The HfP chat thread – Friday 8th October

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ChrisC says:

8 Oct8 October 14:03

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-08/qantas-direct-australia-to-london-flights-darwin-transit/100526328

QANTAS will fly Sydney- Darwin- Perth when international flights resume next month instead of via Perth
- Blindman says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 14:16
  
  According to a QANTAS email today
  
  “To travel on these flights you must be an Australian citizen, permanent residents or their immediate family or hold an approved visa.*””
  
  So no tourist yet.
  - Super Secret Stuff says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 15:32
    
    What counts as an approved visa? Need to go for work
    - QFFlyer says:
      
      8 Oct8 October 16:56
      
      Permanent resident or any visa accompanied by an exemption from the current entry requirements (basically, you still can’t come in without an exemption unless you’re a citizen or PR – nothing’s changed on that front and is unlikely to until some time next year).
- Paul Pogba says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 14:41
  
  Pedant: SYD-DRW-LHR (not PER)?
  - ChrisC says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 19:11
    
    I should have cut and pased that rather than typed it!
    
    typo acknowledged.
Yorkieflyer says:

8 Oct8 October 14:05

BA Bangkok flights now cancelled for Christmas, first flights 10 January
- Sam G says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 14:08
  
  The flights only seem to be off sale at this point – a small chance they might reconsider now that Thailand is off the red list. But otherwise BA does have a rebooking agreement in place with Finnair via Stockholm inc for Avios bookings but will need to wait a while for the permitted dates to cover through to Jan – https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/traveltrade/bookings-policies/policies/askba?faqid=8739
  - Sam G says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 14:18
    
    (looks like Monday/Thursday out – Tuesday/Friday back – good connections both ways, little tight on the Tuesday return)
    - BlueHorizonUK says:
      
      8 Oct8 October 14:33
      
      They seem to have been rebooking onto Cathay, then Malaysian and now Finnair.
      
      They seem to be going through the Oneworld airlines so hopefully end up with Qatar!! 😂
      - Sam G says:
        
        8 Oct8 October 15:20
        
        There was a blanket cash ticket rebooking policy onto Qatar but looks like that expires 31 Oct unfortunately !
  - BJ says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 17:47
    
    Interesting. Would love to change to Finnair. Been holding off until mid November in slim hope I might be able to rebook our Xmas travels on BA 2022. Options are limited as already have Japan and Thailand booked for spring so if BA want to keep the cash and avoid regaining the avios liability they will have to do something. My realistic alternative is to cancel, cash out avios via Nectar and book for cash on Finnair. Tax and fees on redemption plus 150k avios at 0.8ppa plus avios earned on Finnair plus expiring 241 protected via a FTV plus £2k+ spend on amex looks very appealing to me. Now thinking about it, ight not even be giving BA the opportunity to play ball 🙂
Harry T says:

8 Oct8 October 14:32

BA just dropped a load more December availability to and from Dubai. Was just scooped to First on the way back.
- Babyg says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 14:47
  
  saw this too, ive locked in my return in first, i actually wanted club on the 9.35am, but got cut off by youfirst and those seats went.. arrggh.. ended up with the first on the a380 @2.35am… i am hoping i can make the work with the f1… eg race finish.. then get to airport … never been there so dont understand if this is possible or not… have you been harry, will it be possible to make the 2.35am flight after the GP?
  - BP says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 15:16
    
    I’m in Dubai on the 12th December. I hadn’t even realised the Abu Dhabi GP was on!
    - Babyg says:
      
      8 Oct8 October 15:24
      
      apparently there is an expo2020 happening too around them parts:-)
  - Harry T says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 15:32
    
    I’ve not been but I think you beat me to those seats 😂. My concern would be that the after party might go past midnight but then I guess you could party until you need to go to airport?
    - Harry T says:
      
      8 Oct8 October 15:33
      
      We are flying club back on the 13th at 9.25 in club. Shame neither for our legs is club suite!
      - Harry T says:
        
        8 Oct8 October 15:33
        
        Ignore the duplicate club 😊
      - Babyg says:
        
        8 Oct8 October 15:38
        
        you stole my BA108 @09.25 club seats! (lol) did you want the BA106 @2.15 first seats? (talking about monday 13th(
        i would happily swap around/!? not sure how you got the BA108 @09.25, and i was only left with the BA106 @2.15 first ? im sure you first could do this for us…… 🙂
  - Harry T says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 16:09
    
    @babyg no guarantees first would pop back into inventory I’m afraid, even if YouFirst could/would do a swap. The 9.25 flight works okay for us too, just wish it was club suite or F. I hope you manage to nab some more seats. They’ve been adding them basically every day, so hopefully you will get lucky.
    - Babyg says:
      
      8 Oct8 October 16:14
      
      yeah the 9.25 is much better – id keep those if i was you too – youfirst have been very good at “mending/adding” to existing bookings, e.g. i was able to add faro as a leg to an existing booking… BA seem very flexible… anywho 9.25 means no rushing after the race finishes so you are good…. meanwhile we will be rushing back to dubai for the 2.15am… ive reached out to “donald” who can advise me if this flight is even advisable… ps i think all the flights are gone now (unless somebody cancels).. IMHO they were a result of the a380 being added…
      - Harry T says:
        
        8 Oct8 October 16:23
        
        I think I’ve talked to Donald from YouFirst before – a very affable and helpful chap. You may get lucky with a cancellation, especially last minute.
      - Babyg says:
        
        8 Oct8 October 16:36
        
        agreed, might get lucky with more flights popping up… but have to be fast to beat other hfp-ers!
Max says:

8 Oct8 October 14:32

Has anyone else had issues receiving their Priority pass card after getting an Amex gold? I never received mine, Amex directed me to Priority pass customer services who said they’d send another one, that was a few weeks ago, still no card…

I guess I can use the digital card, but it’s odd they haven’t been able to post one.
- AS says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 14:39
  
  Yes, exactly the same experience. Likewise will just use the digital version.
- Andy says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 15:21
  
  Yes me too! How do I set up the digital version?!
  - Sprout says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 16:18
    
    Ring Amex and they can give you a membership no.
    Ring Priority pass and they will give you an activation code
    download app and use membership no. and activation code to set up an account.
    That’s it – your digital pass is in the app.
    They will also give you details for your supplementary card holder if you wish.
    - Sprout says:
      
      8 Oct8 October 16:21
      
      You can contact amex by chat if you wish – I did.
- Babyg says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 15:53
  
  #metoo.. never got mine with my amex plat
- Darko says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 16:13
  
  I received two on my name, one after another….
Tom H says:

8 Oct8 October 14:53

Can you still cancel an avios 241 for an FTV? I just went to the cancellation details and there is no mention of it?
- Anna says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 14:59
  
  Yes – you need to go to the BA home page and there’s a section entitled “Covid-19”, it’s in there.
- ledcran02 says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 15:04
  
  Cancelled a 241 booking on Wednesday, no problem getting the FTV.
  - Tom H says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 15:35
    
    Thanks both
- SteveJ says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 16:50
  
  Yes, Rob mentions how at the bott of this article
  
  https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/08/04/british-airways-future-travel-voucher-extension/
Rui N. says:

8 Oct8 October 14:53

Following the footsteps of our intrepid Anna, I complained to IHG about not receiving 2*25k points for requalifying from Spire (I only receive the ones when I requalified, not the ones from having the status rolled over from last year). I used the form on the website and got a reply from ihgrewardsclub@ihg.com in case anyone is interested in complaining via that way.
The response was: as per instructions of the Treasury, we are closing your account.
Of course that did not happen.
What did happen was that they argued that I had already received 25k points. I said that I knew that, thank you very much, but I wanted at least a token of appreciation for having had the trouble of requalyfing for Spire, while people that got their status rolled over got the 25k points nonetheless. They then claimed that it was a lie that anyone whose status was rolled over had received the 25k points…
I pointed them to HfP article saying that was BS and people did indeed receive the bonus after being rolled over, and they gave me 5k points for the “effort in making sure you achieve the Spire Elite criteria.” I was expecting 0 points, so that was a good outcome.
- Anna says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 15:24
  
  Good try, Rui N, maybe they were hoping I would renew Ambassador …
- Steve-B says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 16:55
  
  I haven’t been following this… has there been any trouble with people receiving 25k once qualifying this year? I hit 55k pts a month ago and no bonus yet posted.
  - Anna says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 17:00
    
    Basically if you got 25k points as a “goodwill” gesture earlier in the year, you won’t get them again if you re-qualify for Spire. Which, IMO, makes the goodwill gesture completely meaningless, because you earned them anyway, eventually!
    - Lady London says:
      
      8 Oct8 October 18:03
      
      I am not sure which is making the least sense these days : IHG, or Creation.
      
      I think the winner of the not-making-sense competition is Creation.
      
      I’ve got my popcorn out for when Creation tries not to refund annual fee pro rata, not to refund any earned £10,000 spend night, and, I think, not to offer at least a pro rata compensation for their early forced closure based on % spend towards free night.
  - ChrisC says:
    
    8 Oct8 October 19:16
    
    If you were already spire you got the 25k earlier this year.
    
    It looks like you were Plat last year but earned Spire
    
    The 25k is visible in the web version of your account not the app. There is a button to click and it gives you the option of the 25k points or gifting Plat to someone else. You need to choose.
Josh says:

8 Oct8 October 15:35

Hi all,

Last question regarding the VA CC voucher –

Can I use it to do 241 on the following open jaw?

LHR – JFK
HKG – LHR?

Thanks
- JDB says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 15:41
  
  If VS applies the same rule as BA which is an IATA fare construction rule, the answer is no. The unflown part, JFK-HKG, cannot be longer than either flight which would rule out your itinerary. If it is for one person, you may be able to book two one ways.
DexB says:

8 Oct8 October 16:09

Just received a seat change from BA for flights to/from LHR-NBO. Can’t make any changes in MMB from the new ones allocated by BA. No seat map appears. Looks like been changed from CS to the old 2-4-2 format. Any thoughts why I’m being prevented from seeking alternative seats? Tks
- KP says:
  
  8 Oct8 October 17:37
  
  Give it a couple of days and it’ll get fixed.