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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.

  • Pete M says:
    17 Nov17 November 11:32

    Talking about car rental costs, this is certainly an interesting approach by Hertz to making that little bit extra: ‘I returned a hire car two days early – and was charged double’
    https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/nov/13/i-returned-a-hire-car-two-days-early-and-was-charged-double

    • Rui N. says:
      17 Nov17 November 11:36

      That’s quite common in the rental agreements. Same for lots of hotels, you can get charged extra if you check out with nights still to go.

      • Pete M says:
        17 Nov17 November 11:39

        Sure, but in this case the guy was happy to pay the original full amount – a hotel early departure fee works rather differently and it’s vice the full amount due.

        • Rui N. says:
          17 Nov17 November 11:42

          My understanding of the terms that I’ve seen on hotels and rental cars is that any early departure/return fees are on top of what was due for the fuel stay/rental. Otherwise early departure fees wouldn’t make sense on prepaid stays, and I’ve seen them listed in hotel reservations.

        • Paul Pogba says:
          17 Nov17 November 11:43

          Cars need to be stored, if they were all returned early at a city centre or airport location they’d have no where to put them.

    • Gormlesstraveller says:
      17 Nov17 November 12:18

      It was an Australian customer, and hertz.com.au is mentioned a lot on hfp. I wonder if there are some hidden restrictive conditions when people use hertz.com.au instead of hertz.co.uk

      • John says:
        17 Nov17 November 13:05

        In the article the author says that no details of these conditions could be found.

        • Pete M says:
          17 Nov17 November 13:12

          I am always intrigued at the speed at which people will jump to defend big corporations and their shady T&Cs on here. I think few would argue against charging a nominal fee to return the car to a big car park, Paul and indeed if Hertz was very clear in their T&Cs what the outcome of returning a car ahead of schedule I suspect the customer wouldn’t have done so, Rui. But what they’ve done just feels pretty extreme…

    • MKB says:
      17 Nov17 November 13:18

      I had something similar happen in St Kitts. An out-of-hours return was booked in as though I had dropped off the car six hours before I actually did. That resulted in an “early” return, and re-charging at a higher daily rate for two days than the three-day rate I had. It was a nightmare to resolve. I had to prove to Hertz that I hadn’t yet boarded the ferry from Nevis at the time they said I was back on St Kitts. If I hadn’t been able to do that, I’d have been scuppered. As I’ve found on multiple occasions, Hertz are the worse of the mainstream companies, and should be avoided wherever possible.

    • Hulk says:
      17 Nov17 November 13:30

      I’ve booked a rental in Europe that I have no intention of using as part of a BA Holiday. I hope I don’t get charged anything further.

    • Andrew says:
      17 Nov17 November 15:09

      I had this explained to me when I hired from Thrifty.

      There are two kinds of hires. Long term hires – 4 weekly/rolling monthly and daily hires. They operate on two different tariffs. That’s why it’s considerably cheaper hiring for a month than 27 days.

      To stop people gaming the system, if someone returns before the first month is complete they agree to be charged at the daily tariff instead.

      On the other hand, if you were to return the vehicle (having given 24 hours notice) At one month and one day, you’d get a xx/30ths pro rata refund.

  • bill says:
    17 Nov17 November 11:39

    I have currently got the BAPP credit card. I have made a purchase in excess of £40 from Craft Gin Club and I am waiting for the £20 Amex offer credit. I have reached the SUB so I no longer have any use for the card. Can I downgrade to the BA Amex CC and still get the £20 credit ? Alternatively, if I close the BAPP will I still get the credit ?

    • Benilyn says:
      17 Nov17 November 11:50

      If you close it you will not get the credit
      Not sure about the downgrade…

  • David says:
    17 Nov17 November 11:41

    @British_Airways now tweeting that access to BAEC will be “after the 17 November”…

  • GaryE says:
    17 Nov17 November 12:30

    Daughter travelling to Barcelona on Sunday. Only has PP card what is her chances of getting into the T5 Aspire lounge around 3.30pm on Sunday?

    • Pete M says:
      17 Nov17 November 12:35

      A very high chance of success, I’d say.

    • the_real_a says:
      17 Nov17 November 13:07

      They operate a wait list. Your daughter can put her name down and return in… say 20 minutes. I have never been refused, albeit pre-covid.

  • Ant says:
    17 Nov17 November 12:36

    Is it possible to cancel a 2-4-1 reward flight at the moment and avoid the £35pp fee? they have moved the departure time back by 1.5hrs if that helps, or does the book with confidence policy apply?

    • Steve in Croydon says:
      17 Nov17 November 12:41

      Surely the EU261/UK261 rules apply – they’ve changed your flight times. As it’s Avios it should be a full refund of money and Avios points, not a voucher. Alternatively you could ask them to move the whole trip to another set of dates without charge.

  • Simon says:
    17 Nov17 November 12:37

    A Marriott TP certificates question, if I may:

    Would anyone kindly be able to confirm if these certificates are book by or actually stay?

    Many thanks in advance.

    • Simon says:
      17 Nov17 November 12:38

      Typo! Meant to write:

      Would anyone kindly be able to confirm if these certificates are book by or actually stay by, of course. 🙂

      • lev441 says:
        17 Nov17 November 13:01

        I believe it’s stay by. Expiry of vouchers have been extended until end of june 2022..

        Does anyone know the best contact number to get marriott to apply it to a booking?

        • N says:
          17 Nov17 November 13:11

          020 3564 6335

        • Simon says:
          17 Nov17 November 13:26

          Thanks, Lev441. 👍🏻

          (Just bought two in the last couple of weeks in case these type of certificates don’t survive in light of the impending shift to dynamic pricing. Had earmarked them for a return to the R-C Kyoto in Feb ‘22 after going back to the Sapporo snow festival, but chances are slim of that happening now, so hence wondered if my two certificates with Oct ‘22 expiries were “book by” so allowing me to use them for rebookings in Feb ‘23, but looks not to be the case. Since the merger, I also don’t think individual certificate extensions are a thing any longer where they once were.)

          • lev441 says:
            17 Nov17 November 14:25

            Until the recent announcement from Bonvoy that they were extending certificates til end ofJune, I was sweating as I wasn’t going to be able to use either of mine before the expiry date. Called multiple times with the same answer being NO

          • Simon says:
            17 Nov17 November 15:06

            Thanks again, lev441. That’s an interesting datapoint. I doubt there’ll be any more blanket expiry extensions, but I guess you never know and I live in hope. 🙂 Many thanks again.

  • LST says:
    17 Nov17 November 13:33

    Hi all. Planning to visit LA over Xmas and use up some Bonvoys, does anyone have any experience of the SLS Beverly Hills?
    Thanks in advance.

    • Simon says:
      17 Nov17 November 21:14

      I recommend West Hollywood EDITION if you are willing to stay just outside of BH.

  • Aslan says:
    17 Nov17 November 13:42

    Question re Dublin airport – what is the minimum time you’d allow to get through security etc for a BA or EI flight? Would 45 before planned departure be too little?

    TIA

    • Bill says:
      17 Nov17 November 13:56

      Certainly depends on the time of day. The Dublin Airport app shows the estimated security times at the bottom. I don’t know how reliable that is though

    • Grant H says:
      17 Nov17 November 18:32

      I flew from Dublin on the 1st November at 6:30am and would not have been happy only leaving 45 minutes from arrival to departure. Dublin is a relatively busy airport and the times quoted to get through security are often slightly delayed. I noticed that it stated 10 minutes for me but a burst of people resulted in this being closer to 15-20 minutes. You’ll also appreciate that boarding generally begins 30 minutes before departure (especially the early flights as the aircraft will be ready). I think 1 hour would be a little less stressful than 45 minutes.

    • GaryC says:
      17 Nov17 November 21:27

      I’ve flown in and out of Dublin quite a bit, including b2b connections on TP runs. It can be quite hit and miss, even if you are fast track (entrance easy to miss, so do take care if you are eligible). I’ve been in queues where seemingly every bag was selected for secondary screening, and at other times had enough slack for a pint (can) of Guinness in the lounge whilst doing a b2b. I wouldn’t voluntarily arrive at T-45min.

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