The HfP chat thread – Monday 18th October

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• Rebecca says:

  18 Oct18 October 15:43

  5% off Tesco with Airtime instore
  If you need a referral feel free to use. JTGBCGFG

  • SteveJ says:

    18 Oct18 October 15:48

    Not seeing that on mine?

    • Yorkie Aid says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:01

      Airtime offers are often targeted

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    18 Oct18 October 17:08

    A more restricted version on TaCo Bell

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      18 Oct18 October 17:22

      Improved today

  • Reney says:

    18 Oct18 October 17:44

    promo code OCT5, spend £15 get £5 back this week.

    • ee says:

      18 Oct18 October 18:41

      Thanks!

  • Chrism20 says:

    18 Oct18 October 19:05

    Only 2% for me and only on Visa

• Aston100 says:

  18 Oct18 October 15:52

  I reported here the other day that the Priority Pass lounge (Pearl Lounge) at Marrakech departures wasn’t proving any kind of f&b due to ‘Covid’.

  I contacted Amex and they were happy to provide a £25 statement credit. No proof of purchase required.

  Amex Brighton CS are probably the only CS people who seem to provide a decent service out of all card / airline / hotel CS staff that I have contacted since Covid became a thing.

  • Anna says:

    18 Oct18 October 18:21

    Blimey – wonder if I can put in a backdated claim for all the times I’ve been turned away at MAN lounges?!

    • AL says:

      19 Oct19 October 00:03

      Being turned away at MAN *is* the lounge experience, Anna – remember that they’re helping you spend less time with the general public by doing so! 😂

• Dominic says:

  18 Oct18 October 15:56

  Queen agrees to Southend city status.

  No longer London Southend Airport? 😛

  • Aston100 says:

    18 Oct18 October 15:59

    Sah-fend airport is a useful gateway to Bas Vegas.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:49

    I look forward to visiting Southend Cathedral ;p

    • Yorkie Aid says:

      18 Oct18 October 18:51

      It will most likely be St Mary’s in Prittlewell which becomes Southend cathedral. Sure, York or Canterbury haven’t got anything to worry about but it won’t be too shabby.

    • Dominic says:

      18 Oct18 October 19:59

      Haven’t needed a cathedral to become a city since the 19th century!

      • AL says:

        19 Oct19 October 00:04

        This. Today, it’s a petition to the Lord Chancellor – ie Raab. I suspect that he was told to accept it as a nomination and it went straight up to Liz for rubber stamping.

• Aston100 says:

  18 Oct18 October 15:57

  Just logged into my Amex account after 10 days.
  Noticed there is a filter at the top of the offers section.
  When did that become a thing?

  • CarpalTravel says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:05

    Guessing you mean on the website?

    I think it appeared in the last 9 days or so… 😏

    • Babyg says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:16

      definitely within the last 10 days

• Jamjaw says:

  18 Oct18 October 16:08

  Orlando – my family have decided to go to Orlando at Easter – what should I be doing re tickets for parks etc? We have two children (9 and 6) who want to “EVERYTHING”….

  • Jimbob says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:20

    The three big tickets would be Disney, Universal and SeaWorld/Busch gardens. How long are you going for? Wouldn’t get much change out of £2k for tickets for all three.
    SeaWorld/Busch gardens have previously offered discounted tickets on Black Friday

    • Jamjaw says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:24

      We are going for 2 weeks – there are 4 of us so looking at minimising costs (where possible) while still doing as much as we can. I suspect I am going to be spending big 🙁

      • Graham says:

        18 Oct18 October 17:00

        One piece of advice. you need to get yourself up to speed on pre booking the rides at Disney. As you will be “off campus” you will behind those staying in Disney and a lot of the popular rides are difficult to get. May be far less of a problem given the age of your children but do look at height limits as a lot of rides have a minimum height

  • Anna says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:23

    First of all don’t book anything until it’s confirmed that the US will be accepting unvaccinated children! (It will probably be ok if they are under 12 but could be an expensive mistake otherwise).
    When we went a few years ago there was the option to buy a 14 day ticket to both Universal and Disney for the price of 7 days. It wasn’t cheap but did provide excellent value as you need to visit a few times to get through all the different parks and attractions. Do at least a couple of days at waterparks to relax. Take picnics so you’re not wasting time waiting for food. It’s worth paying a bit more for fast track, especially as it can be very hot for queuing.

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:26

    Unless rates for car hire have sorted themselves out by Easter you might want to look at packages from either Disney or Universal where you stay at one of their hotels and park tickets are included. Disney also do an included service where they take your bags direct from the airport to the hotel room and shuttle you there separately. Free transportation throughout the whole Disney experience is then also included. This is great unless you want to go to other places like Kennedy Space Center or the beaches in which case you would really need a hire car.

    • Jamjaw says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:30

      Thanks – car hire sorted thanks to a discount available through work (rate is 25% of the public rate). Staying in a villa, so not the full Disney experience but kids lucky to go anyway.

      • Jimbob says:

        18 Oct18 October 16:37

        Personally, if it’s your first time in Orlando, at their ages, I’d just do Disney. Do the other parks the next time you go.
        Lots of helpful people on the dibb forum.

        • J says:

          18 Oct18 October 17:03

          +1. Trying to cram everything into 2 weeks will be stressful and unnecessarily expensive. If it were me I’d probably commit to the Disney 14 day Ultimate Ticket (£429 each). The Seaworld/Busch Gardens/Waterparks 14 day four park ticket ($199 each) is also a great option – I could happily spend 2 weeks just at Busch Gardens!

      • Michael C says:

        18 Oct18 October 16:57

        JamJaw, Disney Springs is a great freebie to take care of the evenings: has some form of entertainment (usually a kids’ outdoor disco) every night.
        We all (parents and child!) rated Cape Canaveral over Disney.
        We also had a blast at an NBA match – you should just catch the end of the regular season.

      • Anna says:

        18 Oct18 October 18:24

        Food at the hotels is horrendously expensive so you’re actually better off with the facilities in a villa!

  • Louise says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:37

    Check out the dibb forums, great source of info

  • Terri says:

    18 Oct18 October 17:41

    Taking into account the age of your children, there will be quite a lot of thrill rides at SeaWorld and Universal that they will not get on and probably would not want to.

    Magic Kingdom will be where you will likely spend most of your holiday with under 10’s. Plus a day or so at the other Disney Parks and the waterparks. Easter is a busy time, there will be a lot of queing, a lot of walking and it will be hot, children get tired and you will want time by the pool. Having been to Orlando quite a few times with children I would suggest splurging on the 14 day Disney only pass. It will keep you busy. Also don’t forget the $25 a day to park!

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    18 Oct18 October 23:10

    +1 that both Universal + Disney is massive overkill; x100 at that age where a stamina test of open-to-close time attendance is not a fun option.

    When we went with two similarly aged children, Disney parks alone were plenty.
    Each park probably takes two full days (8 days)
    You can easily spend a day at each waterpark (2 days)
    Cape Canaveral is great – well worth a visit – now you can feel the holiday was educational 🙂 (1 day)
    Wonderworks is actually a really nice change of size as a small but still fun – and slightly educational – attraction. (1 day)
    Disney Springs is decent enough shopping and eating (1/2 day) So is Celebration (1/2 day)
    It’s a holiday – you surely want one day chillin’ by the pool at your nice resort (1 day)

    And hey presto you’ve filled 14 days!

    Plan days in advance and understand and use Disney FastPass carefully and strategically for the big queue rides – and prebook dining too if you want the better options (which you do). This really is the difference between a rubbish day queueing in heat to do little, or a part day having lots of fun then heading home before tiredness kills it.
    DiBB is a great resource – put some time into it.
    A villa is a far better option anyway as eating just cornflakes for breakfast will come as a relief after a few American meals, and one in a nicer gated community will have facilities that match most hotels….

    • David says:

      18 Oct18 October 23:51

      Be aware that FastPass has been replaced with a new, paid, offering. You should carefully research this to decide if it’ll work for you (and it launches tomorrow so there should be lots of feedback about it very soon).

• H says:

  18 Oct18 October 16:09

  My Sept-Oct IHG points from the white credit card (which is being shut down in Dec) haven’t been added to my IHG account despite the statement date being 14 Oct. Has anyone else had the same issue? Is it best to contact IHG or creation?

  • Yorkie Aid says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:17

    +1 for Black card. I was going to wait for up to ten days and then raise a formal complaint with Creation.

  • Si says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:17

    I think they usually drop on/around 22nd of each month.

    • Yorkie Aid says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:27

      Depends on your personal statement date

• Ross says:

  18 Oct18 October 16:10

  Anyone been to Switzerland recently and understand the requirements for the vaccine?

  We obviously don’t have an EU Vaccine passport
  Switzerland have their own App “Covid Cert” I scanned the NHS QR Codes but it states “invalid signature”

  Just wondered if anyone else had any experience

  • Jen T says:

    18 Oct18 October 17:49

    This was discussed in the comments yesterday – a lot to dig through but some useful info there.

  • Sandgrounder says:

    18 Oct18 October 17:54

    This was discussed recently, from today you should be able to pay 30CHF and obtain a Swiss Covid pass, you will need to submit evidence of your trip and your vaccination online in advance to the canton you will be visiting. NHS certs won’t be accepted in Switzerland after 24 October. Not sure if they will still be valid for entry to the country.

    • QFFlyer says:

      19 Oct19 October 01:46

      Pay? I applied for one last night and it was ready in app this morning, I didn’t pay for it (this was using an Australian vaccine certificate, but I can’t see why that would matter).

• RTS says:

  18 Oct18 October 16:17

  Hi – with the Plat car hire cover, do you have to pay for the rental on the plat card for it to cover ? Or can you pay with any card?

  • Ian says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:30

    Any card. Advantage of paying on plat is any deductions are generally removed before your bill comes out vs paying and claiming it back. In 10+ years I’ve claimed twice, once when it was paid/deducted on the amex and once with another provider. I filled out the entire form on the shuttle to the airport and money was refunded within a few days.

    • RTS says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:39

      I have claimed once and was fairly straightforward. I just couldn’t remember if i needed to have paid on the card or not… its been 2 years since i have held a plat lol

  • Rob says:

    18 Oct18 October 16:41

    Any card, but using Plat is easier as Amex can easily see the charge – with any other card you’ll need to submit statement copies etc.

    • RTS says:

      18 Oct18 October 16:49

      Makes sense.

      I can’t believe the biz plat is actually more expensive than the personal one… seems to have less benefits too!

    • CH says:

      19 Oct19 October 00:34

      My experience (Euro ICC) is that I always have to submit statement copies, and also to request that the payments to me are in Euro rather than GBP notwithstanding that coverage limits are expressed in Euro. I have claimed twice this year alone, covering 2/3 of my annual fee (punctured tire on a motorway, and a mysterious scratch that appeared the one night I valet parked a car on holiday in Greece). For me, this, Priority Pass and the hotel status benefits are what justify the annual fee.

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