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The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 16th November

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General

Comments (329)

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

  • Gormlesstraveller says:
    16 Nov16 November 08:49

    Jack Daniels is £20 at Asda. After £11.50 duty and £3.33 VAT, the price comes to £5.17.

    Are any airports selling it around the £6 or £7 mark? (we are now allowed to import 4 bottles)

    • Anna says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:05

      I seriously doubt you would ever see it at that price, anywhere. Cheapest will be where it was always duty free anyway, e.g. Caribbean, Gibraltar etc. General European airport shops are a rip off and unlikely to change!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:26

      It doesn’t work like that. JD margins will be higher in countries where customers pay less duty.

      Essentially we are paying peanuts for the actual product because they don’t feel the U.K. consumer will pay more than c£20 retail.

    • Harrier25 says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:27

      I brought 2x 1 litre bottles of JD for £32 on a Jet2 flight a few weeks ago.

    • Mikeact says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:53

      We bought 3 for 2 (any mix & match) Bombay Sapphire 1Ltr 47% vol at Ibiza Airport the other week, plus the Red Dufry kick back ,total
      £42.50.

    • Sam G says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:34

      & it’s a loss leader – Asda are hoping to make up some of this from the rest of your basket

      • His Holyness says:
        16 Nov16 November 18:28

        I bought 1L of 60% Finsbury gin for £4.20 at Duty Free and £9 for 1L Ballantines. There are deals out there.

    • Phil W says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:55

      The average price on Amazon appears to be £16.00 for Jack Daniels:

      https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B016OW1XJ4

    • Travel Strong says:
      16 Nov16 November 20:06

      £14/litre in Gibraltar, won’t get much less than that due to the actual sales price from the manufacture. £16 is a good deal any day of the week in the UK, but supermarkets are often £16 for 70cl not 1L.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:04

    Are there any NatWest/RBS accounts worth having?
    Other than savings, not eligible for Barclays.
    (Stupidly agreed to a financial review when in the branch the other day)

    • StevieKicks says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:18

      Their rewards account is ok, £3 net back every month with 2 direct debits (can be converted to avios if you wish)
      Also quite a few other decent offers available through it (similar but not quite as good as Amex offers usually)

      • David says:
        16 Nov16 November 10:33

        £8 net back for me – £2 charge and £9 for D/D, £1 for mobile app use.

        That’s with Premier Reward account.

      • Paul Pogba says:
        16 Nov16 November 15:54

        What’s the cash back to Avios conversion rate, is it 1p:1?

    • Tracey says:
      16 Nov16 November 16:53

      We have the black reward account, includes worldwide travel insurance, mobile phone insurance x 4, emergency household cover. We pay about £30 a month, though some of that comes back for using the app and having some D/Ds.

  • Benilyn says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:06

    Any special offers / tricks to buy RA status? I am Spire.

    • Benilyn says:
      16 Nov16 November 09:10

      Scratch that, I meant to get Ambassador (not RA).

      • BuildBackBetter says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:35

        Read here that buying at a hotel can get you some favourable treatment for that stay. But not sure how that would work as you’d have already checked in by that time.

        • John says:
          16 Nov16 November 13:25

          Well you can contact them before the stay. And you can ask before checking in…

  • Shaw West says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:34

    Virgin Tier points. Flew last week. Premier ticket, upgraded with miles to upper class. I was expecting Tier points based on the class flown and Virgin points on the class purchased. But I see that the tier points and the virgin points are based on class purchased/Premium. Is this correct? I read earlier that virgin allocates tier points based n the class flown

    • blenz101 says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:24

      This is correct. You get tier points and miles based on the ticket you purchased when miles are used to upgrade.

      If you had upgraded with cash you would have received the higher amounts for both.

  • Mco says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:36

    The flights I need are £192 on Amex travel, need another £8 to trigger the cash back any suggestions? Is it cumulative?

  • Chelseafi says:
    16 Nov16 November 09:58

    Hilton Opera Paris, anyone have feedback on the hotel & club lounge current offerings? Thinking of 2 nights in executive room, via amex travel (£100CB) The Hotel Collection option on my Plat account. Thanks

    • His Holyness says:
      16 Nov16 November 18:30

      Lounge shut, no replacement, not even a voucher. Have to fight for wear in the room. Diamond treatment terrible. I would avoid.

  • Always_in_the_air says:
    16 Nov16 November 10:01

    Maybe a bit off subject from the normal chat threads, but I figured the readers of HFP are the sort of people that might know.

    I’ve been vaccinated abroad (France) and want to “convert” my vaccination certificate to a UK Covid Pass, just to make entering certain events etc. easier. The vaccine is recognised by the UK (Pfizer) and i’ve had both doses, so full vaccinated.

    Does anyone know the process?

    Thank you in advance

    • Andrew says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:07

      Speak to your GP or health centre. They’re the pathway to your NHS spine record.

    • Jaime says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:19

      Until recently it was not possible, maybe this has changed as it was promised by the government to be sorted by last August. I am in the same situation and have tried everything but apparently the system is not designed to recognise locations outside of UK therefore no certificate can be generated, you should be able to add the vaccines to your medical records via the GP. Good luck and keep us posted if you are successful

    • Gary says:
      16 Nov16 November 11:20

      No such conversion process exists for those jabbed outside UK NHS. A GP can note down the French jabs on your medical records but that wouldn’t not translate into a Covid pass as the pass relies on data uploaded from an entirely different system to the GP’s. But was there not mention of UK & EU having a reciprocal agreement recognising their respective Covid passes (eg NHS pass can be used in France/Spain & vice versa)?

    • Louie says:
      16 Nov16 November 12:14

      Yet another one in the same boat. It was announced by the then Vaccines Minister in mid-July that this would be sorted by the end of that month. Silence since then. Pester your MP. It won’t do any good but at least it will show them how them how incompetent the NHS is (as if they don’t know that already). It’s quite beyond me how it didn’t occur to anyone that this would be necessary when they designed the system.

      Incidentally, in case you don’t already know, if you get pinged because someone on a plane you take to the UK tests positive, you are in for 10 days compulsory home quarantine. Voice of experience!

      • John says:
        16 Nov16 November 13:29

        Depending on my personal situation, I’d ignore it and dare them to prosecute me. Or I’d just not come to the UK

      • Anna says:
        16 Nov16 November 14:45

        I thought if you’re vaccinated and have no symptoms you don’t need to isolate any more?

        • Rich says:
          16 Nov16 November 15:48

          Only if you were vaccinated by the NHS in the UK.

          If you had the exact same vaccine, administered abroad, then you don’t get the exemption from isolation. It’s bonkers.

    • Tracey says:
      16 Nov16 November 16:58

      I wouldn’t hold your breath. There is an NHS digital team supposedly working on this, but not much is happening. Rely on your EU pass for the time being.
      You can get your vaccines put on your medical record if you wish, though that won’t give you a travel or event pass.
      (On the other hand, you could walk in to a vaccine centre and get another Pfizer vaccine as your “first” vaccine if your existing ones are in danger of waning and you aren’t officially eligible for a booster.)

  • Paul says:
    16 Nov16 November 10:11

    Sorry to probably annoy with this question, however re. the Curve debacle, does anyone have a template of guideline as to how I should first complain to them? I had seen a suggestion that a direct complaint is required if choosing to then go beyond that such as to the FO. I’m asking out of laziness however likewise it’s maybe beneficial if we are all making the same noise.

    • Andrew says:
      16 Nov16 November 10:23

      The Ombudsman won’t touch your complaint if you haven’t had a final response from the financial institution.

      The only time I’ve had a circumvented that process is when I’ve complained to the FO that the relevant financial services company was refusing to recognise the ICO…

      • Paul says:
        16 Nov16 November 11:37

        Good to know, thanks! So generally what are our complaints to Creation looking like? I believe I did see a format posted previously however can’t locate it. Should we focus on everything or the more recent issue that was never pre warned where by statement point are now suddenly not moving across to IHG?

        • blenz101 says:
          16 Nov16 November 11:46

          Those who have complained about either single or multiple issues have apparently all had the same template response back acknowleging all the key points anyway.

          • Aston100 says:
            16 Nov16 November 13:16

            Well in my case I asked them to raise a complaint about points not transferring, and I specifically told them I am not concerned about my account being closed in December (phone agent acknowledged this point)
            The formal response from Solihull a couple of weeks later suggested that I was complaining about my account being closed down (and nothing else, no mention of points).

            They are rapidly overtaking Revolut as the most incompetent finance related organisation I’ve dealt with.

        • Anna says:
          16 Nov16 November 12:04

          Just email them – customercare @ creation.co.uk

          • Rui N. says:
            16 Nov16 November 14:30

            3 weeks and counting waiting for a response asking for a refund of the wrongly charged interest during their outage.

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

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