The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 19th October

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

• Rob says:

  19 Oct19 October 20:41

  We’ve reviewed Hyatt Centric. I also stayed at Villa Real about 20 years ago but can’t remember much!

• tintin38 says:

  19 Oct19 October 20:48

  Hyatt Centric is very nice, am a regular guest there (well before Covid anyway). It’s fairly new, very central and staff are great. Breakfast is excellent but dinner options are fairly average. That’s not a problem though as you have hundreds of great restaurants on your doorstep. Enjoy!

  • AnotherUser says:

    19 Oct19 October 21:01

    Thanks tintin!

• The Original Nick. says:

  19 Oct19 October 21:13

  I’ve just been reading Rob’s post https://hfp2022.headforpoints.blog/2021/04/01/what-are-the-benefits-of-british-airways-executive-club-gold-status-2/ and have few questions for Gold card status people out there – I’ll be Gold come July of next year hopefully (currently Silver) and planning a trip to New York for myself and 3 friends and lloking at booking our flights via my BAEC account soon. If I do make Gold by the time we fly can I take all 4 of us through the First Wing at T5? And what would our options be for lounges? All 3 other passengers have no status.

  • Blenz101 says:

    19 Oct19 October 21:34

    What class are you all flying?

    As a gold card holder you can guest 1 person into the lounge complex with you (and as gold you would be heading to first).

    The first wing leads to the first class / Concorde lounges. So even if you are all flying CW and could access the Galleries lounge you can’t get any more than one friend into the first area.

    They may check you in as a group but you will have to use regular security.

    • The Original Nick. says:

      19 Oct19 October 22:02

      Myself and one other would be flying in CW so I guess I could Guest one of my friends into the First and the other flying in CW could guest the fourth into Galleries. But if all 4 of us were able to use the First wing surely we could all just stop in the First lounge as it’s direct access via First Wing?

      • KP says:

        19 Oct19 October 22:10

        You all cant use First Wing. Only you and your guest can use it

        Your friend in CW has to use Business check in desks and go through fast track security

        You can all hang out in the business lounge though. Only you and your guest in First lounge

        • The Original Nick says:

          19 Oct19 October 22:15

          Thanks KP.

        • Jonathan says:

          19 Oct19 October 22:22

          You could all check in at First Wing if on one booking but only you + 1 guest will be allowed through FW security which leads into First Lounge (they are strict on this, they won’t even let you take 2 kids in). The others will have to backtrack to the vanilla fast track security then head to Galleries Club.

          If 2 of you have got Amex Platinum I’d prefer Plaza Premium to GC if it’s busy. Alternatively all head to T5B GC which should be open again by then & is much quieter than the T5A lounges.

          First Lounge isn’t that great tbh, the main advantage is the FW check in & security so you can bypass the treck from standard security to lounges.

      • Blenz101 says:

        19 Oct19 October 22:19

        No. First lounge isn’t available to anybody else other than you and one guest. The first wing leads to the first lounge so you can’t all just pass through given 2 of you can’t access that lounge.

        As your friends have no status they won’t be able to guest anybody.

        Those with lounge access will be you +1 if your choice in either first or galleries lounge.

        The friend flying in CW will be able to enter the galleries lounge (only) under their ticket class unless you pick them as your guest using your gold status.

        As it stands I think one of your friends will end up not being able to join you and the max you will be able to get into the same BA lounge will be the three of you in galleries.

        • Jonathan says:

          19 Oct19 October 22:25

          This is correct. I missed the bit about only 1 friend travelling in CW. You don’t get a guest if you don’t have status.

• The Original Nick. says:

  19 Oct19 October 21:14

  *New york trip will be July/August

• JanM says:

  19 Oct19 October 21:43

  Question about the Amex Hyatt offer. Has anyone here used it? I was looking at booking the Madrid hotel mentioned above, but looking at the terms it says “excludes online payments and is only valid on checkout spend”. This is SO annoying as the on-line rate is 20 euro a day cheaper than the standard rate, so on a 3-day trip half the offer is eaten away already by higher charges. If there is a fudge I would love to hear it!

  • Harry T says:

    19 Oct19 October 21:53

    If the hotel charges you, why wouldn’t it work anyway on a prepaid rate?

    • JanM says:

      19 Oct19 October 21:56

      Well, that’s part of what I’m wondering, but without the 100 pounds off I wouldn’t be interested.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        19 Oct19 October 22:14

        The terms are just non-sense in this context.

        Apart from Hilton North America I’m not aware of any hotels that don’t charge via their own systems. Tbh Ive only actually had 1 hotel charge my card for a pre paid before I turned up since March 2020.

        You’ll be absolutely fine as long as the hotel charges you before the offer ends.

• AnotherUser says:

  19 Oct19 October 22:08

  Yeah – the flexible rates at the Centric are a fair bit dearer (something else putting me off, as I do need a flexible booking). Historically, prepaid rates have often worked with other chains (Amex just sees them as charged by the hotel) but don’t know about Hyatt.

  Might be worth looking at other options, unless you’re tied to Hyatt. The Centric looked comparatively pricey on my dates

  • Rob says:

    20 Oct20 October 08:52

    Have you tried Emyr re Centric? Would get you breakfast, upgrade, some cash credit.

• Frenske says:

  19 Oct19 October 23:42

  Can someone explain why a friend of us cannot book an economy reward flight e.g. 9500 Avios + £35 which appears on my list of options for the exact same flights. She needs to pay a lot more taxes: ~£90 with 9500 Avios. I thought the Avios pricing option is the same for everyone?

  • Marina says:

    19 Oct19 October 23:48

    It might be that you have Reward flight saver fares showing and the friend does not ? To be eligible for Reward Flight Saver, you need to have collected at least one Avios in the past 12 months.

  • Rob says:

    20 Oct20 October 08:49

    Account is inactive so no Reward Flight Saver option.

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