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The HfP chat thread – Thursday 23rd September

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

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General

Comments (529)

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

  • HBommie says:
    23 Sep23 September 12:52

    Any tips for Florida car hire, going direct with the big names looks to be around £100 per day in Nov.

    • Sandgrounder says:
      23 Sep23 September 13:21

      Where exactly and what size are you after? A week in Nov from MCO is starting at £29 per day with Avis via a 3rd party, searching on kayak.

      • Hbommie says:
        23 Sep23 September 14:35

        It’s from MIA.
        I’m cautious of third party bookings but the discount may push me that way.

      • Christina says:
        23 Sep23 September 15:55

        Don’t bother with a hire car if you are staying in Miami Beach because parking is a nightmare and expensive. It’s all walkable. Pick the car up when you leave South Beach.

    • Graham Walsh says:
      23 Sep23 September 14:17

      Look at page 2 I think of today’s chat. Someone recommended auto Europe for bookings. Taken nearly £200 off my potential US booking for next year.

      • Hbommie says:
        23 Sep23 September 14:36

        Thanks Graham, struggling to filter the curve out.

      • Andrew H says:
        23 Sep23 September 20:37

        AutoEurope are who I usually use in Europe though ebookers had a 10% cheaper rate for a Salzburg Airport hire in Feb next year.

    • Louise K says:
      23 Sep23 September 14:36

      Try Expedia for car rates and also choose a city location for pick up rather than airport.

      • Hbommie says:
        23 Sep23 September 14:39

        There was a Hertz location 30mins from Miami international but on street view it looked like a hole in the wall booth!

        • AL says:
          23 Sep23 September 15:03

          Some Hertz locations are hole-in-the-wall booths, because that’s their offices. For a few bucks, they’ll drop-off at hotel to save you visiting said hole in said wall.

    • HBommie says:
      23 Sep23 September 16:39

      TURO looks interesting, like Airbnb for cars! Some nice Tesla options. I’ve never heard of them before but will have a read of the reviews.

      • Graham Walsh says:
        23 Sep23 September 18:02

        Just looked at Turo, sure I saw that before. If the car rental market is going bonkers, then this is going to take off. What a great selection of cars and I can get a car for 10 days at ½ the price of what Auto Europe quoted. Wonder what the Amex plat insurance is like with Turo?

    • Clive says:
      23 Sep23 September 20:14

      I’ve used QEEQ quite a few times and been very impressed

  • Gavin says:
    23 Sep23 September 12:59

    Apologies if this is covered elsewhere; anyone know if an NHS lateral flow is acceptable for travel to Netherlands now? Travelling Stenaline.

  • Stephen says:
    23 Sep23 September 13:30

    Hi all. I am flying QR Business from LHR on Saturday (am BA Silver). According to their app the Qatar lounges are closed both here and in Doha. They are offering Club Aspire or Galleries North + South. I presume Galleries is best bet – is the decision of North vs South just a question of where our gate is or anything meaningful between them? I also have Priority Pass but presume that doesnt open up anything better?
    Bit more niche but in Doha, any views on Oryx vs Al Safwa vs Al Mourjan lounges?
    Thanks

    • John says:
      23 Sep23 September 13:36

      Al Safwa my fav lounge in world!

      • TGLoyalty says:
        23 Sep23 September 13:51

        I found it cold and soulless tbh.

        • Genghis says:
          23 Sep23 September 13:58

          Air con too high? 🙂 Sounds perfect as I find most lounges too hot.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            23 Sep23 September 14:05

            Ha like the whole of the ME air con on max

            However, while it’s a “statement” I just found it all too large, cold and commercial rather than somewhere I’d like to spend some time relaxing, what I want for a lounge between long flights.

        • Aston100 says:
          23 Sep23 September 14:24

          TGLoyalty – which is your favourite lounge in the world?

          • TGLoyalty says:
            23 Sep23 September 15:32

            I don’t have a “favourite” as such I just know the type of place I prefer to relax.

            What I can say I’ve enjoyed my visits to the T3 (and HK) first cathay, Qatar LHR T4 business/first and the new Quantas T3 more than Al Sawfa, I even prefer Al Mourjan.

            The Dubai Qatar lounge was similar in look to LHR wasn’t as good from a service perspective.

            Can’t say nothing else really sticks out tbh but my memory isn’t as good as it used to be.

    • Simon says:
      23 Sep23 September 15:07

      Qatar are departing from LHR T5 so you have to make do with the BA Galleries lounges instead of their usual T4 lounge. I don’t like Aspire – it’s like at long corridor.
      I am surprised to hear that Al Mourjan is closed in DOH though…

    • TGLoyalty says:
      23 Sep23 September 15:32

      Oryx is awful!

  • Paul says:
    23 Sep23 September 13:50

    Datapoint.. Had virgin and ihg statements thru in last couple of days and both still good for revolut. Virgin no costs at all. IHG 11 pound interest on approx 40k topups.

    • Paul says:
      23 Sep23 September 13:54

      Topping up Revolut simply via Curve? What are Revoluts limits, and does IHG need to be settled straight away (where does the £11 interest come from)?

      • Paul says:
        23 Sep23 September 14:00

        Topping up direct.
        No idea what the limit is.
        I have always wondered.
        I usually do 4k and that works most of the time.
        Now and again card gets blocked for suspected fraud but just requires a call to get it going again.
        Revolut will want you to go through ‘Know your customer’ process at some point which does end up in funds being frozen for a couple of weeks.
        Most people don’t like the principle of funds being frozen etc but it is just a formality and in the end you can get a lot of points for a few hours work.

        • Paul says:
          23 Sep23 September 14:02

          BTW I fully expect revolut to shut this down after the IPO as they must lose a ton of money thru card topups but right now any cash they can get is worth a fortune to them.

          • Harrier25 says:
            23 Sep23 September 15:06

            They will shut this down much quicker than that with with people like you, Paul, continue to show off in public. Have you learned nothing since the Creation/Curve issue of the last few weeks? 🙄

        • Alex says:
          23 Sep23 September 14:10

          You manage to top up Rev directly with Beardy without getting hit with cash advance charges?

    • Aston100 says:
      23 Sep23 September 14:26

      Oh great, let’s just call you Paul the Destroyer shall we?
      Aren’t you the same Paul who used to say it was childish to use codewords and had no fear about these activities being stopped by the companies involved?

      • Paul says:
        23 Sep23 September 14:29

        Call me anything u like

      • Paul says:
        23 Sep23 September 14:30

        No way silly code names makes any difference at all

        • Paul says:
          23 Sep23 September 14:50

          It just seems to work. Happy to share statement to give you piece of mind if you let me know yer email. I’m more than happy to help people extract as much as they can from the banks!

      • Paul says:
        23 Sep23 September 14:34

        If they wanted to shut it down they would have. I have a chat chat thread where they explicitly state that it’s OK to do what I’m doing.

        • Paul says:
          23 Sep23 September 14:35

          I was totally up front with them, like I’m being totally up front with curve. If they say stop I’ll stop and if they say I can carry on then I will to the absolute max I can.

          • Paul says:
            23 Sep23 September 14:37

            Paul the Destroyer, how do you top up Revolut directly from Beardy without CA charges?

          • Guernsey Globetrotter says:
            23 Sep23 September 17:54

            Yes – good question – that has never worked for me. Beardy – Solihull – Che is the only route that seems to be fee free…

    • xcalx says:
      23 Sep23 September 15:56

      Thank you for the Datapoint Paul. When did the interest show with IHG. I have a few irons in the fire at the moment and so far no interest showing, statement dates coming up on 26th 1st 4th and 14th. accross various cards.

  • Blenz101 says:
    23 Sep23 September 13:58

    Anybody else having all Tesco Debit card transactions to NS&I fail? I know it stopped working a few days ago but the current “no can do” seems to have been for the past 24 hours?

    Is the party over?

    • J says:
      23 Sep23 September 15:32

      Yes, had the same issue over the past 48 hours or so. Seems a bit odd that they would actively block it as it’s a true debit card / current account and a perfectly valid way of adding funds to NS&I.

    • xcalx says:
      23 Sep23 September 16:00

      It never got started for me I was just gearing up when mrs xcalx switched the account for a paltry £100 Gutted. It looked like quite a ride.

      • Ming the Merciless says:
        23 Sep23 September 16:58

        £480k per quarter, 144k avios or 150k FC. ( 2 accounts) shame it’s over.

        • Blenz101 says:
          23 Sep23 September 17:14

          I’ve had a good 6 years of £300 of points a quarter. I make that a good £20k of rewards I’ve had from a current account.

          Sad times they cut it just before the accounts close anyway!

  • Claire says:
    23 Sep23 September 13:59

    Anyone have an octopus referral code please?

  • Sina says:
    23 Sep23 September 14:18

    my NHS app shows my full name, but now the PDFs only show my first and 2nd part of the last name!? who do I contact for this?

    I’m traveling in October and so would like everything to be in order before I go!

    • The Original Nick. says:
      23 Sep23 September 14:32

      @Sina, Just request a paper copy. Best to have a paper copy as back up IMO.

    • J says:
      23 Sep23 September 15:36

      A friend of mine had this issue and as a temporary/quick fix had to contact his GP surgery and ask them to append his middle name(s) to his first name – it then took a couple of days to update on the NHS app.

    • Andrew H says:
      23 Sep23 September 16:19

      Just downloaded mine – shows all my name. Weird

  • The Original Nick. says:
    23 Sep23 September 14:25

    Accor to IB. Has anyone got any idea how long points from Accor take to get to IB accounts?

    Thanks.

    • Rob says:
      23 Sep23 September 15:08

      Last time I did it it was a week-ish. Ask me in a few days as I got the email from Accor last night saying my Qatar transfer was in hand.

      • Ed says:
        23 Sep23 September 15:53

        Player 2 is also in the process of transferring 1000 (Qatar) Accor points from a new Qatar/Accor accounts over to IB. Auto conversion kicked in yesterday, so hopefully should arrive.

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