The HfP chat thread – Monday 5th July

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• Aston100 says:

  5 Jul5 July 15:11

  IHG 5k points offer for staying 1 night before July 29th.
  This is the one which appeared on the mobile app for a number of people, but it wasn’t possible to save it.

  Can confirm that after emailing IHG Rewards Club four times, they finally relented and applied the 5k points as a goodwill gesture, as suggested by someone on here (Was it Peter K?).

  • OP says:

    5 Jul5 July 17:11

    I had the same experience – I received the 5k manually after speaking with the contact centre repeatedly. It was immensely frustrating and probably not worth it cost/benefit wise for the time I spent in the end to get 5k points…

    • Aston100 says:

      5 Jul5 July 17:47

      I just kept sending them more or less the same email but with increasingly stronger wording.
      Was worth it for the £20 worth of points.

  • Peter K says:

    5 Jul5 July 20:49

    Don’t think it was me but I’m glad you got the points!

    • Aston100 says:

      5 Jul5 July 21:29

      Sorry Pete, HfPrs all look alike to me.

• @mkcol says:

  5 Jul5 July 15:12

  I have ~15000 Marriott Bonvoy points due to expire next month.

  Would a transfer in from AMEX count as activity to keep them active a bit longer?

  • Ikaz says:

    5 Jul5 July 15:16

    Rob’s article seems to say that it will extend expiry: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2019/05/26/when-do-marriott-bonvoy-points-expire-how-to-stop-it/

    • @mkcol says:

      5 Jul5 July 15:54

      Thanks.

  • Sukes says:

    5 Jul5 July 15:18

    Expiration of points is paused until March 31, 2022.

    https://help.marriott.com/s/article/Article-24119

    • @mkcol says:

      5 Jul5 July 15:54

      Ah, thank you.

• David says:

  5 Jul5 July 15:16

  Hi All. Help please – what is the best number to call to use a BA future travel voucher (you can’t use them online right?). I’ve been calling the BAEC Silver number but not getting through after waits of 30mins. Thanks.

  • @mkcol says:

    5 Jul5 July 15:55

    I used SayNoTo0870 site to find the 0191 number & got through in about 5 mins yesterday.

    • David says:

      5 Jul5 July 16:11

      thanks. tried one 0191 number but it cut off after a recorded message saying how busy they will. will try again.

• EDA says:

  5 Jul5 July 15:47

  Are Amex offers timed? I bought something online and added the offer to my Amex 2 hours after I paid, will it still pay out?

  • Youllnever says:

    5 Jul5 July 15:55

    No it won’t

    • Stu N says:

      5 Jul5 July 16:24

      You MIGHT get lucky if you add the offer before the transaction moves from “pending” to an actual charge but wouldn’t bank on it.

      • meta says:

        5 Jul5 July 16:52

        It will pay out if it is pending. Always has for me. Some retailers process it immediately in which case it won’t.

  • LS says:

    5 Jul5 July 17:21

    You might get lucky. I did this with Ted Baker, saw 1h after there was an offer and added it. It paid out. This was probably due to it being online – it was pre-authorised, but actually charged on dispatch, by which time the offer had been added.

• Jonny says:

  5 Jul5 July 15:48

  I’m looking to go away with the family to Crete at the start of the school holidays (24 July) for 2 weeks. However, this is likely to be before any potential announcement around double-vaxxed ppl (including us) not having to isolate from Amber countries on return – so when we depart we may not know where we stand.

  We’re not able to stay at home for a further week, so may just have to leave after one week instead if it turns out we will still need to self-isolate. Is this feasible from a testing perspective? ie would we be “allowed” to change the day 2 / day 8 etc tests based on our own plans changing?

  I suspect we may know more in a couple of weeks however am just keen to think through the various options now…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Jul5 July 15:59

    Honestly, why waste the time and effort of over thinking things?

    Anyway why purchase / order the day 2 or day 2/8 tests more than 2 days before you’re departing Crete? There’s really no reason to order them before you leave for holiday.

  • Anna says:

    5 Jul5 July 16:01

    I can’t see why you wouldn’t be able to use your tests early – after all people get called home from holiday for all sorts of reasons so there has to be some flexibility in the system.
    You’ve also got the option of the day 5 test to release if you want to stay away longer and don’t mind paying for extra tests. We may end up doing this for my OH if they don’t change the quarantine rules by August, son and I can happily self-isolate if that’s the case (in fact I’m kicking myself for not booking an extra week for us as it’s only my OH who needs to get back!)

  • Richie says:

    5 Jul5 July 16:31

    Decide which date test to release day 5 would be best for you and work back from there to day 0, and then from there the date for your pre-departure test and when you would know the result of tgat test.

    • meta says:

      5 Jul5 July 16:55

      According to media outlets, announcement in a few minutes that from 19 July no self-isolation for double-jabbed.

      • Anna says:

        5 Jul5 July 16:59

        I know, I wish they’d make it official, every news website in the country seems to think it’s a done deal! I’m getting so twitchy because it’s years since I’ve been this close to departure before and not had all my arrangements firmly in place, probably it would have been some time in the 90s when we used to book Teletext deals 2 weeks before 🤣

        • Yorkieflyer says:

          5 Jul5 July 17:01

          UK Gov has no idea how hard working families have to book their holidays and arrange leave… but surely they must say something this week?

        • meta says:

          5 Jul5 July 17:16

          Announced by Boris just now! Full details to be published this week. I suspect all testing requirements will still be in place.

      • Yorkieflyer says:

        5 Jul5 July 17:03

        Yes but I think that’s for positive contacts, not travel?

        • meta says:

          5 Jul5 July 17:31

          For travel. He said in a separate statement from amber countries and transport secretary will give full details later this week.

  • Yorkieflyer says:

    5 Jul5 July 16:59

    Randox are happy for you to change dates, I asked

  • Cats are best says:

    5 Jul5 July 17:08

    No need to book the day2/8 tests until the day before return – when you will need the booking reference to complete the PLFs for return.

    Assuming the requirement for a test before return flight to UK remains, you can either look for a test in Crete, or buy DIY test kits before you go from someone like qured.com (use the BA discount code) – probably will cost more than tests in Crete, but saves spending holiday time finding a test centre, getting there and back etc.

• bafan says:

  5 Jul5 July 16:04

  Flying out of T2 in the morning and getting an Express Test on the way. Is 2.5 hours before departure enough time including test or should I make it 3 hours?

  • Oli says:

    5 Jul5 July 17:00

    I did my Express Test at Heathrow T2 at 7am two weeks ago. My departure was 9am and check-in was closing at 8:20am. They emailed me the results at 7:33am.

    • Oli says:

      5 Jul5 July 17:28

      That was a lateral flow / antigen test

      • bafan says:

        5 Jul5 July 17:41

        Oh fantastic, yeah that’s the test I’ll be doing too. I’ll keep it at 2.5 hours then. Cheers Oli.

  • Anna says:

    5 Jul5 July 17:03

    What’s the result time? My Randox PCR “Express Test” at MAN takes 3 hours to come back and now I’ve read reviews saying they are taking much longer (which will result in a charge back if that happens to us!)

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      5 Jul5 July 17:36

      Collinson lamp test is the way to go for Spain

      • Anna says:

        5 Jul5 July 19:45

        I didn’t know that when I booked them 😥

    • Ikaz says:

      5 Jul5 July 18:19

      I did Collinson at MAN last month, results were out in about 20 minutes

• Gtellez says:

  5 Jul5 July 16:58

  I recently attended to a Marriott Vacation Club presentation (they offer 20k Marriott points just for attending). Originally I just wanted the points, but after the call, I’m quite interested, does anyone have experience? It seems to good to be true… the cost is 13800 pounds upfront plus 1100 per year, and it gives 3000 points per year (presumably enough to 1 or 2 weeks in a 5 stars resort) during 50 years.

  • Anna says:

    5 Jul5 July 17:07

    Do some research about what those points will actually get you before you commit to anything. They can increase the amount you need at any time and then you’d either lose your week or have to stump up to buy extra points. Try & get on their website to do a few searches, or find someone else who’s a member of that scheme. Look online for reviews etc.
    I am a huge fan of the “weeks” timeshare system and have had sensational value out of both mine (not Marriott) for 20 years, but one of them was forcibly converted to points last year and is pretty much worthless to us now so we’ll be looking to part-ex it for something better (and not points!) when we can travel freely again.

    • Anna says:

      5 Jul5 July 17:08

      £13800 sounds a lot, this is a buyer’s market just now so you should be able to haggle on this.

      • Anna says:

        5 Jul5 July 17:14

        https://monkeymiles.boardingarea.com/best-uses-marriott-vacation-club-points

        This look like quite a comprehensive take on ownership, there are a lot of articles like this online.

        Where did you attend the presentation? Lol, it’s quite hard to earn Bonvoy points since the Amex sign up rules changed!

        • Gtellez says:

          5 Jul5 July 17:55

          It is a 90 min presentation through Teams; I received an email from Marriott a couple of weeks ago, offering the mentioned 20k points just for attending. The conditions are: “***The virtual presentation is designed for couples (spouses/partners) aged between 30 and 70 with a joint annual income in excess of £65,000 / €75,000. If married or living together, couples must attend the sales presentation together, in order to qualify for the 20,000 points. The Presentation will last approximately 90 minutes and will be done via the TEAMS application.” If interested you need to contact them at: “ Find out more today! Call 34 951 082 370 or email cds.preview@vacationclub.com.”
          Just be aware that they are really good at selling, I never thought about buying anything like this and now I’m seriously considering. What make me suspicious after reading some articles is that they could change the value of the points and I’d be stuck with my week in Mallorca forever… I wanted to visit different places, so not sure if I’ll bite or not…

        • Anna says:

          5 Jul5 July 19:51

          I’ve sat through a couple for the free stuff, I can tell whether something makes financial sense or not! On Teams it sounds even easier …

  • David S says:

    5 Jul5 July 18:04

    If it’s Marriott forget it. The Mt’ce fees are driven up deliberately each year and it’s quite hard to even get a booking at your home resort. When travel is difficult like now you are still expected to pay your full fees and there is no reduction for locations that are closed

    • Anna says:

      5 Jul5 July 19:49

      Yes, looking further online there seem to be a lot of unhappy customers who can’t get accommodation with their points. My 2 timeshares are with small outfits and maintenance fees are set each year by members on the management board and are only allowed to be increased in line with inflation. In 20 years the fee for my Spanish timeshare has only gone up from £350 to £420.

  • Louise says:

    5 Jul5 July 18:13

    I took up the offer a few years to stay in Marriot Timsehare in spain for three nights for £200, i got them down to £4000 upfront so defo haggle! ( I didnt buy in the end)

  • Matthew says:

    5 Jul5 July 19:57

    Well at least you can book a 5 day travel package legitimately as a MVC member!

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    5 Jul5 July 23:05

    If it was such a great deal then the world would beat a path to their door. Why would they be giving the hard sell to the point of even paying you to listen to it if it wasn’t a super-high-margin sale?
    General principle of all timeshares – look at what it costs to buy/sell on the secondary market. Once you’ve done this, the initial offer from the primary vendor will seem laughable.

• Sam G says:

  5 Jul5 July 17:01

  Virgin & Delta going back to T3 on 15th July, other airlines to follow later https://www.heathrow.com/at-the-airport/terminal-guides/which-terminal

  • Andrew says:

    5 Jul5 July 17:11

    Let’s hope the Clubhouse reopens too.

    • Sam G says:

      5 Jul5 July 17:13

      Yes it’s going to

    • Rob says:

      5 Jul5 July 17:22

      It is.

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