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The HfP chat thread – Monday 25th October

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Comments (570)

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

  • blenz101 says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:10

    I’ve just booed a Hilton between the 29th Dec and 2nd of Jan. Anybody know how the nights will be allocated at checkout in terms which year they will fall into?

    Will I get 3 nights awarded for 2021 and 1 night in 2022?

    • barnaby100 says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:12

      Hilton year ends at end of January not the calendar year end?

    • Phil W says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:16

      Apologies for the childishness, but I now have an image in my head of someone cycling past a Hilton booing it. I’m sure the duty manager is sufficiently upset by the whole situation 🤣

      • blenz101 says:
        25 Oct25 October 08:19

        If it helps to picture it then it is the Leeds City Centre Hilton which really should be boo’ed / knocked down.

        Anybody who has seen it or stayed will know what I mean!

        • Genghis says:
          25 Oct25 October 08:35

          Agreed! But nice kippers at breakfast.

          • Genghis says:
            25 Oct25 October 08:36

            They still owe me a free night in the “top suite” after my last stay around 4 years ago. Not been back.

          • Crafty says:
            25 Oct25 October 10:21

            What was so bad about your experiences? I find it quite functional. 100% suite upgrade record as Diamond, c.10 stays.

        • Phil W says:
          25 Oct25 October 08:38

          Kippers and Leeds have been added to the mental image.

    • Gavin says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:36

      Last year I stayed at a Hilton from 16th Dec – 2nd Jan, I got the credit based upon the promotion beginning January 1st. This meant I didn’t get double points which ended Dec 31st I got 2k points per stay which began Jan 1st. I lost out on a lot of points due to this miscalculation. However it did mean that my nights rolled over so I’d already done 32 nights for 2021 by January 2nd, which meant I was 75% of the way to diamond.

      You may want to force a checkout on Dec 31st to ensure you get the relevant points for each promotion.

      • Blenz101 says:
        25 Oct25 October 09:11

        Thanks! This is just the info I needed and the type of problem I wished to avoid!

        • Lady London says:
          25 Oct25 October 09:39

          Be careful wouldn’t you still potentially get other than the result you want if either of the promo’s has the rule about sequential nights in same hotel being part of the same stay even if you check out?

          If there are two of you would it make sense to book the sequential stays one in each name?

        • John says:
          25 Oct25 October 11:12

          You need to stay somewhere else for one night as checking out and in again will just combine the stays. Not sure if promo points will be clawed back if already awarded but it’s a possibility

          You don’t need to check out and in if you just want the nights to credit to the appropriate year – it’s based on check out date. But the stay will credit to the new year

          • John says:
            25 Oct25 October 11:16

            Sorry I mean as written you would get 2 nights for 2021 and 2 nights for 2022, but one stay for 2022.

  • Crafty says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:13

    Has anyone, in practice, had their children under 12 fill in their own “declaration of honour” when travelling into France?

    The French rules appear to require it, but it seems a nonsense to me…

    • stevenhp1987 says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:21

      Been to France twice in the last 2 months.

      Not one have either of us been asked for the declaration of honour. We’ve only been asked for the vaccine passport along with regular passport at border control.

      Simple and quick to fill in though so just do it just in case?

    • Harry T says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:36

      Literally takes ten seconds to fill in.

  • Andrew says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:15

    Does anyone find the £10 Addison Lee Amex Plat credit useless because there aren’t ever cars available? Recent Heathrow runs from SW London in both directions have returned a ‘no cars available’ or ‘we are fully booked’ message, at various different hours and days. For me it’s less useful than Priority Pass given I actually used that benefit yesterday!

    • Crafty says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:17

      Rob commented yesterday they’re having serious driver recruitment issues.

    • Phil W says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:18

      AL partner with another firm in Edinburgh. They’ve never failed to turn up for me.

      • Aso40 says:
        25 Oct25 October 12:36

        I use the Edinburgh one often, and they are experiencing a real driver shortage too according to the drivers. Last few booking have been 20-30 mins late, which is annoying when using to go to the airport.

        The problem with shortages of taxi drivers generally have been well reported on the news, with Edinburgh and Glasgow especially bad apparently.

        • Phil W says:
          25 Oct25 October 12:41

          Completely agree, there is a massive shortage across Edinburgh and Glasgow but I’ve experienced no issues with the AL partner in Edinburgh. I’ll factor in more time next tones though.

        • BP says:
          25 Oct25 October 14:07

          Massive shortage in Glasgow. Paying 2.5x the standard price to get home in an Uber is the new normal.

    • Dave says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:18

      Yes, it was one of the reasons I gave up my Plat card. Completely useless in south east London. Never any availability

    • Can says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:21

      Yep, it’s useless. I use it just burn the £10 credit in central London.

    • Andrew says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:22

      Availability used to be fine but I’m experiencing the same as other Andrew this month with no cars available. As Rob said, it’s all part of the labour force shortage in this country which is only going to get worse. Between a possible lockdown and shortages on the shelves – this Christmas isn’t looking great.

    • SteveJ says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:23

      Agreed, useless. Just have to try it now and again and if you get a car then that’s a bonus, but they’re not winning me as a repeat customer as they’re not available enough, even in central london.

    • BuildBackBetter says:
      25 Oct25 October 09:09

      Tried booking in advance?

      • Andrew says:
        25 Oct25 October 10:03

        Yes, twice a day for a week, always ‘we are fully booked at this time’, and that was across a 2h window.

    • Roy says:
      25 Oct25 October 11:11

      Seems to be broader than just Add Lee.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58903138

  • Can says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:22

    Newbie question: I have the Platinum. If I also get the Amex Bonvoy, would it bring me closer to Platinum Elite? Do they stack nicely?

    • Andrew says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:23

      No

    • Rob says:
      25 Oct25 October 12:08

      No. Plat Amex gives you Gold but no status nights. Bonvoy Amex gives you 15 nights but you need another 35 for Plat status – your existing Gold counts for nothing.

  • HBommie says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:30

    Monday morning rant..

    Had a cancellation on a BA flight and after trying BA’s telephone lines and useless IT & chat function resorted to Twitter, a week later received a curt response asking me to accept the flight change within 24hrs or lose the whole booking. Cheeky buggers.

    • Lady London says:
      25 Oct25 October 09:23

      Keep a copy with the dates and use it to sue them.

      To give them one more chance ask them to confirm that’s their final answer.

      Then don’t hang around just LBA to BA Legal Waterside stating which flight and reroute dates you want and give them 14 days to provide it according to your EU261 / UK equivalent rights (I forget UK name) and proceed to MCOL within 21 days latest.

  • Tazzy says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:32

    Is the dining offer on platinum still being added for new members or has that ended?

    • Andrew says:
      25 Oct25 October 08:49

      Still being added. It’s an advertised benefit of the card at the moment – they sent me a mailer encouraging me to introduce my friends and this was an advertised benefit.

      • Tazzy says:
        25 Oct25 October 09:04

        I was getting excited until I looked and not one restaurant in ireland – north or south !

  • SteveJ says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:46

    Solihull seems to have stopped playing with Che as of this morning (well that’s my current experience)

  • DJ says:
    25 Oct25 October 08:48

    I know that point redemption bookings for flights and hotels are usually refundable. However, are these bookings likely to be covered by travel insurance in odd situations where one needs to cancel during the day of a trip?

    I know that Amex Platinum Card covers bookings like that, but what about HSBC Premier? I could not find any wordings in the Ts and Cs about it.

    Thanks and happy Monday.

    • JDB says:
      25 Oct25 October 09:12

      As ever, it will depend on the specific reason for cancellation and the terms of your policy. Even with the ‘packaged’ policies there are some different terms in place depending on when you took out the policy. Someone asked the other day whether the imposition of government restrictions (and maybe resulting disinclination to travel) somewhere would be claimable, but in general it isn’t as it is foreseeable, but again check your policy.

    • JDB says:
      25 Oct25 October 09:15

      Sorry, I should have added that in respect of different policy terms being in place, it may depend on when you booked. In principle for rolling policies once you book, the trip should be covered by ‘old’ terms not any new ones but with something critical like this, check your own policy docs or call the insurer.

    • Blenz101 says:
      25 Oct25 October 09:18

      You biggest issue will be agreeing a value for any points lost in the event your claim is accepted. Most hotel and airlines are clear that they have effectively zero cash value.

      The cost of buying them at retail isn’t really a true reflection of their value and in any event paying you out in cash would put you in a far better position than holding points which isn’t what travel insurance is designed to do.

      • Lady London says:
        25 Oct25 October 09:28

        So the insurer can choose either to agree to replace the travel or to pay out retail cost of points?

        If points were stolen out of your wallet I could understand a valuation of zero if that’s what the points provider’s terms state but by the time they’ve been turned into a travel ticket or a hotel booking etc then i would say what’s been purchased with them and now can’t be used has a value.

        • Lady London says:
          25 Oct25 October 15:25

          It would depend on if the reason for needing recovery/replacement is covered under your insurance.

          If it’s disinclined and disinclined is not covered then you’re SOL.

          If it is for a covered reason then I liked your examples but I would argue for the value or replacement value of what the points had purchased.

          Otherwise BA would still be able to get away with deliberately picking on pairs of people travelling on tickets purchased on 241’s to offload or downgrade and get away with only compensating for 1 of the 2 seats that had been purchased using avios and the 241.

          The courts put a stop to BA doing that – all rights applied in full to each seat that had been purchased regardless of how it had been purchased.

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