The HfP chat thread – Sunday 5th September

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• Stephen says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:06

  Apart from the Holiday Inn Express, are there any other IHG properties that it is possible to get a free breakfast when booking with IHG credit card reward night or plain points? Thanks

  • Stephen says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:07

    Meant to say mainly thinking about U.K. here.

    • stevenhp1987 says:

      5 Sep5 September 10:13

      Staybridge Suites?

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:32

    Staybridge suite and candlewood (if there are any left here!)

    Some CPs are great at spire recognition so plausibly would offer lounge access hence breakfast after a fashion.

    • Harrier25 says:

      5 Sep5 September 10:42

      Chester CP are very good. Always give Spire Elite tier members lounge access and charge £5 per person to upgrade to a full restaurant breakfast.

  • Anna says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:53

    The Regent, Berlin – I can’t remember if this applies to all Regent properties, though of course it’s a very small number of hotels in the IHG portfolio.

  • Andrew says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:55

    It’s such a hard thing to quantify as every IHG hotel is slightly different.

    I’ve been handed complimentary breakfast vouchers in regular Holiday Inns or Crowne Plazas as a basic or gold member without rhyme or reason. That’s both as a cash or points booking.

    When checking in, some hotels offer heavily discounted pre-booking of breakfast too. Sometimes you just have to know your hotel.

    • Stephen says:

      5 Sep5 September 11:35

      Thanks for all the replies. Actually currently planning to stay in Porto using free nights at the IC before moving to the holiday inn express. We are not big ones for using bars and restaurants in hotels as it defeats object of exploring a new place so holiday inn express suits us well but we have so many points to use up and two free credit card nights before end of year. May just take the free room and pay for breakfast on arrival which seems not bad at 22 euros. Have got spire membership so might strike lucky.

      • meta says:

        5 Sep5 September 12:24

        IC Porto will give you a special rate for 18 euros if you’re Ambassador. You might want to try and get that rate as Spire as well.

• Can says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:08

  Does Amex Plat give access to all Plaza Premium lounges globally?

  • Rob says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:14

    Yes, via a stand-alone deal with Amex. Only possible exceptions are those which are PP-managed but also sell access for cash, eg the Virgin Atlantic lounges outside the UK.

    • Can says:

      5 Sep5 September 10:17

      Some google reviewers claimed otherwise, surprisingly. One main exception being SAW

      • Rob says:

        5 Sep5 September 10:26

        First I’ve heard – but then arguably I wouldn’t I have heard ….

      • Louie says:

        5 Sep5 September 10:49

        If you mean there’s an issue getting into the lounge in SAW, I had no issue getting into the domestic one last time I was there which admittedly was June 2019. Not the most exciting lounge ever mind you.

        • Can says:

          5 Sep5 September 11:01

          I’ll be there today and will see the lounge at the international terminal. People seem to complain on google reviews regarding access to Plaza with Plat. I’ll see.

    • KZ says:

      6 Sep6 September 03:29

      Does this include
      a) the lounges that Plaza Premium manages on behalf of others (eg the Virgin Clubhouse in Johannesburg), and
      b) the Plaza Premium lounge in Changsha? It is interestingly not located in an airport but a railway station.

      • Rob says:

        6 Sep6 September 08:10

        Changsha should be fine. I am guessing Virgin is a ‘no’ but not necessarily as Plaza is selling access on its own website.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    5 Sep5 September 13:11

    Well if you mean it gives you a chance of more than 0% but less than 100% (often a lot less) of being allowed entry …. then yes.

• David S says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:11

  What’s the best way to chase up missing points from the BA shopping portal ? Is there a phone no or email address please.

  • JDB says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:19

    There is a contact form you need to complete on the home page asking for all the details of your purchase. It’s advisable (although they don’t specifically ask) to give details of your click. They usually respond within a couple of days, but is often a dead end if they say the retailer has advised the purchase is not eligible, usually because a discount code or something has been used.

  • HBommie says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:28

    Twitter?

  • Memesweeper says:

    5 Sep5 September 14:30

    Set your expectations low. They almost never payout.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      5 Sep5 September 17:49

      If they don’t initially and you get argumentative they do but keep it polite like “it’s YOUR fault (BA not you personaly), and I don’t really care about your business problems, I just want the points”. 100% success rate so far…

• Jamie says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:19

  Need to charge £3k to my BA amex to trigger 241 by my deadline on Tuesday. What’s the easiest refundable thing I can use? Only got about £4K left on credit limit so full flex business doesn’t seem doable. Thanks

  • Rob says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:25

    Book a ‘pay on arrival’ refundable hotels.com room. You will be offered the opportunity to pay in advance, but fully refundable.

    • Jamie says:

      5 Sep5 September 10:26

      Thanks!

  • Alex M says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:39

    Gift cards or council tax payment is the easiest.

  • Peter K says:

    5 Sep5 September 17:33

    If you have the funds then purchase gift cards for the supermarket you use to effectively prepay for your future shopping.

• Tim says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:31

  How long do upgrades from regular BA amex to BAPP take? Initiated today but my (soon to be £10k) deadline is in 3 days

  • BJ says:

    5 Sep5 September 15:34

    See comments starting with Jamie 11:00 near top of page 5.

• Marie says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:42

  Data point.
  Arrived into UK yesterday.
  PLF , filled out on 4th had Expert Medical reference number, no issue.
  EM tests ordered on 1st arriving today allegedly.
  Used C19 testing by Cerulean LFTs with non observed testing . Also no issue .
  No queues at all at Stansted arrivals .

  Chaos at Ryanair gate and their stupid document check system tho’!

  • HBommie says:

    5 Sep5 September 11:21

    Could you elaborate on the check in problems?

    • Marie says:

      5 Sep5 September 11:36

      Ryanair check every persons PLF and covid tests manually , and then give the traveller a little slip of paper to prove it. Folk with checked in luggage were given these at check in. Those hand luggage only who checked in online were not. Massive confusion in departures as they they wanted to board those with their ” bits of paper ” before those with priority. We were boarding through 2 gates simultaneously- easy you would think to segregate, but no effort made . Mixed crowds of the haves and have nots – the have nots being shouted at by very very stressed Ryanair staff. Not entirely Ryanair’s fault – our Government. Although to be fair after uploading relevant docs to the Ryanair app they are blurry and I had to refer back to the PDFs.

      • AnotherUser says:

        5 Sep5 September 11:59

        Is this a new thing from Ryanair, or dependent on country? I flew from Spain with them a couple of weeks ago, and didn’t see anyone with a piece of paper (uploaded my Covid docs before flying, but no idea if anyone checked them)

        • Nick says:

          5 Sep5 September 12:04

          Depends on local stations, they’re allowed to manage it in different ways that work for them. The situation above (simultaneous 2 gate boarding) wouldn’t be possible everywhere, for example. And places where almost everyone checks luggage will be managed differently from those where most are HBO.

        • Tony1 says:

          5 Sep5 September 12:52

          Used FR to CDT, from Stansted. Got my “bit of paper”, was checked again at gate , and for some reason again in my seat !

          Long wait for the stamp in passport in 30+ temp outside building. Flight re loaded and was gone before we cleared customs. Pays to be first of the flight there !

      • HBommie says:

        5 Sep5 September 12:34

        Thanks, sounds bizarre with slips of paper?

        Jet2 boarded from the back rows first which was ok (until they combined two flights) but surely priority boarding mixed around the plane just doesn’t make sense.

        • Travel Strong says:

          5 Sep5 September 12:51

          Easyjet operate the same ‘slip of paper’ system at Gatwick. But if you are HBO you could still go to a check-in desk and get docs checked + paper issued before boarding.

          The airline may be on the hook to bring you back if you don’t meet the entry requirements at the other end – so its up to the airline whether they do these checks, and how they chose to do them. The official check is of course by the authorities at your destination.

          Interestingly BA at T5 last week did no checks at all. Suspect that BA have visibility of which PP numbers have submitted PLF etc in to the destination countries system (Gibraltar), whereas Easyjet do not.

      • meta says:

        5 Sep5 September 12:51

        This is solely Ryanair’s fault, not governments. It is Ryanair who set up the procedure how to check it, not the government. I had a similar situation when flying with Vueling the other week from Barcelona.Vueling asks you to upload all the documents in order to be able to do the online check-in. Then we had a bag drop, where they verified that all docs were correct (no paper issued). But at boarding, they asked to see everyone’s manually again so took ages and not just PLF, test, but also vaccination record!

        • Anna says:

          5 Sep5 September 13:12

          We had these to TFS, but not on the way back, then from PMI but not on the way out! Teeny tiny bits of paper which people were losing left, right and centre. Best system seemed to be a visual check along with passports while boarding which meant you had to only show things once.

        • AL says:

          5 Sep5 September 13:19

          +1 – Government set the rules; FR implement them. If implementation is poor, and madness occurs, FR’s fault. I don’t blame my kettle when the new teabags I’m using are too weak!

        • Eoc says:

          5 Sep5 September 19:15

          Stick with BA VeriFLY into uk. Worked every time for me. Bit of a faff of course but no check in took me more than 3 mins. Of course I felt all those poor families in front of me who took ages- BA didn’t/couldn’t add their stuff to system I guess. Then they got same nightmare at LHR. Glad my kids are all grown up..

• Trish says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:45

  We have had notice about flight time changes for a BA holiday. This means our domestic flight arrives at Heathrow 5 minutes before our Italy flight. Can you HFP’s advice me as to my rights? If we book an alternate flight the day before and spend a night at Heathrow are BA obliged to pay for our hotel costs?

  • ChrisC says:

    5 Sep5 September 11:18

    Is this all on one booking? If so it should sort itself out in a couple of days.

    If the domestic is a separate booking then you can see if you can change the domestic times for an earlier one On separate bookings BA aren’t responsible for any hotel costs.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    5 Sep5 September 11:21

    It depends how much notice you have been given I think. Whatever the case don’t just book a separate flight the night before as you’ll be a no show on the original booking and the flight to Italy will be cancelled. Contact BA Holidays to get them to move your flights and ask about accommodation if they can’t find you a same day connection

    • Trish says:

      5 Sep5 September 11:26

      Thanks, I will do.

      • AJA says:

        5 Sep5 September 11:48

        How long is it until your holiday? If it is still a few weeks away I would hold off calling BA Holidays if the domestic flight is part of the holiday as BA’s systems should pick up on the flight mismatch.

        If it results in you needing to fly the day before and stay overnight then duty of care applies and BA should pay for hotel and meals at LHR.

        If it’s a separate booking (not on the same PNR) you should be able to cancel domestic flight in exchange for a FTV and rebook a flight the day before. But accommodation will be at your own expense.

        • Nick says:

          5 Sep5 September 12:06

          BA Holidays will sort this out. One of the advantages of booking a Holiday rather than flight only. If you don’t hear from them in a week or so, call them.

        • Trish says:

          5 Sep5 September 14:46

          Thanks All flights are on the same booking, I’ll wait to see if they pick up the mismatch. This is the second time this has happened!

• xcalx says:

  5 Sep5 September 10:48

  I asked last week if 2 BAP vouchers could be earned in one Payment year after upgrading from the free BA card. Rob indicated this was not possible.
  I upgraded to the BAP in July and triggered the upgrade voucher a couple of days ago. the spend banner now states
  (You have qualified for your Companion Voucher this year. Start earning towards next year’s voucher from 10 Sep 2021.) If I reach the spend target prior to the July 2022 renewal payment date will the voucher be held until this payment is made.

  Thanks.

  • Anna says:

    5 Sep5 September 10:55

    I think it’s an IT glitch and you won’t get another voucher.

  • Tariq says:

    5 Sep5 September 11:12

    It’s absolutely possible to get your second voucher before the fee is due. My voucher anniversary is in Nov and fee is due in May as that’s when I upgraded from Blue to BAPP. Planning to trigger voucher now then ASAP after November so that I can cancel before the fee is due in May.

  • JDB says:

    5 Sep5 September 11:16

    I think you may be asking slightly the wrong question or not quite understanding the answer. I believe you can only earn one companion voucher in your year, determined by anniversary date, not statement date or triggering date of previous voucher. This applies irrespective of upgrade/downgrade. In this sense it is technically possible, say, to earn two vouchers in one month if you trigger one just before your anniversary date and another one almost immediately after, but you aren’t going to get an ‘extra’ voucher by virtue of your upgrade. Happy to be corrected, but that is my understanding.

  • AJA says:

    5 Sep5 September 12:00

    @xcalc it looks like your Amex earning year is now 10 Sep to 9 Sep. This means it is no longer in sync is with when Amex charges your fee (remember the fee is charged pro rata – that works both ways and allows you to cancel and receive a pro rata refund).where you charged £195 in July or a proportion? It looks like you just managed to earn this year’s voucher. Now you have 5 days (including today) where any spending will not count to the next voucher. Then you have 12 months from 10 Sep 2021 until 9 Sep 2022 to spend £10k towards the next voucher. You will either be charged in October 2021 (likely in my view) or you will be charged in Jul 2022 for the annual fee (12 months since you upgraded).

    • BJ says:

      5 Sep5 September 12:59

      @xcalx, are you sure you are not simply confusing your qualifying year with the upgrade time? Your qualifying year is static regardless of upgrades and Rob is correct. Your qualifying year will only change if you cancel your account and subsequently apply for a new card. I cannot recall any comments suggesting a glitch with amex IT in this respect.

      • xcalx says:

        6 Sep6 September 07:42

        Thanks for all the comments. I will do the £10k spend later this month and see what happens.

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