The HfP chat thread – Monday 26th July

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Ian M says:

26 Jul26 July 13:52

Has anyone here tried to complete the Passenger Locator Form for Greece recently? I keep trying to register on the website, but every time I do it says:

“Your account could not be created. Please make sure that you have not registered already with the same email address and try again.”

I’ve tried 3 different email addresses, and each time it says the same thing! I thought ok lets reset the password seeing as you think there’s already an account for these email addresses, but when I go down that wrote it says:

“An error occurred while processing your request. Please make sure that you have an account with the provided email address and that you did not send another password reset request recently.”

Hopeless!
- AFKAE says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 13:54
  
  I didn’t complete the PLF, but I did register on the Visit Greece website/app yesterday. There is a link on there to do the PLF.
  - Ian M says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 14:17
    
    Thanks I’ll give that a try. I thought the PLF was a requirement of entry?
    - AFKAE says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 17:25
      
      Yes, I should have said I didn’t complete it because I was just looking at it for a trip at the end of august.
- Pangolin says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 15:21
  
  I had the same problem and it turned out that using a VPN confused it. Once I switched off the VPN I was able to sign up.
  - Ian M says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 16:38
    
    Thanks, that’s fixed it!
Jane says:

26 Jul26 July 13:55

what happens if you take a voucher and don’t use it by the 2023 deadline ? do you loose the money, miles and the associated 2-4-1 ? just trying to decide what to do with a flight for Portugal on Wednesday that doesn’t look like it’s going to be cancelled and which we won’t be taking. If I cancel I’ll lose the cash and the 2-4-1 will expire but will get the miles back but I’m not sure we’d use the voucher as we have a number of other bookings already.
- BuildBackBetter says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 14:23
  
  That’s what expiry means? Unless they changed the meaning recently.
  Of course BA can extend the expiry.
  - Jane says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 14:29
    
    well yes, dumb question really 🙂 I was just hoping there was another option. There must be loads of people who took these and then can’t / don’t use. Ever the optimist I wondered if perhaps they might expire the bits that you would have lost anyway (ie 2-4-1- and cash) and return the miles.
    - ChrisC says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 15:09
      
      If you cancel you won’t lose all the cash – you just pay the £35 per person. If the cash element was lower than that there is no more to pay. If it’s a lot of cash you may well prefeer to have it in your bank account even if you might lose the 2-4-1
      
      Are you really sure you won’t be able to use the FTV between now and April 2023 – that’s almost 2 years away.
      
      In an FTV your 2-4-1 voucher remains valid.
      
      Unless I’m not understanding what you want to do.
      
      What is happening in some European countries is that airlines have been allowed to issue vouchers but if the passenger hasn’t used it after a year (or a different date in the legislation) the airline must then refund the cash.
      
      I have a couple of friends in the Netherlands awaiting the date when they can get their cash back!
      
      I suppose our government could do something similar but it may be taking the view that what the various airlines is reasonable for them to do in the circumstances. YMMV
  - Rob says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 15:07
    
    No-one knows.
    
    If BA tries to wipe them there will be legal action as many people felt they were forced into taking a voucher due to BA removing cash refunds from the website and effectively shutting down its call centre.
    - Anna says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 15:18
      
      A few weeks ago one of the UK CSAs told me that all low-value FTVs were going to be refunded (general chit chat while he was amending a booking!) I’ve not heard anything else about it though.
      - Jane says:
        
        26 Jul26 July 15:39
        
        interesting, I might just move them to next Easter or half term 2022 and then worry about it later. If abroad doesn’t work out for us this year then I think we’ll be due extra holidays next year!
      - ChrisC says:
        
        26 Jul26 July 15:43
        
        As I posted yesterday I was told that though they used to refund balances less than £20 that was no longer the case because I asked if I could have £5.31 back rather than another FTV
- Andrew says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 15:58
  
  And how will Virgin survive not having meaningful transatlantic for the foreseeable future?
  - Rob says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 16:26
    
    All the Virgin people we met at the lounge reopening were very cheerful and if you look at LinkedIn they are recruiting heavily for head office roles.
    
    It is basically running as a cargo airline at present with a few passengers for bonus revenue. 7/18 flights on the day we were there were cargo-only and presumably profitable or they wouldn’t be scheduled. The other 11 had almost 2,000 paying passengers between them.
    
    All crew etc still furloughed until end of September. Airline leases all renegotiated at substantially lower levels.
    
    If losses are down to, say, £20m per month then I think Branson will keep underwriting it.
    - Lady London says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 17:08
      
      2 Virgin cargo planes fly over my house one after the other quite a few of the nights every week. Flightradar ID’s them as soon as I hear them
    - Andrew says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 17:11
      
      Well that’s good news. Let’s hope we get to fly to the US again early in the new year.
Pete M says:

26 Jul26 July 14:07

The United States will not lift any existing travel restrictions “at this point” due to concerns over the highly transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant and the rising number of U.S. coronavirus cases, a White House official told Reuters.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-usa-travel-idUKKBN2EW1EY
- Mike says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 14:32
  
  You’ve got to wonder about the Americans sometimes. Trying to prevent delta getting in is a good idea but as 87% of new cases in the US are delta, at the last count, then saying concern about Delta is an issue comes across as a bit dense.
  
  Additionally, banning travel from most of the 1st world whilst allowing it from countries in the 3rd world which are hardly testing will be one of the lessons from this pandemic… Don’t publish your numbers, it does help to be honest.
  - Pete M says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 14:38
    
    I suspect it’s not dissimilar to here on an internal politics level. If you open the borders, you can 100% see the Republicans blaming that for cases exploding (as they will), so it probably makes sense to maintain the status quo. Those who need to go have learned how to do it, tourism industry will have to cope…
    - ChrisC says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 14:44
      
      Republicans will scream no matter what and with no evidence at all.
      
      Covid is rampant in many GOP controlled states and they wonder why – ithey ignore the fact they promoted it as a fake virus. no worse than flu, don’t get vaccinated etc etc
      - Yorkie Aid says:
        
        26 Jul26 July 15:14
        
        Actually most Republicans would just prefer business as usual so would be happy for the borders to be opened up fully. In fact one of the last things the last idiot did was to rescind the Presidential Order on travel but Biden promptly reinstated it as soon as he took office.
      - ChrisC says:
        
        26 Jul26 July 15:46
        
        Which he only did to make Biden look bad. And he admitted as much.
        
        He even dated his revocation to take place a couple of weeks after he left office.
    - Mike says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 16:31
      
      Republicans aren’t the issue here, they generally accept the need for a return to normality with an acceptance of low level disease and hospitalisation etc. Trump had ordered the ban lifted as one of his last acts, Biden reversed that. One of the Republican beefs is having bans on visitors whilst the southern border is unsecure, to their eyes it seems hypocritical.
      - ChrisC says:
        
        26 Jul26 July 17:16
        
        He lifted it as an act of spite.
  - Anna says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 15:20
    
    It’s bizarre – plus Americans are busy travelling to all the places they can, especially the Caribbean and Mexico, so presumably spreading the virus around and taking it back with them!
    - Anna says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 15:22
      
      Case in point – I’m on a FB forum with lots of Americans who own at the same timeshare property as me in GCM but as no one can go there just now they are reporting every day that they are going to Mexico, Bahamas, Aruba, Turks & Caicos etc with no testing or quarantine requirement!
- BJ says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 16:34
  
  They already have it, same old barn doors…
S says:

26 Jul26 July 14:20

Just came across this one youtube.. no doubt a HfP reader! Makes me very excited for my upcoming stay in October (and maybe also December :P)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWp6VoUZVRI&ab_channel=SuperTravelBunny
- Babyg says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 18:03
  
  it gave me motion sickness…. like the views over the vineyard thou!
- r* says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 18:38
  
  Heh thats mine 🙂 Theres also videos of the pool area (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQytBXKDE54) and of the forest walk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EGyR6vCV0Y)
  
  Was waiting til I had done the fourth video, which is yet to be completed, then was gonna post them on here lol 🙂
S says:

26 Jul26 July 14:21

Just came across a new youtube video of the SS DV suite.. no doubt a HfP reader! Makes me very excited for my upcoming stay in October (and maybe also December :P)

Looks like I can’t post a link but you can find it if you search ‘Six Senses Douro Valley, Portugal – Vineyard Garden Suite’
ChrisC says:

26 Jul26 July 14:41

Made a silly error yesterday and booked flight for the wrong date. My own fault as I’d put the wrong date into a spreadheeet for another flight and booked using that wrong date. Only spotted it today.

Used the teamgb1 discount as well.

Thought I’d look in MMB what BA would charge me for changing it to the right date. Was expecting to pay change fee as well.

But moved at a cost of £3. Which is the difference between the costs of the old and the new date.

BA didn’t charge me the difference based on the old fare being discounted and the new fare.

Much relieved otherwise I’d be waiting for another sale or a cancellation!
- Doc says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 14:46
  
  It would have been free to cancel your original booking within 24 hours of you booking it and then you could have rebooked for your correct dates for free and you could have saved £3 🙂
  - Doc says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 14:47
    
    Although I suspect you would have not got the BA discount since I think it finished last night!!
    - ChrisC says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 15:12
      
      Correct and I didn’t want to have to pay any more unless I really had to!
      
      I did try a fresh booking at luch time and used the code hoping BA IT hadn’t been updated but it said the code was invalid.
      
      Could have been worse than £3!
Clive says:

26 Jul26 July 14:42

Is there any “shelf life” for a day 2 test? Could it be bought 3 weeks prior to the return if necessary? Thanks
- Will says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 14:47
  
  If they’ll sell you it, then surely it’s fine as you need to enter your dates when you buy it.
  It will be compliant with the law at very least
- Anna says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 15:30
  
  I wondered that – and also whether you were obliged to use it for the same flight you declared when you bought it (consensus seems to be not).
  However, I’m assuming that as it seems to be VERY similar to the free lateral flow tests it should last as long as they seem to!
- AFKAE says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 17:32
  
  I had this with a Randox one I bought and hen canned the trip. I phoned them up and they said it was fine up to the “sell by” date on the packaging-which was something in 2023.
  Funnily enough I’ve just come back from a trip and used the kit today.
  Nice drive out to Warwick Racecourse to drop it off.
  - AFKAE says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 17:33
    
    *then
Mark says:

26 Jul26 July 14:52

What should I do with Melia points in my account (bought through the Amazon sale previously) if I have no intention of using it in the next 2 years? Just buy the minimum number of points annually to prolong the expiry by a year each time?
- Rob says:
  
  26 Jul26 July 15:05
  
  You could try an Avios transfer but if you’ve never made a booking it is likely to be rejected. Making and cancelling a reward booking may allow Avios transfers.
  
  However … because the points can be great value my preferred route would be to pay the €5 to buy 1000 points and extend. Melia has a decent footprint.
  - Mark says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 15:58
    
    Thanks a lot Rob. Makes sense to do the latter!
  - trader363 says:
    
    26 Jul26 July 16:54
    
    Rob, what properties/countries are they usually good value in? I’ve struggled to find decent redemptions recently (outside of Europe)
    - Rob says:
      
      26 Jul26 July 18:00
      
      It’s generally about timing – you need to book whilst the ‘standard’ reward nights are still showing and before ‘premium’ pricing starts. Unlike Hilton, Melia doesn’t tell you what sort of price you see.
      
      I put my brother in ME London recently using purchased points in the Amazon deal – was £160/night vs £500/night for cash (this was during Wimbledon). He got a huge upgrade as well based on my Gold status.