The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 14th September

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Ollie says:

14 Sep14 September 12:40

I’m preparing to try the “booking 355 days in advance” tip in a couple of weeks for Oct half term 2021 to St Lucia (any advice hugely welcome).

We’re a family of 4 and want to use our 2x Companion Vouchers (earned before the changes). Do they usually release 4x Business Class flights at midnight for the Caribbean destinations?
- Ollie says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 12:42
  
  2022 even!
  - Jonathan says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 13:26
    
    Yes, they now release 4 J on every flight. That is all I’d expect at T-355
- Jamie says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:27
  
  Yes, I booked for Barbados last week.
  - Ollie says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 13:32
    
    Thank you both. Fingers crossed it works!
  - Ollie says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 14:35
    
    Jamie could I ask which number you used at midnight as I’ve read the USA is sometimes unwilling to do Avios bookings at the moment?
- Anna says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:35
  
  Ollie – IME taxes/fees from the Caribbean to the UK aren’t that much more on a separate booking (unlike the return from the US), so it can make sense to grab your return seats as soon as they are released online and contact BA at your leisure to get the avios refunded if you have enough to do this. It might cost an extra £50 or so pp but I think it’s worth it if you’re worried that someone else is going to snap up the seats and that you might struggle to get BA on the phone at that time.
  Also make sure that you check whether we’ve moved to GMT when you make the booking as otherwise they are released around 1 am rather than midnight.
  - Ollie says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 13:46
    
    Anna – thank you for this – it sounds like golden info but just want to make sure I’m understanding correctly.
    
    At midnight 355 days from the outbound flight I should be calling BA in the USA and booking 4 x seats – https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/04/01/when-does-british-airways-release-avios-reward-flights-2/
    
    I was planning a 10 day holiday so I was under the impression I should do the exact same process 10 days later to get the return flights, is this not correct?
    
    Definitely want to get this right so appreciate your patience with this first-timer!
    - Ollie says:
      
      14 Sep14 September 13:57
      
      Got it actually (I think)
      
      Book 4 x outbound with 2 vouchers @ 150,000 avios
      Book 4 x inbound online without 2 vouchers @ 300,000, call and have 150,000 of them refunded.
      
      Annoyingly I think I’ll be about 20,000 avios short!
      - Number9 says:
        
        14 Sep14 September 14:10
        
        I don’t know how much they would cost ( site appears to be down) but if only a few avois short consider buying them they hit your account immediately. Might be worth it to secure seats especially in school holidays.
      - Anna says:
        
        14 Sep14 September 14:43
        
        Consider returning in economy or premium – you don’t get much of a service on overnight flights (which Caribbean/US usually are) so you’re effectively paying a lot of avios for a few hours in a flat bed which isn’t actually that comfortable to sleep on!
    - Anna says:
      
      14 Sep14 September 14:41
      
      You don’t need to call to book outbound flights, just select your vouchers and make a one way booking. It only gets complicated when you need to book the return as the voucher can’t be used for this and you need to reclaim the extra avios.
      - Ollie says:
        
        14 Sep14 September 14:50
        
        Thank you.
Andrew H says:

14 Sep14 September 12:46

Quick question – do Virgin ever sell points for less than the 1.5p/point listed on their site

Also – what is the actual number of days that their future timetable is active – seems something like 9 or 10 months?

(Need to get my ducks in a row for a NY/LON upper class return in late October next year making sure it’s a A350-1000; it looks like being a peak ticket)
- Andrew H says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 12:51
  
  Correction, looks more like 48 weeks?
- Rob says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:57
  
  Yes, you get occasional bonuses if you can wait long enough.
- ChrisC says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 14:06
  
  VS release seats 333 days in advance so (almost) 11 months.
  
  I wouldn’t book a flight based on what plane is scheduled almosta year in advance.
  - Andrew H says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 19:12
    
    Yes, but if there’s a choice of plane listed now you’d take the one that’s currently showing A350-1000 for Virgin UC wouldn’t you?
  - Chas says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 21:49
    
    I thought it was T-330 with VS?
swifty says:

14 Sep14 September 12:55

I just can’t cope, Amex have charged me 250 when I took the bapp in august, please link me to the relevant section. I am hitting my head against a brick wall with chat
- Blindman says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 12:58
  
  I rang them today-Call answered quickly and an assurance the £55 will be refunded as they know it’s their fault.
  - swifty says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 13:02
    
    theyre saying on live chat that becasue the first statement generated is 5th sept that its the new charge??
    - CarpalTravel says:
      
      14 Sep14 September 13:12
      
      It’s their own T&C’s:
      
      “If a cardmembership fee applies, we’ll charge it for each membership year (consecutive periods of 12 months beginning on the date your account is opened) beginning on the first statement date and then monthly (if it’s a monthly fee) and otherwise
      annually.”
      
      Seems pretty clear to me.
    - CarpalTravel says:
      
      14 Sep14 September 13:15
      
      By that I mean: “beginning on the date your account is opened”
      
      The overall wording is awful.
- Andrew M says:
  
  15 Sep15 September 09:05
  
  A VS agent told me yesterday on Whatsapp that flights could be booked 331 days in advance.
Andrew H says:

14 Sep14 September 12:56

For anyone skiing in Austria this winter it seems like they are going to extend the 270 days after 2nd jab as condition of entry to 360 days.

I’d hopefully have a booster in November anyway, but even on my old vax schedule I’d now be OK, whereas the 270 days fell right in the middle of a holiday I’d booked a while ago
swifty says:

14 Sep14 September 13:05

Rob, can you confirm that amex will charge people if they take the new bapp before September if that’s the first statement they generate in September? I didn’t read that in your article. iLive chat are saying that its a 195 charge if they upgraded from blue before sept
- Rob says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:54
  
  You are likely to be charged £250 by the computer but the call centre has been briefed on the issue and will refund you £55 as long as your upgrade or new application was approved by 31st August.
  - swifty says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 15:04
    
    thanks Rob
Sam G says:

14 Sep14 September 13:06

Warning for anyone with the plat restaurant offer – the Ivy in Oxford is charging Amex as the Ivy Asia London, which isn’t on the list for a credit. I’m getting the runaround getting it resolved, Amex say Ivy have to recharge it correctly and Ivy say it isn’t their problem. Formal complaints in with both but might be worth avoiding if possible (especially as the service was pretty poor!)
- Jonathan says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:36
  
  How long ago was the transaction? You may well find that it sorts itself out after 4 or 5 days. Things often appear under a different name when pending. There have been many cases reported here with hotel offers initially tracking under a different name/brand but it all working out without intervention.
  - Shaw West says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 13:37
    
    I had to wait for my last promotion when I used it buy a Selfridges Gift card. It posted finally
  - Sam G says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 13:45
    
    10 days ago & it’s posted fully under the wrong merchant (you do indeed often see very strange things on Amex pending!) so I’m pretty sure that it won’t correct itself. Just unfortunate they hadn’t managed to mix it up with another Ivy that is also on the list!
    
    Amex have sent it to “back office” now for someone to have a look at so will see what happens
- swifty says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:37
  
  had that with IHG offer, been getting run around because the code wasn’t correct on the hotel machine. Still chasing and escalating my “concer” a month later!
  - Sam G says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 14:02
    
    it would be easiest for the merchant to resolve it by correcting the MID on the machine and then refund/recharge your card. I worked in hotel IT before and this would have been a 5 minute job once alerted to the problem, groups often have many MIDs for various uses and it wasn’t unusual to use the wrong one by mistake or use it to start with because it was taking far too long to get the one you needed set up and then forget to update it. Just finding the right person to fix it seems very difficult…
- Memesweeper says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 14:14
  
  Dispute the charge: “I’ve never even been once to Ivy Asia London!”
  
  then either they’ll fix it, or you got a free lunch…
  - Super Secret Stuff says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 14:24
    
    +1 I would play them at there own game. If it’s not the Ivy you were expecting I need to report it as fraud…
    - Sam G says:
      
      14 Sep14 September 15:05
      
      I’ll give them the 7-10 days they asked for otherwise I’ll just do this for sure.
Iain says:

14 Sep14 September 13:18

I’m due to fly with the wife to Barbados on the 14th of October for a special birthday, It’s a business class reward flight which I booked last November.
Barbados have just imposed a tighter curfew which runs from 9pm till 5am and 6pm on a Sunday!
It’s only due to last for 2 weeks, but their government have said they will extend it if vaccination rates don’t pick up.
On top of that, there’s lots of horror stories about arrival tests taking several days to get the results and some being lost altogether!

All in all that doesn’t fill me with confidence for a weeks trip.

I’m considering cancelling so I wonder if I could ask for some advice?

Firstly, How late would I be able to cancel my flights? If I do, what would be the best thing to do? Take a FTV or ask for a refund of charges and avios?

Secondly, any tips for a decent alternative for my Birthday? I would prefer long haul, but looking around there doesn’t seem to be many options! I’m thinking maybe Dubai or perhaps just the Greek Islands.
- John says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:28
  
  Your choices are refund everything you paid less £35 per person, or FTV for full value of what you paid to be reused on another award flight for the same passengers.
- Rob says:
  
  14 Sep14 September 13:52
  
  Half term (16-30 Oct) is the most expensive fortnight of the year in Dubai, except for Christmas, so do it a week earlier if you head that way.
  
  We’ll be in Barbados though!
  - Iain says:
    
    14 Sep14 September 14:33
    
    Cheers to both…I’ll be gutted if I put off Barbados. I’m a big rum geek and this would have been a bit of a pilgrimage for me.
    
    I am tempted with an FTV and putting it off to next year. Would allow me to book a holiday in Greece and get my wife and I silver status in one go – as per your advice on that one.
    
    I have a couple of weeks to see how things pan out in Barbados.
    - Ryan says:
      
      14 Sep14 September 20:03
      
      I’m currently in Barbados and if you have tickets in club booked I definitely wouldn’t cancel. We had our arrivals test taken at about 4pm the day we arrived and had the results back by 10am the next morning. Everyone sticks to wearing masks whilst at the bars ordering or walking in to restaurants. Other than that everything is very normal here and having a great time!
Anna says:

14 Sep14 September 13:22

Have you tried increasing your limit on the HH card? I managed to get mine quite substantially through the app a few months ago when I was in a similar situation.