Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 22nd September

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General

Comments (644)

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

  • Anuj says:
    22 Sep22 September 12:22

    In light of the 18,000 referral bonus on the gold card. Be very careful using the link from the app, I checked mine and it was copying the link for the wrong card

    • BJ says:
      22 Sep22 September 13:42

      I think somebody reported similar issues for BAPP too yesterday or the day before.

    • Super Secret Stuff says:
      22 Sep22 September 13:51

      They must really be desperate for new cardholders!

      • Anuj says:
        22 Sep22 September 13:54

        I think it’s more likely that they’re now being a bit less cautious about sign ups now that things are slowly going back to ‘normal’. They probably want to take advantage of all the people spending their lockdown savings.

    • OP says:
      22 Sep22 September 15:38

      This seems to be becoming a real issue now – please report to Amex. Same thing has happened to me and until Amex come back/resolve I’m down 24,000 points (for a referral from Platinum charge) in favour of £10 (from Platinum CB)…

      It seems like it is always doing a bait and switch and defaulting to whichever card gives the least reward, despite appearing to give you the choice (as has always been the case) of which card you refer from.

      • Anuj says:
        22 Sep22 September 16:45

        I hadn’t realised and got fewer points than expected, I complained repeating I definitely used the right link (not knowing the app has this bug), the person on live chat eventually relented and manually gave me the extra points. So try bluffing and pretending you don’t know why you’ve got less points.

  • Chelseafi says:
    22 Sep22 September 12:53

    Sorry for basic question but just wanted to check. If I book Avios flights (to LCA) and use the £2 payment option, if I then need to cancel, do I just loose £2 and get my Avios all back? Also cancellation timings is it before check in opens and I can do that online? Thank you

    • Rich says:
      22 Sep22 September 13:12

      Yep, you lose £35 or what you paid, whichever the lower, and get the rest back. So in your case you only lose the £2.

      Cancel up to 24h before departure for a refund this way.

      Up to check-in, you can cancel for a FTV, worth the Avios and £2.

      • Michael C says:
        22 Sep22 September 13:33

        So until 31 Aug, no Avios booking cancellation needs to be charged with the £35 pp, as it can just be turned into an FTV for free, with all Avios returned?

        • Rich says:
          22 Sep22 September 13:37

          No. They’re not returned to your balance. The FTV turns them into a voucher, worth the Avios & £ you paid. Then you can use that towards another Avios redemption in the future.

          You get ‘change’ back in the form of another FTV, or top up the new booking with more cash/ Avios as needed.

      • Chelseafi says:
        22 Sep22 September 13:48

        Thank you Rich, can the cancel up to 24h before departure be done online or telephone only if you don’t want FTV?

        • Rich says:
          22 Sep22 September 13:51

          It’s still phone only (perhaps chat and Twitter too, I don’t know). They’ve completely removed the online option – which is pretty shady behaviour IMHO.

  • Anna says:
    22 Sep22 September 12:57

    People have said recently that they have been able to cancel and just lose whatever cash was paid, e.g. £2 as in your case, however you have to cancel by phone at the moment to get a refund which is easier said than done (though you can always try Twitter, but they can take a couple of days to respond). Otherwise your only option is a FTV.

  • Niall says:
    22 Sep22 September 13:30

    I noticed yesterday way too late that someone mentioned they would get gold in one trip / TP run next year under the double tier point holidays promotion. Wondering what routes people have used to do this or more complicated multiple segment routing doable/easy with a holiday booking?

    • Jonathan says:
      22 Sep22 September 16:09

      LAS routed from somewhere in Europe or domestic via LHR, JFK & LAX/SFO. 2x (40 + 140 + 140 + 40 + 40 + 140 + 140 + 40) = 1440.

      Sometimes available for £1,000-£1200 from CDG/AMS/ARL/MUN/DUS basically anywhere that’s a hub for a rival.

      • Jonathan says:
        22 Sep22 September 16:32

        Apologies, it slipped my mind that the double TP offer requires U.K. origin. Inverness used to have regular cheap J/F deals to USA (much cheaper than merely no APD) but they have dried up in last 18 months.

        • Niall says:
          22 Sep22 September 17:55

          No worries, thanks anyway. They are good routes, just struggling to see how ex UK and when booking as a holiday it can be achieved.

  • Syed says:
    22 Sep22 September 13:32

    Afternoon all.

    Does anyone have a referral code for Octopus energy they would like to share?
    thanks in advance

  • The Savage Squirrel says:
    22 Sep22 September 13:42

    Can’t find it now but thanks to whoever posted a review of the Virgin box in Manchester Arena. Got Bill Bailey tickets just before Xmas for 25k Virgin points as my daughter is a fan (and I’ll stick it here in case anyone else is). Maybe not absolutely maximising £/points value but works for me. 70k for some other gigs does seem toppy though!

  • Paul says:
    22 Sep22 September 13:48

    Generally speaking, how much cheaper are EI award flight if calling BA vs booking them via BA.com or Avios.com?

  • Jaime says:
    22 Sep22 September 14:07

    Got to be in Brazil late January 2022 for 2 weeks, found 2 tickets on J from Barcelona to GRU with only an extra £125 to add a hotel. I am not staying in GRU but travelling to GIG on arrival, if I book the hotel and do not show up during the 2 weeks, do I get the double tier points?
    £125 extra for additional 360 tier will help me keep Gold.
    Your wisdom is appreciated

    • FFoxSake says:
      22 Sep22 September 14:21

      BA Holidays double tier points offer needs a car hire or hotel booked for the entire duration of any trip (a trip needs to be a minimum 5 days).

      • Lady London says:
        22 Sep22 September 17:35

        Does that 5 include overnight flights? From my departure to my landing is 5 nights but one of them will be on a plane. So 4 hotel nights on trip returning 5th day after departure.

        Does this count as a 5 day holiday?

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      22 Sep22 September 14:22

      You need to start from the UK to get the double tier points

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

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