Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 7th September

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Comments (469)

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

  • James says:

    I’ve got a BA Holidays booking coming up. I’m looking to upgrade the return leg from World Traveller to Club World. There is availability – would there be any reason why BA wouldn’t allow me to upgrade? Also, if this flight got cancelled and we get moved onto Qatar, would they give us Business with Qatar as an alternative providing the upgrade goes ahead?

    • FFoxSake says:

      Thought only 1 cabin level upgrade allowed i.e. WT to WTP or WTP to CW

      • James says:

        That’s also my thoughts but just wanted to check here first before I go on hold for the next hour, if I’m lucky!

    • Jonathan says:

      If you upgrade to WTP & then get moved to Qatar then long standing & adhered to policy is you’re dropped to Economy rather than upgraded to Business in case that guides your actions.

      • James says:

        Thanks for your input guys. Clutching at straws now but could I cancel/no show for my inbound flight and book the rewards seats instead? Just trying to think of a work around.

        • Anna says:

          If it’s a BA holiday you could cancel and get a FTV but you could also try and get an upgrade at the airport – the “one cabin class” rule doesn’t apply at that point and you may well get offered a bargain price. Someone on here did this the other week going to the Caribbean, I think.

        • Sam G says:

          Try asking BAH for cash price difference to WT+ and then avios upgrade on top

          If it was a sale fare then sometimes it can be better to do this once you’ve arrived as then it’ll use historical fares though I’m not sure about this with a holiday booking !

          Someone did indeed get a v reasonable 2 class airport upgrade on here

          • James says:

            Thanks Sam & Anna. Would I be able to upgrade (if possible) at LHR for my inbound flight or would this need to be done at MLE?

  • Aston100 says:

    Am I alone in getting annoyed with Qatar Airways booking calendar when attempting to advance month to month?
    The arrow for the next month keeps shifting position so you can’t rapidly click next next next as you’ll end up accidentally selecting 1st of May or something.
    I don’t think I’ve seen this on any other airlines site.

    Yeah I’ve got a bee in my bonnet about QR since they did their misleading teacher promo, their constant exaggerations (bordering on lies) about incredible savings in forthcoming sales and so on.

    • WaynedP says:

      Hopefully all that dissatisfaction will ebb away when you finally get to sip your champagne from the comfort of Q Suite 🙂

    • ChrisC says:

      That’s one of my biggest issues with lots of websites where you put in a date for an outbound yet the calendar does not update to reflect that so you have to move it on yourself.

      Don’t get me started on the BA site where you have to click to confirm if you change the number of passengers then again to change the cabin class. That should be a single confirm all the choices you’ve made.

      National rail is just awful as well on a device as well when it comes to times and dates of travel!

  • Mco says:

    BA downgraded my F flight to J. I had to do a date change and flew J so can’t apply for any compensation but what is the easiest way to get the additional points back? Am in no hurry would their Twitter team be able to help or can I email them?

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      Badget them until they give in. Although if you booked during the half price sale they might never give in

      • Mco says:

        I booked during the sale. Why would they not give in though? They downgraded me and it was not that I asked for it.

        • Super Secret Stuff says:

          What is there incentive to do so? You will have to fight them harder

    • Louise K says:

      Twitter team sorted something similar for me last week (cancelled a BAH where I have upgraded to F using Avios)

      Took a week and numerous messages to and fro but got them refunded in the end.

  • Paul says:

    What’s the email address to redeem an ftv against a balance payable please – replying to the email doesn’t work
    Thanks

    • Anna says:

      Is this for a BA holiday? If so, that’s how you do it, worked for me 4 times over the past month! Oddly I only got a receipt email back on 2 of the 4 but the refunds all went through without any issues.

    • WaynedP says:

      Someone mentioned success emailing baholidays@ba.com recently, but I can’t guarantee it was in relation to this specific issue.

  • Anthony says:

    What are the best two seats for a couple on an A350 club suite?

    Thanks

  • DK says:

    Advise needed.
    I know that no one has Barclays upgrade vouchers yet but they sound like Lloyds before hence the question.
    We are a family of 3. I have FTV which contains companion voucher/Avios/bit of money for 2 adults. Will it be possible to book 3 of us using FTV for 2 adults and new upgrade voucher for a child?

    • Anna says:

      Your issues are going to be finding 3 award seats and the age of the child. They might be old enough to have their own ticket but you may end up with 2 separate bookings which could cause problems with seating on the flight.

      • DK says:

        3 seat problem is here regardless of upgrade voucher. I actually wonder if BA will insist on 2 bookings or 2 different vouchers can be added to the same booking.

  • Louise K says:

    Emirates Twitter team confirmed to me they have to be in person tests and sent me a list.

  • Luke says:

    Has anyone managed to obtain ‘proof of recovery from Covid’ from the NHS for children?
    I’m trying to find a way around Germany’s current requirements that children must quarantine for 5 days!
    Looks like I would need to register profiles for them on the NHS website, then enter their positive test results

    • Anna says:

      We tried this for my nephew who had Delta back in June but his GP refused point blank to provide proof of recovery – said it wasn’t possible and that we had to pay for a test instead (we would have paid for a GP letter but she said there wasn’t even a way to do this). The problem with positive test results is that they don’t prove recovery – there have been cases of people testing positive months down the line from the initial test!

      • Luke says:

        I’ve just been reading up on nhs.uk
        You can get a Covid pass for travel abroad based on a positive PCR test in the past 6 months, but you can only get a NHS Covid pass for travel abroad if you’re aged 16 or over!
        Very frustrating. Looks like the kids will have to get negative test certificates, but currently Germany do not even say that is an option for kids, it’s just automatic 5 day quarantine.

      • Pete M says:

        Germany doesn’t follow up whether you’re quarantining, if that’s of interest.

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