The HfP chat thread – Monday 1st November

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• Thomas says:

  1 Nov1 November 13:29

  Adding supplementary cardholder to AMEX BAPP – when are the 3k miles added to my account? It has been a few days now.

  • Louie says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:05

    I’ve been waiting well over a month for my bonus on the Platinum card. I really ought to chase it up.

  • Rui N. says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:16

    Over 2 weeks here, and no points yet.

  • Harry T says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:25

    Used to be instant but now appears to take ages.

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:31

    I was told up to 60 days a few weeks ago, they seem to be very slow with this atm, unlike referral points which are arriving within 24 hours of the other person applying!

    • Neil says:

      1 Nov1 November 16:11

      Re referral points – mine took 7 days to land in my account! Was expecting the quick 24hrs timing as others had reported, but not in my case!

    • SwissJim says:

      1 Nov1 November 17:33

      I was told to wait full 90 days. Still waiting (not there yet!)

• Crafty says:

  1 Nov1 November 13:31

  Wow, Nectar online chat trying to get missing Connect points sorted is a really painful experience.

  15 minutes so far “checking information” only to come back with “I inform you Green Chef is not a partner of Nectar”.

  And an underlying assumption that I am lying.

  Recommendation – don’t bother unless the number of points you’re chasing is significant.

  • Andrew H says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:04

    I had to remove my card and relink it

    And then I got two Green Chef credits (as it recently appeared again)

    I ALWAYS have to remove and relink cards

    • Crafty says:

      1 Nov1 November 22:57

      Did your Green Chef credits appear automatically?

      When you suggest remove and relink, when? After having made the transaction, to get it to mine the historical data again?

• LewisB says:

  1 Nov1 November 13:35

  I got pinged this morning so just rushed to get a PCR test. I am due to be travelling to the US on the 13th and as somebody who has no symptoms living in Wales, if I test positive my 10 days of self-isolate will end on Wednesday, 11th November. I have an antigen test scheduled for AM on the 12th. Providing this is negative, can anyone foresee any issues? I can’t find any info regarding the US demanding I haven’t tested positive within the past 14 days?

  • Pete M says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:00

    How would they know unless you tell them anyway?

    • meta says:

      1 Nov1 November 14:21

      Your NHS pass will stop working and for that reason it’s good to have a print out/screenshot or a letter.

      • Pete M says:

        1 Nov1 November 14:32

        Of course, I just think people over-complicate things for themselves…

        • Pete1968 says:

          1 Nov1 November 14:39

          I thought most people had already deleted the ping app anyway – it is pretty much an irrelevance these days. Plus extremely annoying to the taxpayer, £37 billion down the drain that could have been used far more usefully.

        • Roy says:

          1 Nov1 November 14:58

          Test and trace isn’t just the app. You can get called up by contact tracers.

        • Scott says:

          1 Nov1 November 16:20

          After my positive result got logged, I got emails and texts from Test & Trace. Possibly because I have an account with my NHS number etc in (although tests I took before adding my NHS number to my account got added later).
          Have had some phone calls, did my contacts online using an email link, and had a quick call after (can take 25mins? if on the phone).
          Luckily I had only been near 2 people on site for under an hour and we were 2-3m apart and masked (no guarantee of anything though).

          Suspect I caught it during a day in Manchester on Thursday. Spent around 20 mins in 3-4 shops, wore a mask, touched very little, and never got too close to anyone.
          2 x 5 min train journeys, the latter being fuller, but still about 1m away from the nearest person.
          Did spend about an hour in the office doing paperwork, and kept my mask on.
          Only one other person was wearing a mask though, and only one person was within a metre of me for a minute or two to give me some paperwork.

          Never had the ping app. We’ve had a couple of people get pinged and then can’t return until a negative PCR, so they’re off a day or two whilst the company does the paperwork.

      • paulm says:

        1 Nov1 November 14:36

        When checking in at LHR do any airlines try to scan the qr codes on proof of vaccine ? I’m in a similar position where I am in isolation but have a flight to USA a few days after it finishes. My covid pass has disappeared as expected but I do have a pdf of the letter taken before it was removed albeit the QR codes would no longer work.

        • Pete M says:

          1 Nov1 November 14:40

          What would they be scanning it with, I am not aware of the UK having an app for venues to scan vaccination QR codes. A paper certificate will be fine.

        • ChrisC says:

          1 Nov1 November 15:02

          Pete the NHS has an app for businesses to use to check QR codes.

          It scans the code and flashes up the name and status of the holder for a couple of seconds. A bar owning friend showed it to me a couple months ago.

        • Sarah says:

          1 Nov1 November 15:59

          I’ve never had the QR code scanned on my vaccine certificate at the airport. You can actually call up and ask for a hard copy detailing your vaccination status and they’ll send this to you in the post, just in case you have any issues getting the pass back in the app. They will do this for you even if you’ve tested positive.

        • Roy says:

          1 Nov1 November 22:52

          @ChrisC: Sadly few if any bars seem to be using it. I’d be much more likely to visit an establishment if they chose to require customers to show the COVID pass.

          Sitting indoors, maskless, for several hours, in a crowded room with, in all likelihood, people who are neither vaccinated nor tested, just doesn’t seem a sensible risk to take.

      • Scott says:

        1 Nov1 November 16:08

        I tested positive yesterday during a routine RAT test (nasal swabs only) at work.
        PCR came back positive this morning.
        Did 2 NHS lateral flows (mouth and nose) 3hrs apart at home yesterday and they didn’t show I was positive – just the control line.

        I’ve had to cancel this week’s flight to Dublin.
        Checked my NHS app, and yes the NHS passes have stopped working. Nothing there pass or previous test wise.
        Work is paying me whilst in quarantine, so not too bad.
        Got an e-voucher for the flight, so will use that against something else.

        I’m going to the US on the 26th, and since I’ve tested positive, I assume there’s a greater possibility of the required lateral flow or PCR with 72hrs / 3 days of departure giving a positive result? No idea if this would stop me travelling.

  • Anna says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:01

    What are the circs of the ping (e.g. close, prolonged contact or you were in the same pub car park as someone for 30 seconds)?!

    • Pete M says:

      1 Nov1 November 15:06

      Thanks ChrisC, that’s interesting – just found it on the app store too. Imagine it doesn’t get much use in England.

  • John says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:21

    I thought “pings” were voluntary now except on travel outside the CTA? Is it different in Wales?

    • Andrew H says:

      1 Nov1 November 14:50

      To Pete – the app didn’t cost £37bn. That’s the total cost of test, track and trace, most of which was/is test. And quite a bit of which has not been spent yet.

      I’m not defending the government, and much has been wasted, but I do find it a bit daft that some people think an app cost £37bn.

      • Yuff says:

        1 Nov1 November 16:40

        Apple 🍏 are pretty expensive though 🤣🤣🤣

      • Pete1968 says:

        1 Nov1 November 23:00

        I think we all know you could have got a student to put together the app in about 5 minutes for 10p & a Mars bar.

        But £37 billion for T&T program – absolutely ridiculous waste of our money.

        My bro in law – a retired headmaster – sat on his ass for months watching Netflix getting paid to do nothing by HMG in the early days of T&T.

        Complete or near complete colossal waste of money.

        Yes – I see there is still something like £15 billion left – which will become some kind of sink fund or provision that Boris can dip into over the next few years for other purposes. Nobody will notice.

• Tom says:

  1 Nov1 November 13:36

  May have been covered before but anyone else having problems searching for flights on BA when trying to use a 2-4-1? I am getting an error everytime.

  • Ikaz says:

    1 Nov1 November 13:42

    A couple of people on page 6 mentioned the same thing (since last night apparently)

• Anna says:

  1 Nov1 November 13:48

  Another shout out for Kimpton (Charlotte Square this time). Even though we booked via Emyr for late December months ago and prices are now double, they emailed me yesterday to ask if we’d like the same rooms as last time (huge with balconies and castle view)!

• Rui N. says:

  1 Nov1 November 14:16

  For anyone who has “perks” from work from Perkbox, you now can buy everything with Paypal, i.e., you can use Amex to buy all the supermarket, etc. gift cards.

  • Rui N. says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:18

    I think now I’ll do even less than £72 on my IHG card this month! (Most of my non-Amex spending was to buy supermarket gift cards on Perkbox.)

    • Paul Pogba says:

      1 Nov1 November 15:55

      Do any of the supermarket chains accept giftcards for fuel? Most of the T&Cs used to exclude but Morrisons didn’t seem to enforce last time I tried.

      • Rui N. says:

        1 Nov1 November 16:00

        In my experience, both Tesco and Sainsbury accept gift cards bought in store, but not the ones from Perkbox. For other supermarkets/other types of gift cards, I have no experience.

• H says:

  1 Nov1 November 14:29

  Anyone got any feedback as to how quickly nhs pcr tests are conning back as I did an in person one this am at Heathrow

  • Rui N. says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:33

    Last week did one at ~10AM, results came back during the night (3/4AM).

    • Scott says:

      1 Nov1 November 16:40

      9:30am or so yesterday, and result at 6:13am this morning.

      Generally within 24hrs.

      Not sure if weekends are slower, and dependent on how busy the lab is (might be quicker if they have one on site rather than couriers taking them somewhere?), but I know of people getting their results early evening when they’ve had a test at say 8am that day.

• Thomas says:

  1 Nov1 November 14:38

  Any reliable, cheap (<£20) and fast (result within in an hour?) antigen test provider that you have tried? I need them to produce a certificate to fly OUT from UK

  • Ryan says:

    1 Nov1 November 14:57

    Prenetics – no supervision or video, just a photo of your *used* lat flow

    • Thomas says:

      1 Nov1 November 16:25

      This looks decent. Thank you

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