The HfP chat thread – Saturday 2nd October

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• Sukes says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:08

  re EU Covid Certificate issuance for Irish passport holders vaxxed in NI

  In case anyone else has been enduring the IT teething issues on the Ireland portal since it was launched 4 days ago…it is of this afternoon *finally* working. The following worked for me on desktop and hopefully saves other people time: 1/ Login to your NIDirect Covid account and redownload your NI NHS Covid PDF certificate 2/ Do not change the filename or edit the file in any other way – the filesize should be about 1.7MB 3/ Access the official Ireland portal (google ‘Ireland EU Digital COVID Certificate Self Service Portal’) – do not use Chrome as I keep getting QR code validation errors at the final stage, only Safari worked for me – and follow the steps; 4/ If you get an error message at end saying QR code cannot be validated try again with a fresh site reload – the system is very glitchy but will eventually work. You’ll then see a screen showing your submission has been successful and you will receive your EU Covid Certificate by email within 5 working days.

  Hopefully this progress may mean the UK-wide joining of the EU Covid Certificate scheme is not distant.

  • Anuj says:

    2 Oct2 October 16:32

    It’s actually been confirmed that the UK is joining, they’re in the final testing phase and most of the work is completed

  • DexB says:

    2 Oct2 October 17:55

    I’ve been trying get this to work since the site opened with no success. I’ve used Snip as directed and created copies of the Dose2 as per the website but constantly get the error message. Using Firefox and the Debug screen suggests the site is not actually even attempting to load the PNG file.

    • DexB says:

      2 Oct2 October 18:56

      Latest update on the Irish website no longer requires the use of Snip which I hadn’t noticed. Used my wife’s iPad to download the PDFs from the NI Direct website and all worked perfectly. Not sure why it wouldn’t from my Windows PC but at least its been submitted.

• Rosie says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:13

  Any ideas if BA / VS are going to bring out a sale to the USA anytime soon or have I missed it

  • Sean says:

    2 Oct2 October 15:50

    may depend on the timing of “early november” opening

• Adam says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:20

  Dear HFPrs, do you know how long it takes for a GHA discovery platinum match via Business Traveller? Submitted a request yesterday, but noticed website says “requests to be processed at the end of a month”.

• Josu says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:22

  Struggling to find this. Is there an alternative to revolut/wise for holding a USD account here in UK?

  Or if it’s not an actual account, a way of me topping up USD using my US debit card?

  I don’t want to pay a GBP and convert to USD as that’s 2x fees, but wise and revolut aren’t working.

  Thanks

  • Andrew says:

    2 Oct2 October 14:35

    If you’re ok with offshore on the Channel Islands or Isle of Man, you’ll find your own bank will help you.

  • Bill says:

    2 Oct2 October 14:39

    Revolut or Wise

    • Bill says:

      2 Oct2 October 14:42

      Oops misread it

      • Alex M says:

        2 Oct2 October 14:51

        I have usd and eur accts at citi.

        • Josu says:

          2 Oct2 October 15:24

          Are you able to deposit using a debit card or is it just for wires ?

  • Froggee says:

    2 Oct2 October 16:18

    I have a USD account with HSBC which was surprisingly painless opening. But I use Revolut for FX as HSBC take the proverbial- I think they were after 2.5% the last time I checked! You’d likely need an HSBC current account though.

    • Ls says:

      2 Oct2 October 16:45

      I use HSBC expat, as it gives a USD debit card as well.

  • JSemity says:

    2 Oct2 October 22:13

    starling – I hold a USD business account with them. £5/month fee but works well.

• A says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:43

  Data point for anyone interested, especially as the US will be opening up for more people in a month(?) or so.

  Flew from LHR to JFK yesterday. Expresstest at T3 departures rapid antigen result was £33ish with the virgin/BA code (£35 normally so not a huge discount!).
  Results came via email in 35 mins, the email and attached pdf were viewed a couple of mins later at check in, and that was it.
  No further checks, and no checks on arrival.

  As far as travel testing goes it was easy & as cheap as possible, and significantly less hassle and expense than the full PCR test most places require.

• Tw33ty says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:47

  Question about virgin credit cards.
  The points you earn from cc spend and the bonus, are these the same points you get from their shopping portal thing?

  • Tw33ty says:

    2 Oct2 October 14:48

    And also, do you get offers on the virgin cc along the lines of Amex offers?

    • Reney says:

      2 Oct2 October 18:09

      I wouldn’t say they are useless, in the last 10 days I used q park, brought gifts at l’occitane and coach. Hopefully will all stack with Airtime.

      I recently had amazon, some people had just ‘supermarkets’.

      and yes and yes to Tw33ty’s questions.

  • Joints&Piles says:

    2 Oct2 October 15:16

    yes

  • Andrew H says:

    2 Oct2 October 17:05

    Yes and the same points you get at Virgin Red, which is a strange mix of some good portal offers (the Booking.com one was 12pts/£) – but very thin as a portal though always use their eBay link, a few free points and some very easy weekly comps – won 2000 points a month ago. And 15,000 points for switching a bank account with 2DDs – doesn’t have to be main one.

• Harrier25 says:

  2 Oct2 October 14:54

  Regarding IHG and its Dynamic pricing, I booked two rooms for 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza Chester at 31,500 points per room per night. Reviewing the bookings on a daily basis and after 6 days and 4 re-bookings later, I now have the rooms for 21,500 points each per night, saving 40,000 points on the original booking to date. Complete madness but an excellent result for me! 😀

• Shaz says:

  2 Oct2 October 15:10

  Require some guidance here. I’m a diamond member and booked a Hilton hotel in Dubai for a friend and myself – I was unable to travel in the end (his name was on guest list). The hotel refused to offer free breakfast to him as I wasn’t travelling, and have also taken the Hilton membership off the booking (and therefore no points rewarded). Are they allowed to do this?
  S

  • John says:

    2 Oct2 October 15:22

    Yes

  • N says:

    2 Oct2 October 16:19

    Yes

  • Blenz101 says:

    2 Oct2 October 22:16

    You have to see it from the hotels perspective in fairness. If they didn’t require the member to travel we would have a daily swap shop of “can someone add their diamond membership so I can get free breakfast and lounge access at X – you will get the points for yourself”.

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