The HfP chat thread – Friday 12th November

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• Green Plastic says:

  12 Nov12 November 07:47

  Morning all. I’m looking at a potential trip to Dubai this January with my wife and 3-yo, however I am very much a Dubai noob. I know the resorts there are very upmarket but are there any nice all-inclusives there? Not because we are after the “24-hr beer and burgers” kind of holiday, just because we find it tends to make things infinitely easier with a young child. Any recommendations extremely welcome 🙂

  • Tazzy says:

    12 Nov12 November 07:59

    JA resorts. We stayed in palm beach twice. Also Rixos on the palm is nice. Dubai is expensive so we enjoyed all inclusive and then went out for a couple of other meals in the city

    • Green Plastic says:

      12 Nov12 November 08:27

      Perfect. Thank you Tazzy!

  • Rob says:

    12 Nov12 November 08:52

    Your best bet is probably something with a lounge. Madinat Jumeirah had a Premium Leisure Club which is effectively a families lounge, which we used when our kids were younger. It is very convenient to feed the kids off the free buffet and you can then dump them in the play corner whilst you eat. Not sure what room categories get this though.

    • BP says:

      12 Nov12 November 08:59

      The 3 year old will be able to eat free at the Madinat too. I believe even for room service and at the pool bars etc..

    • Green Plastic says:

      12 Nov12 November 09:04

      Amazing, thanks so much Rob

• Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

  12 Nov12 November 07:48

  Edinburgh folks: what’s your lounge preference between Aspire and BA Galleries Lounge?

  • Nick says:

    12 Nov12 November 08:09

    Aspire for food, BA for everything else. Edinburgh is one of the nicest BA outstation lounges, but the food offering is poor (and was even before covid).

    • Duncan Stevenson-Price says:

      12 Nov12 November 08:36

      That’s my recollection, but it’s been several years since my last visit to the BA Lounge. I was at the aspire lounge last month and it was quite pleasant at breakfast (no BA access that time). Maybe we’ll lounge hop, or perhaps just stick to the Aspire. Thanks!

  • Phil W says:

    12 Nov12 November 08:54

    Exactly what Nick said.

    • Pauline says:

      12 Nov12 November 12:11

      +1

• Anthony says:

  12 Nov12 November 07:49

  What’s the situation in Dubai at the moment in regards to social distancing? Is it necessary to book in advance for bars and restaurants? Also what’s the mask wearing situation?

  Thanks

  • Sarah says:

    12 Nov12 November 09:34

    It’s all pretty much as normal, you’ll need to make reservations at the popular places as you usually would. Mask wearing is pretty stringent, when in restaurants and bars you need to wear one when moving round, and in hotels you need to wear it indoors. At the Royal Meridien there were signs up saying you should wear a mask outdoors except when on sunloungers or in the water, but in reality nobody did.

  • Graeme says:

    12 Nov12 November 09:34

    Where we frequent around the Marina/Jumeriah beach there was no need to pre book restaurants. Wearing of masks both indoors and outdoors, loosely policed outside. We did have several security guards approach around the Marina outdoors and ask us to wear them.

  • WearyTraveller says:

    12 Nov12 November 10:11

    Apart from beaches, swimming pools and gyms you will need to wear masks everywhere. There have been a lot of reports of people being fined for not wearing them recently. UAE/Dubai are very strict about it so I recommend you don’t take your mask off anywhere except beaches/pools/gyms/water parks.

• Anna says:

  12 Nov12 November 07:55

  Can anyone recall which payment methods Simply Test Me accepts? Got 5 trips booked in the next 6 months so that’s quite a few day 2 tests!

  • Ty says:

    12 Nov12 November 08:33

    The use stripe as a payment processor so they take Amex

    • Anna says:

      12 Nov12 November 08:40

      Good to know, thanks!

  • Rob says:

    12 Nov12 November 08:48

    Amex accepted.

  • Ali M says:

    12 Nov12 November 10:22

    hey.
    I just want to say I am excited to hear about trips 🥰 good to know normal is returning

• Tazzy says:

  12 Nov12 November 08:00

  Any recommendations for best fit to ply PCR tests for Saint Lucia? Looks like randox is still the cheapest?

• Ant says:

  12 Nov12 November 08:41

  Just for info this week I had to call BA 3 times. Every time I called at exactly 8am and got through straight away.

• Lev441 says:

  12 Nov12 November 08:54

  Do you have to use a BA future travel voucher in one go?

  I have two one way flights from Dubai I’m debating cancelling – could I use the avios from those flights into multiple new avios flight bookings?

  • Mick S says:

    12 Nov12 November 09:02

    i asked this question to BA the other day when i got through to them. Any “change” left over from your booking will be refunded.

  • John says:

    12 Nov12 November 09:16

    Yes, change will be refunded as a new voucher or if an undefined small amount back to card/avios

• Sam G says:

  12 Nov12 November 09:04

  Scoot the Singaporean low-cost airline are starting a 3 weekly flight direct Gatwick-Bangkok from 16th December. 787s which are pretty miserable down the back (no entertainment & you even pay to use the socket) but the ScootPlus product isn’t bad – WT+ type seating

  • Sam G says:

    12 Nov12 November 09:10

    It’s technically Gatwick-Singapore via Bangkok. But as it stands you’d arrive into Singapore requiring quarantine so not recommended. They’re ambitiously advertising it as a route to Aus in the emailer – 33+hrs with an overnight in the “holding area” of Changi does not sound particularly fun though….

  • John says:

    12 Nov12 November 09:17

    Any way to use points

    • Sam G says:

      12 Nov12 November 09:26

      I think you can redeem Krisflyer at a v poor value, otherwise cash only.

  • Richie says:

    12 Nov12 November 10:00

    It seems SQ wants to split capacity between LHR and LGW, it’ll be interesting to see how the flights from LGW perform and if the number of flights per week increases and/or the aircraft allocated get bigger.

    • Sam G says:

      12 Nov12 November 10:53

      I assume they’ve gone with Gatwick for lower handling charges since they do have slots left over at LHR ( though they’re scheduling back to 4 flights per day on peak dates so perhaps not for long)

      They can only send their 787-8 as the 787-9 doesn’t have crew bunks. I wouldn’t be surprised if these flights don’t stick around long term, they’re just busy seeking opportunities to utilise the fleet whilst their main routes of China Japan etc have limitations. They operated Berlin-Athens this summer as well for example.

  • lumma says:

    12 Nov12 November 10:42

    You can’t bring outside food or drink on Scoot either, so you have to buy on board or risk dying of thirst

    • Sam G says:

      12 Nov12 November 11:24

      in reality these flights are in the dark and they won’t bother you or notice with innocuous drinks/snacks based on my experience – I’ve done Singapore-Berlin & Athens-Singapore up front with a bottle of coke and some haribo without punishment. Shorthaul I have seen them police it there with someones smelly takeaway – though that’s a good thing IMO!

      Another reason to go with the Plus seats – by the time you add on a meal, bags, power, seats – all of which you need on a longhaul then it works out pretty good value (and on the flipside why flying longhaul on a lo-co in economy rarely works out worth doing unless you are really tight on the extras)

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