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The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 17th November

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Comments (445)

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

  • Geoggy says:
    17 Nov17 November 08:42

    Any update on if Creation are going to issue free night vouchers that have been earned before (or after?) they close our accounts next month?

    • Lee says:
      17 Nov17 November 08:52

      Won’t get it without a fight

      • Paul says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:05

        What’s the best way to fight from our end, a direct complaint as a starting point?

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      17 Nov17 November 08:59

      Can we all agree to leave a 10p credit on our accounts on the 3rd to give them one last bit of admin to deal with?

      • Will says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:04

        Actual laugh out loud reading that.

      • Andrew says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:08

        10p?

        Given that they’ve been making “goodwill payments” equal to the outstanding balances left, right and centre, is that really the best strategy?

        If I’d had an IHG card and the letter, you can be sure I’d be running a generous balance in my Amazon and Octopus accounts in anticipation.

        • Will says:
          17 Nov17 November 09:15

          What have they been issuing refunds for up to now?

          • stevenhp1987 says:
            17 Nov17 November 09:39

            I had £63.35 “goodwill payment” then they force closed the account citing section 12 (but not telling me why). Someone else reported ~ £1,400 goodwill payment to close the account!

        • Aston100 says:
          17 Nov17 November 11:11

          Hi Andrew, where have you read that Creation have been *making “goodwill payments” equal to the outstanding balances left, right and centre*
          I only know the two examples as per StevenHP’s comment below

      • Roy says:
        17 Nov17 November 10:47

        They’ll probably just zero your balance as a “goodwill gesture” 🙂

    • Will says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:03

      It would appear creations (uncomunicated) policy is to not issue and points and not hand out and free night vouchers since sending those letters.

      Probably worth writing to them now requesting clarity on both points and free night vouchers so you have a record from them.

      No doubt, there will be a lot of updates on this on the chat threads in the coming weeks and months.

      Personally I think it would be better to act as a block rather than individuals but hard to organise.

      • Anna says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:11

        I’ve complained to IHG about my free night which should have been issued last month, they have said they are looking into it. They clearly haven’t a clue about how Creation have been behaving.

        • Will says:
          17 Nov17 November 09:13

          Poking IHG is also a very good idea, if there’s enough fuss created then maybe they’ll push creation into honouring the terms they issued the card under.

          • Chrisasaurus says:
            17 Nov17 November 12:14

            Wel arguably poking IHG could be a bad idea, at least for anyone whose points were earned in a way that could be deemed as breaking any terms… Fighting creation for two months of points and a voucher is one thing but losing the whole stash would be awful

          • Will says:
            17 Nov17 November 14:34

            Personally, all my spend was legitimate, albeit billing business expenses to the card, but yes you may not wish to highlight and MS.

        • Andrew says:
          17 Nov17 November 09:26

          I’m guessing that you originally applied as a consequence of an IHG promotional, letter, email or advert on their site, so that’s a regulated activity (FCA licence number as a credit broker 676590).

          If you feel that you were mislead by the broker’s advertising or promises, and you aren’t happy by IHG’s final response, you may need to escalate to the FOS.

          • Anna says:
            17 Nov17 November 09:35

            I certainly will, though I don’t know how much influence they actually have over Creation. I have told them that I had an immediate use for the free night (for our July trip to GCM), and am anxious about availability. I had to bounce it to a couple of CSAs before they stopped saying “You need to contact Creation about this”, but I now have an email saying IHG is chasing it up.

          • Roy says:
            17 Nov17 November 09:58

            Can you really hold the broker responsible? I’m sure a fair few people signed up to the card due to articles here – are you going to claim therefore it’s all Rob’s fault?

          • Rob says:
            17 Nov17 November 10:18

            We don’t get paid by IHG or Creation – we’re not a credit broker in relation to those cards.

          • Anna says:
            17 Nov17 November 14:01

            Roy – IHG may technically not be liable but I they have been my hotel chain of choice since lockdown ended and I have numerous (expensive) leisure bookings with them for next year to tie in with my OH’s retirement. If they can’t or won’t support members in this I’m more than happy to move those bookings to Hilton or Marriott.

          • Lee says:
            17 Nov17 November 14:38

            Anna, I don’t think IHG is any better or more care about members than creation. They were ruthless to close member’s account without explanation. I know someone’s account with hundred thousand of points was closed due to signing up ineligible promotion

      • Lady London says:
        18 Nov18 November 02:17

        Whatever you do you must go through the procedure of raising a formal complaint with them as and when they fail to provide or outright say they won’t provide something you should have.

        Then either wait 8 weeks without resolution or get them to aay final answer or say they won’t deal with any more then straight to Mcol for breach of contract, say and FOS for, I guess, not Treating Customers Fairly and whatever else you think unfair.

        At a minimum you want pro rata or entire refund of annual fee, cash value of any free night earnef calculated however is reasonable in your particular use situation (Anna has a good very fair one that’s quite expensive but solid).

        I’d also want pro rata on any partially earned nights the key point being it’s a unilateral closure etc. etc. and my use of the card has been pure. That might be the stumbling block for a few here ahem. Remember your contract with them is individual and you should receive what’s fair and definitely what you fulfilled your part of the contract for. If Creation feels they need to hold back promised benefits they need to justify it in every individual case, others’ misdeeds cannot be used as an excuse by Creatiob, not to provide to you what has been promised.

        I wouldn’t challenge them too hard before the 3rd if I’m not already engaged with them but then I’d go full throttle on a really wrll prepared complaint asap.

  • Paul says:
    17 Nov17 November 09:04

    How long do we have to make a claim for EU261?

  • Nicholas Goodger says:
    17 Nov17 November 09:05

    Any news on when BA exec club is going to be up and running again?? It was suppose to be midnight!

    • Andrew says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:10

      Midnight in which timezone?

    • meta says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:12

      It wasn’t supposed to be till midnight. Read the original article here. At any point on 17th and that could well be a millisecond before midnight today.

    • Will says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:12

      The wording from the horses mouth was:
      “ From the afternoon of 13 November 2021 until the morning of 17 November 2021 (GMT), you’ll be unable to log in to your Executive Club account”

      • meta says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:17

        Well, there is still a few hours left till morning is over. Lol.

        • David says:
          17 Nov17 November 09:42

          Tweeted reply from BA in a thread at about 9:30am: “Our latest update is that is should be up and running by early afternoon, but this is subject to change. Lynn”

          “Should be…” but “subject to change…” 🤣

          • Nicholas Goodger says:
            17 Nov17 November 09:55

            Had three days and still cant get it done on time!

          • Roy says:
            17 Nov17 November 10:55

            I’m assuming it’s a data migration. It’s probably something like 90% complete on importing the data into the new database, so their options are, either revert everything back to the old database and reschedule another outage at some point in the future to have another go, or just accept that this maintenance is going to overrun somewhat.

            I’m sure there will be a rollback plan, and a deadline after which management will decide to invoke it – but obviously there’ll be a certain reluctance to do that since it will set back the whole project by weeks/months.

      • Babyg says:
        17 Nov17 November 10:28

        Its still Tuesday on Baker island.. they’ve got over 13 hours before the morning of the 17th is over…

        • Will says:
          17 Nov17 November 10:52

          They did foolishly specify GMT.
          Although I got a bit of a dressing down for suggesting a 5 day outage was ridiculous, surely when you do such an outage you over estimate the downtime then bring it back early if you can.

          I needed to book a same day return to Germany last week last minute. £400 cash vs 9000 avios + £35.

          I’d be pretty annoyed if the outage had been a week earlier.

  • Doogie says:
    17 Nov17 November 09:22

    Email from Amazon saying they’re ditching Visa credit as a valid payment from mid January citing high fees …. I think the only points one is the legacy Barclays HH, and I suspect it’s a PR move that will be negotiated out at the last minute.

    • HarryL says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:26

      They had better hurry to renogotiate
      They’ve already given me the £10 credit in my Amazon account for adding a non-visa card to my Amazon account
      Could cost them a few bob if we all do it today

    • Nigerian Prince says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:44

      i thought non-amex fee is capped at 0.3%, is amazon referring to the high fee in US?

    • Sandra says:
      17 Nov17 November 11:02

      I’ve had this but am a bit unsure about it so have sent it to their ‘report phishing’, without clicking on anything – seems a bit strange to me or am I just too sceptical?

      • Sandra says:
        17 Nov17 November 11:08

        Oops, ignore, just seen later posts and the news report someone posted! 🙁

  • Shaw West says:
    17 Nov17 November 09:22

    Now, who would have thought that!

    “We’re writing to notify you of an upcoming change to Amazon.co.uk.

    Starting 19 January, 2022, we will unfortunately no longer accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK, due to the high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions. You can still use debit cards (including Visa debit cards) and non-Visa credit cards like Mastercard, Amex, and Eurocard to make purchases.”

    • Andrew says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:35

      There’ll be a few retailers watching that developing story with interest.

      I wonder if that’s a warning shot to Visa, MasterCard and Amex in the US over their considerably higher processing fees.

      • Youllnever says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:39

        We might need a “do you accept Visa” website soon!

      • stevenhp1987 says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:44

        Some banks have been swapping their Visa cards for MasterCards (e.g. Santander Debit cards), presumably due to the high fees.

    • Anna says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:47

      I thought Amex charged the highest fees?

      • Youllnever says:
        17 Nov17 November 09:58

        Not for a while now as far as I can tell. Hence why there’s been so many new merchants now accepting it.

    • John says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:50

      Will Amazon want to become a payment provider directly?

      So your current account could issue you an “amazoncard” except there won’t actually be a card and you’ll have to use a phone or a third-party card (Curve??)

    • berneslai says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:55

      I hadn’t actually noticed (until I couldn’t use an international retailer that required a Visa card for a transaction) that all my debit cards and credit cards had quietly moved to Mastercard over the last 12 months.

    • Neil Spellings says:
      17 Nov17 November 10:44

      Perhaps this will be a lifeline for Curve? Allow Visa credit cards to still be used on Amazon via their Mastercard agreement!

    • Damian says:
      17 Nov17 November 10:47

      Revolut and Natwest also changing cards from Visa to Mastercard.

    • David says:
      17 Nov17 November 11:05

      Been like that on Amazon Australia for a few weeks by now.

      • Nick says:
        17 Nov17 November 14:40

        Interchange fees are capped for domestic transactions in the UK and EU. This is what goes to the bank, not Visa. Scheme fees (to Visa, etc) are not – and these are not capped or regulated at all. Amazon will be fighting these fees.

    • JDB says:
      17 Nov17 November 14:22

      The cap is only one small part of the total fee paid by merchants, so there is still quite a range of fees.

  • Geoff says:
    17 Nov17 November 09:24

    Help needed
    I need to transfer Flying Blue miles to ALL Accor reward points to avoid expiry.
    How do I do it?

    • Guernsey Globetrotter says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:58

      Hi Geoff – you’ll need to link your accounts via the FlyingBlue website
      https://www.flyingblue.com/en/earn-spend/partners/hotel/hotel-accor-hotels/presentation
      Once they’re linked you can initiate the transfer (which in my recent experience happens same day) via https://www.flyingblue.com/en/dashboard
      Can only be done in blocks of 4,000 AF miles which, rather crappily, convert to only 1,000 Accor points (worth Eur20).
      Simples 🙂

    • Roy says:
      17 Nov17 November 10:31

      I did a transfer a while back, and am still waiting after a couple of months and a couple of missing points queries for the points to land in my ALL account….

      That said, if all you’re trying to do is stop your ALL points expiring, you may not have to. Check your points expiry date in your ALL account first – I read something here about them extending points recently (and indeed mine have been).

      • Guernsey Globetrotter says:
        17 Nov17 November 10:58

        Roy – Geoff is transferring the other way because FlyingBlue points are expiring – he asked the question in yesterday’s chat and was clearer about the direction of travel there: “How do I transfer my Flying Blue miles to ALLAccor points? I know it is not very good value but better than losing them” but I missed that until late last night so replied when I saw it repeated here instead.

        • Geoff says:
          17 Nov17 November 11:25

          Thanks very much for your assistance, it worked first time.
          Better than Flying Blue customer service who couldn’t help yesterday!

  • Karl says:
    17 Nov17 November 09:26

    Morning, this may be more of a FlyerTalk query but some people here may hopefully have experience of this and be able to advise. I’m looking to do a TP run, probably SOF-LHR-JFK-SFO/LAX with a few days holiday in California. My girlfriend is interested in joining for the LHR-SFO/LAX section but travelling in economy.

    What is the likelihood of us being able to swap seats for a couple of the legs so she could have a go in business class? I know that the crew will obviously have a list of names against the seating plan but are they likely to notice/care about us switching, especially if done prior to take-off?

    • ChrisC says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:43

      Always best to tell the crew when doing this.

      Most are usually OK but it’s a swap for the whole flight and not something done half way through.

    • Lyn says:
      17 Nov17 November 17:23

      Usually fine as long as you ask discreetly at the very beginning of the flight before you are actually seated.

      Worth explaining that it would be a treat for your girlfriend to try business class and you realise it will be for the whole flight, and are not expecting to swap later.

  • K says:
    17 Nov17 November 09:29

    AMEX offer today, Etihad £500 spend £200 back. Any Etihad 5th freedom flights or codeshares that does not require going through Abu Dhabi?

    • meta says:
      17 Nov17 November 09:34

      Only valid for flights from the UK.

    • Will says:
      17 Nov17 November 14:37

      Can you get a credit on a cancelled etihad flight still due to cobid?

      Ie book £500 flight, cancel for credit, wash rinse repeat?

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