The HfP chat thread – Monday 27th September

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Thywillbedone says:

27 Sep27 September 09:16

Long time no travel. What are people putting their Euro spend on these days?
- Rich says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 09:20
  
  Virgin is free for EUR.
  
  Curve and Revolut are both zero commission during the week, 0.5% load I think at weekend.
  
  No Amex is commission free, AFAIK.
  - Andrew says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 10:45
    
    There are different varieties of Virgin Card though.
    
    Mine is the Virgin Money FX free Mastercard, so zero commission on US transactions (live and online) as well as Euro.
    
    But no points.
- Andy D says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 09:20
  
  In person Euro spend, the VS Mastercard (forex free).
- Harry T says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 09:35
  
  Virgin for in person euro spend. Was using Curve backed by Creation for that too but obviously can’t now. Advantage of Curve is they give you the spot rate.
  - Rich says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 09:38
    
    What’s meant by ‘in-person’ here?
    
    Does it only apply to chip & PIN/ contactless, and not online? Never knew that.
    - Rob says:
      
      27 Sep27 September 09:51
      
      The Virgin card wording, to be fair, does NOT say ‘in person’. It would make sense that this was the rule, because the EU fees rule they are basing this on is only concerned with in-person charges, but whether it actually works this way or not I don’t know. I thought it was ‘in-person only’ but when I tried to find proof I couldn’t.
      - bill says:
        
        27 Sep27 September 10:05
        
        I made a purchase using my Virgin credti card online. There were no fees. NB – my card is not an airline points earning card.
- David says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 10:16
  
  This month Creation IHG, no forex fees in September and 4 points per pound.
  - Memesweeper says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 11:52
    
    +1 Ihg this month
    
    routinely I use the Curvatious one, excellent rates. Occasionally Revolutionaries.
A says:

27 Sep27 September 09:18

Random question: Does anyone know the biggest width item you can fit through LHR scanners (T3 if it makes any difference)?
- peter says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 09:39
  
  I flew once with pop up tent, it obviously didn’t fit (although it could diagonally) but they asked me to put it a side and went through a manual search on it.. it took a while to convince them not to open it 😀
  - A says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 10:36
    
    Haha, yes I used to take all sorts through too 😀.
    I was under the impression nowadays though, that if it doesn’t fit through, it isn’t going?
    It is a framed piece of art – far too fragile to check in, and it is wider than my Tumi carry on, which of course fits through ok.
    - SteveJ says:
      
      27 Sep27 September 12:19
      
      What will you do with it once onboard? Doesn’t sound like it’ll fit in the overhead bins, or that you’ll want to out it up there even if it did
      - A says:
        
        27 Sep27 September 14:13
        
        With the Virgin loads to (and from) JFK right now, I suspect it could have its own seat in upper class next to mine😀
        Closet will be fine – this one isn’t valuable, or particularly big – just borderline whether it’ll get through the scanners.
Definitas says:

27 Sep27 September 09:22

Has anyone entered the US recently who has global entry? Are the kiosks still operating?
- Mirp says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 10:01
  
  Kiosk were working at JFK
Tarmohamed says:

27 Sep27 September 09:33

Has emirates removed the online icon which indicated reward upgrades are available?
- John says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 09:51
  
  It was there 2days ago when I booked
  - Tarmohamed says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 09:55
    
    Thanks I’ll try on my computer later. Can’t seem to find any availability on the app or through a mobile browser.
- Benilyn says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 12:06
  
  I checked on Saturday and it was still there.
James says:

27 Sep27 September 10:04

Is there a way of finding out if my BA flight from MLE to LHR is a cargo run? Currently around 10 people booked on it so have my suspicions it may get cancelled.
- Richie says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 10:43
  
  Is it on the IAGaircargo website?
  - James says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 10:50
    
    Thanks for the website Richie. It is indeed on there.
Gary says:

27 Sep27 September 10:06

What’s the cheapest pre-departure PCR (to Canaries) that comes back same day (doesn’t need to be 3 hours) in central London ish?
- Anna says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 10:50
  
  You should only need this if unvaccinated, but I think for same day Collinson isn’t too bad or there are plenty of pharmacy options.
  - Andrew says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 11:04
    
    And use Collinson AMEX20 code for 20% off.
  - Gary says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 11:05
    
    I initially misread the website and actually don’t need PCR as vaccinated. Thanks Anna.
    - Anna says:
      
      27 Sep27 September 11:59
      
      Saved you some money there then! And also not having the swab stuck up your nose …
TheThunderer says:

27 Sep27 September 10:08

Morning. Anybody tried to a Hilton status match recently? I get a “Oops! We’ve encountered a problem. Our online registration isn’t working at the moment.” every time I try. Thanks
- Steven says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 11:15
  
  There was mention on here a while back indicating that they had pulled it.
  - TheThunderer says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 13:40
    
    Thanks Steven. A shame if so.
J says:

27 Sep27 September 10:18

My wife and kids are flying into Heathrow T5 tomorrow around 2pm. Does anyone have an idea of what border queues are like at the moment? They’ll be queuing for the desks rather than using e-gates. I need to decide what time to arrive to pick them up. Thanks.
- Mr. AC says:
  
  27 Sep27 September 11:13
  
  Yesterday: https://twitter.com/SMcCallin/status/1442196943489339402
  - YC says:
    
    27 Sep27 September 11:29
    
    I was in that queue on the weekend. It does look ridiculous but it actually moved quite fast. Even with egates failing for me, queued again for the in-person. Overall took c.30min. I can imagine a situation (Friday?) when egates just did not work for everyone and you can be stuck for hours
    - Ben says:
      
      27 Sep27 September 11:46
      
      Not much help to your question but I flew into STN last night and the que for the e gates was crazy. Did move fast but prob the longest ive ever seen.