The HfP chat thread – Thursday 2nd December

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

• Lady London says:

  2 Dec2 December 12:04

  How long are Chase taking to process applications? Are there any switching benefits?

  • StevieKicks says:

    2 Dec2 December 12:18

    Pretty quick for me, no switching benefits. I don’t believe they even support proper switches yet

    • Andy says:

      2 Dec2 December 12:28

      The account switching service is not currently supported. In fact they don’t yet even have Direct Debit functionality available…(will be added “soon”)… so the switching service isn’t really needed / useful. No switch incentive other than the general card benefits (1% Cashback, no FX fees, 3% Cashback on Amazon temp offer for December, spare change “roundup” savings account paying 5%).

    • Yorkie Aid says:

      2 Dec2 December 14:24

      +1 Just took a few hours for them to verify ID and selfie IIRC.

      • manilabay says:

        2 Dec2 December 15:33

        My application took about an hour but several attempts to scan my ID. Agree with Andy, that it is limited – but I would say they seem to be technically savvy & have a decent team developing their software. Unlike other banks (including Virgin Money VS cards) they quite quickly added Google Pay functionality which I wouldn’t have expected for a while. I doubt many people on HfP will move across their primary account even if there was a current account switch service – but for a backup card & one that is quite generous for overseas purchases, it’s quite good for a new product.

• Mick S says:

  2 Dec2 December 12:10

  Please could someone give me some guidance on this situation – I’m a bit of a thicko in this area, and trying to get up to speed. 🙂

  a) I’m planning to fly over to Australia in January 2023 so return around Easter 2023.
  b) I’m currently BA Blue but sat on an quite a few avios – I’d like to book a Business Class cabin and also get some Tier points
  c) quite happy to do any route / any BA partner airline, providing it gets me some tier points
  d) Ideally I don’t want to pay the full cost of business class, hoping to put avios to good use and upgrade

  and finally,

  if this was an upgrade voucher/241 voucher etc I would be looking at booking the outbound leg next month, and adding the return a few months later. Not sure if this is feasible with the scenario I’ve mentioned

  • John says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:19

    If you want to use a 241 there is no way to earn TPs.

    But you may not be able to get BA avios seats all the way to SYD; you could then use a 241 to somewhere like BKK, SIN, KUL or Japan and pay for another flight to Australia on a oneworld airline (QF, JL, MH). You’d earn TPs on these, and they could also be booked on avios.

    You can only use avios to upgrade on BA. You would book WTP and use avios to upgrade to J, or book J and use avios to upgrade to F, and get TPs for the class booked.

    Before covid my preference would always be CX via HKG, but there’s a reasonable chance that HKG will still be troublesome for transits in 2023, and that CX won’t survive covid.

    Another option is QR starting from somewhere in continental Europe, or even BA with a back-to-back from LHR (or some other option if you live elsewhere)

    • Anna says:

      2 Dec2 December 14:12

      Don’t forget there has to be award availability to upgrade with avios so you’d need to pick a route where the seats aren’t likely to be grabbed before you book the leg in PE.

  • Richie says:

    2 Dec2 December 14:33

    Is your 241 voucher for economy or business?

  • Mick S says:

    2 Dec2 December 16:06

    to clarify – I might not using any vouchers. But I would like to book a lower cabin (cash) and upgrade with avios in order to save a lot of money.

    • Christina says:

      2 Dec2 December 18:10

      Avios availability seats to SYD are very rare.

• Scott says:

  2 Dec2 December 12:19

  Amex Travel – never again.

  Booked some cancellable (for free before X date) accom to take advantage of the recent cashback offer. Assumed that this meant cancelling would involve clicking a button, as per all the online hotel companies, hotel schemes, etc. Not so much! No, you can only cancel via ‘Chat’ (which isn’t available at all), an email (which auto replies to state it isn’t being monitored due to COVID-19, 22 months into the pandemic?), or by calling during office hours (over an 1 hour into being on hold).

  Never again.

  Not much looking forward to disputing an Amex Travel charge with Amex Plat customer service. Any advice/data points from others, beyond ‘never again’?

  • meta says:

    2 Dec2 December 12:32

    Even though email says that it’s not monitored, I got a reply the next day recently (about 10 days ago). You can also call them 8am to 5pm Mon-Fri, but it’s a bit hard to get to them. For online chat, they seem to operate 10-12pmish and 2-4pmish.

    Actually they are pretty good and they’ll refund you if you followed cancelation policy though it might not be instant.

    • Scott says:

      2 Dec2 December 13:21

      Thanks Meta.

      The answer was to ignore Amex Travel and call the Amex Plat customer line, who sorted it out quickly.

  • Darko says:

    2 Dec2 December 12:44

    I called them recently to cancel a booking and sorted everything over the phone, it was maybe 5 minutes wait to get through. Quite a good experience as I was abroad and my plans changed overnight so had to act quickly. They explained the policy and advised about the refund. Cancellation confirmation email received 5 minutes after the call. I called on the number on the back of the card and operator has put me through to the travel agent immediately.

  • Bob says:

    2 Dec2 December 14:28

    straightforward to cancel, only issue with them is you can’t amend any bookings , can only cancel and rebook

  • FCP says:

    2 Dec2 December 14:32

    They have a call back option. Take that, saves waiting for 1-2 hours !

  • davefl says:

    2 Dec2 December 17:42

    Use the call back feature on Amex Travel. It works well.

• WaynedP says:

  2 Dec2 December 12:21

  Mini TR on 2 night break to Warsaw last weekend:

  Quick check-in and fast-track security at LHR T5 around 6am Friday morning – expected it to be slower than it was given busy time of day but was in BA Galleries North enjoying bacon & hash brown rolls & coffee within minutes.

  Full but good flight, although buses from gate A10 to aircraft were ram packed, suspending all social distancing measures.

  Poland immigration queue longer and more frustrating than it would have been without Brexit, as got caught behind a couple of Asian passport holders in the “All other Passports” queue, but once at the front was reminded how quick a GB passport still is to process. Just another Brexit price we will continue to pay.

  Booked Warsaw Marriott (cash) official check-in time 4pm, requested a cheeky 2pm arrival, but room ready notification received in time for our noon arrival, which was impressive.

  Received a 2 (maybe 3) category upgrade from standard King room to corner junior suite on nice high floor with excellent views of Warsaw from both bathroom and bedroom windows.

  Great bed, huge bathroom with shower and bath, fluffy bathrobes, decent aircon, removable coat hangers, decent kettle and complimentary bottle of red wine.

  Super staff, great restaurant on 2nd floor (enjoyed two good breakfasts included, one lunch and one dinner, both great but finite menu probably would have become boring after another couple of meals), nice coffee & light bites bistro on ground floor where I enjoyed best pot of English Breakfast tea I think I’ve ever had in Europe outside of UK.

  Funky Sky Bar on 40th floor with interesting cocktail menu and panoramic views of Warsaw, but we arrived about 45 minutes later than we should have, and were surrounded by a much younger and more fashionable crowd of patrons (with music to match) so we only stayed for one hasty cocktail before moving on and leaving the place to those more suited to it.

  Hard Rock Café across the road completed our evening meal schedule on the last night – reliably pleasant, no reservation needed.

  A lovely stay, would highly recommend and keen to return again ourselves.

  Only minor downside was pool & spa (which would have been nice at this time of year) undergoing refurbishment, so closed. That wasn’t disclosed at time of booking (5 weeks ahead of staying) but we did receive an email about a couple of weeks before our stay that included mention of the fact, and we just made allowance in our plans.

  • WaynedP says:

    2 Dec2 December 12:34

    Continued:

    Check-in at WAW slightly less streamlined than LHR T5 Zone H, but got there in the end and had just under an hour in the Bolero Business Class lounge, which was fine.

    Good return flight, nice chicken & leek pie for lunch.

    Disappointing delay to receive luggage at LHR T5. Four flight backlog on each luggage belt, and luggage finally arrived over an hour after we had touched down. Tannoy apologies mentioned shortage of luggage unloaders due to congestion around Heathrow Airport.

    But all in all a nice city break to a nice location and super hotel.

    Warsaw Marriott wasn’t on the list of participating hotels in the Amex Marriot Bonvoy spend £200 get £50 back offer, but I was half hoping it might credit anyway, given reports on here of other Marriott hotels not on the list that did successfully trigger the offer. But no luck in our case, although nothing lost either.

    Squeaked back into UK requiring only Day 2 lateral flow tests, which were waiting for us at home, and which were confirmed negative within 3 hours of submitting our photo evidence on Tuesday evening.

    Also returned to find a Public Health England PCR test in our pile of post, relating to me being identified as a traveller recently returned from a (newly designated) red list country, and asking me to submit by Royal Mail Priority post asap, which I did and was confirmed negative, as expected, and as was indicated in the 2 Day Lateral Flow that I did on my return from South Africa on 18 November. Good to see the system tracked me down, but that’s a story for another day.

    • Nick says:

      2 Dec2 December 13:02

      Congestion around the airport, totally understandable and definitely true.

    • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

      2 Dec2 December 14:56

      Interesting review WaynedP – thank you – sounds like you had a good trip! However, why didn’t you just take hand luggage for a 2 night jaunt? Personally would never subject myself to the torture of the baggage carousel roulette on a mini-break – it can really spoil the end to a good break!!

      • WaynedP says:

        2 Dec2 December 15:30

        I could probably get away with it myself, as half of my case is usually taken up by my wife, and I always handle her case and let her take my considerably lighter one when we’re lugging it all around.

        But it’s a price worth paying to travel with my wife of over 25 years (really missed having her by my side on my 10 day trip to SA last month) and moreover I just can’t bring myself to join the seemingly overly self-entitled crowd that consumes vast quantities of overhead luggage storage space with wheeled trolley cases and then becomes pugnacious if you dare ask for some room for your hat/coat/ruck sack.

        Perhaps I’d feel differently if travelling LCC and having to pay “extra” for hold luggage, but very rarely do.

        It’s not usually an undue burden, even with the “no actual priority treatment” at LHR T5, and consider myself just unlucky to be delayed this time.

        • Mike says:

          2 Dec2 December 20:57

          Wayne – great review thanks

    • Lady London says:

      2 Dec2 December 17:13

      Thanks WaynedP and congratulations on your Gold.

      • WaynedP says:

        2 Dec2 December 20:21

        Thanks LL – not sure how much use I’ll manage to wring out of it the way things are going 😆

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:04

    How anyone can enjoy the bacon rolls in Galleries is beyond me. They need a good 5 minutes more for me to consider the bacon actually cooked!

    • WaynedP says:

      2 Dec2 December 13:12

      Probably down to what has been said of me before …
      #doesnttakemuch
      😆

    • John says:

      2 Dec2 December 13:21

      They were overcooked the last time I had one (summer 2020)

    • Lady London says:

      2 Dec2 December 13:44

      yup wet, soggy, greasy. Shows up the poor quality of the bacon they use. T3 BA lounge slightly better a long time ago.

      The UA lounge and its bacon, coffee and orange juice in T2 is done right and really shows the pathetic BA lounge effort up. even microwaving the BA bacon after it arrives and 5min in the microwave just makes it still uncooked except it also adds a puddle of water.

      • Rob says:

        2 Dec2 December 13:45

        There is something about the soggyness which is curiously addictive though. Those bacon rolls have a cult following.

        • Michael C says:

          2 Dec2 December 13:50

          Definitely a question of “Why am I eating this?” followed by “Do I have time for another?”

        • Anna says:

          2 Dec2 December 14:16

          They are pretty good washed down with a glass of fizz, though the omelette rolls were also pretty good back in the days of travel via LHR! As a northerner I embrace pretty much anything on a buttie.

        • His Holyness says:

          2 Dec2 December 16:09

          Considering EU countries have turned off the EGates for British travellers why does the U.K. not do the same for EU? That also means the U.K. doesn’t stamp passports.

          Once again the U.K. is a pathetic soft touch.

        • WaynedP says:

          2 Dec2 December 16:30

          Or perhaps the unpalatable truth (ignored or downplayed by the 52% and their vocal cheerleaders) is that the UK is far more reliant on European trade and tourism, which itself is far more sensitive to irritating barriers, than will ever be the case for the reciprocal …

        • His Holyness says:

          2 Dec2 December 16:57

          If you want to be woke then the truth is that the EU is racist. The UK is incredibly diverse whereas the EU has some of the most homogenous countries you’ll ever see. Might that be the reason?

        • WaynedP says:

          2 Dec2 December 20:55

          @HH

          My comment based 100% on Economics and 0% on socio-political awareness.

          If you want “woke” you can have notice of my profound disappointment at the self indulgent hypocritical behaviour of someone who assumes a social media handle reserved for my Pontiff, yet peddles patent falsehoods demonstrating utter ignorance of the fact that the European Union (and most of its surviving modern day aspirations) are deeply rooted in Catholic Social Teaching (see https://ceswp.uaic.ro/articles/CESWP2014_VI2A_BRI.pdf for a start).

          What a blatantly wasted opportunity for self-enlightenment it is to mistake geographical or even cultural homogeneity as equivalent to racism, when in fact it can be validly celebrated PROVIDED that the fundamental principle remains that no single demographic grouping can ever claim superiority of dignity or opportunity over any other demographic group.

          It’s just basic CST 101, to the discomfort of nations like Hungary currently undergoing an unfortunate dalliance with overtly racist political leaders (there but for the Grace of God go virtually all of us), whose actions have been rightfully rejected by the Magisterium, the EU Parliament and the real Supreme Pontiff.

          And to completely ignore the EU’s enviable record at raising living, working and safety standards across geographical borders to a host of nations who’s own national governments and economies couldn’t afford to emulate that uplift in anywhere near the same timeframes seems almost unforgivably self delusional.

          But fear not, there is still time to achieve enlightenment, HH.

          The real Truth is out there, and you don’t need an internet connection or an incongruously offensive handle to access it 🙂

        • His Holyness says:

          2 Dec2 December 22:13

          I’d have thought that even the most mentally ill leftist would think that during a pandemic turning off e-Gates so that Border Force can properly check documents would be prudent. After all, that’s exactly the situation in the EU.

          What’s good enough for them is surely good enough for the U.K.?

  • Luke says:

    2 Dec2 December 14:02

    Worth saying that in England there is currently no such official concept as “social distancing measures”

    • WaynedP says:

      2 Dec2 December 14:05

      Too true, and more so the pity.

• Aston100 says:

  2 Dec2 December 12:46

  Anyone know how convenient is it to get to the Sofitel with a load of luggage (2 per person) from t5 arrivals?
  Thinking ahead in case I need to get the PCR on arrival.

  • QwertyKnowsBest says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:03

    Easy with trolleys. Attached to terminal via a long passageway from adjoining car park entrance.

    • Aston100 says:

      2 Dec2 December 13:26

      Thanks. Hopefully this knee-jerk overreaction will be reversed by the time I return. But good to know the Halo testing place in the Sofitel is manageable with 2 suitcases per person.

      • Polly says:

        2 Dec2 December 15:35

        Tnx for asking, l asked this on another post, but good to know. We hope to be doing this next Thursday morning, if the flights are not cancelled from Singapore….

  • The cyclist says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:29

    Hi Aston, its surprisingly easy, the passageway is slightly uphill, but if you have very heavy bags there are plenty of porters to help you out.

  • Lyn says:

    2 Dec2 December 17:05

    You should be fine as long as you each have a trolley. You can get all the way to the hotel lobby with the trolleys using lifts. Part of the walkway is carpet, which make it a little trickier there.

    I asked this same question a couple of years ago when I had hurt my shoulder and was in quite a lot of pain and having to rely on one hand instead of two. I limited myself to hand luggage (for a long haul flight!) and changed my inexpensive overnight hotel to the Sofitel but was still worried about whether I would be able to manage. So I was very grateful indeed for the replies and very detailed directions from helpful HfPers which calmed me down ahead of time.

• Tara says:

  2 Dec2 December 12:52

  Hi all. Does anyone know if the restaurants in NYC accept the NHS covid pass, or do you specifically need to show your NHS vaccination card? Thank you.

  • John says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:21

    AFAIK, any sort of vaccine certification is accepted in the US

  • A says:

    2 Dec2 December 14:54

    Any proof of vaccination is acceptable here in NYC.
    Paper NHS, paper US. digital, or a photo of any vaccination card or documentation.

    • Tara says:

      2 Dec2 December 15:37

      Thank you both! Much appreciated.

• Char Char says:

  2 Dec2 December 12:52

  Good bye Creation, you will not be missed, perhaps they can learn a lesson on how to run a successful credit card and not annoy 99% of their card holders in the future or better yet close their credit card division.

• T says:

  2 Dec2 December 13:07

  Hilton hotels in Krakow

  I’m trying to decide whether to stay at the DoubleTree or GardenInn. GardenInn is in a slightly better location, but Bolt/FreeNow/Uber us cheap in PL.

  Any recommendations? I like the look of the DT better. (Diamond member)

  • John says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:24

    Not that food is expensive in Poland, but you’ll get a decent dinner in the DT lounge if you can’t be bothered to go out

  • Rob says:

    2 Dec2 December 13:47

    DT is 10k points per night – don’t pay cash.

    • T says:

      2 Dec2 December 13:51

      18k points a night for my dates vs £43/n for the dates I need

      • Rob says:

        2 Dec2 December 14:18

        Sorry, it’s the Hampton that’s 10k (IIRC). Still, for £43 you might as well pay cash and hope for a good Q1 bonus promo.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    2 Dec2 December 14:12

    When are you thinking of visiting btw?

    • T says:

      2 Dec2 December 14:21

      Pretty soon, in 7 or 10 days

      • Super Secret Stuff says:

        2 Dec2 December 16:23

        Nice, leisure or business? I want to go with my Polish friend one day

        • His Holyness says:

          2 Dec2 December 16:58

          DT is fine, nothing special, breakfast is a bit boring, lounge is good but closes at 8PM. Has what passes as a dinner, but again, food is cheap so why would it not?

        • Tom says:

          2 Dec2 December 19:53

          Leisure (+ a bit of WFH). I love Krakow, done it 2x this year (I’ve stayed at MarriottB hotels) but cannot get enough of it & one of my best friends lives there. You should definitely do it, Warsaw is pretty great too!

  • The Savage Squirrel says:

    2 Dec2 December 19:04

    +1 that no way I would be factoring eating in a lounge. You can dine like royalty in Poland for peanuts.

  • David D says:

    2 Dec2 December 21:38

    I’d recommend the DT. Last stay was upgraded to a Junior Suite from Deluxe room. As others have said lounge is decent with decent food. Walking through the shopping centre gets you to the tram stop to take you into the centre and is really easy to do if you don’t want to take a taxi.

    • His Holyness says:

      2 Dec2 December 22:14

      Shopping centre is completely closed now

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