The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 6th July

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• Mark says:

  6 Jul6 July 10:34

  I have shed loads of Hilton points and they don’t have any hotels in the Balearic Islands which is the only place we can actually get into with the time scale we have.
  I have plenty of Avios, Hilton and Virgin anybody know what or how I can use them for a stay in Majorca?

  • Rob says:

    6 Jul6 July 10:43

    Doesn’t Branson still have his luxury retreat in Mallorca which can be booked on Virgin Points?

    If not, Nectar Hotels is the best deal now – https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/06/22/use-nectar-points-to-book-nectar-hotels/

• S says:

  6 Jul6 July 10:46

  Sorry if this is a daft question. I’m Marriott Gold with 13 nights. How many nights do I need to stay to get Platinum Elite? Are there any Status matches that will get me there faster? Thanks.

  • Andy says:

    6 Jul6 July 10:56

    You need 50 nights to hit platinum – presumably the 13 nights on your account are do to your gold status last year, with Marriott crediting 50% of the 25 gold nights into your account this year. There was a Marriott promotion in Q1 of this year for double night credits, but no signs of that being offered again.

    The Bonvoy AMEX card will get you another 15 nights, anything more than that you need to stay at the hotels/book meetings. Can’t comment on status match

  • Rob says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:10

    Another 37 (or 22 if you get the Bonvoy Amex, as it gives you 15 nights).

    There is a status challenge, not a match, but not sure if it is running at the moment.

• Andy says:

  6 Jul6 July 10:59

  I linked a flight to my BA account when I made the booking which I now want to credit to Alaska to reset the 2 year expire of my miles there. Can’t see to find a way to do it on MMB? Is there a way to do it online?

  • Sam G says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:07

    Finnair usually good for this but not sure about Alaska

  • G says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:41

    Another option to extend Alaska miles is to do a survey: https://www.theopinionterminal.com/

    I plan on using that route in a few months to reset the expiry on my account

  • ChrisBCN says:

    6 Jul6 July 12:20

    Login on the Finnair site with your booking reference and name, might sound odd but it will work.

  • Andy says:

    6 Jul6 July 14:28

    Thanks for the suggestions – in the end I saw booking the same flight again was 5£ cheaper so I requested a voucher and rebooked with a new travel voucher in the span of 5/10 minutes. Pretty efficient from BA at least and my managed to put in my Alaska details instead

• Ben says:

  6 Jul6 July 11:05

  Missus has the BA Premium Amex and is considering getting rid as they’ve decided to up her interest rate. Can anyone advise what might be the best Amex card to move to from BA Premium card? She wont be eligible for the Gold sign up bonus as far as I can tell; I am currently Gold and considering just putting her on as a supplementary card holder.

  thoughts?

  many thanks

  • Lula says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:10

    Amex cards are not the cards to pick if you’re bothered by the interest rate. If you’re not paying off the card in full every month you/she should be using an interest free card, as the interest will outweigh the points benefits of having the Amex. If you’re paying off in full every month the interest rate makes no difference.

    • Ben says:

      6 Jul6 July 11:20

      I should have clarified, sorry – she’s not paying interest, rather just a bit miffed that they’re putting the interest rate up off the back of a payment that was made less than a couple hours late.

      • Lula says:

        6 Jul6 July 11:29

        Well it’s an individual decision, and depends whether she’s working towards a voucher or spend target. No point cutting off her nose to spite her face if she’s not actually planning on paying those increased interest charges anyway.

      • Andrew says:

        6 Jul6 July 12:03

        A bill is either paid on time, or not paid on time.

        When a bill isn’t paid on time, then the more important concern should be the “Missed Payment” flag that will be recorded on Experian, Equifax and others.

        Maybe better to encourage her to set up a Direct Debit to ensure that at least the minimum payment is settled every month to avoid red flags if you are planning to borrow as a couple in the future.

  • Anna says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:13

    If she’s paying interest I would recommend moving away from Amex altogether as they have some of highest rates. Or move the balance to a 0% card and keep the BAPP? I didn’t know interest rates were individualised though, I assumed any changes affected all card holders.
    A 24 month break might be an option? I think otherwise you wife would just be delaying her ability to get a sign up bonus by moving to a card which doesn’t give her many benefits.

    • Ben says:

      6 Jul6 July 13:39

      She’s not paying interest – it was a one off mistake. The 24 month break might be a useful option actually, I’ll have a think about that. Thank you!

  • Grant says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:14

    If you (or your partner) are in the habit of paying interest on credit card balances then Amex is not the credit card company for you. Any points / benefits would be far outweighted by the punative interest charges.

    In that case you’d be better looking at MSE and seeing which of the current crop of 0% or longer term low % cards are out there.

    If I have misunderstood and you don’t pay regularly interest charges to Amex then the interest rates are immaterial.

  • Nathan says:

    6 Jul6 July 14:36

    Just to add, I know how she feels. I have (had) 2 Amex Cards. The bog standard rewards card and the BAP Premium one. Both impeccable payment history. Received a letter from Amex saying they were upping the interest rate on the rewards card due to personal circumstances and checking you payment history/credit file bla bla bla. I was incandescent with rage. So I cancelled the BAPP card out of spite. Essentially cutting of my nose to spite my face, but it felt GOOD! haha. I told them the reason as well, and they were apologetic and appreciated my annoyance, but didnt change thier stance or try to stop me, so Amex lose my business with the BAPP and that annual fee. I lose out as well, but saying that, I’m not currently spending much or too worried about Avios at the moment, so can live with it.
    Obviously I know that Amex dont learn there are consequences and me cancelling has no real effect on them, but there was no chance I was letting them get away with increasing the rate by 3-4% (even though I pay off any balance). So I feel better! 🙂

    • VickyTM says:

      6 Jul6 July 18:49

      I had exactly the same thing – letter saying they were increasing my personal interest rate. Never a missed payment, always paid off balance in full. No changes in personal circumstances…. annoyed me for no logical reason at all.

• Anna says:

  6 Jul6 July 11:17

  Just called avios.com (mercifully got through straight away) to ask what my options are for my Nice flights booked with Lloyds voucher now unvaccinated teenagers have to quarantine in France. The CSA said my only option is to move the trip to another destination in the same zone. Obviously this is better than nothing (though there aren’t many options just now!), but I’m sure someone posted recently that they managed to cancel a similar booking and had their voucher extended until October?

  • Mikeact says:

    6 Jul6 July 13:05

    Correct..After I complained they extended it, and confirmed by email, that it is now the end of October.

    • Mikeact says:

      6 Jul6 July 13:08

      In fact, come October I need to consider which non changeable Zone to book into..I like S Africa, my wife wants to go back to NZ.

      • Anna says:

        6 Jul6 July 13:53

        Thanks Mike, when I call back I will try again with the cancellation option!

• Electrofun says:

  6 Jul6 July 11:23

  Just got targeted with this Amex offer:

  Save to Card to earn 1 additional Membership Rewards point per £1 spend in-store and online by 6/9/2021. Valid every time up to 1000 Membership Rewards points for the first 55,000 Cardmembers to save.

• Aston100 says:

  6 Jul6 July 11:26

  Accor spend £350 get £70 statement credit across some of my cards.

  • Aston100 says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:31

    Never mind, I see it has been reported within an article this morning.

• Doug says:

  6 Jul6 July 11:36

  I arrived from Amber Country on Sat and done DAY2 test on Sunday via Randox, got results back on Monday, but Track & Trace calls me every day, they said I should use NHS App to report the results, but I understand that Randox is supposed to report the result directly to them. My partner doesn’t get those calls!

  • Oli says:

    6 Jul6 July 11:48

    The NHS were advised of my positive test to release with Biogroup, they are definitely talking to each other; at least for positive tests!

    Interestingly my Day 2 test with Randox came back negative and I only tested positive on Day 5. As double-vaccinated, i have no symptoms at all and would not have known if I had not voluntarily done my test to release

    • Doug says:

      6 Jul6 July 11:58

      I think they do, there is a gov.uk page that lists the reqs for a provider and they should share the data, my partner got a call and they told her that it should be ok.
      Oh if you had a positive on day 2 you don’t need to do day 8!

    • meta says:

      6 Jul6 July 12:43

      @Oli If you don’t mind sharing, how long after your second jab and which vaccine did you get?

      • Oli says:

        6 Jul6 July 14:02

        I tested positive exactly 3 weeks after my second dose – it was AZ

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Jul6 July 12:32

    Which NHS app are you meant to be reporting the result via?

    The nhs Covid T&T app is complete anonymous and I don’t see anything on the proper NHS app

  • Cats are best says:

    6 Jul6 July 13:04

    The T&T people are just following a script, not sure they know much about how things work. I’ve had 7 calls so far (today is day 9, all tests negative including TTR).

    On a couple of calls they asked “have you registered your test result”, to which I responded “what do you mean by ‘registered'”, they couldn’t explain!

    I said I attended the test provider’s clinic for the test and it was up to them to do any reporting not me.

    But I wonder if the script is simply badly written and is really referring to putting the test booking reference code on the PLF.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      6 Jul6 July 13:19

      Just stop answering their calls?

      • fivebobbill says:

        6 Jul6 July 13:35

        You can tick a box on your UK PLF to refuse to accept calls, which i did (you are asked why, to which I replied “I do not answer to unknown numbers”).
        However, I still got a call on day 2 of my return, which I did answer, and told them I would not be answering any questions as I had no idea who they were, do not ring me again, then promptly but politely hung up.
        I never heard from them again.

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