The HfP chat thread – Saturday 14th August

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• KBuffett says:

  14 Aug14 August 02:57

  Good morning all
  I’m looking for restaurant suggestions for dinner tonight for a special occasion, although getting a reservation may be difficult. In or around the West End and vegetarian friendly. Nice ambience / views / service would be good too.
  Many thanks

  • Tarmohamed says:

    14 Aug14 August 03:34

    Coco, Benhinana, Japes, Sky Garden, Ting Shard, Aqua Shard, Dishoom, Kanishka. If you need more suggestions, pls get my email from Rob or drop me a LinkedIn.

    If you can travel out of London, I’d recommend Ponsbourne Pods.

    • VerdantBacon says:

      14 Aug14 August 08:08

      I feel like you don’t know where the west end is

      • Andrew says:

        14 Aug14 August 08:58

        It’s in Edinburgh of course.

  • Clubx says:

    14 Aug14 August 05:36

    McDonald’s

    • Tony1 says:

      14 Aug14 August 09:22

      Dont forget to fill in the food for thoughts survey for a cheap deal lol

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    14 Aug14 August 06:51

    Sketch and Gauthier are the first that come to mind with that brief, but I think they’ll be booked up. Pied a Terre probably will have a table and ticks all the boxes allowing for a short walk from the West End. Zedel is pretty vegetarian-friendly these days and hits the bill for location and scenery, but may not quite be special enough.

    • The Hunter says:

      14 Aug14 August 07:54

      Pied a terre is great

  • YC says:

    14 Aug14 August 06:59

    Core by clare smyth if they have a last minute cancellation. Could try amex plat concierge to help

    • MD says:

      14 Aug14 August 09:05

      Lol. Core booked out for the next 3 months within less than an hour of opening reservations post lockdown. No chance.

  • Gary says:

    14 Aug14 August 07:51

    NOPI in soho or ROVI near Oxford Circus both have excellent veg options

  • Mouse says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:09

    Hotel restaurants always a good bet for last minute availability. Can usually get in to Dinner by Heston – great service, views into Hyde Park, ask when calling to book whether they can offer any extra veggie options beyond the two on the standard a la carte menu – they should be able to accommodate. Not quite west end but close.

  • Rachel Robinson says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:41

    Bob Bob Ricard if you can get a table

  • HH says:

    14 Aug14 August 09:58

    Jean Georges at the Connaught is my go-to for last minute reservations.

  • Babyg says:

    14 Aug14 August 13:52

    hide is my go to…

• Tarmohamed says:

  14 Aug14 August 03:38

  Chutney Mary, Amaya or Veeraswamy, if you consider them and can’t get a booking, let me know I’ll ask a contact for a favour.

  There’s also Farzi, Hakkasan, Novikov to consider. The National Portgrat Gallery has/had a rooftop restaurant with a skyline view but I’m unsure if it’s still open post refurb

• Jen T says:

  14 Aug14 August 04:55

  I can’t recommend Tredwell’s highly enough. British with an incredible focus on vegetarian/vegan and local produce, but plenty of meat available too. Tables still available tonight for a la carte and the exceptional tasting menus.

• Will says:

  14 Aug14 August 07:41

  How do I pay a friend for his contribution of a group travel (circa £1500) and maximize points earnings opportunity.

  I will be paying him on his UK Bank account.

  • Rob says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:35

    Pay him via PayPal into a PayPal account.

  • Crafty says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:38

    Curve Send?

  • VerdantBacon says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:57

    Top up Revolut

    • MD says:

      14 Aug14 August 09:08

      This is the correct answer.

      • Will says:

        14 Aug14 August 09:59

        Question is why underlying card can I use that will still count it as purchase. I have curve metal.

        • Will says:

          14 Aug14 August 09:59

          Which*

        • Reney says:

          14 Aug14 August 11:34

          if you go with Rob’s advice an amex should work. if you go via revolut then Soulihull paid off asap will incur minimal charges and gets points.

        • Yorkie Aid says:

          14 Aug14 August 13:09

          No need to use Curve at all with PayPal

• Dallas says:

  14 Aug14 August 07:45

  Is the cost of cancelling a domestic flight within USA booked using Avios on American Airlines is 55$? for a UK based executive club account. It’s costing for 11k Avios and 4$ in taxes between Dallas and Washington .What if i were to cancel should there be entry restrictions next year for a refund. Can we take a FTV for a reward booking on partner airline?

  • Sam G says:

    14 Aug14 August 09:05

    It’ll only be the $4 in reality

• Hugo says:

  14 Aug14 August 07:55

  Hi
  what is the current cheapest and easiest LFT to do for a foreign trip?
  Thanks
  Hugo

  • Tracey says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:11

    MSE have a list in price order.

• Andrew says:

  14 Aug14 August 08:03

  Our company give us credit cards for buying materials for business and we put through hundreds everyday in an independent shop. Recently, the owner refuse to take our cards anymore citing it is costly to them. There are signs of accepting all major cards with the card logos. Can someone confirm if a merchant can selectively refuse certain cards due to higher interchange fees?

  • KBuffett says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:10

    A merchant can refuse your business full stop. There’s no obligation for them to trade with you.

  • Ken says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:14

    Retailers can refuse any cards or payment methods if they wish. They can refuse business Amex and accept personal Amex if they wish.
    Possibly against the terms of their agreement with Amex but what are Amex going to do ?

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    14 Aug14 August 09:06

    Providing the transaction is instant rather than settling a debt for something already used, they can refuse any payment method they like, even legal tender cash.
    Having said that if you’re putting through £100s every day then they’re a moron for not just putting their prices up 2% (or more) on the relevant items…

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      14 Aug14 August 09:11

      unless you’re “up to something” manufactured in order to acquire points; in which case … stop moaning just because you’ve been rumbled :p

  • Oh! Matron says:

    14 Aug14 August 10:01

    Visa and MasterCard normally give the money from the transaction to the vendor within a couple of days. Amex is 30 days. If cash flow is tight, I could understand why a vendor would start refusing it. Of course, if it’s not Amex, then ignore my point

    • JDB says:

      14 Aug14 August 10:11

      We take cards and Visa/MasterCard pay in two days and Amex in five. You have to sign up separately with Amex and they initially pay you for each transaction minus fees which makes reconciliations harder, so you have to ask specially to have monthly fee billing. Amex will, by and large match whatever rate you are getting on the big two and over the years, including our first 18 months and six months last year Amex was fee free so the cheapest card for us to take. The perception that Amex is so expensive for the merchant seems hard to shake off.

      • KBuffett says:

        14 Aug14 August 10:16

        That’s not true for small retailers. What’s your card turnover?

        • JDB says:

          14 Aug14 August 10:17

          Less than £100k

  • JDB says:

    14 Aug14 August 10:15

    Your shop needs to speak to their Amex sales person! We bought a lot of materials from an independent builders merchant in London who had a random visit, simply offering to match V/M minus a few bips, so they are delighted to take Amex.

  • Andrew says:

    14 Aug14 August 12:54

    It is a business visa card. We don’t mind they put up the prices as we pass on that cost to clients. It is annoying as no one in the team willing to pay first and claim it back (good source of points I know). They would drive 20 miles to another shop to get the materials instead. It is annoying because we always have 1 person down for the day just for that.

  • the_real_a says:

    14 Aug14 August 13:15

    Seems very bad business from the shop owner. Can you not get both owners together and knock some sense into them. Losing several hundreds a day for the sake of 0.75% premium seems silly. Mind you if i was spending several hundreds a day i would be wanting a decent trade discount with the shop too!

• Gary says:

  14 Aug14 August 08:04

  DP. BA flight T5 to Faro. BA verified lateral flow, vaccine certificate, Portuguese PLF all uploaded preflight so just online checkin & bag drop at T5. Nothing else was asked at T5. At Faro, immigration quickly sighted print outs of same 3 documents mentioned- no further queries raised. We did supervised lateral flow just in case. Sent vaccine certificates to hotel few days before arrival and was never asked again. No restaurants checked so far either (although coming to weekend so let’s see).

  • Will_ says:

    14 Aug14 August 08:28

    I’m doing this same trip next week. Where do you upload your lateral flow test on departure? Is it part of the check in process or a separate app?

    • Gary says:

      14 Aug14 August 09:02

      Received email approx 72hrs prior to departure prompting one to upload all docs inc test results via a button you click in MMB. BA verification took 24 hours. you would be allowed to check in online once verification done. Think there is an app but didn’t go down that route. MMB was pretty painless.

      • Will_ says:

        14 Aug14 August 12:04

        Ah, thanks for this. Didn’t realise it was taking 24 hours to verify your docs! I may need to reschedule my LFT. cheers

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