The HfP chat thread – Saturday 9th October

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• Swiss Jim says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:04

  Anyone stayed at Premier Inn Blossom Street North in York? Location looks great. Hotel any good? For mum + 12 year old, so don’t need anything fancy 🤣 Premier Inn usually does the job…

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:21

    Not stayed as live fairly close but friends have. If standard PI will do then it’s absolutely fine. Very convenient for station; back of property is fairly quiet as backs onto station parking. 10 minute walk to centre. Delrio’s nearly across the road will do you a very decent Italian, and plenty of other good food choices within 5 minutes on Micklegate.

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      9 Oct9 October 12:09

      Wetherspoons across the road too, blossom street is very busy traffic wise so a room at the rear would be preferable

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    9 Oct9 October 11:03

    +1 My sister has stayed here and the PI closer into town on Micklegate and liked both of them.

  • MrHandBaggageOnly says:

    9 Oct9 October 20:43

    Stayed a couple of years ago. Very standard PI experience, but fine. No on-site parking, but station car park close by (was £14 a night then, probably more now), ideal hotel if arriving by train. Just steps from the city wall.

    Would stay again if the price was right and would certainly take it over the DoubleTree, where we had the misfortune of staying earlier this year.

• Degsy says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:11

  Apologies if this was mentioned yesterday, have others received the Hilton offer for $150 daily stay credit at Waldorf, Conrad & LXR? Looks better than the Marriott offer in terms of being able to book well into next year (as far as I can tell)

  • KBuffett says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:55

    Yes, I received this. It looks great, and far better than the current Marriott offers. 150USD daily is very good.

  • Harry T says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:57

    How did you receive this offer?

    • Degsy says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:21

      Here’s the (not very succinct) link, Harry T:
      https://www3.hiltond3.com/rs/luxury/offers/exclusive-credit

      • N says:

        9 Oct9 October 11:46

        Pathetic offer.

        Just checked at a WA in Dubai – Flex rates were £X pn, the offer rates were £x+120pn

        Looool.

        • Degsy says:

          9 Oct9 October 12:00

          As far as I can see it applies to points bookings as well, which is what caught my eye. (I may well have missed something, though)

        • John says:

          9 Oct9 October 15:39

          Why would you think it applies to points bookings? You have to book the “Lrm Exclusive Credit” rate which as others have said is almost $150 more than the normal flexible rate

    • KBuffett says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:24

      I received an email yesterday.

  • Ali M says:

    9 Oct9 October 11:05

    does it apply to bookings already done?have one at Waldorf Maldives soon and Conrad Makkah next year

    • meta says:

      9 Oct9 October 11:37

      No, it’s a special rate. However, the promo is totally bogus as the rate increases by about $150 a night than the normal rate. This is only if you want to stay in the hotel and prepay for all or most of your F&B and spa.

      • Ash says:

        9 Oct9 October 14:21

        Does it apply to points bookings too?

        • S879 says:

          9 Oct9 October 14:28

          A bit confused as this rate shows much higher than the other rates so we pay this but get usd150 credit per night? I didn’t get the email. Will that be an issue as it says by invitation.

        • John says:

          9 Oct9 October 15:40

          No

• Kevin C says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:11

  Is there a clever, points collecting way of buying a coat from Arc’teryx? Or do I just go to the shop?

  • Spurs drive me mad says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:15

    Look on line at BA shop see if they are listed or on cash back sites. You need to do some research, if nothing go to shop or order online and use whatever card you use for collecting points.

  • Jamie says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:22

    Mr Porter through the e-store has a decent points per £ and stocks arc’teryx.

    • Kevin C says:

      9 Oct9 October 09:46

      Yes they stock some but not full range. I had an Amex offer but it ended last weekend.

  • Andrew says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:37

    10% for one or both on MBNA, BoS, Halifax, Virgin Atlantic, and Barclaycard for me.

    As well as 5% on Airtime

  • Kevin C says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:44

    Don’t think Harvey Nicks or Harrods stock them. Selfridges do but not what I need (I may change my mind).

• Froggee says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:21

  Wowzers. I got another lesson from Creation. They say they previously wrote to me regarding closing my black card but note that I recently applied for a white card which they issued to me. They now rescind that acceptance and have cancelled the credit search they did when I applied. There is now a block on it so I cannot use it and the account will be closed in two months time. I guess it’s game over but I have spent my £200 so should get my welcome bonus…

  They not playing nicely any more so I expect diddly squat from them. Can I be bothered battling is the question.

  • ankomonkey says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:33

    Had the cancellation letter for both my cards. Yesterday I received a ‘take out a Creation loan’ letter. So they’re happy to have me as a loan customer but not a credit card one…

    • Anna says:

      9 Oct9 October 09:39

      They are useless, scrabbling around tying all loose ends they didn’t see coming.
      I failed the online checker for Creation loans even though we’re current customers with perfect payment history and highly solvent! The current one is getting paid off with my IHG card over the next few weeks …

  • John says:

    9 Oct9 October 10:02

    Working in financial services, banks have a right to close accounts they’ve opened if they suspect a fraudulent or suspicious application or activity of the account. Given they didn’t want your business on the black card, the fact they’ve closed the white card shouldn’t be a huge surprise.

    I guess the big question is if any future credit applications ask you if you’ve had any credit accounts closed or whether they share information with credit reference agencies around this.

    • Anna says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:07

      What’s fraudulent or suspicious in this case, exactly?

      • David says:

        9 Oct9 October 10:51

        You missed reading ‘or activity of the account’, Anna. Which I’d also take to be the known customer generally.

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 13:19

          Again, I can’t see anything suspicious about a single £200 transaction.

        • David says:

          9 Oct9 October 15:07

          Again, you’re missing the point of John’s comment. He’s talking about Vreation closing the white card account just applied for by somebody with a just closed black card.

      • JDB says:

        9 Oct9 October 11:03

        Anna, i have no idea what you or other Creation cardholders have done, nor am I giving any personal view (so please don’t attack me), but I can tell you what a few of the issues are – round tripping transactions that look identical to real ML (they can’t see the whole laundromat cycle, but not too difficult to work out) and in volumes incompatible with their knowledge of your income. Depositing say £10k/month in a savings account if you have a salary of £100k doesn’t add up. The obtention of cash advances by ‘disguised’ means in various different ways . The over funding of accounts that create technical credit limit breaches. The paying off of one credit card with another; allowed, but frowned upon in many quarters and can be sign of financial distress as well as shifting credit risk in the system. Carrying out transactions that are exclusively to earn rewards. None of these considered (by those whose job it is to look at these things) considered standard or appropriate as well as introducing layers of risk and cost. Different firms will respond in different ways to address this.

        • John says:

          9 Oct9 October 12:03

          Completely agree here, the reason people have to provide reams of evidence to unlock accounts is to remove the possibility of money laundering. Just look at the NatWest fine in the news this week to see why some customers become undesirable even after years of use of an account.

          Unfortunately proving a difference between layering in ML (to disguise a source of funds) and MS can be tough and it’s down to the customer to provide sufficient evidence to overturn blocks or closures.

          It’s a choice those who indulged in MS made – heavily abuse MS and face account closures or worse (good luck remortgaging if it’s the later) for the sake of a free hotel night or a free flight/upgrade.

          Sorry to sound glum but financial crime is increasingly front and centre in banking operations.

        • davef says:

          9 Oct9 October 12:15

          I’ve mentioned it before but I got the creation cancel letter too for the white card

          I’ve never once done any NS&I or other transactions with it. My average spend over the past 12 months was 200/month purely local retailers that dont take Amex and for IHG hotels when I was travelling more than I am now.

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 13:20

          I was specifically referring to Froggee’s experience with the recently opened white card account, but thanks for explaining all this again …

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 13:33

          John & JDB, I don’t think either of you actually know very much about banks and money laundering procedures, to be honest.
          If Creation had the slightest bit of evidence that any money laundering was taking place, they would be obliged to report it to the NCA, or face sanctions themselves for failing to do so. I know we joke about some of the posters on here but I doubt anyone has cycled £365 million, which is what the Nat West case was about, from ONE customer!
          You can also only be guilty of laundering money if that money was obtained illegally in the first place, so no amount of cycling – while “frowned upon” – would be liable for prosecution.
          Creation does not have access to any data from Curve or NS & I. Again they have to have solid evidence of criminality to be able to obtain this – have you ever applied to a financial institution for client account information? Even if £20 has been taken from an ATM without authorisation they will tell you they a court order before they will give you any information!

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 13:48

          https://kyc360.riskscreen.com/news/the-365m-money-laundering-den-behind-natwest-scandal-its-a-century-old-jewellers-in-bradford/

          I don’t think these folk were bothered about a points and a few free nights, somehow!

    • TGLoyalty says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:22

      They don’t ask you this question nor do they share it (at least outside their own institution)

      Do a DSARs request on it.

  • David says:

    9 Oct9 October 10:48

    Did you really think they wouldn’t do this? It was obvious to me that those applying on ‘black Friday stood next to no chance of either getting or getting to keep the card. I’m surprised they are letting you keep it for 2 months.

    • Froggee says:

      9 Oct9 October 12:16

      Well it is Creation. And given that my credit card spend on Creation was entirely in keeping with my income and I haven’t done anything that could be considered manufactured spend for quite some time, who knows? In the most recent card year, total spend on the black card was about £15k of which at least £10k was neither Ernie nor Che. My Ernie £££ remains with Ernie so no round tripping and actually the biggest expenditure on the card in the last year was charitable donations (they took credit cards!) where I took a view that I’d donate all the money I got back from cancelled J class flights to Orlando when I was so pleased to get the cash back from Expedia after an eternal wait. So absolutely Creation have the right to close my account but they need to adhere to their terms and conditions, which so far they are doing. If they didn’t like various uses of the card they could have blocked them(they’ve now shown they can do this) and given that they allow cash like transactions themselves and the received the MCCs for all transactions and you can see what they are on the statement they don’t have a leg to stand on in terms of claiming the account was abused which they have not done. For me; life is too short to kick up a fuss but I thought I would share.

      • Memesweeper says:

        9 Oct9 October 14:02

        and in those circumstances Froggee I would complain. And perhaps escalate the complaint to Ombudsman when declined. 2 * letters from you, not so much effort.

• John says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:22

  Anyone with any type of Capital One card should have a look on the Amazon UK homepage for the “select as preferred payment method get £10 credit” offer. Worked instantly.

  Previously paid out on the Visa card I switched from. Hope they keep this up.

  • Jonathan says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:38

    Definitely beats the offer I’ve got my BA Amex blue card, which is 5 Avios points per pound spent !

    Offers like this are rare though

    • Harrier25 says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:06

      That’s not to bad an offer though. Received it on my Preferred Rewards Gold on Monday morning. Brought £200 of Amazon credit immediately and received the bonus 1,000 MR points on Thursday.

• Andrew says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:26

  Yet another IHG offer landed in my Inbox this morning. I’m kinda losing track.

  So I’ve got a:-
  Stay twice earn 6,000 pts offer (started)
  Book twice on the app and earn 5,000 pts offer (yesterday)
  Stay 5 nights and get Platinum offer (nod to Rob)
  And new one this morning, stay twice and earn 10,000 pts.

  It feels like I’m accelerating, but without the convenient dashboard

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    9 Oct9 October 11:21

    Would you mind sharing the promo codes or links for the 5k and 10k offers?

    • Andrew says:

      9 Oct9 October 16:33

      It wasn’t a code as such, just the usual IHG click on the link to register.

• YC says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:42

  Maybe old news but just noticed chronomics LFT down to £18.8

  • Anna says:

    9 Oct9 October 09:49

    Is that the one for returning home? Presumably because not many people are going to need them now.

    • YC says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:10

      Yup. Still useful for entry to some countries – I’m using it for Italy. Also these may be the ones acceptable for future Day 2 test

    • TGLoyalty says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:26

      Plenty do for entry in to a multiple number of countries including the USA when it opens (based upon what they have said to date)

  • Jonathan says:

    9 Oct9 October 10:23

    Desperately trying to shift their remaining stock!

    I’m sure they’ve made a decent return though considering their process clearly involves no human input. Based on the instantaneous return of certificate I’m quite tempted to to order a couple to see if they still issue a negative certificate for a picture of a cartridge that hasn’t been used or one where you draw a line on with a biro!

    • BP says:

      9 Oct9 October 14:50

      I was convinced the result on the certificate goes by what you enter. The photo is just there to make you think it may be checked.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 Oct9 October 17:13

        It really doesn’t cost much to have a few people in a low income country check it and probably takes a fraction of a second to click confirm or not.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    9 Oct9 October 10:24

    It’s been this price with a BA code ever since they corrected the error where they were selling it for £10

    I’m sure their LFT service will do very well after the day 2 switch.

• Hugh says:

  9 Oct9 October 09:45

  OH and I are supposed to be flying to Naples on Thursday for a trip to the Amalfi coast. Ryanair email with pre flight check list contains a link to a Naples specific form to complete implying we have to quarantine on arrival. Naples Airport website also contains a statement that passengers arriving from UK have to isolate for 5 days. This all contradicts everything I read on travel to Italy before booking. Family member who was in Italy last week (but not Naples!) is convinced this is out of date information. Any thoughts or suggestions from anyone!

  • JDB says:

    9 Oct9 October 10:02

    My wife and son had this on a recent trip to Bologna. You are supposed to register with the local health authority who then hassled them with endless emails. You should not need to quarantine if you are vaccinated. You need a test for entry and it must be within 48 hours. See Italian embassy advice – https://amblondra.esteri.it/ambasciata_londra/en/ambasciata/ufficio-stampa/news/2020/03/covid-19-avviso-per-i-cittadini.html

    • Hugh says:

      9 Oct9 October 10:26

      Thanks, yes that advice agrees with everything else I have read. Its just odd that Ryanair are still pointing me at a Naples specific form that contradicts this, but I am guessing/hoping that they just have not updated their web page and it is old information.

      • Save East Coast Rewards says:

        9 Oct9 October 20:43

        When I fly BA LHR-BLQ they often hand out of date forms to fill in. Sometimes to be collected by the crew, other times you’re meant to take them to immigration yourself. If the crew are collecting them in just fill them in, doesn’t really matter if it’s correct it’ll just go in the bin. If they crew ask you to take them yourself to immigration they will not be looked at and you will just bin it yourself, so in this case I’d not bother filling it in.

        The only ‘paperwork’ you need for Italy is the online EU PLF, you can show the QR code on your phone, sometimes they ask for this, but not always but you do need this one completed just in case.

        In summary you need – test within 48 hours prior to entering Italy, PLF and proof of vaccine.

        You do NOT need to register with the local health authority if you don’t need to quarantine (i.e. are vaccinated)

        • Hugh says:

          10 Oct10 October 07:53

          Thanks, that’s very clear!

    • Phil W says:

      9 Oct9 October 11:24

      And it’s 48 hours before landing. Couple got refused boarding to Naples the other day due to the 48 expiring 30 before the scheduled landing.

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