Hilton Honors has quietly increased the points price of three London hotels

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• Bob says:

  12 Jun12 June 13:04

  Related to Hilton, anyone having issues finding availability? Hotels in Tokyo for eg. Hilton or Conrad no availability for 1 night redemptions throughout Sept/Oct/Nov…not sure if related to the points increases perhaps they’re still updating? Thanks

  • marcw says:

    12 Jun12 June 13:08

    I’ve noticed Hilton Tokyo is selling very cheap rooms somewhere else (about 240 eur a night). Use Kayak.

    • Bob says:

      12 Jun12 June 13:50

      Thanks will have a look

  • E says:

    12 Jun12 June 13:46

    The Rugby World Cup is in Japan from 20th September to 2nd November. That might mean that the rooms on points in Japan are already booked out. (Though not sure what matches are in what cities.)

    • Bob says:

      12 Jun12 June 13:52

      Ah yes, when I checked before there was plenty of availability but now its pretty much non existent from Sept onwards, even random dates in Dec / Jan too after the world cup ends don’t have anything so thought it may be another reason. Thanks

• Michael says:

  12 Jun12 June 13:07

  OT: Emirates to unbundle Business Class. Basically Basic Business class will be a thing the same way Basic Economy will be. Be interesting to see if redemption costs fall.

• Ruth4325 says:

  12 Jun12 June 13:12

  Just got an email today saying I had an upgrade voucher as a thank you from Lloyds avios credit card. Thought they were sent in error at the end of last year? Is this a new retention strategy?

  • Rob says:

    12 Jun12 June 13:43

    The one sent in error is not part of your annual quota!

• AndyGWP says:

  12 Jun12 June 13:46

  OT – can anyone suggest the cheapest place / destination on hotels.com?

  my regular haunt has gone up to £3

  • pauldb says:

    12 Jun12 June 14:36

    Kathmandu?

    • Alex M says:

      12 Jun12 June 14:59

      Any hotel in South Sudan or may be Caracas?

  • the_real_a says:

    12 Jun12 June 15:22

    Siam Reap Cambodia is economical at £2 🙂

  • Timbo says:

    12 Jun12 June 15:42

    Is this a 30 nights for gold status thing? Any issues with the hotels grassing you up as a no-show?

    • the_real_a says:

      12 Jun12 June 16:35

      No – the hostels generally just pocket the money in my experience. However i dont value silver or gold at any money (YMMV)… more for keeping vouchers alive.

  • AndyGWP says:

    12 Jun12 June 19:02

    Kathmandu did the job. Thanks!…

    (This was for keeping a voucher alive)

    • Bob says:

      27 Jun27 June 11:45

      Thanks for that! needed something to keep one alive too and worked 🙂

• RussellH says:

  12 Jun12 June 14:41

  OT:-

  Got an e-mail from IHG last evening saying that as a valued IHG member (I am only Gold, normally just through my IHG credit card – though I reached it the ‘proper way’ early this year via a stay at an expensive IC) they were offering me free Platinum status with ANA until the end of March 2020 (in Japan). Only a subset of the full Platinum benefits, but it does seem to include Star Alliance lounge access. I have signed up.
  Anyopne else get this? My partner has not, and she has IHG Platinum (through the black IHG card).

  • Kai says:

    12 Jun12 June 15:32

    Last time it was targeted to people who had stayed at ANA hotels in Japan.

    • RussellH says:

      12 Jun12 June 16:25

      Hmmm. Never been to Japan. The IC was in Hong Kong…

  • Alan says:

    12 Jun12 June 21:00

    I got this too and put it through. Not sure what to make of it.

• Anna says:

  12 Jun12 June 16:02

  OT – EU261 compensation claim – The claim I submitted for late arrival due to a broken on board air conditioning system has been refused by BA, who now claim that it was a problem with the Jetbridge at JFK which delayed departure. I had a feeling they were going to try and pull some kind of stunt like this – what should I do next? We’re looking at 2 x 600 euros here so I’m not inclined to let it go.

  • Shoestring says:

    12 Jun12 June 16:07

    First stage after initial rebuff is easy: just reply, restate your case and say you’re not accepting that this was not an operational issue and you want a more senior manager to take a second look at it..

    • David says:

      12 Jun12 June 16:22

      Even if it were a jetbridge problem, is that an extraordinary circumstance? I’m sure BA would get a nice payout from the JFK operator if a JFK failure caused a flight delay…

      • Anna says:

        12 Jun12 June 16:26

        At no time was there any mention of an issue with the jetbridge! Whereas we were updated regularly about the issues with the air con, including by the captain just prior to boarding. I’ve replied to the email asking for it to be escalated, and also emailed Alex Cruz with the full story and asking for documentary proof of the reason for the delay.

        I had been cautiously hopeful after hearing that other readers had received prompt payouts for delays due to technical issues, however I fear BA are now reverting to type.

      • Anna says:

        12 Jun12 June 16:29

        Actually – there WAS an issue with a jetbridge now I remember, but it was when we landed at LHR and only caused a delay of a few more minutes on top of the 2 hour delay caused by the late departure from JFK. But it was not the problem at JFK. How cheeky are BA get to try and muddy the waters like this?!!

      • Shoestring says:

        12 Jun12 June 17:20

        There’s a case called Siewert versus Condor, slightly different (collision with jetbridge I think) where the CJEU held:
        [However, as regards a technical problem resulting from an airport’s set of mobile boarding stairs colliding with an aircraft, it should be pointed out that such mobile stairs or gangways are indispensable to air passenger transport, enabling passengers to enter or leave the aircraft, and, accordingly, air carriers are regularly faced with situations arising from their use. Therefore, a collision between an aircraft and any such set of mobile boarding stairs must be regarded as an event inherent in the normal exercise of the activity of the air carrier. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest that the damage suffered by the aircraft which was due to operate the flight at issue was caused by an act outside the category of normal airport services (such as an act of sabotage or terrorism) and would thus, applying the case-law of the Court (judgment in Wallentin-Hermann, EU:C:2008:771, paragraph 26), be covered by the term ‘extraordinary circumstances’, which is what Condor had to demonstrate before the referring court in accordance with the case-law cited in paragraph 17 above.

        Consequently, such an event cannot be categorised as ‘extraordinary circumstances’ exempting the air carrier from its obligation to pay the passengers compensation in the event of a long delay to a flight.]

        So as David points out, jetbridge issues are not extraordinary circs in any case. If BA dig in their heels, you just need to get them to agree you’ve reached deadlock, which means you can immediately proceed to CEDR or MCOL. If you use this case in your next stage reply, if you get rebuffed again, make it clear that you *will* be going to MCOL etc as this sometime crystallises minds their end, particularly if you quote a case at them and sound a bit lawyer-like.

        • Anna says:

          12 Jun12 June 18:32

          Thanks Shoestring – indeed, and there were flights leaving continually so I can’t see how any issue with a jetbridge would cause a 2 hour delay in boarding our aircraft, even if this was the case, which is wasn’t!

          I am really annoyed that BA have ignored the air conditioning issue altogether (presumably because they are fully aware that this makes them liable) and are trying to fob us off like this.

          Incidentally, this response was to my OH (we submitted separate claims). It’ll be very amusing if they turn down my claim for a different reason!

        • Shoestring says:

          12 Jun12 June 20:30

          Though going to the office of the CEO (Senor Cruz) is a good move, Mr Cruz wants to deal with issues like this very expediently.

        • Anna says:

          12 Jun12 June 20:41

          The email has bounced back – has Alex changed his email address to avoid HFP readers?!

        • Shoestring says:

          12 Jun12 June 20:43

          alex.cruz@ba.com ?

  • Lyn says:

    12 Jun12 June 22:55

    Anna, this is definitely worth pursuing. When we put in a claim about a year and a half ago I looked up the CAA? web-site and used their suggested template letter as a starting point. I put in details with a time-line of what happened and what we told about the delay at each stage, and wrote it politely, ending by saying that I would be grateful for a reply within 7 days. Which I got, but only just within the 7 days, and then the compensation was paid another 7 days later.

• Roger says:

  12 Jun12 June 19:23

  OT- BA A350

  Any further update on BA trial of A350? Is it likely to start from 1st July between LHR-MAD?

  • Michael says:

    12 Jun12 June 21:16

    Highly doubt it will be July 1st, the plane hasn’t even flown yet let alone gone on any customer acceptation flights. We’ll probably have a better idea in a few weeks.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    12 Jun12 June 21:19

    More likely to be mid July as they will have 30 days notice of delivery. Maybe worth keeping an eye on flyertalk

• Alan says:

  12 Jun12 June 19:44

  Has anyone received a statement from the recently converted Lloyds Avios Reward card? I’ve just received mine today interest was charged on an o/s balance from last month that I was benefitting 0% purchase rate from. This was due to end in January 2020. I don’t recall seeing any communication that the 0% purchase rate would ceased when the cards were replaced.

  • Ruth4325 says:

    12 Jun12 June 20:03

    I ŵas under the impression the 0% would be carried over.

  • metac says:

    12 Jun12 June 20:03

    Yes, I noticed on my online account and others reported the same. You need to call. They will reverse the charge. It showed on my account within 2 days as a reversal. Plus extra £5 as apology. I didn’t ask for it, but it just shows as ‘goodwill’ in the transaction description. I feel this will happen again next month, but we’ll see.

    • Alan says:

      12 Jun12 June 20:12

      Thanks for the quick response. Lloyds IT up to its usual tricks I see. I’ll give them a buzz and see what’s going on. All a bit annoying really.

  • will says:

    12 Jun12 June 22:40

    IF the balance was already outstanding before the new card terms were in force and the offer was dated beyond the changeover then they’ve broken the terms of the original card account which still stand for any outstanding balance,

    Quite unbelievable that this could be overlooked by them really. Absolutely the worst credit card issuer out there IMHO.

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