The HfP chat thread – Saturday 9th October

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• Lady London says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:02

  Europe does though.

  Not sure about Northern Ireland?

  Not sure why Boris & Co. thought that hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and other shops didn’t need the what? £80 billion annually? visitors who came to one of the best places in the world for all types of shopping :ie the UK, were spending.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:03

    *above for Ant above

    • Ant says:

      9 Oct9 October 23:14

      Thanks

  • John says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:06

    I think many luxury goods are still cheaper in the UK even when VAT is included

    Perhaps Boris et al. are hoping shops will cut their prices to remain competitive, such that the burden of the VAT that was previously uncollected falls on the shops

    And getting rid of the tax refund middlemen can only be a good thing though I appreciate that some shops may have operated their own tax refund schemes

    • Lady London says:

      9 Oct9 October 19:59

      Mmm just had an awful thought. Wondering if closure of the VAT free Visitors Shopping scheme won’t make any difference as in 2 years the currency is going to be in such a position the visitors are going to find it just as worthwhile to visit?

      Didn’t it work for UK assets and shares that international private equity has been hoovering up for quite some time now?

• Britbronco says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:08

  Any sign of the Creation Marriott bonus points yet?

  • DavidC says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:53

    Yes. Received mine last Monday

    • Britbronco says:

      9 Oct9 October 19:37

      Had you done any Curve, specifically NS&I?

      • DavidC says:

        9 Oct9 October 20:50

        Don’t have a Curve card. I just use the Marriott card the way It is meant to be used.

• mr_jetlag says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:15

  Re. Singapore opening up, Rob/Rhys will you be asking BA about which flights will be designated “VTL” flights that avoid quarantine?

  • Memesweeper says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:32

    SQ317 from LHR only

    • Sam G says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:34

      BA is going to operate VTL flights but not confirmed which yet

• Yorkshire Rich says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:37

  I have 3 weeks off end of January. Ideally we would like to go to bali and Australia, but would be happy with vietnam Thailand etc. With the Singapore news today. I’m not overly enthusiastic about it all been plain sailing but it’s certainly heading in the right direction.

  • Harry T says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:45

    I’m not terribly optimistic about any of those places being open or, if you can visit, offering the kind of experience that would make them worth visiting.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:50

    Australia…. no chance. Sadly. Read beyond the headlines and ‘opening up’ is repatriation and limited “essential” travel. For some states only.

    • John says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:33

      Well as a citizen “repatriation” = “holiday” if I feel like spending 7 days in quarantine!

• Nathan says:

  9 Oct9 October 12:43

  Would anyone know if BA will likely be having another sale anytime soon?

  Many thanks

  • Richie says:

    9 Oct9 October 12:52

    Next man one is usually 26 Dec, but they’ll be promotions before then.

    • Richie says:

      9 Oct9 October 12:52

      *main

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:05

    I don’t get too hooked on ‘sales’

    I’ve often seen better prices outside of any supposed ‘sale’ period.

    If you see a price you like then book it.

  • Harry T says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:45

    Unsure but all the best prices I’ve found have been outside of official sales.

    • Jonathan says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:57

      I’d second this. If you tell us where/when you want to go you’ll get advice on what is a good price then setup a Google Flights alert.

      • Nathan says:

        9 Oct9 October 14:55

        I’m looking at flights from London to Bangkok in March and in the last sale club was £1700 return now it’s £2200.

• Chris says:

  9 Oct9 October 13:27

  Apologies if it’s been done to death but considering first overseas trip in 20 odd months so mostly ignored the chatter.

  Looking at Dubai so need a negative PCR within 72 hours, I presume it’s 72 hours from the test result not when it was taken? Ie for Friday night flight at 10pm, I’m assuming I could post test on Tuesday evening, knowing result will be Wednesday onwards ?

  • Joe says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:32

    72 hours from time test taken!!

    • Chris says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:33

      oh balls, thanks Joe!

      • Rob says:

        9 Oct9 October 13:50

        And build in flex for a 3-4 hour flight delay ….

        It is also worth assuming they don’t understand time differences.

  • Andrew says:

    9 Oct9 October 13:36

    I think Dubai is 48hrs?

    • Chris says:

      9 Oct9 October 13:41

      According to Emirates
      All passengers travelling to Dubai from the UK must hold a negative COVID‑19 PCR test certificate for a test taken no more than 72 hours before departure and the certificate must be a Reverse Transcription‑Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT‑PCR) test. Note that NHS Covid Test certificates are not accepted for travel from the United Kingdom.

      Now I’ve got to find a reliable PCR place 😔

      • KBuffett says:

        9 Oct9 October 14:02

        Collinson?
        Where are you based?

        • Chris says:

          9 Oct9 October 14:05

          Edinburgh, seen plenty of questionable stories about postal ones so just bit the bullet and paid for ExpressTest at the airport. BA discount saved me the grand total of £3.20 on an £80 test

    • Sandra says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:44

      72 hours Dubai, 48 hours Abu Dhabi

• David says:

  9 Oct9 October 14:00

  I do think Priority Pass has had its day it’s virtually impossible to get into any of their lounges with one – Manchester and Leeds being the worst.

  • Andrew says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:11

    Agreed and I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have lounge access provided by an airline either through status or the cabin I’m in. I used to find the arrivals lounges at LHR useful but they haven’t reopened yet.

    • David says:

      9 Oct9 October 14:16

      Difficult at Manchester tho no BA lounge

  • Harry T says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:12

    Last time I was in Manchester airport, it was impossible to even enter a restaurant or bar due to queues, so I’m not optimistic about lounges either.

    • David says:

      9 Oct9 October 14:19

      Yup 30 mins wait for a drink once you have managed to get a table. Long haul I always fly business but short haul is now a problem.

    • davef says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:03

      It was pretty dead there last saturday. There were only 6 people in the aspire lounge in T1 at lunchtime.

      As I mentioned earlier my flight actually departed a T3 gate despite checking in at T1 and T3 ‘closed’. But my next ticket on BA is in Dec and shows it’s going from T3. I wonder if T3 is reopening by then and Man just havent announced it.

  • Anna says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:20

    PP failure is my go to reason for cancelling Amex! That said, I’ve never been turned away from a European lounge with it so I maybe it’s the UK obsession with sinking as much alcohol as possible before a flight that’s the issue.

    • Blair says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:33

      I’ve had no issues getting into MAN T1 Escape with PP. Some airlines are contracted to Aspire so even is business they’re not offering you any lounge, so PP remains important.

      • David says:

        9 Oct9 October 15:39

        Couldn’t get into escape or aspire – despite being completely empty they where fully booked .

        • David says:

          9 Oct9 October 15:39

          Were ekk!

      • Sandgrounder says:

        9 Oct9 October 15:40

        I’ve never been refused entry to a lounge with a PP, anywhere. Never had a problem at MAN. Others have reported different outcomes.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Oct9 October 17:01

          I’ve never been refused when alone, I have been told by a No1 they were busy and to wait when with a +1 but just went to another lounge a few mins walk away.

• Neal says:

  9 Oct9 October 14:07

  Tried to login to the IHG Rewards account this morning and got a message that my account is disabled and I should contact customer service. Completely random. Will call and find out what is going on

  • Anna says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:22

    Ours seem fine. IHG IT is very glitchy so it’s worth waiting 24 hours and trying again. Also try a different device and things may be completely different. There are often issues with desktop access, for example, which never happen with the app.

    • Neal says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:29

      Tried different devices and same result. Called Ambassador service and got a very unhelpful answer from the Philippines call centre that this is part of a “random audit”. Whatever that means! Was told to try in 24 hours and if still locked contact them again.

  • Michael says:

    9 Oct9 October 14:27

    Got the same. Different from the usual IHG IT being down errors. Will report back if/when I manage to speak with them

  • Paul says:

    9 Oct9 October 15:09

    I’m getting the same message. Very strange. Will wait to see if it resolves itself before contacting them

    • Andrew says:

      9 Oct9 October 15:40

      Account disabled here too this afternoon. App just shows 0 points and when I try and log in to the website it says disabled.

      • Harrier25 says:

        9 Oct9 October 15:57

        My account looks fine on the Android app. Hopefully they’re not removing everyone’s Creation points. Could you imagine the outcry on here! 😲

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 16:36

          Might be worth making a few bookings! Presumably they wouldn’t be able to tell which bookings were made with Creation points and which not?
          Someone posted on here a while back that Creation had told them their points were going to be clawed back because of the way they were earned, I’ve never seen an update on that!

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 16:51

          Thinking about it, IHG can’t tell how Creation points were earned. Random auditing wouldn’t help with this. Is Creation realistically going to review every transaction on its cards and tell IHG which ones breached any Ts and Cs? I don’t think so, which is why they are just doing blanket card closures without giving a reason.
          Ultimately though, I imagine all the points belong to IHG, which is based in the US (as far as I know), so if they did decide to confiscate them, there’s not much anyone could do apart from not stay in the hotels any more!

        • Jim says:

          9 Oct9 October 17:00

          Anyone who is currently being audited an ambassador?

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 17:02

          O/P.

        • Jim says:

          9 Oct9 October 17:02

          @Anna, I’ve done exactly that, bookings made for next year just so the points aren’t in my IHG account. Will cancel when I need to rebook for genuine stays.

        • Anna says:

          9 Oct9 October 17:26

          Either it will right itself or I’ll be spending some late summer weekends next year in random HI’s!

  • John says:

    9 Oct9 October 18:39

    Anyone in this thread who can’t access their IHG account also have a letter from Creation about closing their IHG Credit Card?!

    • Andrew says:

      9 Oct9 October 18:49

      I can’t access my account and not heard anything from Creation, not that I did any MS anyway. I’ve just called IHG and it’s a known IT issue, she said she would call me back as I’m Spire once it’s up and running again but confirmed my current balance and that all was in order.

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