Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 15th September

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Comments (418)

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

  • Ed says:

    Looks like it was indeed possible to convert those 5,000 (4,500) Qatar bonus miles over to 1,000 Accor points 🙂

    • FFoxSake says:

      +1 🙂

      • Rob says:

        Indeed it was – it seems you just needed to wait a couple of days for your new Qatar account to ‘settle’ in their IT system.

        • mr_jetlag says:

          So, after a few days “activity not allowed” will disappear from the QR conversion page? OR is there a super secret method…

          • Ed says:

            I had a few issues registering my name and address, so came back a day later. Was able to complete that, and then send the q miles over to accor, which have now landed

          • Rob says:

            It just disappeared for me.

  • Chris says:

    It might get taken back, it might not. You might be £200 up, but might have your account suspended/cancelled.
    YMMV.

    • Andrew says:

      An account shouldn’t be cancelled or suspended because an individual has unintentionally benefitted from an organisation’s sloppy processes.

      It’s not as if they bought their “mother-in-law” a stack of Christmas presents from Perspiring Patricia, Rubbery or Plastic Lakelands at the end of November, to deliberately take advantage of the extended returns policy, then disconnect PAW and Airtime on Hogmanay and return them in January after the Visa Offers had been credited.

  • Andy says:

    Got some Eurostar vouchers to use up and a free IHG night voucher so thinking of an overnight trip.. I guess given current Covid restrictions for Brussels and Amsterdam Paris might be a decent option. What’s the best IHG hotel to try and use my voucher at?

  • Definitas says:

    @Travel Strong: thanks for the link

  • DAJ says:

    Here’s an interesting one!

    Currently have an ex EU holiday booking for April 22. I have asked to be applied to said booking 2 e-vouchers totalling around £750.

    BA have auctioned my request to have these applied which they have just down but interestingly, they have reduced the price of the original booking total rather than the ongoing balance. The net effect of this is that my original deposit of €500 is all that is showing as my contribution. IF I wish to cancel and ask for a FTV I will have lost my £750!!

    Has anyone else seen this or have a view? If they are doing this as a matter of course, this could be detrimental to those who have to cancel for whatever reason.

    Thought I would flag this as I feel it’s a little mischievous!

    • DAJ says:

      Auctioned = actioned
      Down = done

      Blooming auto correct is a pain!

    • Rich says:

      Sounds like an IT issue/ workaround, more than anything else, but important to keep all emails/ credit card statements to show what you *actually* paid in total, in case it’s necessary.

      Things can get confused

    • ChrisC says:

      This is just the way they do it. It’s not mischievious or nefarious.

      And no you won’t lose your £750 because they can sse the vouchers have been applied in the background. And even if they did get it wrong in the first place you have the emails to show what you did with your vouchers.

    • mr_jetlag says:

      Not nefarious or mischievous at all. Your original booking email should have the total cost which gets reduced with each applied voucher. You can test this by asking for an evoucher for the total trip – it will be what you originally paid.

      • DAJ says:

        Thanks all for your replies/info which is reassuring.

        Having not had experience of this, it just set off some alarm bells but clearly this is just how they process the vouchers. It was my belief it would show as an extra payment rather than reduce the initial price but I stand corrected!

    • Harry T says:

      It’s just how they process the vouchers and display the changes.

  • Graham D says:

    Not sure if already mentioned but BA to fly to the Azores from July 2022. Bookable online now.

    Ponta Delgada (PDL) commencing 2 July, 1 x per week and Terceira (TER) starting 10 July 1 x per week.

  • Philip says:

    Total madness that BA are not answering phone calls and they have cancelled a booking that I cannot change online.

  • Alex says:

    Seeing as a lot of people on here will potentially have significant amounts of LH M&M miles expire on Dec 31 this year, what are the alternatives to using them in the WorldShop (around 1/3 value in EUR so worse in GBP)? Is the Heathrow Rewards voucher redemption route still open? Think that worked out to a similarly miserable redemption rate though…

    • Rob says:

      7500 miles for £20 of Heathrow shopping vouchers. Pretty dismal.

      You could try the Lufty hotel booking portal but I doubt the value is much better.

      • Allan says:

        Any news on another card or way to extend these?

      • Alex says:

        Yeah – the Heathrow Rewards vouchers seem to be similarly bad value; maybe even worse than WorldShop.

        I have 150k miles in my account but no plans to use them anytime soon for longhaul travel (best bet from London is probably US west coast on United, but who knows when the US border will open), and SH on LH is a joke in terms of pricing.

    • Ikaz says:

      Mine expire at the end of September, the best deal that I found is amazon voucher, same rate as Heathrow rewards I think

    • Mouse says:

      Surely worth holding on to them for a bit longer in case something better comes up or some kind of expiey date extension from LH?

      If forced to use mine I would go for one of those clocks made from reclaimed aircraft parts in the M&M catalogue.

      • Mr. AC says:

        Wishful thinking with M&M. I don’t think they offered any sort of extension at any point during Covid. Had to cash out via Amazon (Heathrow Rewards was broken).

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