The HfP chat thread – Monday 6th December

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• Sukes says:

  6 Dec6 December 16:32

  Following on from BuildBackBetter’s heads-up earlier, news outlets are reporting Health Sec’s statement on Omicron is expected 5.15pm.

  • Pete M says:

    6 Dec6 December 16:36

    Shut all the borders! 🙂

    • NvT1115 says:

      6 Dec6 December 16:48

      He will apparently announce community transmission of Omicron is already happening according to Sky News so the horse has already bolted…

      • TGLoyalty says:

        6 Dec6 December 17:45

        Did you think it wouldn’t? It’s been here for weeks not day.

        You find out about new variants while it’s already spreading around the globe.

  • John Caribbean says:

    6 Dec6 December 16:47

    Isn’t he just going to tell parliament about the testing measures he implemented at the weekend, and the Nigeria ban

    • Geoff 1977 says:

      6 Dec6 December 16:59

      Yes. There’s no actual announcement

    • Chrisasaurus says:

      6 Dec6 December 17:11

      Yes, announcements are conducted via Twitter nowadays and this is paperwork essentially

  • Polly says:

    6 Dec6 December 18:00

    What did they say pls?

    • Geoff 1977 says:

      6 Dec6 December 18:34

      Bbc news, sky news etc are reporting the details

      • Geoff 1977 says:

        6 Dec6 December 18:35

        I do enjoy reading this thread most days.

        A lot of laughs 😂

• BJ says:

  6 Dec6 December 16:34

  Just saw a comment from @Polly on p1 that she was denied boarding
  ; was there any update to that, seems they were searching for rapid tests at the time.

  • Polly says:

    6 Dec6 December 16:50

    See p 9, BJ, got on, just!

    • Polly says:

      6 Dec6 December 16:52

      Dubious was trying to find us a local clinic near airport. Seriously a nightmare experience..bit Raffles medical suddenly got a raft of staff in to test us..

      • Anna says:

        6 Dec6 December 17:43

        Oh gosh, stressful start and end to your trip 😟. Hope you get home without further incident, Polly! Definitely calls for alcohol.

      • Lady London says:

        6 Dec6 December 21:27

        Raffles Medical!!!! The ones that did the original extra-special factor testing on your negative test that got you locked up for 4 days??? Oh, Polly, I must go back to pages 1 and 9 and read this now….!!!!

    • BJ says:

      6 Dec6 December 16:53

      Wow, great! Hope you can relax at last 🙂

    • Lyn says:

      6 Dec6 December 17:19

      Such good news Polly! What a horrible shock that must have been for you. You aren’t likely to forget this trip in a hurry. As BJ says, hope you can finally start relaxing now you are onboard and they’ve stocked plenty of champagne for the flight.

      • Deb20 says:

        6 Dec6 December 17:51

        Having flown F on that route regularly pre-pandemic, I can say based on experience that they often used to run out of champagne on the SIN – LHR sector, because they ran out during the outbound flight.

        Hopefully Polly has a better experience, she deserves it after her ordeal.

• roger says:

  6 Dec6 December 16:37

  Anyone received further letter from Creation?
  I received mine with an option to complaint to Financial Ombudsman if I cannot wait for more time for them to respond to my complaint (card cancellation leading to loss of points, no crediting of points, no pro-rata refund etc.)

  • James W says:

    6 Dec6 December 16:56

    Loss of points? I have 3 months they have not credited I am ringing them tomorrow to find out what’s going on as though they are closing my account they owe me £600 worth of points

    • Anna says:

      6 Dec6 December 17:44

      Let us know if they say anything other than, “You’re not getting them”, which is what everyone else has been told so far!

      • John says:

        6 Dec6 December 17:47

        Is the overwhelming response from her is to take this to the ombudsman?

        Or is there another tact being discussed?

        • Lady London says:

          6 Dec6 December 21:25

          H*ll yes.
          JDB has advised to give them their 8 weeks, then another couple of weeks as if they can come up with some pathetic excuse that they plan to bring to the Ombudsman, then it’s better to try to get them to tell us first so we can fully nail whatever rubbish they come up with in our complaint to the FOS

          (Paraphrased you a bit, JDB, but I know you will agree with the sentiment of giving them a bit more than the 8 weeks just in case we can catch sight of their likely defense 🙂 )

    • Anastasia Beaverhausen says:

      6 Dec6 December 17:57

      Good luck getting through.
      Tried 4 times today only to be told the waiting time was over 60 minutes. And it takes 4 minutes just for them to tell you that. They stop at 17:30. They weren’t working at all yesterday when my card got blocked and I needed to use it.

  • Dee says:

    6 Dec6 December 17:50

    I never even received a first letter. Just noticed it wasn’t working today. Called them up and all they would say was it was cancelled for a “business reason”, wouldn’t say what that reason was. They said they emailed me. Then changed their tune to a “letter”. Feels like bullshit. 10 days coming up in SS Laamu. Honestly, this will probably see me using IHG hotels less.

    • Anna says:

      6 Dec6 December 18:54

      All this stuff needs to be included in any eventual FOS complaints, it makes Creation look beyond incompetent.

      • Lady London says:

        6 Dec6 December 21:31

        Yes. Keep everything.
        Like, if your card just suddently stopped and no warning, or stopped early, note this exactly.
        If you received a card renewal or a credit limit increase days (or seconds) before the time you’d been told the card would be cancelled, keep hold of any message or letter you received.

        It all goes to show that Creation is disorganised, inconsistent, and just possibly dishonest. The more people that including these types of things in their complaint to Creation, and FOS, and MCOL, the worse it looks for Creation’s behaviour and decisions having been acceptable to an Ombudsman or judge.

        If this was a film, it’d have Peter Sellers in it (The Pink Panther films).

• YFP says:

  6 Dec6 December 17:20

  Question on Flying Blue: I’m 8 XP away from silver. I had a flight to Austria planned for next week for Xmas markets, but following testing changes + Austria might still be in lockdown, not planning on taking it. Is there any other way to earn flying blue xp? I’m happy to even do a back to back flight if there was no testing requirements!

  • Pablo says:

    6 Dec6 December 17:34

    Can you fly from London to Scotland via Amsterdam or would that require testing?

    • YFP says:

      6 Dec6 December 17:38

      Yeah, i was looking at that after I posted. Website says

      “You do not need to take a test if you began your journey to England from:

      Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, St Helena or Ascension.!

      So in theory shouldn’t need to, but can’t see anything that specifically talks about transits

  • David D says:

    6 Dec6 December 17:56

    Contact Flying Blue customer services, and ask very, very nicely. They may give you the 8 XP for silver if it is that close and you can show you have had flights booked which you have needed to cancel due to changes in Covid regulations.

    • YFP says:

      6 Dec6 December 18:00

      Thanks, might try that instead!

  • Lady London says:

    6 Dec6 December 21:33

    I’m pretty sure Flying Blue has 1-2 promotions on that get you double XP’s

    • Rob says:

      6 Dec6 December 22:25

      You get 5XP when you link your account to your Accor Hotels account and do your first Accor stay (cheap Ibis? just NOT an Ibis Budget as they don’t count).

• BlueHorizonUK says:

  6 Dec6 December 17:26

  Hiya, on the list of restaurants included in the Amex £200 which of the New York ones is best?

  Thank You

• Njb says:

  6 Dec6 December 17:31

  Currently in Aspire Newcastle airport after a weekend up north. There was a problem eith my priority pass but staff were excellent at sorting it out.
  Finishing off a weekend booked through using the avios deal and reward points. Principal York gave me upgrade to 1 bed suite – but the hotel is a mess as far as onsite customer service goes and the suite was tiny.

  • Njb says:

    6 Dec6 December 17:35

    Sorry for typos! Forgot to mention York trip included The Ivy last night. Goodness knows how I travelled before I found this site!

  • Chrism20 says:

    6 Dec6 December 18:54

    There hasn’t been many good things said about the Principal in York. I’m sure Rob done a review a while back

    • Rob says:

      6 Dec6 December 21:20

      Indeed. Amazing public areas, bad rooms.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Dec6 December 21:24

    IHG are making a real mess of those Principal integration aren’t they!

• Tracey says:

  6 Dec6 December 17:35

  FTV question. I have a large FTV given for 2 people. Can it be split? A could use it on business travel, but B can’t.

  • Anna says:

    6 Dec6 December 18:57

    Tracey – I haven’t tried myself but I’ve seen reported on here that they can be partly used and “change” given, and also that you can get them refunded so I think that in theory you could use part of it to book the business trip for one of the passengers. I think it would only be a problem possibly if there was a 241 in the FTV. As with any FTV booking though, you’re going to have to call and possibly contend with a CSA who doesn’t know the answer!

    • Tracey says:

      6 Dec6 December 19:24

      Thanks. Slightly annoyed that cancelling the cash flights yesterday and rebooking rewards flights in the same call, I couldn’t put the cash against the taxes and charges. However the refund has now come through in the shape of an eVoucher not an FTV, so more flexibility going forward.

    • Nick says:

      6 Dec6 December 19:25

      The PNR with FTV can be split, no problem (unless 2-4-1 voucher involved). Then the two pax can each do different things. Standard procedure, won’t have any issue doing this. ‘Change’ will be issued as residual value, either an e-voucher (over £20) or cash (if under £20). But note that this is per pax, you can’t just rebook 1 pax and have the whole of the 2nd’s value refunded this way.

• sloth says:

  6 Dec6 December 17:42

  Nectar – do they/Sainsburys still insist you have shopped in the particular supermarket 24 hours before you actually want to spend points in there?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    6 Dec6 December 17:46

    Yes

    • Sloth says:

      6 Dec6 December 20:56

      Thanks

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