Luton Airport is getting an express train to London

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• 3742 says:

  22 Aug22 August 10:53

  Just a little aside re: the Hilton stay more promotion.

  I can confirm that reward stays are counted towards the 10/15/20 stay targets. I received the 10k points for 10 stays a few days ago, despite only 9 of the 10 stays being paid. The reward stay was at the Hampton by Hilton in Newport, shortly before it was removed from the Hilton Group (and my stay record but not my stay/nights tally), so I was a bit concerned the bonus points wouldn’t post/I would need to waste time on a complaint, but all was well.

  I will hit exactly 15 stays on the 6th of September, so will also get the 15k bonus, but annoyingly not the sweet-spot last 5 stays for 20k bonus. I decided at the outset I wasn’t going to create stays just to get the points, and in terms of the need to stay the first couple of months were quiet compared to the last two.

  • Neil says:

    22 Aug22 August 11:21

    I hit my 20th stay last night and triggered the 20,000 point bonus plus I received the recent media promotion which earned me another 7,500 points. In total I have completed 43 stays this year giving me a total of 56 nights. Overall I have been very impressed with the points on offer this year. All I need now is a new Hilton card to come to market

    • 3742 says:

      22 Aug22 August 22:57

      Well done Neil, that’s a lot of stays in that amount of time.

      I received the media bonuses too; early bird catches the worm, and I caught that particular worm before it was posted here. (No offence to HFP.)

      I would love a Hilton card, presuming like most hotel cards it gives a higher earning rate at the hotels. It’s such a shame that the worst of the big groups – IHG – is the only one with a decent card. (I know SPG currently gives 6 points per £1, but that reverts to 3 points in a few months.)

      All things considered, my feeling is that Hilton is the best of them, even without a card.

      • Crafty says:

        23 Aug23 August 13:43

        Best slice of luck I’ve had in this game is to have just re-churned Hilton a couple of weeks before it was withdrawn. Been printing points on it since.

• Optimus Prime says:

  22 Aug22 August 11:52

  OT – Nationwide FlexPlus debit card. They’ve removed the fee for making payments in foreign (only ATM withdrawals had no fee before).

  • BJ says:

    22 Aug22 August 12:10

    Thanks, useful if any issues with Curve.

    • EwanG says:

      22 Aug22 August 13:50

      After 1 Nov they are also removing the credit interest rate of 3% on balances of up to £2.5k, which was a good way to offset the monthly cost. Time for me to look at closing this account.

      • BJ says:

        22 Aug22 August 14:16

        Oh no, have you guys been formally notified of these changes? I’ve heard nothing. That would cause me to close it too. Might consider Barclays but probably would opt for standalone insurance etc.

        • EwanG says:

          22 Aug22 August 14:27

          Yes, email this morning which is the notice of variation. There are some other changes (removing £250 fee free overdraft buffer) and insurance (mobile and travel) with little/no impact to me.
          You can also look at the details on the Nationwide website.

        • BJ says:

          22 Aug22 August 14:50

          Thanks will have a look. Not too happy as I paid a topup premium on my insurance through end of May which I now need to effectively pay extra to benefit from.

        • Optimus Prime says:

          22 Aug22 August 15:17

          We are also paying topup premium to cover a preexisting condition. Will have to look around and see if there’s something similar or better…

        • xcalx says:

          22 Aug22 August 16:36

          Top up premium here too at a very reasonable rate. Hope the new health scheme insurers upgrade prices are similar. plus changes to cruise insurance. The 3% interest going may swing me away though.

  • BJ says:

    22 Aug22 August 16:27

    I think I will ask them for a pre rata refund on my insurance supplement if I leave or to give me 7 months interest as a goodwill gesture to stay. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ll be reminding them also that I got them two new customers in the past month.

    • Mark2 says:

      22 Aug22 August 17:36

      Worth looking at the bribes available to move e.g. £175 from HSBC.

      • BJ says:

        22 Aug22 August 18:43

        Already had them all Mark, stuck with Nationwide referrals until they change previous account eld qualifying dates on the switch bribes.

• Spaghetti Town says:

  22 Aug22 August 11:54

  OT: How will amex pay my pro-rata refund if i close the card with them?

  • Optimus Prime says:

    22 Aug22 August 12:00

    They’ll pay it into the closed card account. So if such account is now in credit and you have another card with them, you can choose to transfer the credit over. Otherwise you can ask for a cheque. Not sure if they do bank transfers (I always try and keep at least one card with them).

    • Spaghetti Town says:

      22 Aug22 August 12:20

      I’ll only have 1 card left with them after closing the 2 i have now, guessing they can just deduct it from the balance on my remaining card?

      • Optimus Prime says:

        22 Aug22 August 12:31

        Yes, you can ask them to do that via online chat.

    • Louie says:

      22 Aug22 August 12:55

      Does anyone know how they calculate the refund nowadays? I’ve been told how much I am due but can’t work out how they get to that figure.

      • John says:

        22 Aug22 August 13:05

        Divide the refund amount by the annual fee (£140, £195, £450, £575) and multiply it by 365. If that gives you a round number then it will represent a whole number of days that you supposedly held the card. If you were moving between the £450 and £575 fees then it gets more complicated.

        • Louie says:

          22 Aug22 August 13:27

          Lord knows what I was doing to not get a round number! I hold my head in shame. That works perfectly.

    • Polly says:

      22 Aug22 August 23:08

      Yes they will do bacs

  • Anna says:

    22 Aug22 August 12:15

    If you have a direct debit set up you can ask them to refund the money to the linked bank account. I always do this as it’s a much easier option than having to bank a cheque or try and extract the account credit.

    • John says:

      22 Aug22 August 13:07

      Some banks let you pay in cheques by app photograph now. Never had a problem moving credit between Amexes, but I guess that is not the ideal situation for those who like to pay Amex with Curve.

  • Mark2 says:

    22 Aug22 August 17:37

    I always make sure that I owe enough to soak up the refund.

• Grant says:

  22 Aug22 August 12:41

  OT – I am about to drop £10k+ to change my car. Dealership won’t take Amex and I’m not too keen on ~ £300 fee for Billhop. Dealer will also only take max. £2k on credit card and then wants rest as a bank transfer. I was planning on using my Virgin card for the £2k and then the bank transfer function on Revolut to do the rest – also on the Virgin card.

  I am wondering if I am missing a trick though by not spending on a new card given the sum involved is likely to trigger a bonus. Other than Amex we have done the IHG and Virgin cards and the only other one which jumps out is the HSBC Premier but I don’t currently have a bank account with them.

  • Spaghetti Town says:

    22 Aug22 August 12:58

    Get curve if you don’t have it, treated as a debit card and spend whatever your daily limit is. Just don’t tell the dealer.

    • Grant says:

      22 Aug22 August 13:04

      Thanks – I have Curve but I don’t think it helps since the £2k limit from the dealer side is credit and debit cards I think (but will check).

      Its not so much the method of paying that troubles me as Revolut should work ok but I’m more interested in whether I’m missing a trick by not getting a new card.

      • Spaghetti Town says:

        22 Aug22 August 13:13

        Ahh i see. Im not familiar with revolut so won’t comment 😀

      • Matt B says:

        22 Aug22 August 15:01

        Your revolut plan makes sense to me, my only thought is whether loading it with £8k will cause an issue.

        For the old virgin mbna card I did £2k OK, but the new virgin money iteration causes me trouble after just a few hundred quid.

  • Alex says:

    22 Aug22 August 15:12

    I had similar issues when getting my new car – dealer would only put £2K on CC but luckily did take AMEX. I personally did use billhop on my Gold Amex as it pushed us over the £15K spend to get an extra 10,000 points. So £300 for 10K points plus another 10K made sense for me.

    I would work out what you’d be paying per point for the £300 charge as it may well be worth it – especially if you know you’ll redeem for more

    • Grant says:

      22 Aug22 August 16:17

      A part payment via Billhop on to my BAPP would get me over the £10k to earn a companion voucher. My issue is I have no immediate need for a voucher and I will spend my way they in the next 3-4 months anyway.

      • Nick M says:

        22 Aug22 August 16:34

        You could imply that not being able to pay via card is a deal breaker… I would be surprised if they would risk losing the sale over the cost of putting the additional £8k onto a card

        • Genghis says:

          22 Aug22 August 19:40

          +1 make it part of your negotiation. I put all mine on cards in Jan.

        • Polly says:

          23 Aug23 August 07:33

          Agree, thats how l got the garage to agree to accept 3 x different amex cards to their limit to get a car. Was prepared to walk away. Esp these days, am sure it would be a dealbreaker.

• Nick says:

  22 Aug22 August 13:09

  EU 261 compo. flight of c2500km’s

  is it EUR 400 per person if over 3 hours delay.?
  Under 3 hours- its zero?

  • Polly says:

    23 Aug23 August 07:34

    Yes

• jason says:

  22 Aug22 August 14:15

  OT anyone got any latest timings on amex reward points to Hilton thanks jason

  • Young L says:

    22 Aug22 August 16:04

    I made two transfers lately. Transferred on Wednesday last week, points arrived overnight. Made another transfer on Friday, but this time no luck, still waiting for them to be posted.

    • jason says:

      22 Aug22 August 18:32

      thanks

• Heathrow Flyer says:

  22 Aug22 August 14:25

  BA Annouce new St Lucia Flights for S20.

  LGW UVF: 2pw additional Summer service between 4th July and 29th August 2020

  LGW MCO and LGW LAS 1pw reduced service each for the same period.

  Usual Avios seats should be available for booking now.

• Spaghetti Town says:

  22 Aug22 August 14:51

  OT: Following on from yesterdays discussion, has anyone made any money with free trade?

  • Mike Bickle says:

    22 Aug22 August 16:30

    Capital On Tap – A lot of suppliers will only take debit cards. 😭😭😭

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