The HfP chat thread – Saturday 30th October

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• Paul says:

  30 Oct30 October 14:19

  Has anyone stayed at the guitar hotel miami?
  Thinking of staying next week.
  Can’t see any way to book using points.

  • roberto says:

    30 Oct30 October 14:39

    Stayed there.. Nice enough for something different – can use Hard Rock points I guess but I paid cash as a one off. I prefer ocean drive in Fort Lauderdale 20 mins away tbh.

    • roberto says:

      30 Oct30 October 14:41

      It’s outta Miami , in Hollywood.

      • Paul says:

        30 Oct30 October 14:43

        Thanks roberto

• BuildBackBetter says:

  30 Oct30 October 14:37

  Thanks BJ for the Lloyds insurance deal yesterday. It’s on the warm uk deals website now. Scottish Widows must be wondering why 95% of policies are for £5!

  • Pete1968 says:

    30 Oct30 October 14:47

    BJ motivated me to email the deal to my son, as he is a penniless student but also a Halifax a/c holder (same £100 Amazon voucher offer as for Lloyds).

    Penniless no more – £85 profit after the 3x £5 outlay 🙂 – which must be good for a few drinks.

    • Mikeact says:

      30 Oct30 October 17:29

      Lucky you…59 age limit.

      • Pete1968 says:

        30 Oct30 October 17:33

        You could have said 58 (oops miss-key) as you won’t ever use the insurance – but I admire your integrity and would definitely trust you to see my daughter home at night 🙂

  • Pete1968 says:

    30 Oct30 October 15:58

    Somebody has been bonused to increase sign-ups and doesn’t care about ultimate profitability to the Group. He/ she’s using marketing budget to recruit new users, £80-85 a time won’t actually be the end result, which should end up much lower overall and probably perfectly acceptable.

    We’ve seen it so many times.

    Currently Monese need to show higher usage for some reason – I have had £20 off £100 and £10 off £50 this week or so, (which got me discounted Amazon credit), they are paying £20 and £10 of free money (to me) to show investors higher user numbers than would otherwise have been the case. The bung doesn’t make me use Monese, I just say thanks for the free money. But their numbers look better so happy to play my part.

• Steven says:

  30 Oct30 October 14:43

  A big thank you to Chris for your recommendation a couple of months back. Just back from a stay at the Hilton Docklands and booked the suite. Kids absolutely loved the views right along the river and the novelty of getting the boat every morning to the underground.

  • Paul says:

    30 Oct30 October 14:44

    Sounds like a great idea

    • Memesweeper says:

      30 Oct30 October 16:33

      It is! I’ve stayed a couple of times, and recommended it here a few times more. it’s a great but weird location.

      • Steven says:

        30 Oct30 October 17:55

        Really is, lots of places to eat nearby as well. Was leaning towards something more central. Very pleased that we went with the recommendation.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    30 Oct30 October 19:28

    Which Hilton’s this?

    • Rob says:

      30 Oct30 October 19:34

      Hilton Docklands 🙂

      The one in Rotherhithe that was built as a block of flats but opened at the wrong time in the cycle and ended up being turned into a hotel, opposite Canary Wharf.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        30 Oct30 October 20:12

        Ah ok, yes I know the one, brain skipped a beat! 🤦🏼‍♀️

• John says:

  30 Oct30 October 16:31

  Anyone bought gift vouchers from an Ivy restaurant and received amex £200 credit for them?
  Thanks

  • SteveJ says:

    30 Oct30 October 16:35

    Comments on this subject have been that Ivy run gift card purchases through a different system, so no it won’t work. Repeating what others have said, no experience of this myself.

• Pete1968 says:

  30 Oct30 October 17:15

  Here’s the solution to the France vs UK fishing war: we pay all concerned to NOT fish for 5 years. Hey guys: we’re regenerating fishing stocks.

  It’s about 30 ships French side, I guess, let’s level it off both sides so 60 ships. They only have about 5 staff on board. 300 fishermen. Most don’t earn too much but the big guys do.

  Give them all average £50K to go watch Netflix, I make that 300 x £50K = £15M/ year.

  Problem solved.

  • Charlie says:

    30 Oct30 October 17:47

    Creates more problems than it allegedly solves. Although fantastic for the fish I give you that.

  • Ken says:

    30 Oct30 October 18:07

    What will we blame Europe for then ?

    It’s helpful to manufacture these incidents so that shortages in the shops as we approach xmas can be blamed on them furriners.

    Or any accommodations by the French can be declared a victory on the scale of Waterloo by the Daily Express.

    It’ll be an endless ‘war’ on Europe with a endless list of petty grievances.
    It’s practically become part of the loony fringe of Tories DNA.

    • Pete1968 says:

      30 Oct30 October 18:34

      This fishing spat is such a tiny part of UK & French economies – about 0.1% of GDP – that the stupidity of the people concerned really stands out – if it means the issues get escalated and our countries lose out. Somebody should slap Macron and Boris’s heads together.

      No wonder the UK in-shore fishing fleet got squashed/ got done badly back in – 1974? – in the first deal. In economic terms, it’s unimportant, about as big as the 2021 UK pet insurance business business. Whereas we know cat insurance really matters.

      • Sandgrounder says:

        30 Oct30 October 21:04

        When we entered the common market we didn’t do a bad deal for fishing. We just put into law the average hauls caught by the fishermen of each country. We, for example, were entitled to 84% of the haddock in the North sea. What killed the British long range (the clue is in the name) fishing fleet was the third and final installment of the cod wars with Iceland. Using some good old fashioned blackmail they threatened to pull out of NATO and secured a 200 mile exclusive economic zone. We didn’t give up anything we were exploiting, but lost the opportunity to refocus after signing up

    • Super Secret Stuff says:

      30 Oct30 October 19:39

      Then we can blame them for not providing enough fish! Hahaha

  • Lady London says:

    30 Oct30 October 20:01

    What is the truth of this problem?

    Did Boris get forced at the last minute last December to give away some fishing rights he shouldn’t have, but he signed it, and is now trying to welsh on the deal,?

    Or did the EU agree we could leave, but they still think they have a right to our fish?

    What’s the truth here?

    • Pete1968 says:

      30 Oct30 October 20:07

      I think it’s probably slightly murky but in reality the money concerned is piddly. What would it cost the UK – in money terms – to make the grand gesture and give the French fleet without credentials the right to fish in our waters? It’s only about 30 ships that can’t prove they fished in those waters before and they’re not exactly big trawlers, they’re also piddly in size.

      Such a small thing to give away as a concession to friendship & co-operation.

      • Pete1968 says:

        30 Oct30 October 21:21

        The French are an extremely honorable people. Don’t think Macron personifies the French when you think about the French – he is just one person. remember – until recently, we had to do the déclaration sur l’honneur to enter France. They honor honour itself, so to speak.

        So Macron pushing it a bit (pressing the fishing issue) to get re-elected next year – whilst understandable – will probably go down like a lead balloon in some parts of France as well as in UK.

        His mum – sorry, his wife, will probably give him some good advice ie stop being so peevishly objectionable for very little gain when the French public are perhaps vaguely sympathetic but would also like to get along better with us Brits, same as they always did outside Paris..

        • Lady London says:

          30 Oct30 October 21:52

          I like Macron. He’s a breath of fresh air compared to the usual run of traditionally entrenched politicians there. And he is trying to do some fair things, like reducing some state employees from getting three times more pension from their taxpayers, than an ordinary person doing an equivalent job in regular industry gets.

          When he first went on TV to speak to the nation about Covid some wag on a forum said Brigiiiiiittte! come quickly the little one’s playing with the television again! I laughed like h*ll, but I have so much respect for that guy’s common sense, fairness and practicality. Qualities rare to find in a politician.

        • Pete1968 says:

          30 Oct30 October 22:08

          Apart from modelling himself on Napoleon’s kid brother, I guess. OK I see your point, he has a bit to prove, though.

          Same as Boris, of course. What a silly boy. I hope they both man up and act statesmanlike.

          Last thing we need is 100 Years War part 2.

  • Paul Pogba says:

    30 Oct30 October 21:25

    In your scenario, people won’t stop eating fish so some other fishing ground elsewhere in the world will be fished harder.

    Theres an election in April in France and moderate candidates like Barnier are calling for a moratorium on immigration while populists like (not yet declared) Zemmour and Le Pen are serious contenders. This is about Macron projecting a “France First” message, to shore up votes from the right. No one on either side of the Channel cares about fish.

    • Pete1968 says:

      30 Oct30 October 21:33

      They don’t care about fish or the 0.1% of GDP – but they seem to care over-much about the newspapers & worry about public opinion.

      Very silly. Just pay the fishermen (UK & France) to go idle and let the fish stocks recover for 5 years?

• trader363 says:

  30 Oct30 October 18:00

  Looking at London to Singapore on 21st Jan although am looking to transit via dubai.

  I’ve got 170k Emirates miles for 2 of us in business from London to Dubai. Then going to do Dubai to Singapore in business in cash (any airline, whatever is cheapest).

  What are your thoughts on the rules changing to allow transits by Jan? As I currently understand it, you can only fly BA or SA direct from London to Singapore so my transit wouldn’t work (under the current rules)

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    30 Oct30 October 18:33

    Difficult to say which countries could be added to SG’s VTL list. Number of cases at SG have been high recently, so unlikely to remove countries from the list, unless SG’s cases come down drastically. In any case, I wouldn’t be planning any trips with connections to Asia for next 6 months given the additional restrictions and higher chance of testing positive.
    You might want to check if the Skywards+ subscription works for you as it comes with 20% off reward tickets.

    • trader363 says:

      30 Oct30 October 19:03

      Thanks BBB, much appreciated!

• Blair says:

  30 Oct30 October 18:24

  @Anna, I got Rocco Forte Hotel de Rome Berlin on Amex FHR for a very good 3 for 2 nights price. Worth checking if you don’t want the Regent.

  • Harry T says:

    30 Oct30 October 19:47

    I used the same deal pre covid and we liked the hotel. We were also upgraded to a large junior suite. Breakfast used to be an amazing buffet.

  • YC says:

    30 Oct30 October 21:07

    Potentially worth rebooking if prices have not increased and u can prepay (making use of Amex travel offer)

• Chrisasaurus says:

  30 Oct30 October 18:39

  Anyone on the virgin Atlantic card have the address for transaction disputes? I have a rogue charge from a misspelling of an actual company which needs sorting but all they have is a telephone number that I gave up queuing in.

  Beggars belief that there’s no contact functionality in their (cr)App.

  • Jonathan says:

    30 Oct30 October 18:59

    Their app is rather basic to say the least, it’s nowhere near as flexible as Amex’s for instance

  • Alex says:

    30 Oct30 October 19:11

    Do you mean for a S75 claim? In which case you can fill out a form online and they post you with an update within a week or so. Just did this and got my £300 back within 2 weeks

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      31 Oct31 October 05:56

      Do you have a link to the form? Cant find any references anywhere

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