Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Thursday 26th August

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Comments (539)

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

  • krys_k says:

    Re Barclays Avios Reward bonus. If I currently hold a current account with Barclays is there any way that I can get the 25k sign up bonus? Thanks

  • Toby says:

    Data point, I called BA on +442032500145, regarding a flight cancellation, at 07:57 this AM and got straight through (after the auto-message).

  • Glenn says:

    I’ve just received my BA companion voucher after upgrading BA Amex from basic to PP earlier in the week as I had £16k spend and wanted to beat the 1-Sep deadline ahead of the changes. Why does the voucher only have 18-months validity? Usually BA companion vouchers earned on BA PP Amex achieve 24-months validity.

    • Rob says:

      This is a common IT issue – you upgraded but Amex’s IT failed to notice. You need to contact Amex and they will change the voucher to a 30-month one.

    • PMG says:

      My guess is that it is a 12 month validity plus the 6 months extension.
      From what I remember, believe Rob has said that sometimes when you upgrade to BAPP to automatically trigger the voucher, you still only get the 12 month validity from the free BA Amex companion voucher.
      Probably worth contacting Amex?

    • Walty says:

      Yes, did this recently and had the same issue. Contacted AMEX via their chat. I got a bit of resistance at first but said they would log a ticket to investigate. A week later I checked and the voucher had been extended to 30 months (2 year + 6 months covid extension)

  • Toby says:

    Hmm, BA have just started cancelling many of the Jersey flights that I booked in the 2p/avios offer over the weekend.

    Just to confirm, if I accept a voucher from the MMB/flight cancellation rebook process, it will still come as an e-voucher, not a FTV?

    (As an aside, it really does seem that every flight I book with BA gets cancelled, I think this is the seventh cancellation we’ve had now!)

    • meta says:

      You can now take a full refund in cash for the whole amount as well. If you’re happy with selling your Avios to BA for 2p.

      • Beardless Hipster says:

        I had cash + avios flights cancelled earlier this year and they refunded only the cash portion, the avios went back to my BAEC.

        • Sam G says:

          yes I got the Avios back recently from a cancellation refund so don’t do that!

          • meta says:

            @Sam G oh, they must have changed the policy!

          • Sam G says:

            Yes – I believe in the early days of vouchers you got the equiv cash back, but they “fixed that” at some point

        • meta says:

          There are two types of cash+avios flights. The one is where you part pay with avios during a cash booking. This treats Avios like cash. The second is where you book a reward flight, but pay more with cash (or less with cash and Avios). This is like a reward flight.

          It’s really strange that you did not insist on full cash refund if you had the first option.

          • Sam G says:

            Yes it was the first option – a cash flight reduced by Avios. When I got a refund I got it back exactly as I paid – the cash to my card and the Avios in my account. So if any of your 2p Avios flights get cancelled then if you take a cash refund you’ll just end up back where you started – BA won’t pay you the 2p per Avios cash

          • John says:

            Yes but the point was to voucher the 2p avios flights, then use the credit to book something else.

            If a vouchered flight is cancelled by BA you should get cash back. As you weren’t able to use ppwa and voucher in one booking, everyone should have vouchered their ppwa flights.

    • Andrew says:

      I’m just realising an added bonus of the JER eVouchers is that they are in effect like hotel points where you can happily book speculative trips and if you find something different or change your mind you can just cancel and instantly get your credit back – and of course like dynamic hotel point pricing, watch the prices and rebook when prices go down.

      • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

        That’s a really good point Andrew and a useful one for me as I got a bit carried away and now have about £7k to burn over the next 2 years 🙂

    • Toby says:

      Thanks all. I’ve gone ahead and requested vouchers and they have all arrived as vouchers.

  • Sean says:

    10% on Bonvoy card and gold, 7% BA blue

  • Akebah says:

    I had a flight to Gran Canaria cancelled in March 2021. I rebooked for February 2022 (within the 12 months). That flight has now been cancelled.

    Does anyone know will I have another 12 months from February 2022 to rebook for free ? Or will the 12 months still run from the original booking date.

    • AJA says:

      Did the rebooking generate a new ticket number? If it did I think you should be able to extend by a further 12 months from outbound date of newly cancelled flight. If not a different ticket number then I suspect BA will say no.

      • Akebah says:

        Thanks. I have no idea but will investigate. It appears to be same booking reference. I had booked time off work for the dates that had been cancelled. I will endeavour to talk to them.

  • Auryn says:

    I spotted an outstanding fare for the October half term school holidays. London Gatwick – Antigua. 23/10-30/10 for £378 economy.
    Those prices are available for most of October.

    Prices to Barbados or Grenada are more like £1,600 per person.

    • gasman says:

      Amazing spot. Booked with a 2p/Avios voucher as a backup in case Turkey doesn’t come off the red list.
      Even better if BA cancel it it will become a totally flexible return to ANU for the 5 of us.

      • Auryn says:

        Isn’t it just! Likewise, also booked with those 2p/avios vouchers. Here’s hoping it remains Green.

  • Vit says:

    Data point – – Virgin cc continues with morrisons offer 7% cb on mmine till 5th Sept.

    Also, earlier offer shows 10% back on mine but only get 7% as pending now – – anyone else experience this as well?

    • Jonathan says:

      I’m the same 10% on offer page but 7% pending. I have screenshot of 10% so will see what happens when it clears.

    • JSemity says:

      mine has tracked and is pending at 10% (first purchases made on 23rd). Made some additional purchases on 24th which have yet to track.

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