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Bits: new Supercard charges?, Gatwick Express delay repay, more HfP party prizes

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News in brief:

Supercard adds new fees

The Travelex Supercard is an excellent way to make purchases abroad whilst still earning miles and points.

Available free (download the app here and apply), you will receive a MasterCard which can be linked to any other Visa or Mastercard you own.  You make purchases abroad, Supercard converts them to Sterling with no foreign exchange fees and then recharges your other Visa or Mastercard in £.

If your other Visa or Mastercard is a rewards card, this means you earn points without incurring any FX fees.  This typically saves 3% on every purchase.

Supercard has just updated its terms and conditions – see here.

As far as I can tell, this is new:

E-Commerce Transactions within the UK (non-sterling transactions) – £1 + 1%

POS Transactions within the UK (non-sterling transactions) – £1 + 1%

This means that transactions undertaken ‘within the UK’ which are not in £ are not free.  The question is ‘what does that mean?’.  If I book a one-way ba.com flight from Germany to the UK, from my home in London, priced in €, am I charged?   I am in the UK, but where is the charge processed?  The UK or Germany?  And does it matter – do I pay regardless because I am in the UK?  And how does Supercard know where I am?

Many of us will have recurring charges for non-UK purchases (Head for Points has loads – most of the services we buy to keep the site ticking are in US$).  Would Supercard now charge for these even if they are processed in the US but I am not?

We need to wait for these new rules to come into effect in January and see what the real impact will be.

Supercard

Gatwick Express – plus Southern, Thameslink and Great Northern – moving to 15 minute ‘delay repay’

If you are a long-suffering Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern or Gatwick Express passenger, you should know that ‘delay repay’ will kick in at 15 minutes and not 30 minutes from 11th December.

You will be able to reclaim at least 50% of your ticket price if your train is delayed by 15 minutes or more.  That won’t help you if you are at risk of missing your Gatwick flight but it is still better than nothing.

Looking at the latest Gatwick Express punctuality figures here, only 44% of Gatwick Express trains actually arrive on time so your chance of a payout is not zero despite the short journey time!  Thanks to Andy.

Gatwick Express new trains

More Head for Points Christmas party prizes announced

I’m pleased to announce that we have another two prizes for the raffle at the HfP Christmas party on Tuesday, generously sponsored by Melia Hotels International.

The initial list of prizes is here.

The new prizes to be added are:

Generously donated by Dixons Travel:

SONY wireless Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones, worth £199

Generously donated by Uber for Business:

£100 of Uber credit

If you were lucky enough to get a ticket for the party, we look forward to seeing you on Tuesday night.  If you didn’t get a ticket, we will hopefully have some photographs on Thursday and on our Instagram feed.

Category

General

Comments (54)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • VT says:
    3 Dec3 December 11:02

    Got hit with the Supercard fee when I bought something on Ebay which was priced in Euro. According to the support because I used Paypal UK. Frankly quite tired of the problems with Supercard so will have a look at Curve.

  • Nick says:
    3 Dec3 December 11:27

    If it does turn out to be based on POS, for BA at least you can change this. In the URL you’ll see 2×2 country letters-this is country and language (so default in U.K. is /gb-en). If you overwrite the gb with de (leaving the -en) you’ll get the English-language version of the German website and will be processed at BA’s end as if you were in Germany. Plus all tickets out of Germany show as issued in Munich anyway (you can see this on your email receipt if you look hard enough), whichever website you use.

    What isn’t clear is whether that’s enough for Supercard. If they use IP or something to decide you’re in the U.K., you’ll be stuffed.

    • Andy S says:
      3 Dec3 December 14:12

      I have in the past user supercard to purchase from a German website (using a UK computer) and didn’t get any extra charge, but they may have changed since then of course!

  • ADS says:
    3 Dec3 December 12:28

    “We need to wait for these new rules to come into effect in January and see what the real impact will be.”

    or you could just give up on Supercard – as it’s more hassle than it’s worth ?!

  • Liz says:
    3 Dec3 December 17:45

    I have these charges already noted down in my Supercard notes taken from the Annex page of the T&Cs email send to me on 27 June 2016- it states e-commerce transaction within U.K. (Non sterling £1.00 + 1%) also POS within UK (non sterling) £1.00 + 1%. I queried this earlier in the year when I wanted to buy hotel pts in USA $ but I don’t think it got answered – ended up not using Supercard so can’t comment on the charges back then. So don’t think it is a new rule – maybe they are just starting to charge for these transactions.

  • Fenny says:
    3 Dec3 December 17:59

    What’s the prize for the Mandatory Christmas Jumper competition? I’ve just been out and bought mine, having been told it’s obligatory at work on the 16th.

    • the real harry says:
      3 Dec3 December 18:02

      I’d have been more bah, humbug

      • Fenny says:
        3 Dec3 December 18:31

        You haven’t seen my jumper!

        • the real harry says:
          3 Dec3 December 18:38

          I’m sure it’s fun/ Xmassy/ reindeer/ snowman/ seasons greetings etc so you’ll be the beast of the party

          but it’s 100% sure to be acrylic or polyester – which is anathema to me 🙂

  • jonboy73 says:
    3 Dec3 December 18:19

    Rob, I don’t often take umbridge with you, but “worth £199” and costing £199 are two very different things, please…. keep it real..

    • Genghis says:
      3 Dec3 December 18:28

      The Bose ones are definitely worth the price tag.

    • Rob says:
      3 Dec3 December 19:24

      They are selling for £199 so logically they are worth £199 to people who choose to buy them. People pay SUBSTANTIALLY more than that for headphones.

    • nick says:
      8 Dec8 December 15:33

      whats umbridge? 🙂

  • Dan says:
    3 Dec3 December 18:46

    OT: (and sorry if this is a novice question!)

    I’ve just had notification that my Air Berlin status has been updated to Silver until the end of March 2017. I have a booking to Tokyo coming up in Feb, but my BAEC number is currently attached to the booking?

    Is there a quick way to switch it to my AB number? I’m really after being able to choose seats T-7 days, and haven’t a clue what I need to do!

    • Rob says:
      3 Dec3 December 19:22

      ba.com doesn’t let you switch FF numbers. Qatar and Finnair sites do and they can handle any oneworld booking, so use Manage My Booking on one of those. Once you’ve slotted in your AB number and given it an hour or so to percolate down, ba.com should let you select seats.

      If this is a cash ticket and you want to earn Avios back, you need to change the FF number back at the airport.

    • Zoe says:
      3 Dec3 December 20:07

      Was this from the free upgrade that was mentioned on here about a week ago?

  • Dan says:
    3 Dec3 December 20:17

    It was indeed, took about4 days for my status to move from classic to silver though

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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