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The HfP chat thread – Monday 20th September

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General

Comments (508)

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

  • JD says:
    20 Sep20 September 14:25

    LHR-DXB return in BA Club
    – back in the half price Avios sale in Oct 20 I used a GGL joker to book 4 Club seats (using a GUF1 x 2 and and GUF2 on PE seats) for 160k avios for Feb half term 2021
    – BA cancelled those flights due to Covid restrictions
    – I (perhaps stupidly with the benefit of hindsight…) took a FTV for these
    – I would now like to book the same trip for Christmas 2021 – but there is v limited GGL joker availability because of low/no availability in relevant fare classes (only J and C left)
    – I’ve suggested to BA that they should look to release seats in any fare bucket because my travel is within 1 year of the original cancellation date – the agent tells me that the fact that a) it’s more than 1 year from the booking date, not the travel date means that this wouldn’t apply; b) because I took a FTV rather than leaving this floating in the ether as a cancellation I’ve shot myself in the foot.

    Does anyone have any thoughts re whether the BA agent is correct or not? Any other ideas?!?

    In addition, I have c.61k of Emirates skywards that are supposed to expire 31 Dec 2021 – I don’t have enough Amex MR points to top up to a business class reward level, but with a combo of Amex MR plus buying some Skywards (currently 30% discount) I could buy Economy to DXB with Emirates and upgrade that to business to get availability in one travel direction. Any other ideas as to how I could get best value for 61k Skywards in this timeframe (or whether they will be extended again)?

    • JD says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:26

      I should have said, the additional pain point here is that BA also want an extra 160k Avios for Dec travel as of course it’s outside of the original Avios sale in which my original booking was made…

    • JDB says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:35

      I fear BA is correct re the 50% sale price, the benefits of which are lost once you take the FTV vs leaving the booking after they have cancelled until you rebook. In respect of whether the 12 months runs from booking or travel date or last change date, that seems to be a constantly changing BA policy, but they currently appear to be applying the worst case, ie from date of booking.

      • JD says:
        20 Sep20 September 14:46

        Thanks – the agent was pretty honest on the 12 month date question and said that the policy had flip-flopped around somewhat – no real surprise that they have reverted back to the worst case I guess…!

  • Britbronco says:
    20 Sep20 September 14:25

    I just switched from EDF to Sainsburys, leaving with a credit balance on EDF of about £1200.
    My payments to EDF were a mixture of credit card payments and direct debit.
    I was expecting to just get the whole credit balance paid to my account, but instead EDF have refunded the last 2 card payments I made, and made a partial refund against the card payment I made before that.
    The balance of the credit (just over 50%) is being refunded to my bank account.

    I haven’t checked, but it’s possible they have refunded based on the % of card payments vs direct debits I made over the life of the account.

    • Terry says:
      20 Sep20 September 14:41

      Octopus Energy is now doing the same, refunding to cards rather than bank account.

      • Youllnever says:
        20 Sep20 September 14:53

        Looks like everyone is closing loopholes now.

      • E says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:54

        Octopus didn’t last week. They refunded to my bank account.

        • John says:
          20 Sep20 September 17:27

          They refund everything you paid by DD to your bank, and the rest to card, but they seem to miscalculate how much you paid by DD so you can do a small amount of MS (I’ve managed £120 only)

  • Lawro says:
    20 Sep20 September 14:26

    I believe there were a few comments in the last couple of weeks about a referral scheme for Sainsbury’s Energy (EON Next) rather than the other 6k/12k Nectar points sign-up offer. Can anyone confirm if they do offer a referral scheme and if so what the current offer is? Thanks

  • Rupert One says:
    20 Sep20 September 14:43

    Unconfirmed media reports that USA will soon open up.

  • Mjshort says:
    20 Sep20 September 14:47

    Got a new sup Amex Plat for OH. How long does it take for offers to appear please?

  • JSemity says:
    20 Sep20 September 15:06

    Praise the lord, US travel reopening!

  • VickyTM says:
    20 Sep20 September 15:15

    Hi, I applied for the Virgin status match in Feb this year when they were offering it. It was supposed to be applied in September which hasn’t happened. Have contacted Virgin and they are denying all knowledge of it and also of the 2 lounge passes saying that is something they have never offered…
    Does anyone happen to have a screen shot of the offer when it was live please, and also was it confirmed in an email as I can’t see to find it anywhere? If so, who was the sender of the email so I can make a better search? Thanks

    • Matty says:
      20 Sep20 September 15:22

      OtherAirlineStatusMatch AT fly.virgin.com

      Dear Matthew

      Thank you for applying for our British Airways status match promotion.
      The information that you have provided has been reviewed and we are pleased to confirm that your application to have your British Airways status matched has been successful.
      Your Flying Club membership will be upgraded upon the 1st month of travel. Full details of your new benefits can be found here https://www.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/how-flying-club-works/membership-tier-benefits.html
      We’re sure that you are going to love flying with us as a Gold member over the next year. In order to maintain your status and continue to enjoy the benefits of the Flying Club program beyond you will need to
      earn 1,000 tier points in the membership period to retain Gold status.

      We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for choosing Virgin Atlantic and we look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.

      Emily
      Flying Club Support

      • VickyTM says:
        20 Sep20 September 15:35

        Thanks Matthew, I’m also looking for something that has mention of the lounge passes if anyone has that. Maybe @rob?

        • Rob says:
          20 Sep20 September 17:31

          You are still getting lounge passes, Virgin is working out the best way to do it (electronic, paper, guest list etc).

  • Patrycja says:
    20 Sep20 September 15:24

    BBC just announced that travel ban to US will be lifted for fully vaccinated in November.

    I’ve got LA and Hawaii booked for New Year. Praying this comes through

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk

    • Anna says:
      20 Sep20 September 16:02

      Are you taking children with you though? There’s no mention of them being exempt from what I can see, and under 18s are not being offered 2nd jabs.

      • TGLoyalty says:
        20 Sep20 September 16:06

        Even if under 18’s had to be vaxxed would the sole consideration of going for a second jab be based upon JCVI advice or just so they can travel to the USA

      • Patrycja says:
        20 Sep20 September 16:27

        Nope, just two adults! We are visiting friend in LA. It was a trip cancelled by Covid last year.

      • Jeff Greene says:
        20 Sep20 September 16:46

        Calm down,! They’ve now said there’ll be exemptions for children now.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          20 Sep20 September 23:39

          Not said anything about AZ or 12-18 year olds (they can receive two jabs in USA)

          To paraphrase “too in to the detail for now and would become clearer over the next month”

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

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