The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 7th September

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• Paul says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:17

  What information does the Day 2 reference on the PLF provide on arrival? Asking in relation to cheekily using the ‘Chester’ route for an arrival into Scotland, whom technically still want you to purchase via CTM however I know the ref. via private providers can be accepted.

  • Harry T says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:24

    You’ll have to ask border force, presumably. They might make some time for you anyway, if you’re flying into Scotland and allegedly picking up a day 2 test in Chester.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:28

    People like you are why we can’t have nice things … spend another £20 and do it properly

    • Paul says:

      7 Sep7 September 11:54

      Extensive testing is carried out at both ends and I’m well versed in the farcical IAC traveller tracing process. Doing it properly by your definition is one private provider receiving £40 of my money vs £20 to another.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        7 Sep7 September 12:06

        unless you live close to Chester it’ll cost you more than £20 to commute from scotland …. but we all know what you are intending to do.

        or do you think this is £20 on a 50/1 sure thing?

      • Harry T says:

        7 Sep7 September 12:31

        You’re a hero of the common people, sticking it to those private providers 😂

  • BP says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:29

    Spend the extra. Or do some googling to find the everything generics link for £20 day2 tests and save yourself the hassle!

  • Phil says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:41

    I thought Scotland had moved in line with England now…

    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/19543514.scottish-travel-testing-policy-will-bring-scotland-line-england/

    • Patrycja says:

      7 Sep7 September 13:12

      Yes they have. I posted update this morning on page 2. We are now able to book private providers not only CTM

      • Duncan says:

        7 Sep7 September 13:48

        What’s the best third party option now? Any recommendations? The Gov.uk list is a joke, as all prices are “From £20” but seem to have a lot of restrictions or requirements for that price.

  • Tracy says:

    7 Sep7 September 15:38

    No idea what the Chester route is……but I have a day 2 test today booked with eurofins for a drive thru test in Livingston for £20 x 2 people, will cost £10 in fuel to get there & back, so £50 total. I’m happy to pay that….

    • Andy says:

      7 Sep7 September 16:56

      There is a provider based in Chester which does a 20£ on site test (they also do the mail version but it’s significantly more expensive). The poster is looking to pay the 20£ because it’s the cheapest option and it gets you a code for the PLF, but has no intention of traveling to Chester to actually do the test since no one monitors whether you take it or not (and the company has no incentive to report you since they get 20£ for no service, at least until they are investigated)

      • Tracy says:

        7 Sep7 September 20:27

        Ok, that makes sense now. I’m assuming the poster is from Scotland and Eurofins Livingston also do a £20 on site test ….depending on where in Scotland he resides of course but should be closer than Chester lol

• AL says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:18

  I occasionally do LCY-EDI on BA and so read this thread on Twitter with interest – https://twitter.com/seatsixtyone/status/1435136410525306880.

  TL;DR: new low-cost First-operated brand on the ECML – “Lumo”. One class, up to 5 trains per day each way by next year. 4h30m end-to-end. Top price – Anytime, good on any departure on any date – is £69. 60% of fares <=£30. £19.90 or less from now until 01/12 1045 KGX and 1612 EDB daily. Limited stopper (to avoid competition and flouting ORR rules given LNER also on ECML w/ similar route). https://lumo.co.uk

  🍿

  • Chris says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:41

    I know comments are mostly reserved for snark and complaints….

    …but this was really interesting, thank you for highlighting AL!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:45

    A bit slow! I’m sure when these were bid for the idea was to keep them under 4 hours due to the limited stops to make it more competitive to flying.

    Assuming you’re in the LCY target catchment no train journey is quicker end to end (including getting to/from the airport and through security) than flying to LCY, and probably those in West London are quicker flying into LHR. EDI-LHR also beats the train if you work in the Thames Valley area.

    What these trains will compete well on is those who fly EDI-LTN/STN and do it exclusively on price. The train will be less hassle and probably faster end to end than services to the LCC ‘London’ airports and the cost will almost certainly be cheaper than an EZY flight+train from LTN/STN to get you into actual London.

    • Ed says:

      7 Sep7 September 12:37

      Agreed, useful to know about. But the train can’t compete for speed with flying from where I live in SW London, including travelling via LCY.

  • John says:

    7 Sep7 September 13:31

    I’ve booked myself on the inaugural service, but the website is awful.

• Reney says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:25

  Do Morrisons sell Hotels.com giftcard? Have a trip coming up where the area won’t have chain hotels so will rely on hotels.com.

  Last time I used them, the gift cards were the US version and recall being a pain to use because some hotel bookings did not accept them and also can’t be stacked with discount code or something.

  • Paul says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:55

    On the subject of Morrissons, can their own branded Giftcards be used to purchase third party girtcards

    • KBuffett says:

      7 Sep7 September 12:07

      Yes, Morrisons gift cards can be used to purchase other gift cards sold in their stores

  • KBuffett says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:06

    No, they don’t

    • Reney says:

      7 Sep7 September 12:18

      thx

  • Reney says:

    7 Sep7 September 14:41

    I was going to use the Tesco card offer. 750 pt per booking. Given I am going to stay one night in each place that could work out. Will check shop away, pretty sure my tesco card has been added already. Not sure if adding curve would stop tesco offer…

    • Paul Pogba says:

      7 Sep7 September 15:14

      Then I would definitely avoid using Curve (and the click through sites) as you have to use a Tesco CC and the HfP link 🙂

• Hotinnewcastle says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:31

  Can I try and get exit row club Europe seats if with a 2 year old who has her own seat? Would it make a difference if the 2 yo was in aisle seat or will ba it block me?

  • AL says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:41

    2 year olds can’t go in exit rows per CAA guidance. Fairly sure that BA don’t allow 2 year olds on their own either, so if it’s just you two travelling, then suspect neither of you are going exit row, am afraid.

    https://www.britishairways.com/travel/exit-row-seats/public/en_gb

  • Swiss Jim says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:42

    You can try. But pointless, as you won’t get. Unless things have changed in last few years, which I doubt

  • Mr. AC says:

    7 Sep7 September 11:59

    Even if you manage to wrangle the system into allowing you to book them, flight crew will move you once you’re on the aircraft.

  • Anna says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:33

    As I recall, the system won’t let you select an exit row seat for anyone under 12.

    • AL says:

      7 Sep7 September 13:02

      You certainly have to agree to the terms – one of which is that the seat isn’t being used by a child (or words to that effect).

      • Sussex bantam says:

        7 Sep7 September 14:58

        It’s under 12 – happy days for my upcoming trip when youngest is finally over 12 and we can move back to exit rows again !

  • Hotinnewcastlesays says:

    7 Sep7 September 15:48

    Thanks for all the responses, will not waste my money. Cheers

• Keith says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:37

  Anyone have any experience of delayed PCR results from Barbados airport? We were told 24 – 48 hours when we were there but we are now at 41 hours and still no sign. Looks like everyone else who came in on our flight has had theirs so am starting to get a bit worried. Anyone had any similar experience? Is there a way to chase it up? Is it a case of paying for someone to come to the hotel to do it privately? Having a lovely time, but really want to get on the beach.

• bafan says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:39

  Had my Railcard checked for the first time ever! The man was a little sanctimonious so I was chuffed I had it downloaded. Also STN is far more bearable during COVID times, I was out of the airport inside 20 mins including bag pick up.

  Did Toulouse – Corfu – Torino. Nice little trip away. With the testing costs being what they are it definitely motivates me to book bigger trips that go on for longer.

  Now to prepare for Canada!

  • Aston100 says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:21

    Did you ask the ticket inspector for their ID in return?

    • Reney says:

      7 Sep7 September 13:37

      I’ve asked before. It was on a TFL bus where everyone was asked to tap their cards on this little machine. The guy wasn’t wearing a uniform if I recall, so I didn’t want to tap
      my credit card on a random person’s machine.

      • Chris says:

        7 Sep7 September 14:57

        I’ve only once had a TfL ticket check, early morning on the DLR, moody guy walking down with the “little machine”. How everyone moved forward in silence to present their oyster card and then fall back made it feel like a Dementor from Harry Potter was walking down the train.

        • Aston100 says:

          7 Sep7 September 15:00

          LOL, I loved the Dementor analogy..

  • Harry T says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:32

    My rail card has been checked on every journey I have made, I reckon!

    • PMG says:

      7 Sep7 September 12:38

      Same boat – it always gets checked…

  • John says:

    7 Sep7 September 13:34

    If there’s a ticket check there should be a railcard check.

    A discounted train ticket is not valid without the railcard and if your railcard is not valid, your options are to buy a new full priced anytime ticket or be prosecuted. It is not sanctimonious for a train guard to tell you this.

    If you forgot your railcard (which must have been valid before the start of your train journey) then you should buy a new full priced ticket which can be refunded on presentation of the railcard later, once per year.

    • Aston100 says:

      7 Sep7 September 15:02

      Alright Richard Branson, you lost your rail franchise but no need to continue with the bitterness.

      • bafan says:

        7 Sep7 September 15:19

        I lolled out loud @Aston100.

• ChasP says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:57

  quick update on Air France which I asked for advice a couple of weeks ago
  Sent LBA quoting EU261 and copied the CEO by email as suggested
  Got rapid response from her assistant that they would sort it out and the day before the LBA expired received new ticket number for requested dates

  “Saving” around £6k compared to accepting refund and rebooking
  Thanks all

  RESULT !

  • Phil says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:44

    Good result but it is a shame that you have to resort to contacting the CEO to get a company to comply with it’s regulatory obligations.

    • Booker1989 says:

      7 Sep7 September 15:32

      Good work. In all my dealings with large organisations I look up CEO email if they fail to deal with issues. Amazing the effect, Scottish Power, Royal London, Barclays have all fallen over themselves to be nice having failed first time round. That said I also ALWAYS highlight outstanding customer service as its a 2 way thing

      • AJA says:

        7 Sep7 September 16:47

        +1 for CEO Email. Always works in my view. Also use LinkedIn to find Head of Customer service. You can usually guess the email address based on what CEO Email says.

        I usually send an initial email to both with words along the lines of
        “I am sending this to both of you but I expect xxx Head of Customer Service will reply as I am sure xxx (CEO name) is too busy to be involved in this but I am including you as a matter of courtesy so that you know what is happening in your organisation.”

        Then follow up with a “Thank you” email when the issue is resolved.

        • Polly says:

          7 Sep7 September 20:16

          We used to stop Gavin Patterson (BT) in Waitrose, to let him know we were around 21 days without internet! He lived half a mile away. Funny, his PA phoned one Saturday pm, and engineers out and fixed on Monday! Amazing that….

  • Pete M says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:47

    That’s brilliant, well done!

  • Aston100 says:

    7 Sep7 September 15:03

    Well done Chas.

    Wish someone would archive these success stories.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    7 Sep7 September 15:13

    Nice! Well done

• Louise K says:

  7 Sep7 September 11:58

  Are Randox pre-departure PCR tests suitable for travel to Dubai?

  Info on Emirates website is not very clear!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    7 Sep7 September 12:08

    has to be supervised so best to take in person.

    • Louise K says:

      7 Sep7 September 12:12

      Thanks – any recs?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        7 Sep7 September 12:42

        Expresstest, Collinson and Randox are all based at various airports and big cities

        Check there sites for a site nearby

    • Denis says:

      7 Sep7 September 13:32

      Sorry, can I do a PCR at home and get results the next day and go to Dubai? Or it has to be done at a clinic supervised? Thank you

    • Denis says:

      7 Sep7 September 14:35

      Why it should be supervised as the pdf certificate is the same for walk-ins or home made?
      Also, the gov website doesn’t say it should be supervised: “Residents, tourists and visitors travelling from or through the UK and arriving in Dubai and Abu Dhabi must have a negative COVID-19 PCR test which was taken no more than 72 hours before departure and present the certificate at check in”

      • TGLoyalty says:

        7 Sep7 September 16:26

        https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/help/covid-19/dubai-travel-requirements/tourists/

        looks like it changed on 1st September and no longer mentions supervised/in person.

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