The HfP chat thread – Saturday 11th December

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• Will says:

  11 Dec11 December 10:28

  Is the BA website down for anyone else?

  • BJ says:

    11 Dec11 December 10:37

    Worked fine for me 6-7am.

    • Will says:

      11 Dec11 December 10:42

      Ash its the VPN it doesn’t like

• Mart says:

  11 Dec11 December 10:57

  Currently in Dubai just had a email from air France of a schedule change on our return flights in 11 days time.
  Tickets booked on virgin miles.
  The departing flight leaves Dubai 2 hrs later so we miss out connecting flight to Manchester and now arrive 6 1/2 hrs later.Wont be able to get home on train now.
  No idea if we are entitled to anything but doesn’t half put a spoiler on your holidays.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:02

    Don’t let it put a spoiler on 600 euro each compo and you can claim your taxi or hotel night due to missing last train.

    • Mart says:

      11 Dec11 December 11:52

      We already got $600 from Qatar airways on our outgoing journey despite arriving sooner than schedule.
      Very generous of these rich airlines to give back to the poor😂

• Peter says:

  11 Dec11 December 11:01

  Samsung Pay powered by Curve.. is this some sort of Curve Card that accepts Amex? Can you have it not having Samsung?

  • Sam G says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:12

    Just looks like Samsung branded Curve. So no Amex acceptance

    • Peter says:

      11 Dec11 December 14:12

      Well Amex is mentioned on their website, shown in images..
      https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-pay/

      • AndyW says:

        11 Dec11 December 14:22

        Just looks like Apple Pay doesn’t it? You are just paying on the underlying card, there is nothing in front of it.

      • Sam G says:

        11 Dec11 December 15:26

        yes you can use an amex in samsung pay. or a curve. or this samsung pay/curve which I don’t see the point in. But there is no angle to use Amex anywhere you can’t currently since an Amex in Samsung Pay still looks like an Amex to the shop

  • Jamjaw says:

    11 Dec11 December 15:25

    Samsung pay is like apple pay. Samsung pay plus is a samaung branded curve card.

    Former takes Amex, later does not.

    • Peter says:

      11 Dec11 December 16:04

      Thanks Jamjaw, that’s clear now!

• Crafty says:

  11 Dec11 December 11:04

  New Hyatt offer, open to all members I think. 2,022 Bonus Points for every 2 eligible nights stayed between 15/1 and 20/4. Need to register.

• Barraclough says:

  11 Dec11 December 11:05

  What is the value of Etihad guest miles? Has HfP ever put a value range on these or can someone point me to an article on it. I haven’t found one via Google.

  I ask as I’ll be closing my Amex cards to start the two year fallow period and I’m looking for a home to keep the MR points I’ve earned flexible.

  A few weeks ago I asked on here about this for my wife and the advice was to use Marriott Bonvoy. Whilst there was a loss of value the flexibility that Marriott gives looks good and she is happy with the transfer she made, but I’d like to compare with Etihad first before moving my own MR points.

  Btw, I would have added this post to the forum but not many people are replying in the forum at the moment. Hopefully next week when posts get transferred to the forum it will really take off. It looks really good.

  • Not Long Now... says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:24

    Almost certainly not the best return available but we cashed ours out for Amazon vouchers, 26,000 Etihad miles for £125.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:55

    Why would you speculatively transfer to zero had? Do they fly where you want to fly? Are redemptions easy to come by? Taxes cheap?

    If you’re going to speculate then send to Avios. Even if you don’t want to fly BA or oneworld you can swap them for 0.8p at sainsburys and use the cash saved on groceries to pay for a flight or hotel you want.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      11 Dec11 December 11:56

      Etihad not zero had. Bloody iPhone.

    • Barraclough says:

      11 Dec11 December 12:28

      Thanks TGLoyalty. I’m not too interested in Etihad destinations but I already have about 150,000 Avios and two companion vouchers and would like the flexibility to use my Amex MR points for other airlines. If I transfer the Amex points into Etihad miles I could at a future stage use them to book on 27 other Star Alliance airlines including Air Canada which I’d like to use later next year.

      It’s just I’m not sure if I’m missing something or if the value of Etihed miles works out worse than the 0.8p I could get doing the Avios/Nectar route, or the approx 1p plus I aim for when booking flights with Avios.

      • meta says:

        11 Dec11 December 13:53

        Etihad is not a member of Star Alliance. They have partner airlines (some of which are part of Star Alliance), but for most partner bookings you need to call to book and even check dates. Also Etihad has an expiry of 18 months if you don’t earn another mile. Realistically your 150k Avios and 2 vouchers won’t get you further than 1 trip in First to East Coast and one Euro trip (not always a good value) with a bit of left over.

        If you want to retain flexibility, then best to transfer to Bonvoy. But then it depends really where you want to fly.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        11 Dec11 December 13:54

        Etihad isn’t a star alliance member. You can’t redeem on them all Lufthansa groups are all a no for example.

        It has about 20 airlines you can redeem on including AA and Air Canada – https://www.etihadguest.com/en/spend-miles/flying.html

        Personally I wouldn’t be speculatively sticking 150k miles in a programme I’m not sure is actually good value. There are sweet spots in every programme but unless they are flights you’re actually likely to take it’s no use to you.

      • Barraclough says:

        11 Dec11 December 17:12

        Thanks Meta and TGLoyalty for explaining Etihad’s partner arrangements. I’ve been following HfP for four years but it just goes to show I’ve still got a lot to learn! Looks like I need to focus on building up more Avios to get the most out of the Companion vouchers.

• Not Long Now... says:

  11 Dec11 December 11:13

  Anybody any idea how I can change my allocated seat on an upcoming AA flight (BA ticketed, BA Silver)? AA website refusing to recognise booking ref of ticket number, or even flight number and departure date….

  • JonnyFly says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:19

    I think you need the Sabre booking ref/PNR/locator for the AA flights – which will be different from the BA (Amadeus) one. It should be in MMB somewhere.

    • Not Long Now... says:

      11 Dec11 December 11:35

      Any idea where, scoured the email receipt and all MMB options I can find… juggling 9hrs in a less than ideal seat with trying to phone BA. Guess what’s winning…

      • dougzz99 says:

        11 Dec11 December 11:38

        Follow the process to change the seat from the BA MMB, on the screen before you get transferred to AA you’ll see the AA PNR.

        • Not Long Now... says:

          11 Dec11 December 11:49

          Brilliant, thanks very much!! Not the most obvious unless you know it’s there, and a bit weird they each have different references for the same booking, but job done.

        • dougzz99 says:

          11 Dec11 December 12:07

          BA use Amadeus for their system, and AA use Sabre, so not so joined up. Phoning BA or AA they’ll always tell you, but not the easiest people to contact. At present this works, but as ever with these things it’ll just randomly change and at some point and work differently. If you have more complex itineraries it gets even more muddled, if you book with BA you’ll possibly have more than one AA PNR, depending on whether they’re booked as code shares or on the prime flight number. All part of the travel booking joy.

        • John says:

          11 Dec11 December 12:27

          For the other way around – having the AA PNR but not the BA – one used to be able to look up the reservation in Qantas’ website of all places as they seemed able to translate between the two.

      • Biki says:

        11 Dec11 December 11:42

        You can try using chat on ba website rather than calling

  • Tracey says:

    11 Dec11 December 18:49

    Phone AA, much easier than BA.

• JonnyFly says:

  11 Dec11 December 11:14

  Day 2 testing data point – Randox PCR £43 in case it helps anyone:
  7pm – flight landed (Thu)
  9pm – took PCR test at home
  9.50pm Dropped into Randox Drop Box at 9pm (Hampstead Town Hall)
  1pm Friday – Email confirming sample already at lab
  7pm Result email (negative)
  Seemed like a good option for an evening flight arrival without having to faff around at LHR/Sofitel.

  • CH says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:34

    Randox Heathrow walkin testing: samples taken 0830, at lab 1145, results back 1945 same day.

    • CH says:

      11 Dec11 December 11:34

      £50 with the BA discount. Testing site is the carpal of the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow.

• Sam G says:

  11 Dec11 December 11:16

  Has anyone recently got Easyjet to check in free cabin bags “Hands Free” due to booking prior to the last lot of changes back in Feb? I’ve still got the email but I have changed the flight since (same booking ref though) and it doesn’t have any detailed T&C attached.

  At £184.90 to add enough cabin bags for my party of 5 both ways I shall certainly be giving it a go anyway but wondered how much of a pushback I’ll get….

  • yorkieflyer says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:30

    I’m certainly hoping the same but won’t be able to test till March

  • Lady London says:

    11 Dec11 December 12:51

    I would like to know this too.

  • Sam G says:

    11 Dec11 December 14:03

    OK – looks like I’ll be the experiment then 🙂 will be sure to report back

    • yorkieflyer says:

      11 Dec11 December 14:46

      Thanks Sam 😬

  • Nick Booker says:

    11 Dec11 December 15:31

    I had this situation in October. I contacted Customer services and they sent me an email to show at bag drop

    • SamG says:

      11 Dec11 December 16:28

      thanks. I got the email but anyone flying since November couldn’t have booked their original schedule before the policy was changed (1 Dec 2020, winter went on sale mid Dec) so I was wondering if they’d honor it just based on booking ref matching.

      • Zara says:

        11 Dec11 December 17:39

        I was fine. We travelled in October but booked the prior year. In fact as we had two sets of cancelled flights, the names were actually even changed to our family friends and the lady at the gate just matched the initial reference number and let them all in. We also had bought the £1 luggage when it was on last year at some point so we had 5 x hand luggage and 5 x hold luggage on one booking, which we shared with the booking that was made after rules had changed. So you should be fine!
        We have flights next week where we have no luggage or hand luggage so I’m not looking forward to paying for them!

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