The HfP chat thread – Thursday 9th September

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Aston100 says:

9 Sep9 September 13:24

Any thoughts on Finnair longhaul business class, as used on flights to Thailand and that region.
Where does it sit in respect to other European carriers J hard & soft products?

I seem to recall someone saying it was a dull sterile experience but quite efficient.
- Andrew says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:35
  
  It’s a solid European style long haul business class – not going to give the ME3 sleepless nights, but certainly decent enough and the service is really attentive and genuine – the kind of service you get when you get a good BA crew rather than the can’t be bothered crew you often get. A350 seat is the best one to aim for.
- Louie says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:37
  
  I flew Tokyo to Helsinki on an A350 in late 2019 and enjoyed it very much, both the hard and soft products. Made me invest in some Iittala Ultima Thule tumblers when I got to Helsinki!
- AJA says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:57
  
  +1 for Finnair although be careful which biz class tickets you buy. They have recently introduced a Biz Lite ticket, like Qatar Airways, that really just gives you the seat on the plane, no lounge access, no seat pre-selection etc.
  
  That said the seats on board are decent, especially the A350 and their service is really attentive. I love their signature Gin with Rosemary and Cranberries. I got through 8 of them on my return flight from BKK!. If you do get lounge access (on the right ticket or via OW Sapphire or Emerald tiers) they have a fantastic lounge in Helsinki and of course if they return to T3 at LHR you get to use the Cathay Pacific lounge. Plus you get 80 TP on the LHR-HEL sector so a return flight to BKK would earn you 440TP currently 10TP short of Silver (plus the necessary 4 flights on BA or IB numbers)
  - meta says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:17
    
    Yes, also flew them to Tokyo. In addition to the standard fare, they also have several Finnish options on the flight. You can also pre-order meals such as raindeer, etc. The crew was amazing on my flight. I’d say on par with ME3. They absolutely insisted I sample all their alcholic options. So I tried all of the Finnish G&T and some more options, cloudberry, blueberry… They also have signature alcoholic drink which you can have as welcome. Nice pine ice cream too, and since it was sakura season when I went, they had special desserts too.
    
    Hard product is ok, better than CW, but not as good as Club Suite.
    - Aston100 says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 15:25
      
      Thanks everyone.
Duncan says:

9 Sep9 September 13:28

Covid Testing – Portugal
I’m off to Portugal in a weeks time. (BA flight)
Could anyone recommend who I should by the Covid tests from, that are needed to enter Portugal and then come back to the UK. First trip since Covid so have not got a clue!
Thanks
- Tracey says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:39
  
  Coming home, find a local provider in Portugal, around 20 euro. For your plf/ day 2 test use nationwide pathology £40.
- Aliks says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:39
  
  I wouldnt worry too much about tests in Portugal, we were in the Algarve in July and it seemed every corner pharmacy offered low cost testing.
  
  We got a Rapid Antigen test very cheaply, just a short walk from out Villamoura hotel, and results by email in 30 mins.
  
  It depends where you are going in Portugal, but just google search covid testing
JimmyJimmy says:

9 Sep9 September 13:28

My 2 years without an Amex credit card is up and I am now back in the game 🙂

I wanted to confirm my credit card plan.

I’m doing this solo as Mrs J doesn’t want to play (other then spending in a supplementary card)

Card 1 – I recently jumped on the Marriott CC offer, have meet the spend so just waiting to round up spend, pts getting transferred and will close for prorate refund of fee.

Card 2 – planning on Amex gold.

I believe I am correct that I receive the MR pts bonus even though I have a Marriott card as Marriott is not a MR card?

(I am put off the Amex platinum by the £595 fee)

Card 3 – BA premier plus

Although there is a bonus offer just now I will wait to next year before applying to spread spend targets and planning 2for1 flight.

Is the above correct?

Thanks

J
- Scallder says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 14:20
  
  This was covered last week – can’t go to gold but can do Platinum: https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/09/07/what-amex-sign-up-bonuses-can-you-get/
  - JimmyJimmy says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 17:02
    
    Thanks scallder and Ghengus, my plan is flawed obviously, time for re-think.
    J
- Genghis says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 14:36
  
  Just apply on behalf of Mrs JimmyJimmy. I do. With Amex, it used to be harder to cancel Mrs G’s cards than apply for them; no longer with chat.
LessCleverAndrew says:

9 Sep9 September 13:31

Hello all,
Can I redeem my and my wife’s BA 241 in a single booking given that we are in the same fandamily account? I cant do it online because I can’t “see” her 241. Hoping for a y/n here rather than wait and wait on their chat. A quick google didnt shed any light on this scenario.
- Louie says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:33
  
  No
  - LessCleverAndrew says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 13:45
    
    So the answer is two separate bookings. A bit of a faff and slightly risky then.
    - Anna says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 15:53
      
      Risky in terms of what, losing the reward seats? You could make your bookings at the same time but if there’s plenty of award availability you should be ok. Also, we often travel on separate bookings (2 on avios/241 and the 3rd on cash) and never have issues getting seats together.
berneslai says:

9 Sep9 September 13:31

How long for the Plat Amex restaurant credit to be applied? Had a miserable experience in the Ivy Market Grill so am keen to get at least some of the bill back…
- Tom says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:40
  
  +1 same experience at the Market Grill and that comes from someone who is a big fan of The Ivy. Service wasn’t up to scratch. 2 mains arrived cold and had to be sent back, no acknowledgement of it arriving cold and when bill arrived they had added the 2 replacement mains to the bill as well!
  - berneslai says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 13:44
    
    Sounds like we had a very similar experience.
  - KBuffett says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:08
    
    Is this the one in Covent Garden?
  - Jonathan says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 16:24
    
    That’s a pretty damming inditement considering their food is all made in a central kitchen so the only thing they have to do onsite is heat it up!
Josh says:

9 Sep9 September 13:33

Hi all,

Trying to book a BA Holiday (flight + hotel) using an eVoucher however when reaching the payment page, I can only input my card number. Do I need to call up to use an evoucher and if so, which is the best number?

Ideally i’d avoid the long call times.

Thanks!
- MiddleEngland says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:48
  
  Unfortunately, eVouchers can only be used against flights not BA Holidays. I fell foul of this and spent ages on the phone to find out!
  - Josh says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:11
    
    Are you sure? It’s been mentioned several times previous that we can use an eVoucher for BA Holidays! I just havent figured out how yet.
  - WaynedP says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:14
    
    I was under the impression from previous comments that evouchers could be applied to a balance outstanding on a BA Holiday, but not to an initial deposit. Have I misunderstood ?
    - WaynedP says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 14:18
      
      Maybe that was via email, and you had to call to apply to an initial deposit.
      
      I’m not sure there’s anyway to do it seamlessly as part of the booking process.
    - Josh says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 14:22
      
      I cant see an option to make an initial deposite for a BA holiday once checking out. Do I need to tick anything beforehand?
- ChrisC says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 14:31
  
  You cannot use a voucher to book a BA Holiday online – you need to pay the deposit in cash.
  
  You can then apply the voucher to paying off the balance by calling BA holidays or emaling them the voucher number saying ‘please apply this voucher to booking ref ..’
  
  If you want to use it for the DEPOSIT then you need to call BA Hols and tell them that right from the start of the call before you start to feed them the flight numbers etc etc
  - Josh says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 15:38
    
    I just realised my issue. I am unable to pay a deposit because my trip is in 2 weeks. I guess this means it’s impossible to utilise an eVoucher for this trip?
    
    Thanks
    - AJA says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 16:47
      
      Unfortunatley you are out of luck if you’re that close to the holiday.
- James says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 21:09
  
  Crazy there isn’t just a way of doing this online
Alex Sm says:

9 Sep9 September 13:37

This just came through! Is it just me or Curve fell out with Creation?

“ With immediate effect we will be unable to process any transactions using your Curve Card where the transaction is allocated to your Creation issued credit card”
- NC says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:40
  
  Must just be you, no one else in the last 9 pages has had this.
  - Alex Sm says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:00
    
    They might have been paused for lunch in sending the text messages as no single message about this on page 10!
- Ernie says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:44
  
  I’ve got it too.
  
  Use my curve for everything just about. I do rinse about £14k a week through NSandI mind.
  
  Ah well. Just Hilton to “earn” then.
  - BuildBackBetter says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 13:49
    
    Wow, 14k a week? Must be a joke?
    - BP says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 13:51
      
      Nope. Many people have been taking full advantage for a long time, myself included. All good things come to an end.
    - Mike says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 13:59
      
      14k is conservative
  - ehcomp says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 15:54
    
    Hi Ernie – I’d be very interested to understand more about the NS&I trick – something I must have missed 🙂 Please could you explain? Thank you
- ehcomp says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:45
  
  + 1 looks like I’ll have to use another underlying card… curve is starting to lose its appeal.
  - Alex Sm says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:01
    
    Oh god, I invested money in them and they were very cocky recently about their growth. Hope Rob will shed some light as he is on good terms with Curve
    - KBuffett says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 14:10
      
      Shed light on what? It’s clearly not a viable business model. They piss away the funds they receive from every raise.
  - Ernie says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:06
    
    That’s the problem, I’ve only got Hilton left. It was a fantastic run, plenty of points for when I finally get to travel again – well without jumping through hoops.
- Dr C says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 13:48
  
  I think this one is a bit worn out now!
- Gary says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 14:27
  
  I received the same message today and have done zero by way of MS.
Kevin C says:

9 Sep9 September 13:39

New (to me) on Bonvoy Moments: ‘Tour + Viewing Party at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s Brackley Headquarters’. 24th October, 35,000 points for two tickets.
- Fazzy Bear says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 14:09
  
  Seems pretty decent value for those interested in F1. No auction like the football either.
- Young L says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 14:10
  
  Thank you, just redeemed 2 tickets.
  - Rob says:
    
    9 Sep9 September 14:14
    
    Appeared yesterday – dropping it in tomorrow.
    - Njb says:
      
      9 Sep9 September 20:34
      
      Its sold out
      - Rob says:
        
        9 Sep9 September 21:34
        
        Yes, annoying. I saw this late last night but didn’t want to break up what was planned for today.
- Rob says:
  
  9 Sep9 September 14:14
  
  Booked mine this morning! Had the points but there is also a bonus (up to 50%) on purchasing Bonvoy points – 35K would cost around $300
- Tariq says:
  
  19 Sep19 September 12:17
  
  Did it a couple of years ago, makes a great day out, especially if the team win 🏆