The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 28th July

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• The Hunter says:

  28 Jul28 July 08:12

  Sorry, it’s probably been asked several times before. I have 4 return flights to Corfu leaving in 2 days. Have been hoping that BA would cancel them but they haven’t. Is there any way I can get the Avios and cash back, instead of a voucher? Many thanks

  • Rhys says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:16

    If you’re willing to pay a little then yes: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/04/01/what-does-it-cost-to-cancel-an-avios-redemption-flight-2/

    • The Hunter says:

      28 Jul28 July 08:30

      Ok, thank you. Looks like we’d need to pay 2 x £140, as return was a separate booking. Does the fact these were re-booked by BA due to same cancelled flights the year before make any difference? Or that we can’t go as not double jabbed?

      • Rhys says:

        28 Jul28 July 08:39

        Did you accept the rebooking flights or is it still open?

        • The Hunter says:

          28 Jul28 July 08:49

          Accepted them.

        • The Hunter says:

          28 Jul28 July 08:52

          They issues FTV’s then immediately booked the new flights, all on the phone.

      • ChrisC says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:15

        Your vaccination status is not relevant to getting a refund.

        Once you accepted the rebooking onto this flight from the previously cancelled flights you lost any rights for a full refund.

        As you don’t want to travel this weekend then if you want a refund rather than another voucher then you have to pay the cancellation fees

      • Pablo says:

        28 Jul28 July 15:40

        You can rebook them for some random mid week days in late October and hope they get cancelled then.

    • Richie says:

      28 Jul28 July 09:35

      Can you get the avios back and avios/voucher for the cash element?

      • ChrisC says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:59

        No.

  • Sam G says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:17

    worth saying that you could take a voucher now and then refund that later if you can’t use it before it expires

    • Sam G says:

      28 Jul28 July 09:18

      assuming that this is a proper avios flight , not cash reduced by some avios

• Nomid says:

  28 Jul28 July 08:27

  I’m in Switzerland right now and need to take out some cash. I plan to use curve and haven’t taken cash in a while. What underlying card (Solihull, HK, beardy) won’t charge cash fee? Thanks

  • Harrier25 says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:37

    Solihull certainly won’t. I have no idea on the other two as I don’t own them. Enjoy Switzerland!

  • Mark says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:18

    HK won’t as well in my experience.

    On Curve withdrawals, how much and often do we withdraw before we get flagged?!

    • John says:

      28 Jul28 July 10:03

      Depends on the rest of your spending habits and whether you could justify a genuine need for cash if they asked. I guess occasional cash withdrawals outside the UK, with also some spending in that country would be fine

  • Jonathan says:

    28 Jul28 July 10:48

    The Halifax Clarity card is a specialist credit card for non-Sterling cash withdrawals, and I think Barclaycard offers a competitive credit card as well

    No spending rewards with these cards, but almost certainly the better option, when you factor in exchange rates etc.

    • Harrier25 says:

      28 Jul28 July 13:14

      Except both those cards will charge interest from the moment the cash is withdrawn. Linking Curve with Solihull won’t, so clearly the better option.

      • John says:

        28 Jul28 July 14:47

        Halifax charges from the date the transaction posts, so as long as you can pay it off within a day there will be no charges

        • Harrier25 says:

          28 Jul28 July 16:33

          Still pointless when you won’t have to pay off the withdrawal on Solihull until the statement date, no FX fees using Curve and additional hotel points too. It’s a triple win 😀 but no free breakfast 😕

• dej says:

  28 Jul28 July 08:37

  me again, anyone flown through t5 first thing past few days, how busy has security and check-in been. We have a 7.05 flight on friday and its way too early for me

  • Cats are best says:

    28 Jul28 July 10:16

    I went through FW about 0900 today, no queue to check in, short wait at security due to pax not putting stuff in trays.

    GF maybe 50% full, service very fast.

    When I went to duty free, the terminal was pretty busy, almost pre-pandemic.

  • DZOO says:

    28 Jul28 July 13:32

    Was on a 7am departure today – did bag drop at Club desks, sat in Galleries S within 20 odd minutes tops – no queues whatsoever.

• Aliyah says:

  28 Jul28 July 08:43

  How do I get through to Chronomics customer service? I need to speak to a person and the options seemed automated. 02080162620

  • Simon says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:15

    whats your issue? are these £10 tests not worth the hassle ?

    • Aliyah says:

      28 Jul28 July 09:31

      They are not worth the hassle of saving money. I got overcharged and I ordered many tests so it’s not a small amount. Sent 2 emails in the last 3 days but no response. Called on the 0800 number on their website exactly at 9am and still had to hold for over 20 minutes. The number is on Chronomics website but the lady said she was TUI and I would need to send the tests back and wait for a response to my email. A complete disaster as I need to travel in 3 days and despite 72 hours there was been no response from Chronomics. Stay clear!

      • Pete M says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:35

        What do you mean by overcharged? You didn’t put the discount code in and now want the cheaper price?

        • Aliyah says:

          28 Jul28 July 09:44

          I did put the British Airways code and it brought it down to £10 each but on the payment page it only showed the card details. I paid and then the email showed they’d charged each test x £30 and subtracted £20 so I got overcharged by £60.

        • Aliyah says:

          28 Jul28 July 09:50

          Also if I hadn’t put the code, why did it remove £20 from £120 in the end?

        • Pete M says:

          28 Jul28 July 09:53

          That’s crap then! I did see someone mention they had to be bought separately to get the discount on each, but that’s of limited use to you now. How about a chargeback – it may be your best bet at this point if they won’t engage.

  • dej says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:57

    you can cancel the order when logging in. It seems the discount only applies once so need to order them separately

    • Aliyah says:

      28 Jul28 July 10:24

      I couldn’t cancel as the option wasn’t showing but I did send an email soon after. If you call on an of the numbers listed, they all get directed to TUI and the people say Chronomics are not receiving calls, write a cover letter and post them back. Obviously at my own cost. I paid with my BA Amex. Shall I ask them to dispute it?

  • Simon says:

    28 Jul28 July 10:06

    Ouch. So moral of the story, order them one at a time…..

  • Harry T says:

    28 Jul28 July 10:24

    Someone kindly reported this issue so I ordered four tests one at a time. I received the discount for every order, so £10 each.

    • Aliyah says:

      28 Jul28 July 10:25

      Yes, I saw it but it was too late.

    • AD says:

      28 Jul28 July 11:37

      I have same experience as Harry T, with the tests received within 2 days

    • TGLoyalty says:

      28 Jul28 July 13:01

      Ditto. Waiting for my delivery today. 2 days after ordering.

      • Simon says:

        28 Jul28 July 13:25

        Ive just ordered 2 separately. Dispatch date says 5 dates before the flight date I had to enter. Rather silly, but easily amended to much sooner when I’d logged in to my account. Great deal for a tenner.

  • Peter K says:

    28 Jul28 July 13:57

    As time is of the essence in your case, isn’t it worth taking the £60 hit on this occasion and getting to go on your hols?

• Magic Mike says:

  28 Jul28 July 08:43

  Delta extending status to Jan 2023… the first domino to fall?

  • Andrew says:

    28 Jul28 July 08:58

    Let’s hope BA do they same for the other half of the members they didn’t extend in the last round.

    • BSI1978 says:

      28 Jul28 July 09:17

      Will likely be irrelevant for a lot of people who ‘fell’ out of say Gold or Silver during that period; BA won’t bump them back up, just potentially roll over at the reduced membership. Unless I have misunderstood your comment.

      • Andrew says:

        28 Jul28 July 09:47

        Yes for those of us expiring in the first half of 2022, no extension was offered earlier this year. So unless I fly sufficiently by 8 Feb, I’ll drop to silver at end of March, whereas if I was expiring 8 Dec, then I’d be good until 2023.

• Patrick C says:

  28 Jul28 July 09:13

  Here is my current situation:

  2-4-1 tickets booked to LA for September, but we will not do this now.
  Paid avios & cash as required for the voucher. The voucher currently expires in March 2022, and we don’t plan to use it by then given our travel calendar.

  I think I have 2 options:

  (1) take a FTV and lock i the voucher until ? (2023 or what is the latest?)
  (2) cancel, pay 35per person and do a dummy booking to convert into a lower value FTV (that is still possible right?) Can that even be another travel class? (i.e. economy)

  Also, is there any hope that BA cancels the flight to LA? I guess I can wait until 24hrs before departure but usually this happens min 2 weeks before ?

  It’s a lot of points, but any advice / comments around the options would be very welcome.

  • ChrisC says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:19

    1 – trip would need to be completed by 30th April 2023.

    2. – can be any cabin you like. Just remember names of passengers are locked into the FTV. FTV is basically a credit note and cabin and destination not locked into it.

  • Sam G says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:24

    if you’re booked on BA281 / BA280 then this hasn’t operated and likely would get cancelled approx a month out based on current trend so you could wait it out a bit. Then you could rebook to travel around the same time next year FOC if you wanted (tickets now valid +1yr from departure date if the flight is cancelled). You could also try engineering a free change onto those flight numbers – they resume on 23rd Aug

    I believe (but someone else will confirm I’m sure!) that if you FTV and then use it for a lower value flight they’ll refund the residual cash & avios & then you can add them back when you book a new flight using the smaller FTV

• Reney says:

  28 Jul28 July 09:30

  I referred someone to BAPP on Monday, they were accepted right away. Usually the referral points would appear next day. Nothing has turned up yet. Any data points from people who recently made referrals? When the person did the application it did say they were being referred but they did not get the pop up that said … you have been referred by x … which i have previously seen.

  • Anna says:

    28 Jul28 July 09:44

    It can take a few days for referral points to appear but if they don’t show up by the end of the week try chatting to Amex to make sure the correct link was used (or Amex hasn’t picked up on the link and you might need to open a complaint to claim the referral points).

    • Henry says:

      28 Jul28 July 10:47

      If the correct link wasn’t used end of story, you need to stick with the T&Cs.

• Vin says:

  28 Jul28 July 09:42

  Malta exit – 20min from airport doors to inside the lounge – very fast and efficient . Check-in agent looked at our PLF and negative lateral flow digital documents .
  No BA lounge access in airport but Lounge Club gets you in to LaValette lounge – table service and cold options with fruit for breakfast and full views of the apron including outside seating area.
  Lat flow Covid tests from most pharmacies – walk in and reserve a same day slot. 35 euros and email confirmation in 30min. Testing also available at airport but need to pre-book slot and wait for results – so factor in the time.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    28 Jul28 July 10:00

    If you qualify for BA lounge access (either in Club Europe or via status) please spend a couple of minutes to submit a complaint about the lack of lounge. BA have not renewed their contract in many airports so it’s important that BA get the feedback that the lounge is part of the business class experience/key component of status.
    There’s an easy to use complaint form https://www.britishairways.com/travel/customerportal/execclub/_gf/en_gb#/customer-service-portal#pageTitle

    Just select Airport Lounges > Departure Lounge > There was no lounge available

    • meta says:

      28 Jul28 July 10:08

      You could have used Verifly as well, BA agent would see it in the system and would just issue the boarding pass without asking for any documents.

      • Will says:

        28 Jul28 July 11:29

        VeriFLY takes an age to complete and not all agents are trained to accept it. Not convinced it’s worth the effort – but loading forms in the hotel is perhaps better than spending any longer time in a checkin queue….

        • AFKAE says:

          28 Jul28 July 12:18

          VeriFly must be one of the most pointless wastes of time known to man. Load up all your stuff (companion included) get green ticks…….but nobody is remotely interested.

    • AJA says:

      28 Jul28 July 10:13

      I wholeheartedly agree with this comment. Lounge access on the ground is an essential part of the premium you pay to sit in Club, especially on short-haul where the seat is no better and actually worse than the exit row in Euro-traveller.

      • Pete M says:

        28 Jul28 July 10:25

        Agree too – and make a point of complaining every time. 4/4 returns in Club Europe this year so far have not allowed me lounge access… What infuriates me is they claim the lounges are closed for Covid, but I did make it into all of them via PP.

    • Keely says:

      28 Jul28 July 12:16

      Thanks for the link , just complained , the lounge at Malta airport had already confirmed in writing that we wouldn’t be allowed access as BA hadn’t renewed the contract. Pure penny pinching from BA. The CE seat on the way out was awful. Are they the same for all short haul routes? I’m sure I recall a significantly better seat returning from Tenerife last year?

    • Vin says:

      28 Jul28 July 15:07

      @SaveEastCoast Rewards – I will take you up on your suggestion.
      Last November I simply accepted that Galleries in T5 were closed ‘due to Covid’ and didn’t complain/request compensation. This time around it’s different and as @Keely states it was simply a question of BA not renewing the contract.

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