The HfP chat thread – Thursday 21st October

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• AL says:

  21 Oct21 October 12:27

  I have a corporate green AmEx. It doesn’t earn MR – I presume they go toward paying down the statement, but no idea. I’m led to believe that I can call AmEx and earn MR on this card in my own name… any experience of this?

  • Hanif says:

    21 Oct21 October 12:43

    I’m talking about 8 or so years back, I paid around £35 to be able to earn MR on corporate green Amex. Yes call to sort out.

    • Nigel W says:

      21 Oct21 October 13:44

      That £35 charge is still around.

    • Ollie says:

      21 Oct21 October 15:16

      It is still £35 although it may be waived in the first year, or first month – not sure how they decide that.
      Note you can also pay more to upgrade to e.g. Corporate Platinum (!) – I think it’s £375 vs. personal which is £575 but comes with similar benefits. The £375 is something you pay instead of your company paying, but it could be a cheap way to get Platinum benefits without getting the Personal card.

  • AL says:

    21 Oct21 October 20:07

    Thanks all! Time to call AmEx…

    • E says:

      21 Oct21 October 20:12

      Not all corporate cards can be changed. My corporate green Amex couldn’t get points and I asked about the charge to start to earn MR. Amex said it was an agreement with my company that their employees couldn’t do this. As a result I don’t use my corporate card any more and I leave it at home as it’s not mandatory and I see no reason to use it now.

      • AL says:

        22 Oct22 October 00:27

        Good to know. I always carry it but have – in three and a bit years – only spent £4.81 on it, since all my spend goes on my personal card. But a situation where I’m not fronting AL’s workplace with any own cash is a good one in my books!

• Njb says:

  21 Oct21 October 12:32

  Not sure if this has been asked before – but any dog boarding recommendations? Would need to be Dorset / Hampshire or anywhere in reasonable distance from Heathrow to drop her off prior to our travels!
  Thank you

  • Ed says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:01

    No personal recommendations, but dog boarding establishments should have a star rating between 1-5 issued by their council. I would suggest that the rating should be seen as indicative, but should help.

  • AJA says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:52

    My parents used to use Wey Farm Boarding Kennels and Cattery in Ottershaw, just off the A320 between Woking and Chertsey. Near to junction11 M25. Haven’t done so for 5 years.

    https://weyfarm.co.uk/

• Chris Clark says:

  21 Oct21 October 12:49

  Does the book your 2-4-1 voucher and then cancel to get a FTV, still the best way to extend it? We have three 2-4-1s which expire in Jan and Mar 2022. We may book something before then but will definitely not use all 3. We are looking to book something for next Aug, which is what has prompted this, as I’d like to use 1 of the vouchers for this.

  • SteveJ says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:33

    Yes. Remember traveller names can not change.

• Manny_D says:

  21 Oct21 October 13:04

  Has anyone not received a confirmation email after being accepted for an Amex? Been approved but no email to show this.

  • allycat says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:19

    A number of times I have been accepted online and promised an email which never appeared. 2 days later the cards drop through the letterbox

    • BJ says:

      21 Oct21 October 13:38

      +1

• Liam says:

  21 Oct21 October 13:17

  I landed at LHR T3 yesterday and did my day 2 test with ExpressTest next to the terminal. Very easy and it didn’t matter than I was over an hour earlier than the time I’d booked for. I would recommend.

  Also, as someone who hasn’t flown into the UK since March, the experience was far, far improved from the complete shambles at that point. I think it took about 15 minutes to get off the plane, get through the e-gates, collect my bag, and leave the terminal.

• MKB says:

  21 Oct21 October 13:28

  Regarding the £100 back on £400 on Amex Plat as discussed on page 1, if I remember correctly Fine Hotels and Resort pre-paid bookings don’t get hotel-programme benefits like pay-on-departure bookings do.

  Is that correct? Any actual experiences of pre-pay FHR bookings?

  • Pete M says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:35

    I have the US Platinum, so may not 100% apply, but I’ve always received all the benefits on pre-paid bookings.

  • Tocsin says:

    21 Oct21 October 13:53

    My understanding is that FHR bookings should get status benefits, but the other Amex programme (Hotel Collection?) doesn’t.

    • MKB says:

      21 Oct21 October 15:40

      Yes, on the UK Plat Amex, you continue to get hotel-programme benefits on FHR bookings if you don’t pre-pay.

      There was discussion when pre-pay was introduced earlier this year that pre-pay may well scupper those benefits as the hotel would now see it just like any other third-party booking, so wondered if anyone had found that to be the case in practice with any hotel chains.

• lev441 says:

  21 Oct21 October 14:04

  Applied for Virgin paid for card a few weeks back – was finally approved with a £14,900 credit limit which i’m happy considering when I first held the card, I was give £2,600 (but wasn’t a problem back then as you could pay off mid month and still earn points…)….

  Assume i’ll get the 30,000 points that was on offer when I applied rather than the current 15,000?

  • Harrier25 says:

    21 Oct21 October 19:41

    As long as you applied before the end of the promotion then you should be fine

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  21 Oct21 October 14:25

  I have NHS Covid app on my iphone 8.

  Going to Portugal, if I use another phone – and phone number, so I don’t get business calls – will I still be able to install the app on that too?

  Is it tied to any phone, or phone number?

  • Rhys says:

    21 Oct21 October 14:27

    Yes, I don’t think they tie it to a specific number.

    • Babyg says:

      21 Oct21 October 15:04

      yup, i log in from multiple locations/phones… you can always download the paper version just to be tripply safe..

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