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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 26th October

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General

Comments (669)

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

  • Pete M says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:06

    DP: the BA internal docs checking service (not Verifly) has been consistently returning approvals to me in around 5mins in the last couple of weeks. Looks like they’ve hired some more people!

  • Mike says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:08

    Not just “toilet paper” but “decent toilet paper” ( excellent level of detail from Steve) and he even answered the all important kettle question

  • Charlie says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:11

    Hi has anyone here applied for an Egyptian tourist visa online and managed to upload a photo of their passport (as it needs to be less than 500kb)…. its so frustrating, any advise?

    Alternatively is it easy enough/guaranteed to not be turned away to just get a visa on arrival like lots of other countries pre covid?

  • Nigel W says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:14

    From people’s experience, how do people find Jetblue, American or Delta on American domestic flights?

    • Richie says:
      26 Oct26 October 08:25

      I really like JetBlue crew. DL flight also very good into LGA. AA flight into BOS also good and some very needed TPs. I prefere JetBlue generally. Will flybreeze at some point.

      • Nigel W says:
        26 Oct26 October 08:39

        Thanks, potentially booking a trip into Charleston (CHS). The choice seems to be via Boston with Jetblue or Delta, with the other option being via DC with American.

        • Mikeact says:
          26 Oct26 October 09:44

          We shall visit CHS as one of our stops next year before heading down the Savannah coast line. We’ll pick up either Delta..Free luggage or American..$30 per bag from wherever we are at the time.

    • Mirp says:
      26 Oct26 October 08:53

      JetBlue the best of those options in my opinion.

    • Andrew says:
      26 Oct26 October 09:05

      Delta is generally my choice of airline for Transatlantic, so have used them for domestic connections from Boston and EWR and the service was great.

      If you are flying American via DC, don’t most DC to Charleston flights depart from DCA rather than IAD?

      • Nigel W says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:25

        Yes, they do go via DCA. Not a huge issue as i’m planning a night stay in DC outbound and inbound.

        • Andrew says:
          26 Oct26 October 10:07

          In that case, even better. Love DCA, I usually stay in Crystal City when I visit DCA and can walk to and from the hotel from the airport.

          (It’s a bit tricky the first time as you end up going through the multi storey and a pedestrian underpass, but easy once you’ve found the way.)

    • BJ says:
      26 Oct26 October 09:18

      When I asked a similar question last month Alaska came out tops, however, what little I’ve heard about JetBlue has been positive.

      • Mikeact says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:47

        Alaska is consistently good but you just don’t have the same flexibility as Delta or American

        • BJ says:
          26 Oct26 October 10:03

          On avios I have a choice between them and AA LAS-LAX, I think I’ll stick with Alaska as I have concerns about ending up on a 737MAX with AA. Similar issue MIA-NYC, all AA showing 737-8 ATM but I think I might opt for Delta out of FLL on Virgin miles.

          • Lady London says:
            26 Oct26 October 10:38

            Never had a bad flight with Alaskan and always found their ground service helpful and efficient

          • BJ says:
            26 Oct26 October 13:09

            @LL, do they bother much about cabin bags

          • BJ says:
            26 Oct26 October 13:11

            @Jon, any idea if I can use lounge on Delta F redemptions without status?

          • Lady London says:
            26 Oct26 October 20:30

            BJ cabin bags seemed to be in the US style – huge and even oversized (possibly a blind eye turned only for higher class seats). The higher class seats much, much nicer when I checked but didn’t fly in them myself. Also I think it was Anna who said those seats came with more luggage and benefits so v worthwhile.

    • Jon G says:
      26 Oct26 October 09:52

      Delta has been consistently great – food, service etc and with a status match I was able to get upgraded almost consistently, and take earlier flights if I had finished meetings early at no cost. No lounge access though, unless you have an Amex plat.

      American was great in terms of the soft product (I am oneworld emerald, so if you are flying from Hubs the first class lounges are amazing) but the actual hard product was probably in line with what you would typically expect from something like BA short haul. Was good, not amazing.

  • Faran says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:40

    Hi everyone , I want to ask is it possible to pay with BAs e-voucher for flight+car . I want to use it for double tier points if its possible ,

    • Jonathan says:
      26 Oct26 October 08:56

      No

      You can only use an eVoucher for flight only bookings at BA.com, you can’t use an eVoucher on BA Holidays

      • Paasan69 says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:13

        @Jonathan this is incorrect. Contact BAH using chat or send them an email with the eVoucher number and they will apply it to your BAH booking. Done this several times recently.

      • Faran says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:25

        Thank you

      • Faran says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:25

        ok cool

      • ChrisC says:
        26 Oct26 October 11:35

        You can’t use a BA e voucher to make the initial BA Holidays booking online but you can use them over the phone.

  • JandeW says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:40

    Am needing to do an 80 point BA Club Europe tier run in November but many of the 80 point destinations are either not flying, are ridiculously expensive or are covid prohibited (I had my eye on Morocco until last week!). Does anyone have any bright ideas perhaps?

    • Paul says:
      26 Oct26 October 08:48

      Presuming you mean 80 each way, how about Manchester return twice? Have been around £300 or so recently, and the weather’s gorgeous too…

    • Paul says:
      26 Oct26 October 08:51

      Or indeed LCY-DUB, less than £200 on some days…

    • Jonathan says:
      26 Oct26 October 08:58

      Give up the idea as it doesn’t look feasible !

      • Rob says:
        26 Oct26 October 11:28

        Train to Manchester and connect to a 40 TP destination?

      • ChrisC says:
        26 Oct26 October 11:40

        Rubbish. You just need to find the right airport.

        UK options would LHR to e.g. NCL or EDI where you get off the plane and are in the departure gate area so can just back on again. There are some others like this as well but MAN isn’t one of them.

        INV also works because even though you have to walk around and reclear security it’s a pretty efficient airport to do that. Need to motor though and no dawdling!

        A return in CE would get you your 80tps

    • Karl says:
      26 Oct26 October 09:09

      Cork/Dublin/Newcastle/Inverness are sometimes below £200 return with a one night stay. No Covid issues.

      • Pete M says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:29

        How about SOF? Prices looking pretty decent and it’s a great city. Need vaccination certificate + PCR within 72hrs last time I looked. IC Sofia is great as well.

        • Amy C says:
          26 Oct26 October 09:37

          I didn’t think we were allowed in?

        • JandeW says:
          26 Oct26 October 14:30

          Oh dear, I have rather misled everybody here! I meant Club Europe destinations that give 160 tier points (80 each way) so was thinking of places like Athens, Marrakech, Sofia, Reykjavik etc… Almost every destination that I looked for had no flights at all in November (or one a week) or were £400-500 ew.

          • Pete M says:
            26 Oct26 October 15:40

            LHR to SOF, 7-12/Nov is £310.22 in J. OK, 5 days in SOF is a bit long, but you could definitely find stuff to do in Bulgaria and around for that long.

    • Matt says:
      26 Oct26 October 20:11

      LHR-OTP out on the 18/11 and back either the next day or the day after is £312

  • Josh says:
    26 Oct26 October 08:42

    It’s day 3 since triggering the 10k for the BA 241 and still no voucher in sight. Is there a way of checking my Amex account to see if the correct BA number is there?

    I havent received a first statement yet as this is my first card month.

    • Spurs drive me mad says:
      26 Oct26 October 09:09

      Voucher will be in your BA account. Can take a few days.

      • BJ says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:23

        And now very prominently displayed just below name/number/status/points on BAEC page 🙂

      • Spurs drive me mad says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:52

        The way to check if you’ve supplied correct BA number in is to phone and ask. There may be a way on line but I can’t see from the app how it’s done. But 3 days isn’t a long time to wait to be honest.

  • Chris says:
    26 Oct26 October 09:01

    Can anyone advise on who I can complain to about Curve? Would it be FOS?

    • Sean says:
      26 Oct26 October 09:05

      Curve in first instance who will then advise of their process including ability to go to FOS. Cannot go to FOS unless been through Curve’s complaints process.

    • Andrew says:
      26 Oct26 October 09:07

      It’s the same as all financial organisations.

      You make a complaint to the firm, and when they have issued a final response, you take it to the FOS. There’s no shortcut.

      • CH says:
        26 Oct26 October 09:22

        Except my experience is that complaints just get ignored. They know you can’t go to FOS if they bin it, so they do exactly that.

        • JDB says:
          26 Oct26 October 09:30

          If they don’t reply within eight weeks, you can go to the FOS without a final decision letter. In practice, Curve will reply and not take eight weeks. There is currently a big delay at the FOS, four to seven months for case to be allocated to a handler, then up to 90 days for a decision and if either party disagrees, an unspecified further time period for an Ombudsman decision.

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