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The HfP chat thread – Saturday 16th October

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Comments (302)

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

  • CarpalTravel says:
    16 Oct16 October 11:21

    Couple of data points:
    Virgin R+ card: Successfully applied 10th, arrived this morning.
    Amex Plat: Successfully applied 14th, arrived this morning.

    • Harrier25 says:
      16 Oct16 October 12:51

      You’ll be busy hitting spend bonuses over the next three months then!

      • CarpalTravel says:
        16 Oct16 October 14:56

        😄

        Thankfully for the Plat it’s six months. Player 2 has the Virgin card and will cover that with her tax bill. Hurray and yet, hurrooo. 😂

  • Mattb says:
    16 Oct16 October 11:24

    After waiting 23 days I rang up on Thursday and Virgin cancelled my card and issued a new one with ‘priority’ that should arrive on Monday. Today the old one turned up!

    • Andrew H says:
      16 Oct16 October 11:31

      Had exactly the same. Old one turned up – which was the nice engine design. New one is just a plain red card

  • Jos says:
    16 Oct16 October 11:40

    Morning all!

    I just made a booking with Virgin using my CC voucher and wanted to check that it applied properly. Is there a way to see whether my voucher has been used or not?

    No mention of it in booking receipt email etc.

    Thanks

  • Fm says:
    16 Oct16 October 11:42

    Has anyone bought a gift card from Morrisons which failed to activate? Got a boots one in September with the amex offer, loaded £100 – receipt said it would be activated within 24 hours. Tried to use it a few weeks later and it was empty. Currently in Morrisons where the store manager is trying to fob me off to another company called blacklock(?). Has anyone had a similar experience? What was the result?

    • Axel says:
      16 Oct16 October 11:55

      Yes. I had to get the store to call blackrock, who eventually go the store to credit me the amount, despite the stores reticence to help

      Store refused to apologise for refusing to help out initially.I was going to write an email to store that their behaviour was unacceptable and there can be incidents where they need to help. but never got round to doing it.

    • Char Char says:
      16 Oct16 October 11:58

      One of the reasons I now only buy the cards that activate immediately ie Amazon when I need to use them, otherwise you put yourself at risk and complications rely on third parties or the stores to help

    • Jonathan says:
      16 Oct16 October 12:08

      I’ve got a JLP £100 which failed at the till in Waitrose the other week. I got the activation receipt when I purchased in March & the other 5 GC’s from same purchase work fine. When I called the JLP GC team the agent was baffled as the history showed the card activating then reversing 30 mins later, something she had never seen before. She told me to take it up with Morrisons but I’ve not had the chance yet.

      • FM says:
        16 Oct16 October 13:00

        Thanks all, the store ended up calling Blackrock themselves – verified the card had never been activated and issued me a new one which the receipt says has been activated. Will make sure to check!

        As Axel says, store initially refused to have anything to do with it – though the manager was fairly apologetic towards the end.

    • mark2 says:
      16 Oct16 October 14:16

      I always check the value loaded at the various web sites, although you have to ring (automated) to check a Morison’s GC.

  • Paul says:
    16 Oct16 October 11:42

    Anyone know of any Ford garages that accept Amex in London and surrounding areas?

    • Spurs drive me mad says:
      16 Oct16 October 14:27

      Priests of Chesham do but not sure how far out on surrounding areas you want to go.

  • meta says:
    16 Oct16 October 12:04

    Just read an article in Bangkok Post and I think Thailand is off for me to Xmas/NYE. Whilst entry will be simplified without Certificate of Entry and possibly via Thai covid tracing app, there will be a PCR test on arrival and you’ll have to quarantine until the result.

    I have no problem with testing before arrival, but on arrival testing and quarantining for 24-48h while waiting puts me off.

    • Harry T says:
      16 Oct16 October 12:09

      Imagine how much fun you’d end up having if you tested positive on arrival too… tbh I’ve given up on Asia (exception of Singapore) until at least second half of 2022

      • meta says:
        16 Oct16 October 12:20

        I think Japan in spring might happen. They are just waiting to see how this winter plays out with cases, so an announcement in early January as per my sources there.

        • BJ says:
          16 Oct16 October 12:44

          Hope so, booked for 25/3 with the 50% avios, I prefer not to need to revisit that with BA.

          • Harry T says:
            16 Oct16 October 12:50

            You may be right, meta. How did you manage that, BJ?

          • BJ says:
            16 Oct16 October 13:33

            @Harry T, the one from last summer where we got lucky and just moved it on the app. At the time it was allowing me to choose any dates. Tried a Saturday but even though seats available it would not process those. All other days and dates were fine to best of my recollection. I am sure our luck will run out if anything goes wrong next time.

        • BJ says:
          16 Oct16 October 13:41

          @Dave, we usually go for about a month at Xmas/NY but opted for 6 weeks to allow for potential quarantine. Our departure was 4/12 so BA cancelled. Currently sitting on ut until we can decide whether to let Xmas or 50% avios spring trip go.

          • Polly says:
            16 Oct16 October 22:41

            We got lucky yesterday. BA moved our SIN 241 F flights an hour forward, but it came up cancelled, as it moved into the next date. Got them moved to mid Nov for 3/52, from Oct 28th. Result. So waiting patiently paid off. SIN definitely making it easier than other Asia spots atm. Going to hang out in a city resort, then finish off last 10 days in W in Sentosa. Using up our AA miles and bonvoy pts.
            If Malaysia opens up whilst we are there, we may hop on the train up to KL/Penang for a few days. Can’t believe we might actually get there.
            BJ, sorry your trip over not happening this year, tho.

      • BJ says:
        16 Oct16 October 12:41

        More fun than imprisonment in the UK I imagine. Not sure of the details but I think you can pay extra to quarantine 4 *, 5 * etc 🙂

        • Harry T says:
          16 Oct16 October 12:50

          Anything is surely preferable to the UK? 😊

          • Dave says:
            16 Oct16 October 12:56

            I’ve got a month booked in Thailand from mid December. The PCR test on arrival does put me off but at this stage I’d almost rather have to wuarantine for ten days and have twenty days holiday than be stuck here in the UK again!

            Also still time for guidance to change, already lobbying from tourist industry to drop Test on arrival. Unlikely it’ll help but never know

          • meta says:
            16 Oct16 October 15:10

            Not my idea of holiday being stuck in a room and it doesn’t matter if it is the most spacious, most luxurious room, it’s still inside.

        • BuildBackBetter says:
          16 Oct16 October 15:36

          Let’s see if you say that after spending 10 days in the same room.

      • Sam G says:
        16 Oct16 October 18:17

        My thought is if you have insurance that would cover a cancellation for being covid positive then if you take a 3hr PCR as close to departure as possible (Singapore Thailand need it anyway) you’d be quite unlucky to test positive in an arrival test & if your flight also has everyone else pre tested generally v unlikely to be near someone who is positive and thus throw you into quarantine

        • meta says:
          16 Oct16 October 22:25

          You probably won’t be able to do it as close to departure as possible as you’ll need to upload it to get an approval of entry. Someone might be on the flight that has a fake test, etc. I absolutely don’t want any hassle at the start of the trip. It sounds horrendous as it won’t be done at the airport straight away, but you’ll need to do it somewhere in town. I can already see total chaos…And I don’t want to spend time waiting for the test result in the hotel room. It’s not very enjoyable start.

          I’ll wait until they drop test on arrival. I’m still holding the flights. They might change it again from 1 Dec. You never know.

  • Nick G says:
    16 Oct16 October 12:29

    Where can you actually visit without any testing prior to going and on return other than the UK and CTA?

    • Ryan says:
      16 Oct16 October 12:36

      Plenty of places if know what to do

    • Harry T says:
      16 Oct16 October 12:51

      Plenty of places don’t require tests prior to departure if you’re vaccinated

    • Rob says:
      16 Oct16 October 15:38

      Nowhere, because the UK insists on a Day 2 from everywhere except the CTA. You are therefore looking at Ireland, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

    • Memesweeper says:
      16 Oct16 October 16:24

      Outbound, Costa Rica has no testing regime. Coming back is day 2 LFT at the moment if you are fully vaxed.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      17 Oct17 October 08:06

      The testing required before return travel is a pain for sure but it isn’t truly changing to research and organise for a grown-up…

      I also felt an anxiety around the “what if” – the implications of being stranded were significant but on the flip side, finding out I’d travelled on plane with the Rona without realising would also have been pretty awful in my opinion so a necessary inconvenience.

  • Dave says:
    16 Oct16 October 13:00

    So…have got CW flights to HKG booked with a companion voucher, booked as two one ways and linked.

    If I cancel bookings for a FTV would I have two separate ones with one being the £700 ish plus 90000 Avios and a companion voucher, And the other one being 90000 Avios and the HKG taxes?

    And if so would these be e-vouchers usable without phoning up? Not sure I can face the prospect of trying to rebook over the phone again and miss out on you the seats I want..

    • ChrisC says:
      16 Oct16 October 13:35

      Yes I think you would have separate FTV vouchers because you have two separate bookings.

      These won’t be e-vouchers because of the non cash elements so yes it’s the phone to use them.

      • Dave says:
        16 Oct16 October 13:50

        Yeah that’s what I thought/feared! Half tempted to just suck it up and pay the £35 per person cancellation charge on the bookings just to get some online flexibility

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