The HfP chat thread – Thursday 9th December

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

• Andrew says:

  9 Dec9 December 09:02

  LNER Offers are back on LBG for online bookings. Just 5% though.

  • Dani says:

    9 Dec9 December 09:25

    And nectar connect for double dip

• Nick says:

  9 Dec9 December 09:09

  How long are you finding the Amex travel offer takes to credit? I’m wondering whether to raise a complaint yet, it’s been a while.

  • Shaw West says:

    9 Dec9 December 09:11

    Took most part of 3 weeks for me

    • Andrew says:

      9 Dec9 December 09:53

      +1 very slow

  • Bobajob says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:00

    You should raise a complaint. I booked a hotel via AmEx Travel and received the confirmation but no credit after a week. I raised a query via the chat and it was resolved within a couple of days.

  • ShopBig says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:09

    FWIW fairly quick except for the transaction in early November (flight booking) took nearly 2 weeks+, my subsequent bookings have been hotels –

    27 Nov transaction – £100 posted 6 Dec
    20 Nov transaction – £100 posted 24 Nov

• Shaw West says:

  9 Dec9 December 09:10

  Is the Virgin App down. Neither my activity is shown nor my Voucher

  • The Streets says:

    9 Dec9 December 09:20

    Yeah I’ve been struggling the past few days. It just about let me make a booking on the desktop yesterday

  • Bearing up says:

    9 Dec9 December 09:47

    I’ve been trying to access VA Flyer for days now with no success. Just keeps advising either of the email address, Mem no or password are wrong. Not so, IT issues their end?

  • Bob says:

    9 Dec9 December 11:25

    finally able to login to the app today for the first time since the weekend. still no activity showing though.

• Gary says:

  9 Dec9 December 09:22

  Halo Verify LHR T5 in person day 2 PCR yesterday. Sample submitted 10am and result (negative) only came 9pm, so not quite the 5-hour turnaround one was expecting.

• Lubomir Atanassov says:

  9 Dec9 December 10:00

  Hi there – nuanced question, hoping all of you can help. Briefly:
  – We live in Ireland
  – Plan to travel to South Africa on BA, transiting in LHR
  – If on those tickets (CPT – DUB via LHR), would we need to have mandatory quarantine in London on our return given the CTA? Seems silly, as Ireland have their own quarantine requirements
  – BA are not helpful and I can’t find anything crystal-clear online
  – Bonus question: What if we cancel the tix through LHR and get something via Istanbul or Doha?

  • Rhys says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:04

    No, you don’t have to quarantine if you are just transiting through LHR.

    • Lubomir Atanassov says:

      9 Dec9 December 10:10

      Hmm, just checked LHR’s website, they say this:

      Transiting within the Common Travel Area (UK and Ireland)
      Passengers must:
      – Take a pre departure test before arriving in England
      – Complete a passenger locator form
      – Book a managed hotel quarantine package at Heathrow

      • John says:

        9 Dec9 December 10:24

        Yes you would have to do UK hotel quarantine unless you transit same day to outside the CTA.

        Because the UK will force you to pass through immigration (even though you need to go through immigration again in DUB), you would be treated the same as anyone with a UK final destination.

        You could try to change the LHR-DUB to LHR-CDG or similar, which shouldn’t be expensive, then make your own way from there directly to Ireland.

        • Rhys says:

          9 Dec9 December 10:32

          I stand corrected! Weird that it is different for CTA/non-CTA.

      • JDB says:

        9 Dec9 December 10:27

        The .gov site is consistent with LHR

        Travelling on within the Common Travel Area (CTA) after an international journey
        If you will be travelling on from England to Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Island or the Isle of Man after an international journey, you must:

        follow the rules for testing and quarantine in those places
        take a COVID-19 test before you travel to England
        Read separate guidance about COVID-19 testing before travel to England

        If you have been in a red list country in the 10 days before you arrive, you must quarantine in a managed hotel at the airport where you arrive in England.

        You should book your managed hotel package before you travel.

        • Lubomir Atanassov says:

          9 Dec9 December 12:21

          Thanks. My gripe with the gov.uk position is that I won’t really be “arriving” in the UK – so really unclear if it applied to transiting.

          I guess it’s case closed – quarantine in UK will be needed (if I plan to travel directly to Dublin). I can (1) transit outside the CTA and spend 10 joyful days not in quarantine on a beach somewhere or (2) go somewhere else and loop to Ireland and then quarantine at home – both cases are better

  • TGLoyalty says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:07

    You would have to isolate for the time you’re in the U.K. if your flight time meant you had an overnight near LHR.

    The isolation rules allows for travel to an onward location you’re not forced to isolate until a pcr result if you have no intention of staying in the U.K.

    • John says:

      9 Dec9 December 10:28

      Not when coming from a red list country and staying in the CTA.

      You can transit same-day (airside and landside) from a red list country to outside the CTA. Overnight is not legally allowed even though people have done it in practice – because there weren’t any quarantine hotels for them to go to

      • TGLoyalty says:

        9 Dec9 December 10:51

        I can’t believe it’s intended to be that way.

        Ireland is a 3rd nation and able to choose how it deals with its immigration.

        To be safe I guess it’s best to transit via CDG etc.

        • JDB says:

          9 Dec9 December 11:06

          It is intended to be that way as otherwise it would present a huge loophole for people to avoid quarantine hotels on arrival from red list countries.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Dec9 December 11:35

          How is it a loophole to live in Ireland?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          9 Dec9 December 11:37

          The actual loophole of flying TO Ireland and arriving in the U.K. as a domestic passenger who never passes immigration is still open.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:44

    Reading all of the above, in practice I think it depends if you live in Northern Ireland or Ireland and if you hold a UK or Irish passport as to what border force would expect from you.

    However, I would just go via the Bahamas or something, e,njoy the holiday, no worries or ifs and buts

• chrism20 says:

  9 Dec9 December 10:02

  Airtime code “SANTA”

  £2 back on £10 spend today. Limited to 2000. Posted at 10am on Facebook.

  • Reney says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:48

    sorry for posting twice, comments aren’t loading properly for me this morning.

  • rams says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:55

    thanks

• Jimmy says:

  9 Dec9 December 10:12

  Is amex payments working for all? Just tried a curve payment but its saying error. Tried on desktop and on app.

  • Sean says:

    9 Dec9 December 12:59

    been down for me for 2 days now.

• elguiri says:

  9 Dec9 December 10:23

  Just filling in the Spanish health form – do I need to include middle names (as per passport) or not (as per NHS covid certificate)? I presume the latter as it mentions certificate, but this could just be bad translation for passport/ID card, and it asks for passport number on the same section of the form.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    9 Dec9 December 10:28

    I’ve been to Spain twice.

    Never added my middle names to the form.

    • elguiri says:

      9 Dec9 December 10:44

      Thanks.
      Did you get the nhs certificate pdf to validate when uploading? Mine comes back with an error “Error in the number of doses required. ”
      I have had 2 doses and a recovery inbetween. I thought the recovery page could be the issue so split the pdf and tried uploading just the vaccinations page, but same error…

      • Anna says:

        9 Dec9 December 11:52

        The NHS app has been playing up since yesterday. Can you print the PDF and scan it to the Spanish health form (or save it in your documents and do it that way)? We scanned and uploaded our printed NHS letters in the summer as that was the easiest option at the time (AND took the paper copies with us as they checked these at check in and on arrival at TFS!)
        Don’t need middle name. The Spanish authorities get a bit confused about non-Spanish naming as Spanish people generally have no middle name and 2 surnames, but one given name and one surname will be fine for anything official.
        I assume you know all this, though, given your handle?!

        • elguiri says:

          9 Dec9 December 12:45

          I didn’t seem to have any issues with NHS app, in that I could produce the pdf without an issue, download it and email it to myself. Just uploading it to the spanish health form didn’t work, each time saying “error in number of doses”.
          I have now ticked the box to say validation didn’t work, it then gives me a QR code to use so that’s fine, but says it will be manually checked on entry which might cause a delay.
          I know about the double surnames, and not so often middle names, yes, as you note from my handle. Was just worried that it didn’t match my passport, and could cause an issue at border – but seeing from your and stevenhp1987’s comments, i’ll not worry any more 🙂

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