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The HfP chat thread – Monday 20th September

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Comments (508)

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

  • TicknBash says:
    20 Sep20 September 13:11

    Planning to spend a couple of nights each in Yorkshire / Lake District area.

    Any suggestions for a couple of mid tier hotels travelling with a young family ideally an hour-ish drive from the Lakes and York town?

  • Aston100 says:
    20 Sep20 September 13:14

    If my Avios 241 flights to the USA at Christmas get cancelled, and I want to go elsewhere on those same dates, would I still be restricted to reward seats availability (pretty much nothing)? i.e. BA won’t be able to assist in some way?

    Thanks.

    • AL says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:22

      Your EU261/2004 rights are at https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm#reimbursement-cancellation-1. Unless its BA policy (others here will be better informed than I on that), then you can’t request a change of destination free of charge (unless, maybe, if it’s under 300mi from original destination). Be prepared to pay a change fee, basically, and if you don’t have to pay it, think of it as good luck! You can have a refund or a re-route, though, either at the same time or later.

      If the claim is under EU261, then I don’t think they can force you to use reward bucket seats; any available seat is fair game (but, of course, there might be a scramble for those if they’re trying to combine two flights in to one!).

    • Rob says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:44

      BA will move you to any city within 300 miles of your original destination, but no more. No Avios availability needed.

      • Aston100 says:
        20 Sep20 September 14:15

        Thanks Rob. So if we pretend the USA is definitely not allowing us in, 300 miles from New York (my current destination) would still be within the USA right?
        So in this case, I would have to assume I can’t go anywhere else on those dates due to 300 miles range and due to probably no availability to anywhere else at Christmas (in the case of accepting an FTV and attempting to rebook elsewhere for those same dates).

        Is that right?
        Thanks.

        • MattB says:
          20 Sep20 September 14:23

          Depending on the airport, NY to Toronto is between 340 and 360 miles – I recently looked at rerouting my cancelled NYC trip next month. Ended up just requesting a refund but you may get lucky?

          • Sam G says:
            20 Sep20 September 14:32

            It’s worth a go if it comes to it – the 300 mile limit is not absolutely fixed

        • BJ says:
          20 Sep20 September 14:38

          IIRC you were going to NYC. Toronto and Montreal are closest airports in another country but unfortunately still over 300 miles away at 355 and 375 respectively. Might be worth asking, especially if they are convinced you are going to refund in cash. If by chance you booked out or return to Boston then you are within 399 miles I should think. OMO, unlike NYC, Canada is a fabulous winter destination, especially Quebec.

          • Memesweeper says:
            20 Sep20 September 15:12

            Correct. The only useful city pair I can see on the east coast is Boston and Montreal. Vancouver is in range of Seattle on the west.

        • JDB says:
          20 Sep20 September 14:39

          You can try re 300 miles, but they don’t seem too flexible. My son wanted to move LHR/NCE cancelled CE cash booking to Mallorca, but they would only allow Menorca! He is pretty savvy, but they weren’t budging, so he ended up having to go via Menorca. Luckily the inter island flights are very cheap and lots of availability.

        • John says:
          20 Sep20 September 15:52

          You First stated point black yesterday they have been instructed no changes greater than 300 miles

    • Aston100 says:
      20 Sep20 September 17:40

      Well, looks like this is a redundant question now!

  • Mark says:
    20 Sep20 September 13:17

    Does anyone know how long it is taking BA to process a refund at the moment?
    It was a cancelled flight that I booked with Avios in the half price sale.

    Thank you

    • Anna says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:27

      Your avios should appear very quickly, cash can take up to a month last time I did this.

    • KS says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:41

      Nearly a week for me when I opted for a refund last month.

    • Greenpen says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:12

      Flight to Santiago in December cancelled last week; Avios refund instant and money credited to Amex two days later.

  • Anna says:
    20 Sep20 September 13:27

    Just got our new 241 under the new system however there is no extra availability in J for the GCM route we usually use the voucher on when we try a few dummy bookings! Not very impressed if we’re going to be charged the new fee and not all routes are included.

    • Anna says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:31

      Dummy bookings using the new voucher are showing exactly the same availability as SeatSpy 😥

      • JDB says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:22

        Anna, is this anything to do with the fact that the GCM flight stops en route. We always used to have real problems on the flight to Buenos Aires when it went via São Paulo (and has now gone back to). The issue was that because of the obligation to offer x Avios seats on every flight, that included the GRU/EZE leg that nobody ever seemed to board for, but it blocked LHR/EZE redemptions and messed up cash fares as well as there were initially three separate ‘pools’ of seats on the one flight that capacity control then gradually rejigs.

    • Neil says:
      20 Sep20 September 15:03

      Maybe don’t look at your email this afternoon as I’ve just had an email from Amex telling me more reward seats are available with the new voucher system – actually says “tens of thousands of extra redemption seats in Club World (Business Class) cabins”
      As I earnt a voucher months before the new system I’m not sure why they even emailed me about it or if they bothered to count how many I already have but maybe they are making sure I keep the card.
      As I have old vouchers I’ve not taken much notice so far but isn’t it just another block of reward seats that BA control the release of so its still up to them what gets released
      Hopefully if they are advertising it they may release some for you in the near future

    • Memesweeper says:
      20 Sep20 September 15:13

      Is there ‘I’ availability for cash? If so how much?

  • Ammar says:
    20 Sep20 September 13:38

    M&M Miles – had an email from award wallet that 2500 miles expiring at end of Sept, but last week had a 1 mile added to account so wondering does that protect those 2500 miles along with the rest of balance or should i buy a gc?

    • Rob says:
      20 Sep20 September 13:40

      It protects them. Look online and you’ll see the expiry notice has gone.

      • Ammar says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:50

        Thanks Rob, did log and spent time looking around for an expiry date but could not find it, great news none the less as didnt want a gc!

  • Tom says:
    20 Sep20 September 13:49

    Does anyone have a view on the likelihood of BA adding additional frequencies to key Christmas holiday hotspots over the festive period?

    I’m thinking along the lines of long haul destinations that Brits can actually access, e.g. DXB…

    Or maybe at this stage they’ll stick to what’s already on sale…

    • blenz101 says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:19

      Slim to DXB, EK will soak up all the demand it can from the UK and hotels are filling up fast with rates to match. Asia remains tricky. Caribean a moving picutre.

      USA must be the big hope for a rapid frequency increase. Jon Sopel has a pretty good analysis today on why nobody in the UK should hold their breath …

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58619393

    • Rob says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:36

      Always possible, although adding long hauls is a lot more complex than slapping on another couple of Airbus to Palma. Your best bet is to set up some SeatSpy alerts. We saw the extra Mauritius flights added for Nov and Dec last week, for example.

  • JDB says:
    20 Sep20 September 14:20

    FT saying US will open to UK/EU vaccinated travellers from November (this year!)

    • JDB says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:21

      Vaccinated passengers will be able to travel to the US from the EU and UK from November onwards, the Biden administration will announce on Monday, in a major diplomatic victory for Brussels and London.

      The White House will announce a new travel policy on Monday morning, marking the end of the 18-month blanket ban on travel imposed by Donald Trump, the former US president, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic that was maintained by Joe Biden.

      • stevenhp1987 says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:12

        The real question is will they accept those of us who are jabbed with AZ…

        • Andrew H says:
          20 Sep20 September 15:21

          (According to the FT) it will include 40,000 on vaccine trials – currently unapproved by the US – that the EU are not letting in, so logically they should be letting in AZ

        • MattB says:
          20 Sep20 September 16:09

          They have been for a while

      • Dave says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:39

        Apparently the news totally blindsided the UK diplomats with everyone not expecting it to change for months!

        Hopefully this might cause other countries to open up a bit more as well

      • David says:
        20 Sep20 September 16:02

        Funny. Johnson asked on plane over to US today about liklihood of border opening for British travellers, said ‘don’t hold your breath.

    • Paul Pogba says:
      20 Sep20 September 15:04

      What kind of vaccinated passengers, will those with AZ be permitted as its not yet authorised by the US FDA?

  • Andy says:
    20 Sep20 September 14:21

    Looks like US travel for vaccinated Europeans will be back on the table from November according to the FT

    • Jonathan says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:49

      I’d be more inclined to go along with John Sopel’s chain of thought from yesterday tbh. Been a lot of false dawns on opening up & I just don’t see what has changed from a political perspective to make Biden start being more rational on this.

      • BuildBackBetter says:
        20 Sep20 September 14:58

        Impact on domestic politics is overstated. Most people in US dont care what happens outside the States.

        • Blenz101 says:
          20 Sep20 September 17:01

          You are right that they don’t care if European/Brits can travel. The politics is around Biden being portrayed soft on the virus / borders. Letting in millions of people a day that Trump banned etc. Cases and deaths are rising, why is now a good time to open up etc.

      • Yorkie Aid says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:05

        Maybe Boris has used his charm to win Biden over? 😂

      • Jonathan says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:12

        Well this aged well 😆

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