Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 11th August

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Comments (395)

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

  • Mr. AC says:

    I’ve taken advantage of that offer already (and it went well), but Wealthily doesn’t allow you to invest into a particular stock (like Freetrade or T212) – not even particular funds, it does everything for you. I need to buy a particular stock in an ISA wrapper.

    • Optimus Prime says:

      LOL, good luck.

      There’s a guy over at WSB who got $50k from a loan and credit card cash advances, bought GME options and now he’s cashed out at $7.5M

      Of course many others are at -$200k at the moment…

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    Just got my Freetrade free share, for a Canadian weed company… great

  • Jan M says:

    My first Amex in two years just arrived. Still no offers on the account though. Any idea when those start feeding through? See a 50 pound Apple offer mentioned here which I would really like!

    • Jan M says:

      Btw, not even the Deliveroo offer is showing.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      It takes a couple weeks after your first transaction but it’s highly likely existing offers will arrive on a new card.

      Deliveroo should but you might need to contact support.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        That meant to say UNlikely.

      • Harrier25 says:

        It can take up to a couple of months for offers to show. Patience is needed as Sweaty Betty makes an appearance in everyone’s Amex account at some point!

    • ChrisC says:

      From what others have posted previously you need to have used it a few times before offers start appearing in the following weeks

    • AJA says:

      I have the same problem with my supplementary card. Others have reported this too. I’ve added the card successfully to my online account but I just get a message saying “you currently have no available Offers. Please try again later”

      I tried online chat. Their longwinded reply was
      “There is no specific time frame for the offers to trigger on the card account. However as per the spending which is one of the factors which helps for the eligible offer to trigger on the card account to reflect online. We request you to please keep an eye on Offers tab online under supplementary card where you can check the offers once eligible and can be saved.”

      I have expressed my dissatisfaction and said this is one of the reasons why I have the Amex card. Let’s see if it results in anything happening.

      • AJA says:

        I’ve been using the supplementary card since mid-July and am well over the £500 spend to trigger the extra Avios for my OH too. But no sign of the bonus Avios yet. (Was mentioned in yesterday’s chat)

        • Barraclough says:

          The Amex chat line told me 120 days but someone yesterday said they were told one month.

      • Jan M says:

        Ah. Ok. Disappointing. I saw a few good ones mentioned. I’ll wait a few days to see if Deliveroo at least pops up and will call them otherwise.

        • BJ says:

          I hope you were not trying to follow a two year strategy here because if so you should not have picked PRG.

        • Harrier25 says:

          Don’t be too disappointed, Jan. Like the rest of us, you’ll soon have 70 useless offers that you’ll never save or use! 🙄

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      I added my plat cash back card to my account last week. Not even used it once, but 4 offers now.

  • StevieKicks says:

    Just found out I have 7262 Krisflyer miles expiring soon. Does anyone know of a way I could transfer them somewhere, or somehow use them up quickly?

    Krisflyer vRooms looks interesting

  • r* says:

    Is Malta still paying credit for 3+ night stays or have they stopped that now?

    • StevieKicks says:

      Stopped now, they only had a small number available and they ran out quickly

  • Zara says:

    Reporting back as promised from Crowne Plaza Gerrards Cross. Spire.
    Booked a club room. We were upgraded to a suite – I think it depends on who you ask. Someone else told us the upgrade (1 level) for a suite is £50.
    The room was nice and spacious as was the bathroom. The toiletries were also nice.
    Pool and spa were used well by us and our kids.
    Nothing else to do around the hotel and no grounds. The lounge was underwhelming. 5-7pm meant to be canapés. With kids we can never time it right but there was nothing left at 6pm and apparently after the first 20 mins there are no replenishment of the canapés.
    Breakfast was ok but my son only likes omelette eggs which we normally ask chef elsewhere for – they couldn’t make them
    so that was a shame (maybe my son is just fussy!)
    Staff were generally very polite and the hotel looks nice. We had a paid night and a reward night but we cancelled the reward night due to 1) nothing much to do around hotel
    2) disappointing lounge
    3) would have been downgraded in room type on next day due to availability so we were not entirely persuaded to stay!
    All in all, it was nice. Not amazing.

    • StevieKicks says:

      What’s the difference between ‘omelette eggs’ and scrambled eggs?

      • Zara says:

        My son’ preferred. We call the omelette eggs “pizza egg” as it’s made flat? He’s 2 years old so he only eats what he will eat at this stage! He cuts it into triangles like a pizza too. Scrambled is all scrambled up?

    • Zara says:

      Most annoyingly however, I have only now seen it does not feature in the list for the £50 off £200 amex and I’m pretty sure every other hotel seems to be on there! Is it likely an amex/ihg mistake?

      • BJ says:

        If it shares ownership with another hotel that does feature on the list and it is charged through same process you might find it still gets counted. Even if not you still have until 30/9 to complete another stay.

        • Zara says:

          Our issues have been in getting refunded by a prior hotel via the room rate when it was meant to be compensation. So we stayed here to make up the £200 or we would have already got there. My eldest daughter starts reception in September and we have a few hotels booked already (for Hilton’s £50 off £200 and also my husbands £50 off £200 ihg). We probably need to stay home a bit more!

          I did check the list and I cannot see this hotel on there but I see no reason why it should have been excluded.
          We also have wotton house booked and we may cancel that as it’s not in any cash back deal but it’s a hotel I did want to try out so we don’t yet know how to treat that one.
          I also want to avail the Hyatt offer!
          Too many staycations already in the pipeline and lugging 3 kids under 5 gets exhausting after a while!

  • Richie says:

    What happens when covid vaccine refuseniks try to renew life insurance, do premiums increase?
    Are covid vaccine refuseniks still covered by death in service insurance from their employer?

    • Char Char says:

      I thought the opposite!

    • BJ says:

      Recently took out new insurance policies and Covid and vaccination featured in the screening. I would just like to thank the various readers who recommended Cavendish; it worked very well for me.

    • Paul says:

      Death in service insurance from an employer generally have a automatic acceptance limit which their are no conditions for cover. If above this limit and require medical underwriting I’d imagine it will be a question in the future

  • Joe says:

    Have to say I’m absolutely furious with VA today. Impossible to contact by phone to make Reward Flight booking. Took them 36 hours+ to respond to messages – by which time flights no longer available. Changed dates – confirmed available and would be booked for us – only to find 10 mins later that I get another message to say “Sorry – they’re no longer available”.

    Exchange some messages to discuss alternatives, and then head into a meeting. 1h45 later – “as you haven’t messaged us, we are saying goodbye”.

    Back to the back of the queue for another 36 hours. Shambolic.

    • Mrs_Fussy says:

      Joe – please do call. General wait time is between 45 mns and 1.35 minutes and after 9pm might be even better. There whatsapp is the pits. Got a message back at 2am and of course I wasnt around …

      • ChasP says:

        a couple of weeks ago woke to 5 whatsapp messages from around 01:45 including a goodbye but responded anyway and got a human at 10 am who sorted it within 20 mns
        So dont give up

        • David says:

          Virgin have been really pants – when you do get through it’s a different set of rules each time – all involve it costing you more money.

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