The HfP chat thread – Monday 6th December

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• Dominic says:

  6 Dec6 December 10:43

  Heart-breaking moment that the Hilton I want to stay at tomorrow is sold out.

  Any tips on the best way (if any) to get immediate notification of last minute availability?

  • BJ says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:53

    Are you Dismond? If you log in before searching it should offer you guaranteed Diamond availability I believe.

    • Dominic says:

      6 Dec6 December 10:57

      Understand it to be 48 hours, not 24, unfortunately.

      Have just tried logging in – no success 🙁

      • BJ says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:24

        OK, are Hotels Tonight, the app for last minute hotel bookings still around? If so it might be worth a look for something.

      • Gavin says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:24

        Call them and ask to be put on standby?

    • Rob says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:12

      You don’t want this. The room will come with an extortionate rate attached, which covers Hilton’s costs in cancelling the booking for another guest and the compensation that will be due to that person.

    • John says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:37

      Diamond48 guarantees only apply when occupancy is under 110%, and in some cases 102%.

      102% hotels include most of the central London Hiltons, WA Edinburgh, WA Rome, Hilton Berlin and Hiltons Munich.

      https://hiltonhonors3.hilton.com/en/about/two-percent-cap-hotels.html

      Went through the process a few times just to see what the rates were and they were not outrageous (though still too high). What surprised me was that crappy hotels like DT Nottingham and even Hampton Newcastle are more than 10% overbooked on certain nights.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:08

    Call the hotel and ask the front desk?

    • Sam G says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:23

      Yes it’s worth trying to speak to someone there, they’ll know how oversold they are. if it’s only a little bit you might get a room nearer the cancellation deadline

      • BJ says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:26

        Ask for conference and events office jf they have one before asking front desk.

  • Steven says:

    6 Dec6 December 12:13

    I used the 48 hour guaranteed benefit recently. Was initially quoted a highly inflated price but upon querying this with them they dropped the rate by more than 50% so worth challenging them if you feel the price offered is unfair.

• LM says:

  6 Dec6 December 10:48

  Hi All,

  My BA Premium Plus card is coming up on a year in a few days and I don’t think I’ll renew it due to the continued uncertainty around travel. I’m going to call up today and ask to downgrade to the Blue/free/non-premium card, is there anything I should know before doing so? Want to make sure it will not effect my current 2-4-1 voucher or anything else.

  Thanks a lot.

  • AJA says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:57

    You’ll be fine. You’re keeping the BA card, just the free version. The voucher is safe despite what Amex will tell you. If you are not likely to travel you could try cancelling completely to start the 2 year period. They might offer you a retention to keep the card (not guaranteed they’ll offer anything).

  • BJ says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:58

    You will verry likely be offered 10k avkios for £3k spend to keep BAPP. Why downgrade ; you are passing up your chance to be referred by family or friend or Rob and then to get bonus for adding SUPP later.

  • WearyTraveller says:

    6 Dec6 December 10:58

    As far as I’ve heard recently they made it impossible to downgrade. The only way is to apply for the free card separately and once approved, cancel Premium Plus. Effectively the same but they’ll do a hard credit search on you whereas with the downgrades before they wouldn’t. Also takes a lot longer.

    • Rob says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:12

      It was always a fresh application – there was no smooth upgrade / downgrade as they used to have between Gold and Plat. This is because both are credit cards and the standard procedures for taking out a credit product need to be followed.

    • Sam G says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:30

      I did get downgraded on chat recently. But saw some good points here as BJ says – why do you want to keep the free card? The only reason I could see was get it to about 9k of spend then you can upgrade and you haven’t got far to go to trigger a voucher. but my travel plans for the foreseeable wouldn’t require one. So for me it was better to cancel and restart my clock (or you could get referred again to the cards if you’ve a P2/friend in the loop)

• DJ says:

  6 Dec6 December 10:59

  For the IHG Rewards scheme, will I get points and elite nights if I make a group booking for multi adult/rooms?

  Thanks

  • Duncan says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:26

    I believe the idea is that you should only get the night and points credited for one room (presumably the room you’re staying in). That said, I previously received points for all rooms when the room cost for all rooms were transferred to my own room. I believe this should NOT have happened, though.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:42

      You can only earn nights/stays for one but you can earn points for atleast 3 (9 in USA/Canada I believe)

• John says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:01

  So my new shiny IHG Rewards card that arrived Saturday apparently should not have been issued. I have just logged a complaint with the person on the phone – who was very polite but could not help. Clearly, there’s a blacklist at Creation and I’m on it as a Curve wielding malcontent…

  Account opened Nov 30th.
  Card issued and welcome letter dated Dec 1st.
  Account closed December 1st.

  • Lady London says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:43

    It sounds like they withdrew the card before the completion of 60 days notice they had to give individually? In which case add this to your complaint

  • IH says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:49

    My IHG card was closed on the 3rd, but I received a letter today telling me my credit limit has been increased.

    • Lady London says:

      6 Dec6 December 13:05

      Folks, keep all these contradictory letters and sendings. They prove serious inconsistency and dissonance in Creation’s actions. Especially if there are lots about, being able to present them should be taken into account in terms of evaluating Creation’s actions by ombudsman or judge and may make things Creation tries to say, less believable to those

• AndrewM says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:01

  Hey folks, maybe some expierence needed. With the new changes in needing a preflight Lat flow test, will my wife need one? She is due to fly tonight with BA from Rio de Janeiro to London. Departure time is before the rules come into effect, but will be effective when she arrives in London. Will be BA staff request a certificate when she is trying to board the plane? Thanks

  • Rhys says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:10

    Yes

  • AJA says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:16

    I agree with Rhys however Polly says not according to the info she received from You First for her flight from Singapore tonight, apparently it is departure time that the triggers the need. (See discussion initiated by Robin at 9:08am on page 2).

  • HH says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:25

    All the wording on gov.uk suggests it’s the departure time that counts, e.g. “From 4am 7 December, you must take the test in the 2 days before your service to England departs.”

    • Sam G says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:32

      You have to wonder who comes up with these things sometimes. 4am local? GMT? Departure from origin or connecting point? Border force will have people arriving with a mixture of needing it/not needing it on Tuesday. Would have been far better to say ARRIVING from 4am 7 December then it’s very easy to understand

      • John says:

        6 Dec6 December 11:41

        It will the airline that enforces it and unless you’re willing to go to court (and change your flight) it may be beneficial to assume the most restrictive interpretation.

        I expect if you took the least restrictive interpretation (and managed to board a flight to the UK), the BF would accept your explanation. Or you would succeed in defending yourself from a fine, but you still have the hassle of going to court.

        • Pete M says:

          6 Dec6 December 11:51

          That assumes Border Force will be asking/checking, which is pretty unlikely…

        • Sam G says:

          6 Dec6 December 11:53

          Yes unlikely – the onus is really on the airlines to enforce (and judging by the flights I took it was really the only thing they had a hard look at and I saw people get denied boarding over – PLF usually they just asked if you’d done it). on UK side I went through egates each time and didn’t show anything to anyone at the border

    • AJA says:

      6 Dec6 December 14:49

      I agree it does state that “From 4am 7 December, you must take the test in the 2 days before your service to England departs” and this is repeated further down under the subtitle “When to take your test”. The trouble is that it then goes on to say:
      “Until 4am 7 December, you can take the test any time in the 3 days before the service on which you will arrive in England departs.

      For example, if you travel directly to England on Friday, you could take a test any time on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. The test result must be available for boarding.”

      So that suggests to me that they are tightening the time period in which you can take the test from 3 days down to 2 days for arrivals after 4am on 7 December.

  • AJA says:

    6 Dec6 December 17:36

    @ AndrewM Your wife will definitely need a pre-flight test, See Polly’s comments on p1 and p9. She was initially refused boarding in Singapore as she didn’t have a test and BA insisted that it was needed.

    • Lady London says:

      6 Dec6 December 22:22

      Denied boarding. EU261.
      Not sure how much think it’s 600 Euros/£520 for the Denied Boarding compo – easy to prove with the .gov.uk printout. Polly even spoke to YouFirst and got it OK’d that she didn’t need a test for departure!!!!!!

      Plus, Duty of Care part of EU261 gives any extra hotel expenses and transport expenses (eg to and from hotel) plus comms expenses (couple of calls or internet) plus meals for the extra time due to the incorrectly Denied Boarding…

    • Polly says:

      7 Dec7 December 12:23

      AJA

      Not BA, it was the local check in agents who claimed they had to obey their boarding rules. BA didn’t even direct them. It was locally decided… unreal!

• elguiri says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:02

  Does anyone have experience of Heathrow Medical on bath road for Day 0-2 PCR tests (next day £55)?
  As we are parked at the thistle and this is only a 5 min drive, was thinking maybe less stress than another at the terminal? If not, what is general consensus on least-fuss (due to little’un with us) for T5 arrival?

  • roger says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:18

    I used randox click and collect tested in the car park and dropped in the Dropbox. No complaint. Result within 20 hours

    • AndrewM says:

      6 Dec6 December 11:51

      I arrived yesterday at LHR. Also used Randox Click and Collect £35. Chose a location on the way and picked it up and did test straight away. Dropped it at next best location on route home.

  • Lady London says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:45

    £59 Haloverify at T5 has been reported as saliva not a via-nose brain insertion and 5hr results

• FCP says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:10

  Anybody have any luck getting through to Amex Travel?
  I cancelled a booking with them 3 weeks ago, but no email confirmation or refund on account yet.
  Online chat not active, email says to use chat or call, call takes hours to get an agent.

  • davef says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:27

    Use the call back option. I’ve been called back after 2 hours then around 4 hours. Saves you hanging on. It keeps your place in the queue and calls you back when you’re next up

  • Js says:

    6 Dec6 December 12:41

    You can Email them, the usually respond even when the email is not monitored!

• Jamil says:

  6 Dec6 December 11:13

  How does everyone navigate the umpteen Covid test options there especially via the list of providers on gov.uk site? My sister and 2 kids is flying from Doha to LHR and she needs to do her 0-2 day tests when they arrive regardless of vaccination status. It genuinely seems like an unnecessary expense as I doubt Covid symptoms will appear after a 6/7 hour flight…

  Since she is supposed to self-isolate until the results come back, I’ll need to look for a quicker result option. She’ll be staying in London

  • Sam G says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:33

    Check out Halo at Sofitel if she arrives early enough, otherwise there are some same day options in London e.g. Concepto for the next morning

  • Anna says:

    6 Dec6 December 11:38

    A few people have mentioned the facility at the Sofitel hotel, which is handy for T5 arrivals. How old are the children? Previously anyone over 5 had to also take an arrival test, I’m assuming this is the case again now.

    • Polly says:

      7 Dec7 December 12:26

      Sofitel Halo was mobbed this morning, kids too…opens at 05.00. Aircrew by the dozen, along with pax like us. Their app is complicated. It wouldn’t accept my dob, or my OH departure time. V weird. We ended up having to log on their own system… but anyhow we did it, and so glad this is almost over. No results yet tho…

  • Sam G says:

    6 Dec6 December 12:03

    Another one I found is https://hasudiagnostics.com/ – £50pp same day if you submit by 3pm (or they’ve a 3-6hr emergency option) (note:- calendar takes a while to load)

    It’s in Slough but depending on where you are headed this might not be too bad. I’ve got some friends arriving into T2 at 5.55am and we’re planning to use this for them as it’s only a small diversion for us back to Buckinghamshire

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