The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 13th July

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• Aston100 says:

  13 Jul13 July 10:41

  Sorry if already asked & answered elsewhere.
  About the current 100k avios competition from Nectar/BAEC.
  Is anyone else reading the t&cs as saying you can do one transfer of 8000 nectar to BAEC and that would qualify for 20 entries by itself?

  Thanks.

  • Rob says:

    13 Jul13 July 10:43

    Yes

    • Tim says:

      13 Jul13 July 11:23

      Has a list/breakdown of prizes appeared anywhere yet?

      • AJA says:

        13 Jul13 July 15:31

        I found the following on the page in the BA Rewards app.

        There are 181 Avios prize bundles. The prizes start at 5,000 Avios going up to 50,000 Avios with one grand prize of 100,000 Avios.

        According to the email I received from Nectar the total prize pot is 2,000,000 Avios. So I am guessing there will be prizes of 5,000 , 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 and the one 100,000 prize.

        I’ve converted 2,400 Nectar points so far in chunks. I didn’t realise you could do 8,000 in one go.

  • Tracey says:

    13 Jul13 July 10:57

    Can’t decide whether this is a good use of nectar, when I already have 1m Avios. OH thinks you can never have too many Avios, but just to convert for a possible win….hmm.
    And OH would never release them to be converted back to Nectar.

    • Reney says:

      13 Jul13 July 11:41

      But you can convert them back into Avios at a later date, no? Am I missing something, I thought it was a 2 ways transfer system? You could transfer them into nectar and let it sit there for a while? I didn’t think you were required to spend them for the competition?

      • Phil says:

        13 Jul13 July 11:43

        I think Tracey is suggesting her other half would be the stumbling block to permitting their conversion back to Nectar, not the competition rules or the tech.

    • Andrew says:

      13 Jul13 July 12:41

      You can just convert back after 1 August – that’s what I’ll be doing.

    • AJA says:

      13 Jul13 July 15:47

      Given that Nectar points are worth 0.5p and you can transfer a maximum of 8,000 points to 5,000 Avios to get the maximum 20 entries you are effectively paying £40 for a chance to win at least 5,000 but possibly 100,000 Avios. Note you can only win 1 prize. So if you win the smallest prize of 5,000 Avios having transferred £40 worth of Nectar points that equates to effectively getting your money back. The question is what would you buy with £40 worth of Nectar points?

      • Ryan says:

        13 Jul13 July 15:49

        More avois….??

      • Rob says:

        13 Jul13 July 15:54

        Eh? You can move the Nectar points back as soon as the competition has ended, so there is no long term loss or cost.

        • Tracey says:

          13 Jul13 July 17:09

          In theory yes, but my husband is too precious about his Avios balance to let them go back to nectar.

        • AJA says:

          13 Jul13 July 17:48

          Yes Rob I agree. Personally I see it as a free competition as all you are doing is transferring the £40 worth of Nectar points into £40 worth of Avios. I was replying to Tracey who would rather keep them in Nectar while her husband would rather keep them in Avios.

      • @mkcol says:

        14 Jul14 July 11:03

        Your groceries?

• YC says:

  13 Jul13 July 10:41

  Any thoughts on mainland Spain going Red this week? Suppose to be going but might start thinking of plan b…

  • Anna says:

    13 Jul13 July 11:09

    General opinion seems to be not, because Spain has a good vaccination rate. Being cynical, I also think that a couple of ministers will be booked to go to their villas, and won’t want their plans disrupting like last year!
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/27/shapps-feels-the-pain-in-spain-on-holiday-from-hell

    • MattB says:

      13 Jul13 July 11:15

      Rates are still lower than UK, and I think to go red it would have to be out of control with evidence of new variant spread. (Just my thoughts from guidance that has been published anyway).

      • Anna says:

        13 Jul13 July 11:39

        Agreed, plus the Spanish authorities are re-introducing restrictions precisely because they don’t want to jeopardise another summer tourist season. Presumably they are relying on business from older, vaccinated visitors who won’t have to quarantine on their return to the UK rather than younger holiday makers who might be put off by clubs and bars not being open.

        • Harry T says:

          13 Jul13 July 11:55

          Spanish restrictions seem to be that you can only party until midnight inside or 3am outside 😂

  • Zoe says:

    13 Jul13 July 14:52

    We are heading out tomorrow. The earlier closing of bars seems to mean more groups of (mostly Spanish ) youngsters partying till dawn in their rented villa or apartment. Previously they might have been out really late but most of the noise would have been around the bars and nightclubs. We are packing earplugs – hope for the best plan for the worst.

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  13 Jul13 July 10:49

  Just back from Guernsey. BA flight from Edinburgh on Friday, back yesterday. About 30 passengers outbound, 50 inbound (and 54 on the inbound from London City)
  Met at airport by staff in masks and plastic gowns – once outside the airport, never saw a mask again!
  Weather was mixed – stayed in platinum room at Fermain Valley. £270 a night in hotel site, £200 per night on Agoda. Hotel priced match with no issues.
  Took by from outside the hotel back to airport – £1 each. Hotel said taxis wanted £30 plus another c£1.50 for taking contactless payments!
  Lovely coastal walks. A fantastic break from the pandemic.
  No passenger locator form or tests on return to Edinburgh. Since double jabbed, just a long online form to fill in on outbound. No tests.
  And duty free on way home!

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    13 Jul13 July 10:50

    Took bus – not by!

    Ps. Thanks to HfPers for all their Guernsey advice.

    • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

      13 Jul13 July 12:13

      Hey Colin – glad you had a great break on our little rock! Clever move on the Agoda price match – the Fermain Valley is a lovely hotel and setting 🙂

  • Ali M says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:47

    wow @ no tests 😘 So we are double jabbed and headed down next month…excited to read ur experience

• Bagoly says:

  13 Jul13 July 10:55

  I just came across the Tripadvisor list of Things to Do in Luton, number 4 is:
  Aspire Airport Lounge – London Luton

  Interesting to think how the blame for that should be apportioned between Luton, Tripadvisor’s systems, or Tripadvisor’s contributors!

  • Aston100 says:

    13 Jul13 July 11:27

    What is number 1 on that list? drive as quickly as possible towards the M1?

    • r* says:

      13 Jul13 July 11:52

      I was assuming it would be the LTN departures gates 🙂

• Maciek says:

  13 Jul13 July 11:42

  Track and trace idiocy is getting on my nerves. I’m being called every day to be told what I’ve been told yesterday and the day before and what I’ve read before arriving back in the UK. Surely this is not the best use of T&T agents’ time?!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    13 Jul13 July 11:47

    Did you arrive from an amber country? I once was flying through the UK less than 24 hours (but an overnight stay in the HGI) so I put on the PLF I was in transit so didn’t need to take the test and put my date of leaving the UK as the day after I arrived. Still a few days later I got a text asking me to confirm that I did the day 2 tests and then also got a call. It does seem like a pointless waste of time

    • Maciek says:

      13 Jul13 July 11:51

      Yup, amber. Frankly it’s an unbelievable waste of resources they surely could repurpose in a better way… 🤷‍♂️

      • Saiz says:

        13 Jul13 July 12:10

        Yes, they repeat the same thing for 3-5 minutes first and then say anything further. Got so fed up!

  • Andrew says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:11

    Perhaps they need a brief day 2+ script?

  • Neil says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:22

    Remember that its all about call volume and total minutes etc. which is all tracked. They will read the same script for as long as they can gouge enormous fees for doing so – they would read you the dictionary if they could get away with it

  • Mr. AC says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:25

    Expect them to come to your doorstep at some point if you’ve arrived from an Amber country to check you’re not being naughty.

    • Anna says:

      13 Jul13 July 12:30

      It’s going to really confuse them from Monday when vaccinated travellers aren’t subject to all this any more!

    • Maciek says:

      13 Jul13 July 12:31

      They didn’t the last time, so I’m pretty confident they won’t this time either…

  • andyT says:

    13 Jul13 July 13:59

    It’s so that if you are discovered to be breaking quarantine you cannot plead ignorance of the rules, which are in place to protect all of us.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      13 Jul13 July 14:14

      If you believe that BS you’ll believe anything.

      • fivebobbill says:

        13 Jul13 July 14:34

        THIS!

    • Tariq says:

      13 Jul13 July 18:37

      🤣🤣🤣

  • Gtellez says:

    13 Jul13 July 15:43

    Last month it happened the same to me, at least 4-5 calls in 10 days with the same script. However, today I’m in my day 10 of self isolation and still no one has called me…

    • Maciek says:

      13 Jul13 July 20:00

      They may still visit! 🤪

• Andrew says:

  13 Jul13 July 12:01

  A Telegraph offer has just popped up on my Nectar Connect.

  70pts per £1, maximum reward 7000 Nectar Points. So that’s 4331 Avios for a £89 spend (£99-£10 Amex offer).

  So not far off the cost of simply buying Avios, but comes with a year’s digital subscription.

  • Andrew says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:10

    Ah, perhaps better. MBNA are offering a 50% fund return on purchases at the Telegraph, maximum £35. So that would be a net £64 for 4331 Avios when stacked with the Nectar Offer (and a year’s digital subscription).

    • Toby says:

      13 Jul13 July 12:19

      Mine is 100 points per £1 spent at telegraph!

      • Rob says:

        13 Jul13 July 12:38

        Just saw this. I doubt MBNA would pay out alongside Nectar though, because these are both the same sort of offer. I think Amex WOULD pay out on top because of the way Amex structures its deals.

        • Andrew says:

          13 Jul13 July 12:49

          I’ve not spotted a potentialy stackable offer between the two that I want to use yet to test it.

          Aren’t the data feeds different though? With LBG basing it on card transactions and Nectar basing the offers on Open Banking Data?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          13 Jul13 July 14:15

          Why wouldn’t they?

          MBNA is based upon what’s on your statement.

          I think there is a 100% chance of them both working.

    • Toby says:

      13 Jul13 July 14:28

      @Andrew, if you’re thinking about it seriously, I’ve just found an offer in my inbox for a year of Telegraph Digital for £39. The link still works. That seems to be the lowest so far, and may serve as a benchmark for you.

  • BJ says:

    13 Jul13 July 12:54

    Is mbna card worth having for the offers? I ditched them after the FF cards all went.

    • Rob says:

      13 Jul13 July 13:53

      Not in my view, no.

      • BJ says:

        13 Jul13 July 17:22

        Thanks, I’ll pass then as I don’t need any more cards except the paid Virgin card but I’ll wait to see if I can get a higher bonus on it.

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  13 Jul13 July 12:01

  I’ve asked this question before but forgot to check for the reply and can’t remember what day I asked it – so sorry if this looks familiar.
  When booking flights it’s easy to book for many people and then add their own frequent flyer numbers, but when booking multiple hotel rooms this doesn’t seem possible.

  In my case it’s Hilton, I’m booking two rooms with points. We’re both diamond, but although I can add the extra persons name to the booking there’s no way to assign the room to their card number.

  I had planned to just transfer over the points to the other person so they can book the second room themselves, but I always get an error when I do that, it seems specific to my account as I know it works for others and Hilton have never resolved it for me.

  So I want the hotel to know that both travellers are diamond (in case that helps with upgrades) and I want the other person to get their count of nights and points on any incidental spend to their room.

  Do I just ask at check-in to move the room to the other person or is there a better way?

  If it had been cash bookings then we would have just each booked our own (but then it means less likely to get rooms near to each other).

  • John says:

    13 Jul13 July 18:40

    You can ask for adjacent rooms or just choose them at online check in if offered, whether you book together or not

    Hotels are able to change the hh account even on points stays booked from a different account, but they may refuse (because they don’t know how to, or because they think it’s against the rules).

    I think you’ll have to keep trying to fix the transfer issue

• Guernsey Globetrotter says:

  13 Jul13 July 13:05

  Things definitely changing for the Solihull cards… since the new two factor security introduction, my IHG only tops up Che max 1.5k at a time and all my Marriott ones fail altogether… If the Beardy changes also come to pass in August then my points pot will grow a lot more slowly 🙁

  • Reney says:

    13 Jul13 July 13:16

    you are doing better than me, I can only do a high 3 figure top up once every 4 days, with much smaller ones in between. Soldiering on best I can. I don’t even get the 2FA pop up anymore, that used to come up for anything above £300. Cannot work out if it is a Che issue or a Solihull issue, hoping for a Che app update that might fix it?!

    • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

      13 Jul13 July 13:39

      Yes – I noticed too that the 2FA pop-up isn’t working as intended so hoping like you that this is just a temporary set-back Reney!

  • Chas says:

    13 Jul13 July 14:08

    I’ve been having similar challenges with Solihull when using it to pay HMRC (sitting behind Bendy metal). All worked fine on Friday and Saturday with payments of my max daily limit (£4.5k), but I haven’t been able to get anywhere near that for the last 3 days; curve successfully validates the transaction, then it gets rejected by Solihull as I apparently don’t have sufficient credit available (a complete lie as my account is actually in credit…. 🙄). Yesterday I was able to get a £2k payment through, but a further £500 failed. This morning I was able to get £2.5k through straight away.

  • VerdantBacon says:

    13 Jul13 July 15:05

    The only constant is change, even if all of these current popular MS methods fall away, something new always comes up. It’s amazing how long Curve and Revolut methods have worked considering how much they are talked about and how easy they are to abuse. We should count ourselves lucky we’ve had such a long period of no change!

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      13 Jul13 July 15:23

      Indeed, we’re very much on bonus time already far beyond what we could reasonably hope for. No grumbles here when Bendy finally goes, er, “straight”? :D.

      • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

        13 Jul13 July 16:58

        🤣

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