The HfP chat thread – Friday 30th July

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• aDifferentSimon says:

  30 Jul30 July 16:22

  reward flight booking advice for a family of 4…
  I have a BA FTV with a 2for1 (to force the expiry date) and another 2for1 in my baec account. I fancy a family holiday to the US next summer holidays. Is the best policy to phone and book when the outbound becomes available, get them to use the FTV and the new 2 for 1? Then, when the inbound appears, phone again to get them to add the second? Does this all work OK with the taxes and charges? Are the phone booking lines clued up to handle FTVs with 2for1s?
  Thanks all.

• Iain says:

  30 Jul30 July 17:15

  Hi all, I picked up a hire car from Avis LCY this afternoon. Booked Group P and there was no car in that class available so ended up being given a Group E car. Usually I’d get an upgrade in that scenario rather than a downgrade. Didn’t realise immediately it was a downgrade (car group conveniently not mentioned and I accept I could’ve been more observant) and wouldn’t have had time to complain at the time. Have so far made a complaint to Avis through web form. Any advice on how to handle would be much appreciated. I’m assuming I’ll be fobbed off. Would chargeback be possible?

  • AL says:

    30 Jul30 July 17:28

    I’ve had similar with Enterprise at LHR before – feeble excuses made me stop renting from them there. My view on it is that if you exhaust a refund request via Avis (in this case), then since you paid for P and got E, that a Section 75 is legitimate (assuming >£100 and paid by credit card). Chargeback on a debit card is a guessing game. Always worth a punt in my view.

  • JDB says:

    30 Jul30 July 17:34

    If the contract correct states the category booked and the category allocated, it should be automatically adjusted when you return the car based on the booked rate code. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to be sure exactly what the price difference is/was. Hopefully you will be OK.

    • Lady London says:

      30 Jul30 July 19:21

      The time to get it adjusted is when you pick it up.

  • Ukgeorge says:

    30 Jul30 July 17:42

    I had a similar situation with Avis in Greece. I had no cooperation from Avis they essentially argued that if the car had two doors and an engine then that is about the extent of their obligation. Amex ended up giving me a good will refund of the difference after several rounds of complaint between Amex and Avis.

  • Rachel Robinson says:

    30 Jul30 July 17:57

    Do you have status with Avis? If so, and you don’t get the guaranteed upgrade at the airport then email customer service and they’ll sort it out. I’ve found them helpful

  • Iain says:

    30 Jul30 July 18:36

    Thanks all for comments. I only have basic preferred membership although that has usually served me well in the past. Paid with BAPP. Will report back on the outcome. I don’t mind playing the long game with this one out of principle.

    • tony says:

      30 Jul30 July 18:57

      I had this same situation with Hertz in Scotland, on a pre-paid booking. Their first response was along the lines of “you signed for it, so f-off and when you get there, f-off some more”. Seriously.

      Thing is I’d booked with Amex Travel so I got in touch with them. Hertz changed their tune pretty damn quick when it was pointed out that they’re supposed to be an AMEX preferred partner.

      Got the difference between the two car groups refunded twice over, but their default position was because i’d accepted the vehicle they were in the right.

• Muhammad Abdullah says:

  30 Jul30 July 17:35

  I’m thinking of a Rimowa, putting aside the comments they’re not as good as before since part of LVMH…

  Is it worthwhile jumping on the Amex offer for 10k MR on £500. There used be a shop in Frankfurt that had good deals, years before LVMH though, or maybe from something like Koffer24?

  • Chris says:

    30 Jul30 July 17:59

    LVMH shut down a LOT of the euro distributors two wrote to me complaining about it when they stopped selling them. You could get a Tumi @ Bicester. Bicester just got added to airtime; and there was an offer on my BA Amex

  • Memesweeper says:

    30 Jul30 July 18:43

    Also check out Away, Horizn, and, if you can get to the USA, Arlo Skye, Tumi before dropping the big bucks on Rimowa.

• Secret Squirrel says:

  30 Jul30 July 18:01

  Anyone got their AVIOS to Nectar points from conversion since start date last week yet? I think it stated up to 10 days but just interested if anyone has got them earlier than that?

  • BJ says:

    30 Jul30 July 18:18

    Not, me. Just asked the same on previous page. Wouldn’t surprise me if this way takes even longer than calling.

• lumma says:

  30 Jul30 July 18:11

  Anyone know the current cancellation fee for short haul avois? Is it £17.50 or is it only 50p if I take the cheapest cash option?

  • Harry T says:

    30 Jul30 July 18:24

    Cancellation fee is either £35pp or the taxes, if they are lower than £35.

  • sloth says:

    30 Jul30 July 18:26

    50p as long as thats how you booked

    • tony says:

      30 Jul30 July 18:58

      So if you have a flight you don’t want, you cancel using BWC, upgrade to a more expensive fare with a 50p cash component then cancel the whole thing? Genius!

      • Yorkieflyer says:

        30 Jul30 July 20:19

        Blimey, excellent that hadn’t occurred to me stuck with a minimum avios max cash booking so need to do some pricing up for a longer sector

        • Tony says:

          30 Jul30 July 23:08

          On reflection though will you get the cash element back in another bwc voucher??

• Nick says:

  30 Jul30 July 18:44

  Dropping off family at Heathrow Terminal 5 tomorrow (Saturday) I expect to be there for about 2/3 hours.

  I want to drive

  Best options for parking? Short stay is around £17-24. Any tips?

  • Doommonger says:

    30 Jul30 July 19:53

    Yes, go to thistle hotel park up, get code from reception for gate in car park through to POD parking get on a pod, takes you straight to terminal 5. If reception don’t give you a code, ( Unlikely) wait until someone walks through and tailgate.

    • ChrisC says:

      30 Jul30 July 20:30

      I thought the pods weren’t operating at the moment.

      • Tony says:

        30 Jul30 July 20:43

        Much to my son’s disappointment that is indeed the case. No pods…

• tony says:

  30 Jul30 July 18:53

  Help! Trying to check in for a BA flight tomorrow. All docs OK, but the check in screen says my daughter needs to add her passport number. Thing is, when you click on the link it says everything is complete. I’ve triple checked everything, deleted and rekeyed the APIS info in her BAEC account, checked the passport number, even called BA. No ideas.

  Given we’re HBO I was very keen to avoid the check in scrum tomorrow, but looks like we can’t – anyone have any ideas?

  • Tracey says:

    30 Jul30 July 19:32

    I thought online check in was suspended as they need to check your documents.

    • Tony says:

      30 Jul30 July 19:34

      No you load your docs up then they manually check them. You then get a good to go email a few hours later…

    • Rob says:

      30 Jul30 July 20:21

      Depends on route – using VeriFLY to submit docs in advance also let’s you check in online.

      • Tony says:

        30 Jul30 July 20:42

        VeriFLY doesn’t work uk -Greece on BA however, only on AA which just seems plain odd

        • tony says:

          30 Jul30 July 21:14

          OK, even if all passengers are on the same PNR you need to upload the certificates under each passenger individually. Fingers crossed that works…

        • Tony says:

          30 Jul30 July 22:50

          And I can confirm it did the job. Result.

• BlueDogz says:

  30 Jul30 July 18:54

  Thinking of signing up to IHG Ambassador, as I’ll have chance to use the free night in September. If I sign up today (30th) will my status expire 31st July 2022? If so, is it wise to wait until Sunday to sign up in the expectation it will expire 31st August 2022? Thanks

  • meta says:

    30 Jul30 July 19:20

    The current offer is only until tomorrow. Your membership is actually valid for 13+ months not 12 months. For example, if you sign up mid-month then it’s end of that month plus 13 months.

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