Bits: Indian visa changes, Sofitel Terminal 5, how HfP impacted East Coast Rewards

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• CV says:

  18 Mar18 March 20:00

  On he subject of Heathrow hotels – there is a promo on at the Thistle which gives free use of those pods for transferring into T5. Small print shows dates its running:

  Out of all the Heathrow hotels, Thistle is the only one to offer completely free of charge transfers to and from Terminal 5 via the Ultra Pod Network for a limited time only*.

  *Take advantage of this exclusive offer on all bookings made directly on our website between 2nd March 2015 – April 19th 2015. Offer valid only for stays before April 19th 2015.

  • Rob says:

    18 Mar18 March 22:33

    Hadn’t seen this, will do a post,

• TomTom says:

  19 Mar19 March 10:12

  Does anyone know if this is affecting Sri Lanka visas?

• JT2015 says:

  19 Mar19 March 22:46

  Hilarious. Just doesn’t sound like a true story unfortunately. But a very good excuse I would personally make to get out of a “three-generation” holiday.

  “You cannot arrange dates for children to guarantee that they do not need to be taken out of school.”
  DOES ANY EMBASSY WORK ON WEEKENDS?!

  “On top of all this, the fee has been raised to £92 from £38. This meant a cost of over £1,000 for this family including photographs, Special Delivery postage costs etc.”
  YES – IT IS A FAMILY OF NINE PEOPLE AFTER ALL. YOU DON’T GET BULK DISCOUNTS UNFORTUNATELY. IF YOU ARE SUPPOSEDLY BOOKING A LONG-HAUL HOLIDAY, SURELY ANOTHER 100 POUNDS PER HEAD WON’T BE THE DECIDING FACTOR IN WHETHER OR NOT YOU TAKE A TRIP?

  “Faced with the virtual impossibility of being able to get a visa for every family member, he had no choice but to cancel.
  VIRTUAL IMPOSSIBILITY? WELL, IF YOU HAVE TRAVELED TO DUBIOUS COUNTRIES IN THE PAST, THEN YES, THERE WILL BE VIRTUAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF GETTING A VISA. BUT SURELY PAYING FOR SPECIAL POSTAGE AND PHOTOGRAPHS DOESN’T MAKE THE CUT??

  Some money and Avios (he had done a ‘miles for upgrade’ booking) will be returned but he has had to take a loss of £3,000 over the nine seats.”
  SO TO AVOID SPENDING THE EXTRA £92 PER HEAD ON VISA FEES, HE CHOSE TO LET GO OF £3,000?

  • Rob says:

    20 Mar20 March 09:26

    No, embassies do not generally work weekends. The Indian Embassy system spits out random dates and times so no guarantee a party can be seen together. It would have involved taking the kids out of school and getting elderly grandparents to London for full biometric screening. Faced this all this and the need to double down with another £1k for the visas, he decided to fold.

    What I did not mention in the article is that he had already found availability for a different holiday which he could pay for with the Avios and cash refund (less £3k). The family is now having a holiday and they are not paying out any more money on top of what is already spent, albeit they have still lost £3k.

• Labels says:

  19 Mar19 March 23:47

  Labels

  Sofitel Heathrow Terminal 5 discount

• Rob says:

  22 Mar22 March 09:33

  Amazing – although not surprising. You see, British bureaucracy isn’t that bad by global standards despite what people think!

  • fiona says:

    22 Mar22 March 09:45

    Yes. Even just filling in the application is a nightmare. I get stressed every year! The website is also a disaster area.

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