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The HfP chat thread – Friday 10th September

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

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

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.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page.  If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here.  This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

Category

General

Comments (617)

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

  • Sukes says:
    10 Sep10 September 15:48

    If anyone fancies a trip to Ireland next yr BA has LHR-DUB economy wide open for £43 return Jan-Mar 2022 inc over St Patrick’s day. Good flying times too (although bear in mind BA might consolidate flights if loads aren’t sufficient). Need to price as a return to see these fares, they won’t show on singles.

    • ChrisC says:
      10 Sep10 September 16:21

      BA having a flash sale – book by 13th September – 500.000 seats avsailable for under £40 each way HBO fares

    • Rich says:
      10 Sep10 September 16:33

      I was surprised to see LHR-GVA for £95rtn on a Plus fare in Jan.

      Even more surprised to see only £40 more to add NCL legs.

    • Travel Strong says:
      10 Sep10 September 18:42

      Speaking of GVA: is there any particular reason for the huge numbers of BHX-GVA flights that Easyjet plan to restart later in the year? They don’t really fly much from BHX…. Except lots to GVA. Assume there is (or was) a popular business travel route for some reason?

      • Nick says:
        10 Sep10 September 18:44

        BHX-GVA is entirely for skiing. Hence winter only. It’s operated by their Swiss subsidiary (same as some other UK-GVA routes; BOH was one for a while).

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      10 Sep10 September 20:50

      Thanks! Was thinking about booking St Patrick’s day the other day. Time to speak to a mate to use there Hotline account!

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    10 Sep10 September 16:30

    12% back at M & M Direct via Taco Bell. Not available on the BA store

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      10 Sep10 September 16:30

      New customers only, forgot to add!

      • Super Secret Stuff says:
        10 Sep10 September 17:08

        Just placed an order with an RRP of £168.94, more realistic is £120 to £150. Only costing £79.94, stacked with Amex and TaCo Bell means it only costs £60.35.

        If it arrives onetime I will be one very happy SSS! Time for the OH to do an order hahaha

    • SteveJ says:
      10 Sep10 September 16:33

      Taco Bell, brilliant!

  • KZ says:
    10 Sep10 September 16:33

    A number of events just dropped on the Amex Experiences App, including some fairly interesting ones…

  • Gary says:
    10 Sep10 September 16:50

    Can anyone point me in the direction of an article that I can’t search for as I don’t recall the precise details.
    It was in the past few months and related to a small London hotel chain that was doing a membership/subscription based model of X stays per month…?

    TiA

  • Pete M says:
    10 Sep10 September 16:55

    Reply to my complaint to BA about them not paying for the priority security lane at BER – you really couldn’t make this up:

    “We’ve made the decision to stop this service temporarily, in order to adhere to the current Covid-19 guidelines. This is one of the many changes we’ve had to make to ensure the safety of our passengers and staff whilst this pandemic remains ongoing.”

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      10 Sep10 September 16:59

      Complaining works, even if the replies are nonsense. BA have reinstated access to the lounge in Bologna which includes fast track. I pointed out that in BLQ a BA Gold member gets the same ground experience whether flying BA or Ryanair.

      • Pete M says:
        10 Sep10 September 17:03

        Agreed, hence I do it regularly. But it’s insane 9/10 times I am angrier after receiving their response than I was originally…!

  • jek says:
    10 Sep10 September 16:57

    We have the choice to return from Malaga to London at 4pm to LHR or at 2pm to LCY in two weeks. Given the potential chaos at LHR T5, should we sacrifice 2h of holiday to fly to LCY instead? How is the situation at LCY at the moment?

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      10 Sep10 September 17:04

      I’ve been lucky and had no issues with LHR, the big issues were caused by people returning for the school holidays and so future issues are less likely.
      It depends where you live. If LCY is convenient take that. I’d not choose LCY if the airport isn’t convenient.
      When I lived in London I could be home in 20 minutes from LCY so if it was an option I would choose it.
      Also worth considering the on-board product. In economy CityFlyer is much better, still have a free bar. In business it’s less clear cut. I still prefer it, but as there’s no middle seats there’s nothing to block.

    • Richie says:
      10 Sep10 September 17:32

      If 2 hours is a smallish proportion of your total holiday time, then LCY.

    • Ben W says:
      10 Sep10 September 18:17

      Flew Malaga to LCY on Sunday and was in a cab less than 15 minutes after touchdown.

      • Lady London says:
        10 Sep10 September 18:52

        LCY.

        The only negative with LCY is if you land on a weekend, need public transport DLR/Tube, and once again that’s a weekend where London Transport is doing maintenance on the DLR or just possibly, the Jubilee Line which a lot of people will connect to.

        Otherwise LCY all the time right now.

    • ChrisC says:
      10 Sep10 September 19:55

      Depends on where your final destination is and if you’ve left a car or arranged a pick up at LHR or not.

      I’d prefer LCY over LHR anyway.

      It’s easy enough to check the TFL website to see if any engineering works might affect LCY but LHR isn’t immune from them either.

  • Ryan Gill says:
    10 Sep10 September 17:07

    Why not let people crack on. Publicity is still helpful and let’s companies see peoples genuine opinions. If they stop paying you, because of allowing genuine opinion then give them a roasting. Hfp only wants to give credible stuff publicity anyway.

    • Rob says:
      10 Sep10 September 17:14

      That’s not what we’re talking about ….

      • Red Flyer says:
        10 Sep10 September 17:47

        Agreed – HfP used to be a genuine travel blog but more and more now the chat comments are just people sharing their exploits at how they played the system to generate excess credit card points or vouchers from dubious ‘spending ’.

        • Polly says:
          10 Sep10 September 21:46

          And it will once again focus on travel, once we though this minefield we are living through. Saying that, enough people are travelling atm, and am enjoying reading about their trips. Encouraged us to ferry it to France, OH not risking a plane yet.

    • ChrisC says:
      10 Sep10 September 17:24

      Rob relies on the regular advertising income to keep the site working and for him (and Rhys) to earn a living.

      When you have people posting stuff that is against the rules of the product or against the interests of the advertisers then he has to take action to protect his income.

      Robust and valid critisism is always OK but promoting activities that can potentially harm HfP and Advertisers isn’t.

      • Lady London says:
        10 Sep10 September 18:57

        Rob loves robust and genuine well-founded criticism as a means of getting products improved and showing who his readers are customers of.

        But the against the rules exploitation of financial products will not be able to be tolerated on a forum thread as the subject. Anyone who wasn’t prepared to pay attention and keep in close touch with comments and do their own searching on HfP if necessary, is going to find even less available to them if there’s just a forum.

  • Phil says:
    10 Sep10 September 17:18

    Yeah the Ivy would be kid friendly. It’s generally a friendly place.

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

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