The HfP chat thread – Sunday 5th December

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• Magarathea says:

  5 Dec5 December 08:18

  With regard to the BA IT update, there was some concern that BA would implement requiring the taxes and charges on a 2-4-1 avios booking to be paid by the actual BA card used to earn the voucher. Does anyone have real world experience of this still NOT being required for new style 2-4-1 avios companion voucher bookings post IT update? I am about to close the BA card I used to earn this new style voucher. I did a dummy avios booking on this voucher today and took it through to the payment stage. There appeared to be no change in the payment requirements with just the usual selection required of Amex personal or corporate cards. Any feedback would be appreciated.

  • Travel Strong says:

    5 Dec5 December 09:24

    Should such a change ever happen – it would be widely shared/reported on this site. There is no change – any amex is fine.

    • Magarathea says:

      5 Dec5 December 09:58

      Thanks.

  • BuildBackBetter says:

    5 Dec5 December 10:48

    Technically it’ll be difficult to impose such a restriction. Cards can be lost and new ones issued with different number, cards could expire, there could be suspicious transactions that result in card being blocked and reissued etc. They can insist on paying with another BAPP, though not sure if that can be done easily.

  • Whisper2 says:

    5 Dec5 December 11:38

    Booked last week using my wife’s 241 and paid with my BAPP as I had downgraded hers to the free Blue card as Amex cust serv had said if I cancelled the BAPP I would lose the voucher. So ok to pay with different card under different name – albeit still a BAPP

• Mark says:

  5 Dec5 December 09:10

  Anyone familiar with testing in Istanbul? Cheapest ART around?

• Can says:

  5 Dec5 December 09:32

  My annual “worst-loyalty programme” award goes to BP me rewards.
  Silly app, useless website…
  The brilliant people at my neighborhood’s BP couldn’t even scan my card, they’ve wasted a lot of my time to add my points.
  I know there are million reasons why they don’t have much incentive to run a decent loyalty programme, but still…

  • Anuj says:

    5 Dec5 December 10:34

    To make it worse you can’t even redeem the points at any BP, when I tried they said they weren’t part of redeeming.

    • Can says:

      5 Dec5 December 10:59

      +1. I’m doing it for Avios. But guess what. You can’t even set up an auto or even manual conversion because of BAs glorious IT update.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Dec5 December 11:48

    I don’t understand the issue how old is the BP? It should have a scanner compatible with scanning a phone

    Always ensure the screen brightness is all the way up and if you use some sort of universal dark mode on your phone maybe switch that off as it can mess with barcodes.

    Can even add the card to Apple wallet now so saves some hassle.

    • Can says:

      5 Dec5 December 12:08

      It was the personnel. She scanned my card *after* printing my receipt. Brilliant, I know. I was stunned and speechless, well…

  • CH says:

    5 Dec5 December 12:02

    For me it’s Boots Rewards. I can earn points for online purchases, but can’t get the app to accept my number. Instore they say I should have been issued with a plastic card. There’s a reason I only joined their program in 2021, despite collecting almost every other point available in the past 25 years….

    • Can says:

      5 Dec5 December 12:09

      Hmm, I am in the parents club thingy and we got a good run actually.

  • Chrism20 says:

    5 Dec5 December 15:19

    Never had any problems with BP but my local is a company owned one rather than a dealer which I think helps.

    The not participating in redeeming is nonsense and sounds like the staff just don’t know how to do it.

    They seem to be showering me with bonus points at the moment as well and I’ve no idea why. On shop only purchases I’m getting 50 bonus points every visit and 250 bonus points when buying fuel and no one seems to know why it when it will end but I’ve took to putting £20 of petrol in the car at a time to maximise

• Duncan says:

  5 Dec5 December 09:38

  Does anyone know how you can convert Avios to Nectar. Can’t see an online way to do this.
  Thanks

  • DAJ says:

    5 Dec5 December 10:00

    Apparently it’s down again so not possible online.

    I have a major gripe with this at the moment as I am now into day 15 since my last transfer request (Avios-Nectar) and Nectar points have still not posted. Chased up with BA chat who have emailed their back office team to chase.

    The website gives details of a Nectar contact number if there is an issue re an Avios to Nectar transfer not posting but ringing this number is clearly a waste of time as the agent has no idea what to do.

    Frustrated is an understatement!!

    Has anyone actually had a success in chasing points and if so, how was this achieved as I am sure I am not the only one in this situation and it would be helpful to share for many!

    Ta

    • Dave says:

      5 Dec5 December 10:30

      I’m getting frustrated too. I transferred 50,000 Avios to Nectar on the 24th Nov and I’m still waiting. Strange how the 50,000 Avios leaves my BA account almost instantly yet 11 days later I still have no Nectar yet if I do Nectar to Avios its instant.

      I was hoping the IT upgrade was going to improve the Avios to Nectar conversion.

    • Duncan says:

      5 Dec5 December 10:30

      Are BA perhaps trying to stem a flood of Avios to Nectar transfers. I’m sitting on a large number of points that would be of far more use in a Nectar form! There must be a great number of people thinking the same.

      • Andrew says:

        5 Dec5 December 11:16

        Yes it’s certainly convenient timing for BA

  • Can says:

    5 Dec5 December 12:10

    You wish :)) we all are ruled now by BA’s IT team

• Mart says:

  5 Dec5 December 09:45

  Off to Cheshire oaks today. Any perks similar to amex plat at Bicester? Thanks

  • Can says:

    5 Dec5 December 12:11

    Plat concierge must now. They often answer quickly

• Benilyn says:

  5 Dec5 December 10:17

  Using Vodafone Roam-further in UAE, can I tether my phone with no additional charge? I can in the UK at no charge

  • MIchael C says:

    5 Dec5 December 11:16

    Not really helpful I’m afraid, Benny, but with Three, I can tether in the EU but not in the US.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      5 Dec5 December 11:50

      Even that may change now we are no longer in the EU and companies have started putting roaming charges on.

  • Paul says:

    5 Dec5 December 11:17

    believe so, you’re just capped at 25GB total data usage per month

    • TGLoyalty says:

      5 Dec5 December 11:51

      My understanding too. I haven’t done lots of tethering in the past but the odd use abroad inc UAE didn’t incur additional charges.

    • Rob says:

      5 Dec5 December 12:26

      No tethering cap on Vodafone AFAIK.

      • Benilyn says:

        5 Dec5 December 13:30

        Thanks will be tethering then!

• Reney says:

  5 Dec5 December 10:23

  Has anyone’s PAW 25x Tesco gone into “complete” yet? Mine has been pending for almost 10 days longer than the website stated.

  • BlueHorizonUK says:

    5 Dec5 December 12:50

    Still pending

• Can says:

  5 Dec5 December 11:05

  @Rob Do we know the percentile points for Avios earners?
  For example, if I am producing 50k Avios this year, where would this place me in the whole spectrum of Avios earners: top 30%, 20%?
  What about 200k etc Avios a year?

  • Ben says:

    5 Dec5 December 11:12

    Not even top 5%

    • Alex says:

      5 Dec5 December 11:44

      Yeah I would say anything under a million probably puts you very low down for various reasons

      • Aston100 says:

        5 Dec5 December 12:11

        You seem to imply that the majority of people who earn Avios are earning over a million Avios per annum.

        • Peter K says:

          5 Dec5 December 12:38

          @Aston100 I agree with you. Surely most Avios collectors are small fry compared to those on this site. I had a friend who collected 38k avios over the course of about 6 years! He refused to listen to my advice about how to get more.
          Saying less than 1 million avios earned a year puts you “very low down” suggests a mean of well over 1M !

        • The Savage Squirrel says:

          5 Dec5 December 13:33

          Indeed. It will be a low number compared to the very top Avios earner on BA’s books.
          The average (mean) might be quite high because there will be some huge earners at the top end vs a lower range bounded at 1 (at zero you’re not an Avios earner…).
          I’ll bet the MEDIAN is very low though – there are many many many more people that take 1 or 2 flights a year – generally in econ/PE – and don’t spend serious amounts on credit cards than there are frequent 1st/Biz flyers who also play round with CCs. Maybe 50 times more of the former?

        • Can says:

          5 Dec5 December 14:46

          Obviously. Excluding the US market, which is exceptionally generous, here in the UK, I’d say 200k a year pre-pandemic would put you in top 20% of earners.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    5 Dec5 December 11:55

    https://www.iairgroup.com/en/our-brands/iag-platforms/avios Might be the place to start. Annual report probably has more detail.

    • Can says:

      5 Dec5 December 12:27

      Good point. Thanks

  • Can says:

    5 Dec5 December 12:13

    I am just genuinely curious about the distribution. How much the top 1% make in Avios annually? I’d like to know

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