The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 13th October

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• Diydegsy says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:28

  How long is it taking BA to refund avios and money as I cancelled flights last Friday but no sign yet of either?

  • Anna says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:33

    Avios should come back immediately but I think it varies greatly for cash. Last time I was waiting for a refund I was told to wait 30 days before chasing it up.

  • Pompeyyorkblues says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:38

    Mine took over a month and I had to ring up twice which took 2 hours. Was told it would be refunded by 040821, then I phoned again on 100921 where they admitted a mistake had been made and it was refunded on 120921. I’d say within 48 hours normally based on that.

  • Ian says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:40

    Last Avios booking I cancelled a few weeks ago, I called to cancel on Saturday morning. Had the Avios back on Tuesday (the agent couldn’t manually do it for whatever reason, otherwise probably instant like Anna said), and the money back on Thursday or Friday.

  • John says:

    13 Oct13 October 15:51

    Cancelled two first flights on Friday that had gone through three different changes.
    Money back to cards yesterday.

• Benilyn says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:32

  @Zara / Others – my friend applied for child first passport, got the docs received message on 9th September and got passport today. I am still waiting on my one but I got my docs received end of Sep so should be ok.

• mr_jetlag says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:38

  BA have announced their current daily SG flights are VTL compliant. BA 11. great news for me, but not sure if people who don’t meet the requirements will need to be rebooked.

  • Craig says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:44

    Booked on BA11 in Feb, hopefully some more movement between now and then will make a holiday somewhere possible with a stop in Singapore.

    • Sam G says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:50

      now it’s possible as long as you don’t need to come back through Singapore onto BA – a trip London-Singapore / Bangkok London on BA is now possible (as long as Thailand allow quarantine free arrival from UK+Singapore as is the plan) with a Jetstar or SQ hop to Thailand in the middle. Still not ideal- need multiple PCRs and you’d be quarantine in your room the night you arrive from the UK but its getting there!

      • Craig says:

        13 Oct13 October 14:10

        Yep, a step in the right direction.

  • mr_jetlag says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:51

    also, any hotel suggestions for a 21 day trip? are either intercontinental or jw Marriott decent for the cost. thanks

    • Sam G says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:39

      Move around a bit I’d say, go to Sentosa etc. JW usually better of the two but they’ve done a very long stint as a quarantine hotel (in fact it may not be opening to public until next year I believe) so hopefully the “hardware” has held up

  • Rob says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:53

    Interestingly BA is refusing to refund people who do not mee the VTL requirements, even though it is BA’s commercial decision to operate VTL flights.

    • mr_jetlag says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:29

      free rebooking though, or an FTV/evoucher. Full refund is tough as I imagine this is similar to red/amber list in principle.

    • Sam G says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:37

      Pretty easy to meet the requirement though- be vaccinated, get a PCR, don’t go outside the VTL zone 14 days prior. There is a cap on approvals but currently the cap is higher than seats inbound so no issue there. The amount of potential passengers who don’t meet VTL req (bearing in mind BA can’t carry connections though Changi currently) is pretty much 0 I’d say so unlikely to be too many impacted people

      40% of the 2400 passes issued so far are from London so should do well for them- SQ are sold out in First/Biz for their VTL flight well into Jan

      • Memesweeper says:

        13 Oct13 October 12:47

        Some PAX cannot meet the requirements at all — for instance due to age or medical conditions.

        BA/SQ should allow them to fly on a non-VTL flight, or refund them. SQ have confirmed to me in writing they will do exactly that, passengers choice of remedy. BA … really? Come on!

        • Sam G says:

          13 Oct13 October 21:21

          Yes actually, one probable scenario is like some other countries 12+ yr old kids won’t be VTL eligible as Singapore only considers you vaccinated with 2 doses. So potentially some families could be impacted if they were booked on BA and planning to quarantine. Seems mean not to allow refunds considering how few they’d probably end up giving in reality (Singapore flights have been v empty!)

• SteveJ says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:38

  Addison Lee Platinum Benefit:

  Is it one £10 credit per card account, or if I have a supp card can we get one £10 credit each?

  And is it statement month or calendar month?

  Hopefully someone know, cheers.

  • Rob says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:52

    Calendar month, primary card only.

    • SteveJ says:

      13 Oct13 October 10:52

      Thanks 👍

  • Chris says:

    13 Oct13 October 15:16

    How does Add Lee pricing compare to UberX?

    • Rob says:

      13 Oct13 October 15:33

      Since there is no comparison in experience, not well. You won’t be sitting in the back of a dodgy Prius though.

• Gustavo says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:46

  UPDATE: Hello, thanks for your help yesterday when I had to talk to BA Holiday for a change of a flight from Vienna back to London from 1845 to 0740. Yesterday I managed to talk to BA by calling the Silver Exec Club number and had to downgrade the room in order to extend for another night because just one more night in the previous room was gonna be almost half of the original price of the holiday. I did explain to the lady yesterday that I did feel it was a bit unfair I had to change it and pay extra for the next day (given I was happy with the previous length of stay) and she advised me to call BA Holiday Customer Relations.

  Just now, I managed to speak to a representative from the CR team and he was very polite and explained to me there was no compensation/anything he could do more for me. He said the only thing they can do is wave the changes on the flight for a different day but that’s about it. He did say in the end the choice to extend the holiday by a day was mine. I did mention about T&C’s that I felt my change was just a little bit short of what they call “Significant Change – 12 hours”. He did say I could try and raise a complaint but part of me understands the issue airlines are facing by creating bookings in the hope more people will take it.

  Anyway, the shame is that the previous room was much nicer, but on the positive I might end up doing a day-trip on the extra day I have now. And kudos to both representatives who were really polite in the call. I must be a tough job these days.

  Thanks for your help.

  • Michael C says:

    13 Oct13 October 10:50

    Thanks for reporting back, Gustavo – maybe pop over to Bratislava to feel it’s been worth the while having another day?!

  • Duncan says:

    13 Oct13 October 13:07

    I had the same issue for Vienna at both ends of a Mon-Fri trip. Flights changed from early Monday, late Friday to late Monday, early Friday – effectively cutting two days from the trip.

    I ended up doing similar to you – flying on the late Friday Sunday night and home early Saturday morning. Decided to keep my nice hotel in Vienna and book a cheap airport hotel for the Saturday and Friday nights (the Moxy, so it’ll be interesting to see how that is!)

    I hope you have a lovely trip despite the changes.

    • r* says:

      13 Oct13 October 14:46

      Am I missing something or are examples like this a reason to not use BA holidays when making bookings? A flight only booking wouldve required them to have provided a more acceptable alternative to them moving the flight times, or at least provided some eu261 cover? But cos its a holiday they basically get away with doing whatever they want and saying pay more or cancel? Prolly why they were offering more TP for holiday bookings…

      • Anna says:

        13 Oct13 October 14:49

        People book BA holidays because they are often cheaper than flight only and you can just pay a deposit until a few weeks before departure. It worked well until covid times!

      • Duncan says:

        13 Oct13 October 15:39

        My booking was flight only, and was a combination of separate small changes. My outbound flight moved 2 or 3 times, by just a few hours each time.

• Craig says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:54

  Just looking at the T&Cs for adding a Supp to the BAPP:

  12. The bonus Avios offer is valid for the first approved Supplementary British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card only. Please note, in rare circumstances it may take up to 90 days for the 3,000 bonus Avios to be applied to your Account. You may apply for several Supplementary Cards but you will only receive the 3,000 bonus Avios for the first approved Card. You will not receive this bonus if you have ever received it before. This offer is subject to change and may be withdrawn at any time.

  Interesting that it says you won’t receive if you’ve ever had the 3000 bonus before?

  • Peter K says:

    13 Oct13 October 12:42

    I’m sure that will be if you’ve ever had it on that account before. It’s to stop people adding a supp, then cancelling it, then adding it again, rinse and repeat, with each time it being the “first supp card”.

• Pete M says:

  13 Oct13 October 10:55

  Quick question for the Virgin cards experts – I went to pay about £800 with my brand new card to DesignMyNight, who process payments for a pub I am holding an event at.

  The payment was rejected, so I thought I’d be clever and do it via Curve, which went through. Looking at my Virgin statement now, I’ve been charged £3.19 as a cash advance fee. Is that a Curve thing or is their MCC wrong? Feels slightly odd?

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    13 Oct13 October 11:09

    Virgin will tell you the Type of transaction it was (the description comes from the MCC).

    I’d guess it’s probably a bad MCC.

  • Andrew says:

    13 Oct13 October 11:13

    When you click on the transaction in the App, what was the retailer narrative? Should be “bar” or similar?

    • Pete M says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:33

      Thank you, both – upon closer review it appears it wasn’t actually linked to that payment, but a different one where I can see how a cash advance fee would be charged (even if I wasn’t expecting it!).

      • Jonathan says:

        13 Oct13 October 12:12

        Can you tell us the MCC category for the transaction where it was charged….? Should be visible on App if you click on the transaction.

        • Pete M says:

          13 Oct13 October 13:11

          It was processed by a payment processor called HiPay, but came across as “non-financial institution – currency, money order, travelers checks” – I’ve raised it with the merchant, as there was certainly no suggestion this would be the case when making payment.

• Joe says:

  13 Oct13 October 11:08

  Just reviewed the Amex sign up bonus rules article have I understood correctly that I can apply and get the bonus on the Personal Plat while actually holding the Business Plat?

  If so will the MR points be merged in one pot such that when I can cancel 1 card they will remain linked to the other ?

  • CarpalTravel says:

    13 Oct13 October 11:10

    Yes you can apply and no they are not merged. The points are linked to the card.

    • Sam G says:

      13 Oct13 October 11:41

      You can ask chat to merge

      • CarpalTravel says:

        13 Oct13 October 16:20

        Interesting, presumably you can do the cancellation at the same time then?

        • Sam G says:

          13 Oct13 October 21:22

          it isn’t instant so need to request first and then wait for them to be merged. Then you can cancel one card and the balance will remain intact

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