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The HfP chat thread – Saturday 9th October

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Comments (494)

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

  • BuildBackBetter says:
    9 Oct9 October 07:59

    Big news. Singapore announces vaccine travel lane with UK and a few other countries.

  • Rich says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:04

    Does anyone have inside knowledge as to why BA use stands and buses at LHR when plenty of air bridges are available. Arrived back on a full flight from Valencia last night to all the faff of buses – and overhead a cabin crew member tell a fellow passenger it was down to cost ‘ but we haven’t said that’. Is it cost or, as I’d assumed, getting ahead of early morning capacity challenges now T5 is used by so many airlines?

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:15

      Ever flown ryanair?

      They never, ever use she bridges.

      It’ll simply be due to cost. Money saving.

      • stevenhp1987 says:
        9 Oct9 October 08:15

        *air bridges

      • Anna says:
        9 Oct9 October 08:21

        At MAN they use air bridges and also park at what seems like the furthest point they possibly can from passport control at T1. Queue families with small kids having to drag them down miles of corridors and up and down what feels like about 5 sets of stairs!

        • davef says:
          9 Oct9 October 08:40

          BA Man-Lhr is running from T3 still, 140 gates despite it being closed. Had to check in at T1, use the Aspire lounge there and then when the flight was called it was a WTF moment, T1 doesn’t have a 142.
          After the slog over there via the internal corridors I find myself in a queue of 200 people, few wearing masks, no heating, barely any lighting, and no staff for 45 mins until they decided to call group 1 to the front for boarding.
          I’ve flown over 90 airports, MAN is the worst and gets more so every time.

          • Anna says:
            9 Oct9 October 09:04

            Hopefully we’ll get to experience the new T2 at some point!

          • Doug M says:
            9 Oct9 October 10:21

            Manchester is the only airport I’ve been through where it felt like they deliberately structured a bad experience. Been through many poor and disorganised ones, but there it felt like how can we make people’s day worse.

          • davef says:
            9 Oct9 October 12:05

            It’s MAN so new T2 or no new T2 it’ll still be a shambles.
            I’ll be going through it in Feb, hoping the Virgin lounge will be open by then.

      • Gruntfuttock says:
        9 Oct9 October 09:34

        They did in PMI, once, in 2009, got the bill and the rest is transfer buses 😂

      • Super Secret Stuff says:
        9 Oct9 October 11:27

        +1

        Obviously every airline has a deal with each airport but they all start off with negotiating from the publicly available bill of charges

    • JDB says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:18

      Most annoying is if your international flight arrives at a domestic jetty so you still have to take a bus. I think it is partly cost (which can be stand cost, too few BA terminal staff to meet etc), partly the aircraft’s next movement, so probably a combination of cost and convenience for BA. It’s no excuse, but BA is still in a dire financial state and now (as for many businesses) is the difficult point as activity ramps up, staff off furlough etc. so costs go up but little new cash is coming in.

    • Andrew says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:19

      There’s method in there somewhere.

      I used to avoid the 14:XX flight from EDI as it always required buses due to the diagramming of the next flight.

    • Richie says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:19

      BA445 VLC-LHR arriving 8 October was operated by aircraft G-MIDT. G-MIDT is not operating any flights today, so no point parking it at an air bridge until it’s next flight tomorrow, park it at a stand and save money.

      • Rich says:
        9 Oct9 October 09:47

        Thanks for taking the time to look into this in a big of detail Richie, that now makes more sense.

        • Nick says:
          9 Oct9 October 10:17

          It’s not cost. At heathrow the (small) rebate from an off-pier aircraft is far exceeded by the cost of buses and drivers (which are paid for by BA).

          As Richie said, it’s done entirely for operational reasons. You may not like or agree with those, but it doesn’t stop it being the case. Very unprofessional of the crew to make things up (how would they know about Heathrow costs?!) but probably says more about their attitude and motivation than anything else.

          (At some downroute stations the equation is different, true, but not at heathrow.)

          • Super Secret Stuff says:
            9 Oct9 October 11:30

            Sorry disagree with that. Every airline has a unique deal with airports. The likes of Ryanair push for heavy discounts using remote stands and then cram the buses to the legal capacity

          • Phil W says:
            9 Oct9 October 11:31

            For those of a geeky disposition…

            Cost of a single Cobus aircraft pickup @ CDG in the mid-2000s was €35-40 depending on notice given by the airline. There was a discount if you needed two buses for an aircraft. I ran a competitive tender for the services on behalf of the Star Alliance airlines at the airport. CDG is an interesting airport behind the scenes.

    • Joints&Piles says:
      9 Oct9 October 10:27

      I flew QR in F from Doha and had to take a bus to the aircraft. It was a first class bus, with 7 leather armchairs.

      I flew LX into FRA to connect to LH in F. We parked away from the terminal and a bus pulled up. I felt shame. But then a Porsche pulled up and it was for me. I felt smug.

    • Lady London says:
      9 Oct9 October 12:27

      Cost.
      And sometimes late evening arrivals get bus when they wouldn’t normally.

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:19

    What’s the latest Sleepy Joe news? I’ve got the feeling this early November announcement was just to stop the UK and EU leaders hassling him about it all the time when they met up.

    The ban itself could be lifted quickly, in fact Trump did so just before leaving but Biden put it straight back (at the time I agreed with this as most of Europe was in lock down so it was too soon to lift it). Removing these restrictions would just put UK, IE and Schengen back to the same status as the rest of the world.

    You have the crazy situation where an EU country that’s not in Schengen (e.g. Croatia) isn’t subject to this ban, except if you’re Ireland, they’re not Schengen but got lumped in with the UK (probably because of the CTA).

    All we want is a firm date, it’s October now, it’s not too much to ask.

    • Anna says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:28

      Agree, it’s a crazy situation. Travellers from countries like Mexico and Colombia, with their own variants, have been free to enter the US all this time, and Americans have been vacationing all over the Caribbean and Latin America for the past year (theoretically free to mix with the Europeans who can’t enter their contry).
      Interestingly, fellow time-share owners from the US I’m in contact with on social media seem to be under the impression that the CTA and EU are in a worse state than the USA in terms of infections and vaccinations and that’s why we are still banned!

      • J says:
        9 Oct9 October 08:49

        Well they are worse in terms of FDA approved vaccines.

      • TOBIAS L says:
        9 Oct9 October 14:35

        Why do you always moan so much about not being let in to the US? Is there some sort of undeniable right for the Great British race to be allowed in above South Americans? The UK is not as important to others as you’ve been raised to believe…

        “Their variants”…🤣 cases in the UK are the highest in Europe…ergo the name: Plague Island.

        Stop whining, get a life and move on – it’ll happen eventually.

    • JDB says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:29

      The BBC had something about it this week as did the Washington Post – it seems that there are so many federal and state sign offs needed to agree how lifting the ban will be effected, plus it’s not a top priority for most of them that it’s very slow.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:
        9 Oct9 October 08:46

        Yeah I saw that, which is why we need something official, even if they say early November is out of the question so people know at least when not to book.

        I think the excuse is nonsense though. Trump imposed these rules without state sign off, Trump then lifted these rules and then Biden put them back. Americans have been free to holiday in most of Europe all summer, I’ve loved to see their reactions when they’ve experienced Club Europe for the first time (on a LHR-BLQ said to the crew “is this really business class?”). In Italy Delta, Alitalia and AA have been offering special COVID tested flights which included additional testing but allowed quarantine to be skipped in Italy when they arrived. It only worked for US citizens though they could visit us but we couldn’t visit them.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          9 Oct9 October 08:50

          They don’t have a vaccinated only policy now but want one when they open to U.K./Europe. It’s therefore not as easy as just lifting the ban as it’s 52 states to sort out.

          • Save East Coast Rewards says:
            9 Oct9 October 09:09

            While they’re dithering with vaccine policy people who’ve spent 14 nights in Croatia (EU but not Schengen), Mexico, Dubai, Qatar, etc can all go to the US no problem. Americans that visit the UK or other banned countries can stay there as long as they like and then go back home no issues.

            It’s a joke. If the vaccine policy is important then treat all countries the same, lock out the world from the US until they decide what vaccines to accept. Otherwise it’s just a farce.

          • Anna says:
            9 Oct9 October 10:03

            There are also grumblings from within the US about people not being able to have visits from friends and extended family while people from other so many other countries are being allowed to enter, often without any kind of checks.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            9 Oct9 October 10:16

            You might not like it but that’s what he’s asked for and it’ll take a while to either implement or review and overturn.

          • Rui N. says:
            9 Oct9 October 11:01

            That’s BS. Entry into the US is a strictly federal matter.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            9 Oct9 October 11:50

            @Rui

            The federal departments are responsible for implementing it in all 52 states though not as easy as doing it in say England.

          • Lady London says:
            9 Oct9 October 12:43

            Really not sure why Europe and UK accepted tourists from the US all summer without reciprocity.

            Is that just because the US is the biggest kid in the playground so they get what they want and don’t have to reciprocate?

          • Chrisasaurus says:
            9 Oct9 October 12:59

            I’ll give you a prize if you can name 52 states…

    • J says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:45

      https://mobile.twitter.com/BBCJonSopel/status/1445790234256371721

    • ChrisC says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:52

      Trump lifted his ban out of spite knowing Biden would have to reinstate it. Also there was a week between the date he made the announcement and it coming into force

      But there was nothing about needing vaccinations etc etc so it would have been un controlled entry and no contact tracing system etc in place.

      The logic re e.g Croatia being exempt was as it isn’t in Schengen it has border controls.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:
        9 Oct9 October 09:14

        The border controls between Schengen and Croatia are very weak. If driving there from Italy there’s a passport control booth (I’m not sure whether it’s Slovenian for exiting Schengen or Croatian) but they just looked at my passport and handed it back, no scanning. The Italians with me used their EU ID cards and again just glanced at.

        They should have stamped my passport to show I have exited Schengen, but as it was a day trip I didn’t bother asking. I would have to ensure it was stamped if I was going there to wait 14 days before going to the US though.

        However, what’s to stop someone from another EU country who can enter Croatia via ID card pretending they’ve spent 14 days in Croatia before going to the US, as long as they start at a Croatian airport (e.g. ZAG) and connect at a non-Schengen airport (e.g. DOH)?

        • John says:
          9 Oct9 October 11:11

          Well I took the train from Ljubljana to Zagreb when the UK was still fully in the EU, and we stopped for about half an hour for both sets of border officials who came by with portable passport scanners. I would assume that non-EU/EEA citizens were briefly questioned and stamped

      • TGLoyalty says:
        9 Oct9 October 10:18

        “knowing Biden would have to reinstate i”

        Why? It was a crap policy based upon 0 scientific basis. Covid was rife in US.

      • Jeff Greene says:
        9 Oct9 October 10:28

        “ There are also grumblings from within the US about people not being able to have visits from friends and extended family”

        People have been “grumbling” and crying for 18 months now. How much impact has that had on policy? Zero

    • Jeff Greene says:
      9 Oct9 October 10:52

      “ What’s the latest Sleepy Joe news? ”

      Nothing beyond what has been reported by news outlets.

    • David says:
      9 Oct9 October 10:54

      I stopped reading at Sleepy Joe🙄

  • Imran says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:29

    Does anyone know how to raise a travel insurance delayed baggage claim with HSBC WE travel insurance? Thanks.

    • JDB says:
      9 Oct9 October 08:37

      You could try calling the claims number?
      0800 051 7459

      • Simon says:
        9 Oct9 October 08:42

        Sounds like he may need further instructions…..

      • Red Flyer says:
        9 Oct9 October 09:09

        Call this number. I did recently for a cancelled holiday due to illness and they were really helpful. Forms followed by email and has been good comms all through the claim process and I am expecting them to pay out next week. Expect a 5 day response time for anything you submit but they do advise this up front to you.

        • Genghis says:
          9 Oct9 October 10:11

          We submitted a claim last month. Just less than £1k. Accepted without any evidence and paid out to my account the day after. First claim made with them and was v impressed.

    • David says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:06

      You need the luggage claim report/ reference number and all the receipts for your spending whilst waiting for the luggage.

    • Jeff Greene says:
      9 Oct9 October 11:05

      Ring them up

  • Pete says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:33

    Virgin cancelled our flights to US. We were due to fly on Tuesday.
    The flights was booked on points last November on a points promo (50% reduction I think)
    Ideally we would like to rebook for next November. On the same terms
    Have tried online form, but that only allows booking to September
    Virgin on Twitter says travel voucher, but then I am liable for the additional cost?
    Cant contact them on phone, I have tried a few times.
    WhatsApp have not repiled
    Any suggestions?

    • Anna says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:09

      You’re entitled to re-routing at no extra cost and on your chosen date, I recommend some of the many, many threads which appear on this site daily re this issue. I don’t know how Virgin travel vouchers but you may well be liable for any extra costs so don’t agree to that unless you’re absolutely sure what you’re getting.

    • Travel Strong says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:28

      Wait a month or so – until the flights you want go on sale – then move them. You don’t need to do anything now.

    • Travel Strong says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:29

      (Next Nov goes on sale in Dec)

    • Mrs H says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:33

      Was in the same boat last month. Try WhatsApp again . Or early morning call as soon as lines open . When offered voucher, I replied “ I believe I am entitled to re-book…” , and there was no problem.

    • Jonathan says:
      9 Oct9 October 10:13

      This is the Virgin policy;

      “If all of your flights have been cancelled you have several options available to you. So we can update your booking as soon as possible, please choose your preference at your earliest convenience. The options include:
      Rebook your flights for a new departure date, any time between now and 30 April 2023
      Convert your ticket to a Virgin Atlantic voucher, which will generate a credit equal to the value of your booking, for use on a future flight with Virgin Atlantic

      If you’d like someone else to benefit from your booking, you can also make a free name change when you rebook or request a voucher, or even change your destination with the admin fee waived.

      To view all your options following this cancellation, including a cash refund, please visit our website, which sets these out in more detail and allows you to self-select your preference.”

      This is pretty generous (better than EU261 requirements in some respects). They will rebook you for next November but they can only do this once tickets are on sale which for Virgin is 331 days pre departure.

      • Gary says:
        9 Oct9 October 13:08

        Was Impressed when got same email. VS lets one rebook up til 30 Apr 2023 (instead of dragging passengers through CEDR/MCOL). recent chats mentioned the discounts were honoured on re-booking

  • Save East Coast Rewards says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:39

    I’ve not looked at the BA shopping portal (formerly known as Gate 365) for a long time, but I noticed the number of places you can earn points by paying with your registered card in store has grown significantly, so if you’ve not looked for a while it might be worth taking a look just in case there’s something of use to you.

    • Memesweeper says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:36

      Is there any downside to registering a card with multiple portals.

      • KBuffett says:
        9 Oct9 October 10:12

        @memesweeper – I’ve read many comments on here stating card clashes are causing no rewards to be received on any portal/

        For me and a friends, it’s paying amazingly well. The recent Morrison’s offer was literally like a gold rush, paying over 40%.

    • KBuffett says:
      9 Oct9 October 10:10

      I noticed this yesterday. Although the retailers involved seems to be very niche to say the least.

      • Kai says:
        9 Oct9 October 11:25

        @KBuffett – How did you manage to earn over 40%? The maximum I could earn was 36%.
        Also, if I may ask, how much did you “invest” in Morrison’s gift cards? I invested £18.5k and saved £££s.

        • Jonathan says:
          9 Oct9 October 11:58

          And when the new owners prioritise margin over turnover & stop selling gift cards (or the decent ones as opposed to Pizza Express where you get a better deal with cash) how are you going to spend the £18.5k within 24 months?! Or do you have an HGV that needs filling up regularly!

          • KBuffett says:
            9 Oct9 October 12:20

            I really don’t understand this recent trend on here of people talking down on others.

            Spending £18.5k is not exactly difficult and more than likely most of that has already been converted into John Lewis etc.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            9 Oct9 October 17:16

            I think it’s a genuine question. However I recall Kai had an exit strategy already.

          • TGLoyalty says:
            9 Oct9 October 17:18

            @jonathan I suspect you don’t know how revenue recognition works. The £100 gift card is NOT £100 of revenue for Morrisons it is recognised as the margin they receive on the £100 sale so merely a few £.

        • KBuffett says:
          9 Oct9 October 12:21

          @kai
          PAW was paying me 20% for some reason. In addition to the usual others, it also paid on Admiral/Emirates/Virgin.
          I only did around £8k. I should have pushed it further.

  • HH says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:42

    1k bonus points from the Amazon offer just landed in my MR balance after buying a £200 GC on Tuesday.

  • Louise says:
    9 Oct9 October 08:54

    Looking at a BA business card for OH who is a self employed consultant – what does stuff does the card recognise as ‘business spend’? I assume fuel to visit clients, insurances (if the company takes Amex’, stationary, etc. I understand we shouldn’t use it for our household weekly shop but how stringent is it?? Thanks

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:18

      Pretty much anything can be a business spend so I don’t think anything particular would flag up as suspicious. However for accounting purposes it’s easier to have a separate card that just has business related expenses on it, for me I used to use my Amex Platinum for business expenses only, that meant the annual fee was also a valid expense. If you use your business card for personal use too you can’t claim the fee as a business expense.

    • JRC says:
      9 Oct9 October 09:20

      @Louise, you can use it for anything. Put £10k of personal spend through and Amex didn’t bat an eyelid. In fact when I cancelled they tried to persuade me to keep the card.

      • Louise says:
        9 Oct9 October 09:45

        I didn’t realise that – thanks!

      • TGLoyalty says:
        9 Oct9 October 11:52

        YMMV though because I have seen comments from others being questioned on their spend.

        • Louise says:
          9 Oct9 October 14:17

          Thanks TGL, will have to have another go and searching the chats to read others experiences…find it hard to locate things on here sometimes!

          • CarpalTravel says:
            9 Oct9 October 22:48

            I don’t recall ever reading of Amex questioning spends, Capital on Tap on the other hand…

            I’ve never had any of my spends questioned and if you see some of the offers on the card, they aren’t all business related either.

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