The HfP chat thread – Monday 8th November

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• Ant says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:12

  Morning, would like to get the new Apple Watch. Have the Selfridges offer on my Amex. Is there an Apple concession at Selfridges London and do they have a good selection?

  • Rob says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:18

    There’s a big tech department in the basement and, being Selfridges, you would assume it would be Apple-heavy.

    • mr_jetlag says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:22

      I find them better now than John Lewis for tech selection and service. Which is odd as I’d never step into a Selfridges otherwise… Primark more my fashion speed.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Nov8 November 12:32

    My Experience was that the Apple concession didn’t take selfridge gift cards and the til was their own rather than selfridges.

• Gary says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:12

  Is the Morrisons offer mentioned here daily on Amex? Has anyone had it manually added successfully to their Amex? We have 4 cards (two held for 8 years) but puzzled never had a Morrisons offer. Not shopped there & nearest branch is like 3 miles away (maybe that’s why?) but happy to travel to get some GC.

  • Reney says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:51

    The current 10% is on our BAPP and Plat but not nectar. These are targeted and usually can’t get added.

    Not sure physical distance is a reason for offers to get added, plenty of people get the Bicester Village offer and many live quite far away. If you meant you live too close, we are within 2 miles of our Morrisons.

  • Peter K says:

    8 Nov8 November 13:41

    I live far more than 3 miles from our local Morrisons but get the offer.

• Dave says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:18

  Morning, 2 questions,
  1. when newly registered Hilton member will be allowed to buy hilton points?
  2. Is the transfer from Amex to Hilton points instant?

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:32

    Re 2: You need to link the Hilton and Amex accounts which can take a couple of days. Points transfers thereafter in my experience happen within 24hrs.

• Chris says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:26

  For an Amex offer, is it the date a purchase was made or the date it was processed that is important?

  Made a purchase on last day of offer, shows in my account as on that day, Amex are refusing it claiming it was processed the next day

  • Andrew says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:44

    Date of purchase. Try a different agent and you’ll get the correct answer.

• Jody says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:41

  Can anyone offer any insight into the travel insurance that is offered with the free HSBC premier account? Specifically in relation to conditions that aren’t on their accepted conditions list? Husband has high blood pressure (controlled my medication) and atrial fibrillation (which was sorted out by ablation 2 years ago but still has to disclose). Just wondered if these are likely to be covered, additional costs etc.

  Thinking of moving our account over to there, as our travel insurance cost is usually quite high, so depending on additional costs for those conditions it still might be worth it.

  • BP says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:46

    I found their insurance provider very helpful when I called. I paid a few hundred £ to extend the insurance for a 3 month trip and had a few claims that got dealt with promptly.

    • Jody says:

      8 Nov8 November 12:58

      Thanks BP.

• Mco says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:53

  @meta in regards to your answer on yesterdays thread. Carrying it on here as you probably won’t read the old thread today.

  Just to be clear BA cancelled PHL-LHR flight and rebooked me onto AA 1hr later. That should be covered under EU261 allowing me to pick new dates? What am I not seeing here?

  • Anna says:

    8 Nov8 November 11:00

    I haven’t seen the old thread but what immediately jumps out at me is that you would have to convince CEDR or MCOL that it was unreasonable to expect you to travel one hour later!

    • meta says:

      8 Nov8 November 11:15

      Yes, that’s the thing. What you’re missing is that under EU261 this is not considered a significant delay. The current situation doesn’t allow you to pick new dates as it would seem unreasonable. What I said, you’d be able to claim delay compensation if the overall delay to LHR would be over 3hrs as this was BA’s commercial decision.

  • Sam G says:

    8 Nov8 November 11:21

    Their standard customer guideline is this

    https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/traveltrade/bookings-policies/policies/standard-customer-guidelines#cancellations

    This allows re-route -3/+14 days later. I agree with Anna / meta- how are you going to convince CEDR / MCOL that a flight 1hr later in comparable conditions suddenly wasn’t convenient ?

    The only angle to try is https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/traveltrade/bookings-policies/policies/askba?faqid=8166 – which would possibly allow rebooking up to 1yr from date of ticket issue for a cancelled BA flight However I’m not sure if these are counted as COVID cancellations anymore

  • Lady London says:

    8 Nov8 November 12:23

    Flight number changed from a BA-operated one to an AA flight. I’d say as flight number changed it’s a different flight. Ie not a reschedule of same flight by one hour but a cancellation of BA operated flight.

    Even if this had been on the return leg from the US, this would be covered by EU261 as the operating airline that cancelled their flight was BA. So i’d definitely tell them I wasn’t having it and would be invoking my rights under EU261 to reroute my travel to a later date.

    Flight number change issue is specifically mentioned im EU261 text. Pretty sure you get to choose later date to reroute to and I don’t recall the text saying “other” or “earlier” to enable this. So I suggest you google it and read it.

    • Mco says:

      8 Nov8 November 12:27

      This is what I had thought. A flight cancellation and change of flight numbers means you can use UK261.

      • meta says:

        8 Nov8 November 12:35

        But has the BA flight been actually cancelled or is it the AA connection to PHL that was cancelled resulting in rescheduling to AA on PHL-LHR leg? If the original flight PHL-LHR is still flying then no EU261.

      • Sam G says:

        8 Nov8 November 12:41

        Theoretically yes & if we were talking about a refund scenario then open shut no problem. But in a scenario where you’re faced with going to one or the other procedure to get it enforced then it’s more tricky – especially as I’ve seen reports of 6+ months to get this resolved & whilst in the letter of the rule it’s certainly not particularly reasonable or in my opinion the overall intent of the law

        If it’s a worthwhile fare difference then if referring to the “COVID principle guidelines” won’t get BA call centre to budge then I’d drop a hard copy signed for letter to BA legal dept and see what happens.

        • Lady London says:

          8 Nov8 November 12:55

          SamG according to MCO, BA cancelled their PHL-LHR flight that MCO was booked on. As it’s a BA flight anywhere in the world then it comes under EU261. MCO must be really sure it was a BA operated flight.

          Reasonableness isn’t called for as the statute is clear. BA might think it’s all the same due to their Transatlantic Alliance cartel giving them the same revenue proportion of the revenue regardless of whether passenger travels on AA or BA flight. But MCO does have right to choose regardless of BA’s convenience not being disturbed by switching MCO from a BA-operates flight to an AA-operated flight. EU261 even uses the words passenger chooses reroute “convenient to the passenger”.

        • Lady London says:

          8 Nov8 November 13:05

          PS Sam if BA wasn’t routinely abusing passengers rights even in completely unambiguous cases I would encourage MCO to be reasonable about the 1 hour different flight number and not exercise his rights. We even had a report they just abandoned someone in Mauritius IIRC after they cancelled a flight and wouldn’t lift a finger to get them home.

          But I have no sympathy for BA. If they’re this bad now, how much worse will be their abuses when business really gets back to normal?

      • Lady London says:

        8 Nov8 November 12:44

        MCO read the text of EU261 yourself. There’s specific text that says a flight number change is a cancellation not a reschedule.

        Check carefully that what you didn’t have waa an AA operated flight under a BA flight number as it’s the operating airline that determines if you’re eligible for EU261 rights.

        As IIRC you’re also trying to rebook earlier rather than later “reroute” you must read the EU261 text. I’ve got a nasty feeling only later or as reasonably close as poss to timing of original flight is what you can choose and not earlier.

        Let us know what yoi find and how it turns out

    • meta says:

      8 Nov8 November 12:40

      @LadyLondon if you look at @MCO’s post yesterday it’s not a simple routing. It is CDG-MIA-PHL-LHR-CDG with BA and AA flights, so his return leg starts from MIA which was also cancelled I believe.

      @MCO You can also insist to be put on BA service rather than AA.

      • Lady London says:

        8 Nov8 November 13:00

        my reply above meta routing ia irrelevant. Passenger was on a flight anywhere in the world that BA cancelled. Therefore EU261 rights kick in.

        I hadn’t realised that you’d got compo out of BA for late cancellation for commercial reasons as well as duty of care (ie replacement flight on another airline). (ie BA couldn’t hide behind the exceptional circumstances exemption in EU261 claiming Covid). Well done.

      • Lady London says:

        8 Nov8 November 13:15

        To be clear, I viewed PHL as the furthest point (ie the turnaround point) on that itinerary. So in this case I don’t think there is going to be a ticket structure problem such as I believe you may be hinting at eg AA married segments that happen to include a BA operated flight (if that’s even possible).

        The operating airline was BA whose flight was cancelled and there is now a different flight number proposed on MCO’s ticket and I think those are the key points.

      • Mco says:

        8 Nov8 November 13:16

        It was definitely a BA operated flight from PHL to LHR that they have cancelled and put me on a AA flight. So new flight numbers.

        • Lady London says:

          8 Nov8 November 13:19

          MCO: read the text of EU261 on those 2 points I mentioned. When you’re sure, do what SamG says and send a Letter Before Action to BA Legal at their Waterside address.

        • Sam G says:

          8 Nov8 November 13:48

          I don’t disagree that the letter of the regulation should allow a move to a date of convenience due the cancellation of a BA flight. My concern is trying to enforce that could be difficult as whereas in most cases we see here BA aren’t being particularly reasonable – if your big Asia trip gets cancelled it probably wouldn’t be convenient to do it until the same time next year etc – a rebooking onto a comparable flight 1hr later is really perfectly acceptable by BA & the judges and mediators who make the decisions aren’t perfect and may also see it that way.

          However there isn’t much risk involved here as long as you’ve got some spare cash to front – send the legal letter. if that fails then buy a new ticket for your required trip and start the processes. Either you’ll win or you’ll lose, in which case you can get a refund of the original ticket once you’ve exhausted all the routes available for recovery.

        • Mco says:

          8 Nov8 November 16:12

          Thank you for the advice all.

• Mco says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:55

  On a separate note are you allowed to hold personal Amex Platinum and Gold at the same time? I am waiting for my yearly bonus 10k points to hit at the end of this month but need to get platinum before end of the month for my trip.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:58

    Yes

    • Mco says:

      8 Nov8 November 11:09

      Thank you

• Phil W says:

  8 Nov8 November 10:57

  Having received the Creation termination letter for my IHG Black Card, and not received any subsequent points (albeit only due 68!), I was surprised this morning to receive a jolly letter from Creation advising me that my account is in such good order that I am being rewarded with an increased credit limit! That’ll come in very handy for the remaining four weeks.

  You couldn’t make this up.

  • Anna says:

    8 Nov8 November 11:01

    Hang on to that, it’s good evidence that your account was indeed in “good order” which is the only reason they can refuse to award the points as far as I can see.

    • Phil W says:

      8 Nov8 November 11:40

      Agreed. It seemed a very bizzare but very “Creation” thing to do send.

  • Ja says:

    8 Nov8 November 11:39

    I got a letter increasing my credit limit (due to good behaviour) about a week before my termination letter.

    • Sprout says:

      8 Nov8 November 12:03

      Just received mine dated on the same date they decided to close the account. You really couldn’t make it up!

      • Anna says:

        8 Nov8 November 12:27

        I’ve not had my limit increased but I did actually receive a supp for my OH a couple of weeks ago, with a PIN and an effusive welcoming letter 🤣

        • ben says:

          8 Nov8 November 15:10

          I got the closure Dec 3rd letter like many others- today I just received a replacement card as mine expires end of December. Just basic incompetence , really.

  • Doogie says:

    8 Nov8 November 15:38

    Same!

    Extra £1.5k limit for me, which will obviously be very useful 🙄

    • MD says:

      8 Nov8 November 16:23

      I had the exact same, a suprise £1.5K increase, a few weeks after the termination letter. Idiots.

  • Rui N. says:

    8 Nov8 November 16:18

    The regulator is informed and gave permission for Creation to proceed this way.

    • Benilyn says:

      8 Nov8 November 17:26

      @Rui N. – proceed on not giving out the free night voucher and points earnt?

    • Char Char says:

      8 Nov8 November 23:49

      You are saying the regulator gave Creation permission to increase credit limits then close accounts….You even read anything?

      If you know something then inform us, if you are just referring to someone else comment that the regulator knows then thats not helpful.

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