The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 6th July

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• Jason says:

  6 Jul6 July 07:28

  Sorry I know this has been ashes a few times where is the best place to eat near the The Langley, finally got a stay booked this week

  • Harry T says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:25

    You can get a decent ice cream at the cafe in the park. I stayed at The Langley this last weekend – hard product is great, service is currently very below the expected standard.

  • Bazza says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:27

    If you want to get an uber down the road just through Iver village you can find The waters edge and The malt shovel, both canal side pubs

  • Peter K says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:55

    Three Oaks at Gerrard’s Cross.

  • Matt says:

    6 Jul6 July 16:42

    The Panjab Restaurant did a great curry, fairly short uber from the Langley. Reasonably priced as well, which was good after dining at the Langley the previous night.

  • Babyg says:

    6 Jul6 July 17:11

    The food in the restaurants and room service did me fine for a 2 night stay – yes there are some spendy options, but there are some reasonable options too. I did a BYO champagne to compliment the room service, and if you wanted to keep to a budget the in room pizzas were pretty good! I also booked afternoon tea (for 8 people) and we were given a private dinning room – thought the afternoon was excellent. The food at the Churchill bar was pretty good too, we did do one meal in conjunction with a walk through the park. In short if you do some BYO drinks for your room, I don’t think you really need to leave the Langley, and IMHO planning to leave the Langley seems like a strange idea to me.

• YC says:

  6 Jul6 July 07:38

  What are latest reports on how long Amex post sign up bonuses? Have received 20/50k and trying to be patient

  • Reeferman says:

    6 Jul6 July 07:53

    A couple of weeks ago – after hitting the £4k spend – mine took 1 online chat and 5 subsequent phone calls before the remaining 30k points (of 50k total) finally posted
    The full 50k bonus arrived immediately the spend was reached for both the people I referred.
    Seems erratic – so worth chasing-up I suspect

    • YC says:

      6 Jul6 July 11:23

      Thanks – have just raised an issue via chat

• Mr. AC says:

  6 Jul6 July 07:39

  Langley Park Tea room – cheap, but perfectly acceptable https://goo.gl/maps/i24XqZbqqYwiPLuJ8
  Crooked Billet – pub next to a gas station, quality matches that, but works if you want something more substantial
  However in the hotel itself food in the Drawing Room (turn left after passing reception) is quite good, although reassuringly expensive.

  • Mr. AC says:

    6 Jul6 July 07:40

    This was meant to be a response to Jason re: food options near The Langley.

  • Harry T says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:26

    The Langley food options are overpriced, to be honest, even when accounting for the hotel type and location.

    • Anna says:

      6 Jul6 July 09:08

      Indeed, we had a delicious meal but £36 for a fillet of beef with no accompaniments included is a tad steep for our northern sensibilities (we did order sides, we’re not that tight 🤣).
      We were incredibly lucky with the weather and really enjoyed wandering through the park for an al fresco breakfast both mornings at the tea room.

      • Harry T says:

        6 Jul6 July 09:19

        I ended up having a breakfast comped on the second morning – not my idea as it’s already pretty much free due to status – because the Cedar staff literally forgot our order, despite there being as many staff members as there were tables. Probably should have gone to the tea room! It’s a very pleasant walk.

        • meta says:

          6 Jul6 July 11:18

          I agree staff are totally off. Last time my partner and I waited 20 minutes to get a glass of orange juice even though the waitress moved around with the jug. I flagged her several times, but she seemed to be blind and just turned away every time.

• Chris1922 says:

  6 Jul6 July 07:47

  Data point, as it gets asked frequently – booked a 2 4 1 x 2 Avios redemption from my BAEC account yesterday, paid the fees with my wifes spanking new Gold Card, no issues no problems, transaction went through immediately.
  Fees DO NOT need to be paid with the BA AMEX that earned the 241/Avios

  • mark2 says:

    6 Jul6 July 07:51

    at present!

    • Aliks says:

      6 Jul6 July 13:24

      Since time immemorial, any AMEX will do when paying the fees. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

• Anna says:

  6 Jul6 July 08:02

  https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/travel/holidaymakers-turned-away-at-airport-due-to-wrong-government-passport-expiry-advice/ar-AALNpbA?ocid=msedgntp

  Interesting, as I think most people are under the impression that you need 6 months’ validity on your passport, not 3 as seems to be the case.

  • bsuije says:

    6 Jul6 July 09:18

    I haven’t looked into the details, but based on the article alone it sounds like the two periods talk about different things?

    The 3-month EU rule is from date of return, whilst the 6-month UK rule is from date of departure maybe?

• M says:

  6 Jul6 July 08:09

  Virgin Credit Card app. I have a limit increase available in the app. When I click accept, it just keeps spinning. I waited for a long time, tried a number of times, even reinstalled the app, still the same. Anyone got around a similar problem somehow?

  • Youllnever says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:38

    No idea, but try calling them and see if you can accept the offer over the phone instead.

  • Shub says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:42

    Yes, same issue on my OH account. Not sure how to get it working.

  • mark2 says:

    6 Jul6 July 09:25

    The app is very poor, but card becomes less valuable on August 5 any way.

    • Christophe says:

      6 Jul6 July 09:56

      What’s happening on August 5th?

• BJ says:

  6 Jul6 July 08:10

  Yeah, I think it’s probably going to change. The question is will it do so as early as September 1st. I suspect BA/amex would be well within their rights to tie the voucher to card earning it and that this would withstand any legal challenge. It could happen overnight, everybody gets told when cancelling the card they will lose the voucher so no problem for BA/amex there. That practice to date is inconsistent with theory is neither here nor there going forward, it is the T&C that count.

  • Chris1922 says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:19

    I still have and use the card that earned the vouchers, as can’t earn and burn now as per 2 year rule, but used the wife’s new Gold to get a major contribution to the spend target to trigger the 20,000 points bonus. Agree it will probably change soon, and we will al be held to T&Cs

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:24

    Won’t change because frankly it’s a lot of IT change for very little actual benefit.

    What happens if you lose your original card and get a replacement after the voucher is issued? Have to get a new voucher via Amex/BA?

    Even if they linked to BIN that is any BA Amex not just the one it was issued against.

    • BJ says:

      6 Jul6 July 08:32

      I used to think the same but my view changed when I seen how BA IT was tracking the Nectar points, eligibility etc. I now think they are up to it, if they want to be.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        6 Jul6 July 08:37

        That was a brand new implementation and they still ballsed it up

        • BJ says:

          6 Jul6 July 08:43

          Well hope you’re right. I don’t think I’ve ever booked a 241 with the BAPP earning it.

      • JDB says:

        6 Jul6 July 09:52

        Agreed. I think BA’s IT ability to extend the vouchers used & unused shows they have more capabilities than we thought. I think it is also significant that in updating the T&Cs to reflect the new vouchers post 1 Sep they left in the terms re using ‘the’ card to pay and the requirement to remain eligible for the promotion at the time of travel. If those terms really were otiose, they would have removed them.

    • mark2 says:

      6 Jul6 July 09:27

      It is actually trivial: just hard code the card number into the payment page.

      • Memesweeper says:

        6 Jul6 July 12:17

        Won’t work — card numbers change.

        It is doable. It’s also non-trivial. The question then is “what’s in it for BA?”. Nothing, so unless Amex pushed for this as part of a renegotiation then it ain’t happening. If they did push for it why hasn’t it happened already? Amex pre-purchased a few metric tons of Avios from BA last year, that would have been the moment to insist BA tightened up their IT.

        • JDB says:

          6 Jul6 July 13:55

          Card numbers changing isn’t an issue; that can track and adjust very easily. More probably, in order to protect the genuine car fee payers Amex may change the ability to upgrade / downgrade freely and or the pro-rata refunds, on which Amex is an outlier. They could offer the option on upgrade from BA free to BAPP of carrying across the spend but no refund on fee or reset the spend to £0. Any of this would be fairer than the majority of us paying for the fare dodgers…

    • JDB says:

      6 Jul6 July 10:05

      I think there is quite a lot of benefit as with the higher BAPP fee they need to do more to protect those who pay that fee vs the people gaming the system upgrading/downgrading/cancelling etc. To the extent that allowing the abuse of the system provides some people with a voucher at a lower cost, that may be a breach of the FCA principles.

      • Ed says:

        6 Jul6 July 11:32

        These discussions take place all the time, for those who only generate enough Avios for a decent redemption every 2-3 years, the potential cost of holding onto the BAPP until the flight could be in excess of £500, going up to £750 that’s not going to work for a large number of people

        • BJ says:

          6 Jul6 July 13:39

          I wonder if we can read anything into Rob’s silence on the matter 🙂 Historically he has usually been quick to comment on this issue … nearly every time we got an anxious newbie question on it!

• Roberto says:

  6 Jul6 July 08:28

  I know its been discussed on here at length before but my mind has gone blank.

  I have flights to Portugal booked for next week that I can’t use since they got put on Amber, the flight will probably still go so I don’t think BA will cancel it.
  If I cancel it on their website I assume I get my Avios back but lose the taxes I paid?
  And If I call up to cancel I get the option of a future travel voucher that will include the taxes I paid plus the Avios all rolled into a voucher for future use?

  Does this sound correct or am I wrong? 😂

  • Joe says:

    6 Jul6 July 08:42

    Yes – but voucher on website, call to cancel/refund.

    • Roberto says:

      6 Jul6 July 08:55

      Thanks Joe so if I do it online I get the option of FTV?
      Cheers

      • Anna says:

        6 Jul6 July 09:10

        That’s the option you get if cancelling online, but it’s worth waiting another few days so see if BA cancels – they may consolidate flights if passenger numbers are low.

        • Memesweeper says:

          6 Jul6 July 12:18

          Anna is correct — wait until the day of the flight to see if it get cancelled if you can.

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