The HfP chat thread – Monday 6th September

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• Jason says:

  6 Sep6 September 10:49

  Do you need to register for Virgin card cash back offers like amex? i have both supermarket and a Morrison specific ones. thanks

  • JP says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:02

    No you are auto enrolled on virgin.

    • Jason says:

      6 Sep6 September 13:34

      thanks

• Michelle says:

  6 Sep6 September 10:50

  Does anyone know if the virgin CC vouchers are due to be extended? I have three in my account and after checking with virgin I was surprised to see one needs to be used by early July 2022. Like everyone, there’s been little chance to use them and we’re now expecting our first child at Christmas so none of virgins destinations seem that doable with a six month old! Thanks

  • Mike says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:01

    I’m in the same boat (or plane) as you, so hopefully the vouchers are extended soon

  • Ste C says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:38

    same for me but it is a book by, not a fly by so you have nearly another year on top of that date

    • EwanG says:

      6 Sep6 September 11:51

      You ne

    • EwanG says:

      6 Sep6 September 11:53

      You need to have flown the outbound by the expiry date.

      • Ste C says:

        6 Sep6 September 12:25

        oh, sorry. thats not what i was told. gonna have to use my vouchers sooner than i thought then

        • Michelle says:

          6 Sep6 September 12:50

          I double checked with virgin customer services and they (sadly) confirmed it’s fly by date

        • Ste C says:

          6 Sep6 September 13:40

          just dug out the text they sent me when I was messaging them:

          “They can be used as an upgrade from economy to premium or premium to upper class, or as a BOGOF in Economy or Premium. All we need is reward seat availability. The booking needs to be made by the time they expire but they can be used for travel 11months after that.”

          that was back in January though so sounds like they have changed how they work

        • EwanG says:

          6 Sep6 September 14:29

          @Ste, I believe they have always been fly by. Most likely you were misinformed by them, less likely for a period they amended the rules because they did add extensions for a while.
          “You can spend your reward for up to 24 months from the date it’s issued. That means you have to have booked your flights and taken the outbound flight within those 24 months. You can take the return journey afterwards.“
          Source: https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/credit-card.html

• Happy Today says:

  6 Sep6 September 10:52

  I’m in the new Air France lounge at CDG T2F. It’s not very special. Toilets are a disgrace. Food is average: bacon and scrambled egg at breakfast, charcuterie at lunch. Gets better when the wine comes out at 11, plus champagne from Laurent Perrier and duval Le roy. Spacious and lots of seats but busy and still far too many seats closely facing someone else. Best part is the showers. Good size room, nice clarins shower gel, toothbrush, paste razor, shave gel, hot and powerful shower. Even if you just want a clean private bathroom, go-to the showers. Relaxation area has lounge chair type things in but not very private and the people with screaming children of course decided to sit right outside so good luck getting a nap. No doubt a lot nicer than the old lounges, and comfortable enough but not especially memorable. When I arrived o thought 5 out 10. The shower and the champagne elevated that to a 7.

  • Paul says:

    6 Sep6 September 12:35

    What’s disgraceful about the toilets?!

    • Mike says:

      6 Sep6 September 13:48

      They are French !

• S says:

  6 Sep6 September 10:55

  Rob what are the chances of an Amex transfer bonus to Marriott? Canada have an ongoing one and the US had one earlier this year I think…

  • Pete M says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:50

    The US has an ongoing one too, but I believe the discussion the other day was it was unlikely in the UK.

    • S says:

      6 Sep6 September 12:27

      Bit of a shame considering the last was end of 2019. And their promotions for the coming months are poor compared to Hilton.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:52

    Bonuses in US are driven by competition. There’s no competition for Amex here.

• Mike says:

  6 Sep6 September 10:57

  Apologies if it’s already been mentioned on HfP elsewhere – I’ll hold my hand up and admit I’m a casual reader. I noticed that Creation (IHG Rewards Credit Card) are saying they have zero FX fees until 28th Sept https://www.creation.co.uk/no_fx_fee

  • Barraclough says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:35

    I think the majority of readers don’t check HfP ten times a day! Although from the comments of the relatively small number of otherwise excellent posters asking for something mentioned recently can lead to acidic comments making us casual readers sometimes feel as if we are intruding! (I am a gentle soul though!) As the search facility is somewhat limited I can’t see why it is a problem to have questions repeated – after all, HfP is not an archive of English prose and all the regulars have to do is move on to the next post! Having said that, I did take up the suggestion on HfP some months ago to search on site: headforpoints.com xxx (where xxx is your search topic) and this can be useful.

    • David says:

      6 Sep6 September 12:54

      I’m not a gentle sole, and see this/think this all the time!

    • Polly says:

      6 Sep6 September 20:04

      But some poor gentle soul has to take the time to reply and explain, once again. It’s definitely worth ploughing through the chat pages for the previous couple of days. These topics are repeated as infinitum. But hope you are not put off asking. Someone will try to help!

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:52

    Was mentioned a few times last week.

  • HBommie says:

    6 Sep6 September 13:21

    if not before.

• TGLoyalty says:

  6 Sep6 September 11:09

  10% off spar just popped up for me … my local spar closed a couple years ago though

• Dan says:

  6 Sep6 September 11:28

  I’m a new Amex Platinum member and still trying to get my head around the benefits. Had an unsatisfactory online chat with Amex yesterday who told me that the Priority Pass benefit does not apply to the first Supplementary card holder, which I know is incorrect.

  But can anyone assist with the following outstanding questions?

  1) Hire car insurance. Main card holder only insured or also supplementary? Does it matter who booked it vs who is driving?

  2) Hotel status perks e.g. Hilton Gold. As above – can the first supplementary card holder also benefit?

  I must say whilst the list of Amex Platinum perks is impressive, it also seems quite elusive! Difficult to figure out exactly how to take advantage of the numerous benefits.

  • Rob says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:31

    1-supp is covered, because the supp has all of the Platinum benefits anyway. In terms of additional driver, my best guess is that as long as the Plat cardholder is the named person on the rental agreement and the other drivers are properly named on the rental agreement, you’re fine.

    2-yes, the supp gets all the benefits (they need to register their Plat for an online account before they can sign up, however)

• Ali says:

  6 Sep6 September 11:34

  Can anyone recommend a place in London to do a reasonably priced (sub £100 ideally) same day or next day pcr test for travel?

  Cheers

  • Richie says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:40

    Some test results are taking 48 hours, if you’ve 48 hours collinson are ok.

  • Rob says:

    6 Sep6 September 11:41

    Collinson at St Pancras? £66 with a discount code (eg AMEX20) I think. Not sure how fast they come back though.

    There is a same day place in Chelsea we’ve used but it is £125.

    • Reney says:

      6 Sep6 September 11:49

      I saw a very long queue outside the regenerative clinic near Marylebone yesterday.

      • Rob says:

        6 Sep6 September 11:57

        We used that in December for Dubai and they were great. It was £165ish then IIRC, however, but the results were quick as the lab is onsite.

    • John says:

      6 Sep6 September 21:43

      +1 for Collinson St Pancras. Once did PCR at 6pm Sunday and had the result in my inbox before 10am Monday. I may stumbled into Searcy’s champagne bar afterwards too.

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