The HfP chat thread – Sunday 5th September

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• Flyer68 says:

  5 Sep5 September 03:58

  Just a word of warning to anyone using or thinking of using Collinson testing – they have missed the 48 hours timeline for our test by at least 7 hours so far and there is no way to contact them for a status. Chat replies are taking at least two hours and if you aren’t immediately responsive on that chat session (having waited two hours !!), they promptly terminate the chat without looking at any of the chat history. There is no phone number nor any other way of following up, the web form link they offer is also unresponsive.

  • Anna says:

    5 Sep5 September 04:38

    What is the test for? I was talking to a family in Mallorca last week who said that Collinson emailed them to cancel their pre-departure tests at very little notice, although they did manage to book new appointments the same day.

  • Flyer68 says:

    5 Sep5 September 04:56

    Test of for Fit to Fly departure

    • Anna says:

      5 Sep5 September 06:54

      Apologies, it’s not clear whether this is to fly back to the UK or out to another country or if you are waiting for results or an actual test appointment!
      If the first, I would look for a local provider instead and claim what you’ve paid back from Collinson later, either directly or via chargeback.

      • Lady London says:

        5 Sep5 September 08:43

        I’d claim whichever of the 2 tests costs more – the too-late Collinson one or its replacement – from Collinson as time if of the essence for these services due to requirements of governments.

        If Collinson refused to reimburse you fully and promptly for the cost of a replacement test after their own failure, Section 75 on your UK credit card should reimburse you as it’s a consequential loss. The credit card co will take the money from Collinson after refunding you.

        If you paid with charge card rather than credit card then you’d only get the Collinson charge back. Which would be fine so long as any replacement test you had to order due to Collinson’s failure to deliver on time didn’t cost any more.

        • Nick says:

          5 Sep5 September 11:33

          Chargeback doesn’t allow for consequential loss, only the price originally charged by the duff merchant. And S75 only works if the price paid was over £100, which is unlikely(?) for a PCR test even at Collinson’s pricing. Annoying but there isn’t a huge amount of recourse here. Hopefully OP finds a happy resolution somehow though.

  • Blenz101 says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:49

    It would be helpful to know which test centre and type of test. At LHR over the weekend they had stacks of capacity and delivered my rapid PCR test results within 2 hours.

    I would have thought Collinson a good option because if there ever was a delay with a 48 hour test then there is the option to just show up at the airport early and take a rapid test so still make the flight.

    • Yuff says:

      5 Sep5 September 08:20

      That’s what I did on Friday, at east mids, but the PCR test came through the following day.
      Previous pcr tests were received same day but since they were forced to cap the test cost they introduced the rapid pcr test and put the standard test out to 48hrs.
      Collinson has been efficient at EMA but their CS if there is a problem is shocking just like every other provider in ‘ Covid’ times which to me just seems like an excuse to give consistently poor service …….

  • Tracey says:

    5 Sep5 September 08:24

    Had a good result with NWP. Posted 2 tests back by the 4pm collection on Friday at my local priority post box. Both received by NWP at 9.30am Saturday morning. Results came through at 5pm and 9.30pm Saturday evening.

• aviosnewbie says:

  5 Sep5 September 05:28

  This has probably been asked, but I couldn’t find the answer. Is it possible to cancel one booking from a 2-4-1 voucher booking? I’m planning to make a speculative booking for next Aug using 2 companion vouchers and it is possible that one person may have to cancel. And if not, what happens if it’s a no-show for checkin?

  • Anna says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:03

    Nothing would actually happen but obviously you’d lose the value of the companion voucher plus the cash element paid for the no-show.
    You could cancel one of the 241 bookings but then you’d be reliant on the seats going back into the inventory to be able to re-book for the person who was still travelling. Not sure if you can change the person travelling on a 241 booking but there would probably be a fee if so.

  • BJ says:

    5 Sep5 September 08:29

    To add to Anna’s comments, you could have the person not travelling removed as late as 24h prior to departure so that you would at least get their cash element -£35 refunded. Sounds to me like you are already almost certain this person will likely not travel so surely that decision can be made more than 24h before departure to get the associated money back.already

    • ChrisC says:

      5 Sep5 September 08:42

      Removing someone from a 2-4-1 to get the avios, cash and voucher back means cancelling the entire booking and hoping the seats immediately go back into the pool to enable you to rebook a seat for yourself

      And in this case that means all 4 seats would get cancelled as it’s all done on a single booking to enable 2 vouchers owned by the same person.to be used

      • BJ says:

        5 Sep5 September 09:27

        You can remove somebody from a 241 booking and get their cash element back, you just lose the value of the voucher. At least that is how it worked for me with a single voucher, I don’t see that it would be any different if using two vouchers.

• Bobby says:

  5 Sep5 September 06:49

  Regarding the BAEC Silver card in one trip- managed to get man-skg 8 nights AI 240 x 2=480 TP for less than £1000. Does this seem a good deal?

  I’m currently Blue and my year expiry is May 22, do you think the current tier extension will be extended again?

  • Graham says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:41

    Getting eight nights all inclusive plus club flights for that seems like good value. Who cares though? If you’re happy just go and enjoy yourself.

    Who knows at this point on the extension. They’ve quietly been extending some and may be doing it on a month by month basis.

    • Mike P says:

      5 Sep5 September 07:57

      Really? That’s the first I’ve heard of that and I’ve not seen anything on Flyertalk to suggest it’s true either.

      I think it’s much more likely we’ll see a blanket extension for people with year ends in the first half of 2022.

      • Graham says:

        5 Sep5 September 08:24

        It was mentioned on here a few days ago in the comments but my year end is July so can’t confirm of course.

        I think and hope you’d be right given how other airlines have dealt with it.

        • Mike P says:

          5 Sep5 September 08:49

          Fingers crossed. I’m currently GGL with a March 2022 year end. Due to a total embargo on work travel, there is no way I would re-qualify next year and I suspect a lot of other people are the same position. With the USA and most of Asia closed, it’s difficult to see how people would rack up many Tier Points currently.

  • Andrew says:

    5 Sep5 September 08:53

    Let’s hope that now the summer season is over, BA will extend the rest of the Exec club members they didn’t earlier this year. Even their own FAQs say they will keep it under review.

  • AJA says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:06

    When have you booked for? If it is before 8 May 2022 you would be Silver until 30 June 2023. If you booked for after 9 May 2022 but before 30 June 2022 you would be Silver until 30 June 2024 under the current reduced TP requirements.

    • Bobby says:

      5 Sep5 September 10:17

      Booked for first week of October 21. Do you know how that would work out for me?

      • AJA says:

        5 Sep5 September 11:39

        I think you should be ok and will get up to Silver which will last for the remainder of your current year and the whole of the next so until 30 June 2023.

        • Bobby says:

          5 Sep5 September 16:58

          Marvellous news, thanks 🙏🏼

• WaynedP says:

  5 Sep5 September 06:50

  Interesting article from Simon Calder in the Independent today:

  UK Govt gives master class in how to destroy its own tourism industry

  “In years to come, business schools will study the remarkable case of how a government chose to destroy its own (£28bn pa) industry”

  Can we hope for an end to the madness and a Govt u-turn that makes sense in the next few weeks ?

  • Anna says:

    5 Sep5 September 06:58

    Hopefully – the revenue from covid travel testing can’t possibly be making up for that lost in tourism revenue! Though it’s about time the UK insisted that visitors have health insurance as a condition of entry as many other countries do.

    • Paul says:

      5 Sep5 September 07:38

      Well the testing revenue goes to Tory Cronies. But wider society is losing out from the destruction of the sector. I was in Greece in August and they seem to have have held things together very well. No testing to gain entry if double vaccinated and fairly simple
      procedures. Returning home however was complex and unnecessarily so.
      Health insurance is not the issue! The problem here is the lack of evidence required to obtain NHS services. If you don’t check entitlement it doesn’t matter if your insured or not.other countries do this as a matter of routine, hence need for jnsurance

    • BJ says:

      5 Sep5 September 08:03

      I seriously doubt their interest in test revenue has anything to do with the State budget.

  • Yuff says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:10

    Judging from how busy east Mids was yesterday and PMi, they are doing a thoroughly good job of it.
    Pmi heaving at 9pm, east Mids dead at 4p. They can’t even be bothered to open any shops/cafes at check in, no doubt maximising that furlough cash.
    Not one check by anyone anywhere and brits don’t even go through separate passport control anymore, not sure how passports are stamped at the E gates as I was directed to a manned station as I was travelling with an u18..

    • Anna says:

      5 Sep5 September 07:15

      MAN T1 has also been dead both times I’ve been through it this summer. Passport checks only and only our flight disembarking. Very glad we stuck with direct regional flights having seen the chaos at LHR.

  • TimM says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:53

    There are two many vested interests in maintaining the status quo. The Government and its agencies has never had access to so much personal information on its citizens before and the pandemic has made overnight millionaires from practically anyone with any connection to the Tory party. BBC’s Panorama did a reasonable expose of this a few months back, e.g. the 20-year old daughter of a Tory donor getting a contract worth £200M for PPE because she had “a contact” in China. Giving these good times up will be nigh on impossible for the incumbents. With a large Parliamentary majority, they are out of control.

    • Yuff says:

      5 Sep5 September 08:04

      Status quo won’t last, when the furlough cash expires they either open and trade or shut up shop.
      This is no longer a pandemic, it’s endemic, the countries that haven’t got decent vaccination rates will struggle as the US showed on Friday.
      France Germany, Italy Spain are pretty much getting back to normal.
      Mallorca tourism is at 90 % of 2019 levels last month and their Covid case rate has dropped 80% since I left at the beginning of July.
      The only places that seem to be stuffing it up are the US and UK.

    • Chris says:

      5 Sep5 September 11:09

      Nothing to do with it.
      The rump of the voting electorate (the elderly) are still scared witless by Covid. Anything that makes it look like the govt is trying to control the virus is a vote winner.
      Simple as that.

      • Nick says:

        5 Sep5 September 11:39

        Chances of the government changing course are slim-to-none. They’ve shown many times that they don’t care about screwing the economy (Brexit?!) as long as there’s political clout in extending their power for longer. And for the majority at large, there are votes in keeping the borders closed to be seen to control virus spread. Simple as that.

        No different in the US either. Biden won’t remove the proclamation for as long as it stops republicans being able to shout ‘covid is spreading because he opened the border’.

• Anna says:

  5 Sep5 September 07:12

  Is it the case that all FTVs are now valid until Sep 23, not just those issued recently?
  Starting to think about making bookings for cancelled avios/241 flights over the next few months, given that this will require calling BA and hoping for availability in both directions to somewhere we want to go on peak dates!

  • Andrew H says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:35

    Yes, correct. Have to complete journey by 30/09/23

  • Kwisstan says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:41

    The FTV I got this week states only valid until 30th April 2023 (had to cancel second leg of journey in progress), but the evouchers are valid until 30th September 2023 (whole booking cancelled).

    • Andrew H says:

      5 Sep5 September 08:05

      My FTVs received on 30 August (this week) say travel by 30/09/23. I just checked.

  • TimM says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:43

    Travel companies have been put on notice that expired FTVs must be refunded in cash. Hence BA keep extending their use-by dates.

    • Anna says:

      5 Sep5 September 07:57

      This isn’t going to help with expired BA companion vouchers though, I have 2 of these tied up in FTVs and don’t want to lose them. It would be SO much easier if they could be applied to online bookings!

• Anne says:

  5 Sep5 September 07:47

  Posted this response to Aliks’ question re Croatian Kuna on yesterday’s chat thread this morning. Reposting here seeing as I was a bit late responding….

  We’re in Croatia at the moment. Card fine for decent sized purchases in shops, restaurants etc but cash needed or preferred in cafes and useful for parking, ice cream and tips.

  We’d expected more contactless payments if I’m honest so have ended up withdrawing Kuna via our Curve cards. Tried a few cash points to find a few free one and can recommend Optbanka (green coloured machines) as no fee charged – just watch out for their attempt at dynamic currency conversion and select the local currency option!

  • Richard G says:

    5 Sep5 September 12:30

    I ended up needing to use cash way more than I’d have liked to be honest, but at least there are a comical amount of ATMs there!

    • Anne says:

      5 Sep5 September 13:03

      This is true – can’t turn round a corner in any town here without falling over an ATM!

  • david says:

    5 Sep5 September 18:01

    thanks for info. contactless in greece was everywhere. mind you 3e for any ATM so best to get £300 limit out.

• BSI1978 says:

  5 Sep5 September 07:54

  3rd and final stay courtesy of the intern rate (or possibly just super Marriott discount?!) at the Sheraton Park Lane coming to an end shortly; another cracking stay at their top end suite. Only mild complaint being the soft pillows…..

  Don’t think I’d ever pay the cash rate for the room and heaven knows what the points would be but 5th night in total at just over £1k all in makes this one of the best deals I’ve managed since reading H4P. On a par with getting a heads up & bagging the £100 flights to Rio back in 19!

  Noticeably improved club lounge offering since our first stay for anyone with upcoming stays.

  • Tom says:

    5 Sep5 September 07:56

    What was the “intern rate”.. obviously one I missed on HFP?!

    • Rupert says:

      5 Sep5 September 08:29

      The top “grand suite” for circa 85% discount (£2k down to £230-300.

      Was there the other day in the room one step below (grand park view suite) also a nice room however the staff have all changed since two months ago – not for the better

  • Blair says:

    5 Sep5 September 11:23

    What is the club lounge spread nowadays?

• Jason says:

  5 Sep5 September 08:08

  Looking at hols for next summer, given the reports of BA moving from Gatwick to LHR. Is is relatively save to assume that if a book a flight from Gatwick the chances are in will end up from LHR instead?

  • Andrew says:

    5 Sep5 September 08:22

    BA isn’t leaving LGW – Rob has done several articles about this in the last couple of weeks.

  • BJ says:

    5 Sep5 September 08:38

    If it is an existing LGW longhaul route it will likely remain exLGW. If it is shorthaul it might well just be on the new BA venture covered in the articles Andrew directs you too. Both of those are probably more likely than your flight being moved to LHR so I wouldn’t make plans based on a switch.

  • ChrisC says:

    5 Sep5 September 08:50

    What BA does at LGW next summer is very much dependent on the current slot waiver being extended to the 2022 summer season.

    No waiver and BA will have some serious thinking about what it wants to do there.

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