The HfP chat thread – Thursday 12th August

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• Lisa says:

  12 Aug12 August 12:05

  I’m confused about the BA 241 Companion vouchers and eVouchers – though they were different things, but I’ve just earned another 241 voucher and it appears under a section in my BA Executive Club account called eVouchers?

  Also, my existing 241 voucher which was originally issued in Mar 2020 and then reissued after cancellation is showing that it has only been extended by 6 months, to Sep 2022, is that correct?

  • AJA says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:02

    Technically a BA 2-4-1 voucher is an eVoucher because you can redeem it online. Some FTVs are not able to be redeemed online but those that have been converted to an e voucher will show up here I think. (can’t say for certain as I only have one manual FTV)

    As for extensions yes all 2-4-1s were extended by 6 months (even those that have been redeemed) so 30 months from Mar 2020 is Sep 2022. What expiry date were you expecting? All new 2-4-1 vouchers earned in 2021 will have 6 months added meaning one earned on the BAPP will be valid for 30 months instead of the usual 24 months.

    • Lisa says:

      12 Aug12 August 13:18

      OK thanks, I had read somewhere that vouchers had been extended more than once. Perhaps there will be another extension soon, which would be useful! 🙂

      • AJA says:

        13 Aug13 August 00:09

        Rob wrote an article where some 2-4-1 vouchers were extended a second time but I think it was for those issued in 2019. I also recall him writing an article showing his wife’s voucher being extended twice.

        I agree it would be helpful if a further extension is given though I’d rather get a further extension of status (I’m a Feb year end).

• Anuj says:

  12 Aug12 August 12:28

  How much are krisflyer miles worth ? Obviously I know it depends on the redemption but a baseline figure would be helpful. I don’t have much experience in krisflyer miles myself. Thanks

  • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:03

    Well my Awardwallet account values them at 2.49 cents (1.8p) each but that seems high to me v. the 1p per point HfP usually targets for Avios & Virgin redemptions.

    That being said, I recently booked a LHR-DXB J return on Swiss (via ZRH) for 58,000 KrisFlyer miles and the price saving v the regular flexible ticket was £1,596 (£522 taxes/fee v £2,118 regualr fare) which gives 2.75p per mile. The cheapest flex ticket available now (without an overnight stop or ridiculous travel time – e.g. 20+ hours) is around £1,700 so even on that measure those points got 2p value each, so maybe that is a reasonable benchmark.

    The London to Dubai route is a sweet spot with KrisFlyer redemptions though so YMMV.

  • Jamie says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:04

    Personally I only redeem Krisflyer miles on SQ J/F seats between the UK and Oz/NZ (as SQ won’t open up any premium award seats to any partner airlines) – in which case historically (if purely comparing cash rates) I have achieved between 2p-3p per Krisflyer mile.

    Obviously completely depends on your redemption plans (and you can argue you may never have paid those cash rates anyway) but may serve as a useful reference.

    • Jimmy says:

      12 Aug12 August 14:30

      How easy/hard is it to get 2 seats to OZ?

      • Sam G says:

        12 Aug12 August 14:54

        pretty easy – SQ are relatively generous with award availability and their flights to Aus (in normal times ) are plentiful

        • Jimmy says:

          12 Aug12 August 15:20

          Thanks :).

  • Sam G says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:15

    I think around 1p but you can achieve more on “sweet spot” redemptions. I find I can achieve this on a return to Singapore compared to a one-stop cash ticket. Compared to SQ non-stop fare then it’s more but I wouldn’t have paid that anyway

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    12 Aug12 August 15:03

    I think you have to balance potential upside with hard expiry which adds risk – and price in that risk. So given an unknown personal future for every one of us, even if you redeem at a consistent 2.5p, they are still not worth even close to that.

• Mco says:

  12 Aug12 August 12:36

  Can I leave LHR if I have checked in my bags from NCL on BA through to the final destination? My transit is 7hrs at Heathrow so thought to venture out to central London.

  • Pete M says:

    12 Aug12 August 12:37

    Yes

  • John says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:42

    It’s an airport not a prison

    • KP says:

      12 Aug12 August 13:46

      LOL

    • Mikeact says:

      12 Aug12 August 14:40

      Certainly felt like it a few weeks back….trying to get out that is.

      • KP says:

        12 Aug12 August 14:46

        The Australians would disagree !!

      • ChrisC says:

        12 Aug12 August 15:02

        It’s always been hard to get out of T5.

        BA need to offload you from the flight(so if you return later it resets your ‘fit to fly’ marker and allows you back in) and then HAL staff need to escort you out which they only do once an hour.

        • Pete M says:

          12 Aug12 August 15:19

          That assumes you didn’t go for the exit upon disembarking, though?

        • ChrisC says:

          12 Aug12 August 22:05

          Well yes that’s just exit and leave for a domestic arrival and immigration for international but once you’re in the secure area …

• Selim S. says:

  12 Aug12 August 12:39

  Red list travel question – my cousin and his wife had their first Covid jabs (Pfizer) in the UK in June, but they then travelled to Egypt (for long-term work) which was subsequently moved to the red list.

  They’d like to travel back at some point and are weighing up options:
  1. Ten days in Greece or Cyprus before onward travel to UK (second jabs there)
  2. Waiting in Egypt until hopefully the Pfizer vaccine is distributed (just starting now in small quantities)
  3. Take two shots of AZ vaccine in Egypt (available)

  Any advice? I’ve seen on HfP last week the statement “Latvia and Slovakia are the only two countries which will admit unvaccinated visitors from England without quarantine”, but I’m not sure that’s correct!

  • Harry T says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:03

    Vaccination status is irrelevant in terms of returning to the UK from a red list country – everyone has to quarantine. Their only option to avoid hotel quarantine is to spend ten or more days in a green list country before returning to the UK, or go to an Amber list country when fully vaccinated and spend ten or more days there post being in egypt. Partially vaccinated travellers returning from an Amber list country will have to isolate at home, with the option for test to release.

    • Selim S. says:

      12 Aug12 August 14:06

      Thanks! What about taking a second jab in the US? They’re due to travel from Egypt to the US next month, and the US is currently offering jabs with proof of age to everyone…

  • John says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:43

    Being vaccinated in Egypt, or one dose in UK and one dose outside UK, does not currently count as being vaccinated for the purposes of UK quarantine

    Slovakia may be accepting unvaccinated visitors from the UK without quarantine but probably not visitors from Egypt at all

  • Mr. AC says:

    12 Aug12 August 15:08

    Getting a second jab in Egypt won’t help because it won’t be on the NHS.

• RJA says:

  12 Aug12 August 12:51

  Hi. I saved a spend £350 get £100 back IHG offer onto my BA Amex card a few weeks back. Made a booking for Kimpton London. The offer is no longer showing in my account (or my wife’s, or my daughters), anybody else have this issue? Amex are saying if its not on my account I no longer qualify for the offer.

  • Rob says:

    12 Aug12 August 12:57

    This could be interesting. If Amex has pulled it because the budget was hit, I am intrigued as to what its liability is to you for a non-refundable booking.

    I did a £100 spend last week in a CP partly because I had a ‘£50 back on £200’ offer saved and thought I’d easily be able to do another £100 by 30/9.

    • HH says:

      12 Aug12 August 13:00

      I’ve been told in no uncertain terms by Amex CS they have no ability to remove an offer once it’s been saved. FWIW I can still see the IHG offer in my saved list.

    • Barnaby100 says:

      12 Aug12 August 13:00

      Wasn’t Kimpton not on the list anyway?

      • meta says:

        12 Aug12 August 14:23

        @Barnaby100 There are two separate offers.

        spend £350 get £100 back on IC/Kimpton/Regent

        spend £200 get £50 back on CP/HI/Voco/Indigo

    • meta says:

      12 Aug12 August 14:13

      If you have a screenshot of a saved offer with clear end date and made a booking on that bases, Amex will be liable to pay it. Their general offers T&C mention specifically (under section E) that offer can’t be changed once they are saved.

      I also wonder whether they’ll give it only to those who actually chase it. Maybe they are hoping some will not bother chasing or not realise that they have not been given statement credit.

      I have now saved screenshots of all the offers that I plan to use.

      • WaynedP says:

        12 Aug12 August 16:27

        I was pleasantly surprised when the expiry date of one of my saved Donald Russell offers changed (extended) while it was in my saved list.

        That was earlier this year (May ?) and shows it is possible to make changes even after saved.

    • Harrier25 says:

      12 Aug12 August 15:30

      My IHG offer is still saved, but the Hilton one has disappeared, which is annoying as I’d part hit the offer.

      • Rob says:

        12 Aug12 August 15:52

        The £350 luxury IHG offer is still there, or the £200 Holiday Inn one?

        • meta says:

          12 Aug12 August 16:01

          For me it isn’t there. IHG Luxury offer disappeared, but £200 stayed.

        • Harrier25 says:

          12 Aug12 August 17:17

          The £200 one, Rob

  • DesignforHomes says:

    12 Aug12 August 12:58

    @RJA The same issue is coming up with the spend £200 at IHG hotels get £50 offer which I save for a stay in the Indigo in Brum two weeks ago and was careful to pay at the desk on checkout (many of these offers have that part of eligibility). AMEX has not processed the cash back, and is now investigating whether it should. It’s there in the PDF you can still download from a link on the Amex site so I don’t understand why there’s any debate?

  • Allan says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:38

    See comments on earlier chat pages. Amex chat have said to me they can still see it and it will work.

    • YorkshireRich says:

      12 Aug12 August 15:09

      Slightly unrelated but on the page somewhat. When I misplaced my card and got a new one, around 20 offers I saved disappeared. I rang them and the CA said they could see them, but they weren’t showing on the app or the desktop version, all except one that got pulled through. I rang again and no luck again, but they insisted they could see the offers and I kept using them accordingly and I kept getting the statement credit.
      Around 2 months later they all just magically appeared.

  • Mike says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:58

    A few of my offers are now missing that were previously saved too.

    • meta says:

      12 Aug12 August 14:17

      I think they are might also be extending offers and are putting them back progressively. I had a missing Leading Hotels of the World offer this morning, but now back with extended offer till 15 Oct.

• Andrew says:

  12 Aug12 August 13:14

  Bizarrely, there’s no sign of the ubiquitous “Sweaty Betty”.

  10% at Selfridges, 10% at Boots are probably the eyecatchers for me.

  All a bit of a pest though, I can’t access the site at work unless I switch off the WiFi as Sophos has deemed the site as selling alcohol and tobacco.

  • Paul Pogba says:

    12 Aug12 August 14:24

    10% off at Selfridges and 14 Avios/£1 via BA Shopping is a pretty decent rebate (~17%).

    • Jonathan says:

      12 Aug12 August 17:59

      24% if you value Avios at 1p since the offers are processed separately. (Or 21.6% if the BA Store excludes VAT).

• J says:

  12 Aug12 August 13:16

  Any word on using bendy with the galaxy seeker post changes? Are things okay for now?

  • Sean says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:56

    all ok for mw to date on small value tests but YMMV

• ash says:

  12 Aug12 August 13:20

  Stab in the dark but what’s people’s thoughts on Spain mainland sticking to Amber on next review?

  • Sam G says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:24

    cases coming down from their peak so I think it’ll stick personally (hope so as I’m going early Sept!)

  • Rob says:

    12 Aug12 August 13:31

    Amber Plus is a dead duck now so I wouldn’t worry about that.

  • The Lord says:

    12 Aug12 August 14:45

    It ain’t going red. Not enough hotel capacity to house everyone coming back if it were to turn

  • ChrisBCN says:

    12 Aug12 August 17:41

    I think it’ll stay amber for a few more weeks

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