The HfP chat thread – Saturday 6th November

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

• Nordic_Moose says:

  6 Nov6 November 09:47

  Anyone know if it’s possible to sign up to Barclays avios rewards if holding a Barclays Smart Investor account >£100k (no current account/no wealth account)?

  • Rob says:

    6 Nov6 November 10:35

    You can’t sign up at all for the next month – it is suspended due to the Avios IT changes.

    • Ryanfozzie says:

      6 Nov6 November 10:37

      Is this why Amex MR to BAEC seem to not be coming through? 8 days and counting for me….

• Roger says:

  6 Nov6 November 10:15

  Is there any possibility of getting a status with UX – Air Europa based on my BA Silver?

  • Rob says:

    6 Nov6 November 10:33

    Try statusmatcher.com for experiences.

  • Sam G says:

    6 Nov6 November 10:44

    ITA ?

    • Roger says:

      6 Nov6 November 12:03

      Will try the that.
      Not sure UX will accept the status matched from BA ITA and onwards to UX.

• Vit says:

  6 Nov6 November 10:17

  Good morning, anyone has used expresstest by cignpost for RT-PCR test + fit to fly and can share their experiences? Overall review I’ve read are good. We have flight on Wed at 2pm of the week and would require 72 hrs before departure. So thinking Monday morning test would be okay, given it is next day (before 10pm) results.

  Cheers,
  Vit

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Nov6 November 10:27

    Yes found them very good every time as have friends and family.

  • AFKAE says:

    6 Nov6 November 10:54

    Another vote of confidence for ExpressTest PCR. Birmingham airport drive through. Test at 4pm, results (negative!) at midnight.

  • Andrew says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:02

    I’m using them for USA fit to fly LTF next week – so will report back.

  • Vit says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:04

    Thank you both. Scotland is a bit more expensive than UK from what I have seen but still not too bad at £73 a test after discount code. Just booked Monday 9am slot for Wednesday 2pm flight.

    • Vit says:

      6 Nov6 November 11:04

      *than the rest of the UK.

  • Marina says:

    6 Nov6 November 20:47

    Took test last night 7pm Express test at Bluewater – very good setup. Test promised by 10pm today – received by 1pm

• TJ says:

  6 Nov6 November 10:39

  Just doing a bit of forward planning, any recommendations for luxury hotels in Portofino and Palermo – ideally point generating?

  • Jonathan says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:41

    For Portofino the Splendido is magnificent albeit expensive .The Splendido Mare is also very good .

• Manny_D says:

  6 Nov6 November 10:44

  Hi, does anyone know what the entry rules are to Dubai for someone who has had a positive covid test and recovered in the last 90 days?

  Have a trip planned in December but partner tested positive a couple weeks ago. I know some PCR tests can still show positive for 90 days.

  • Blenz101 says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:17

    You need a negative PCR test.

  • Harry T says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:39

    I’d be doing a lateral flow or two before my pre departure PCR…

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Nov6 November 12:49

    It’s highly unlikely you actually will though.

  • BP says:

    6 Nov6 November 14:19

    I was positive a month ago and showed negative on a PCR yesterday. It’ll likely be fine.

• Ryanfozzie says:

  6 Nov6 November 10:50

  Amex MR – BAEC Update…

  Transferred on Friday 29th October, still not hit my BAEC. Spoke to Amex on Wednesday, wouldn’t do anything. On Thursday they finally took the case on. Whilst I was on hold, 3 agents were working on this. Update today is it’s a confirmed known issue being worked on as the highest priority. Agent confirmed it is affecting all customers who transferred on a specific date range. What I’m wondering is if I transferred again, it would just work.

  • Andrew says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:04

    I’ve experienced this considerable delay (7 days and waiting), hopefully not much longer to wait – want to transfer them to nectar before the 13th November BA IT meltdown.

    • Ryanfozzie says:

      6 Nov6 November 11:10

      Yep, flights I need are on the 17th November!

      Agent is aware of the meltdown and it seems like they are doing all they can to get them in prior to then. Agent also offered me 5,000MR as an apology for me having to call for an update but I turned it down. Many years ago I think I was flagged for being given too many MR for just about any reason. I never really asked, just the Brighton agents seem to love to keep you sweet. Long story short, it stopped me getting Amex offers for some time!

      Sorry… back to MR–>BAEC 😉

• Roger says:

  6 Nov6 November 11:02

  According to
  Transiting Saudi Arabia
  There are currently no transit flights through Saudi Arabia
  https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/saudi-arabia/entry-requirements

  However Saudia has already sold me a ticket transiting via RUH.
  Anyone passed through any Saudi airport recently?
  I will indeed give a call to Airline to see what is current status but trying to get HFP community feedback in case someone has any recent experience.

  • Marina says:

    6 Nov6 November 21:04

    When you flying ? I am at RUH early next week will let you know.

• Lady London says:

  6 Nov6 November 11:03

  Re: night stops I am struggling to rebook cancelled flights. As the schedules are so thin. Airlines seem to be currently providing flights where I need to go, only for weekend travellers. The flights are just not there to do a couple of business days midweek.

  And the few flights available on my routes, depart either 7.30am from London or late evening returning. This forces me to waste hotel nights at both ends for just one day, say, somewhere. Some destinations I can only do 5-7 unwanted days there plus these unwanted hotel nights.

  Short haul definitely isn’t back yet as for me the flight schedules that have been brought back so far since Covid re pretty much unuseable. And believe it or not I would really rather not invoke EU261 to reroute cancelled flights onto another airline if the original airline is now flying 2 or 3 flights a week on useless weekend days instead of the midweek days I actually need to reroute onto.

  I’d rather try to help the cancelling airline out by trying to reroute onto days they have flights. But my previous costs for short midweek trips are now multiplyjng by 4 or 5 due to missing schedules forcing unwanted extra days of stay and hotel costs.

  For longhaul obvs these are longer trips so the impact of having to stay an extra night at departure and then again at arrival is much less. For my shorthaul itineraries it’s devastating.

  • Richie says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:10

    Your ‘help’ isn’t significant to an airline, they’ll survive.

  • Sam G says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:40

    I assume you aren’t trying to stick BA ? I’m finding if I’m flexible between carrier and London airport it’s pretty possible to do what I need to do. Worst case a quick transit at Schiphol on one trip

    The annoying part for me was booking a few flights with BA and then they all got cancelled. Finding Easyjet and Ryanair schedule to be a lot more stable though if there are surges and restrictions in Europe over the next few months that may change of course

    • Lady London says:

      6 Nov6 November 11:51

      Sam G most of my issues are with EZ who haven’t brought back flights on the days I’ve been trying to plan travel. I’ve abandoned rebooking due to the unuseable schedule.

      So I’d be looking at the hassle of booking BA for each one then EU261’ing EZ. This could get boring. I would need to gather my strength to do it.

      • Richie says:

        6 Nov6 November 12:15

        I met EZ at a hearing, lovely Barrister representing them. They then conceded.

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