The HfP chat thread – Monday 25th October

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• Diydegsy says:

  25 Oct25 October 13:11

  Qatar have changed the time of our business return flights from phuket to Manchester which means we now have an 8 hour wait in Doha , there is an earlier flight leaving Doha but they are refusing to put us on it as they say it would be a voluntary change so we would have to pay extra. We can have a refund but the flight price we paid is £2200 and all the prices have gone up with the other airlines, do we have any recourse I am guessing not but thought I would ask people with more experience than me as I haven’t flown Qatar before.

  • H says:

    25 Oct25 October 13:19

    That doesn’t sound right, they should put you on the earlier flight free of charge given the significant change. I would HUACA

  • ChrisC says:

    25 Oct25 October 13:23

    No recourse.

    • Blenz101 says:

      25 Oct25 October 13:35

      How much does does the flight time change add to your connection?

      Presume you arrive back in Manchester at the same time as you otherwise would have so the change doesn’t delay you in any way?

      • Diydegsy says:

        25 Oct25 October 13:56

        Hi , yes we arrive back in Manchester the same time but our flight leaves Phuket 3hrs 40 mins earlier hence the 8 hour wait in Doha so am assuming that means they are within their right to charge a fee if we wanted to change to the easier flight from Doha to Manchester?

        • Lady London says:

          25 Oct25 October 14:34

          This really doesn’t sound very fair as it was their change that caused this! TBH I’ve had similar from Qatar twice but I actually wanted the gap. It’s almost like they get you to book then move your connection to a really undesirable one. Given Doha for any length of time even with a decent lounge gets old after about 3 hours.

          Have you checked is your original flight they said was “cancelled” or rescheduled still actually running?

          I think I’d try them again and ask to change day of coming back if it’s going to be that long pointing out it was their change that caused this.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          25 Oct25 October 15:01

          Are there many flights running in those 8 hours? Ive managed to get on the next flight to U.K. by going to the airside desk on the day. Obviously that’s at their discretion/ depending on loads but all isn’t lost.

          The Phuket flight could also change again …

        • Blenz101 says:

          25 Oct25 October 15:29

          I would ask at HKT and certainly in the lounge at DOH. DOH may well move you but your luggage may not travel with you if you do move.

  • Anna says:

    25 Oct25 October 13:53

    What is their policy on “significant changes”?

    • Blenz101 says:

      25 Oct25 October 15:28

      They don’t have one as such but count anything over 2 hours as a change. The only options in that event are refund or alternative flight. Qatar get to pick the alternative.

      It doesn’t sound that unreasonable to me that they are keeping the same flight back to the U.K. The flight from Thailand is just departing a few hours earlier.

      Certainly no legal right to anything here.

• Aston100 says:

  25 Oct25 October 13:38

  Does anyone know of a way to get a discount on one of those 7 or 10 day New York sight seeing prices?
  Thanks.

  • ChrisC says:

    25 Oct25 October 13:48

    Usually offer something if you sign up for their emails.

    I usually buy mine from the likes of expedia (to earn some points) via the sites we can’t mention

    Before buying check that it includes the things you actually want to do (and can do as some attractions are seasonal) and compare the price of paying entry individually against the cost of the pass.

    On the other hand I’ve found that they have pointed me towards things I wouldn’t ordinarily have done.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    25 Oct25 October 17:46

    Do Amex sell them and they have a travel offer on? There’s also an Amex offer for buyagift I don’t know if that’s an experience they sell.

• cabal of rabid baboons says:

  25 Oct25 October 13:39

  Is a phone call required to pay the balance of my BA holiday by E-voucher?

  • Aston100 says:

    25 Oct25 October 13:40

    Took a few attempts, but eventually got success through sending an email to baholidays@ba.com

    • Cabal of rabid baboons says:

      25 Oct25 October 13:46

      Many thanks Aston, I’ll give that a try.

• Craig says:

  25 Oct25 October 13:51

  Hi all, first-time poster looking for some advice.
  Am looking to take out a BA Premium Plus card to redeem the voucher for travel to Tokyo in 1 year but have forgotten that it will take some time to actually earn the voucher (say 6 months) – what are the chances of there actually being tickets for redemption in 6 months time? Do the available seats get snapped up immediately or is there some hope that there will be seats left by the time I actually have a voucher? Am relatively flexible with dates but wish to fly London – Tokyo rather than London – Beijing – Tokyo, etc on this occasion. Thanks in advance!

  • Rob says:

    25 Oct25 October 14:22

    These are not normal times so usual rules don’t apply, unfortunately. Outside of cherry blosson season, and assuming no major sporting events AND assuming you don’t want UK school holidays and can be flexible by a few days if necessary, odds are decent.

    You can use SeatSpy to set up alerts so even if the seats are not available now, you can snag them if/when BA opens more.

    On the other hand, if you trying to say “I want to travel over October half-term 2022, departing on the Saturday and returining the following Saturday so my kids can be back in school on Monday” then your odds are virtually nil, because those will be very busy flights (boarding school kids flying in and out, for a start), BA is far less likely to open more and you have little flexibility on dates.

    • Craig says:

      25 Oct25 October 15:34

      I’d be looking to avoid all of those busy times anyway so sounds like it’s worth a try. Thanks for taking the time to reply – much appreciated.

• Andrew says:

  25 Oct25 October 14:16

  Details of the US entry requirements and processes for 2 weeks time are due today:
  https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-outline-nov-8-international-travel-reopening-vaccination-rules-2021-10-25/

• Gustavo says:

  25 Oct25 October 14:28

  How are people tracking spending for the 10k avios if you spend £5k since 23rd August? First it’s per card, but that’s somewhat easy to filter, but then it mentions “Purchases made through payment facilitators […] will not count towards your spend for the purposes of the offer”. It then goes on to say even mobile card readers, so I am assuming Sumup, IZettle, PayPal and other similar wouldn’t count? If so, how then are you tracking it cause then it becomes quite difficult to track. Thanks

  • Will says:

    25 Oct25 October 14:32

    I called customer services 3 weeks ago and they added it up. However today I got the ‘offer used’ message, which suggests I hit the target. I thought I was still £1000 short, so will need to see if 10k post within 5 days or it was an Amex Error

    • Pete M says:

      25 Oct25 October 14:34

      I downloaded all my transactions into Excel and apparently I am well over £5k now (taking refunds into account), but the offer doesn’t seem to have kicked in yet, so not quite sure what the problem could be…

      • Jonathan says:

        25 Oct25 October 14:40

        Similar problem on the free BA Card offer spend £1000 get 1500 bonus avios, spent over £1000 on card a while ago no bonus avios, offer still shows but not as redeemed/used.

        • Spurs drive me mad says:

          25 Oct25 October 15:07

          My 10k points posted within couple of days of hitting target. I just added up what I had spent since promotion started.

      • Gustavo says:

        25 Oct25 October 15:05

        Yeah, I was thinking about doing that, but if IZettle/Sumup/PayPal transactions don’t count it becomes really difficult to filter them out (Sumup for example shows up in the detailed view of the transaction, not even like PayPal eg that shows like “PayPal *Some Business Name”). I guess we just need to get a rough estimate. 5k spend is a lot more difficult to track if you just use it for normal spending though. I think I am nearing it, and feel like with my BA holiday balance to be paid that will trigger it, but just trying to understand how far I am from it.

        • JDB says:

          25 Oct25 October 15:13

          No promises, but I think you will find they count. The exclusion for the aggregators is part of the standard T&Cs for retailer offers because they can’t always directly identify the retailer to trigger the offer, but in my experience all those things will count towards companion vouchers and other general spend offers.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    25 Oct25 October 19:38

    Crap T&C’s copied over from another offer I recon. PayPal and others are never excluded from general spend bonuses

  • Peter K says:

    25 Oct25 October 21:18

    PayPal definitely counted in my spend to hit the £5k target.

• capecam says:

  25 Oct25 October 14:40

  Hi
  Still unable to log on to BA App on Andriod – Anybody else experiencing simular difficulties?

  • ChrisBCN says:

    25 Oct25 October 15:38

    Somebody else had issues Saturday. If you have the same problem, you need to be on WiFi when you open the app.

• Can says:

  25 Oct25 October 14:43

  So, I sued my OAT for a resort booking last summer. They overcharged me. Today was the last they for them to respond and I’ve got an email from HM Courts and Tribunals Service Civil Money Claims which says “We’ve passed your claim to County Court Business Centre”

  I am not seeking legal advise here, but anyone knows what it means?

  • Can says:

    25 Oct25 October 14:47

    I meant OTA = online travel agent

  • JDB says:

    25 Oct25 October 14:58

    The CCBC is the administration centre that handles money claims. They will allocate the case and most likely then send you directions/instructions for what to do next once your case has been reviewed by a legal adviser or judge.

  • Aston100 says:

    25 Oct25 October 15:59

    Who was the OTA?

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