The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 11th August

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• Eppleby Green says:

  11 Aug11 August 09:21

  Phoned BA at exactly 0800 today. Call dropped by BA at 09:02.
  Is there any way of contacting BA.?
  Does any one out there know why I cannot alter booked avios flights on BA.com even though their interminable call hold system says that one can?

  • prune says:

    11 Aug11 August 09:22

    I was told they have an automatic cut off at around 1 hour so always give them your number in case they answer at 59 min

  • LS says:

    11 Aug11 August 09:40

    Call BA’s 0800 number from a payphone. They get charged a payphone access charge of 70ppm from BT. At least that way they will have an incentive to answer faster…

    • Aston100 says:

      11 Aug11 August 12:47

      Does BA’s phone system recognise this and expedite your transfer to a phone agent?

  • pauline says:

    11 Aug11 August 09:54

    Hi I was lucky then as i also phoned at 8am exactly and got through (after 6 x 1 hr cut offs in the last couple of days). I chose option 2 (booking) pressing as soon as you could choose an option as option 1 (cancel) didnt even get me into the queue – just too busy call back later. Apparently they had outages at 2 centres. I really don’t know why you can’t cancel on line – except to make you take a voucher which I almost did

• Luke says:

  11 Aug11 August 09:35

  Anyone else experiencing a delay in Creation Marriott points posting? I’m hoping it’s just a delay due to the triple points promo, and not a repeat of the problems in December when it took about 6 weeks for points to finally post.

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    11 Aug11 August 13:21

    Same here and I imagine you are correct to think it is something to do with finalising the triple points bonuses.

  • JJ says:

    11 Aug11 August 20:09

    Posted this afternoon for me.

    • Luke says:

      11 Aug11 August 22:00

      Thanks, same for me too. Now I just hope they post the bonus points as promised!

• Duster says:

  11 Aug11 August 09:51

  The opposite of most people’s recent problems: I need to tie some money up with an airline. In brief, I have a travel allowance for me and my family through work (oil industry). This can be used flexibly but only for travel and is use it or lose it on a rolling year basis – my current year is about to expire. Given Covid restrictions the family can’t travel as normal but we obviously don’t want to lose this years allocation. My plan therefore is to book flights now (using up the allowance) but then convert them to credit with an airline (…when my plans “change”…which HR is, unusually, OK with) – thus keeping the credit allowance alive but locked into one airline.

  I therefore want to lock it into the airline and associated process that will give me the greatest flexibility (including having enough breadth of coverage that we would want to fly with them). My current thinking is to go down the BA route and cancel the booking for a Future Travel Voucher (FTV) – which I understand will:
  – keep the credit alive until 30 Sep 23
  – can be used on all partner/OneWorld/codeshare flights bar SunAir (there goes Legoland…)

  But one further complication is that there are four of us (2 kids) and it seems the way BA would issue the FTV would require the original booking to include everyone (which is fine) but then allocate a FTV per person – which would have less flexibility (for instance if we put the kids in a different class). To counter this issue my understanding is that if I make the original booking for all 4 of us, but make it flight+car hire then the FTV will be issued as a single voucher covering all 4 of us.

  I know this isn’t the biggest issue in the world given everything else that is going on but very grateful for what people think. Is there a better way?

  • Pete M says:

    11 Aug11 August 10:00

    How about QR – they are even more flexible possibly?

    • LS says:

      11 Aug11 August 10:01

      They are so flexible, you run the risk of them simply refunding the booking back to the travel agent…

    • Genghis says:

      11 Aug11 August 10:03

      Full refunds available, right? What evidence does HR need to pay you out? If just the initial booking, you’re laughing.

      • Pete M says:

        11 Aug11 August 10:18

        This was kind of my thinking to be honest…

      • Duster says:

        11 Aug11 August 10:20

        Thanks all. Unfortunately the allowance comes on its own corporate credit card – so a refund back to the card wouldn’t be of any use.

        • LS says:

          11 Aug11 August 10:29

          Depending on if where you want is on QR’s network, you could go with them and then get the 10% extra to take a refund as a voucher. You get extra this way!

        • Pete M says:

          11 Aug11 August 10:29

          Grr, almost like someone thought of this! 🙂

  • LS says:

    11 Aug11 August 10:01

    You get an e-voucher if it is a simple booking. Could anyone confirm if this would allow you to subsequently book flights for 4 people?
    You could just book a J ticket somewhere, then request an e-voucher if so

    • Duster says:

      11 Aug11 August 14:23

      Thanks – will see if an evoucher is possible.

  • Richie says:

    11 Aug11 August 10:15

    When I’ve cancelled a BA flight for an evoucher, a choice of one or per passenger was available.

  • BP says:

    11 Aug11 August 12:40

    What a cool allowance! Is this common?

    • Sam G says:

      11 Aug11 August 12:55

      Pretty common if you’re an expat ( at the right level) – varying degrees of flexibility. I’ve had 1 x set of business class tickets per year (to be booked on BA via our corporate TA/deal) but a friend had X 1000s of $ that his company were happy for him to spend on whatever and reclaim via expenses which was very nice !

    • Pete M says:

      11 Aug11 August 12:55

      The less attractive a country is to work in, the more attractive the perks for getting expats there!

  • Memesweeper says:

    11 Aug11 August 14:31

    If you fancy a change from oneworld Singapore airlines have their own version of book with confidence. Book now, free rebooking up to 12 months out till end Sept, then one more free rebooking during ticket validity (another 12 months)

    • Sam G says:

      11 Aug11 August 15:35

      the problem with SQ & a lot of these policies is they involve a fare difference which particularly if you book a business class sale fare could be huge, so they aren’t very useful. At least BA (for a Brit anyway) is pretty flexible

• Rui N. says:

  11 Aug11 August 10:03

  Update from the other day: my Curve Blue got renewed, and they lowered my daily limit to £2k (was £4.5k before). People here suggested contacting them, and I did so. They’ve asked for proof of ID and a selfie and it took them their sweet time, but they’ve now increased my daily limit. And instead of my old limit of £4.5k, they gave me a limit of £9k! So, doesn’t hurt to ask.
  One question though: they sent me a commercial card (9100 card number). Will that be a problem anywhere? On Ernie works fine.

  • Harrier25 says:

    11 Aug11 August 10:56

    The only way you can have a £9k daily limit is with a commercial card. The max allowed on a Personal card is £4.5k. Shouldn’t cause you any issues unless you pay HMRC with it because theu will add a 0.1% fee to your bill for using a corporate card.

    • JDB says:

      11 Aug11 August 11:04

      I have the Curve Metal personal with £9k daily limit/£1.6m annual and no longer any monthly limit.

      • Harrier25 says:

        11 Aug11 August 13:30

        Keep it quiet because if Curve twigg you’ll be put down to £4.5k. It’s an error that some people are still at a £9k daily limit with a personal card, but seem to be getting adjusted when sent a new card.

    • Rui N. says:

      11 Aug11 August 11:04

      Ok, thanks Harrier. I don’t pay HMRC so that shouldn’t be an issue – hope it works fine with tax free child care (if not, I’ll ask Curve for a personal one). Cheers.

    • Aston100 says:

      11 Aug11 August 12:50

      Loads of people got their personal card daily/annual limit uplifted to £9k/£1.6m towards the end of last year.

      • Harrier25 says:

        11 Aug11 August 13:31

        …..and are now getting then decreased slowly.

        • jimc says:

          11 Aug11 August 22:11

          My experience was different. I have a personal card with the £9K daily limit. Had to order a replacement card just last week. The new card still has the £9k limit.

• Anna says:

  11 Aug11 August 10:13

  Just booked our return antigen tests – the lady at the clinic made a big deal about the results only being valid for 48 hours. We will actually be within this but I’m assuming this is only a Spanish rule and has no bearing on the UK government requirement that the test just has to be within 3 days of your return?

  • Pete M says:

    11 Aug11 August 10:14

    Yes – unless the check-in people decide to make up their own rules.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      11 Aug11 August 11:06

      Having just left Spain they asked for my “pcr certificate” passed over my £10 Chronomics antigen cert without uttering a word about antigen etc etc and away I went.

  • Sandgrounder says:

    11 Aug11 August 10:17

    Who are you using and what is the price (apologies if already stated)? My parents are heading out in a few weeks.

    • Anna says:

      11 Aug11 August 10:20

      We’re going to a clinic called Excellent Medicals in Golf del Sue at 35 a pop. There are slightly cheaper ones but this is 2 minutes from where we’re staying so v convenient. Whereabouts are your parents staying?

      • Sandgrounder says:

        11 Aug11 August 10:44

        Up in Costa Adeje, so a bit of a way away, but it’s good to have a benchmark. They were thinking of taking tests out but I thought it would probably be less hassle and possibly cheaper to have it done locally. Which seems to be the case.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          11 Aug11 August 11:07

          Available for £22 each from Chronomics with a BA code. Honestly it was so easy it was unbelievable.

        • Anna says:

          11 Aug11 August 13:07

          A lot of the local pharmacies are doing them – Palm Mar clinic is 29 euros for a walk in test, for example but it’s a bit out of the way. There will be loads in Costa Adele. I didn’t want to bring teats from the U.K. then find we couldn’t get a slot to do them.

      • Russ says:

        11 Aug11 August 12:02

        …and thank goodness they’re all useful ones eh?

      • bill says:

        11 Aug11 August 12:15

        Can you get the Chronomics £22 test if flying on easyjet. I have it in my basket and it only asks for the date of travel. but do you provide the ba flight details at some point / during th ekit registration or testing

    • A Day In The Life says:

      11 Aug11 August 12:23

      I would much prefer to take UK tests with me (Quored etc), local tests could be ‘problematic’ if +, plenty of stories of people stuck in enforced quarantine, rather than the option to choose yourself what’s safe and sensible.

  • Tony1 says:

    11 Aug11 August 13:03

    Synlab seem to be all over Spain and do the tests cheap ( and while you wait lol )

    • Gtellez says:

      11 Aug11 August 14:14

      Just take the tests with you: cheaper, easier and way more convenient. Depending where in Spain, queues can be awful to get the tests. Difficult to get tests cheaper than 30-35 euros (I got one in May for 25 in BCN but awful service), many places charging 40-45. I used project screen last week and really easy to use, it cost me 26 pounds with Virgin code, received the tests a day later of ordering with DPD.

  • Sam G says:

    11 Aug11 August 13:20

    I’ve got a flight out of Girona coming up on Ryanair. I can’t see any obviously convenient test centres to where we’ll be staying, the area isn’t particularity popular with Brits, more a French/Dutch crowd who drive down, so I’ll be taking one of these home tests. I wish Ryanair would endorse one of them ! But if I see a clinic there then I’ll probably cough up again and go for that instead, the flights are only a couple of times a week so denied boarding would be a bit of a nightmare

  • Doreen says:

    11 Aug11 August 13:49

    Spanish regulations do specify 72 hours for PCR and 48 for antigen tests – I kept rereading UK ones to be sure 3 days would be ok 🙂

• Kevin C says:

  11 Aug11 August 10:27

  There’s a number of festival tickets up for redemption on Hilton Experiences. London, Glasgow and Manchester for weekend 10-12th September. Standard and VIP/Guest passes available. All buy it now. VIP includes ‘upgraded flushing toilet’ in Glasgow, which is the gold standard of VIP I think we can agree.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    11 Aug11 August 11:04

    🤣

  • Peter K says:

    11 Aug11 August 13:10

    🤣

• HBommie says:

  11 Aug11 August 10:40

  Numpty question

  NHS COVID pass for Travel, when I generate the QR code it gives me 2 codes which indicates the doses and the date of dose. I thought it would be one code only?

  • Pete M says:

    11 Aug11 August 10:45

    It’s two now, which seems to tie in better with the European apps. The second one is the important one.

    • Hbommie says:

      11 Aug11 August 11:11

      Thanks Pete

• YH says:

  11 Aug11 August 11:48

  I have a week off in October and would like to fly with Qatar to somewhere East – any good recommendations which are letting fully vaccinated UK people in?

  Most places don’t seem to be letting the UK in, Dubai will be my fallback option but then I won’t be getting my 560 TPs!

  (I also have flights to Chile booked for the same dates but expecting it to remain on the red list so am double booking to ensure I can go somewhere).

  • Sam G says:

    11 Aug11 August 12:59

    I think at present your only two options would either be Phuket sandbox or I believe you can do Sri Lanka on a limited basis. But October is a while off so things might change by then (for better or worse!)

    Of course Qatar is offering refunds and a flexible change policy so no harm booking something

    • Sam G says:

      11 Aug11 August 12:59

      Phuket weather won’t be great though, not sure on Sri Lanka

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