The HfP chat thread – Sunday 1st August

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• Marie says:

  1 Aug1 August 16:36

  Researching Azores trip for end of August .They give you a voucher of 35€ for your pre arrival PCR test -valid towards typical tourist things like car hire , whale watching , pizza !
  Fingers crossed we get to go

• Ron says:

  1 Aug1 August 17:19

  Long shot, but has anyone been flying out of EMA recently and is security fast track actually faster? Seen a few reviews reporting 2hrs wait at security and people were missing flights. We are flying tomorrow with two young children and can’t remember if they have family dedicated lane, if not, we may need pay for fast track. Queuing with my 3yo daughter for two hours is not something I would like to attempt! Thanks.

• Manya says:

  1 Aug1 August 18:20

  Did somebody mention that it’s possible to contact BA exec club via WhatsApp?

  I’ve flown the first leg of an open jaw booking and want to change the departure airport for the return leg. Coming up to an hour on hold waiting to speak to someone isn’t fun!

  • ChrisC says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:16

    Virgin do but I don’t think BA offer the same,

    You could try the live chat function but they aren’t able to take payment over that should it be necessary,

  • Lady London says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:47

    Twitter has been mentioned here for BA

  • Louise K says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:54

    I normally suggest Twitter but they haven’t been much to me of late. Best try first thing in the morning and I think the wait times are much less.

• Hak says:

  1 Aug1 August 18:24

  What day is it when the UK government gives it updated travel advice? Wednesday this week?

  • Patrycja says:

    1 Aug1 August 20:18

    Officially on Thursday but last time they announced the changes a day earlier

    • Hak says:

      1 Aug1 August 21:34

      Thanks!

• Crafty says:

  1 Aug1 August 18:32

  Yes, definitely. But my offers so far are all rubbish.

• Thomas Shelby says:

  1 Aug1 August 18:50

  Are there any issues with emails and amex offer redemptions? have not had an email for a couple weeks now across several offers, most recently the FT offer get £25 back for £30 spend

  • SteveJ says:

    1 Aug1 August 18:52

    I don’t think I’ve had an email in a long time. Should be able to see it in your saved offers when you log in as “redeemed”.

• Jimbo says:

  1 Aug1 August 18:52

  Any way to get some points through the house-buying process? Deposit / stamp duty / etc?

  • JDB says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:03

    In principle, yes there are opportunities, but it will depend on your solicitor and how you are financing the new property. SDLT can be paid by card, but your solicitor may prefer to have control of the process and if you need the sale proceeds of the old property or the new mortgage advance to cover the SDLT that may not work.

• AnotherUser says:

  1 Aug1 August 18:58

  Random thought – is there a reason why TVs at hotels are so often low quality? Even at new hotels with lots of empty wall space, you’ll often get 40″ TVs when 55″ isn’t much more expensive. Even in quite nice hotels, you’ll often get TVs with slowly/glitchy OS, lousy viewing angles/brightness, etc. I’m not expecting a high end TV, but normally end up with what looks like a crappy budget set…

  • Peter K says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:09

    I don’t know for sure but a £100 saving over 300 rooms adds up to a lot. And I guess that guests are less likely to steal a lower quality TV!

    • SteveJ says:

      1 Aug1 August 19:38

      Slip the TV in the suitcase alongside the stolen Molten Browns!

  • Ryan says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:14

    TVs will quickly get out of date? OS systems probably take a long time / high cost which also get old quickly. Guessing if a chain developed a system, they need to get enough use to make it worthwhile

  • Sam G says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:30

    Usually they are “hotel” TVs so that the menu options can be locked down and the volume limited etc. There isn’t much of a choice in this market especially if you need something compatible with your hotel TV system

    Never had a TV stolen but remote controls were another story !

    • Andrew says:

      1 Aug1 August 19:38

      And even the battery compartment on the remotes are screwed in to stop people taking the batteries.

  • kitten says:

    1 Aug1 August 19:52

    TV’s evolve quite quickly up in spec and at the same time down in price. It’s quite likely 55in was exorbitantly priced and 40in much more the going standard when the room was equipped.

    My pet hate is a TV in front of the bed that’s far too small for the distance from the pillow.

    • Memesweeper says:

      1 Aug1 August 20:10

      The “holiday inn express” tv experience 😁

      • kitten says:

        1 Aug1 August 20:18

        how did you guess memesweeper.
        though a few Hamptons too

        • Sloth says:

          1 Aug1 August 23:38

          Just returned from the new Hampton high Wycombe. 55” tv’s and very proud of them they were too. Must have mentioned them three times on checking in…

  • MKB says:

    1 Aug1 August 22:02

    My pet peeve, which I had yet again last night (Indigo, Bath) is systems using Freeview that haven’t been retuned in ages, and the menu is locked down so you can’t do it yourself. About a fifth of the channels last night were unavailable.

    For the Samsung tvs that many Holiday Inns use, I know the backdoor to the engineers’ menu and I can do a retune. The Indigo Samsung was different though.

    • AnotherUser says:

      2 Aug2 August 00:18

      And when hotels set the TVs up so you can’t plug in a NowTV stick to the HDMI port (either by locking the menu or physically blocking the port) – so you’re stuck with the badly tuned Freeview…

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    1 Aug1 August 22:48

    I’m with AnotherUser here – it just smacks of a lack of effort and attention to detail. Even if budget is a priority there is a vast difference between best-buy and don’t-buy budget TV screens at a similar price point. No in-depth research is required as it only takes a Which subscription to outsource that effort. I expect hotels will argue guests don’t want to stay in and watch TV in their rooms all the time but if you followed that argument through you wouldn’t put effort into the decor or furnishing either and it’s clear most quality hotels do prioritise those things. Come on hoteliers – it’s time to step up on TV quality!

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