The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 8th September

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• Ali M says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:10

  weird error on everything genetic’s last page :S no place to checkout :S no idea what I am ‘doing wrong’

  • Ali M says:

    8 Sep8 September 11:15

    p.s. which tests have folks found relaible and fast and also not too heavy on the pocket.
    Randox seems to feature a bit – cant find a code though

    • Harry T says:

      8 Sep8 September 11:17

      I’ve used Randox twice, paying £43pp. There’s a code from Ryanair – you can google it. They are reliable with delivery and rapid turn around of results.

      • Ali M says:

        8 Sep8 September 11:24

        Thanks found it now !
        will use them

      • TheOtherN says:

        8 Sep8 September 11:25

        Sometimes reliable. Out of seven tries, once I’ve had no booking confirmation sent prior to travel, twice I’ve had no test result returned.

        Randox publish a list of all their discount coupons: https://www.randoxhealth.com/coupons

      • Dr MJ says:

        8 Sep8 September 11:30

        I found Randox reliable, and used dropbox at Radisson Blu just outside Heathrow (almost being detained by security for accidentally going the wrong way in and getting close to the red-list detainees). Results were back at 9pm the following day.

        Intrigued as to whether anyone has used an alternative courier for Randox, as may need on way back from France later in the year (ferry not flying, no dropboxes nearby here).

        • Reney says:

          8 Sep8 September 12:03

          Have used royal mail, you have to pay and watch out for weekend delivery times so might need to pay more to ensure it arrived in time.

    • Tracey says:

      8 Sep8 September 14:03

      Nationwide pathology £40 and they use Royal Mail not drop boxes. Was reliable when I used them.

• Mark says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:14

  Saw earlier that Emirate sis re-opening its lounge in T3, any ideas when Qatar plans to do the same and/or terminal switch plans? thanks

  • Rob says:

    8 Sep8 September 11:31

    Presumably not before T4 stops being the ‘red list’ terminal.

    • Jonathan says:

      8 Sep8 September 11:54

      One major hurdle to be jumped before anything will almost certainly happen !

• Jason says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:30

  Looking to take advantage of the tier point bonus by booking a BA holiday…thoughts on if this would work… Man-LHR (Day 1) LHR-BUD (day 3) Bud – LHR (day 5) LHR – Man (day5). If I book car hire for 3 days arriving in Lon and the again in Budapest for 2 days, hoping this would qualify as having a car for 5 days of the holiday. Thoughts?

  • Harry T says:

    8 Sep8 September 11:34

    Double check the T&Cs on the offer page… I’m not sure if your hotel or car hire needs to be for a single destination for five days or more.

  • Jonathan says:

    8 Sep8 September 11:56

    I’m almost certain Hungary’s borders are currently shut to tourists, with no real idea when their government will open them again

    • OP says:

      8 Sep8 September 16:23

      I believe entry is now permitted – https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/hungary/entry-requirements#entry-rules-in-response-to-coronavirus-covid-19

      The wording is clunky, but entry just requires:
      Negative PCR test conducted in the previous 72 hours in one of the following places: all EU member states and candidate countries; all OECD member states; all NATO member states, member states of the Turkic Council and Bahrain, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Russia; Singapore, Ukraine, and the UAE.

      Appears also to be an exemption for double vaccinated travelers – though for some reason this isn’t clear on the FCDO page.

• Ben says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:32

  How do you get hold of ba via chat? Seen mentioned a couple time on here but can’t seem to find it anywhere on the website

  • Number9 says:

    8 Sep8 September 11:45

    Go to BA contacts page chat bottom right hand side.

• cheng ly says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:32

  Is anyone trying to get through to BA for amending Avios bookings?

  I’ve been trying everyday and keep getting cut off after an hour… not sure what to do as my cancelled flight to Tokyo is this Saturday. I’m desperately trying to rebook this.

  • Pete M says:

    8 Sep8 September 11:49

    US call centre, via their freephone number, via Skype, during US waking hours.

    • Jane says:

      8 Sep8 September 12:40

      They might have wised up to this, I tried earlier this week and got cut off after 1 hour and 1 min. Called a few weeks ago and call lasted about 1.5 hours. It might have made a difference that I was connected just before the hour was up when I didn’t get cut off.

  • ChrisC says:

    8 Sep8 September 12:53

    If you aren’t able to use MMB to make the change then use live chat to at least ask them to make a note in the pnr if they can;t change it that you want the booking preserved so you can call when it’s quieter.

    Then save a copy of the chat as your evidence that you contacted them etc

    • cheng ly says:

      8 Sep8 September 14:24

      Thanks for all your help! I managed to change my booking via the online chat – it took about an hour but they were quite efficient. Happy days!

• MW says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:46

  I posted yesterday about missing out on changing CW tickets to F due to no answers on the Gold line. @TGL suggested I should have called You First. I thought that was only if you had an existing F booking?

  Any ideas as to how to best get through in case seats come back? Is it really YF and why did the US call centre say they couldn’t process the change?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Sep8 September 11:57

    They won’t hang up on you if you’re asking to book a first flight.

    • MW says:

      8 Sep8 September 12:02

      I see! Will know for next time, I guess…

      Any ideas why the US call centre declined to help?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Sep8 September 12:05

        Unfortunately you sometimes run into someone who just doesn’t know how to do something and can’t be bothered to find out how to do it.

        • MW says:

          8 Sep8 September 12:08

          That was my feeling based on what the agent was saying, I had to explain twice what I needed done and she just said, no – call exec club and said she won’t help.

          Hoping the seats come back (availability is currently F5 A5), but it’s possible they are gone for good (disappeared just after the call to US).

        • Pete M says:

          8 Sep8 September 12:36

          There is no such thing as US call centres, just the same UK, Indian and SA ones you’d reach from here. So just bad luck basically…

• George K says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:54

  General knowledge question: Does anyone know the reasons why some destinations push for covid document verification via Verifly whereas others (usually UK outbounds) can be done via MMB? Why can’t everything be done via MMB?

  • Pete M says:

    8 Sep8 September 12:37

    It’s not the destinations, it’s BA.

    • George K says:

      8 Sep8 September 13:05

      OK – any idea…why? Is the plan to have everything brought under MMB in the future?

      • Pete M says:

        8 Sep8 September 13:48

        That I am not sure about – would be interested to find out too if someone knows!

        • meta says:

          8 Sep8 September 16:16

          There was a talk about unifying a global recognition globally a while back. Airlines invested in developing various systems such as Verifly, IATA pass, etc. Whether this will happen remains to be seen, but given that vaccination has brought out the worst kind of nationalism, I doubt this will ever happen.

          IATA pass is still in trial and by invitation only. I think Verifly is too that’s why not many countries are on it.

• Ragged99 says:

  8 Sep8 September 11:54

  Hi, Does anyone know of any restrictions on qatar releasing reward seats to BA for next August?. I’m trying to complete the 3rd leg of LGW>DOH DOH>MLE MLE>DOH and back to LGW. I have all of the other flights, but Qatar have nothing coming back from MLE next August. They have flights inbound to MLE every day and I’m pretty sure the planes aren’t piling up at the end of the run way. Is it possibly a systems glitch? I was on the phone at midnight 355 days before and they never appeared and haven’t done since. Any suggestions, before I just go and buy a commercial ticket?

  • Jonathan says:

    8 Sep8 September 13:14

    No guarantees on QR availability for BA redemptions. I definitely wouldn’t expect to see them at -355 days, much more likely they would appear down the line when they can more accurately predict if they will fill the plane with cash sales.

    It’s also not uncommon to see discrepancies in availability based on flight timings. Eg. It’s always harder to get a business redemption flying US-Europe as it’s overnight & therefore more people/travel policies willing to pay for the flat bed rather than Premium Economy.

    • Ragged99 says:

      8 Sep8 September 16:12

      Thanks Jonathan,

      Aha I was expecting the -355 rue to apply as that was what happened with the outbound leg. SO in order to confirm the flights (its for our honey moon so I’d like to tick it off the list) I’m tempted to just book the leg on a commercial seat. And then when the flights get released try to book the reward seats, and if successful then cancel the commercial ones for a FTV or a direct refund if booked direct with Qatar?
      Can q miles be converted directly to Avios?

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