The HfP chat thread – Thursday 5th August

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• Peter Taysum says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:00

  I’ve got 2 AMEX 2:4:1 vouchers. The first one expires Jun 2022. Really not sure I’m going to use this…

  I think I have to fly the outbound by that date; first time I’ve had them. Unless things change drastically; I just do t see myself doing long haul…

  • pauldb says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:06

    Read yesterday’s article about FTVs. You can roll the 241 into a FTV, valid to Sep23.

  • Phil W says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:07

    You could book LHREDI return using the 2-4-1 and then cancel for an FTV. I believe that will extend the life of the 2-4-1.

  • berneslai says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:13

    I extended yesterday (booked random flights to Amsterdam in October) thanks to the help of people here. Cancelled online and got the flight vouchers within the hour that have now been used on a CW flight for August 2022 (2-4-1 expiry date was May 2022). It was a pretty smooth process, helped by a BA operative that has obviously handled this process before.

• GR says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:09

  So… if I have an Avios booking for March 22 (with a 241 which expires pretty much at same time) and I request a FTV then rebook to another date (lets say May 22), can I still cancel that one if I still don’t fancy it and continue to retain my 241 and collect another FTV as long as I use it before the deadline?

  • Rob says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:18

    Not necessarily – it would require FTV to still be an option in May 2022

    • pauldb says:

      5 Aug5 August 23:16

      But they already extended BWC to August 2022. They can’t take the FTV option away – then it wouldn’t be a guarantee???

• Joe says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:13

  Has BA stopped doing the luggage tags for silver members? I can’t see how to re-order them…. 🙁

  • ChrisC says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:36

    Atoped them a couple of years ago.

  • Mike says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:51

    You might just have to “tell” people you are a BA Silver ! I know it’s not the same as watching them glance at your luggage tag admiringly !

    • Anna says:

      5 Aug5 August 12:19

      My OH tried to attach his Amex Plat luggage tag to our hold bag for our Ryanair flight before I had a word with him 🤦🏻‍♀️😂 (he’s not the slightest bit status conscious, he couldn’t find any others!!)

      • Linda says:

        5 Aug5 August 12:46

        Get one made up on Ebay – there is a silver rectangular one for £4.54 and tell them what you want engraved thereon. Most of the peasants won’t know the difference. 😂

• Gareth says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:16

  A question , what technology does qured use for its video call, will it work on tablet.. Also will the supervisor, supervise two people in one call

  • Simon says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:55

    yes, worked on an ipad. Had to book separate calls for myself and my wife.

    • Gareth says:

      5 Aug5 August 12:12

      thanks Simon

      presume it will therefore work on Samsung Android tablet. Can anyone confirm

      • AFKAE says:

        5 Aug5 August 12:16

        Definitely works on Android phones, which is what we used.
        The only small prob we had was booking calls 10 mins apart (me and wife) and guess what I had longer in the waiting room than she did, so both calls started at pretty much the same time. With both of us in a hotel room it got a bit noisy, my wife’s hearing is going off so she had the volume cranked up and it made my call slightly awkward. But the process generally couldn’t be simpler.

      • Simon says:

        5 Aug5 August 12:45

        Yep. def build in some waiting time, i was holding a good 20 mins after my official time slot.

        • Yorkieflyer says:

          5 Aug5 August 22:37

          Over an hour and refund agreed after complaint and local test last week

  • MKB says:

    5 Aug5 August 13:53

    Worked on partner’s Android 8.0 but failed on my 7.0

• Babyg says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:19

  they can be requested via BA.COM, manage my account, replacement exec club card or bag tags… silver members and below no longer get the card thou… (which is a shame for my 6y/o who made silver this yeaar)

  https://www.britishairways.com/travel/ecproductrequest/execclub

  • MW says:

    5 Aug5 August 11:42

    No bag tags (or cards) for Silvers anymore.

• Hostime says:

  5 Aug5 August 11:43

  I had a cruise booked for next month, sailing on September 13th from Athens, with Celestryal Cruises. I was doing some googling and found a blog post from a website similar to HfP advising that Celestryal had canceled all its sailings from the end of August. There is no announcement on Celestryal’s website and no communication to me – but after calling their contact center, they confirmed my sailing is canceled and offered a refund “in January 2023” or a future sailing credit that can be redeemed immediately. I am just furious that they would not notify me proactively about the sailing being canceled. I can understand things have to be canceled in an age of Covid. But what if I hadn’t stumbled across this obscure blog post and headed to the port next month expecting to sail away!? And their refund policy is absurd – I encourage others to avoid this cruise line.

• Raveon says:

  5 Aug5 August 12:04

  Anyone had any experience / luck getting Marriot Bonvoy to status match to IHG (Spire)?

  • RobL says:

    5 Aug5 August 12:39

    Yes I did that successfully.

    • Jonathan says:

      5 Aug5 August 13:11

      Challenge or match? Any criteria?

• HAK says:

  5 Aug5 August 12:13

  So, when returning from an Amber country where do I take the actual test prior to departure for England or can I do it on arrival? Simply put, if I failed the test, am I stuck in the Amber country or would I be back at my house? (I am double vaccinated and happy to quarantine in my house for the 10 days if I failed; just not too keen on being stuck at an airport hotel is say France for 10 days).

  • Anna says:

    5 Aug5 August 12:23

    You need a negative test done within 3 days before returning to the U.K. without it you won’t be allowed on your flight. If it was positive you would then have to comply with whatever procedure applies in the country you are in. Once back in England you need the Day 2 test, but it sounds like you need to do a bit of research on all this stuff!

  • Rob says:

    5 Aug5 August 12:26

    If you fail your lateral flow test then, yes, you’re stuck in France etc.

    On the upside, your test result won’t be reported to the local authorites (if you do a Qured test, anyway – situation may be difficult if you get tested locally) so you can avoid whatever formal penalties and just keep your head down for a few days until you take another test and are clear. This may actually be preferable to being locked down at home for some people.

    • HAK says:

      5 Aug5 August 12:29

      Cheers. Looks like I am best sticking to the UK then.

      • Rob says:

        5 Aug5 August 12:30

        This isn’t changing for a few years, so better to learn to live with it.

        Plan B is to travel for 3 days or less. You could take a test in the UK which would still be valid as your ‘fit to fly’ test to return, so no risk of being stuck.

        Plan C is to find someone you know who has covid and, assuming you are fully vaccinated, pop round for a beer and catch it off them. Your symptoms will be mild and, assuming Delta remains the dominant variant, you can be pretty certain you won’t get reinfected 🙂 You can then travel without concern.

        • Anuj says:

          5 Aug5 August 14:31

          Don’t know why you said you can be pretty certain you won’t get reinfected. You very much can, I know because someone I know was, the first time they had very mild covid and the second time they got infected they ended up in hospital

      • Mike says:

        5 Aug5 August 12:58

        HAK – go for a UKIP based holiday this year.

        • Mike says:

          5 Aug5 August 12:59

          er I did mean “uk” based not “UKIP based” !

    • Tariq says:

      5 Aug5 August 15:53

      Presumably the UK providers are reporting these results to PHE and they are contaminating the regional ‘positive test’ data for infection by area?

  • Sandgrounder says:

    5 Aug5 August 12:45

    An unscrupulous person could just apply some buffer to their unsupervised test to return lateral flow kit without taking a sample at all, email in the photo and get a certificate with a negative result. They could then travel home. Just shows how open the system is to abuse really.

    • Tracey says:

      5 Aug5 August 19:48

      I would think you would get an inconclusive result if you did that, though I haven’t tried it.

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