The HfP chat thread – Sunday 5th September

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James says:

5 Sep5 September 09:01

As per the oneworld website, it states Emerald members get access to First Class lounges.
Ikaz says:

5 Sep5 September 09:01

Someone was asking about the Marriott V&A Manchester this week, I am here right now and it was the worst hotel night I have had in a while. Big party oganised by the hotel with loud music until at least 2am… Tried moving rooms but was declined (hotel was really busy, with rooms selling for £350+). I will complain at checkout and see what they say
- Lady London says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:07
  
  Go for a full refund as you were not able to use the hotel room for its prime purpose which is sleep.
  
  I wouldn’t accept anything less.
  - Chrisasaurus says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 09:41
    
    Absolutely this – they simply cannot choose to let out the rooms adjacent to that sort of noise and enjoy the revenue from the noise too, they must make a commercial decision which is worth more and decline the other.
  - Richie says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 10:10
    
    I agree. Ask for a full refund, don’t be fobbed off until you get it.
- Harry T says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:27
  
  Not going to lie, if they wouldn’t move me or control the noise, I would have got a refund and checked out last night. At the very least, you should seek an apology and compensation at checkout.
  - Phil says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 09:42
    
    The last time something similar happened to me I complained to the hotel and then complained to Marriott. The result was a pretty decent haul of points.
  - ChrisC says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 10:10
    
    And stayed where?
    
    Virtually every decent hotel in Manchester was fully booked last night.
    
    I’m at the HI for the weekend and when I checked the rate earlier this week for last night it was over £200 quid.
    - Mikeact says:
      
      5 Sep5 September 10:32
      
      Anna might have put you up..
    - Aston100 says:
      
      5 Sep5 September 11:21
      
      Exactly Chris.
      I sometimes see comments on here where people say they would simply walk out of a hotel. However, what are they going to do about getting into a new hotel at zero notice, possibly late at night with luggage?
      - Blair says:
        
        5 Sep5 September 11:27
        
        Manchester hotel prices are out of control at weekends this autumn. Hilton Deansgate £500-550. Doubletree Piccadilly £250+.
      - Rob says:
        
        5 Sep5 September 14:49
        
        100% bonus when you buy Hilton points at the moment 🙂
      - Ikaz says:
        
        5 Sep5 September 11:31
        
        Yes, last night was quite bad for hotels in Manchester, lots of places sold-out and we couldn’t drive to a different place. I will ask for points rather than a refund and see if they are open to the suggestion.
      - Andrew M says:
        
        6 Sep6 September 20:06
        
        I just returned yesterday from four nights at the Hilton Garden Inn, Old Trafford which cost me £62 per night. Lovely, new and fresh hotel, a couple of minutes walk from a tram stop that takes you into the center of Manchester in eleven minutes. Nothing to complain about.
- AL says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 13:15
  
  Sorry to hear this – but doesn’t surprise me. It went downhill years ago, when the franchise changed hands (and it might have even been turned over a few times since then). Given you did all you could last night, push for a refund or complain to Marriott (or both).
  
  Excuses like “hotel is busy” don’t wash with me when they have other rooms available. Inconsiderate guests are the hotel’s responsibility to sort out, imo. It’s also cheaper for them to do that than to reimburse guests the following day.
  
  Long have considered Manc hotels to be going down the drain, but that’s a separate rant… too many low-end chains, too many rubbish indies; very few quality chain or indies, and they charge a small fortune (may have also fallen out of love with my home city a bit!)…
- DJ says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 17:26
  
  It was me who asked about it. Thanks for the feedback on this. I have rebooked with Indigo Victoria Station for my AO Area weekend in late September.
  
  Thankfully I have points for both IHG and Marriott (though still expensive for the IHG redemption – 42k points for the basic room). Otherwise I don’t think I would want to stay in Manchester with the hyper-inflated prices at the moment.
Scott says:

5 Sep5 September 09:04

On the current BAPP Amex “spend £5k anywhere, get 10k Avios” promotion the T&C’s suggest anything paid to a “third party aggregator” doesn’t count for this – does that mean anything paid via PayPal or SumUp etc is ineligible?
- Andrew says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:19
  
  With the recent extra 1 Avios/£ offer this year on BAPP, PayPal worked fine.
- AJA says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:21
  
  That’s how I understand it. It won’t count unless you are actually paying the retailer directly.
AFKAE says:

5 Sep5 September 09:05

A quick data point if anyone is planning to travel to Skiathos, booked a fit to return rapid antigen at the airport site this morning. Had a 10am appointment, belt and braces got there early at 9.30. Walked straight in nobody in front, nobody behind. All done in 10 mins for 20€. Hard copy plus email version, was back in our villa by 10am-top class service.
Colin MacKinnon says:

5 Sep5 September 09:10

Just booked Tokyo to Tahiti for June 2021 with American Airlines points – 80,000 points and £50 each for 11.5 hours each way in business!

Good news is that there still seems to be some dates available in business for the start of the peak season.

Thought of making the Europe to TYO trip part of a multi-journey Avios redemption. But what happens if / when one of the legs in the middle of such a ticket becomes unflyable because of Covid restrictions?

(as might have happened in the past year with anyone who had a EU/UK to USA leg in one)
- Pablo says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:48
  
  You found award availability in the past?
- BJ says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:50
  
  Was that 80k for a return to Tahiti? How about EDI-HEL-HND?
  - Colin MacKinnon says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 17:52
    
    80k for TYO-PPT-TYO.
    
    Would only have been a further 50k, I think, for EDI-HEL-TYO-PPT and return in business!
    
    But we want a few days in TYO.
    
    Thinking one of the Japanese airlines straight back to London – just to reduce Covid hassles.
    
    But also thinking BA multi-partner award – perhaps CDG-TYO, TYO-LAX, LAX-MAD, MAD-SCL, SCL-LHR + an EU top-up trip.
    - BJ says:
      
      5 Sep5 September 19:33
      
      Thanks Colin, very useful. Would like to think I’m going to mananage another RTW trip but I wasbthinking southern hemisphere next time.
- Blair says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 11:28
  
  AAdvantage availability is pretty amazing. If you live outside London with service from a OW airline you’re onto a winner.
Saiz says:

5 Sep5 September 09:18

Re the increased referral bonus on some Amex cards, what’s the end date of the offer?
- Andrew says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:20
  
  You referral home page shows this – 2 November.
  - Harry T says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 09:27
    
    That’s interesting, I hadn’t seen an end date anywhere!
    - Andrew says:
      
      5 Sep5 September 09:35
      
      Shows in the Amex app refer a friend section.
      - Harry T says:
        
        5 Sep5 September 09:41
        
        Can’t seem to find it tbh
      - Saiz says:
        
        5 Sep5 September 09:57
        
        Thanks Andrew. I don’t use the Amex app so perhaps that’s why I couldn’t see it.
      - Andrew says:
        
        5 Sep5 September 10:34
        
        Or maybe it’s just me that has a time limit on my referrals!
      - Super Secret Stuff says:
        
        5 Sep5 September 12:36
        
        I cant find a time limit either
    - BJ says:
      
      5 Sep5 September 13:11
      
      @Harry. The tile square ‘invite a friend’ under your avios, MR balance etc should have a special offer overlay on it when you have one. If you click on it and swipe through your cards you will see the referral bonus for each card in turn, and where there is a special offer the expiration dates are usually clearly listed.
Stephan says:

5 Sep5 September 09:38

When trying to optimise points on Amex cards SUB should I leave time between applying for the three cards (if so how much time)? Question driven by potential rejection based on credit check due to multiple applications or potentially being erroneous being labelled as fraud which is making me wonder I should I have just skipped nectar card given returns are low vs risk of not getting other cards.
- swifty says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 10:20
  
  think the consensus is that amex use their own criteria and use an in house check for further cards. My experian hasn’t shown further searches on the 3 cards I’ve taken recently
  - Nick says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 11:58
    
    Conversely, I get checked for every single Amex card I take out. That said, I’ve never been rejected either. I personally wouldn’t worry about applying for multiple, you’re more likely to be hit by Amex’s limit on cards held at once. Obviously the usual caveats apply if you’re applying for a stretched mortgage soon (etc)
    - Stephan says:
      
      5 Sep5 September 16:11
      
      Great thanks guys
Paul says:

5 Sep5 September 09:53

Has anyone heard of when the KLM false availability on the Virgin website will be sorted? Annoyingly sometimes when you call they can book so the website was wrong to throw it out but then other times you can’t so it’s like playing booking roulette.
- Harry T says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 09:57
  
  My main issue is that I can’t book KLM via VS online at all – the booking process always fails and I have to call. I think it’s best to see if the seats are also available for normal Flying Blue prices if you want to double check Virgin availability.
  - mart says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 10:06
    
    i have had luck in the past booking online if i look on klm first and find the lowest miles that a route can be then go back to virgin and it usually lets me book.I dont think Virgin can book you anything above the lowest.
  - Mikeact says:
    
    5 Sep5 September 10:36
    
    Hopefully , the delayed article KLM/AF/VIRGIN will pop up soon…
- Paul says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 10:17
  
  It just used to fail for me but now I get a screen with a booking ref but a message advises the reservation isn’t complete yet and to call