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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 17th August

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General

Comments (394)

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

  • AndyC says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:17

    Did anyone else book one of the Park Plaza hotels in the £89 sale back in March? I have a stay coming up in the Waterloo location but i understand this is now a quarantine hotel. Does anyone know what they are doing with existing bookings? I have tried to contact them but had no reply. They have not yet told me i will not be able to stay.

    • Rob says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:31

      Which of the 4 Waterloo hotels? Not heard anything.

    • Michael C says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:52

      I didn’t take it up in the end, but my reservation at Park Plaza London Waterloo was (involuntarily) moved to Park Plaza London Riverbank: could it be that?

    • Laura says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:42

      I got moved from Waterloo to Westminster Bridge, plus an upgraded room.

      I think we found out on the Wednesday or Thursday, before our Saturday night stay

    • Nick Burch says:
      17 Aug17 August 11:52

      We were contacted about 2 weeks out, to let us know that we’d be moved to the Park Plaza Riverbank instead. Were offered a small discount on food.

      Had a discussion with the hotel staff at checkin, offered an upgraded room if we waited a few hours, ended up negotiating free breakfast and the booked room instead. Hotel sent up a free bottle of wine too!

      • AndyC says:
        17 Aug17 August 12:46

        I spoke to them this morning – been moved to the Riverbank as well with 20% off food/drink. Maybe try for breakfast on arrival 🙂

  • Anna says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:36

    Tech support! I changed the email address on my BAEC account after my usual one was hacked and now I’m stuck in a loop of clicking on the confirmation email link they sent me, which takes me to ba.com, which then tells me I haven’t clicked on the link and can’t access my account!

    • John says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:03

      Try a browser with all privacy features disabled

    • KBuffett says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:11

      It’s possible your machine has been compromised, not just your email account.

      • Anna says:
        17 Aug17 August 10:03

        I am wondering that but it’s only 1 email account which is showing signs of tampering.

    • mr_jetlag says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:30

      Clear your cache, cookies and site history for BA then try again. Failing that – give them a call?

      • FatherOfFour says:
        17 Aug17 August 15:30

        Remember issues when setting up kids’ accounts. I think the link they send to click has some extra characters to remove. I remember it looked dodgy.

  • KBuffett says:
    17 Aug17 August 08:40

    Being lazy here:
    Where are the easiest destinations to travel to, no testing etc?

    • Bagoly says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:42

      ROI, NI, Scotland, Wales.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:43

      No testing at all if double vaxxed? Outside wales, Scotland NI? Ireland.

      you’ll need test to return and day 2 test from everywhere outside the CTA

    • Dej says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:44

      Need testing ( At a minimum day 2 and before you fly back) where ever you travel out of the UK

    • Blair says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:51

      Via Dublin (on a separate itinerary), the list is pretty long and extensive for fully vaccinated. It won’t be for everyone.

    • Michael C says:
      17 Aug17 August 08:54

      A 2.5 day Euro city-break, using the test you leave on to come back in on?!

      • Rob says:
        17 Aug17 August 09:00

        Ireland – no testing in either direction if double vaxxed.

        • Tracey says:
          17 Aug17 August 09:26

          You should stay in Ireland for 10 days, if you then intend to travel to England/ Wales/ Scotland without taking any further tests.

    • Michael C says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:37

      Isle of Man only needs uploaded double-jab cert.

    • Harry T says:
      17 Aug17 August 10:03

      Ireland if double vaccinated – you will need to show proof of vaccination to access everything from a restaurant to the Gravity Bar at the Guinness storehouse, but it’s a slick process. I would recommend the Shelbourne for accommodation.

  • John says:
    17 Aug17 August 09:10

    Hoping someone can help!
    Read on here in last month or so a reference number for the BA memo sent out on 8th July to BA staff detailing changes to ticket validity.
    Searched but can’t find the post giving the reference.
    Anyone know it or happen to save the post?
    Thanks in advance.

    • Pete M says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:46

      I am not sure if there was a reference given, but I was able to guide the agent to search through his emails for the 8/Jul policy change, which he then confirmed with a supervisor. (Ridiculous we are teaching BA CSAs how to do their job, but there you go…)

    • Jody says:
      17 Aug17 August 11:38

      No reference number given to me either, but the agent searched their internal system and found the memo regarding new policy dated 8th July (I came back on here and wrote a post about it). If you get an agent who doesn’t know the policy then you need to gently encourage them to look for this and read the update.

    • AJA says:
      17 Aug17 August 14:32

      I think this is the article you were looking for: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/07/19/british-airways-flight-cancellation-policy/

      “This is not written anywhere unfortunately. British Airways simply seems to have changed its definition of ‘ticket validity’ from 12 months from the date of booking to 12 months from the date you were due to fly.”

  • Toppcat says:
    17 Aug17 August 09:11

    Rob – what’s your view on the Hyatt / Apple Leisure transaction announced yesterday? From what I have read it will increase Hyatt’s presence in Europe by 60% (presumably excluding SLH), which would be very welcome, but from a quick skim it seems like Apple is US focused? Maybe I am missing something!

    “Hyatt, the US hotel group, has agreed to buy private equity-backed resorts operator Apple Leisure Group for $2.7bn, expanding its reach in the fast-recovering recreational travel market.

    Apple Leisure, owner of the Zoëtry and Sunscape resort brands, will allow Hyatt to increase vastly its share of the luxury resorts market, which has proved one of the most resilient during the coronavirus pandemic as wealthy customers rush to book holidays after long periods of lockdown.”

    • Toppcat says:
      17 Aug17 August 09:18

      Reading a bit more, the Apple brands seem to be Zoetry, Secrets, Breathless, Dreams, Now, Alua and Sunscape, which will presumably all become part of Hyatt in due course.

      Can’t say I have heard of any of them! But maybe I am not the target market. It does seem to be very US/Mexico/Caribbean focused.

      Alua seems to have a lot of options in Spain / Greece.

      • Tom says:
        17 Aug17 August 12:51

        I have stayed in a few Secrets in Mexico and Jamaica and rate them highly.

    • marcw says:
      17 Aug17 August 10:15

      Majorca will be an excellent place to go for mattress runs in shoulder season 🙂

      Anyway, most hotels/resorts are ex-ThomasCook affiliated (like the Hilton Sa Torre -> Casa Cook -> Zoëtry Mallorca) and 80% will be on the Balearics.
      Most of the hotels are located in Spain (41) are under the Alua brand, which is a family friendly and usually lower-end/budget brand.

  • fivebobbill says:
    17 Aug17 August 09:39

    FAO BJ.
    Re the over 50’s Life Policies. Second 20,000 points have now been added to my Nectar account. L&G were very easy to deal with, filed the issue with Sainsburys, kept me fully updated throughout via email, and the points were added in about 10 days. Result 👍
    Now how long do I wait before repeat, is it a rolling year or calendar? 🙂

    • BJ says:
      17 Aug17 August 10:33

      Good stuff. To be safest early January so that both applications are made and points are posted within the same year. You could risk another application this year so long as the points post next year but I have no idea if that works. I suspect it does but I didn’t want to risk it as it’s a question of staying on good side of Sainsbury, L&G and Nectar. IIRC your two applications were for a couple which makes 2 per household fit in a year easy. BTW, there is no reason why you or your OH might not want to take up ‘residence’ with a relative for a while next year!

  • Patrick Wilson says:
    17 Aug17 August 10:12

    Has anyone stayed at the Hyatt regency Thessaloniki?

    Thinking of a few days with family on my way back from sani beach. Worth the club access?

    Also any way of triggering the Hyatt offer from AMEX if im not due to stay until September.

    Many thanks all.

    • Matty says:
      17 Aug17 August 12:40

      I did Club access a couple of years ago. I can’t recall the price difference. There’s some hard cheese and nibbles, a bottled beer and a local wine. Lounge is a bit poky. I wouldn’t go for the option again.
      I don’t think the hotel is listed as participating in the Amex offer.

  • SG says:
    17 Aug17 August 10:15

    Did most people here had to contact Amex to claim their increased bonus for adding a supplementary card by end of July and spend a certain amount?A few days now after meeting the terms and conditions and no sign of bonus!!

    • mr_jetlag says:
      17 Aug17 August 10:33

      from previous comments everyone’s being fobbed off atm and no one has the extra 3k.

      • JDB says:
        17 Aug17 August 10:37

        It’s pretty amazing that when Amex we received a glossy mailing in the post and also email about the 3k + 3k, they now seem to deny the existence of it. The poor people answering the ‘phones must have to waste a lot of time on these internal comms / IT failures.

    • chris1922 says:
      17 Aug17 August 11:22

      Was on live chat last week, the T&Cs say up to 120 days for bonuses, I was advised to wait. The first 3000 have hit, but not the second 3000 after the £500 supp spend, which has been achieved.

    • Justin says:
      18 Aug18 August 01:55

      I added the supplementary card and spend the required amount over a month ago – still nothing for me.

      I find some AmEx offers that promise extra points or credits can sometimes be slow. Normally the small print says it can take x amount of days to be applied to the account.

      Although normally I find this pretty quick on personal cards. In my experience, it’s typical my business card that takes extremely long to get credits added (last time it took months!).

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

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