The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 14th September

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• N says:

  14 Sep14 September 16:37

  potentially have a work trip to Spain in early November, which is just before a trip to Dubai. does anyone know how it would work with testing etc, if I was to fly back from Barcelona to London on a Friday morning/afternoon and then fly back out to Dubai on a late flight the same evening
  the reason i’m not planning on flying directly from Barcelona to Dubai is that I have some instruments that I need to take to Dubai and the more flights i take them on, the more risk there is to the sound of the instrument. so I ideally want to reduce the exposure

  Anyone have any ideas on how it would work with testing , considering I would have to do a test before leaving Barcelona and also before flying to Dubai?

  • Tracey says:

    14 Sep14 September 16:53

    Who knows what the rules would be in November.

    Current rules would be an antigen test in Barcelona upto 3 day before your flight. Complete a plf and buy a day 2 PCR. As you will have left the country before the end of day 2 you can re use the day 2 PCR code for your return from Dubai. I don’t know what the requirements to enter Dubai are, so you need to check on that. Returning from Dubai to the UK you need a PCR before your flight (only because antigen lateral flow tests aren’t recognised in Dubai, complete a plf again with the code from the day 2 test your bought previously.

    • N says:

      14 Sep14 September 17:05

      Thanks Tracey that’s very helpful. Let’s see what the rule change is after October 1st for tests. It would be good to defer my day 2 test to when I arrive back from Dubai as you say

• Simon says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:00

  Vanguard deposits via Bendy

  Sorry for this old chestnut, but it’s been more than a year since I last topped up my Vanguard account, so forgive me. Would any HFPer be kind enough to confirm whether either HH or Virgin, underlying Bendy, still enable fee-free Vanguard deposits? Sorry again &#128543, but many thanks in advance.

  • Youllnever says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:01

    Coincidentally, this was just discussed on page 9.

    • Simon says:

      14 Sep14 September 17:34

      Ah. 🙂 Many thanks, Youllnever!

  • ChrisBCN says:

    14 Sep14 September 21:35

    Well done on the use of bolding , I don’t remember seeing that in the comments before!

    • Rob says:

      14 Sep14 September 21:52

      Neither do I 🙂

      Although I can do this and this and this.

      But have never done so before now!

      • ChrisBCN says:

        14 Sep14 September 22:35

        Well this is rather

        excellent!

        • ChrisBCN says:

          14 Sep14 September 22:35

          Hmm blockquote didn’t work, looks like we only have the three to play with!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      14 Sep14 September 22:39

      Is it with *this*?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        14 Sep14 September 22:41

        Nope maybe this

        • TGLoyalty says:

          14 Sep14 September 22:42

          And this

        • ChrisBCN says:

          14 Sep14 September 22:42

          you got it!

• Glenn says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:15

  Hi, I have a Las Vegas booking in October, but with the USA travel ban you can’t go direct from UK. The booking is on an Amex 241 voucher in Club. The 241 voucher expires July 2022. I’d like to extend the 241 Amex voucher beyond July22, is this possible?

  • Anna says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:19

    Cancel for a FTV, valid till Sep 23.

    • Glenn says:

      14 Sep14 September 17:23

      Thanks!

• Anna says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:17

  “Holiday prices will be ‘dramatically higher’, says Ryanair boss
  Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has warned that prices will increase as passengers rush to holiday in Europe next summer.

  O’Leary said the huge demand for 2022 holidays would coincide with fewer flights, meaning a price rise for flights and also for hotels.”

  And I was mocked for booking that far out!

  • Anna says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:19

    Though I’m sure O’Leary is also trying to ensure that everyone will book (and pay) asap. 🤣

  • Peter K says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:29

    Surely that’s just a ruse to get people to start panic booking for next year. If the demand is very high then they’ll just put on more flights.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      14 Sep14 September 18:27

      There is only a limited number of planes, many older short haul ones have been scraped or retired early to help airlines survive. Production also slowed massively. That said it will be counter balanced by eco friendly choices like trains and domestic holidays

  • Laura says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:30

    I’m sure he said that about this summer and it’s still possible to fly for £20 return at the moment!

  • CarpalTravel says:

    14 Sep14 September 18:33

    Basically any statement that comes out of his mouth can be prefixed with him having the thought: “how can I further line my pockets?”.

    Any words that emit after that thought are merely whatever he thinks will achieve the objective. End of. 🙄

    • Jeff Greene says:

      14 Sep14 September 20:28

      Yeah. Have a look at his previous statements about the travel recovery. Everything was going be back to normal by last Xmas (this is a slight exaggeration but not far of the nonsense he spouted)

  • J says:

    14 Sep14 September 20:24

    Unfortunately he’s usually right. I regret selling my Ryanair shares some time ago

• Andrew says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:20

  Looking positive: Boris said the government would “be saying a lot more shortly about the traffic light system, about simplifying it and about what we can do to make the burden of testing less onerous for those coming back into the country, that’ll be coming shortly”.

  • tony says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:42

    Have we not learnt by now to turn everything the buffoon in chief says upside down? Be no surprise to me if by the end of the week there’s a truly kaleidoscopic tiering system and to make testing easier, it’s PCRs all round at the “easy to remember price” of just £100 a pop.

  • Mouse says:

    14 Sep14 September 18:05

    See also the Javid quote on p10

  • Anna says:

    14 Sep14 September 18:09

    And yet they are threatening further lockdowns if we get a winter wave so I can’t see tests being dropped for travel.

    • r* says:

      14 Sep14 September 19:47

      It sort of reads like it will be the absurd situation of needing an lfa 3 days before flying to uk and then an lfa within 3 days of landing, which would be fine if the nhs ones can be used but if it needed to be a paid lfa upon landing it would be even more pointless than the day 2 pcr.

• Harley says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:28

  Have just raised my first CEDR case as BA refused to reroute me despite cancelling my flight unless i paid more in fees ( non covid issue).
  Wanting to raise another about their poor CS worth multiple agents telling fibs and long delays – does anyone know who i should raise this too? Not sure if its a cedr issue but ba have sent deadlock letter about it and im determined for them not to stay off the hook

  • Aston100 says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:40

    Just needs someone with sufficient time & motivation to start an awareness campaign against BA’s shenanigans.
    I’m sure plenty will rally round.

    After that, I would hope the toothless regulator is forced to take steps.

    • JDB says:

      14 Sep14 September 17:50

      Unfortunately the regulator can’t do anything about general customer service issues.

      • Lady London says:

        14 Sep14 September 18:55

        On an individual case though, whether in court or Ombudsman (court better) if a really comprehensive pack of data was presented about times on phone to get through (or not get through) to BA, if a set of cases was logged where it could be seen that on, say, 60% of occasions BA agents are failing to inform passengers of their rights or misinforming them or systematically denying specific rights…

        Such a datapack could be collated, shared and maintained and used as evidence that BA is systematically obstructive through negligence (neglect to provide accessible ways of reaching BA) or deliberately. It could add up to a substantial support to anyone making an official complaint about BA or suing them.

        Who’s got the time though and how would this be funded? The best we can do seems to be to share information on issues, tips, and strategies on here.

  • JDB says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:48

    Even if you escalate your complaint to the CEO, it will wind its way back to the same people and if you already have a deadlock letter, they are unlikely to budge. To go to CEDR the questions are, a) what objectively did they do wrong (and some of it is subjective) and b) what is your measure of damages, ie what justifiable sum would you ask for (and time is valued at 0). It all sounds bad, but a bit familiar. BA will plead covid etc. I think most of us would like see them hauled up, but unfortunately I think it is unlikely and it will all cause you more stress.

  • Anna says:

    14 Sep14 September 18:11

    This is standard BA behaviour so you have to get used to it or stop giving them your custom! The CAA is the airline regulator but has shown repeatedly that it is not going to do anything about these issues.

    • Richie says:

      14 Sep14 September 18:16

      How is the CAA funded?

    • meta says:

      14 Sep14 September 20:51

      The only thing you can do is re-route yourself on the most convenient most expensive route and smack them hard on the pocket. Charge them for all the extra food costs, postage every single penny that’s permissible. My latest claim is was more than the double the cost of original flights! I’m done interacting with CS more than once. I am only dealing with BA Legal. It’s amazing how quickly things get resolved that way…

  • Mikeact says:

    14 Sep14 September 19:11

    @Harley…are you really saying they are trained to tell lies ?
    Always two sides to these type of comments from a non regular.

    • Mikeact says:

      14 Sep14 September 19:12

      And @Anna….they tell lies?

      • Mikeact says:

        14 Sep14 September 19:17

        @Anna..and as you made very clear not so long ago…these issues will not apply to yourself as you said you will not be purchasing anymore BA flights going forward….or was that a tongue in cheek porkie pie ?

        • Anna says:

          14 Sep14 September 20:43

          They can still muck around with award flights so I don’t think my future will be entirely free from BA’s BS.
          In the next 12 months I have 3 avios bookings and 3 easyJet, so the balance is starting to shift going forward.
          As for them being trained to tell lies, absolutely they are given a script full of misleading statements and downright untruths to try and deny customers what they are legally entitled to. Many, many instances of people on here being subject to this, including many regular posters.

    • r* says:

      14 Sep14 September 19:53

      The evidence is that they are told to tell lies, yes.

      Yesterday I had one on chat telling me that ‘the law’ only entitles me to a refund or a voucher when BA have cancelled the flight. It doesnt seem like its a few misinformed CS agents, it seems more like BA policy is to offer or fulfill their obligations. Whether thats due to CS agents just following the script and they dont actually know what theyre supposed to offer, or BA actively telling them to lie, I dont know.

      Has anyone had a CS agent merrily say ‘why yes, ofcourse I’ll reroute you on VS’? Didnt think so.

      • Anna says:

        14 Sep14 September 20:47

        It’s either a script or they are robots programmed to say the same thing!
        I’ve even had this to my face at the airport when my flight was cancelled and they were trying to tell me to come back in 2 days, “We don’t re-route on other airlines”. A very short time later they were paying £300 for a taxi to get us to an alternative airport.

      • Polly says:

        15 Sep15 September 04:36

        Agree, they absolutely refused to reply route us onto QR to HKT when they cancelled our 241 F and the KUL route. Instead, the best l could get from a CS, totally either misleading or just not knowing, was a return to SIN for this end of Oct. which we may be able to use or not. Said they didn’t have to get us to KUL. Tough.
        We just take it or like Meta, only deal with legal, after a MCOL case. But that takes a lot of time and energy.

    • meta says:

      14 Sep14 September 20:53

      Yes, they are trained. The agent read word for word from the training manual. Also one agent had a slippage and wrote me that they are liable under EU264, but in the second paragraph said that they are not going to pay up.

      • Mikeact says:

        14 Sep14 September 21:11

        Rob..probably difficult for you, as you are close to BA, but you need to nail this one on the head once and for all. Are BA agents trained to tell lies or are they inadvertently telling lies not knowingly ? Pretty easy to determine I would suggest.

• bafan says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:44

  Having an API issue with my booking – they can fix it at the airport right?

  • AL says:

    14 Sep14 September 23:38

    Yes, at check-in. My KTN always gets dropped from VS bookings and they add it back in each time in the Clubhouses.

• aviosnewbie says:

  14 Sep14 September 17:45

  Is there any way to overpay HH card? I have a very low limit and it takes 3 days for each transaction to clear and it stays Pending until then. I need to process like 4x of my limit tomorrow if possible. Is it possible?

  • Dan says:

    14 Sep14 September 17:52

    Faster Payment from your current account. Usually there within an hour and in your usable balance immediately once visible.

    • aviosnewbie says:

      14 Sep14 September 18:04

      Super! Thanks….I wonder why I didn’t think of that before and just did debit card payments from the app.

  • Jonathan says:

    14 Sep14 September 18:42

    If you want to spend more than credit limit in one day I’d call. Putting account in credit may cause it to be temporarily blocked & you may also find spending over credit limit is not possible regardless of balance.

    • Dan says:

      14 Sep14 September 19:13

      It’s fine with HH BC. Do it all the time since they put my limit down from 10k to 250!

      • The Savage Squirrel says:

        14 Sep14 September 19:36

        Ouch that’s mean! What did you to annoy them?

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