Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

The HfP chat thread – Thursday 21st October

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Comments (440)

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

  • Craig says:

    Can someone please remind me how long a first transfer from Amex to Virgin takes?

    • Nigel says:

      Should be instant

    • Travel Strong says:

      Call up first time, everytime – and it’s instant.
      After first time, can do online instantly too.

    • Travel Strong says:

      (Need to call up everytime you get a new account too, if you are a churner! For some reason it always fails the first time unless you call up)

    • The Urbanite says:

      First time for me took several weeks for some reason. They did eventually turn up.

  • GaryE says:

    Remind me – the Morrison 10% discount on the Virgin Card T&Cs states that this excludes gift cards – I think someone has posted previously here that the 10% discount worked – was that because you added food or because the system couldn’t differentiate between food and gift cards?

    • Andrew says:

      Virgin Money (or LBG, or Barclaycard, or Santander) don’t know what you buy.

      It’s a rebate rather than a discount as the full price is collected from your Virgin Money account and you receive a credit for it around a month later.

      So, if I go to the Morrison’s checkout today with £100 of shopping and £100 of M&S vouchers and present my NHS discount card, they’ll give me a 10% discount on the shopping and charge my Credit Card with £190. Virgin will then give me £19 back at the end of November.

  • The Original Nick. says:

    I’ve just gone through my post that’s been sitting for a few weeks. Looks like Creation are closing my IHG credit card account from 3rd December 21. Oh dear..

  • Anna says:

    So – that hotel Visa card that some of us are lucky enough to still have, does it play nicely with Che (no apologies for code, so don’t waste your breath, I think we’ve all seen how that’s panned out recently)? I will confess I have a million points pretty much exclusively from feeding Solihull for 2 years but that’s obviously coming to an end. I tried £250 last month and didn’t get any charges but does it work with larger/more regular transactions?

    • rams1981 says:

      To put that much through do you have a paid che? And I assume you’re using for “normal” transactions and not just transferring out

      • Anna says:

        Is there even a paid Che? It’s not actually that much over 3 x Solihulls plus 2 Che’s in our household, ultimately funnelled to a single Visa which gives 2 points per £. Definitely at the modest end of the HFP scale anyway!

    • David says:

      So you still think it’s the code/no code comments that have got your IHG card binned?

  • Clive says:

    For those interested Thailand has released the approved countries and requirements for entry today effective Nov 1st

    • Thywillbedone says:

      Could not find good source (yet) but did happen upon this via a TripAdvisor posting: https://postlmg.cc/34xk2H5t (may or may not be correct but does look credible)

        • meta says:

          Yes, terrible proposition. Hoping things change by 1 Dec then I’ll see about changing my cancelled BA ticket.

          • Clive says:

            Why terrible meta? Far better than Sandbox.

          • meta says:

            Test on arrival and I am sure your 24hr test will turn into 72-96hrs and you can’t leave the hotel room until you get the result. You also need to travel first from the airport to the testing site than for testing site to your booked SHA+ hotel.

            Better than sandbox, but still terrible with too much faff. I don’t want to spend my first days stuck in a hotel. People just don’t get it, see Rob’s comment about being stuck in his hotel room in Barbados as still no result!

          • Rob says:

            I’m not stuck in the room. I have full access to the swimming pool, all the restaurants, the bars and the resort shops. The ONLY thing we can’t do is go on the beach, bizarrely, go in the spa (not a concern) or leave the grounds (not a concern).

  • SteveJ says:

    Cancelled a BAPP. How long until the pro rata fee credit should appear on the account? Is it a matter of a few days or is it only on the next statement date?

    • Dave says:

      Were you offered any decent retention deals? I was hoping a fee reduction but all they offer was a spend thousands get some extra avios… I’ll be saying goodbye – too many vouchers and no way to use them.

      • SteveJ says:

        I didn’t even ask for a retention, took the SUB and got outta there.

      • QFFlyer says:

        I’ve cancelled and wanted to do so anyway, to restart the clock, but I had a chat with them to see what they could offer. I was offered a downgrade to the free card, but no retention of sorts, which is fine, 30k Avios was a good SUB.

    • Keely says:

      My recent one was on the next statement .

  • VickyTM says:

    Does anyone know if the “triple points” earned in the current IHG promo count towards status? I read the T’s and C’s but couldn’t find the answer

    • Andrew says:

      No, they never do. Only base points do (not status bonus points either) and when you pay for extra points as part of your booking. And Creation credit card spend obviously.

      • Duncan says:

        I’d know for sure if my bonus actually posted. 😒

        • Andrew says:

          For some reason with this promo, they seem to be posting the bonus points later – normally promos like this the bonus points post at the same time as the standard points.

      • VickyTM says:

        OK – thanks

  • Tiger says:

    O/T Looking to purchase ceiling pendant lights for our house, but struggling with it at the moment as we didn’t like the stuff at retailers like JL, M&S, Made etc. Please can someone suggest a good place to buy ceiling pendant lights. Thanks.

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