The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 7th September

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Dan says:

7 Sep7 September 07:39

I got my brand new shiny (literally, it’s metal) Platinum Amex through yesterday. Slightly disappointed there are zero offers listed – including the £200 dining credit I was looking forward to. Is this normal on a new Amex to have no offers? Seems a bit mean when they are about to charge me £575.00
- SteveJ says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 07:43
  
  Standard, no one knows the logic behind when or which offers show. But to get Amex’s algorithm wheels greased you need to start a lot of varied spend on the card so they get an idea of what you like.
  
  There were warnings on here that new sign ups were very unlikely to get the £200 restaurant offer, but also some people mentioned contacting Amex by chat and getting it added. Zero guarantee though.
- Andrew says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 07:52
  
  Give it a few days – people reporting yesterday that the £200 offer was loaded automatically over the weekend. Then call them and they should add – this offer must be costing Amex a LOT less than £200 as they seem to be a lot more generous with adding it to new cardmembers whereas in January they weren’t budging with the Waitrose offer.
- Harry T says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:12
  
  No one gets offers immediately on a new card, no matter how large the fee is. You have to spend on the card for at least a couple of weeks. No guarantees you will get offers like the dining credit, as you have taken out the card after the offer period started and these offers are designed tor retain existing customers during a period when it is difficult for many to obtain value from the card.
- Dan says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:23
  
  Thanks all. I have a BA Amex and a Gold Biz card so would have thought their algorithm would have some idea of my spending habits but I’ll get spending and then contact them re dining credit though appreciate it’s not guaranteed.
  - JRC says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:28
    
    Same here. Had platinum for 3/4 weeks now and still no offers. I managed to get the restaurant offer via chat on Amex website but possibly because I applied before they announced the offer.
  - Harry T says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:31
    
    Their algorithms aren’t that sophisticated. I usually hold multiple Amex cards and I have to go through the same process with every new card of spending for a few weeks.
- AL says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:26
  
  “Seems a bit mean when they are about to charge me £575.00” – remember: offers aren’t the only value you get from that £575. If you don’t ascribe value to those benefits your cardmembership provides, then this is a very expensive way to get £200 dining credit!
  - Dan says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:33
    
    I understand that but it would be nice of there were a few welcome offers!
    - meta says:
      
      7 Sep7 September 09:33
      
      You’ve got a sign up bonus, Priority Pass, Addison Lee credit, onefinestay credit, hotel statuses from day 1…
    - BuildBackBetter says:
      
      7 Sep7 September 09:59
      
      Don’t worry, you’ll get the sweaty Betty offer within a few days.
- BP says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 12:47
  
  Signed up my wife for a new Platinum/card a few minutes after Rob posted about the dining offer on here. It’s got the £200 offer on it 🙂
  
  We now have £400 to spend in The Ivy so no doubt some champagne will be getting consumed 🙂
bafan says:

7 Sep7 September 07:50

Got stuck in some remote countryside yesterday and missed my Qured appt so I’m having to do my Antigen test at the airport before my flight. Is there one I can bring for future reference without the Skype element? That’s where I fell down.
- Andrew says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 07:54
  
  Collinson do the supervised or the unsupervised test and I was wondering how they differed in terms of acceptance for retuning from Spain. Unsupervised seems easier and of course cheaper.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:38
    
    Absolutely none because the certificate is probably identical
- StevieKicks says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 07:55
  
  Prenetics/Project Screen. Just need a photo of the test to upload, no video call
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:37
    
    Same for Chromatics
- Damian says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 09:57
  
  You can email support@qured.com if you miss in future. I had to reschedule one of mine whilst in Greece due to being in a poor signal area.
  - bafan says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 10:53
    
    Thanks for the email. It was more that I was completely in the middle of nowhere outside Torino and I had no opportunity to take it. I should have done it that morning but whatever. €40 in the airport! In Greece they’re €20…
YC says:

7 Sep7 September 08:03

Anyone managed to get Marriott bonus points for redemption stays on the “exclusively for you” promo? T&Cs don’t have the same exclusion on redemptions like the new 1,500pts promo
- Harry T says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:13
  
  If it’s a targeted promotion – it sounds like it – then you could very well be the only person with the offer. I’ve found Marriott Bonvoy Assist on Twitter have been responsive recently, if that’s helpful.
RJA says:

7 Sep7 September 08:11

Apologies in advance, I know this has probably been answered a million times but if somebody has the time to post as a short reply, I’d really appreciate it. OH just triggered her 2f1 BAPP, we now have 4 including one of the new ones. If she cancels her card (her only Amex): 1. I MUST wait 2 years before I can start referring her for Amex cards and get the appropriate sign up bonuses (done in whatever is the prevailing right order at that time); and 2. When redeeming her 2f1 vouchers (after she has cancelled her BAPP), we can use my BAPP card and the system doesn’t recognize that its her voucher and my card (I think I have done this before). Thanks for any reply, just want to be sure before she cancels her card.
- SteveJ says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:14
  
  If you want max BAPP sign up bonus then yes, MUST wait two years (can get Platinum Card sign up now though if not held a membership rewards earning card for 2 years).
  
  You can pay with ANY Amex. Can be BAPP or any other. Can be hers, yours, a friend’s. Any Amex will do.
- Benilyn says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:16
  
  1. Yes correct. But nothing is stopping her to sign up and not get the sign up bonus/ you to get the referral fee.
  2. Any Amex can be used to pay
  - RJA says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:22
    
    SteveJ & Benilyn – many thanks will wait for 2nd half of the 3000 sup card offer and spend £5k get 10000 avios to hit, wait for avios to transfer and then cancel. See you in 2 years with inevitable question of what’s the right order to refer for maximum signup bonuses, Thanks again for taking the time.
- Rob says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:19
  
  She can get the 60k on Platinum now.
  
  Amex does not do name verification. This is global.
  - RJA says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:28
    
    Thanks Rob. Does holding the plat effect the sign up bonuses in 2 years time? Based on your conservative 0.5 avios, that’s £300 of value, so need £275 of “other value” to break even. I have plat ICC, so would need to do that through offers rather than benefits – correct?
    - TGLoyalty says:
      
      7 Sep7 September 08:41
      
      An Avios is worth 0.8p via nectar so 0.5 is more than conservative
      
      Holding the Platinum means your OH would only be eligible for a BAPP bonus unless they wait 2 years
      
      However, waiting two years isn’t the only way to rack up points. A few new nectar / Bonvoy cards sign ups few months and you’d have 90k referral points from a play for example.
- Damian says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 10:00
  
  Safest way is to add your wife as a supplementary BAPP from your account and use that to pay as the card will be in her name and be a BA Amex.
  - RJA says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 17:01
    
    👍
Patrycja says:

7 Sep7 September 08:11

Scottish travel pages eventually updated to let travellers use private test provider 🥳

‘’If you’re travelling from an amber list country, and you’re fully vaccinated, you no longer need to isolate when you arrive in Scotland. You will need to buy a PCR test from either the CTM booking portal or from a private provider, and take this test within 2 days of arriving.’’
- Ikaz says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:31
  
  It has been like this since 4am yesterday, but track and trace is still sending messages saying that you need the CTM test as of yesterday evening
  - Patrycja says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:49
    
    Last week when we were flying back from Madeira, they texted us that we needed to do tests while we were still abroad.
    I’m off to Spain on Saturday so just relieved that we don’t need the most expensive tests anymore
Steve says:

7 Sep7 September 08:12

Apologies if I’m posting in the wrong place but I couldn’t see how to add a comment to Rob’s article on 13th June 2021 about using Tesco Clubcard vouchers to book Hilton hotel rooms.
I booked a 2 night stay at the DoubleTree Dunblane Hydro last month but didn’t receive points or nights credit. When I queried this, I received the following response :

“We are unable to process this request as the room rate paid is ineligible for Honors points, miles, stay/night credit as well as promotional bonuses. For a complete list of all ineligible rates for the Honors program please visit our website at http://www.hiltonHonors.com for more information. For your convenience I have listed out the rate types that have been deemed ineligible for stay, night, and point and or mileage credit below:

Wholesale/tour operator packages
Contracted airline crew rates
Travel industry rates (including but not limited to travel agent discount rates)
Complimentary or barter rooms
NET Group rates
Series Group or IT Group rates
Contracted Entertainment or Encore rates
Master Bill bookings (irrespective of incidentals)
Third party websites bookings (for example. Expedia.com, Priceline.com, etc) this rate is also ineligible to receive credit for any incidentals that are paid at the time of your stay.
“Opaque” channel bookings where the brand is unknown at the time of purchase
Discounted/Restricted rates
“No Show” or cancelled bookings”

Any advice as to what my next step should be?
Thanks.
- Rob says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:18
  
  It isn’t written anywhere that these rates earn points, but historically they have. If Hilton is being awkward there is little you can do unless someone knows a page in the agent rule book which covers this.
Michael C says:

7 Sep7 September 08:17

So my Silver ends tomorrow…can I expect it to be extended, despite having 10 tier points this year?!!
- Andrew says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:31
  
  All status that was expiring in 2021 has been extended to the same month in 2022 – your status will show expiry as October 2022 – this is different to your tier point earning year which does end tomorrow.
  - Michael C says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 10:08
    
    Great, thanks!
- AJA says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:31
  
  Yes. The extension is being given to everyone whose TP year ends between now and 8 Dec.
- ChrisC says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:35
  
  Your tier point collection year ends tomorrow.
  
  Your current status will end on 31st October. It will show in the app.
Vincent Teo says:

7 Sep7 September 08:30

We’d appreciate thoughts/recommendations on the following please.

BA have cancelled our 2 Club World tickets to Bangkok (Departing 15th September and returning 22nd September).

They were booked using a 2for1 voucher and around £1100 cash. No Avios used.

BA’s website is not showing any flights from May 2022 onwards.

OH is staring a Uni Degree and so term dates now limit our travel plans to June/July/Aug 2022.

Thank you in advance.
- Harry T says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:35
  
  Surely if you used a companion (241) voucher you had to have used Avios?!
  
  I believe that BA has been playing silly buggers with the route to Bangkok. You would be within your rights to ask to be rerouted on another airlines for the new dates, under EC262, but you probably won’t get far with BA as they would prefer to put you on their own metal. Seeing as the flights are still some time away, you could wait and see if BA add flights after May 2022? Current BA policy is to allow rebooking up to one year from your original planned departure date, so the new dates should be covered under that (the path of least resistance).
  - Harry T says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 08:38
    
    Apologies, I misread your departure dates. I think it’s best to ring BA ASAP and ask to be rebooked to next summer, when you can travel. They might push back but you might get a decent agent who will rebook you on another airline. There are various legal avenues that exist beyond this but it’s best to see what is offered first.
- Anuj says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:37
  
  I thought the 241 voucher could only be used on avios redemption flights ?
- AJA says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 08:38
  
  Not sure how you didn’t use any Avios.
  
  That aside as BA has cancelled you now have the ability to book again for up to 1 year from 15 Sep 2021 ie to 15 Sep 2022 into any Club seat on BA flights to BKK. No Avios availability needed. This is for both passengers.
  
  Or you can request re-routing (on Qatar probably best option) to BKK again no Avios reward seat required.
  
  So look to see if Qatar or (Cathay Pacific via HK, less likely they will agree but your right) is flying to BKK in Jun/Jul/Aug 2022 and then phone BA up to request reroute on your preferred flights.
  - Aston100 says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 09:13
    
    I think Sam G and others were recently advising in here that BA may be choosing to operate BKK as a seasonal route going forward, with end of season being in April.
    When they cancelled my KUL flights as part of terminating that route, I was offered flights with Malaysia Airlines or a reroute through SIN.
    I guess something similar might happen here, but using QR instead of MH.
    - Sam G says:
      
      7 Sep7 September 10:03
      
      Indeed, I believed Bangkok was going seasonal even before COVID, though if you managed to book for Sept perhaps not! But I doubt summer flights will be added at this point. I don’t think BA will rebook past 1 year from date of ticket issue onto another carrier either (and another poster later today saying the 1 yr from cancelled flight policy has been revoked for BA metal too.) I think you’ve got two options – either MCOL / CEDR your EU 261 right to rerouting at dates of your convenience on another carrier or take an FTV and rebook to HK or Singapore
  - AJA says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 10:06
    
    Update based on thread on next page. BA seems to have quietly changed back to old policy of ticket validity of 1 year from booking 🙁 You may have trouble getting BA to play ball but EC/UK261 allows rerouting at later date at passenger’s convenience.
    - Paul says:
      
      7 Sep7 September 13:27
      
      Not my experience! Booked in F to HKG last Saturday almost 18 months after bought original ticket.
      In any event they don’t have leg to stand on as EU261 has no time limit and they have lost multiple CEDR cases which is why the policy became a year. If BA cancel your flight, you and only you, are in control.
      They must refund if that is what you wish, if you are at the mid point they must return you home for free and then refund.
      They must re book you under comparable travel conditions on another carrier within a reasonable period (24hrs) if that is what you wish.
      You may travel at a later date at your convenience in comparable travel conditions. This latter condition has no time limit.
- Thom says:
  
  7 Sep7 September 10:10
  
  It’s currently seasonal: late October through April with BA which aligns with the Thai tourist season. (though I’ll be surprised if they don’t start cancelling the October/November flights soon for this year). So no option for you to rebook direct with BA if you are looking at asymmetric timeframe. No one knows how this will change.
  
  If you need to travel then either try and use this as an argument for them to reroute you with a different airline but you may have to go down the MCOL etc routes others have outlined, or change to KUL/SIN (though this may change the fee/Avios pricing slightly) and then book an onward connection from there.
  - Aston100 says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 10:24
    
    KUL was terminated, seemingly permanently.
  - Sam G says:
    
    7 Sep7 September 10:28
    
    KL is gone for good unfortunately which is a shame as Malaysian fly from Phuket as well and would happily check through bags to BA on the way home if you wanted to do a same day connection. Though I’d happily do one via SIN. Outbound do a night or two in Singapore before flying out to Thailand (preferably on Cathay Pacific business class to Bangkok).
    
    Then take Jetstar, Scoot or Singapore Airlines back from wherever you ended up in Thailand (ideally avoid Air Asia as their terminal is disconnected so adds a bit of bus hassle though it’s perfectly doable) – you can arrive back in the afternoon and take your bags to early check in and then take a cab into the city for a wander or just explore the Jewel shops and do a lounge crawl and take a shower before BA out late at night. Obviously all COVID restrictions/terminals/airlines flying etc etc dependent.
    - Nick says:
      
      7 Sep7 September 11:57
      
      SQ will happily through-check bags onto BA, so no hassle collecting and rechecking luggage at SIN. I don’t know if this extends to Scoot, I’ve never flown them.