The HfP chat thread – Friday 20th August

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• Katie says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:06

  what is the referral bonus for Plat holders (assuming you sign up today as a new member)

  • Rob says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:37

    Most have 65 / 24 at present.

• KBuffett says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:06

  Can anyone confirm if buying Avios now using BAPP will trigger the extra Avios for spending with BA? Someone suggested yesterday that this may be possible.

  • Harry T says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:11

    It looks like a BA website, rather than an intermediary like Points.com, so odds look good. If I was a buyer, I’d buy the smallest amount possible as a test purchase first and see how it charges and earns.

    • BJ says:

      20 Aug20 August 09:15

      The service fee makes small amounts a bad deal. I am sure somebody will report back on it soon enough.

      • Blindman says:

        20 Aug20 August 09:31

        Has anyone done the maths on this?

        I.e. What is the cost peer Avios and could it be a good deal?

        Ii need to spend £££ to reach BAPP x 2 and Bonvoy targets so this may help.

        • Blindman says:

          20 Aug20 August 09:33

          If I have done this correct the max purchase means buying Avios at 1.07p?

        • KBuffett says:

          20 Aug20 August 10:43

          Genghis is the mathematical genius….

        • VerdantBacon says:

          20 Aug20 August 11:54

          Assuming that it works and triggers the BAPP 3 Avios per £ on BA spend;

          Purchasing 300,000 Avios costs £3,215 at the moment.
          If the BAPP bonus Avios triggers you would get 9,645 extra Avios.
          End result is 309,645 Avios for £3215 which would give you 1.03p per Avios

  • BJ says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:13

    @Meta IIRC so perhaps they tried and can report back in next few days.

• John W says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:09

  Just received an email from BA – Our flight to Larnaca in September has had aircraft change to long haul aircraft – Great News ! – Flat bed to Larnaca !

  • BJ says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:17

    Result, especially given the flight is long enough to enjoy it.

  • Ryan says:

    20 Aug20 August 10:14

    What date flight is this for? Have been looking to book so will try and get on this flight

    • Dan says:

      20 Aug20 August 10:55

      It’s the 09:25 out. I’m on the noon flight and was considering changing. Decided against as would mean a too early start. No avios availability it seems on the way back for us otherwise that may have been an option.

      • Dan says:

        20 Aug20 August 10:56

        Dates are 16/09 – 23/09

  • Sam G says:

    20 Aug20 August 13:41

    Make sure you select a CW seat, even if you need to pay. There was a complaint on flyertalk from someone (or their parents?) who ended up seated in WT+ cabin that was also being used as CE and wasn’t very happy!

    • Jonathan says:

      20 Aug20 August 16:00

      I remember that well. Threatening legal action as despite his WTP seat being considerably better than a CE one & receiving normal CE soft product he’d been “downgraded”. Couldn’t accept that someone else doing slightly better than him didn’t equal discrimination.

• BJ says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:11

  Re. Virgin Red 15k VM current account offer: Does anybody know if it works for switching a joint account? And if it does, does joint applicant A still get the 15k points (on basis they are new to VM) even if joint applicant B already received the bonus for switching a sole account? I will call the switching team to ask but as is often the case HfP reader experience is more reliable than CSA advice. Thanks.

• Hbommie says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:11

  Any reviews on Castillo Son Vida, we’re currently in Majorca and have booking in an SLH in Palma next week but I’m thinking of switching to a resort type hotel.

  • Harry T says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:30

    TLFL recently reviewed the property. I haven’t stayed but it looks nice.

    • Rob says:

      20 Aug20 August 09:32

      Rhys did a tour and wrote about it. Michele’s review has a good discussion of room types IIRC.

      I played golf yesterday on the course in front of it but didn’t go in 🙂

      • Hbommie says:

        20 Aug20 August 09:54

        Picked the best day for golf with it being a little cooler.
        Thanks I’ll check the reviews.

• Super Secret Stuff says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:19

  Shares: With DSEI coming up in late September, where major contracts frequently get announced, and a government that is willing to spend on leveling up regions and defense budgets, now might be a good time to buy BAE shares and hold them for a few months until something big happens…

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:25

    Oh and a very strong set of half year financials announced a few weeks ago…

    • Scott says:

      20 Aug20 August 12:37

      Bit as this information is publicly available, then it has already been factored into the share price by the smart folk in the markets. What makes you think any future price rises in this share will be greater than, say, Tesla, Apple, or any given company that has a bit of good news on the horizon?

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        20 Aug20 August 13:42

        Read my username and thing about the context. Can’t say much more than that

        • GHT says:

          20 Aug20 August 20:21

          Hi, meet my friend the market abuse regulation.

• Mzungu says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:28

  Quick question about 241s and the impending changes to the BA Amex cards for the combined wisdom here:

  Mrs Mzungu currently has a Blue card; the plan had been to change it to BAPP later in the year to trigger the 2-year voucher. I thought that she had already spent a bit over £12k, so when the changes were announced, I made a diary note to upgrade before 1st Sept to avoid automatically triggering the new, worse, voucher. I’ve just checked, and her spend is actually £11850, so I think that leaves our options open. As I see it now, we could:

  1. Upgrade before 1st September – will instantly trigger a 2-year voucher, and card cost £195
  2. Leave it until later in her card year to upgrade – provided we ensure that no further spend goes through. We can then trigger a 2-year voucher later; with improved availability but card cost £250

  Anything else I’m missing? We don’t tend to travel to the US, and travelling East we have usually managed to find availability by being flexible with dates and destinations (KUL, SIN, BKK, PVG, HKK etc.), so the better availability may not be so essential to us.

  Sorry for the long post, TIA

  • BJ says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:58

    I commented on this issue on Monday and again yesterday. There are no issues with your reasoning but before deciding ask yourself this – What if I wait until 1 September only to discover amex no longer allows upgrades and downgrades between the BA cards? I have no idea if this will happen or not but if there are any changes yet to come that have not been announced already then I believe this one is the most likely. So the choice is bank what you’ve got or gamble on 1st September and beyond. Depends how you value existing voucher relative to perceived value of new voucher given what we know about it. To muddy the waters further it could swing the other way. If the increased fee for BAPP substantially reduces card applications then it is not impossible amex might even offer an upgrade incentive. Decisions, decisions … what keeps the game fun 🙂

• James W says:

  20 Aug20 August 09:28

  I have a BA Club World LHR-San Diego flight next June. I’m considering paying to pre-select a seat and the ‘seat choice available’ button is there, but the seat map is weirdly greyed out – showing rows 1-4 in a 1-2-1 config. This appears to be the First Class cabin of 777 yet to have the Club Suite refit. Any ideas why it would show F greyed out instead of the Club World seat selection?

  • BJ says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:38

    No way I would pay. Equipment deployment is all over the place these days. Good chance it will be CS anyway, in which case seat selection hardly matters. Noticed multiple routes showing grey G cabins. I think it just reflects what can be booked now and also uncertainty over future equipment.

  • ChrisC says:

    20 Aug20 August 09:52

    I may be confused over what you are asking but BA would only open up the F cabin if Club was oversold or they needed space to upgrade from an oversold WTP cabin and they would roll CW forward.

    But they will only do that in the couple of days before the flight not 10 months before.

    But like BJ no way would I pay now for seats.

    I’d be looking at the current plane type as very much a placeholder and not to be relied on.

  • James W says:

    20 Aug20 August 11:27

    Thanks Chris and BJ, totally get what you are saying and will hold back on paying for seat selection. Would be lovely to get Club Suites too!

  • Paul says:

    20 Aug20 August 15:46

    It’s called Flub! When BA use 4 class aircraft on 3 class route. The F cabin remains closed unless J demand requires its use. In my experience even nabbing one of these at -24hrs when checkin opens does not guarantee the cabin will remain open. The crew see it as their rest area and seating for clingons

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