The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 13th October

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• Fm says:

  13 Oct13 October 09:45

  Does anyone have an email for management at the Kimpton Clocktower? Stayed last week and was allocated an already occupied room, which made for an awkward situation. Replacement room had no TV remote. Asked for an emailed invoice at checkout which still hasn’t been sent. Used the contract form on the website last week, but no reply.

  Happened to be staying again today with the kids. Despite the big DND sign on the door, been woken by the cleaning staff standing outside our room and having a shout at each other down the corridor. Not impressed.

  • ChrisC says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:07

    Since you’re there ask to speak to the duty manager or for their contact details!

  • Anna says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:18

    Manchester Reservations @ ihg dot com
    They are very good at responding IME
    Otherwise ring them and ask for the reservations office, not the front desk

  • Lady London says:

    13 Oct13 October 12:18

    I think cleaning staff banging equipment loudly down the corridor, against doors etc., and shouting at each other, is not accidental. It’s a tactic to empty rooms so they can go off shift.

    Having first experienced this in places like Italian roadhouses as a student I wouldn’t put up with it in any 4 or 5 star hotel and not in a major chain hotel at 3 star either. Make a written complaint while you’re there as hotels with this sort of staff and allowing this rarely improve. It’s defo not accidental and tell them so.

    • Memesweeper says:

      13 Oct13 October 12:39

      +1

      Happens in many hotels big and small, expensive and cheap.

      • Lady London says:

        13 Oct13 October 13:01

        It’s just not accidental and everyone in the hotel business knows it. So in any decent hotel or the above I call them on it.

        I mentioned it at a very new, very well run near-airport hotel as one of their first guests. I gave them a glowing review on Tripadvisor and only verbally mentioned this to them. They fixed it and never happened again on any of my stays.

      • Cats are best says:

        13 Oct13 October 13:21

        They tried it on us at the Intercontinental O2.

        It didn’t affect us as we were out and didn’t get back to the room until just a smidge after 1600 – we’d had a 1600 check-out agreed.

        Think they were quite surprised, they went silent as we gave a cheery ‘hello’, wafted past, grabbed our bags and headed to the lounge for a tipple and check-out 🙂

        • Blair says:

          13 Oct13 October 16:12

          Tried what? You waved at the next guests in your room at 16.00?

  • Char Char says:

    13 Oct13 October 16:54

    If you are at the hotel then go find them!

    • FM says:

      13 Oct13 October 22:18

      Thanks all, will chase them up

  • Crafty says:

    13 Oct13 October 23:14

    That’s disappointing. The manager (contacted via the same email already shared) was intending to reeducate all departments, particularly housekeeping, after my poor stay a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps he was unable.

• Sarah says:

  13 Oct13 October 09:54

  I have an Amex offer which is expiring on 15 October. I am planning on using it that day – will it still be there or will it disappear before that?

  • Sarah says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:06

    Also will it trigger if I use it on that day or will it take a day or 2 for the transaction to post?

  • Stu N says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:08

    It will be fine as long as the merchant charges you on 15 Oct – never an issue for “in person” transactions but online may be charged later so just watch for that.

    The offer will probably show as “expired” but then will credit a few days after the charge appears on your statement.

    • Sarah says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:20

      Thanks

      • Tom says:

        13 Oct13 October 10:37

        I just had a similar experience. As per the advice above, the offer showed ‘expired’ for about 2 days before turning to ‘redeemed’ for a day or so, then the credit appeared on my account.

• Ebitda123 says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:02

  Still no luck on the telegraph subscription despite going through unidays portal to claim the student discount price of £25…if fails on payment part with AMEX, says card is not valid/declined (using amex to get the £20 credit), cleared cookies, new browser, even used a new email

  Bit of a joke IT wise…

  • Lawro says:

    13 Oct13 October 11:03

    I had no trouble doing this last week. Went via StudentBeans rather than unidays but I don’t see why that should make a difference. Do they have a Payments team who could take payment over the phone?

• J says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:07

  Morning all – any suggestions on a (preferably warmish) destination abroad for a 4 night trip in December? Ideally short haul, but would consider further afield if not too expensive!

  • Patrycja says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:13

    Marrakesh is lovely in December and easy to do in 4 days. We did that for NYE three years ago. It was warm enough to sunbath during the day but evenings were cold

    • meta says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:21

      Was it okay for swimming in the pool during the day?

      • Patrycja says:

        13 Oct13 October 21:45

        I wish I could help but I don’t tend to go into pools

  • CC says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:19

    Sevilla? Nice food, few things to see
    Lisbon? Same as above and a possible day trip to Nazare for huge waves if the surf report is good.

  • Benilyn says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:33

    Avoid Marrakesh

    • BP says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:47

      Why?

      • Yorkieflyer says:

        13 Oct13 October 20:14

        Hassle and hugely over rated

  • Paul says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:35

    middle east would be great weather and mid-haul

• Terri says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:09

  I enjoyed my first post pandemic hotel stay at the Hilton Double St Annes over the weekend.

  What a lovely hotel – staff were helpful, large bedroom, a sofa, armchair, fridge and kettle in room, comfy bed with high quality linens, good sized indoor pool and the grounds were wonderful with a woodland walk – spotted a deer on the lawn. Breakfast buffet and free parking.

  Really nice place for a relaxing break.

  • Memesweeper says:

    13 Oct13 October 12:41

    Thanks for the trip report 😁

  • Can says:

    13 Oct13 October 14:52

    I found the grounds and the woods a bit overrated when I was there. What did you think?

  • Tom says:

    13 Oct13 October 19:17

    Gosh, I couldn’t disagree more. I had the misfortune of staying there regularly during the first half of this year and found more or less the opposite of everything you said. It was a Hilton then. Unsurprising that it’s been downgraded to a DT.

• Anthony says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:14

  I’ve just received this reply from BA to my complaint regarding moving my cancelled flight more then a year from ticketing.

  “We’re sorry it was necessary to cancel your flights with us. We don’t underestimate the inconvenience this has caused and we appreciate the reason you needed to get in touch about this. We’d also like to thank you for your patience while we got back to you.

  When you make a booking with us, you agree to accept the British Airways General Conditions of Carriage. Within these conditions, we advise of your ticket validity. Section 3b1 in the General Conditions of Carriage advise that unless it says differently on your ticket, all tickets are valued for one year from the date of issue or one year from the date first travelled on the ticket – providing this was within one year of the ticket being issued.

  We also advise of the options available if we cancel your flight within section 9b3 of the conditions of carriage. We advise that we will rebook you to the earliest flight available to your destination, rebook you to a later date at your convenience and within the validity period of your ticket or offer a refund.”

  How likely is it that a CEDR claim will over rule this decision?

  • Anna says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:22

    LL may be along soon but I feel that she would say that BA Ts and Cs don’t trump your EU261 rights and there are numerous precedents of people moving their flights beyond a year. I think it’s very likely you would win at CEDR, as long as what you are asking for looks reasonable.
    BA love to try it on and hope people will go away.

    • meta says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:35

      Yes, EU261 now UK261 superseed any T&C and it’s clear any date subject to availability of seats. This means if there is a cash ticket available (and no matter what payment you used!), you can have it. Other airlines can do it, so BA should be able to.

      • Richie says:

        13 Oct13 October 11:19

        Exactly. It’s about UK261, which they don’t mention.

    • Lady London says:

      13 Oct13 October 12:27

      +1 and multiple reports here of people winning at CEDR and MCOL on this.

      The correct response to this is a Letter Before Action addressed to BA Legal. You can mention you are relying on statute EU261 and UK equivalent and surprised that BA only refer to terms which statute overrides. Give them 21 days to provide the reroute dates which are convenient to you according to the legislation.

      Meta sends this by post to BA Waterside address Legal Department.

      For all our sakes, although technically you don’t have to, have ready in your mind just in case, your reasonable reasons for needing a date further out. EU261 is a rare example of excellent robust legislation to the benefit of the consumer against the might of companies and we wouldn’t like to give airlines the chance to claim it should be altered cos pax are using it unreasonably.

  • ChrisC says:

    13 Oct13 October 12:32

    I wouldn’t even bother with CEDR

    I’d write direct to BA Legal saying this is what happened and this what you want (insert dates of flights you want) and am legally entitled to (quote the relavant part of EU/UK 261) otherwise off to MCOL we will go.

    BA legal really don’t like getting involved is sorting out the mess customer services make from what should be easily rectifiable routine issues.

    • J says:

      13 Oct13 October 14:07

      I won my CEDR case, although it took six months (timescales extended due to Covid etc). BA then initially failed to comply with the ruling, but did eventually agree to provide me with a reroute. Trouble is, now the airline they’ve booked me onto says the ticket is invalid because the new dates we agreed are beyond original ticket validity. BA wants me to bring my dates forward about six months or so but that’s no longer an option for me, largely due to the length of time it has taken to get BA to comply with its legal obligations. We’ll see what happens. But I’m increasingly thinking I should have just bought a new ticket myself and gone straight to MCOL.

      Out of interest, does anyone know – what are the relevant bodies to escalate a complaint to about BA’s behaviour / disregard for the law and CEDR – CAA? CMA? Dept. for Transport?

      Incidentally, I understand from one of the agents I spoke to, that BA front-line customer service agents do not get any training or briefing etc on EU261 – which explains a lot 😉 Not sure how BA can comply with its legal obligation to offer (let alone deliver) the various statutory rights therein if the agents don’t even know what they are…

      • JDB says:

        13 Oct13 October 14:36

        If BA hasn’t complied with the CEDR decision, the correct course of action is to contact CEDR who will take it up on your behalf. In practice, there is no other escalation beyond that other than issuing court proceedings, even if in theory you could complain to the CAA.

      • meta says:

        13 Oct13 October 14:40

        You should just write a letter to BA legal and send it via snail mail. They responded within a week to my latest claim.

        CEDR rulings don’t have a legally enforcable effect, so you can still go to MCOL if not happy! Complaint will be for CAA, but they’ll shove it in the drawer under the pile is substantial….

        • J says:

          13 Oct13 October 14:53

          Lol yeah I had a feeling that might be the case 😉

          I’ll see where things go from here, but yes, ultimately if CEDR can’t make BA comply, then LBA followed by MCOL it is. Hopefully a slam dunk, I would have thought. With costs and statutory interest etc to boot.

          NB CEDR rulings are (theoretically) legally binding on the airline (as I understand it from their blurb) – not sure how that actually plays out in practice. It seems the ultimate sanction is for the airline to be removed from the CEDR scheme – which I can imagine BA not being terribly upset about 😉

        • Jody says:

          13 Oct13 October 15:20

          I’m impressed you got a reply (or in fact numerous replies!).

          Earlier in the year when I sent them a letter before action, I didn’t even get an acknowledgement, never mind a reply!

          Fortunately for me, a couple of weeks later was when BA imposed the new policy (which they now seem to have backtracked on), so I was then able to move my cancelled flights booked in the 50% off sale to next year.

          The timing worked perfectly, as I was literally about to start writing up my case to take them to CEDR, so it saved me a load of time and effort.

• Hotinnewcastle says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:18

  Travelling with Austrian Airlines – 6am flight from LHR. Was wondering how the online check in process is – if i can generate boarding passes (if anyone has any recent experience – would be helpful) then was hoping to turn up at 4:30am at T2 as i am hand baggage only – would that be sufficient time? Want to maximize my sleep…

  • hotinnewcastle says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:19

    Double vaccinated, so not sure how the covid stuff gets incoroprated or do i stil lneed to physical check in desk for them to see my vaccinnation status?
    TIA

• Pompeyyorkblues says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:24

  Random question time! Is there an easy way to check if a BA voucher is still valid as ringing them or using the live chat takes ages. Can I dummy book a ticket with the code to see if it works etc? Thank you

  • ChrisC says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:43

    What sort of voucher is it?

    The only ones that can be checked on line (via a dummy booking) are e-vouchers that start with 125-4

    Anything else is a call. But I wouldn’t call just to check I’d do then when calling to actually make the booking

    • Pompeyyorkblues says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:59

      Thanks.. they start with 125-2….. should be 10000 Avios and 17.50 each if still valid. I guess ringing or live chat is the only way then?

      • ChrisC says:

        13 Oct13 October 11:10

        If you know what was used to pay for the original booking then I really wouldn’t call them up just to check

        When I want to use them that’s when I would call and they can check what’s in the voucher.

        They are valid to use for trips ending by 30th September 2023 and apart from that don’t have an expiry date.

        • Pompeyyorkblues says:

          13 Oct13 October 11:20

          Cheers and I don’t want to ring them unnecessarily as I know they’re busy hence me asking here. I maybe need to explain in more detail. I booked Reykjavik flights in 2019 for 2020 and due to COVID, cancelled them and got vouchers. One way was Avios and one way cash. When I re booked I paid an extra 100 for 2 return flights and used the vouchers for the rest, so I’m sure I used 400 in cash plus the Avios and tax payment. They cancelled this years so I asked for a full refund. I’ve received 400 cash which is great but no 20000 Avios and 35 pounds. When I rang them on 100921 they said the Avios got rolled up into cash so I had got it all refunded which doesn’t seem right? So I’ve found my voucher reference codes and was just trying to find out if they were valid, that’s all as I think they were wrong about them getting rolled up into cash?. It feels like I’ve lost 20000 Avios somewhere? If the vouchers arnt valid I’ll just shop around for cash flights instead but if they are I’ll use them to book next year with BA. Worse case you’re right though, I could check when flights come out n try to use them I guess.. hope that makes sense?

  • Tracey says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:56

    Vouchers up to 18 months ago and all future ones are shown if you login to your BAEC on a the web, rather than through the app.

    • Pompeyyorkblues says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:59

      Oh right thank you. I’ll give that a go then

    • ChrisC says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:06

      that’s only credit card vouchers though and not future travel and e-vouchers whihc aren’t shown

    • Pompeyyorkblues says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:10

      I’ve tried looking on both our accounts and nothing obvious is there. Thanks for trying to help both of you though

    • Pompeyyorkblues says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:11

      I’ve tried looking on both our accounts and nothing obvious is there, but cheers anyway

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