The HfP chat thread – Saturday 27th November

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• Reney says:

  27 Nov27 November 10:12

  So I got a naughty email from Curve saying I spent too much paying off other cards and asked what the transactions were for. I explained and then apologised saying I will tone it down. It has been several days and I have heard nothing. Anyone know what is supposed to happen now?

  I don’t use my curve for normal spend anymore as there is only one card I am willing to risk and working on other bonuses.

  • Anastasia Beaverhausen says:

    27 Nov27 November 12:55

    Isn’t one of Curve’s advertised benefits that you can use it to pay other cards? Curve seem to like saying “Look what you can do with curve!” eventually followed by “Hey! Don’t actually do it”

    • JDB says:

      27 Nov27 November 16:24

      It isn’t quite as simple as that as Curve specifies that you must comply with the terms of your underlying card.

  • @mkcol says:

    28 Nov28 November 01:02

    They’ll mess you around for a couple of months wanting proof of this, that & the other, take forever to respond and then finally backtrack and let you keep your account open.

    You might also get offered to cancel & get a pro-rata refund as I was offered, and declined.

• George K says:

  27 Nov27 November 10:20

  2-4-1 voucher extension question: Would like to use the 2-4-1 for a flight just outside the current expiration date, so plan on going down the FTV route. The question is, since the booking is supposed to be for two adults and one child, should my dummy booking for the purposes of cancellation include the kid too? Or can I just do two adults and add the kid later?

  All the best

  • AJA says:

    27 Nov27 November 12:45

    Not having kids I don’t know whether you can book a 2-4-1 online including a kid. I’d be inclined to just book a cheap one way online using the 2-4-1 and then cancel for a FTV. Then add the kid to the booking when you phone BA to redeem the FTV.

  • Anna says:

    27 Nov27 November 13:39

    You can add a child to a 241 booking but of course you’d then be tying up more avios and cash. Probably as easy to add them when you come to redeem the voucher (but remember you’ll need 3 avios seats to be available for either option).

• Oli says:

  27 Nov27 November 10:32

  Are there any options to buy Nespresso capsules on Small Shop in London ?

  • aDifferentSimon says:

    27 Nov27 November 11:30

    dunno, but i’m intrigued by the grind.co.uk compostable capsules black friday offer

    • Cranzle says:

      27 Nov27 November 11:56

      I’ve had issues with compostable capsules ‘sticking’ in my machine (not grind, this is another third party brand)

    • Anuj says:

      27 Nov27 November 12:57

      Much compostable plastic isn’t actually very good for the environment anyway. Some just breaks down into micro plastics whilst other types only breaks down under special conditions so if you put it in the wrong bin or the recycling isn’t done in the right way it won’t break down.

  • Richie says:

    27 Nov27 November 12:56

    Partridges sell compatible capusules.

• Steve in Croydon says:

  27 Nov27 November 10:52

  Can anyone see any AA Avios flight availability for any route? This was stuffed-up during last week’s dog’s breakfast of an “upgrade”.
  Is this still stuffed or are there genuinely no AA redemption seats?
  aa.com shows plenty of redemption seats so one assumes that it’s the usual ba.com cr@p!
  Has anyone booked AA Avios seats via the BA call centre?

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    27 Nov27 November 11:00

    My understanding was that you have to be able to see Saaver availability on the AA site – then you can call and book

    • Steve in Croydon says:

      27 Nov27 November 11:13

      Until last week’s total balls-up you could see AA flights through ba.com, you didn’t have to rely upon aa.com.

  • Charlieface says:

    27 Nov27 November 19:40

    If it’s not mainline AA but a subsidiary then it doesn’t always show online. AA may have swapped the flight

• AngryOctopus says:

  27 Nov27 November 11:04

  Flight was originally booked in October 2020, LHR – ICN for April 2021. I called early October 2021 to query rebooking for April 2022, with Qatar or Cathay at the time. Agent said there was no carrier availability and to call back later this year to reroute but said April 2021 will be fine (of course he left no notes on the account), apparently BA changed policy to enforce ticket validity on these reroute requests in early Nov from what I’ve read on FT?

  Now BA are refusing to rebook, there is availability with Finnair now but I’m outside of ticket validity…

  Any advice ? don’t really want to go down CEDR route

  • Track says:

    27 Nov27 November 11:09

    If you are not prepared to defend your claim, why would you expect some magic word from strangers on a web forum to achieve anything?

    • AngryOctopus says:

      27 Nov27 November 11:22

      Want to hear experiences around this before making a decision, particularly if there is a more efficient solution?….

  • Lady London says:

    27 Nov27 November 11:36

    If it’s you changing the ticket voluntarily then all BA’s rules apply. This would include ticket validity which, with the exception of irrops (such as airline cancelling a flight within your booking) apply as 12 months from issue date across IATA airlines (i.e. pretty much all including BA).

    If BA cancelled a flight on your booking then EU261 and its UK equivalent have no time limit on rebooking (rerouting) date for your whole booking.

    It does not seem to me that BA cancelled any flight so you are in the former situation. The only thing you’ve got going for you is BA told you your rebook date was ok it just needed availability. Personally I think they should believe you and you can technically request a copy of the recording – look on your phone records for date and time if you didn’t write up that telecom with date and time or record it. However even though BA records everything presumably for their own benefit sometimes if a passenger asks BA then turns out not to be able to find the recording esp long after the event.

    Track’s comments are also correct. It encourages those of us who sometimes spend time helping that gets quite a lot, if someone at least can believably say they have done some reading and searching on the site to parse previous comments then after that effort found they need to ask to be sure. Jus’ sayin’.

    My advice would be to find availability on a choice of flights and airlines (as sometimes an airline still can’t see an award seat available that they should be able to, on another airline), call them, explain you were told your dates were fine to rebook to on the earlier call, and hope they believe you or do you a favour. HUACA a few times being nice and you might get lucky

    • AngryOctopus says:

      27 Nov27 November 13:01

      Thanks, it was BA who cancelled the flight !

    • John Gallagher says:

      27 Nov27 November 14:19

      I was also promised by BA tact I could rebook for October 22. Call d back when flights became available to be told information I was previously given was incorrect and had to travel with 12 month ticket validity

      • Lady London says:

        27 Nov27 November 18:06

        This is why you need to make contemporaneous notes with date, ideally who you spoke to and time, when you get told these things by BA.

        Hindsight is a wonderful thing in these situations of course, but as BA is being reported here regularly as previous words said by agents are now being denied, I’m wondering whether it would be OTT to immediately ask for the recording of any conversation with BA if you know you will need to rely on what was said at a later date, as well.

        This, only so people are in a position to prove what BA said to them earlier, in the hope of saving everyone the trouble of CEDR or MCOL procedures. Just the time, stress and trouble of going that far when BA later denies – the outcome in your favour will rarely be in doubt.

  • Charlieface says:

    27 Nov27 November 19:57

    If BA cancelled your flight then ticket validity is not really relevant, because you can travel at YOUR convenience. The IATA Handbook also says airlines should waive ticket validity in the event of IRROPS (cancellations or delays).

    Problem is that BA call handlers are trained to not do this. You need to persuade them, or get a supervisor (or *their* supervisor)

• Dave says:

  27 Nov27 November 11:05

  QQ:

  Just realize the BA holiday (flight + car) is cheaper now for BlackFriday deals. Shall I cancel apply for a evoucher and rebook? How long it will take to apply the evoucher?

  • roberto says:

    27 Nov27 November 11:38

    is it more than 3 weeks away? if so yes. The new voucher comes through quickly but you will have to phone to use it (I think) and the queues are long , better to rebook online , then cancel the original and finally ask for the voucher to be applied to the new booking emailing/forwarding the request to baholidays(@)ba.com . should have the voucher credited within 14 days or so.

• Track says:

  27 Nov27 November 11:12

  Common sense not to book anything / not to travel unless you have a genuine family/business need.

  With oncoming uncertainty about new variants, vaccine expiry (EU officially moves for 9 month validity since the the last jab taken), cold season and all the travel bans, red lists and quarantines again — why would you want to travel, just to find yourself rushing to an airport in Spain because UK implements red list within 24-48 hours?

  • John says:

    27 Nov27 November 12:53

    Exactly this, that’s why I got all my desired travel out of the way earlier this month when the govt moved to accept day 2 LFTs, and the same for the start of Dec 2020 and summer 2020 as soon as travel bans were lifted.

    I do feel sorry for those unlucky enough to have an inflexible job where they were not able to schedule leave during any of these periods (which included school holidays).

• Louise says:

  27 Nov27 November 11:47

  I think I have this correctly but looking for confirmation – I have a FTV with a 241, Avios, taxes etc in cash and an additional £220 cash amount of prepaid seat selection. Am I able to ask for a refund for the Avios and cash? I understand that I would lose the 241 but think I would also lose the £220 seat selection amount and amount £35 per person for the refund? Just looking for confirmation as I want to have my facts straight before I call!

  • Rob says:

    27 Nov27 November 17:04

    No. If you break up the FTV then you lose the £220. You can’t ask for individual elements to be returned because an FTV is just a frozen ticket (the reference number is your ticket number) which is unfrozen and amended when you rebook.

    • Louise says:

      27 Nov27 November 17:36

      Thanks Rob, yes thought I’d lose the £220 seat reservation as I’m sure I remember reading that bit was non refundable. Will have to give it some thought as to whether I can suck that up in order to get my £1300 taxes and 137k Avios back…..

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