The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 23rd November

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Rachel Robinson says:

23 Nov23 November 17:30

I have a question about how to approach BA about enforcing my rescheduling rights over a cancelled flight. We were due to fly to BKK on Sunday. BA cancelled. I want to reschedule for next November, but they’re citing the usual nonsense about ticket validity.

I think I know WHAT I need to say, thanks largely to contributors on this forum, but I am not sure WHO to say it to? Is there a route in/team to write to to get a good result quickly?

Thanks all!
- meta says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 17:41
  
  Write a letter by post to legal team at the Waterside address.
  - Amy C says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 17:58
    
    Although that dept have still not replied to my letter. Not sure how long they should take but it’s over 3 weeks now.
  - Lady London says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 18:28
    
    Signed-for so you have proof of receipt
    
    Boringly, I do think it’s a good idea to try at least once with Customer Services first and ideally to get them to say that’s final answer before you send your LBA to BA Legal giving them a deadline of 14, 21 or 30 days to provide reroute depending on how ar$ey BA Cust Svcs have been.
- John says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 19:02
  
  I’ve just has the same conversation with BA re: my cancelled 2-4-1 50% off Avios tickets to BKK.
  Booked in October 20 to fly Xmas 20, cancelled by BA and rebooked on 08/12/20 to fly in October 2021. BA cancelled again but told me in early October I had until early October 2022 to fly. BA now tells me today I have to travel by 08/12/21 i.e. 12 months after my ticket was last reissued.
  I explained the EU rules which the UK is still abiding by. I mentioned LBA and asked BA to confirm this was the final answer. All very polite.
  I currently have 5 BA tickets in the system which are sitting on cancellations (some have been cancelled many times, all by BA. I really need to make a stand here as I’ve been more than amicable with BA over the last 18 months
  - Rachel Robinson says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 19:59
    
    Thank you all for helpful answers.
Tim Rogers says:

23 Nov23 November 17:37

What’s the best bet for pre-departure tests for travel to the US?

It looks like Qured’s £22 lateral flow test plus a £10 surcharge for supervision will work, but I’m wondering if there’s anything better. Thanks!
- Anon says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 17:40
  
  There is a BA discount code for Qured that takes the test to £18.70 pp. BA15 I think.
  - Tony Soprano says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 18:13
    
    I have ordered a home consultation from DocHQ (have suitable antigen tests already). A single consultation allowed up to 4 individuals to be issued certificates. Offer code CTNHQ30 knocked the price down.
- Aston100 says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 18:40
  
  Qured are £27.20pp for the supervised test, if using the BA code.
- Scott says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 21:02
  
  I went with Collinson for £32. Coming into Kings Cross by train, so only have to pop across the road to St. Pancras to do it. Convenient.
  
  Used SimplyTestMe for the Day 2 test (£12.50). Code emailed a few minutes after purchase, and the test came in the mail today, 7 days before I get back to the UK.
  
  Went with Randox for a PCR-RT test early next month. £60 after getting £5 off with the BA code.
- ianM says:
  
  24 Nov24 November 00:15
  
  Yeah Qured and simplytestme combo is the cheapest and works.
Travel Strong says:

23 Nov23 November 18:19

Back at the dreary BRS airport tonight. Even more closed than last week, even WH Smiths closed. Starbucks workers reassuring each other that it’ll be over in 14 minutes. Everyone in departures is heading for Newcastle or Belfast, and it shows in their mood. In a nearby abandoned burrito bar, the rodents and the silverfish bide their time. For soon – this will all be theirs.
- Aston100 says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 18:42
  
  …and the camera slowly panned out.
- Mikee says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 22:21
  
  …and fade to black…
Tw33ty says:

23 Nov23 November 18:29

So looking for a bit of general advice.
I’ve decided to start staying at Marriott rather than ihg, so only just had two night at Marriott so far.
Stayed at courtyard Inverness and was rather nice, tonight I’m at Marriott Aberdeen Dyce, and saying it’s dated, tired and rundown is an understatement.
My question is, as I have clearly limited experiences thus far, but is the Aberdeen Marriott a true reflection on the group overall and did I hit it lucky in Inverness, or, is Aberdeen Marriott an example of the Marriott brand itself, rather than the other brands in the chain.
As if this is the general standard of Marriott hotels, I think I’ll be moving again.
- LST says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 19:04
  
  With such a massive portfolio, there is going to be a lot of variation in standards. Like with anything, do your research and you will have some really good stays. I am yet to have a bad experience with Marriott and they do a good job of recognising status which is an added bonus.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 19:26
  
  The U.K. “Marriott” properties are generally older and run down unfortunately, especially outside the capital.
  
  However, there are lots of very nice properties in the general Marriott portfolio of brands and many nice new Moxy and Courtyard. I’d echo what LST says in terms of doing your research.
  
  FYI I feel like generally Indigo has the best properties in the U.K. outside of London
- Chris says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 21:33
  
  I agree with the above posters. As a general rule UK Marriott’s tend to be pretty tired properties. However I’ve quite liked all of the UK Courtyard’s, Residence Inn, Moxy etc
  
  I also find I’ve been treated better at Marriott as a Platinum than I ever have been as a Hilton Diamond (or IHG Spire 🤢). I’ve become so enamoured with the treatment by Marriott that I’m making a serious stretch to get to Titanium this year
- Andy says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 22:07
  
  In my experience there’s quite a few reasonably priced modern Marriott hotels around, especially the mid-level brands such as Courtyard, Aloft – Inverness, Edinburgh West, the new (not sure it’s opened yet) Aberdeen TECA. A few have also opened / are opening in England (Exeter, Stoke area, etc.). Lots of older properties as well though so as long as the more modern ones are well located compared to where you’re likely to stay, it works well.
  
  Lots of good luxury hotels worldwide too, but at those price points personally loyalty points don’t really make a huge difference to me when you can get a lot of Platinum/Titanium type benefits from booking via FHR or a travel agent. So loyalty there would only factor for me if I’m a few nights short of hitting Plat/Titanium
  - Rob says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 22:39
    
    You can argue that using an Emyr or equivalent removes the need for status. I was at Kimpton Paris last night and for no other reason than booking via Emyr I got €85 of food and drink credit (which knocked the €10 bar credit I got for being Spire Elite into a hat), free breakfast (€42 per person) and a guaranteed 2pm check-out. You’d also get an upgrade.
    
    Meanwhile you could do 365 nights in IHG hotels over a year and still not qualify for free breakfast or guaranteed late check-out.
    
    As it happens, my IHG status did make a difference because I got a far better upgrade than an ‘Emyr’ booking would normally get and was given a suite.
    
    Meanwhile, as we’ll cover on Thursday, I got a suite at a Hyatt in Paris by using a paltry 6,000 Hyatt points to ugprade my cash booking. No status needed. The suite also came with automatic club access. You could buy those 6,000 points for £65 in Hyatt’s current promotion.
Rich says:

23 Nov23 November 19:16

50% off digital Railcards from Trainline with the code Railcard50.

They come as a download in the Trainline app (not the Railcard app).
- Aston100 says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 20:28
  
  Wow, just wow at the timing of this. I was going to buy a Two Together railcard tonight.
  You absolute hero Rich.
  Many thanks!
  
  (Yeah I know it is only £15 saved, but we get excited over far less on this site!).
- Rich says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 21:00
  
  Glad someone could use it. Annoyingly, I’d just renewed 2x 3 year Senior Railcards last week for relative! Ah well.
  - Aston100 says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 21:04
    
    I just messed up.
    Bought a 16-17 railcard and it got automatically added to my account rather than the person for whom I was purchasing for.
    No warning or any checks to see why I’m apparently purchasing a 16-17 railcard for myself.
    Hope I can get a refund tommorow.
    - Yuff says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 21:16
      
      I feel your joy 🤩 and pain 🤦🏻‍♂️
    - Rich says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 21:57
      
      Presumably solution is to give that person password for your Trainline account if necessary. (And delete your CC details, set up a new account for yourself)
      
      Assuming the Railcard has their name on it.
  - Polly says:
    
    24 Nov24 November 00:01
    
    Tnx for that, will get our new railcard online today then.
- Jody says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 22:00
  
  Brilliant, thank you. I need to buy a two together Railcard and was hoping for a discount!
  
  Will buy tomorrow when I can get suitable photos onto my phone!
  - ChrisC says:
    
    24 Nov24 November 05:53
    
    I bought a physical network card a couple of weeks ago from the railcard.co.uk website.
    
    Strange that you need a photo for the digital version but not for the physical card.
    - Rich says:
      
      24 Nov24 November 16:23
      
      Digital one is much more shareable, I guess. Perhaps can be in two places at the same time?
- elguiri says:
  
  24 Nov24 November 20:07
  
  As my TwoTogether was expiring next month and little’un reaching payable age next year, managed to get the 3 year Family Railcard for £35 as it is currently down from £90 to £70 before this discount code. Thanks for the headsup!
Paula says:

23 Nov23 November 20:00

Does anyone know if there is a way to track how close you are to hitting a spend offer on a card? My husband added a spend £4000 to get 10000 points offer a while ago but he still hasn’t had the points. I’m sure we would of hit the spend by now but can’t tell when the offer was added to the card to work out how far away we are before the end of this month
- Rob says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 21:32
  
  Not with these special promotions, no. There is no countdown bar as you get with a sign-up bonus.
George says:

23 Nov23 November 20:15

Is there a way to find out the MCC of a transaction on Virgin rewards credit card (via curve if that makes a difference)?
- Youllnever says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 20:43
  
  Curve doesn’t make a difference.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 20:57
  
  When it actually posts it’ll show the description in the detail (you need to click the actual transaction in the app)
  
  You can then search that in the list of mcc’s
  - George says:
    
    23 Nov23 November 22:49
    
    Which part of the description am I looking for? The top line underneath the transaction heading, ie GOVERNMENT SERVICES-NOT ELSEWHERE CLASSIFIED?
    - George says:
      
      23 Nov23 November 22:52
      
      I’ve answered my own question by checking mastercards MCC list, and this particular one is 9399.
LessCleverAndrew says:

23 Nov23 November 20:23

Has anyone ever exchanged an avios booking with 2-4-1 companion vouchers for a FTV – **twice**?

I was due to travel August 2021, turned it into a FTV, then rebooked for August 2022 but I can no longer travel the dates that I booked. On the site it looks like I can turn the booking into an FTV yet again – and rebook for July 2022.

I am slightly hesitant – I am aware of the FTV trick to extend the life of a 2-4-1 – but both 2-4-1s have now “expired” and the first FTV was my means of extending their lifetime.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  23 Nov23 November 21:02
  
  Yes a number of times. However I can remember if the cut off for being able to request an FTV was travel before August 22 or by the end of August 22.