Flybe to close or shrink four UK bases as it cuts back on jet aircraft operations

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

• Jovanna says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:31

  OT: I tried to access my Avios account over the weekend. I couldn’t log in. I tried to reset my password, although all the details were stored on my phone. I didn’t manage to do this. I tried re-setting it using my username, email address and Avios account number. All failed – account details not recognised.

  I tried logging in via Aer Club. Again, I couldn’t. It recognised my email address and sent a link to reset the password, which I did but I still couldn’t log in.

  I called Aer Club customer service. The escalated it to their IT team and I received this response:

  Your account xxxxxxxx has been closed in our system, and moved to BA.

  You should have received a notification from Avios before, and after the move was done.

  If you have not received such email, please contact Avios on +353 1 562 1043 for further clarification, as we are not authorised to discuss this account anymore.

  I will cancel this account within our system, as it has no bookings or points attached to it.

  You will receive a notification email once the account has been fully removed from our database, and then you will be able to create a new account using your email address.

  That’s a little annoying. I suspect it’s because I cleared the account a couple of weeks ago.

• Martin says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:34

  O/T
  Are the 5 referals a year for platinum based on card year or after 12 months per sign up ?

  • Qwerty Bertie says:

    4 Apr4 April 09:41

    Calendar year I think…can anyone else please confirm?

  • Neil says:

    4 Apr4 April 09:43

    Calendar year

    • Martin says:

      4 Apr4 April 09:50

      Many thanks and darn.
      Done 5 for this year, card year starts April so was hoping to get 5 in quickly..
      Looks like I’ll be waiting til jan

      • Mark2 says:

        4 Apr4 April 12:13

        cancel and get another in September/Oct

  • Rob says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:54

    Calendar year.

• nick says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:45

  Any thoughts on the Virgin + Credit Card upon cancellation:

  Does the voucher stay secure (even if not yet redeemed)
  Is there a pro-rata refund?

  • Rob says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:52

    Some reports of a pro-rata refund BUT my wife did not get one.

    • nick says:

      4 Apr4 April 14:31

      Why did she cancel it then? assuming it was way before the 12 month renewal when the next £160 would have been due?

• LewisB says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:46

  OT – Since the amex changes I’ve managed to convince my partner to get on board. Now, if she were to earn a 241 and we are linked under a BA family account, will I (as head of household) have control of the 241? Or will that remain under her account only? Basically I hope to use my avios for her 241. Never dabbled with household accounts before.

  • Sussex Bantam says:

    4 Apr4 April 09:51

    The person who earns the 241 has to fly and, if you have it in a household account, the 241 partner can only be someone else in the HA.

    • LewisB says:

      4 Apr4 April 09:53

      That’s exactly what we would need to do anyway. Cheers 🙂

      • LewisB says:

        4 Apr4 April 10:58

        OT again – If I book a 241 (my own voucher) before I set up the household account, will my booking be effected once I sign up to the household scheme? I currently have a 241 which I plan on using with a friend, who won’t be in my household scheme. Once I’ve booked that I plan on opening a household account and using my partners 241. That’s fine, I just want to make sure it won’t cause complications for my friend with the first 241.

  • bsuije says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:56

    In a household account your Avios would be combined anyway. So even if your partner has to book, because the 2-4-1 is on their account, they would be able to use your Avios, because those would be the household Avios.

• nick says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:48

  OT:

  In the last year, my spouse is also having issues adding her Amex supplementary cards to her Amex online account profile. Each time it forces her to create a whole new online account (with separate user name and passwords). Before late last year, never had this issue before.

  She has only ever held Amex supps. Telephone support could not help!

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:21

    I called Amex on this a few months ago. They say they create a new profile for each card. E.g. her latest supplementary card has member since 2019 which is wrong…

    My wife has three online Amex accounts, one corporate card, 2 supplementary cards… it’s quite annoying!

  • Scott says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:37

    This has always been the case – sometimes you can add to existing, other times a new account is needed. I, and others, have found that waiting for a few days after activation before adding to existing online account works. Otherwise, you can ask Customer Service to tidy things up.

    • Steve says:

      4 Apr4 April 13:29

      +1 also if you are impatient like me try using a desktop browser rather than the app or vice versa

• TM says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:53

  OT: Has anyone had any/heard of any success getting a retention bonus for Amex Plat Personal? My £450 fee has just been charged

  • pablo says:

    4 Apr4 April 14:53

    Last week I’ve been offered double MR points for 3 months if I chose not to cancel.

• nick says:

  4 Apr4 April 09:57

  OT-
  Anyone noticed how online travel agencies (OTA) are still charging extra for using credit cards?

  When using an aggregator like skyscanner/momondo and then clicking thru to the OTA – the price displayed is still, say £200.

  When you then select an amex or any CC, it will jump to say £204. When u click/hover on the £204 price, it then states Amex/CC charge = free” and for a debit card it will state “- £4”.

  I must stress the £200 price is displayed at all times, until the point I choose a CC/amex as my payment method.

  HOW IS THIS LEGAL still?

  • Anthony Edwards says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:02

    I encountered this exact thing using Opodo yesterday. Cost an extra £44 for our trip to use anything that wasn’t Visa Debit.

  • Roger* says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:11

    Presumably because the OTAs in question operate outside the scope of EU legislation?

    • Lady London says:

      4 Apr4 April 16:56

      They may do but I think things like VAT are determined in consumer purchases by the location of the consumer. Should work for legal things like this as well.

      I’d challenge them on it and request your money back.

      • RIccatti says:

        5 Apr5 April 03:45

        The requirement to set VAT by location of the consumer — might be so, but only implementable within the EU. In fact, it only works and is a thing because of the EU.

        “If the same product is sold to the final consumer within the EU, you may need to charge VAT at the rate applicable in their country.”

        A foreign entity will not have mechanisms to collect VAT and pay it to a competent tax authority. For example, Norway is non-EU and not in customs union, so Norwegian business will not collect and pass money to another tax authority.

      • Lady London says:

        5 Apr5 April 15:58

        The US has also done something similar. If you order something from another State to be sent to your State then the vendor must charge you the rate of sales tax that is applicable in your State if they have any presence there.

  • john says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:13

    I booked Vueling flights via Expedia before (Vueling wouldn’t accept my card for some reason?) and Expedia charged card fee which was supposedly passed on by Vueling. I complained at Expedia telling them this wasn’t legal anymore and they refunded the fee without quibble.

  • Scallder says:

    4 Apr4 April 17:51

    You should note that the UK govt included Amex in the ban but Amex is not included by the ban in the wider EU. When booking some KLM flights back in December there was no charge for Visa or MasterCard but there was for Amex. Unfortunately it depends on where the merchant is and not where you as the customer are!

  • h2d says:

    4 Apr4 April 18:02

    There is a clear answer here – it is not a charge for using credit cards, it is a discount for using a debit card so within the rules

    • TGLoyalty says:

      4 Apr4 April 22:04

      I thought that was also against the rules. It’s a charge for using one card vs another and trading standards said they would clamp down on people giving “discounts” for using debit vs credit cards etc only corporate cards are exempt

    • Alex Sm says:

      4 Apr4 April 22:24

      The answer is simple – book direct

      • nick says:

        5 Apr5 April 15:41

        No not at all!

        Using an OTA saved me £80 on the flights vs going direct to the airline website!!

    • nick says:

      5 Apr5 April 15:40

      This is how its framed.. but, in my example, £200 is the price displayed all the time. Until the time I elect to pay with a credit card. the price then inflates to £204, with a claim that then using a debit card will give me a £4 discount!!

      this is chicanery!

• Cookoovaya says:

  4 Apr4 April 10:20

  OT: I have a friend on AMEX BA Blue and he is looking to upgrade to the premium in order to get the voucher. If I refer him will I get the 9000 bonus and will he get his 2-4-1 voucher once he hits the threshold?

  • Scott says:

    4 Apr4 April 10:42

    It’s my understanding that you can’t hold both the BA Blue and Premium, i.e. he is essentially an existing customer upgrading from one to the other (albeit, he has to go through the online application process to ‘upgrade’) so for that reason you wouldn’t get any referral bonus.
    Your friend would qualify for the 241 though, just as if he’d held the Premium card since the start of the card year,

    • Rob says:

      4 Apr4 April 10:50

      Correct, can’t have both, you keep the same card year so spend carries over.

      • MT says:

        4 Apr4 April 12:45

        I must have somehow flukes it as I have both cards and as such get 2 vouchers a year which come in very handy!

        Has this always been the rule or a new thing?

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