The HfP chat thread – Saturday 7th August

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

• Malcolm says:

  7 Aug7 August 08:24

  Hi – thinking of using 2x companion vouchers for trip to California next year. Thought about booking (business class) now while seats are plentiful but may have to cancel flights nearer the time. Is this sensible?

  What are the rules around cancelling avios / companion voucher seats? Any pointers or direction helpful – even if it’s just to point me to articles etc re this.

  • Frankie says:

    7 Aug7 August 08:53

    Yes. This is sensible to ensure your seats. You can cancel anytime up to 24 hours before departure for £35 per person fee and get everything refunded (money, avios and vouchers – though be wary of voucher expiry date)

  • Rob says:

    7 Aug7 August 08:53

    Cancellation is only £35 per person so I would lock down seats now if you can. You may even end up being able to cancel for free if BA moves your flight times at some point.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    7 Aug7 August 08:59

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/08/06/how-to-extend-british-airways-amex-2-4-1-companion-voucher/

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/04/01/what-does-it-cost-to-cancel-an-avios-redemption-flight-2/

    These 2 give a fair summary of what you need to know.
    Ultimately the rules about cancelling Avios seats are that you only lose £35. In normal times this is a HUGE advantage vs normal prepaid tickets – an advantage that people often forget when comparing (and generally complaining about) redemption price/value against non-refundable cash prices. If you’re happy to punt 4 x £35 should you change or cancel then no reason not to make a booking – with seat availability so much better than normal it’s a lot easier to match up sensible flights even for groups of 4 or more. We have speculative Cali flights booked for April for exactly this reason.

  • BJ says:

    7 Aug7 August 11:13

    Yes, no brained, cancelling flights for £35 is arguably the single best feature of BAEC. You also have options regards FTV and there was an article in this yesterday or day before. FWIW I’ve lost a lot of £35 fees over the years and regretted none of them.

  • Malcolm says:

    8 Aug8 August 09:17

    Hi all – thank you so much all for taking time to reply. I’ll be booking later today!!

• Mrs_Fussy says:

  7 Aug7 August 08:31

  Can someone help ! virgin Atlantic cancelled my flights back in May ( booked via miles ) and have now indicated that I have an option to refund or can only be booked when there is a reward seat available in the sector. I thought as long as a revenue seat is available, then have to provide a seat. Is it correct ?

  • Rob says:

    7 Aug7 August 08:52

    Legally yes, but very few airlines are voluntarily doing this. You may need to launch Money Claim Online.

    • Mrs_Fussy says:

      7 Aug7 August 09:40

      Thanks Rob

  • Paul says:

    7 Aug7 August 09:19

    If they (VS) cancelled, you and only you have 3 choices. The airline cannot force you to take their options.

    a) reimbursement of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought;
    (b) re- routing, under comparable transport conditions, to the final destination at the earliest opportunity;
    (c) re-routing under comparable transport conditions, to the final destination at a later date at the passenger’s convenience, subject to availability of seats.

    There is no requirement for a specific fare class to be available nor is there any time limit on option c.

    If you are at a midpoint you must be returned to point of origin at Cartier’s expense.

    Airlines will operate on basis that most passengers will accept the refund but CEDR has ruled against BA and their ticket validity rules which is why they have changed, but which still impose a time limit.
    CEDR is best first option but MCOL is good and offers a free mediation service if deadlocked and before court hearing.

    • Paul says:

      7 Aug7 August 09:23

      Carrier’s not Cartier’s …. Even though they could afford it😬🤣

      • Mrs_Fussy says:

        7 Aug7 August 09:39

        Thanks – Paul !

        • ChrisBCN says:

          7 Aug7 August 10:52

          So the question is… Do you want to travel still? And if you want to travel on the same date – is there an alternative flight available and is the difference in cost significant? Know what you want and present it to Virgin to give them a chance to refuse.

    • Jonathan says:

      7 Aug7 August 12:11

      When I had a flight cancelled by BA, there was another oneworld airline operating a direct flight to a nearby city (in the same country) on the same day as my cancelled flight, I asked to be put on this flight and they said they can’t do this as it doesn’t have a BA codeshare ! I didn’t make any changes during the phone call and without being rude I expressed anger and frustration at them for not being more flexible when cancelling people’s flights they’ve booked onto.

      A couple of notes; the flight was cancelled about 8 weeks before departure, the second note is that where the other oneworld airline is operating a flight to is by coincidence where I need to travel to anyway.

      I’m not sure the law on airlines rerouting passengers (solely at their expense for cancelling their flights, or denying them boarding due to things like overbooking), if anyone’s got a clear idea of the law, please enlighten us !

      • Paul says:

        7 Aug7 August 16:26

        BA acted illegally in this scenario if it happened as described. EU/U.K. 261 does not limit options to only those carriers an airline has an agreement with or which is part of an alliance. They must reroute on comparable transport conditions ie same class or higher.
        Many agents are ignorant of the rules, some deliberately so. I suspect BA encourage the lack of understanding.
        The time ing of the cancellation is irrelevant in terms of re routing or refund. If however it is within 2 weeks then compensation is due over and above the re routing if there are delays to the arrival time.

• Sprout says:

  7 Aug7 August 08:33

  So test Beardy payment on the 5th has gone thru’ as a purchase and no associated charges. Still not sure though if they would show up now or only on statement date?

  • Peter K says:

    7 Aug7 August 08:57

    No one knows as everyone with the card is in the same situation as you.

  • JSemity says:

    7 Aug7 August 09:28

    good news. You could call and ask if there are any cash advance charges on your statement to date?

    • M says:

      7 Aug7 August 11:42

      Please don’t call 😉

  • Reney says:

    7 Aug7 August 09:44

    what did you test against? Ernie? Tax payment?

  • AndyGWP says:

    7 Aug7 August 15:25

    Just because the T&C’s have changed, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the changes will be implemented on the date the T&C’s changed

• Mark says:

  7 Aug7 August 08:36

  Flying on SQ J from T2 next week. Only Plaza Premium is open I’m guessing. How are the showers?

  • Rob says:

    7 Aug7 August 08:51

    Is Lufty open? I prefer Plaza to Lufty anyway though.

    • Andy says:

      7 Aug7 August 09:43

      Can I use me Amex plat for plaza premium at T2 then?!

      • Rob says:

        7 Aug7 August 10:31

        Yes

    • Muhammad Abdullah says:

      7 Aug7 August 15:51

      LH is open

• xcalx says:

  7 Aug7 August 08:56

  Sadly Nana xcalx passed away in June. She had an Amex Gold card with 30000ish MR points. Yesterday we received a letter from Amex expressing heartfelt condolences, the thing is how did Amex get the information I am thinking it must have been from the Tell us once Gov site that we used for her pension ect. I have always run the account. They want a death certificate to close the account. There is no ££ balance either way on the account. Is it possible to request the MR balance.

  Also she has 180000 Avios in her BA account any thoughts on if we can legally use these or ask for a transfer.

  Thanks.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    7 Aug7 August 09:03

    I feel like the HFP link library today…

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/02/07/what-happens-to-your-avios-points-when-you-die-3/

    • Jill ( Kinkell) says:

      7 Aug7 August 09:39

      Indeed…why can’t folk do a quick HfP search first . The search button is at the top of the page , a few key words and lots of interesting things pop up. Might even answer their questions!

      • Njb says:

        7 Aug7 August 09:49

        I have found that sometimes a search doesn’t easily bring up the answer.
        It was a polite question following a family death.I am sure xcalx has many things to organise and any help is appreciated.

      • LS says:

        7 Aug7 August 10:02

        Unfortunately, despite many good things, there are two things that this site needs improving: the search ability, and the ability to edit posts. The first can be done on google far better, with site:headforpoints.com [insert search terms]. We await the second!

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          7 Aug7 August 11:04

          Although as you say, google does it just fine so why add it. At most just use a google search widget.

      • xcalx says:

        7 Aug7 August 13:04

        Apologies to the offended.

        I did do a search — Amex MR points what happens on death. Nothing on the first 3 pages. I also searched google but only got answers about Amex MR in the US. The BA qusestion was just added at the last moment.

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          7 Aug7 August 14:49

          I’d be intrigued if you call Amex to find what they say … and whether what you thought about how they found out about the death was indeed correct. It’s a sad thought that we may need to impersonate loved ones and empty points balances, almost as a first act before even notifying via .gov, but if the alternative is a large number of points, that could have benefitted a loved relative, simply expiring (i.e. profiting the financial institution) instead, then we all know what our departed relative would have wanted to happen…

  • BJ says:

    7 Aug7 August 11:31

    Sorry for your loss. Always worth asking, nothing ventured nothing gained. Further to the comments here, just last month I had my will revised to explicitly incorporate (including account numbers) every loyalty point I own as I currently have loads of some, and also digital assets. It might be a good idea for Rob to rerun the death article on a slow news day, and perhaps for Rob or Rhys to do an article addressing options in event of bereavements back home whilst travelling, or of a person during travel. All a bit morbid I know but perhaps some experiences would be shared through the comments that might really benefit people in such unfortunate circumstances in the future.

    • Anna says:

      7 Aug7 August 11:51

      That’s interesting to know – did you consult a solicitor? I am wondering how ownership of the points is determined, I was under the impression that they always belonged to the issuing company (e.g. BA, Hilton, etc) and it was a gesture of goodwill if they transferred them to a relative in the event of the loyalty scheme member’s death.

      • BJ says:

        7 Aug7 August 12:10

        Yes, I believe they belong to the scheme too in most cases but I and solicitor both figured no harm in explicitly covering them. If it came to it schemes might prefer a goodwill gesture to the possibility of legal challenges. However, unless I go suddenly I doubt there will be much points or miles to excite anybody.

  • mutley says:

    7 Aug7 August 11:40

    Condolences on your loss. I had a similar predicament with my mother who passed away at the end of May last year, once we had the probate and death certificate, we were able to get Avios transferred, also other things like her various memberships which she paid for in advance got reimbursed.

• Dave says:

  7 Aug7 August 09:00

  Does anyone know if seatspy is supposed to update in real-time or if there is a lag/delay?

  I was using it last night to check when some T-355 reward seats appeared but they never did. I checked on the BA app this morning and they are showing as available, but still not on seatspy. Im on the basic (paid) seatspy subscription if that makes a difference.

  • Anna says:

    7 Aug7 August 09:39

    It was about 2 days behind with the return seats I wanted a week ago. Always use BA.com to check availability if you need the seats as soon as they are released!

    • Dave says:

      7 Aug7 August 09:47

      Thanks. I had assumed that it would update in real time, given that they have the data to send alerts as soon as seats are released. I won’t make that mistake again.

• Andy says:

  7 Aug7 August 09:05

  Want to use my Amex Plat to access the the Lufthansa business lounge at Heathrow T2. Anyone know if it’s open yet? Rob did an article on it a few weeks ago but can’t tell from the website if it’s open yet.

  (Ditto for Munich)

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    7 Aug7 August 11:35

    See above on this page re T2 and the Plaza Premium lounge being open and preferred (by Rob at least) to the Lufty one – Your Plat will get you in there.

    Don’t know about Munich…

    • Mark says:

      7 Aug7 August 11:42

      Lufthansa is open

• YC says:

  7 Aug7 August 09:13

  Looking to buy some goods from selfridges. Any offers on any card? I’ve checked natwest, curve.

  • Chris Heyes says:

    7 Aug7 August 09:48

    YC Go through BA shopping portal extra Avios points on offer
    No offers on card unfortunatly

  • Harry T says:

    7 Aug7 August 09:59

    I’ve got 5% back on Curve, so worth double checking.

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