The HfP chat thread – Monday 18th October

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• Jane says:

  18 Oct18 October 13:25

  Can I just check I have this right, starting to feel a bit stressed ! Flying to the Canaries on Thursday and BA wants me to fill in forms and upload the paperwork, so I thought I’d make a start and get organised.

  I have my vaccination certificates, but I can’t do the Spanish form till tomorrow so had to give up on the BA form… is that all I need or do I think get another page of things I haven’t thought of yet. And I assume that for the kids (<12) I can just tick the exempt box.

  • bill says:

    18 Oct18 October 13:38

    Hve a read of this
    https://www.hellocanaryislands.com/travelling-to-the-canary-islands/

    • Jane says:

      18 Oct18 October 13:43

      Thanks, I had seen that and I know we meet the criteria that we can go, I’m just worried about the order to do things in and whether I have all the bits to upload, I’m sure it won’t take long once I get on to it but would rather have done it already than be counting down the time to T-48hours.

      • RJA says:

        18 Oct18 October 14:23

        I’m flying there tomorrow – the only documents to upload to BA to allow online check in were 1. Vax Cert and 2. Spanish PLF (I did a family one, rather than 1 each for me and Mrs RJA). As mentioned Spanish PLF asks for seat numbers, (helpfully you can start that form now and save it but to be honest I would just wait till within 48 hours and do then, its not very onerous (have all passports to hand)).

        The Spanish PLF didn’t recognize NHS QR code when uploaded, so just manually entered data under “other vaccination option” and that allowed me to complete the form, which generated the Spanish PLF QR code which BA accepted.

        • Jane says:

          18 Oct18 October 14:29

          Fab, thank you. The seats shouldn’t be an issue as I just had to pay for them since they’d put the kids about 10 rows forward from me and OH and I didn’t fancy phoning or missing out at OLCI, although perhaps I should have left them there 🙂 but it sounds like I have the rest covered.

  • Rich says:

    18 Oct18 October 13:47

    I don’t know about the BA end of things, but for the Spanish passenger locator, you need your seat number to finalise the form.

    You can part fill and save it earlier than 48h but that doesn’t really gain you anything

    • Rich says:

      18 Oct18 October 13:48

      And kids need to fill in the form too. Again, don’t know what BA require.

• Greg says:

  18 Oct18 October 13:33

  Does anybody still have Lloyds upgrade vouchers ? I have one due to expire this month. Does anybody know if they are still extending ?

  • Lula says:

    18 Oct18 October 13:40

    I was told this would be the final extension, and similarly have one expiring on 31 October. That’s a book by date, though, so you can book up to October next year. Given that, I think further extensions are unlikely.

    • Andy D says:

      18 Oct18 October 13:44

      I was a Lloyds Avios card customer, how do I check if I still have such a voucher please?

      • Dan says:

        18 Oct18 October 15:05

        I think it would show in your avios.com account.

        • meta says:

          18 Oct18 October 15:09

          You should have received emails from Lloyds/Avios when the vouchers were earned.

        • Andy D says:

          18 Oct18 October 15:13

          Thanks all

• FatherOfFour says:

  18 Oct18 October 13:42

  How far out will the BA Disruption Recovery tool let me rebook a cancelled flight? Does it validate against the current ticketing rules? If not, is there then a manual check in ticketing dept. that could mean I think I have rebooked, then get cancelled again?
  An FTV would work for my dates, but trying to avoid getting through on the phone.

  • Memesweeper says:

    18 Oct18 October 15:33

    It’s nothing if not inconsistent. It certainly doesn’t just apply the same rules as the call centre. Try it once. If you don’t like what you see (and have time) wait a few days and try again. Try that night… then the following morning. If you really cannot get what you want, deep breath, it’s time to call BA. Good luck.

    • Memesweeper says:

      18 Oct18 October 15:34

      Having said that I can’t imagine they’d cancel a rebooked ticket if the flight is operating.

    • FatherOfFour says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:58

      Thanks. Flights are twice weekly and I have a narrow window that I can go. I think I can afford to try it for one date and if it fails, revert to FTV and call centre at midnight for the next one!

      I wasn’t sure if this method instantly tickets, or sends for review. As you say, I don’t think the ticketing team would reverse a booking that has been allowed through IT or sales.

• SteveJ says:

  18 Oct18 October 13:45

  Anyone heard of *Capital A List Club* ?

  Frankly I’m not interested in signing up for £50 a month, but been offered a free month’s trial of gold (cold marketing contact on LinkedIn). I’ll be spending a few days in Central next week, wondering if I can get some freebie benefits off my free trial.

  Any insights from anyone in the know much appreciated, site is:
  www capitalalist com

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    19 Oct19 October 21:15

    Yes and not even with someone else’s barge pole…

• Rosie says:

  18 Oct18 October 13:59

  I’m going to BER on Sunday with BA with husband, booked baggage only fare

  Just looked under MMB and see a special upgrade for 99pp LHR-BER , a couple of questions

  A is this a good price ?
  B Does this come with free seat assignment or do you have to pay ?
  C Will we get lounge access ?

  Thanks , never flown BA or in a higher cabin

  • Blenz101 says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:05

    A. Only you can really know the value of your own cash.

    B. Assuming no OneWorld status, no.

    C. Yes.

  • Anna says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:11

    Lol, I read this as 99p at first!
    Presuming this is for CE. You will need to pay for seats unless you have (silver or above?) status, but they are much of a muchness in CE anyway and row 1 is usually blocked until check in.
    You would get lounge access.
    Make sure you’re not just getting an upgrade from HBO to standard Economy as this probably wouldn’t be worth it.

  • Rich says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:32

    Same seats. Assuming you’re not checking in any luggage anyway if you’ve booked a HBO, so Club check in is no benefit.

    So you’re getting fast track security, lounge access, fast-track boarding and a mediocre meal.

    Not nearly worth £99pp IMHO. I would save my money, spend £10 at Pret and/ or treat yourself to a paid lounge visit or nice meal.

    • kitten says:

      18 Oct18 October 14:44

      99 is too much on that route.
      79 if it lets you check luggage and you now want to.
      Otherwise 29-49 and the 49 only if you’re feeling rich.

      There simply isn’t enough difference to the actual flight experience. It’s a really short flight too.

  • Blair says:

    19 Oct19 October 00:31

    BA don’t pay for security fast track at BER

• xcalx says:

  18 Oct18 October 14:00

  Virgin advice please.

  Whats the best use of Virgin vouchers upgrade or 2 for 1 (no status)
  Can I book Upper out and PE back with an upgrade voucher for 2 people or would that be 2 vouchers can these be booked online.

  Thanks.

  • Travel Strong says:

    18 Oct18 October 15:32

    Call or Whatsapp to use a voucher – cannot be done online.

    You can split upgrade vouchers no problem. Used to upgrade both of us 1 way rather than 1 of us both ways. But now I only have 241 vouchers.

    There is no straight answer to what the ‘best use’ is. Just run the sums for different plans.

    • xcalx says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:03

      Thanks again TS
      I called virgin and have booked EDI – BGI 12th Dec upper and BGI – LHR 9th Jan PE will keep an eye out for UC. Used 2 upgrade vouchers as I was 1400 short of using a 2 for 1 wasn’t sure how long first time Amex or Tesco transfers take. Will do a couple of 7 night cruises whilst there combined with a land stay. Bit last minute but plans changed with US border opening just too late for our plans of 2 years.

      Virgin still have 5th and 19 Dec EDI-BGI in upper.

• Chris says:

  18 Oct18 October 14:03

  I know _nobody_ that reads here pays any interest on a credit card but I’d appreciate some guidance from someone that knows better

  Due to a mess up with curve refunds I was inadvertently left with a positive balance last month. Paid off 6.5k before due date but left £300 outstanding

  I’ve been charged nearly £150 interest (22% p.a variable )

  Have I been charged interest on the full balance even though I paid off 95% of it?

  • Char Char says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:06

    Who was the card? If its the first time barclaycard usually waive this for you

    • Chris says:

      18 Oct18 October 14:10

      MBNA.

      Just dug into the statement deeper and it says;

      We work out interest daily using your Simple Annual Rates, based on a 365-day year. We charge interest on the total amount you owe, including on interest we charged before, also known as compound interest. Your Effective Annual Rates show this and you can compare these with rates offered on other cards.

      • Andrew says:

        18 Oct18 October 14:19

        Oh and don’t forget that from this month (15th?), cash equivalent transactions are automatically charged cash advance fees and interest from the transaction date on MBNA.

  • Mattb says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:11

    Yes that’s normal, they don’t pro rata Interest.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:11

    Yup unfortunately the interest is on the full balance of the statement not just the small amount you missed. Hopefully it’ll be waived as a mistake.

    • Ryan says:

      18 Oct18 October 14:15

      Yep, standard, I’ve had that once where I underpaid by £50 and had £130 interest charged – it’s always the risk that we don’t calculate it perfectly.

      Hence why, if you pay interest on multiple cards, pay one off in full rather than pay some to all the cards

    • Lady London says:

      18 Oct18 October 14:51

      That’s a nasty term that’s been on pretty much every card I’ve had.

      So if you’d owed 50,000 and paid it off and yet for some unexpected thing there was even a £1 left unpaid, they can bill you interest even for the rest that you paid. Can happen easily, a small oversight by yourself or the order in which cards attribute what you pay in, to the various types of things payable on the card.

      It’s something I really wish would be outlawed by regulators as an unfair term.

  • Andrew says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:13

    If you choose not to pay the full balance, you lose the interest free element and the interest is then charged on the average daily balance. It’s the same with most cards.

  • Anna says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:15

    You’ll probably need to contact them and explain what happened and grovel a bit but most card providers will refund it if it’s a rare occurrence.

  • Char Char says:

    18 Oct18 October 15:34

    I once paid off the balance of the card excluding the minimum payment that I expected to be taken but they didn’t take the minimum payment so ended up with an interest bill of £150, luckily got it reversed but next time I would be over paying to make sure!

• Chris says:

  18 Oct18 October 14:19

  Appreciate the advice all

  Really thought Curve would have sorted their sh*t out in time and didn’t want the hassle of refunding a positive balance on a rarely used card….seems like that was a great idea with hindsight 😂

  • Blenz101 says:

    18 Oct18 October 14:35

    If you do call up to plead oversight I would suggest keeping it really simple as you are reliant on their goodwill.

    Talk of using Curve fronted or waiting for a refund to come back via another intermediary payment provider may well be a barrier to getting that interest charge reversed.

    • Lady London says:

      18 Oct18 October 14:53

      Wise words from Blenz101 here.

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