The HfP chat thread – Friday 6th August

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• Dej says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:54

  What are queues like at Heathrow T5 for passport control these days, we can’t use e-gates due to two young children

  • Rob says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:00

    Seems to vary hugely – was four hours at one point last week acccording to the press when virtually all Border Force staff were pinged and at home. Other people report walking straight in.

    • Dej says:

      6 Aug6 August 09:17

      Thanks Rob. Landing around 2pm and I’m hoping it’s not too long Especially with a 3 and 6 year old.

• Patrycja says:

  6 Aug6 August 08:59

  Am I having a blond moment? Trying to check FCDO advice for Poland. It used to be at the top of summary page for each country but I cannot see it anywhere. Can anyone solve this for me?

  https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/poland

  • JDB says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:04

    The FCDO doesn’t give advice that you should travel to any country, they only state when they advise against. For comparison look at the advice for a country such as Mexico and you will see the advice against quite clearly.

    • Patrycja says:

      6 Aug6 August 09:34

      There used to be a summary at the top advising that FCDO no longer advises against travel but it looks like they removed it. I assume then that Poland is fine to travel and my insurance is valid as there is no advice against travel

  • Jonathan says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:12

    If the FCDO don’t explicitly state only essential travel, or do not travel to the whole country or specific reasons, then there’s no need to worry about travel. Before coronavirus was heard of, there were countries that a varying level of travel advice, some parts were marked as green, no problems with travel, other parts of the country were orange, don’t travel unless you HAVE to do so, other parts were red, do not travel here under circumstances

    • Patrycja says:

      6 Aug6 August 11:40

      Thank you. My concern was about my travel insurance validity so this is very helpful

      • Mikeact says:

        6 Aug6 August 12:19

        You really should call your insurance people…..why not ?

• Jimmy says:

  6 Aug6 August 09:11

  Good Morning,
  What is anyone’s recommendation for testing companies for travel?
  With best price and reliability in mind?

  Thanks

  • Nick Burch says:

    6 Aug6 August 10:27

    Pick one of price or reliability…

    Very Reliable is a place in central London with their own lab!

    Otherwise try ExpressTest or Collinson for a walk-in at an Airport

• Vin says:

  6 Aug6 August 09:13

  After taking up the initiative to feedback to BA about the lack of airport lounge facilities, this is their response –

  I’m sorry you were unable to gain access to the Club Lounge at Malta airport and I appreciate why you wanted to get in touch.
  We advise on ba.com which lounges are available and the criteria for each. Unfortunately, we no longer have a contract with that particular lounge, this is why you weren’t able to gain access on your ticket.

  The Club lounges are complimentary service and don’t form part of your ticket cost, however, I appreciate you would be disappointed at not being able to use the lounge. I’ve added the link below which you can use going forward to check lounge availability.
  https://www.oneworld.com/airport-lounges

  Interesting about the ‘complimentary service’ aspect of airport lounges.
  Thoughts/comments ?

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:22

    Why is it interesting? Did you pay an add-on fee for lounge?

    • Vin says:

      6 Aug6 August 09:26

      CE flights

      • BuildBackBetter says:

        6 Aug6 August 09:57

        Doesn’t matter what flights they are. As meta says below, there is no obligation to provide these perks.
        If they provided champagne earlier and now change to Prosecco, will you ask for a refund?
        It’s not BAs fault that you didn’t read the TnCs

        • Karl says:

          6 Aug6 August 11:33

          Despite is sometimes suggested in responses to customer complaints, BA’s terms and conditions don’t trump consumer law. This isn’t my area of expertise but if they sell a premium product and market lounge access as a significant benefit of this product then knowingly not offering lounge access could be an issue.

        • Mikeact says:

          6 Aug6 August 12:21

          +1

  • meta says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:26

    According to BA’s previous responses seat selection, food is also complimentary and does not form part of ticket cost. They said their only obligation is to transport you from A to B. I only fly BA because of convenience and ease, not because I want to. Even that is becoming increasingly lacking…

  • HAK says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:43

    I went to Cologne just as the pandemic was about to explode last year (March 8-10th time) and there is no BA lounge there. I complained and got 10k Avios as a “goodwill” gesture to say sorry. Perhaps BA are feeling less gracious at this moment in time!

  • ChrisBCN says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:59

    ‘The Club lounges … don’t form part of your ticket cost’ – the obvious response is, who/what pays for them then? Clearly ticket costs are what funds the lounges. What they really mean is ‘we don’t want to commit to anything other than the bare minimum so we owe you nothing when you don’t get what you expect’

    • Rob says:

      6 Aug6 August 10:18

      Someone I know claimed €60 off BA via MCOL (the cost of buying lounge access at the airport after BA withdrew) and they paid up.

      • A says:

        6 Aug6 August 10:27

        This is an excellent idea. Time for BA to start treating its customers with something more than the disdain they often do when people complain. Corporate policy seems to be to willingly mislead about the extent of BA’s obligations in almost all scenarios.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        6 Aug6 August 11:27

        €60 is a lot for a lounge! A €25 euro lounge slightly less worth the bother of claiming.

        • Rob says:

          6 Aug6 August 11:38

          Was 2 people

        • ChrisBCN says:

          6 Aug6 August 11:47

          Ah, of course!

        • meta says:

          6 Aug6 August 13:19

          It actually cost BA an extra £35 on top for MCOL fee. So overall about 100 euros.

      • Jody says:

        6 Aug6 August 12:13

        Good for them! Would be brilliant if everyone would do this (I know that won’t happen because of the hassle) and make BA sit up and take notice!

        • Doug M says:

          6 Aug6 August 12:57

          It would make BA lock the T&C’s down even more. Many people can’t get excited about a lounge, particularly at an outstation. The MCOL for a lounge is funny, but a lot of bother for the reward.
          Lounges at hubs can be important, long waits between flights, shower after a long flight, but a cupboard with some stale food and poor drink is not something I really get excited about.

      • Lady London says:

        6 Aug6 August 13:11

        Let’s all just keep doing it then.

        Obvs your case is stronger if you happen to be travelling out of an outstation where previously BA did make available a lounge you knew of on a previous visit and no warning.

        Ensure claim covers guest where applicable.

        I predict radically different marketing of Business Class quite soon generally. The proposition is going to be different. I believe lounge access as a thing provided by airline is going to reduce hugely in next 3-5 years

      • Paul Pogba says:

        6 Aug6 August 15:33

        The website does sell the lounges as a benefit of Club World with a sneaky asterisk stating “where available”. Legally they’re probably covered but for small amounts they probably can’t be bothered to defend. if too many claim they can probably put together a boiler plate-like submission to the court that would probably lead to it being thrown out.

• LS says:

  6 Aug6 August 09:24

  Trying to use the 10% expedia hotel voucher that comes with HSBC Premier credit card. Signed up my expedia account, which now shows gold, but no sign of the 10% voucher. Any idea how I can get it/use it?
  Thanks

  • meta says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:30

    It should be automatic on every booking and discount will show when you search and select the hotel. There should also be a banner on top of the page (desktop site only) showing HSBC Premier.

    • LS says:

      6 Aug6 August 09:33

      Discount shown is the standard discount I got before I upgraded account with gold. This is a scam.

      • meta says:

        6 Aug6 August 09:46

        Not every hotel participates. If you recently signed up then it might take a while to be properly implemented in the systems. I remember it took a few hours before it started showing.

        • LS says:

          6 Aug6 August 10:14

          Ah OK I shall patiently wait then. I have found it cheaper on hotels.com anyway with a promo code that does work

• Gary says:

  6 Aug6 August 09:29

  Just want to confirm requirements for leisure travel fr London to Faro, Portugal to ensure nothing missed. Both double vaccinated.
  1) Outbound- PLF, vaccine certificate, lateral flow with 48hrs. Would Project Screen type lateral flow home test suffice??
  2) inbound- PLF, lateral flow within 3 days, Day 2 PCR

  • meta says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:37

    Project Screen or any which don’t have professional supervision or are self-administered are not allowed. Qured one is a grey area because the certificate says self-administered and supervised by video. I wouldn’t test it.

    This is the link that is mentioned on all Portugues government websites as well as UK FCDO.

    https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/default/files/preparedness_response/docs/covid-19_rat_common-list_en.pdf

    I booked myself supervised antigen test with Collinson at St Pancras for £32 with BA/Amex 20% discount.

    • Gary says:

      6 Aug6 August 09:41

      Thanks Meta glad I asked before I bought more!

      • meta says:

        6 Aug6 August 09:48

        I did that mistake, but I can reuse them for another trip where it’s ok.

    • r* says:

      6 Aug6 August 23:00

      I flew to portugal today and used a projectscreen lateral flow for the outbound, didnt have any issues with it. No idea if thats normal or not.

• Dave1985 says:

  6 Aug6 August 09:35

  Passenger taped to seat after attacking flight attendants on flight to Miami, police say

  🤣

  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XFoXmnBuLw0&feature=youtu.be

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    6 Aug6 August 12:41

    Hahaha I saw that, absolute madness in the US right now

• Chas says:

  6 Aug6 August 09:37

  There was a comment in yesterday’s chat from @RobL saying that he’d successfully status matched from IHG Spire to Marriott. Could I get more details please (from him or anyone else who has done this)?

  What status did it match to – Platinum Elite? Is it a once in a lifetime opportunity? How reliably do Marriott roll-back your status if you don’t hit the threshold for maintaining it?

  I’ve only just hit Spire (through CC spend), and am Gold with Marriott (have both Amex Plat), but know from HarryT and Rob’s posts that Platinum Elite is the sweet spot. I have a 4 night stay coming up in a Marriott which it would be nice for some extra benefits for, but have no hope of retaining Platinum Elite through stays this year, despite the free nights from the Marriott Amex and the roll-over nights from last year. If it’s a once in a life-life match, then I’m more likely to save it for a time when it might matter a lot more. TIA

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    6 Aug6 August 09:55

    Have a look here:
    http://www.statusmatcher.com/company/marriott-hotels-and-resorts

    • Chas says:

      6 Aug6 August 12:13

      Thanks – I should have said that I had already checked there, which was why I was after more detail from the OP who had said that they had achieved it.

  • Chas says:

    6 Aug6 August 16:27

    Thanks for the response. I think that I’ll wait for a time when the status perks mean more to me than for this trip before requesting a match, just in case it’s a once in a lifetime offer.

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