The HfP chat thread – Sunday 1st August

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• Terence Conlon says:

  1 Aug1 August 13:58

  What’s the best town to visit and the best hotel for a short break to Iceland please? I’ve been once before and done a handful of sites.

  • meta says:

    1 Aug1 August 15:56

    Depends what you want to do in Iceland. If you’ve been before, you’ll know what you’d like to do. There is The Retreat at the Blue Lagoon, Ranga, ION Adventure Hotel and a few Mr.&Mrs. Smith properties in the North. Iceland is not know for a myriad of luxury hotels…

    • Rory says:

      1 Aug1 August 23:04

      I did a tour around Iceland a few years back and did all of the above – second all the suggestions. Added the Hilton to it too. They’re not super lux, but are decent and comfy. ION has an amazing pool.

  • John says:

    1 Aug1 August 16:26

    Airbnb in Akureyri

    • VerdantBacon says:

      1 Aug1 August 19:00

      Second this, spent five days in an Airbnb up near Akureyri as a base to explore the northern side of Iceland. Beautiful area and saw the northern lights 4/5 nights

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    1 Aug1 August 16:32

    I recommend the Hilton in Gateshead. If you take the Metro there you will pass Iceland on the way to the hotel. Check the opening times as it’s not open as late as the nearby Tesco.

    • DaveL says:

      1 Aug1 August 23:19

      Brilliant!

• Rich White says:

  1 Aug1 August 14:11

  Anyone else struggling to book Virgin reward flights? Had 2 trips cancelled due to COVID, so got a flying club balance which is growing, as well as an ever increasing number of credit credit card upgrade vouchers to use!

  • Amy says:

    1 Aug1 August 20:24

    Yes. Unless going to America or Jo’berg it’s imposs!

• Louise K says:

  1 Aug1 August 14:22

  I am booking a BA hol for next year to Hawaii in J.

  It is offering me the LAX / OGG leg a ‘ business’ or ‘First’ for the same price and also an AA flight number or a BA flight number. What is the difference ?

  • Matt says:

    1 Aug1 August 14:32

    You’ll be in the same cabin on the plane, either sold as an AA flight or as a BA codeshare on that flight.
    AA sell that cabin as First, but you get business class tier points and avios now (you used to get F a few years ago). If you’re crediting the flight to BAEC then you’ll get slightly more avios going for the BA codeshare, so I’d suggest going that way.

  • Anna says:

    1 Aug1 August 14:46

    AA First falls between BA CE and CW, it’s a very pleasant way to travel, big comfy leather seats at the front of the plane, in flight movies to download to your iPad and decent food and drink provided.

  • ChrisC says:

    1 Aug1 August 15:33

    Check the flights out on AA website for the accurate info on the plane and seat as it’s not always correct on BA.

    But pick the BA codeshare number as you earn extra avios over the AA flight number even though the TPs are the same. Other than that there is no difference.

    BUT try and route via DFW or PHX as AA puts lie flat seats on those routes.

  • Paul says:

    1 Aug1 August 17:34

    Louise
    Much depends on how much time you have and what is important to you. I like to be comfortable and will happily take the longer routing.
    I would look to fly LHR DFW HNL or OGG or KOA. It will require a night stop in DFW on the way out but you can easily fill your time seeing the city. It is then 8 hour flight to the Islands on a flatbed 777. The service is excellent in a cabin that AA calls first but which is charged and credited as J.
    On the way home I would avoid – at all costs – the red eye back to the mainland. Even in F these are brutal.
    My personal preference is the mid afternoon services to LAX arriving around 10pm. You then have a choice to stay on LAX for the night, but I find flying LAX JFK and connecting to the the AA daytime JFK LHR service works wonders for the jet lag. Your arrive 9/10pm go home and go to bed.
    The AA transcon, as they are known, are outstanding with fully flat beds in J on a 2 x 2 and a separate F cabin with 1 x 1 seating. This is a trues F product and you cannot get it without paying the supplement. The flights leave every hour throughout the day ( or they did pre covid)

    Ex LHR fares can be pretty steep but EX EU they are some bargains to fly to the Islands. Most do not offer stopovers but will allow breaks of up to 23hrs and 59 mins. This allows the odd night stop to be built in, particularly in LAX on the way back. I did this several times with young kids to do Disney and Universal.

    I am a personal fan of Big Island as it has fabulous small beaches. We tended to rent house , hire a car and live like Americans. It worked for us but may not for others.

  • Louise K says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:44

    Thanks all.

    I am actually booking them for a relative as I already have the ex-PAR flights booked for myself.

    Said relative is an avid plane spotter so wants to come via LAX where they will spend a couple of nights at the H Curio ‘spotting’ before joining us in Maui for our wedding (fingers crossed all ok for travel by next spring).

    They want to come straight home so on the early flight from HNL. As we are.

    It’s been very hard work to persuade them to book flights etc when we can’t travel yet. Hence I’ve taken control of their booking!

• Stephen says:

  1 Aug1 August 14:50

  URGENT – friend is looking to fly last minute to Corfu, Greece tomorrow. They aren’t double vaccinated so need to get a test this afternoon in London. Any same day recommendations? Thanks

  • Optimus Prime says:

    1 Aug1 August 15:16

    Collinsons does rapid antigen tests with results in 45-60 minutes for £40

    • Optimus Prime says:

      1 Aug1 August 15:18

      Discount code BA20OFF may bring price down to £32

    • Rob says:

      1 Aug1 August 15:21

      DocTap mobile units can do 1-hour antigen tests. There is one at St Luke’s Church in Chelsea plus other options. Obviously Collinson can do it – they also have the City Airport site.

• James says:

  1 Aug1 August 14:54

  What’s general opinion on here as to when US will reopen?

  I thought autumn but feeling like will be 2022 now

  • Nicky says:

    1 Aug1 August 14:57

    There was talk on GMB news this morning that the end of August is being contemplated but who knows

  • Dave1985 says:

    1 Aug1 August 15:45

    No one knows

    • John says:

      1 Aug1 August 16:20

      Freedom!

  • Andrew says:

    1 Aug1 August 18:50

    When West Virginia reaches 70% vaccination.

  • Andrew says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:39

    Biden said last week there were no immediate plans, so I would say October earliest.

• Dan says:

  1 Aug1 August 15:31

  Something strange going on with BA reward flight pricing, if anyone can explain.

  LHR-MLE return in Y for 1 adult is 32500 Avios + £390 in taxes/fees. I therefore expected with my 241 voucher to pay the same Avios, but £780 in taxes/fees.

  However, with the 241 voucher applied it’s only charging me a grand total of £580 (plus 32,500 Avios as expected).

  Did I just get lucky/found a secret glitch?!

  I was trying to figure how much extra I’d need to pay in taxes/fees if J/F seats become available (I’ve set up an alert) but it seems that pulling up the prices on BA without the 241 applied will not give me accurate data.

  • ChrisC says:

    1 Aug1 August 15:35

    I guess you didn’t click the ‘other pricing options’ tab when you did the single seat search?

    Click that and you’ll see a range of avios / cash amount mixes.

• John says:

  1 Aug1 August 15:39

  Appear to have deleted my virgin Atlantic credit card email detailing changes.
  Can someone please confirm if changes start on 5 or 6 of this month.
  Thanks

  • TGLoyalty says:

    1 Aug1 August 15:45

    5th

  • Yvo says:

    1 Aug1 August 16:09

    The changes appear to have started today for me…

    • H says:

      1 Aug1 August 16:21

      @Yvo in what way? Have you seen charges for transactions?

      • Yvo says:

        1 Aug1 August 18:18

        No charges just straight declines 🤷‍♀️

• Steve says:

  1 Aug1 August 16:24

  In BA T5 lounge at the time of this post , if you’re hungry or thirsty stop off elsewhere , drinks and food taking 30 minutes to arrive , I can only think it’s the pingdemic

  • Andrew says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:41

    Pingdemic is the latest Covid excuse to provide poor or reduced service. Companies have run out of social distancing Covid excuses now restrictions have lifted so they are relying on pingdemic instead.

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