The HfP chat thread – Thursday 7th October

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• Dubious says:

  7 Oct7 October 08:50

  Yikes ! Rob – have you seen today’s CMA ruling on the legailty of flight refunds/no-refunds.

  • ChrisC says:

    7 Oct7 October 08:52

    Amnd what does it say? Please provide a link.

    • Cambridge Dad says:

      7 Oct7 October 08:54

      https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-closes-investigation-into-british-airways-and-ryanair

    • QFFlyer says:

      7 Oct7 October 08:55

      This https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58826484

      • Richie says:

        7 Oct7 October 10:12

        “..unusual circumstances…” is the key here.

  • Rui N. says:

    7 Oct7 October 08:53

    Good decision. Airlines are not travel insurance. Buy travel insurance if you think you won’t be able to travel if the flight goes ahead nonetheless.

    • Andrew says:

      7 Oct7 October 09:13

      Travel insurance doesn’t usually cover holidays when I stay with family, even if that trip includes flights.

      Generally a holiday in the UK is definted as those which “include two or more consecutive nights’ stay in pre-booked holiday accommodation.”

      So my flights are effectively public transport, no different to taking the train to work and aren’t covered.

      • Rui N. says:

        7 Oct7 October 09:15

        Not exactly the airlines’ fault that the market for insurance is not covering all cases. Airlines already gave vouchers that they didn’t have to do per the terms of carriage or the consumer law.

      • BuildBackBetter says:

        7 Oct7 October 10:28

        +1 to Rui N. Isn’t that an edge case? How often do you travel to meet family? Once a month? I reckon if you research, you can find policies that cover this.

  • Dubious says:

    7 Oct7 October 08:56

    Noted I believe it refers to customers who could not travel due to travel restrictions rather than due to flights the airline cancelled.

    https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/covid-19-cancellations-airlines

    • Nick says:

      7 Oct7 October 09:03

      I agree with Rui. If the airline cancels you get a refund – was always this way, is still this way, nothing has changed. The ruling is on where the flight operated but the customer didn’t travel. Yes it may not be not the customer’s fault… but it’s not the airline’s fault either. This is exactly what insurance is for.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        7 Oct7 October 11:09

        Agree its the same with hotels.

        Some exercised goodwill but its not there fault you can’t make it when they are open to accept your business.

• GaryE says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:04

  Has anyone any idea when the airlines schedules will settle down and stop cancelling flights – or how often do they review their flight schedules and decide which flights they are going to ‘can’. I am not talking long haul, mainly internal flights. I have either been unlucky or other people are suffering the same fate.
  BA flight to Belfast (Aug 24) cancelled, moved to later flight, then cancelled flight reinstated and ended up on original flight!
  Now BA has cancelled my late Edinburgh flight (Oct 22) and moved me to the tea time flight which is acceptable.
  Easyjet lunchtime flight to Belfast cancelled (Nov 12), and moved to evening flight, which doesn’t work so have taken refund and flying on BA lunchtime flight (fingers crossed).
  Finally Easyjet flight/holiday package to Amsterdam mid morning flight out cancelled (Nov 22) and moved to lunchtime (which is ok) but return (Nov 24) moved from tea time to late evening which is not acceptable – will ask separately about my rights here.
  It feels like if you don’t travel on one of the business flights there is a strong chance that the airlines will cancel your flight.

  • Lady London says:

    7 Oct7 October 12:55

    Be careful Easyjet is regularly cancelling flights and moving customers to a different flight on same day and claiming it’s a “reschedule” only. Legally it’s a cancellation. The easy proof of this is your flight number will have changed.

    In that case you have full EU261 cancellation rights over and beyond Easyjet’s policy.

    • GaryE says:

      7 Oct7 October 14:02

      Thanks LL. The flight number has changed – I know Easyjet would offer a refund for a flight only booking – but does the EU261 rules still apply for a package holiday, in this case Amsterdam, and refund our deposit so we can move the flights to a more suitable time with BA?

• Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:10

  Opportunity to earn some Enterprise Plus points without making a purchase.

  https://plusyourpoints.enterprise.com/

  • Sina says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:50

    Thanks, Andrew!

• FT says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:15

  Hello – I am travelling for work and an agency has booked my flights (Ams > Munich return). I’m flyting our KLM, back Lufthansa. Can anyone explain how I can see the Lufthansa return flight in the KLM portal (and vice versa) and i seem to be receiving flying blue miles for both legs? I thought there were from different alliances? I have tried googling to explain this and nothing comes up! Anyone know?

  • Beardless Hipster says:

    7 Oct7 October 11:58

    Unless the LH flight is a KLM codeshare with a KLM (or other skyteam) flight number number you won’t earn FB miles.

    • Ft says:

      7 Oct7 October 21:54

      I’m getting 10 xp for 2 economy flights so it seems I am

  • Blair says:

    7 Oct7 October 13:06

    The agency’s system is just dumb. You will need the ticket number for each leg and input your *A FF# yourself

• Dave says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:22

  I find myself with a large £2k credit balance on my Creation IHG card following an airline refund. Naturally given they’re closing us down I don’t want to put any more actual spend on it.

  What’s the best/easiest way to retrieve this? Is topping up Che from a credit balance still fee-free?

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:26

    Yes it is still OK. But why wouldn’t you want to put any more spend on it for the next 8 weeks? Surely it’s one last chance to get some IHG points?

    • John says:

      7 Oct7 October 10:18

      Depending on statement dates, Dave may have -4000 IHG points and may be happy to let them close him down with the negative balance, and earn other points from spending the £2000 on another card

  • Rich says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:32

    Can’t you just wait till the card is closed and then get a BACS / cheque refund?

  • Dave says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:39

    What is Che?

    • Tom says:

      7 Oct7 October 09:58

      Revolut

      • Ryan says:

        7 Oct7 October 10:08

        I swear some people just enjoy getting someone to say it as often as they can…

    • Can says:

      7 Oct7 October 12:30

      Mr Guevara

  • Olly says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:52

    @Dave I found myself in that situation after a cancelled holiday the year before last. It took about four months and continually calling Creation to get the funds back into my bank account. You may get it back before Christmas but may take a lot of badgering off anything like my experience.

• Vinz says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:24

  Does anybody know if an onbusiness economy ticket can be changed freely on the day of departure as regular economy plus tickets? Or onbusiness availability is essential for the ticket to be changed?

• Stairali says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:26

  I had a flight cancelled by TAP. They refused to rebook me on one of my choice (within 2 hours of the original flight) – citing they were all full despite there being tickets available to purchase online. Instead they booked me on one that was 8 hours earlier than my original flight.

  I have rebooked with another airline now and -plan to proceed to MCOL. Accepting a refund of the original booking from TAP wouldn’t jeopardize my MCOL would it?

  • meta says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:35

    Yes, by accepting a refund the airline has no further obligation to you.

    • Stairali says:

      7 Oct7 October 10:29

      Sorry Meta, so it would jeopardize it and I should not accept it correct?

      • Ikaz says:

        7 Oct7 October 10:48

        Don’t accept the refund, correct

        • meta says:

          7 Oct7 October 12:01

          Yes, don’t accept a refund. Airlines will automatically give you a refund without you asking after a while, but make sure you have some record (phone call recording or in writing), you telling them you don’t want a refund and since they are not going to assist you under EC261 then you’re rebooking yourself. Need to have proof otherwise TAP will just say you requested a refund.

• Anna says:

  7 Oct7 October 09:33

  Most reasonable car rental prices at OPO for next summer are with FireFly who I have never heard of. Has anyone used them?

  • Ikaz says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:39

    It is the low-cost branch of Hertz, whatever that means for you

  • Rich says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:39

    They are the budget arm of Hertz, aren’t they? Expect hidden extras and spurious damage claims.

    I would lock in a flexible rate and check again between now and then.

    • Anna says:

      7 Oct7 October 09:47

      I’m struggling to find any flexible rates!

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:39

    Just type in Firefly and Goldcar in google.

    Avoid.

    Been stung by Goldcar at Madrid and Firefly in Sicily – Firefly don’t take Amex and had the trick of wanting such a huge deposit to avoid their insurances that most people don’t have a big enough balance on their card! So they have to buy the insurance!

  • APPL says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:42

    Pretty sure they are owned by Hertz. Rented a car through them in Alicante this year, as it was the only company of the cheaper ones accepting Amex. No problems, other than usual trying to force you to buy extra insurance. Car was with Hertz branding.

  • Rhys says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:45

    I think I used them in South Africa, although I can’t remember to be honest. They’re owned by Hertz.

  • Anna says:

    7 Oct7 October 09:49

    Thanks, yes I just had a quick look at Trustpilot 🤦🏻‍♀️.
    @meta I looked at Sadorent (interesting name!) but they were showing nothing at all for OPO!

    • meta says:

      7 Oct7 October 10:19

      Have you tried Vipcars? They are an OTA specialising in car rentals only. Two rentals this summer/autumn and no issues. They use local companies, so can get cheap rates and low deposits too.

      • Oh! Matron! says:

        7 Oct7 October 11:29

        I saw VIP cars as the cheapest at heathrow for a rental I needed last weekend. Had never heard of them so got a zipcar instead. Good to know it went well for you

      • Anna says:

        7 Oct7 October 11:56

        Yes but the prices were still really high.

  • Doug says:

    7 Oct7 October 10:21

    Honestly have you ever seen a perfectly good car hire company? I go with any branded and I have excess insurance to cover anything they get funny about, but of course do a video before you collect so you have evidence.

    • meta says:

      7 Oct7 October 12:08

      Never had a problem with non branded ones and Amex Platinum covers everything even when they shouldn’t. I had six claims over the last 10 years and I’d say in two or three cases they shouldn’t have paid out.

      There is nothing better than that feeling when they start getting funny with damage charges and you just say fine! No arguments, just document it well and that’s it. Submit a claim after, takes 10 min max. Money back within a few days. That’s why in my household we don’t churn this card.

    • John says:

      7 Oct7 October 13:13

      I used Hertz Australia (actually in Australia) many times and it’s always been problem-free

      A few times I have bought their insurance when it was relatively cheap – got lucky as I quite severely damaged the car one of those times and there was nothing extra for me to do, which was preferable to paying A$3000 and then claiming it back (and probably losing on the exchange rate)

  • Clive says:

    7 Oct7 October 16:46

    Citroen C Elysee with Europcar for 219 for a week via QeeQ

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