The HfP chat thread – Friday 8th October

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• pauline says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:24

  Morning. Want to buy a TUMI backpack for my OH – expensive but worth it? His current one is 40 years old! I won’t be in Heathrow. Any suggestions re best / cheapest place to buy?

  • AJA says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:35

    Tumi has a store at Westfield Shepherds Bush. Or you buy online via their website.

    • pauline says:

      8 Oct8 October 09:37

      thanks – I am in edinburgh so will have to be on – line

  • Andrew says:

    8 Oct8 October 10:27

    TK Maxx?

    Just a couple of girly ones on their website at the moment, but they are usually a staple in stores.

  • Blair says:

    8 Oct8 October 11:15

    Tumi Bicester will send you a virtual catalog on Whatsapp. Range isn’t great but prices are.

• Jeff Greene says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:24

  Woke up this morning and my leg was hurting. Curious if anyone else has had a dodgy leg recently

  • AG says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:26

    😂😂😂😂

  • Rich says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:29

    Call up your GP, they’ll have plenty of time to help. But if you have flown recently it may be DVT so best get it checked out. 😫

  • LongJohnSilver says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:29

    Me too!

    • ankomonkey says:

      8 Oct8 October 12:04

      😂

  • davef says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:32

    Just hiked 20 miles in the mountains in croatia and woke up without a dodgy ankle, knee, achillies or any severe muscle pain
    That’s the 1st time in decades after a hike so there’s definitely something wrong.

  • Travel Strong says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:32

    Yes actually. Fell up the steps boarding the 0635 from BRS to GIB… it’s an airline fracture.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      8 Oct8 October 09:34

      BOOM! BOOM!

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:37

    Well except for your snide comments I did learn something from my post earlier. There does seem to be something going round that starts with just a sore throat. Usually when I have a sore throat there’s other symptoms present.

    But yes, I also have a sore leg, but that was exercise related…

  • Tom says:

    8 Oct8 October 10:32

    It’s undoubtedly covid. The medical experts on here will know for sure.

  • jack charlton says:

    8 Oct8 October 11:09

    apparently you have a better chance getting a professional diagnosis here than from someone in real life that you REALLY know is a professional.

    I’ve been scratching a lot lately….I await my diagnosis.

    • A says:

      8 Oct8 October 14:16

      pork scratchings

    • AJA says:

      8 Oct8 October 16:24

      “Scratching a lot” where and what exactly? 🙂

• Roger says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:29

  AMEX travel offer £100 back on £400+ spend.

  Would it work for cumulative spend?

  • George K says:

    8 Oct8 October 15:19

    It usually does.

• davef says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:35

  Ok, 2 questions about cancelling flights.
  1. What’s the difference between me just not showing up for a flights (and not even checking in) and hitting the cancel flight button on a Jet2 web page?
  2. Last year easyjet credited my unflown taxes when I couldnt take a flight to iceland. No issue, just tweeted them and asked. With Jet 2 they say in the Ts&Cs that they wont. Is there law that overrides this, (I was sure there was) and what about things like seat reservation fees – did something change here or am I thinking it was the USA?

  • Rich says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:38

    I think they have to refund, but they’re entitled to make an ‘admin’ charge, which might just equal the value of the taxes

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:42

    If you cancel then you should get a refund of anything due, but in this case it sounds like there’s nothing due, but it might mean a seat is available to someone else if the flight ends up being full.

    I’m not sure the rules on this, only time I tried to get a refund on taxes on an unflown flight was back when bmi still existed. They refunded the taxes but the admin fee took up most of it. So I guess even if Jet2 should refund the taxes they could claim the admin fee is more than the taxes cost. Anyone know what BA does in normal times when you cancel a non-refundable flight? Do they refund taxes?

    Does Jet2 not offer anything like an evoucher or free changes if you can’t make the flight?

    • davef says:

      8 Oct8 October 10:04

      I cant find a voucher option anywhere on the website.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        8 Oct8 October 10:24

        I’ve had a look and Jet2 don’t seem to offer a book with confidence style policy where you can claim a voucher if you need to cancel for any reason. They only mention refunds when they cancel.

        I guess as a holiday airline they won’t operate flights if a country bars UK tourists so they probably see no need for such a policy.

  • Travel Strong says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:43

    Re: 2. It depends it they charge an admin fee which is greater than the APD. Easyjet do not, so you get your APD back in full. Wizz, for example, charge an admin fee which is higher APD for most short haul flights.

  • AJA says:

    8 Oct8 October 16:40

    Re 1 There is nothing stopping you just no-showing but if you really don’t intend to take the flight it would be nice of you to inform the airline. There is little incentive to do so if Jet2 won’t refund anything other than the moral high ground of being a decent person.

    Re 2 Legally APD has to be repaid if requested as it is a “government imposed UK departure tax” and if you don’t actually depart the UK the airline doesn’t pay it but the airlines are entitled to charge an admin fee which will often be as much or higher than the APD. I have successfully reclaimed APD from BA on a long haul flight in WT+ which I wasn’t able to take – this was about 10 years ago and was otherwise non-refundable. For shorthaul I’d not bother claiming.

• N says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:42

  Can anyone else get to the Buy Avios page on BA.com? I keep getting “This page is not available.” after login

  • WaynedP says:

    8 Oct8 October 11:01

    Seems to be working OK for me at
    https://pgt.shopping.ba.com/

• Andrew H says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:43

  Does Curve fronted work on VACC+ with Apple Pay at Freetrade? (£250 is lifetime limit, so no big deal)

  Second does VACC+ work with Revolut?

  • Melonfarmer says:

    8 Oct8 October 13:23

    I used VA via Curve on Freetrade last year & VA subsequently blocked me from my usual route on HL (5 vouchers worth). Rang VA, who said at the time all brokers blocked & had been for ages. Haven’t checked whether brokers now attract a cash advance fee post August 5th t&c change.

  • Reney says:

    8 Oct8 October 13:42

    By not working with Revolut I mean it will attract a cash transaction fee. However a few people have claimed it does work on here. Maybe weird IT? I have not tried it out since the change last year?

• Save East Coast Rewards says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:46

  It works for me.

  However I had a similar issue with Hilton many months ago where I got an error if I was trying to buy or transfer points. Hilton support were useless at resolving it, a few months later it started working again. Nobody else was having the same issue

  The reason I mention this is both schemes are run by points.com so you might be having a similar issue.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:50

    This was a reply to a post by ‘N’:
    Can anyone else get to the Buy Avios page on BA.com? I keep getting “This page is not available.” after login

• wee paul says:

  8 Oct8 October 09:49

  Flew BHD to LCY last night on BA Cityflyer E190 in Club Europe (redemption flight). I’m coeliac and my GF meal had not been loaded. Flight supervisor told me to ask for compensation from BA. Given that that on on e190 the meal is the only differentiator between business and economy (already have lounge via status) I’ll get onto BA. Any advice on who to email etc.
  P.S for any other coeliacs the Aspire lounge at BHD had nothing gluten free to eat…

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:

    8 Oct8 October 09:51

    The BA complaints form is the best place for this https://www.britishairways.com/travel/customerportal/public/en_gb#/customer-service-portal

    • Pete M says:

      8 Oct8 October 10:12

      Bear in mind you are unlikely to get any compensation, as BA seem to have decided not to give compensation for anything these days, but do complain – it may make a difference in the future.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        8 Oct8 October 10:28

        In this case I think it’s important to stress to them that the meal was ordered for medical requirements and that the reason CE was booked was because of the catering.

        • Simon says:

          8 Oct8 October 11:16

          A medial reason to have to eat something on a 80 minute flight?!

    • wee paul says:

      8 Oct8 October 10:29

      Thank you.

  • Jody says:

    8 Oct8 October 10:58

    I’ve not done a long haul flight since going gluten free. Am dreading it to be honest. Am also vegetarian, which adds to the complexity, as you can order a coeliac meal (obviously doesn’t help when they don’t load it as happened to you!) or a vegetarian meal, but you can’t get both in the one meal.

    Easy to manage on the outbound, as can make sure I’ve got plenty of nice food to take on board. Not so easy for inbound.

    Am looking into gluten free rice noodle/rice pot type things which are easy and light to pack. Also seriously considering some of those freeze dried expedition meals which hikers etc use and just need water. Some of them actually sound quite nice, and as long as they’re edible it’s better than nothing. Easy to chuck in a bag just in case.

    No help with your actual question I know, sorry you didn’t get your meal.

  • Ikaz says:

    8 Oct8 October 11:50

    I got 5000 avios for no meal loaded on my domestic flight earlier this year (they only had a small fruit pot for breakfast, and the lounge was still closed)

    • GaryE says:

      8 Oct8 October 12:09

      Sadly, also had bad experiences with BA re gluten free meals (also Coeliac). The cabin crew have no idea and believe that vegetarian and gluten free are one of the same meal – which they are not! I always check on boarding the flight that my meal has been loaded – and ask them to physically check. If the meal has not been loaded (we usually travel long haul PE) – I ask them what is available in First class and can I get something plain from there. Also insist they log it in the flight report and get a complaint number that helps when you ask for compensation.
      Short haul is just not worth the fight – take a sandwich with you and make one in your hotel/apartment for the return flight.

      • Jody says:

        8 Oct8 October 13:10

        I haven’t flown ryanair, but I was amazed to read on some of the coeliac FB groups that they have a gluten-free vegan lasagne for sale on their flights. Looked it up as seemed to be too good to be true, but they really have!

        Won’t be everyone’s cup of tea obviously, but really good that they have a hot option that is gluten free readily available.

  • Simon Miller says:

    8 Oct8 October 12:56

    I’ve found whether catering on the BHD-LCY route will actually turn up to be very hit and miss. This has just reminded me I never got an answer to my complaint from July about catering being absent in Club Europe on the flight!

    • Simon Miller says:

      8 Oct8 October 13:51

      Actually I did – I got a £25 BA voucher for no catering on the flight.

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