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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 7th September

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

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Comments (469)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • R says:

    Issue with AMEX Marriott free night award certificate

    I was supposed to receive my first certificate months ago. However, I did not as, according to Marriott, it wasn’t triggered automatically as my address on my Marriott account was different to my AMEX address (I have two billing addresses, one is my ‘family home’ address and one my uni address).

    I have contacted AMEX and then Marriott back in June. I’ve spent more than 30 minutes on the line with Bonvoy support. They outlined that the issue was my address on my account and they said that I will receive my certificate ‘soon’.

    I did not hear back from Marriott Bonvoy & nothing appeared on my account, so I’ve phoned Marriott again at the beginning of August. I had a case number ready, they said that they are working on it/tried to blame AMEX for the delay. I said that it would be great to receive it in August as I wanted to use it in early September. They said that they will get in touch with the relevant team to issue the cert.

    It’s September now & it’s been 3 months since I found out that I did not receive the certificate and contacted AMEX and Marriott. I still haven’t heard back from Marriott and I cannot use the certificate in the way I intended. The certificate is not great anyway and now I’m not going to be able to ‘max out’ it’s value.

    What should I do next? Or is this a normal waiting time when things go ‘wrong’?

    • R says:

      I should probably add: the voucher was supposed to be triggered back in January, but I haven’t received any information about it. I was using the Gold card as well & thought I didn’t spend 25k+. In June, a HfP reader mentioned they had an issue with the certificate. I was curious to find out whether I was supposed to get one, phoned AMEX & was told that I should’ve received one as I’ve spent ~29k on my Marriott card that year

      • meta says:

        I had similar issue two years ago. It took about 6 months since contacting to get the voucher issued. It actually suited me well as I have by then earned a second voucher which I could use both on one weekend stay. The validity of the voucher will be 12 months from the day it appears in your Marriott account.

        I actually still have them as they have been extended and I am about to earn a third one. Great long weekend away this autumn.

        • R says:

          Ah 6 months? A very long time, I wonder why it takes so long. Have you tried to chase them up? That’s nice, where are you planning to stay?

          • meta says:

            I chased it several times, but mainly with Amex, maybe once with Marriott.

            Not sure yet, it will be last minute and will depend on availability.

  • Luke says:

    BA Phone lines are terrible today, I can’t even get through on the Silver line

    • MW says:

      I couldn’t get through on the Gold line on Sunday and lost F reward flights as a result.

      Tried US call centre but they claimed they can’t make changes to reward bookings (CW to F) and to call exec club. Is that actually the case now?

    • Rachel Robinson says:

      Odd. I just got through in 5 minutes.

    • AL says:

      +1 – was on hold for 40mins earlier before I gave up and requested an FTV online rather than a change of time. App was playing up for me.

    • Luke says:

      My call was finally answered after 57 minutes on hold. After giving my exec number I made sure they had my phone number to call back, as sure enough I got cut off 6 minutes later. Thankfully they called right back and it’s all done now.
      I was adding 4 CW seats for the return leg of a voucher booking. Thank goodness BA released 8 seats today, because 2 had gone while I was on hold!

    • Memesweeper says:

      Terrible yesterday too. Web chat got overloaded as well.

  • Marie says:

    Booking ahead Thistle T5 for Easter. Theres a bug I think , I cannot log into my Thistle account, and if I create a new one the email link for verify does not work.
    Anyone had same problem?
    Any other discounts that work for stay and park rates ? Thanks

  • Alex says:

    Rob, can you neither confirm nor deny that you have been in contact with Chase regarding their rewards cards in the UK?

  • Benilyn says:

    Do Morrisons stores have Apple Store vouchers? (not iTunes / App Store)

    • Reney says:

      No, but it has John Lewis stores and many others that sell Apple Products.

      • Benilyn says:

        Ok thanks, I wanted to stack with education discount.

        • Reney says:

          is the convent garden offer still there? It was only £10 off £50 but you could get an apple gift card from the apple store on that one I think. Although depends where you live, transportation costs might wipe out most of the benefits.

  • Tracy says:

    Just an FYI for my recent trip from EDI to Venice. Ryanair Edi to Treviso, no checks whatsoever from Ryanair for double jabbed or negative covid test. Checked in online, only hand luggage, straight through to departures, checked passport & boarding pass at gate. Flight maybe 1/3 full, passengers changing seats like musical chairs 😂
    On arrival in Treviso, passport checked and asked for negative covid test, no checking double jabbed. My negative lateral flow was a Chronomics at home test anyone could have taken on my behalf….
    Venice was pretty busy, film festival, fashion events & historical regatta all in the same weekend. Masks mandatory indoors & on transport, everyone was complying. Green pass needed to enter most places, Scottish digital NHS pass was not scanning so needed looked at manually every time and was asked for id on a couple of occasions.
    At Treviso on return, could not get through security without a slip of paper to say covid documentation had been checked so everyone needed to stand in the checkin queue to get this slip of paper, they checked negative covid test (again Chronomics at home test) & uk plf. Flight half full, not as much seat hopping. Straight through passport egates at Edi, no covid checks.

  • Andy says:

    Looks like BA is trimming the Cityflyer schedule out of LCY this morning

  • James says:

    I probably used to know this, but – I’m looking at my outbound flight which is now 13 days away.
    My seat selection is showing seats as unavailable for selection, but are available on Expert flyer.
    In particular seats 7 A/K on a 788. Are these likley to open up as time goes on? I currently hold no status.

    • AJA says:

      It is probably because as you have no status you cannot pre-select seats unless you are willing to pay. You will be able to select seats when/if OLCI opens 24 hours before.

      You may find that someone with Bronze status will select your preferred seats when their ability to choose opens 7 days before.

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.