 Jul5 July 11:36

    No

  • TicknBash says:

    5 Jul5 July 12:16

    StoneX in Mill Hill was accepting walk-ins last week and its a Pfizer site.

  • Sam G says:

    5 Jul5 July 13:08

    There were a few news articles late last week that said that the powers that be had been clamping down on Pfizer being given out with a less than 8 week gap, so I think this will be quite difficult to do now unless it’s genuinely the last couple of shots at the end of the day that’ll be going in the bin

  • Tracey says:

    5 Jul5 July 13:39

    Try to find a pharmacy offering Pfizer, they are often more accommodating. The GP clinic where I work is quietly allowing a 6 week gap and at an outreach clinic yesterday they were allowing 4. Otherwise it is a case of finding a spare at the end of the day.
    Sounds like you are the opposite side of Wembley to me, but if you can get to Hertfordshire borders, we were doing 6 weeks last week and no reason to doubt we won’t be doing the same when we open later in the week. (we have a different outreach on Friday, that may well do 4 weeks).

    • Jordan D says:

      5 Jul5 July 16:20

      Interesting, Tracey – tried for my early second dose at Roche in WGC as they had walk in Pfizer mornings, and was turned away for being <6 wks (by a couple days), as was my wife (6.5 wks). Keen to get it done, so keep to know where to head too.

      • Tracey says:

        5 Jul5 July 20:46

        No guarantees but I may be able to help.

        secondvaxxes at gmail dot com.

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