The HfP chat thread – Sunday 17th October

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• Mick S says:

  17 Oct17 October 11:44

  Trying to book a Hilton hotel in the US for 5 nights and pay with points. The fifth need isnt showing up as free. Its a 44,000 per night room, and 220,000 is what is being asked to reserve it. I was expecting 176,000. Are there certain periods when the fifth night isnt free?

  • Char Char says:

    17 Oct17 October 11:49

    Are you logged in?

    • Mick S says:

      17 Oct17 October 11:53

      yep, logged in etc. I’m actually having to login every 10 minutes on the Hilton website today 🙁

  • Rob says:

    17 Oct17 October 11:54

    Sounds like a Premium Redemption and not a Standard Redemption.

    Premium ones are when all reward rooms are sold but Hilton is willing to pay the hotel the full cash rate and charge you the points equivalent – usually around 0.2p per point.

    • Mick S says:

      17 Oct17 October 11:58

      I think this hotel is really quiet, rooms are a plenty it seems. It’s the Hilton Capitol, in Washington DC. 23rd to 28th December.

      • Sandgrounder says:

        17 Oct17 October 12:48

        Yep, premium redemption. The basic room is 29k and 5 for 4 prices fine. If you want to guarantee that deluxe 2 queen with sofa bed, you’re not getting 5 for 4 I’m afraid.

        • Mick S says:

          17 Oct17 October 12:57

          ah, fair enough.

        • Mick S says:

          17 Oct17 October 12:58

          tempted to book the cheapest room then and hope diamond gets me up.

      • Mick S says:

        17 Oct17 October 12:55

        i can book each night individually at 44k per night. Very frustrating – I guess I’ll need to wait for the online chat people to wake up.

      • Andy D says:

        17 Oct17 October 12:59

        I had my worst Hilton breakfast ever there. Perhaps you are being saved from five horrific mornings.

        • Mick S says:

          17 Oct17 October 13:02

          thats not good. Any other Washington Hilton’s you recommend?

      • Aston100 says:

        17 Oct17 October 15:19

        Hah! I’m checking out of that hotel on the 23rd!
        See you at reception!

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        17 Oct17 October 17:09

        Rob stayed at somewhere a little further out and reviewed it a couple years back, and it’s a very different proposition but if a drive out is OK the Gaylord was decent

        • Rob says:

          17 Oct17 October 19:28

          Look at our review of The Graham in Georgetown, which sadly has now left Hilton.

  • Travel Strong says:

    17 Oct17 October 11:56

    There are times when the front page saying ‘44000’ for that property is inaccurate/misleading, when the rate changes during the booking period. Do a dummy booking for each individual day and see if 44000 is the actual average, rather than just the price on the cheaper nights.

• Hotinnewcastle says:

  17 Oct17 October 11:48

  Re Austrian airlines. Flying to Vienna next week with wife and 3 yo child on an economy light tariff – allowed 8kg hand luggage and a person item. Just wondering if babyzen yo-yo/foldable stroller counts as hand luggage allowance for my child or not?

• Lady London says:

  17 Oct17 October 11:58

  Gary and Thom added a reply to your question about when to claim on yesterday’s chat thread

  • Gary says:

    17 Oct17 October 15:10

    Duly noted & much appreciated Lady London. For those who are struggling to reroute beyond 1 year from ticket issuance (eg w BA) & considering MCOL/CEDR refer to these threads.

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/10/15/the-hfp-chat-thread-friday-15th-october/comment-page-4/#comments

    https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/10/16/the-hfp-chat-thread-saturday-16th-october/comment-page-3/#comments

  • Thom says:

    17 Oct17 October 18:23

    Thanks you! Very much appreciated as always!

• C says:

  17 Oct17 October 11:59

  Was reading a few comments from yesterdays discussion about travel to the states. It mentions supervised test and some companies are doing a small fee for that. (£10 extra for zoom?)

  Had a look at what needs to be mentioned on the fit to fly cert and it doesn’t really ask that it was supervised.

  So will an unsupervised lft be enough?

• The Original Nick says:

  17 Oct17 October 12:40

  Just landed at LHR T5. Saw a BA A380 parked up.

  • Richie says:

    17 Oct17 October 14:01

    Yes, G-XLEG did MAD-LHR as BA9170 yesterday.

• AFKAE says:

  17 Oct17 October 12:44

  Hello, I’m looking for some info/advice from the UUA experts. I’ve got a 2-4-1 on BA LHR-SIN-LHR in CW and set up a SeatSpy alert for any F availability. On wednesday it indicated there was some on the outbound, so I tried but couldn’t find anywhere in MMB to do the upgrade, so I just thought what the hell I’ll leave it. Then this morning I had an email from BA advising of F availability on my outbound with a link. I clicked on the link which took me to MMB but still I couldn’t find anywhere to do it. Does anyone have any advice or tips? Thanks.

  • Sam G says:

    17 Oct17 October 12:50

    you’re actually changing the booking rather than upgrading it in BA language. I believe you’d have to try and call in, not sure you can change class online for a Avios ticket

    • AFKAE says:

      17 Oct17 October 13:06

      Understood thanks. I might pluck up courage to get in the phone queue.

      • Mattb says:

        17 Oct17 October 14:15

        If your wanting to book F call you first and should get through in minutes.

  • Aston100 says:

    17 Oct17 October 15:22

    Out of curiosity, is there any benefit to flying back in F on the late night departure from SIN?
    I can see some decent F cash prices at present.

    • Peter K says:

      17 Oct17 October 15:25

      Smaller cabin so should be better sleep.
      Access to YouFirst which answers much quicker than standard phone lines and are more enabled to help according to reports here.

    • Sam G says:

      17 Oct17 October 16:52

      Its a long flight so you’ve plenty of time to enjoy the trimmings and still get a decent sleep – you want to stay up a few hours anyway and sleep towards the end of the flight during UK night time ideally.

      There is a little “concorde cupboard” inside the BA lounge but you’d be better off in the Qantas F lounge (assuming it reopens etc)

      Personally I’d save it’s worth the Avios uplift or a reasonable amount of cash especially whilst there is no sign of Club suites on Singapore currently

    • Lady London says:

      17 Oct17 October 21:23

      75% back when they downgrade you?
      🙂

    • Polly says:

      17 Oct17 October 23:54

      Yes, definitely worth the uplift to F on that route. We are now on F to Singapore in Nov, and hoping nothing changes in the meantime…

  • Eppleby Green says:

    17 Oct17 October 16:23

    How did you persuade BA to advise you of F availability?

    • AFKAE says:

      17 Oct17 October 17:23

      I’ve no idea, the email from exec club just landed at 9.59 this morning.

• Jack says:

  17 Oct17 October 12:47

  Looking at Cape Town next year (plenty of business availability using the new style BA voucher). I managed to get first before (had setup an alert and was super lucky). With the scrapping of the 747s looks like BA is using a refurbished 777 now, with club suite. Doesn’t look like they are doing first at all on that route anymore? Am I missing something or has it been scrapped? Thanks

  • Richie says:

    17 Oct17 October 14:26

    BA has new B787-10s joining which have First, this may free up some B772 aircraft with First to be utilised on other routes. Shuffling around of aircraft is with us, don’t expect BA to manage this well from a customer service point of view.

• BuildBackBetter says:

  17 Oct17 October 13:58

  Use their US site. They have a PayPal option for cashing out.

  • Saiz says:

    17 Oct17 October 14:06

    Ah, thanks. 👍

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