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The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 15th 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.

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Comments (418)

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

  • YC says:

    Question on BA evouchers – To get Amex travel cover (delay, baggage lost, etc). Is it advisable to not pay for the whole flight with vouchers and put something on the amex? If so, what is the minimum amount to get the travel protection? Get confused with S75 where I think its £100 min

    • AL says:

      Be careful here, YC. Section 75 applies to credit cards – if your Amex is a charge card, it doesn’t apply. But, regardless, AmEx has an insurance product that covers to the same extent as Section 75, even though it is not. Section 75 claims require *at least* £100 to go on to the card – I assume this is the same as their purchase protection. £100 itself will not suffice, so play it safe and stick £100.01 (or £101) on.

      There’s an HfP article about Amex and S75 at https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2020/04/17/use-section-75-to-get-a-flight-or-hotel-refund/.

      • StevieKicks says:

        S75 requires the total bill for each item to be over £100, but you’re still covered if you pay £1 of that on credit card and £99 in another way

      • YC says:

        Thanks AL – good spot on the £101 for S75. But I’m still unsure on how much needs to be paid to get travel insurance on Amex. £1?

      • Peter K says:

        Actually, for section 75 to apply, the value of the item/product being bought has to £100.01 or higher. Your can put any amount of it on a credit card and be covered.

  • Lee G says:

    After a spot of advice.

    We have a Feb ‘22 holiday booked with BA, originally due in and out of Gatwick but it’s one of those that has been moved to Heathrow.

    Am I within my rights to request that we depart from / arrive into an alternative airport? Manchester would be more convenient for us and they have flights on the same days (connecting at Heathrow), but wasn’t sure whether that’s a reasonable request.

    • Anna says:

      You don’t have EU261 rights with package holidays, if that’s what you’ve booked. It’s worth calling BA to discuss your options but you might just have to cancel and rebook.

      • Lee G says:

        It is a holiday Anna. Thanks for the info, I’ll give them a call when / if things calm down on their phones. Using Heathrow isn’t the end of the world, it’s just that Manchester is much easier to get to from Leeds!

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    Creation got a new logo on their app!

    (All the money saved by blocking Curve had to be spent somewhere!)

    • Rob says:

      For a company which has closed all their cards except one to new applicants it seems a weird way to blow the little cash they have.

      • StevieKicks says:

        Makes it seem like the rumours of them fully pulling out of the uk credit card market were wrong 🙂

        • Rob says:

          You’ve clearly never worked for a big company (this is BNP remember). Spending money on expensive new logos as the company crashes and burns is normal behaviour.

      • Doug M says:

        Nothing much about Creation makes sense.

      • Andrew says:

        Lloyds colours too.

    • Jonathan says:

      I had a quick look on Creation’s website and it’s page for credit cards currently available to new applications, only the white (sigh) as available (!), further below on the webpage there’s a picture of someone smiling and holding the black card, which has been closed to new applications for I think roughly 18 months !
      You could play dumb and ask them if you can apply for the card the pictured person is smiling and holding !

  • Sina says:

    Data point – I can now confirm that a gift card purchase at Morrissons got me(tracked):
    – 10% at Virgin Atlantic card
    – 5% at Virgin Atlantic supermarket promo
    – 8 points at Shops Away
    – 10% Airtime rewards
    – 10% Perks at Work

    Intending to use the gift card to buy new pair of Apple watches later this month!

    • MattB says:

      Nice, we’ve had similar although only 1% PAW for me and using Natwest instead of Virgin card.

      We now have had a £9 off £90 offer in the My Morrisions offers, wonder if this would work with gift cards?

      • Sina says:

        I didn’t know about vouchers, looked and have £12 off £120 spend! thanks for this!

        • mark2 says:

          I have that too, but previously I did not get it on gift cards.
          Remember that you are getting it off the bill and the system deciding knows exactly what you have bought. YMMV, nothing to lose!

      • Laura says:

        Small print says no gift cards, sadly

      • davefl says:

        I just tried it. 12 off 120. Doesnt work with gift cards

    • Anuj says:

      I never get the offer on my Airtime or Shops away anymore, so odd

    • the_real_a says:

      I swear some people would sleep with their wifes two sisters and post about it here the morning after…

    • Paul says:

      What was the 5% Virgin Atlantic Supermarket Promo?

      • Sina says:

        there was a promo from Virgin Atlantic credit card, 5% back at most supermarkets, up to £10. it’s gone now, but there is a %5 back at Amazon.

  • Aston100 says:

    A few days ago, I enquired here about Amex Plat insurance in regards to tyre replacement on a car hire.

    Can confirm this was indeed covered.
    Car was hired through some other Amex card.
    Claim process required an online submission which I found slightly confusing in regards to a page where you had to select various dates – all on that same page. But otherwise straight forward filling in various details and uploading receipt for the tyre and the car hire t&cs.

    Six days later, received the money straight into my bank account.

    Oddly, other than a confirmation email with my claim ref, there was no other contact, not even to confirm the claim was successful.

    Glad I didn’t cancel my Platinum card!

    • Aston100 says:

      Oh sorry, forgot to say this was a UK car hire. There was some speculation about whether UK is covered, or if the car hire has to be part of a trip or something.
      That did not seem to be the case here.

      • KS says:

        I’m glad it worked for you! T&Cs specifically change the definition of trip to include “any” journey for car rental within country of residence so I wouldn’t worry about a car rental being covered in UK even if it is for something like commute to work.

    • Rich says:

      I don’t think the car hire has to be paid on an Amex at all, to be covered on the Plat?

  • Andrew says:

    Manchester Airport “Live flight departures” page on their website doesn’t actually say when the aircraft departed! What’s the point of that ? 🤔

    • Richie says:

      If you provide the details of the flight, I’ll check it for you.

    • Rich says:

      A lot of the flight info systems don’t. Given the state use is for departing passengers, you can see why. Flightstats may have it.

    • Rhys says:

      Try FlightRadar24?

      • Jonathan says:

        You’d be amazed at how little land (or on a much lesser scale, sea / oceans) you can see most of the time on that app !

  • Gringo says:

    Can someone please confirm which DXB terminal BA fly into? The ticket says T1 but a rep told me it’s usually T3. Thanks!

    • Number9 says:

      My booking says terminal 1

    • Blenz101 says:

      T3 is the Emirates terminal (think T5 at LHR for BA).

      You will be going to/from T1 which is the terminal used by all international flights / non-EK airlines.

      For completeness T2 is the low cost regional terminal and home to flyDubai. Currently I think this is still closed post Covid.

    • Blair says:

      All airlines were using T3 till recently when volumes were lower

    • KP says:

      Definitely T1.

      It was temporarily T3 but back to T1 now

  • DAJ says:

    Apologies if this has been posted before (not traipsing through previous posts!) but have noticed a £100 back off a £300 spend offer on BAPP card for Eastern Airways.

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