The HfP chat thread – Sunday 17th October

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• Ranga says:

  17 Oct17 October 09:09

  Hey all, I am currently having extreme difficulty getting through to BA to use my future travel voucher (which included a BAPP voucher) to book flights. I have been bounced from the “new booking” option to the executive club number, all who seem to say they are the wrong team. Waited in total on hold for about 1.5h so far. Any recommendations? Which phone number / team are you calling to arrange this?

  Thank-you very much

  • Harry T says:

    17 Oct17 October 09:12

    You’re trying to book a redemption, yes? Then the BAEC team should be the right people. Unfortunately, you do have to call to use an FTV. One option is to use Skype and call the US number.

    • Harry T says:

      17 Oct17 October 09:13

      The issue with calling the US is you might then get through to the generic team who or may not be able to book a redemption for you. I recently had an issue where I got through to the Indian call centre, who were really helpful at booking with an evoucher for me when the BA website refused to work properly, but they said they couldn’t cancel a 241. I called the same number later and got a nice lass in Newcastle, who cancelled the 241 for me without any issues. So it seems quite agent dependent at times.

  • RKEdin says:

    17 Oct17 October 09:35

    I called the silver exec line to make a FTV booking at 8am on the dot this morning and got through at 8.31am. I used 0207 949 3065.

    • GT says:

      17 Oct17 October 11:41

      I called the Silver Line freephone number at 8am this morning and got through in less than 2 mins. Thought it was my Lucy day until they refused to re-route flights cancelled by ba. Off to CEDR I suppose.

• CH says:

  17 Oct17 October 09:12

  4 per £1 isn’t bad. If you know you will be making the purchase I would suggest going ahead; it could just as easily go down to 2 per £1. If you have access to PAW you can stack with e gift cards.

  • Andrew says:

    17 Oct17 October 10:23

    If you’ve got a Barclaycard and Airtime, it’s a potential combined 15% rebate on JLP vouchers at Boots.

  • CH says:

    17 Oct17 October 10:38

    This was a response to the poster above about a John Lewis purchase.

• Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

  17 Oct17 October 09:16

  IHG 3x points promo: how long does it take for bonus points to credit? I received the base + elite points from a second stay in October and assumed the additional points would credit at the same time. Anyone know how that works?

  • Andrew says:

    17 Oct17 October 09:38

    Discussion on page 1

    • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

      17 Oct17 October 09:40

      Damn, not sure how I missed that. 🤦🏼‍♂️

• Mouse says:

  17 Oct17 October 09:22

  Has anyone else who uses Instagram seen sponsored posts offering to buy Monese accounts for high three-figure sums? Looks to me like someone trying to buy tools for money laundering. Surprised that I’ve continued to see the ads for weeks now given they would appear to be pretty clearly for nefarious purposes.

  • Andrew says:

    17 Oct17 October 10:10

    They don’t care what they advertise as long as they get the income. In the old days there was the “MOPS” scheme in the major newspapers, maybe it’s about time there was legislation in place that required advertising hosts like Google or Facebook to authenticate and provide a guarantee for purchases made via adverts they host? It would certainly stir things up.

    Although, you never know, these might be genuine ads from Monese placed to fight fraud.

  • mark2 says:

    17 Oct17 October 10:12

    With recent changes Monese’s utility for MS is now zero.

    • Anuj says:

      17 Oct17 October 10:44

      I think what happens is the accounts are used to deposit dirty money in and then withdraw as cash. Monese is probably being targeted because I’m guessing there’s a lot of customers who have an account but never used it and are therefore willing to naively sell it

  • Mr. AC says:

    17 Oct17 October 12:44

    Have you tried pressing the “Report Ad” button at the top right? Instagram has <500 people apparently, not like they can manually check every single ad ahead of time…

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      17 Oct17 October 17:38

      Ah yes the old “we don’t employ enough people to do it properly so we shouldn’t be held to account” rule that seems to be par for the course these days and is inexplicably accepted in the main

      • Magic Mike says:

        17 Oct17 October 19:36

        That’s the Instagram that is part of the behemoth that is Facebook which has tens of thousands of content moderators…

  • the_real_a says:

    17 Oct17 October 14:16

    Yes – i sent a message and screenshot to the monese fraud team. They are frustrated because there is nothing they can do. No way of talking with Instagram – no direct line of communication at all. All they can do is “report” it in the way any user does.

• Nolan says:

  17 Oct17 October 09:28

  Maybe one of you fine folks would know the answer to this. Have a United flight out to EWR and home indirect from MCO, However award availability has appeared on BA and I snagged a flight home directly from MCO. So I’d like to fly out on my United flight but come home with BA. I looked at amending the United flight to just a one way but they would need a few quid to do that (one ways being more expensive I guess) so thought I’d leave it but then wondered whether the system would correctly track me as having left the US or whether not boarding the United flight home would cause confusion and issues with being marked as having left the country.

  • ChrisC says:

    17 Oct17 October 10:12

    No issue as BA will transmit your departure from the US to CBP / DHS. Arriving on one airline and departing on another is quite common.

    Assuming your not doing anything such as messing around with different passports that is.

    Rather than amending your UA ticket to make it one way check to see what sort of cancellation policy they have re getting a voucher for future use instead.

    • Nolan says:

      17 Oct17 October 10:42

      Thanks Chris. Just the one passport so that’s good to hear. I could get a voucher but then that leaves me looking for a one way out to NYC and those are eye watering!

      • Tariq says:

        17 Oct17 October 11:38

        That’s what miles are for!

        • Nolan says:

          17 Oct17 October 14:35

          I get to work from abroad for 90 days next year so my miles are tied up in 17 flights to get there and explore the country while I’m there so I’m running low but can’t complain 🙂

• Munch says:

  17 Oct17 October 09:38

  Sat on 200k+ MR points on a Platinum card. I was hoping for a transfer bonus to Hilton or Marriott. I believe I can downgrade the card to keep the MR points alive?
  Which card should I choose? Will this have the option for transfers to Hilton or Marriott? Did this card have the transfer promotions last year?
  I understand this will not reset my 2 year clock but happy to wait until the end of the year on the chance of a transfer bonus.

  • Andrew says:

    17 Oct17 October 09:48

    I don’t remember seeing any transfer bonuses from MR for a number of years. The £9/1000 burn rate on Platinum was on last year and currently there’s a promotion on burning your points with Amex travel.

    • Munch says:

      17 Oct17 October 10:26

      Hilton ran a 25% transfer bonus in Nov 2020. I’m sure Marriott did something similar maybe 50% in 2019.

  • Rob says:

    17 Oct17 October 09:53

    You want to trade down to the Amex Rewards Credit Card – https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/05/02/american-express-rewards-credit-card/

    Absolutely no difference in terms on bonuses or partners.

• Mick S says:

  17 Oct17 October 09:57

  Is there any benefit as such to buying Hilton points with the Hilton credit card?

  • mark2 says:

    17 Oct17 October 10:13

    You will almost certainly buy them from points.com, so No.

    • Harrier25 says:

      17 Oct17 October 11:48

      You will get 2 points for every £1 spent, but as you will be charged in Dollars you will also incur the 2.99% FX charge, so would avoid.

• Howard says:

  17 Oct17 October 10:02

  I’m going to Gibraltar next Sunday and being quoted £30 for lateral flow test on arrival. Does anyone know if there is anything cheaper available?

  • Anna says:

    17 Oct17 October 10:24

    Someone posted recently that GIB introduced the charge when the U.K. dropped one of its testing requirements. AFAIK you have to use the official testing site at GIB airport.

  • Travel Strong says:

    17 Oct17 October 12:04

    Yep – your gib plf being accepted (and therefore your acceptance in to GIB) is reliant upon booking the £30 test at the airport. Whilst it’s the ‘official’ one, its still a private provider… nice gig if you can get it. Probably taking around £20k per day.

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